Look closely at this price and tell me you don't want to go to Jasper Georgia right now and get some gas. We slept very well last night in a great little apartment that is set up in Mount Zion baptist church where Tony is an associate pastor. The people of Mount Zion were wonderful to open up this room which serves as lodging for missionaries and other friends of the church. We headed to Cracker Barrel and had a great breakfast with the whole gang:

We arrived at the Ramirez (Uncle Paul's in-laws) house at around 3:00 and were greeted by Uncle Paul, Aunt Lauren and Lauren's parents Tony and Cindy. They were wonderful to host us for a couple of days. Very quickly Paul, Lauren, and her sister Lindsey sat down to give the girls some gifts.




Paul and Lauren got Sophia a great chalkboard which Sophia promptly set out to work on it.

Ok...so we planned to get up around 6 when the girls usually rise. Unfortunately their body clocks had a different idea. Sophia tugged on my sleeve at around 3:30 am and asked to watch a movie on her dvd player. She was a tad loud and this woke up Piper who instead of being groggy was in mid-day form and started jumping up and down in her crib. Em and I looked at one another and decided to tackle the 9 hour trip to Jasper to see Uncle Paul and Aunt Lauren right then and there. 4 am brought quiet streets in Florida. Em and I both agreed that God may just indeed be sparing us by waking up the girls - so we were glad to get going. The girls slept well for the first part and we made "good time".

The newly aquired Tom Tom from Grammy and Papa Cows came in handy when we needed a break around 1 or so - we looked up Shopping Centers and found Southlake Mall in Morrow Georgia. This was a great place to stop and get out and they also had a GREAT carousel that Sophia got to ride on - this made her VERY happy. So after some Chinese food and a 2 dollar carousel ride - we hopped back in the car and headed to Picken's County Georgia.

We woke up Christmas morning and had a good time with Papa Cows, Grammy, Uncle Charlie, Aunt Shanna-Lee, and Hanz - eating breakfast, opening presents, playing in the bounce house, and then eating some more.


After opening gifts we headed out to Papa Chuck-E-Cheese and Regular Grandma's house.
There we were able to open presents and see Aunt Gayle and Julie as well. The highlight for Sophia was her baker's (and doctor's) set - she went around telling everyone, "Call me baker, call me Doctor Chef Sophia". Piper just enjoyed trying to eat the ornaments:



Piper was dead tired but took some time getting used to her new surroundings to sleep. The way we ran things up until this point in the trip was to get Piper to sleep and then put Sophia in the room and get her to sleep. Sophia went down rather late and emily and I slipped into the rooom at about 10 because we needed to get up to head to Jasper Georgia the next day...we thought we would get up around 6 and take off by 7 - the girls had a different idea...

The other part of today was getting to take Piper and Sophia to see a couple of important people in our lives. Mami and Pappi were my parents orginal neighbors when they built and moved into our home. Mami and Pappi (these aren't their real names, just nicknames that have stuck) were married when Mami was 14 years old and have now been married 70 plus years. It was a christmas tradition for my brother and I to visit with Mami and Pappi and so we are trying to continue it with our girls. It was good to see them today. They are amazing people.

Day 4: WE started off the day with Sophia helping out Papa Cows with the finishing touches on the tree. This was really a fun time to see Sophia place ornaments on the tree wherever she felt. Uncle Charlie came over in the morning and accompanied us on our errands. These errands included a trip to Chik-Fil-A. We were on the hunt to find Piper another one of these silly buddies. The company told us two stores that had them here in town, but neither actually did. After Chikfiwas (Sophia's pronunciation) we went to Sear's Essentials - which is an interesting store -(think K-Mart and Sears having a baby). There was much playing  on the exercise equipment and horse rides outside. We headed home for naps and later that evening Shanna-Lee came over and Papa Cows made shrimp and pasta salad for dinner.

The placement of this particular Country Inn and Suite was good b/c it was around a lot of food choices - we ended up at Denny's. I don't know if you know this or not - but kids eat free at Denny's on Tuesdays and Saturdays...word. I got my favorite Moons over My Hammy and emily got a club sandwich - Sophia got a huge side salad and chicken and cheese sticks.
After a bit of a rough night with Sophia sleeping like a log on the pull out couch and Piper waking up every hour crying we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel (another perk of the country inn and suites). We got going at about 10:30 and made it to Lakeland at 1:40.

All in all - a good start. Spending time with Papa Cows and Grammy has been fun and Piper and Sophia slept well last night...IN THE SAME ROOM! Truly a Christmas miracle. Sophia is convinced that she will be getting into her grandparents pool at some point - which is absolutely freezing. Anyone want to come down and swim with her?

This is what we have been up to.

Piper is getting so big and her personality is even bigger! She is a blast! Poor big sister was so pooped that she tried to take a nap down stairs on her toys...Piper was not having it!
Laundry takes a bit longer too these days. Piper likes to help.


Sophia is 3 going on 16. Some of the stuff she says makes us laugh so hard. The other day she asked me if School was ready for her because she was ready to go! Her newest thing is to say "get out of town" when she sees Christmas lights that she really likes. What a card.


What fun!

I was tagged....Here we go

5 Things I want to do before I die...
1. Go on a missions trip with my husband and girls
2. Be a Proverbs 31 wife
3. Be the mommy God intended me to be
4. Memorize the book of Romans
5.  COMPLETELY organize my house

5 Things I can do...
1. make Chad laugh
2. fold a fitted sheet
3. tell if a child has a fever by feeling their tummy
4. Bake awesome cookies, at least Sophia thinks so
5. watch and understand football

5 things I can not do...
1. Play a musical instrument
2. watch horror movies
3. go with out kissing my babies goodnight
4. stand clutter
5. sleep on a plane

5 things that attract me to my hubby
1. His Love for Christ
2. His dry sense of humor
3. His willingness  to allow me to be right :)
4. His intellect
5. His leadership

5 things I say Most Often
1. "I love you"
2. "please be kind"
3. " Please, use your manners"
4. "Piper, get that out of your mouth"
5. "Please do not pick up your sister"

5 Celebrity Crushes
1. John Tesh
2. Steve Busheme
3. Christopher Loyd
4. Christopher Walkin
5. John Goodman

5 Peeps I'm tagging
1. April D.
2. Sarah P
3. "Red" - you know who you are
4. Mary W.
5. Julie A.

There is a town here in North Carolina known as McAdenville. They pride themselves on being called Christmas town. Around August of every year swarms of people gather and begin to test Christmas lights and then hang them all throughout the town. Then at the end of November thousands of people begin to drive at a super slow pace through the two mile stretch. We stumbled across this place about 3 years ago when Sophia was first born. She wasn't old enough to care then - but now she is so excited to see just two or three sets of lights so we decided to blow her mind with a trip to this town of wonder. The video is really not that grand as it is hard to capture something like this on video but we hope you enjoy it.

So...the walrus is advancing in his abilities...