Happy Birthday Ella!

Ella is 3!!

And she had the best...

most fun party EVER!!

Faces such as these do.not.lie. =)

Happy birthday sweet cousin Ella!
We love you soooo much!

Good for my soul.

Last Friday we loaded up and got on the road to Union City (or Oonion City according to Bes) to visit the Parsons! The girls didn't miss a beat picking right up where they left off and just played and played... which made for some fabulous talk time for us big girls! Time to head home came way too quickly... precious times with friends are just never long enough! Here's to our next trip up Hwy 45! I'm thinking much sooner than later. =)

Thanks Heather!

My sister in law came to the rescue! Check out:



Super cute backgrounds!

Bummer.

Well, shabbyblogs.com updated their codes and I was informed to take action by the end of January but when I went to do so I couldn't locate my background so I had to get a new one... and it's not my fav. To my fellow bloggers... any suggestions on where to get a super fab FREE background?

Still just a-chillin'...

Bes sure has enjoyed having her daddy home more for these past couple of days. Kicked back watching a little tube. This girl cracks me up. She is all about her daddy!

P.S. I have finally caught up on the blog (I think.) I have back dated everything so for those of you who read... our Disney trip is back on Dec 15 and it continues from there. Enjoy. =)

SNOW DAY!!!!

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

I love how the snow makes everything feel so peaceful. I love how I use a snow day as an excuse to do not one single thing all day long. I love how snow days allow me to consume more snow cream than humanly possible. Like, I make myself sick off it so that I don't want it until at least... the next time it snows. =)

Bes loves her some snow days too!

She plopped down and made herself a snow angel... when I asked her who taught her how to do that... she said, "Max and Ruby".

She thought it was oh so cool that you could eat the snow. She'd just grab her a handful here and there... pinestraw, leaves and all.

Loving on her snowman in the making.

Love this sweet smiling cold face.

Ta-da.

Happy Birthday Brad!

Today we celebrated Daddy!!

We made him his very favorite cake and Bessie decorated it just perfectly!

She could.not.wait for him to get home from work so that she could surprise him! He was later than normal and I really thought she was going to spontaneously combust from all the excitement.

He's about to walk in the door!! Eeeeeeee!

We sure do love our...



birthday boy!!

So many Merry Christmases!!

Bes's prized gingerbread house... she did it all by herself... minus the chocolate icing. FYI... not a good idea to buy these at the after Christmas sale and save them for the following year... icing was hard as a rock (duh.) and all I had on hand was chocolate. We're just cool like that.

The weekend before Christmas we headed to Collierville to spend Christmas with DeeDee.

Just look at all the presents!!

Bes LOVES spending time with her Collierville cousins...

but getting a good picture of all 4 of them together...

impossible.

Lydia's #1 fan? Bes!!

BIG SISTER BES!!

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Several years ago, instead of all the Shumpert cousins swapping gifts we decided to pool our money (no pun intended) and start a tradition of spending the night at a hotel with an indoor swimming pool. This year the trip was compliments of Pop Daddy and Grom! Since we had been on the go since Disney, they all loaded up and came to Columbus. After a little lunch, we stopped at KMart for the kids to shop for a toy from Pop Daddy. Bes's pick... a Barbie! Then it was on to the hotel to swim, swim, swim! Such fun times with family!

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The night before Christmas Eve is Christmas at my Mama'ts. Always a favorite of mine, all of us getting together and chowing down on some good fried fish and THE best french fries. Seriously, I don't know how Uncle Bob gets those french fries so perfect but man oh man. Thank goodness for some Zantac because this pregnant girl ate... and ate... and ate some more!

The annual Shumpert girls picture.

and the boys.

The little girls loved their magnadoodles... and I just wish that I had taken pictures of them when Kristin channeled Uncle Bunky and provided some hilarious entertainment.

Love my Mama't.

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Christmas Eve was spent at home playing with all the toys that were received thus far. From Disney to Dee's to Mama'ts we welcomed the whole day at home with not a thing on the to do list... except get ready for Santa!!

And boy did he come! Among her favorites was her Mermaid Barbie... her response when she opened it... "I did not know that Santa shopped at Disney World!" My response, "Well, of course he does!" =) She also was a big fan of her pink microphone, new pink kitchen, and her shoebox full of dollies. Ever since we packed our shoeboxes for Operation Christmaschild she has been saying she wanted to ask Santa for a shoebox full of dollies... the closer it got to Christmas the more she talked about that shoebox. 5 little dolls from Dollar General @ $1 apiece packed in a little rubbermaid "shoebox" = pure joy from my precious little 3 year old. My most favorite memory... walking in the living room with her to see what Santa brought and just as she was about to dig in to her presents she stops to tell me... "we need to sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, Mama!" Yes ma'm, we sure do. So we did. Priceless. =)__________________________________________________

Christmas Day afternoon was spent at Pop Daddy and Grom's eating chili, having a birthday party for Jesus, and opening more presents!!

Bes and Brantley are the best of pals. Bes is her little shadow whenever they are together!

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To end our Christmas celebrations we spent New Year's weekend at Brad's grandmother's for the Ward Family Christmas. We always have the best time just all hanging out together and eating ourselves silly! This year we had an added bonus cheering for our Dawgs as they played for a victory in the Gator Bowl!! Go State!!

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This year I didn't use my camera near as much as I normally would have and looking back it does make me a little sad that I didn't capture all those precious moments but I was soaking it all in through the eyes of THE most excited 3 year old that you ever did see! This December was fun from beginning to end... we were busy, busy but are so blessed with wonderful friends and family to make the Christmas season even more special. How I do love Christmastime. =)