Christmas Catch Up - TONS of pictures on this one...

Daddy and Sam...I love this picture

Okay...so get ready...this is a long one. First, let me explain my tardiness in blog posts. We went to Nashville/Maryville for Christmas. We started at my mom's house in Dickson. We were able to visit lots of family members and friends. It was a very quick 48 hours for us, but enjoyed it VERY much! On our way to Maryville, we stopped in to Crossville at the Cabaniss' house for our annual get together (sans Ben)! It was so fun to see our boys playing together. I love that we have made this our little tradition and can't wait to see our boys grow up over the next MANY MANY years. So, Sam and I left (Ben was already in Maryville) and guess what...I FORGOT my camera! I apparently had hid it so well from Mark and Jillina that it took them a while to find it too. Bless their hearts...Jillina sent it back to me last week and I am so happy to have it back. THANK YOU CABANISS'! Over Christmas, I used NaNa and YaYa's camera at their house, so I'll have to post more of those pictures next. Since my family was here for Thanksgiving, we decided to spend Christmas at Ben's parents house (aka...NaNa and YaYa). We had an AMAZING time. Rob and Anita came down and we had LOTS of fun times with Jacob and Annabeth! We also planned a very impromptu family vacation to DISNEY in March...YEAH! NaNa and YaYa bought us a Wii, so we have really enjoyed playing that. Sam laughs when mommy and daddy bowl...actually...when mommy CRUSHES daddy bowling (heehee)! Seriously, I do! :)
Anywho...we came back to Atlanta and are getting settled again. NaNa and YaYa came down for a few days while Rob and Anita were down here as well (Anita's family is from Atlanta). We were able to have an amazing dinner with Anita's whole family at one of their favorite Chinese restaurants in town. Her parents treated us to this incredible family style meal. I have never actually eaten Chinese food like this...I usually only order something like chicken fried rice...but this was fantastic! I ate things I never would have ever tried! I've included a few pictures from our dinner with the Hou's as well! That was a major short version of the story, but I am sure you all just want to see pictures!
So here goes...tons of pictures...enjoy (in reverse order of course...bc I can never figure out this blogger thing)!

Not sure why this picture is teeny (sorry NaNa and YaYa)...but here is Sam and NaNa and YaYa at our house after Christmas.

Sam and YaYa...I love this picture b/c I took the same one last year in this same spot. Check it out to see how much he's grown...I think I posted it last year for Christmas.

Sam playing with some toys at NaNa and YaYa's house

Sam and Jacob rocking in the chair at Uncle Johnnie's. This was before the big Hazlewood Christmas get-together. Also, this was moments before Sam busted his chin on this very rocker.

Sam in awe of his big cousin. Sam just followed Jacob around the whole time...they did lots of laps from the foyer/kitchen/dining room...we also learned to climb the steps from our big cousin too. Monkey see...monkey do!

Sweet baby Annabeth! So precious!

I painted this canvas for Annabeth. Please disregard how off-center it is...yikes.

Having dinner with the Hou's in Atlanta. In this picture is Anita's parents, sister Amanda, brother Andy and his family, us, NaNa, YaYa, Rob, Anita and lots of kiddos...we had such a great time! What an awesome family!

Christmas with the Cabaniss' - the boys - William, Andrew and Sam!

We were quite exhausted after such a hectic few days!

My dear, sweet, old roomie, Jenna and her new baby, Luke! we met up with Jenna, Danny and Luke at the Green Hills mall one morning. So good to see her...she is one of my bestest friends ever and I love her dearly! They live in Cleveland, OH and we don't get to see them much anymore...very sad, but always good to see her beautiful face! Sam was obviously past his nap time and NOT wanting to take pictures. He is getting pretty hard to hold on these days considering he is a whopping 25 lbs! Yikes.

Danny (Jenna's husband) picked up on Sam's "not wanting to sit in the high chair any longer" and took him for a walk...or run around the mall. He was so good to play with Sam and keep him entertained so Jenna and I could catch up. Sam had so much fun playing with him.

Sweet baby Luke! We got to see so many adorable babies this Christmas! Luckily, I got my baby fix and it is passed, so I am good for quite a while now! :) Is there anything more precious and beautiful than a sleeping baby or what?

My great Aunt Madge and a portion of her crew! We visited with her and our cousins before Christmas in Franklin and had a great visit! Hard to believe that our little family has grown so much! God is so good!

Sam staring out the back door and going "woof woof" at Debbie and Weasel's dog, Fred. He is obsessed with dogs.

.Grace and her cousin, Meg!

I painted this one for Grace, Emma and Kennedy's bathroom...it's a sweet verse about sisters.

This one was for Meg...

Let the opening commence. I had to get an ariel shot of the gross display of Christmas presents! Crazy! And we said we were going to scale back this year! Yikes!

Duff, Sara, mom, me, our cousin, Stephanie. Stephanie, Aunt Sue (my dad's sister) and Stephanie's girls, McKenzie and Kindal came over to visit too! So good to see them.

Here we all our with my Aunt Sue.

All of the cousins...it's always quite tricky to get all the kids to actually smile, look at the camera, not run away, etc, etc!

Sara, mom and Stephanie

The girls...Mackenzie and Kindal were so good to play with the little girls. They felt so big playing with them!

Sara, Duff and Meg...I love this picture

The boys...Duff, Sam and Liam

My niece, Meg! So adorable this one...and such a happy little girl!

Sam and Liam playing at my moms. The boys must stick together.

Mar'a helping Sam with a puzzle.

Sam playing with his favorite toy of Christmas...Tow Mater from Cars! He pushes this thing everywhere. He will now actually sit on it and scoot around, but mainly he likes to run it from one end of the house to the other. And when I say run...I mean RUN!

Mommy and Sam opening presents

Daddy and Sam opening presents. Santa didn't tie bows this year. His box of Christmas ribbon was NO WHERE to be found...plus Sam's presents were all huge toys, so...no bows!

Little big man all dressed for church.

Note to self...never give a toddler a can of Puffs...big mistake! :)

The skinny trees in the foyer. I love these little trees.

We managed to squeeze in a hair cut. Sam only screamed 95% of the time. I thought the 4wheeler seat would help, but not so much. He does look quite handsome with his new do though!

When you ask Sam to smile now, this is the face you get. Major chesseball!

The final Christmas card picture...

I can't believe he is getting so big!

The front of the house decorated.

This picture just cracks me up...here we are playing with daddy's hat.