Christmas Morning

We had a relatively calm morning. The kids came down around 7:30 so it wasn't too early. We decided to do one main gift plus stockings this year to cut down on the overindulgence of years past. Overall, it worked out well and the kids seemed to enjoy what they received.

Whit the Christmas Elf

Here are some photos of Whit enjoying his 1st Christmas. Believe it or not the "My First Christmas" pajamas were Griffin's!

American Girl Christmas Party

For the past couple of years Carson, Reese and Hadley have hosted an American Girl Christmas Party. We are treated to a pizza lunch and cookies and then we get treated to a theatrical performance written and performed by the Markland Girls and Brett. This years show was titled "Rudolph Jr.". It was about Rudolph Sr. getting sick and the need for his non-flying son, Rudolph Jr. to save Christmas. It was quite entertaining as usual!

Nutcracker

Gram treated us (the girls) to the Nutcracker ballet. The girls love it because they get new, fancy dresses to wear. Their favorite part was when it "snowed".

Brett's 4th Birthday

WOW! I can't believe Brett is 4! We celebrated with a "Bob the Builder" cake and a really big dump truck ballon. He got lots of trucks and tools- his favorite! On his birthday it was so nice (70 degrees) so we went to the zoo and then went out for a pizza lunch.

Christmas Tree

Here is our Christmas tree. I was not looking forward to putting it up because I had visions of Whit pulling it down. Luckily, it is still standing but it now only has ornaments on the top half of it because we keep having to move the low ones higher and higher as Whit finds new ways to grab them off of the tree.

Hadley's beam routine

Hadley did really good on the beam. She got the highest score for all level 2 girls (9.45)!

Hadley's first gymnastics meet

Hadley had her first meet in early December. We had to wear our fancy ($100) leotard and fix our hair just right (the biggest challenge for Mom!). She had fun and did really good.

Griffin's basketball team

As you all know, Griffin made the basketball team at middle school. They are currently 3-2. Griffin has proven to be a solid member of the team and if he has not started he usually comes off the bench to give the team some quality minutes. His season high so far was against Lexington where he went 5-6 from 3 point land and ended up with 17. Unfortunately, his team still lost! On game days the boys have to wear a tie to school. At first, Griffin was not to happy with this but I don't think he minds it now because I think the 8th grade girls like it! Here is a picture of him with his tie before the 1st game and in his uniform.

Whit ripping paper

This is a video of Whit trying to rip paper. We thought it was very funny!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at home. The weather was nice so we were able to play outside and take a hike to the playground. We had dinner a Gram and Grandpa Markland's house in the evening.

November pictures

Sorry it has been almost a month since I added a new post. The month has just gotten away from me. Here are some pictures of the kids over Thanksgiving break. We were able to spend a lot of time outside because the weather was warm-Thank Goodness!

Fall Fun

Here is a digital scrapbook I made. Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Here comes Trouble!

                                                          You can't stop me!
                                                           Whit climbing the stairs   

Whit has been mobile for 2 months now but until a few days ago he was not interested in the steps. Unfortunately, he finally discovered them and this is where I find him most of the time if he sneaks away for a minute. I guess I have to go find a gate!

Leaf Pile Fun!

                                                  Carson & Reese "enjoying" the leaves


We raked up some leaves on Sunday on let the kids jump in them before we picked them up. I snapped a few photos but my subjects were a little uncooperative. Reese and Whit didn't seem to like the "itchy" leaves touching them. Not surprising for Reese since she has a lot of issues with how things feel!

"Indiana Jones"

                               Brett in his "indy" hat getting ready to fight some bad guys

Brett watched a little of the Indiana Jones movie last weekend and he has decided to become "Indy". He runs around with his bullwhip (jumprope) and gets all the bad guys. The bad guys are usually pretend but sometimes Mom and Pop are the bad guys if we are reprimanding him.

Hadley's floor exercise routine

Hadley had a practice meet and had to perform her floor exercise routine for an audience. She did very well and loved every minute of it. They will perform the same routine all season so I think we are all going to get sick of hearing the "jazzy" music that they use!

Halloween

                                                  The Gang on Halloween night
                                                         Brett as "Bob the Builder"
                                                          Reese as "The Wicked Witch"
                                                       Carson as "Indiana Jones"

                                                          Hadley the Fairy Princess

Here are the little ghouls on Halloween night. Luckily, we were able to piece together costumes from our dress-up box so we didn't have to spend a fortune on costumes. As it turned out we had to wear coats because it was a little cool so you couldn't even see their costumes anyway!

Here is our Lil' Pumpkin, Whit. I think he thought the pumpkins were balls and attempted to roll them down the front steps around the yard. He also did a taste test on the stem. The kid will put anything in his mouth and he frequently eats leaves and grass when he is crawling around outside. 

Tennis Champ

It was a busy weekend as usual with the majority of time spent driving back and forth to Lexington, SC for Griffin's tennis tournament. He played very well and ended up in the finals against his best friend Frederic. Unfortunately, Griffin lost but he and Frederic played doubles together and won the doubles championship. Now we have 2 more trophies to collect dust around here!

Playing in the sand

Everyone knows how much Brett loves to play in his pile of sand. Now that Whit is mobile Brett has introduced him to the art of digging and dumping sand. Unfortunately, Whit has discovered the art of eating sand all by himself. He is usually filthy by the time he is done but he just loves it so much that we tolerate the filth and very dirty clothes. Thankfully he has lots of outfits to change in to.

Football Fan

Griffin went to the USC game this weekend. It was a big game vs. LSU so Griff pulled out all the stops wearing all his Gamecock gear! The Cocks were leading at halftime but unfortunately ended up losing (nothing new!). He had fun despite the lose.

Science Projects!!!

To go along with the study of Newton's Laws of Motion, Carson had to construct her own amusement park with moving rides! Oh, how I love these projects. I think it is the teacher's way of getting back at parents because they have to deal with our children all day. We did manage to complete it and while not as high-tech as some of her classmates who cheated and bought the pre-made K-NEX amusement park kit, she did get her rides to move and got an "A" so I guess that's all that counts. However, as soon as she turned it in she was assigned another project! YEAH!!!!!