the LIGHTS the Santa and a camel!

the LIGHTS the reindeer the LIGHTS the camels the LIGHTS the horses the LIGHTS the funnel cakes the LIGHTS the hot chocolate the LIGHTS the coffee the LIGHTS the glow swords the LIGHTS!

Many fun things happening at once over at the Fayetteville square but the LIGHTS of the Ozarks are why we join the crowds each year for this fun tradition.

Watching my sons eyes and expressions as he stands in the middle of ALL of these fabulous lights makes this entire mess worth it. :)

The one reindeer they keep caged for all to gawk at has no antlers and is pretty much pitiful. I find myself feeling more sorry for the poor thing than finding any joy out of it.. boo. how can you charge people to see one of Santa's reindeer and then have its horns removed??? that's like going to see Santa and him wearing sweat pants rather than his red and white suit.

Give me back my money!

Now the camels.. the camel rides are quite the classy establishment.. Between the worker standing beside us taking his 'smoke break' and the pregnant ticket collector letting us know 'this is my first and last night to work here.' ... I'd have to say they represented the redneck side of the state rather well! but then again were the idiots that paid $10 bucks for our kids to ride the camel around for 30 seconds in a 10 foot stretch of the roped off road... here's my sign!

sigh

On the other hand, despite the mediocre expressions on their faces here they really did enjoy this.

This is my sons game face when he does stuff like this.. Total concentration. but they loved every minute of it. Watching Kellen enjoy his surroundings and listening to him giggle at everything and jump around... makes him so happy...so in the end it was worth the ridiculousness of it all.

(and for the record, a camel can pee a small river while standing.)

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and speaking of Santa in that red and white get- up with that great belt to accessorize...

No tears were shed on this visit, everything went great!

Jaxson took up most of the morning telling Santa his mile long 'want' list.. ha

and Kellen waited patiently and listened and when asked what he wanted for Christmas he leaned over and whispered. 'Can you bring me a sword for Christmas?'

(better believe I saw to it that this baby got himself a couple of foam swords, total sweetheart.)

Two cute Davis boys in their Santa picture for 2012!

Deck the Hallz

Oh the Weather outside is.... almost cold.

 

Drinking coffee at 9pm is probably not the brightest idea in the world, but tonight it's helping me zone out and just relax for a few hours.. Veg out in front of my computer and enjoy some down time before its back to the weekly grind.. boo

Whew! This has been a weekend on the go. Lots to do, so little time.

Friday Jon and I shopped shopped til we dropped. Bought a car load FULL of Christmas gifts and then spent the evening wrapping what felt like 95 gifts! Actually I wrapped 95 gifts.. Jon watched TV.. ha

Saturday we went to our friends the Siebert's for some grillin out with friends. Kristy, Shell, Tara, and I brought our kids and fury kids alike and enjoyed a fun afternoon together. Kellen had a hay-day playing football with the 'big guys' as he called it... and they were all sweet to let him play and make touch downs. he thought he was such big stuff.. he was in heaven!

and then later was my dad's 64th birthday party.. wow, my dad is 64 years young! that's nutts... and so was this Mexican cake my mom made him for his party.. she took the 'spanish theme' night to the edge with this one.. ha

Regardless, we had a wonderful time with family.

Sunday was church and then an Art Center of the Ozarks play.

'The Best Christmas Pageant Ever'

Kellen's first play. He liked it. We will definitely hit up a few more of these.

(sad attempt for a pic right before the play...)

 

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I've been on a mission for the right images to use for some large wall prints for our home so we've taken lots of pictures lately...

Jaxson is getting so tall and seems to grow each week. We work hard at getting him out from under an electronic and outside playing and enjoying outdoors and time with family. He is one that definitely has a positive reaction to attention and genuine time with us. He is not shy about how highly he thinks of himself either.. ha This past weekend we told him we'd probably dance at Christmas eve like we did last year and he would need to bring his A game to keep up with Ashton and he proceeded to let us know that he was practically a professional dancer with some mad skillz. He is 200% convinced he will smoke Ashton and any of us in any dance competition we throw at him. ha.. kidz  

K Powell is also on the grow. He is looking every bit of 3 and we're still a few months away from that milestone. Every single day he says something that is just classic and I think man I've GOT to start writing this stuff down. He's just a fun kid. very low stress and easy going most of the time and entertaining. He and I went to the Mall the other day after work and he just had me laughing the entire time. We walked past the window of manikins at Forever 21, the black plastic ones, and he looks up and sees them and makes a funny face and says. ' Ewww, those are means grillz momma'.. he also told me we needed to go shopping for me some clothes and then as we past everything he would say 'this would look cute on you momma' .. 'this would be good for you momma'.. Total sweetness I tell ya.  

They are such good sports... this one is fun to me, shows how Kellen looks up to his big brother.

...and next he's just showing up a few years early for class...  

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Our Christmas cards look a little something like this:  

as usual I did not order enough. boo hiss  

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~~Boy Tree FuN ~~

Oh the boy tree is just too cool and gets even more so each year..

This annual trip to Hobby Lobs resulted in the purchase of these two fabulous boy tree ornaments you see before you. Jaxson saw this tank and really liked it, so at first he tried to convince Kellen that 'he' needed to pick the tank, making room for Jaxson to select another good one..  it was a valiant attempt on Jaxson's part, but Kellen spotted the blue robot and it was all over. He searched high and low and when his eyes landed on this robot it was THE ONE without a doubt. So Jaxson decided he just couldn't part without the tank so he opted to get the tank himself. and I was beyond thrilled with both of their selections. Couldn't have picked them out better myself. :)  

Gramma contributes to the boy tree each year as well. This year she showed up one day with this little ear muffed snowman. it blinks colors when you turn it on. K man loves it and every time we turn the tree on he has to go over and turn this ornament on as well.

luvs it.  

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This year we opted to book a session with one of our church friends for some family pics. 

Check out the very talented Mrs. Ames!

Lauren Ames Photography 

 

It's great to have some fancy pictures with my Davis boys.

I will cherish these always !  

 

...and I think that's a wrap folks!

 

 

 

By This We Know Love...and to be grateful for what we have!

Enjoying my hot cup of Starbucks Christmas blend and Kellen and I are adding this years new additions to our beautiful tree. He recognizes the figures on this ornament right away and begins singing 'Jesus Loves Me'... This will be my favorite ornament of the year; not to mention what a wonderful way to start Thanksgiving day!

#ByThisWeKnowLove

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As you can see here we opted to give his golden locks a recent cut. Hair cuts bring on way too many comments about how grown up they look or how big they are getting.. Seeing as how this is my only baby I am not a fan of these comments! yes, yes, they must grow up, i get it. lets not talk about it.

:)

He loves his Momma's macaroni n cheese and will still eat about anything as long as it is dipped in ranch.. he calls ketchup sausa and his mimi and lily has him mixing all the sauces up together.. no idea. ha

he pronounces worm = warm and girl is still grill... my personal favorite is how he says the character 'Woody' from Toy Story.. he pronounces it 'hoyty'. this entertains me and I have him say it over and over..melts my heart!

Since we traded our suv for the car we havent replaced his tv (yet) and so my iPhone has become his mode of amusement for the car rides.. A few weeks back he heard Jon telling me that he really liked the song 'Hard To Love' when it came on the radio.. well he picked it up as his favorite song and requests to watch it on video on my phone every day.. The best part about this is that he knows all of the words and sings along with such intentment and realness.... 'harbin love harbin love, dont make it eeeeasy.' oh how these little words captivate my heart! :)

If anyone asks him how old he is he tells them 'six' .. and then giggles like he thinks he has really pulled a fast one on them and they are believing he is six years old.. hilarious. i always follow it up with he's two.. and then he will add the 'im two and a half'.. its important to get that half in there!

This week at my moms he had a close call. he was helping his Mimi do yard work and the rake somehow came back and gashed him over his eye.. my mom said blood was going everywhere and she didnt know if it needed stitches or not.. i ended up meeting them at the doctors office to have the doctor look at it.. its a pretty wide gash that will leave a scar but the doc said he didnt need stitches. I was relieved and thankful to God that it was as minor as it turned out to be. Like I've said before, knowing the amount of times I had to get stitches and visit the E.R. as a kid and hearing about all of Jon's close calls and experiences with stitches and broken bones I am a Momma that lives in alert mode anytime something like this comes up.

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On Jaxson's latest visit we opted to get some Christmas card pictures.. Our cards this year have Jon and the boys on them because I preferred to take the pics rather than be in them.. I showed the cards to Jon and he says 'they are good...if i were a single parent.'... haha

Surely by now everyone we send a card to knows I take the pics, but next year I will get back on the card!

:)  

Jaxson at age 7 is one of the reasons Kellen thinks he is 6. Kellen adores Jax and there is clearly an older brother/ little brother pestering relationship going on. perfectly normal. but Kellen is also very generous with Jaxson and defends him to the end. In the middle of Jaxson being annoyed by having a 'little brother' we try to remind him that Kellen is a pretty sweet and giving little brother. He will give Jaxson the last bite of anything he has and will share drinks with him when Jax has slurped his all down.. Once we remind Jax of these things you can see the wheels spinning and he realizes its not as bad as he makes it out to be. This week they were playing a game and Jax says 'kellen, im really sorry for all the mean things ive done to you.'  and kellen replies 'thats ok Jax' .. and they just continued playing their game together.. brothers. sigh

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Rogers square is a good spot for shots if you can manage through the other 95 people there with oversized cameras.. My favorite was the lady waving around her 1500 dollar flash.. in the middle of the day!!  sigh.. Jon's fave was the lady that followed us around from spot to spot. At what point do you stop smiling to be nice and start asking for reimbursement for the FREE lesson ?!! :)

good stuff

Never the less,

Jon and I got some laughs out of him saying we had a snaggle tooth and a wild Indian while attempting pictures.

ALL kids go through their stages , don't they.. and gremlin teeth or not they are still so handsome in their own right.. Love to see these boys laugh

Talk about three smiles that light up a room!   

...and Shelly made this precious scarf for Kellen. Too stinkin cute. This will really add some color to winter pics when we get all that snow this year (wishful thinking).. love love love the boy scarf.

get your scarf here!!

Thankful for my little family and thankful for our big hopes and dreams. Things in life do not always go as planned and I've learned that there is a reason that they dont.. It's so much bigger and better and way more important things can come along.

Happy Thanksgiving

4th Annual Halloween Party

Kudos to anyone keeping up with their blog while maintaining kids and a full time job.. I am not a member of the over achievers club by any means!

Our 4th Annual Halloween party was a few weeks back. My mom wasn't able to make it so it wasn't quite the same for me, but it was full of sugary goodness and a fabulous hayride and some adorable costumes all the same!

The weekend happened to double as my birthday weekend...not that turning 33 is a big deal to anyone.

My coworkers rocked it and helped me celebrate in style. Great lunch with great company and much much appreciation to them. :)

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My mom wasn't able to make it this year. She was helping my Aunt Barb recover from surgery..

So that was a bummer. I look forward to her quirky homemade creations. We still had several frightful delights. I had found my way to pinterest for the idea of these fabulous monster cups

(vanilla pudding, green food coloring, oreos crushed on top, face drawn on clear cups.)

so easy and so cute!  

... and Jon made the witches brooms.

festive!

Gramma brought some frightful treats this year including eye balls and pretzel ghosts.. cute cute

and Jon had her make me this dirt cake birthday cake you see here.. fitting! ha

Note the 'Brittle Bones' head stone.. every time we wrestle around and hes clearly winning I'm like

' let go, my bones are brittle.' we both laugh and make fun of me.. ha

its a cop out really.. shhh

:)

From treats to tricks...ha

The Jaxsonator was a blue ninja this year.

He was in full character all evening and took his job very seriously.

Kellen was Clark Kent. Jon and I got a kick out of it.

My coworker had shown me a picture on pinterest of a kid dressed as Clark and when showing Jon the treats we should make on pinterest I ran across the picture and he loved it.. so Clark it was !

Great choice. He was a hoot. He of course just thought he was superman, and no doubt Superman has now pulled rank above Batman in his hero line...

I have some hilarious pictures of him posing and hammin it up Clark style!

(and for the record, yes we have family of four pictures but the lighting is awful on a lot of our pictures this year and those are some that didn't turn out as good. boo, hiss)

I was a pink lady and Jon was a greaser, cigs rolled up in his sleeve, pants rolled up and everything!

The lighting (sun placement) on this next one is bad, (my fault) but I love it anyways...

Pops and his super heroes.

My dad totally rocks! I hope I am as laid back and straight up AWESOME

as my parents are when I'm a grand parent.

 

The Paul's were a themed hoot as usual.. They went with a Christmas collaboration this year.

and then there was Pop-Eye and Olive Oil.. I give MAD PROPS to Papaw for being willing to wear these costumes with a smile. cute cute

My brother and Cameron weren't able to make it.

(and if they think I have overlooked the absence they are mistaken!

 hunting season or not!!)

:)

Nurse Ashton and redneck Angie were beauties as always.

and this little stinker was a super girl in pink, loved the boots.

Love me some Lily Grace.. or as Kellen calls her 'his best friend forever'

They are at Mimi's house together during most days of the week and fight about like cats and dogs.

ha

but at the end of the day, they really are friends.

gotta luv cousins!

Speaking of cousins here's another one of K's buddies, the Brodester!

This blue eyed little stinker has no part of participating in pictures unless you catch him off guard.

Brody was loving him some lawn mower bubbles. He has a good time when he comes over.

Uncle Jon and Aunt Jen's house is FUN.

It was not an easy night catching up with the Ninja as he was on the move most of the night in true Ninja fashion.. Got some poses out of him, here is one of many.

My dad took us all for a hayride which was fun as always. The kids love to be spooked.

This year Uncle Chris jumped out of some construction and scared them.

Good job Chris.

Hope everyone had fun!

31st birthday celebration, some hog stuff and a trip to the Rock!

Well Jon celebrated his 31st birthday in style.. The 3 of us went out both Thursday and Friday night of his birthday week and enjoyed some good dinner and shopping.. and of course, lattes were involved!

and for the record this man gets better looking each year.. age looks good on him I must say :)

The smaller of the 3 hog fans here, went and stayed the day playing with his cousin Lily so the birthday boy and I could go tailgate with our friends Loren and Janetta. We laugh with them about the fact that every time we make tailgate plans together it rains.. the Alabama game did not disappoint on the rain.. However, it devestated on the scoreboard. poor piggies :(

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying instagram on the iPhone.. can you tell ??

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I have the funnest coworkers a girl could ask for...

they are truly adorable, love love love these women !

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Check out the future photog... or maybe he'll model the cameras :)

He likes wearing his hat.. he'll say 'Momma, wheres my gap hat, i need my gap hat'..

(he has no idea what gap even means, nor does he care.. he has just heard me call it that so thats what he calls it. )

Last night on the way home from dinner he was going by all the houses saying 'thats not my house, thats not my house, thats not my house...' what am i going to do when this little guy grows up? All of his quirky sayings and pronunciations are in my heart forever

:)

 

 

K man was a big helper with the puzzle.. 'look I put the pieces together and it matches Momma.' .. and he would show me two pieces that he had forced together.. they'd be all mangled and barely touching.. HOOT

we luv us some Sunday veggin!

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Living room snapshots are the best

Just pull up those blinds and turn off the indoor lights and let that natural light shine on through!

 

I like this picture of Jaxson... his looks are getting so much older and he is growing into his own.

Time goes by way too quickly. We need more weekends of vegging and quit trying to fit in 95 things while he is here.

We went to Little Rock last weekend because I had a couple of customers scheduled for pictures at Burns Park. That is really a neat spot, worth checking out if you're in the area.

We went to visit Jon's Memmaw as well.

She has apparently had cancer for some time now but it has spread and the doctors aren't giving her a lot of time left.. She is Jon's step dads mom. I have visited with her several times now and she is a sweet lady. Very much interested in Jon and his kiddos.. very loving and sweet. We were happy to get to go visit with her and let her visit with the boys. They were super sweet to her and gave hugs and talked up a storm... even made her laugh several times. It was a wonderful visit.