Ending 2010

Well on New Year’s Eve, I do NOT usually reflect back over the year…new years/new year’s eve has never really been that big of a deal to me.  Today, as I was conducting a HUGE (early) spring cleaning in our house, I was thinking about this year.  It has been a big year for us and it really irritated me that I was just going to let the year come to end without at least acknowledging all that has happened (good and bad). 

Here are some of the highlights:

• Matt (and his business partner, Chris Barr) founded a new CPA firm, Barr & Woodard, LLC. 
• I was pregnant for the first 6 months of the year.
• I was put on bedrest (and couldn’t work) from March-on.
• I gave birth (by C-Section) to a beautiful baby boy, Campbell Clayton Woodard.
• I resigned from my position as Pre-Kindergarten teacher at Cedar Creek to become a Stay-at-home mom!  Something I have wanted to do ALL my life!
• We gave Trouble (my dog of 14 years) away because of biting and other reasons. 
• Trouble died shortly after we gave her away.
• Matt started and finished the humongous playset for the boys.
• My first born son, Trigger, had his SECOND birthday on July 29, 2010.
• My dad threw out the first pitch at an Astros baseball game (Campbell’s first trip at 7 weeks).
• My grandfather, M.L. “Tinker” Hood, lost his battle with Alzheimer's in October.
• Matt and I had our first trip away without our children.
• We built a shop to hold all of our tools, equipment, teaching stuff, etc.

There are so many more things that have happened this year…those are just the big ones that stick out in my mind.  We have definitely had some ups and downs; however, we are so thankful for ALL our many blessings that God has given us this year!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year’s!  I can’t wait to see what 2011 holds for me, Matt, Trigger, and Campbell!

Trigger Woodard

And because I LOVE taking pictures and I felt like I have taken more of Campbell than I have of Trigger lately, you are getting to enjoy a Trigger photo shoot!  I got him up from his nap sometime this week and decided to take him outside to take some pictures…it was raining so we just stayed under the front porch in the rocking chairs.  Trigger cooperated better than I thought.

I know I’m biased…but I just think he’s so cute!  And it’s a good thing because with his head strong personality, he needs a little charm and looks!

Our Clean Entertainment

I’m not sure if I have mentioned this but Trigger really likes to take showers now.  And, since I am a resourceful, smart momma, I usually mention to him about taking a shower in the morning while I am in need of getting ready for the day….which is usually while Campbell is down for his morning nap.  If he agrees to take a shower, I can hop in get my shower and then he stays in there while I dry my hair and put on makeup…sometimes he won’t stay that long but any little second that I have him contained is NICE!  I took a few pictures of him this morning.

He likes to peep out the door and say “hey, Momma!” 

Trigger’s Artwork- 2010

Trigger has had such a good time at MDO this year…this is his first experience away for me, Matt, Zizzy, and Grammy.  He has done pretty good…or at least I think he has.  Since I will always have the heart of a teacher, I absolutely love Trigger’s notes and work that comes home.  I keep a tub on top of our fridge of everything he brings home but I will not bore you completely…Here are a few of the things I have collected this year. 

Handprint Christmas Tree…Trigger is actually pretty good at doing handprint crafts.

Marble painting Candy cane

Look how sweet…”im thankful for…CAMPBELL”.

His picture from the beginning of the year.

Trigger’s Thanksgiving PlacematColored corn Pumpkin

And…here is his note from the first day of school.

Aren’t those just precious!!!

Campbell Woodard

Here’s a few photos that Matt and I took of Campbell while Trigger was napping the other day.  I was trying to figure out how to take pictures with my digital SLR with the flash OFF…I mean I know how to do that but it only turns out good if the subject is absolutely perfectly still…otherwise the picture is blurry…why is this…does anyone know and are there ways I can change the shutter speed…I’m not even sure if that is what is the problem.  Anyway, I had to end up deleting about half of the pictures we took because of blurrines.  I really want to figure this out because I LOVE natural lighting with NO flash…the pictures are so much warmer!

Here are the best ones…

Im not sure which one yet, but I am almost positive that I will be blowing one of these up on a canvas to hang in my bathroom!  Oh how I love canvas pictures.  It probably looks like a Trigger and Campbell museum in my house!  Oh well!!!

Christmas 2010- Mamaws

After a long day of playing and naps for my boys, we headed out for Mamaw’s house.  It’s always packed full of people at her house…let’s just review who all was there:

Mamaw

Daddy and Liz (my parents); Will, Karen, Abby, and Sydney; Seth, Vanna, and Reid; Deanna; Lance and Chelse; Matt, Me, Trigger, and Campbell

Uncle Ivin and Aunt Liz; Jenny, Brian, Meredith, Brannon, and Caroline; Kim, Daniel, Josiah, and Andrew

Great Aunt Evelyn (Mamaw’s Sister) and Great Uncle Sonny; Donna (Evelyn and Sonny’s daughter)

Sooooo, it was PACKED! :) Mamaw put this sign out on their main dining table…I thought it was funny!

We took a few pictures while waiting on everyone to get there!I thought these family pictures turned out pretty good…probably the best we are going to get!  Notice that Tyrone is in out picture! :)

After supper, Jenny had the kids come together to sing happy birthday to Caroline…she just had her first birthday.  AND, the toddler boys were just a digging in!  I’m sorry, Jenny!!!!!  Thankfully Jenny has three children and is pretty laid back!

When we arrive, we always eat first!  Afterwards this year, we changed the kids into their matching pjs…then, the three toddler boys (Trigger, Brannon and Josiah) ended up on Mamaw’s bed

We were trying to get a great grandkids picture…and the teacher in me wanted to start a transition or sing a song or SOMETHING…anything!  because it was mass chaos!And both of my boys have their fingers in their mouths…imagine that!

It was present opening time…Mamaw really wanted the great grandkids to take turns so she could see everyone.  This is my attempt at keeping Trigger from opening the gifts sitting right there in front of him.We gave Mamaw a bracelet with charms for each Great Grandchild.Trigger telling Mamaw “tank-uu” (thank you!)Uncle Lance and TriggerTrigger (in Uncle Lance’s hat) and Josiah wrestlingJenny started a book for Mamaw of memories from our time with her and Papaw…half of the grandkids have already written in it…It was really neat to read everyone’s memories and I know Mamaw will enjoy it too.  It was rather sad that Papaw was not with us this Christmas…this is our first Christmas without him…I know it was very hard on Mamaw! 

That would be the LAST of my Christmas posts!!!  I can’t believe that I got them all done this quickly!  I am a little proud of myself!  Just a few more posts of the boys that I have taken recently and I will be ready to print out my 2010 blog book!  By the way, I just figured out last night that (when using Windows Live Writer which is ABSOLUTELY AWESOME) you can us CTRL and choose more that one picture at a time…I mean I knew you could use the CTRL button to do that with other things but didn’t think it worked when blogging…this has made my posts go SOOOO much faster!  YAY!  I love finding ways to save time!