Christmas Card

Here is our Christmas Card - sorry for it being so tiny, but this was the only way I could get it on here for some reason! Thanks to Rachel for the gorgeous pictures of the girls! One of these days I'm going to change my background and header to reflect Christmas instead of Thanksgiving!

ROLL TIDE and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

I know I'm beginning to sound like a broken record so I won't say it, except to state the obvious that I am playing catchup! Bare with me as I try and quickly post the "big" moments in our house lately:

~Our new puppy now weighs a whopping 50 lbs (as of last night) and you can almost watch her grow
~Our elf, Snowflake, is back in action (more on that at the end)
~Sam and I and my parents were fortunate enough to get to go to the SEC Championship Game and celebrate the big win for the weekend (thank you Aunt Kate and Big Will for keeping the girls for us especially being almost 8 months pregnant!)
~My niece shot her first deer (yes, we live in the South and girls hunt!)
~I've been slowly getting my Christmas decorations up - I normally have everything out and completed by Sunday night after Thanksgiving, but have been very slacking this year.
~Cut WAY back on our decorations AND Christmas presents this year!
~Let the girls totally decorate our tree (with Daddy's help of course for the high spots) and have resisted the urge to rearrange" it the way I want it - I mean, who cares that the 1 string of colored lights is only on one side of our totally white light tree? And who cares that there are more ornaments in one spot than any other? That's where they wanted it and that's where it will stay this year!
~Finished my Christmas shopping - ALL ONLINE! I totally took advantage of "Cyber Monday" and got some really awesome deals!!! Don't have the time or patience this year to go to the stores!
~Made a huge decision regarding how we celebrate Christmas this year - after losing my grandmother on Christmas Day last year and with the money situation being a little tight, we decided to forgo our annual Christmas Eve Chili and Cheer that my family has been hosting as long as I can remember! Instead, this year we will be attending church, making cookies for Santa, riding around our neighborhood to enjoy the luminaries that we never get to see because we are too busy getting ready for the party, eating Chili (can't quick that tradition), watching Chirstmas movies in our PJ's, going to bed early so that Santa can get back to the North Pole early, enjoying the excitement of our girls at this magical age, and hopefully creating some NEW traditions until the girls get older and don't believe anymore!
~Crossing my fingers that we MAY get to go to Pasadena - Sam got his tickets, now I just have to talk Sam into going instead of selling the tickets!
~Booked tickets to take the girls to see Cavalia - it's a horse show that's created by the people that create Cirque du Soleil - MM is sooooo excited. I will definitely post pics of that!

SNOWFLAKE:

So, as I said above, Snowflake is back!!! He accidentally showed up in one of our boxes of decorations (oops, forgot that's where I stored him last year) and MM found him! So far Snowflake has gotten himself tangled in the colored lights while trying to "help" us decorate since it was taking so long. Then, while we were at the SEC game, he got into the girls closets and had strewn every piece of Alabama clothing they had all over the kitchen table. MM said he must have been trying to find something to wear to watch the game! Then, he made a mess with pinecones in the den. Then, he and the Grinch had a "snowball fight" in our pantry with marshmallows. And today, he magically got into MM's school bag and is "watching" her at school! I will post pictures of some of these later, but for now, this is all you get!!!!

Slacker!!!

Just call me Slacker!! I cannot believe that it is almost Thanksgiving and my last post was about Halloween! Yikes! I guess it just shows how busy we've been with the daily stuff! Nothing much has really been going on here, hence the lack of posts! But don't worry, although I've not posted anything new, I have been keeping up with everyone else! We did have some awesome pics taken by Rachel a couple of weekends ago and I still have not decided which ones I will use for Christmas Cards so I will not be showing them yet, but trust me, we got some realllllly good ones! I was so shocked at how well they did (with a little incentive). I had to bribe them with going to have a picnic at the big horse show in town (yes, Anna was just as excited) and that they could wear whatever they wanted to AFTER the pictures! A huge thanks to Rachel and Karlley for the gorgeous pictures! I'm having a hard time choosing!

This past weekend officially commenced the busy holiday time of year! I LOVE THIS TIME OF YEAR, but it wears me out! Sam's sister and her family came in town Friday and we had a baby shower at my house for this younger sister. My SIL and nephew flew in yesterday, but we will not see them until tomorrow probably, but in the meantime, we have already eaten several wonderful family meals at the lake and will continue every night until the weekend is over! The rest of my family will be coming in on Thursday and staying through the weekend.

Saturday is also my Dad's 60th Birthday and while he insisted on NO PARTY!!!, we are still on a mission to celebrate this wonderful day (more to come on that later!).

Today was the girls' annual Thanksgiving Program at school. They were so cute, but it made me really sad for 2 reasons: 1) this is the last year that MM would be in it and 2) it is the only year that both girls would be in it together! A's class were little turkeys and they sang 3 songs. I video'd it because Sam had a meeting out of town and I will post it later. She was hard to see since she's so little, but she performed exactly like they practiced it (only sticking her fingers up her nose just once!). MM's class were the Pilgrim's and they had several speaking parts and some songs and she got to do a special part. As some of you know, she is not very fond of performing in front of crowds, but she did great!

That's all for now, but I just can't resist posting at least one great picture!

Halloween!!!

Obviously, I am a little behind in announcing the winning pumpkin! Congratulations to my sweet husband (who thinks I am little nutty) for carving the best Alabama Elephant pumpkin this year. I have to admit that the last 2 years I have not been creative in my own sense and have used a template for my pumpkins (the easy way out), but stay tuned because next year I will create a masterpiece of my own creation! I better start working on ideas now!

We had a fabulous Halloween this year. It was so nice being on a Saturday because it gave us all day to prepare and slowly get ready for the night. The weekend started out with a date night for Sam and I. We went out to dinner, then shopped a little bit, and then went to see Couples Retreat. It was so nice and like the old days (before kiddos) to just walk around the stores, taking our time, without any meltdowns or whining to tend to. We stayed out until midnigh, but both agreed that we had the most fun that night and should take advantage of more nights like those. The next morning, Sam went to help his sister and her husband move while me and the girls just messed around the house. The horse barn was having a costume contest and party at 2:00, so I took MM to that while Sam let Anna finish her nap. MM got to dress up one of the horses she has riden (Jimmy) and then "show" him for the contest. Unfortunately we did not win, but she had a great time seeing all the other horses dressed up.

Halloween continued that night with our annual neighborhood parade and pizza party. This parade is infamous in our town and people come from all over town to participate in it and see it. We have a huge neighborhood so people also come here to get as much candy as possible in 1 neighborhood! We loaded our family on the golf cart in our costumes and blankets (it was COLD) and adult beverages and headed to the parade! All the kids have so much fun running around the streets with their friends and trying to figure out what everyone is dressed as. We then grouped up with some of neighbors/friends and began the trick-or-treating together. We managed to cover about 3 full streets before heading home with baskets overflowing with candy and all of our appendages frozen solid! This was the first year that both girls really "got it"! The funny thing about them at first was that MM and her little friends would run up to the door and start yelling "Trick-or-Treat" over and over again until we realized that they had not knocked on the door nor rang the doorbell. We died laughing! Thank goodness that Emily remembered glow sticks (I am usually loaded down with them, but that item slipped my mind this year) because we eventually had to tie different colored sticks to their baskets so that we could keep up with them and know who was who - they were running from door to door faster than we could keep up with them. And poor Anna and Ellen only got to about half the houses because they were having a hard time keeping up the pace of the older kids!

We finally made it back to the house, ran inside, put on our warmest fleece PJ's, started a fire, turned off the porch lights, turned on the football games, and ate soup and enjoyed the rest of the evening on the couch cuddling with everyone! It couldn't have been a better weekend! We normally have people over for soup after trick-or-tricking, but we opted not to do so this year and it was kind of nice for a change! So here come some pics from the week. . .

Anna - Flower Gnome

I was dressed up as a 60's housewife - curler, glasses, and wine!

MM and her cute little friends!


Sweet Sisters ready for the parade

MM with Carly and Jimmy

Silly Face

Hannah Montana Cowgirl!

Fall Is In The Air

****I just realized that this post never got posted! Is this any indication as to how crazy our lives are this time of year? So I apologize that this is so late, but I must record it for my personal reasons!****

You know what Fall means to the Collins Family?



Fall in our house only means it's time for our Annual Pumpkin Carving contest. It's a sort of new tradition in our house that started last year - some of you should remember! We had such a fun time and the girls loved it so much, that we could not wait to carve our pumpkins this year!



So with no further avail, PLEASE VOTE for your favorite pumpkin in our poll on the sidebar! Just like last year, I will not tell who carved which pumpkin - to keep it fair, since Sam claims I stacked the votes last year! We will keep the poll going until Halloween night - so what are you waiting for? VOTE, VOTE VOTE!!!

Pumpkin Patch

We finally made it to the Pumpkin Patch Saturday after all the rain, the cold, the church group canceling the trip. We were supposed to be going with my SIL's church group, but they decided to cancel the trip Friday morning. So, me being the determined Mommy that I am (knowing the disappointment my girls would experience after talking about it ALL week), I called the farm myself and asked if they would be open or not since it was so wet and muddy. You know, a little persisitence goes a long way, because the owner of the farm said that they would indeed be open to the public. Yipeee! It was hopefully going to be a great day for the Pumpkin Patch, just a little wet and muddy! A little mud never stopped us Collins's! So, we continued on with our plans to pick the girls up from school and drive to Fayette to spend the night with Sam's brother and family. Sam and Matt had planned a long day of putting out 1300 lbs of fertilizer and rye grass (and who knows what else) to get ready for deer season that is rapidly approaching (BOO!). And we were planning on getting up and out the door to the Pumpkin Patch since it was about an hour away from Fayette (in Tremont, MS). So, we layered clothes, loaded blankets and coats, packed a picnic lunch and headed off to MS. We had a ball and they had so much to do at the Pumpkin Patch - we could have stayed all day, but Heather and I had had enough after about 3 hours. Not to mention it was COLD!!!! So after giving up after 10 minutes in the corn maze (a little hard with young kids and especially since Anna would not walk), a hayride, picking our pumpkins, playing on the HUGE slide, playing in the corn box (like a sand box, only full of corn), climbing on the hay bales, and eating lunch, we were DONE!!! It was so much fun and I'm sure we will go back next year! I'll be glad to give anyone the name and address if you're interested - it was well worth the drive! With no further ado. . .

That is MM and my niece at the top - yikes!

All the girls (minus Anna, of course) climbing hay bales

MM making "corn angels" in the corn box


My Sweet Girls!

Meredith's "Prized" Pumpkin

MM's "Medium" Pumpkin

This one totally cracks me up!

Anna's Outlook on the whole day - she hates cold, hates getting dirty, hates being outdoors which equals NOT A FUN DAY FOR ANNA!

MM hunting for the perfect pumpkin

The beginning of the Corn Maze

Group Shot - See Ya Next Year!

Birthdays and Makeovers

Anna's room BEFORE

Anna's Room AFTER

I found a precious hot pink chandelier thing that will be over the chair in the corner.MM's Room AFTER

Last week was a very busy and fun week for us. It all started on Sunday when we got to attend and celebrate our neice's baptism at their church in Fayette. I can't believe how old she is and so grown up. I remember her 1st birthday which was not long after Sam and I started dating. She is so good with our girls and it is so nice to be able to let her "watch" them both (mostly Anna) when we are all together. She always lets me know that she is going to babysit for us! It won't be long before she really can babysit, FOR REAL! That night, Anna started running a fever. She had had a runny nose and all week so I was not really surprised. Long story short, after being up all night trying to get her fever to break and listening to her cough (or bark - yep, croup!) and MM waking up with fever on Tuesday with fever, I took them to be tested for the flu. Thank goodness it was negative. Both girls ran fever off and on all week. I finally let them go back to school Friday - mainly so that I could get ready for MM's birthday party.

On Thursday, we scheduled to have Anna's new "big girl" furniture delivered. We have been prepping her for this day for a while because she really liked her baby bed and REALLY still loves to be rocked at night before being put down (she calls it Rock-Rock). We really built it up that she was getting her new princess bed and she was the first to tell anyone and everyone about her new "pwincess" bed that Daddy was building (or so she thought). I had spent the whole week before painting her room to get it ready for the furniture and it turned out perfect! I included a picture of MM's room too because I couldn't remember if I ever posted the completed room.

Saturday was the MM's big Horsey Gymnastics party. Yes, I was not sure how to incorporate horses into a gymnastics party, but we had the decorations, cake, etc. with horses. It was just what she dreamed of (that's what she said). We had a huge turnout for the party. We invited both 4 year old classes at her school and then a few extra friends that don't go to school with her. A total of 29 kids showed up and ran around having a ball at the gym.

Saturday night (after opening presents, napping, and watching the Bama game, we had planned a surprise birthday party for Sam's dad's 60th birthday. We had it at the lake house and it ended up not really being much of a surprise, especially after PawPaw called him to ask what time they were supposed to be there for the party -OOPPS! All of Sam's siblings and children and spouses were all able to come as well as several friends and extended family. He is not much of "party" kind of person, but he told us later that night that this was the best birthday ever!

This week has been a little more low key, but we may go to a Pumpkin Patch in MS this weekend so I will be sure to post pictures if we make it.

Happy 5th Birthday Mary Mac

I cannot believe that our first born is 5!!! Wow how things have changed in 5 years. It feels like it was yesterday and at the same time a million years ago.

To Mary Mac:

You are our little ray a sunshine and our Little Sweet Pea. You have grown up so quickly in the last year.

This day 5 years ago is a bit of a blur to me because Mommy had been so sick for the past couple of weeks. After being sick for 2 weeks, you decided that you may want to make your Grand Entrance a little early. I guess you were tired of fighting in there. After trying to stop you from coming for several days, the doctors finally figured out what was wrong with Mommy and decided that the best thing for both you and Mommy was for you to be born, even though you were 6 weeks early. So late the night before your birthday, they gave Mommy medicine that would help my body along in your delivery. We, and I mean the whole family (Gran, Pop, Nanny, Pop, Daddy, Uncle Tyler, etc.), were all VERY scared. We did not know what was going to happen to you or Mommy. After several hours of trying to deliver you, the doctor decided that we needed to get you out NOW! After lots of tears and hugs and prayers with our family, they rushed me to the operating room with Uncle Tyler in tow (thank goodness for Mommy. . .Tyler will never know how much that meant to Mommy and the comfort he brought me) and you were born 27 minutes later at 1:37 am at a tiny 4 lbs 4 oz!!!

I was not able to see you for the first time until the next afternoon and it was a feeling you will only know when you become a Mommy. It was Wonderful! Daddy was so sweet and was so in love with you as soon as he met you! I remember him just staring into your sweet little eyes and smiling with pride from ear to ear. You had to stay in the NICU for 8 days. You were such a little fighter and determined to prove everyone wrong. They just wanted you to gain a little weight before you went home - that's a battle we still fight daily with you. You are such a gift to Mommy and Daddy and have made life such a joy!

Today, you are so sweet and kind, but with a little spunky side that keeps us on our toes at all times. You are already so independent and have always been able to entertain yourself anywhere and anytime (unlike your baby sister). You may be tiny (you only weigh 33 lbs), but you are the strongest little thing I've ever seen. You are easy-going most of the time, but get really irritated if someone disturbs your territory. I also call you my little tornado. You can turn your playroom upside down in minutes and then complain that it takes too long to clean up. It has been so much fun playing with you and learning with you. You are starting to enjoy things that "big girls" enjoy and it is so much fun! I cannot wait to see who you will become!

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!!!!