Last One.....I Promise

I forgot to mention that Andrew was more excited than Sara about Santa coming. He woke me up at 12:30 a.m. and told me to get up, I told him he was crazy! He woke me up at about 1:15 a.m., 2:00 a.m., 3:30 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. I am NOT exaggerating! At 4:30 a.m. he woke me up and I told him to give me 30 more minutes, so, believe it or not at 5:00 a.m. he woke me up, Dusty up and then Sara. He called Gran and Pop to come and then Christmas began.
The kids seeing what Santa brought.

Sara checking out her DS Lite from Santa.

Andrew in his muck boots from Santa.

And finally Andrew and Sara ready to go to Gran and Pop's to open presents in their new Christmas clothes.


P.S. Yes, my son already told me I had the date wrong on my new camera. Leave it to me!

Possibly My Last Christmas Post

Santa was good to the kiddos. He brought them both exactly what they wanted. Imagine that? Andrew got his handheld PSP, muck boots, clothes from AE and a few other things. Sara got a Nintendo DS Lite, clothes, pink boots and some other things. They must have been very good!
Here's what he brought.....


And here's the aftermath of Santa and presents from mama and daddy......

Christmas......still?

I am still posting Christmas......I'm slow!
Dusty wanted me to open a present on Christmas Eve. He got me a Nikon Coolpix touch screen camera. I played with it Christmas Eve so I could know how to use it the next day. Dusty said everyone always got a toy but me so I needed a toy too. Speaking of toys, we got Dusty good this year. He usually always knows what we are getting him for Christmas. He either knows what we are buying or guesses before he opens it. This year he told me a couple of months ago that he always wanted an old fashioned gumball machine. I started looking and that's just what he got.....gum and all.

Following Tradition

It has been tradition at my granny and papas's since I was little girl that on Christmas Eve we got to pick a present to open. It was always a big deal for me and my sister to shake our presents to see which one we wanted to open. Keeping with tradition, Andrew and Sara and the other grands open a present at Gran and Pop's but my kids also get to open one at home too. As you can see, Andrew opened at set of Razorback dominos (guess what we've been doing) and Sara opened her American Doll.


Christmas is a time for family and friends. I have wonderful memories that I hold near and dear to my heart. Getting up early in the morning and seeing what Santa brought at home then heading to Granny and Papa's to open more gifts, spending the day there and eating homemade bread, candy and ham, playing with my toys, playing a game that Granny always got for all of us to play, visiting with friends that stopped by Granny's during the day to have a drink and eat some of her spread. Memorable moments, great times!!!!!
We are still making memories. I hope my kids can look back when they are my age and laugh, live and cry at great memories we have made for them.

Wonder?

You wondering where I've been?
Recovering!!
Just kidding! Well, kinda......we have been very busy! I hope your Christmas was as filled with love and happiness as ours was.
I have been cleaning a little today, trying to get things back in order. It is seeming hopeless! I had to break for a minute and then thought, "haven't done my blog all week" so this is the beginning of my Christmas posts. Sorry it's been so long.......

7:30 A.M.

That's the time I normally have to be at work and you would think we would be sleeping late on our first "official" day out of school. Well, we're not, we're leaving for Texarkana to get the Expedition fixed. TGIF, it's under warranty! You either get full blast heat or full blast air conditioning and no on or off unless you turn the car off. It can get a wee bit hot in there, too, with straight heat blowing in your face. Dusty called Thursday when it began doing this and the head mechanic told him that they fixed 3 Expeditions last week that did the same thing. Go figure, mine would HAVE to be one of the fifty jillion they made that breaks.
On a funnier (I know, it's not a word) note, we are going to go to the movies and eat out and do a little bit of last minute Christmas shopping.
I'll stop rambling now.......

AHHHHHH, the break has begun!

School is out!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOOO! We are finally out for Christmas vacation. We dismissed at 2:00 today. I was outta there 30 minutes after that. Sara was wanting to go here and there and I said "NO! We are going HOME!". And that we did!
I am in my lounge pants and t-shirt and that's where I will stay. Well, until Dusty gets home at 7:00 and then we promised the kids we would eat out, which in Prescott means the Sonic, and ride around to look at Christmas lights. But I am going to take it easy and chill. Andrew got to stay home today since he had taken all his semester tests but my break begins now!!

Andrew's Trip

Andrew went on the yearly December trip to Dallas this past weekend for Christmas at Bob and Pam's. He hasn't missed a one since he was born.
He and Jessica and the boys went to the museum on Sunday. They also went to the King Tut exhibit. Andrew thought that was awesome! I knew he would, gold and wealth are right up his alley! I saw the same exhibit when I was about his age in Houston. Here are a few pictures Jessica took.....
Andrew outside the museum.

Bob with his Christmas present from Andrew.

Andrew and Sebastian in a prism tunnel.

Maybe Pam will forgive Dusty, Sara and I for staying home this year.

Oops.....Valarie's First Ever Error

And only Kristi caught it.......if I had one of those fancy blog spots like The Pioneer Woman, I would give her a great prize for finding it. That's because, and you all know this, I did it on purpose....to see if you all were paying attention. Kristi wins!
I said in the previous blog, as I am bragging about how pretty I think my kids are, that "Andrew almost never takes a good picture" when I intended to say Andrew almost never takes a bad picture. And he doesn't, never takes a bad picture, that is. They are always good, especially the serious ones.
Remember it people, it was Valarie's first ever error, that I really did on purpose to give away an imaginary prize......HAHAHA

P.S. If you have never checked out The Pioneer Woman's blog that is in my favorites, you should, it is addictive. I love it!!

Finally.......Christmas Pictures

Between our busy schedules and the rainy weather, I finally got my Christmas pictures taken. I took quite and few but was very pleased with what I got. Of course, it wouldn't have anything to do with the 2 gorgeous subjects I have to work with. One(Andrew) who is very photogenic and almost never takes a good picture and the other who is as photogenic she just cooperates when she is in the mood for posing.


It got kinda cold, we all, including me, got kinda moody before the shoot was over. This is one of my favs of Sara, it is so her!

A Good Weekend

Andrew is finally feeling better. He has been sick all week and missed 3 days of school. He was tested for strep throat but that wasn't it. Just an infected and irritated throat the doc said. He did his homework today and has been up playing around. I'm glad, he was feeling pretty cruddy!
I read Twilight this weekend. I really liked it! Now I'm gonna have to get the others. I want to see the movie too, even though everyone says it is not like the book. It never is, is it?

Ya Gotta Love Her

She LOVES pink! We call her "Sassy" and she answers to it. She's sweet, smart, artistic, kind, a bit daring, loves school and her friends, really wants to help wrap Christmas presents for Andrew and promises not to tell, easy to love and very demanding.......she's telling me I still haven't gotten her some Cheetos and Dr. Pepper. She's..............SARA! She picked out the Christmas background. It was her "first choice" and "you should always stick with your first choice". And who would have thought it but it is pink! She's a joy and we love her very much!

Do You See A Pattern Here?

We are getting quite the Arkansas Razorback ornament and Christmas decoration collections. Most of them are Andrew's.
First, is the 2008 Razorback ornament from The Danbury Mint. This one is Andrew's.

Here is a frosted Razorback snowman ball from 2005. Of course, it is Andrew's.

Andrew's pretty bright red HOG ball!

Another Danbury Mint ornament from 2007.....Andrew's too.

Another one you say? Yes, Sara had to have one this year, too. She very proud of her second Arkansas Razorback ornament.

Keep going.......look at the post below.......I had too many pictures for one post......

More?????

More of our favs....
We begin with the Arkansas Razorback basketball ornament. Andrew got this a couple of years ago from Bob and Pam.

Next is Sara's Razorback cheerleader bear from Dusty and I.

Andrew got a Razorback football player bear at the same time.

Bob and Pam gave Andrew this Santa sporting a Arkansas Raborback sweater. He loved it!

Dusty bought this Razorback and snowmen tree shirt last year on sale after Christmas. Cute, huh?

This is just the beginning of our collection. Andrew plans to get plenty more where these came from.
WOO PIG SOOIE!

Christmas Time Is Here

We got our tree up Saturday night. It took us until Sunday afternoon to get it decorated. Dusty always puts it together and fluffs it then the kids put the decorations on as I take them out of the boxes. Sara likes hers to be in little bunches and Andrew puts his at the top so Sara won't bother them. It's fun. If you could see everything up close you would understand. I love it to be like they like it. It makes me smile! Quite nights in the living room with just the lights twinkling are my favorite......wait did I say QUITE? Well, maybe not so quite but it makes for great memories!

Good News, Bad News

Which one do you want first? The good or the bad......
Well, let's start with the good news.....
the HOGS BEAT LSU!!!!!



We didn't go to the ballgame, had to stay home and watch the Curley Wolves in the Semi-finals but listened on the radio while we were in Texarkana. I thought Dusty and Andrew were going to have a stroke in the last 28 seconds!
Speaking of the Curley Wolves, that's my bad news.....they lost tonight, 21-22 in the last couple minutes. Not a happy ending!
Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving. If you went shopping today, hope you didn't spend too much money. If you ate leftovers, hope you didn't get too full. We opted for the movies. All four of us loved Madagascar 2. It was almost as good as the first. Dusty said he thought he liked it better but it's a toss up for me. Andrew loves the penguins!

Happy Thanksgiving

May you and your family be blessed this Thanksgiving.

Good Girl Gets A Hair Cut

Maggie got a hair cute today. She has to get beautiful for the holidays. Vickie gave her a poinsettia and a bell on her collar. Wonder how long that will last?

Thanksgiving Vacation Has FINALLY Arrived

My Thanksgiving vacation has finally made it's way to me! I am so excited! The kids have been off all week but I had to work yesterday and a half day today. I came home to a huge pallet in the living room. That was so nice! I have informed my family that we will not be putting a tree up until the house is nice and clean. Of course, my nice and clean and theirs are two different things. So......that's what we will be doing with our time off. And in between I may allow them a little smoked turkey and dressing.

Wonder How The Cookies Turned Out?

Well.......wonder no more! Here they are, minus the buckle but still very cute and edible.

Sara and Sophie brought one up for each of the office staff.

Curley Wolves Win Again

Before the game.....

After the game.....

It was a cold one, but it was good. The Curley Wolves rocked in their first round of the play-off games. They beat the Harding Academy 41-14! We were prepared with our coveralls, toboggans, hand warmers, hot chocolate and gloves. Andrew left like a popcicle. Maybe he will listen to his mama next Friday night. Sara was tired and bundled up! She did listen and stayed warm and cozy.
Go Wolves!!!!! Make it all the way to state!!!!! Go Wolves!!!!!

Cute Thanksgiving Cookies I Coffee-cat-ed

I bought the stuff to make these cute Thanksgiving cookies tonight. Sara's class has been talking about different aspects of Thanksgiving this week. My friend, Shannon, had a picture of them on her blog. She is going to make them for her son's class.
My wonderful buddy, Mrs. Penny Plunkett, promised today that if I bought the stuff for her class they would make them, too. I got the stuff for her class and Sara's so she has to keep up her end of the deal. I know she will!
The kids will have fun making and eating them. I hope their teachers have as much fun as they do! I'll post pictures of the festivities!
P.S. Sara is always saying (to this day we correct her) that "Andrew is coffee-cat-ing her". So I coffee-cat-ed Shannon. If there is such a word!

A Shopping We Will Go

Dusty and I made our first trip to Texarkana for Christmas shopping. He was off so I took a vacation day and so the fun begins. We did pretty good, just needed lots more time(we had to be back to get the kids from school). Of course, as soon as they got in the car the questions began. We had them go in Sara's room (not Andrew's because it's on the side where the car was parked and we knew they would peek) so Dusty hauled everything into our room.
We will have to wrap in the next couple of days because they are NOSY!! As tradition goes, we shut our bedroom door and wrap. They are waiting at our door like little vultures to see whose present comes out next and after a little shaking it will finally come to rest under the tree.
No, I dont' have my tree up yet. I don't do that until after Thanksgiving. I am usually not shopping yet, it's early for me. I am on the ball this year. But I think the wrapping will commence or Dusty is going to have to find some good hiding places!
We've got plenty more to buy, we only made a dent in it!

Andrew

This is Andrew in the woods after he killed his first deer. We are having it mounted. He hasn't hunted much since, guess he basking in the glow right now.

Clay Joins The Crew

Clay Xander Frances Hartley was born at 1:56 p.m. on Friday, November 14. He weighed 7lbs. 6 ozs. He is my sister's 4th boy. Yes, FOUR BOYS! Bless her! Mama and baby are both doing great and will hopefully get to come home today.

Guess What I Got?

Dusty and I have now completely entered into the 21st century. We have texting.......Andrew's had it, Kim's had it, Wendy's had it, even Janet's had it. We were the only ones that didn't.........until now!
Dusty was off today and texted me at school and my phones on my desk and heres how it goes from there....

Satarra: You have a text.
Me: It's a voice mail. I don't have texting.
Satarra: Do too.
Me: Do not.
Satarra: SEE!
Satarra opens my phone.
Me: COOOLLLLL!!!! Dusty finally got us texting!!! (me jumping while Satarra, Wendy and Robert make fun)
Me: Show me how to reply.
Satarra lauging at Valarie.

Next Text is to Shelbi....
Me: Guess what I got (no question mark, Andrew's showed me 40 times but can't rememeber)
Shelbi: wat?
Me: Texting
Shelbi: I c
She wasn't as excited as me!!!

After school text to Andrew....
Me: Hey! (with exclamation, mind you)
no reply, he came to find me with a big smile, "You FINALLY got texting!, when did Daddy get it?" Like I can't do it by myself!

Dusty is already firing them off to all his buddies. I have only texted Shelbi using Andrew's phone a little bit. I'm uptown now though!!!!

I know Kristi, "I'm special!" WOOHOO!!!!!

Simple?...... Not at the Cobb's

We have had a bit of a mess in our house this week. We were simply going to go electric and get new central heat and air. Well, the Cobb's apparently, or so Dusty and I have decided, can't do anything simple. It's been a bit of an ordeal, from having furniture moved for 4 days, to having to get an electrician, to Dusty falling through the ceiling, to having to take an extra day of work off to fix the ceiling, to coming home from gymnastics and having fire ash all over everything from them trying to weld(for lack of better word) something togther in the house, ash covering everything on that end of the house (Andrew's bed, my couch, kids' bathroom, tops of every picture frame, lamp shade and surface in the living room and luckily Sara's door was closed) and last but not least, after them being here for 4 days to finish finding out that the only thing keeping them here that long was that their gage they were checking our unit with had a hole in the wire so it was not registering like a working unit should. With that big run on sentence done, I spent one afternoon in my bathroom with it's beautiful new tongue and groove pine ceiling cleaning. Dusty and Daddy had to take out all the shelves in the bathroom closet along with almost everything else in the room. I found myself deep cleaning the closet. I had a little blast from the past.
Sara is seen here wearing the very ear rings that I wore to my senior prom. I gave them to her. She has been sporting them around this weekend. Stylish, huh?

I also found some troll Christmas ear rings that Lord only knows where they came from. Along with a HUGE fad in my early teenage years, the infamous Swatch Watch. We went to Dallas one summer to Bob and Pam's and they were waiting for me and my sister in the room we always sleep in on the nightstand. They were awesome!

So, with the excitement of Andrew's deer yesterday and the ballgame the night before, I just was a bit lazy and somewhat overwhelmed when I thought about what my house looked like inside and what needed to be done, therefore, I did a little bit of nothing. Today, I have motivated myself a wee bit, not near what I should and am washing clothes and trying to clean a little. I really need to be cleaning a lot but nothing is simple...........especially at the Cobb's house........or so we have come to learn.

Andrew's First Deer

Andrew killed his first deer on the opening morning of deer season. He killed an 8 point. Daddy was honking the horn up the drive way and Andrew came to the door ringing the doorbell. He was so excited! They had to track it, get it on the four wheeler and pull it out of the woods. They are gone to Firestone now to show Dusty and to check it. SO EXCITING!!!

More Fall Pictures.....

Aren't they beautiful?!?!?!?!

Sara's Pink Girl

GO VOTE!!!!!

Hope to see you at the polls!

Sara's Awards

P.E.S. had its first honor roll assembly last week. Sara was on fire. She got all three awards. We are so proud of her. She is loving the first grade and doing great!
She got an honor roll award.

She received a Good Citizenship Award.

She also received an Accelerated Reader Award for first graders.

I should have taken a picture of as many kindergarteners, first graders and second graders in a group as a could. It was a sea of red because Wednesday was BE DRUG FREE and wear red day.