Here Comes Santa Clause

Sydnee loved visiting Santa this year. We went several times and she would always run straight for him. Unfortunately, on the day that I brought my camera this was the Santa that was there. Not your typical description of Jolly ol' Saint Nick, but she loved it all the same.

Shaye was just humoring me, and of course making sure she got the message across of what she wanted. This will be the last year that she believes in Santa, I'm quite sure. She was pretty skeptical already and of course all the kids at school are talking. It makes me sad. I remember when my cousin Ryan told me all of "them" weren't real. All the magic was gone and I was so disappointed.

They had a great North Pole Village set up at Bass Pro Shop with lots of cute activities like cookie decorating, coloring pictures, Christmas camping, and what's Bass Pro Shop without a little target practice. But the wilderness had snow just for Christmas!

We Need a Little Christmas

We tried to savor the holiday season for weeks before Christmas. The kids had a blast making this gingerbread house.

Little Paige was right at our feet the whole time. She is really on the move now!

Somebody took a bite of Santa's head...

My money is on this little eater with a full mouth!

Warning! Warning!

Monday night, about 10:45, the kids were all asleep and Sam and I were in bed getting ready for sleep, and all of a sudden the loudest noise ever - Warning! Carbon Monoxide! Warning! Carbon Monoxide! - over and over. We have three carbon monoxide alarms in the house, two downstairs, and one upstairs, and all three were beeping and talking, flashing and whistling. For a minute I thought it was the alarm system and somebody was trying to get in the house. When we realized it was for carbon monoxide I called the fire department to find out what we should do. The guy I talked to said if we don't feel sick, its probably a false alarm, but if it happened again call 911 and they would send the fire department out (the phone number I called was not our district.) A few minutes later the madness began again. I called 911, and the lady, though she sounded bored to death and irritated I woke her up, said she would send them out. So here comes the fire truck, alarms and all. Thankfully, they turned the sound off before they got on our street. The alarms went off a third time while they were here. It was so loud!! I couldn't believe it, but Shaye was the only one who woke up. All 3 other kids were asleep through the whole thing. Even Paige, who wakes up if I even think about going in her room to check on her, slept all night long. There was no CO2 to be found when they tested the house, so we unplugged the alarms and sent Shaye back to bed. It was an eventful night, and I am just grateful it happened the day Sam got back.

Jaxson's 1st Hunt

Hunting season is upon us! My dad has a lease in Ozona, TX, which was a 6 hour drive for them, but Jaxson had been looking forward to this hunt ever since they decided to go a few weeks back. As it got closer he asked me several times a day, how many hours till we go? So of course, the day before he was suppose to leave the school called me because he had a fever. I hurried him right in to the doctor and they confirmed he had strep throat. I was actually hoping that's what it would be so the doctor would give me an antibiotic and he would be tons better in 24 hours. It worked! He would be driving all day Friday, so he had 2 days of medicine before the activities started. He loved every second of it! Sam said the first day he and Jaxson were sitting in the stand together and several doe came to the feeder. As soon as Jaxson saw them he wanted to shoot them. He didn't understand why they would wait for anything else when there were a handful right there! On Sunday they finally saw a buck that was worth going after, and Sam shoot it. I was worried Jaxson would be bothered by the skinning and cleaning, but after one comment that it was "kinda freaky" he was good to go.

The Mighty Hunters

The big kill.

Merry Christmas from the Springers

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday!

Where's Sydnee you ask?

Refusing to cooperate...

But sometimes she's sweet and comforting...

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Spa Day

Most years, my best friends from high school get together for a Christmas party. Living out of state, I have been hit and miss. Since this is the year we all turned or are turning 30, we decided to do something extra special. We rented out a spa, had some treatments done, enjoyed the sauna, steam room and just some time visiting. Afterwards, we went out to dinner, and back to a lake house for our gift exchange and fun time!

Amanda Martinez, Me, and Tabatha Coker.

There have always been 9 of us that were best buds, at some point in high school we picked up the name Notorious Nine.

Kristen Fowler and Brandi Martin.

From top left to right: Cassie Willson, Kristen Fowler, Brandi Martin, Cynthia Lopez, me, Kristy Higgenbotham, Amanda Martinez, and Tabatha Coker. (Jamie Cruz had left before this picture.)

Even when its been quite a while since we've been together, every time we get together it feels like the old days. We always have a good time catching up and goofing off. I'm glad to say I still have such good friends.

Dewberry with the Fam

Jaxson and I had so much fun on his field trip to Dewberry Farms, that when our friends invited us to go with them, we were all in!

Paige and Hyrum. They were holding hands and it was so cute. Funny story - For some reason Sydnee cannot say "Hyrum," so she calls him Pirate! We have practiced saying it and breaking it into syllables and sometimes she gets it in pieces, but she decided to call him Pirate, so its official... the baby named Pirate!

We did all the fun activities. This is the hay swing.

The 'big ball swing' we'll call it.

Us parents got to play too.

The zip line.

The bouncy pillows. Really, they are just huge pillows of air that work like trampolines. This is our friend Peyton. He is Jaxson's age.

Even little Paige played.

And got her workout in with some pushups.

The race track.

Our friends, Bart and Brooke Brooks. Brooke is one of my running partners. The really fast, I can never keep up with her, partner!

All of my chickens.