White Christmas

It was a record breaking Christmas day here in East Tennessee, and no, it had nothing to do with the amount of new toys we were able to pack into our house. For the first time in, well I don't remember... a really long time, we saw significant snow fall on Christmas Day. It happened quite surprisingly, rather quickly, and in a pretty good amount (again, for East Tennessee!). We were able to enjoy the sights, smells and sounds of it on Christmas but then we got to enjoy the FEEL of it in the couple of days following. I never thought anything in this world could pull our kids from their "new" playroom the day after Christmas, but by-golly, 4 inches of snow can do it and do it quickly!

If I photoshop a really cute family on the front step, I could have our 2011 Christmas card finished by June.
I don't know. I really don't. I can tell you that no, your eyes do not deceive you. This is broccoli on his head, radishes as his eyes and carrots as both the mouth and nose. Oddly enough, he has real buttons down his midsection. Meet "Mr. Vegetable Snowman." And, that's all I'll say about that.I just can't ever seem to get Cooper to sit still long enough to pose, but it sure leaves some grand opportunities for awfully adorable daddy-daughter pictures!

Kendall in action!

He ended this ride down the hill in uncontrollable giggles and some pretty big "woo-HOO's."

Cooper has enjoyed sledding with all the big neighborhood kids this year. We're lucky in that we have the steepest hill in the neighborhood and don't have to walk or drive anywhere to let the kids sled (or, more importantly, watch all the big kids sled as fast as possible into our fence).

I know. I know. I can hear my mother, my grandmother, my mother-in-law... all of you, I hear you. But look, their outfits WITHOUT coats were much cuter for photos than with their big bulky jackets. It was only for a few minutes and then I promise I got them quickly bundled back up, hats, gloves and all.

Christmas Day during a break in the snowfall

That "fog" you see in the background is actually the snow-covered mountains!

Although this is very, very late, The Wild Webbs hope your Christmas was as splendidly wonderful as you deserve... And we know you deserved quite a bit! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I feel like that may have been my title for last year's Christmas blog, but Mr. Blogger let me do it, so I'm going with it. It was definitely a different feeling this year than years' past. A big link was missing to our chain of events for the days surrounding Christmas. We always go to Vovo and Eddie's on Christmas Eve and it was a bittersweet visit this year. There was definitely a big piece of our tradition missing at the dinner table and during the gift-opening. It was the first time in as long as I can remember that no one opened Old Spice as his gift! We got a little crazy with our traditional gingerbread house and decided to venture into the gingerbread VILLAGE this year. There was a little too much construction experience needed for my liking but it turned out well and the kids enjoyed eating the candy off the village just as much as they do off of just the house (in other words, they couldn't have cared less whether we had 1 building or 120, just as long as there was candy involved).

The Christmas Eve kids photo. It'll never be perfect and it'll never turn out with all people looking at the camera with smiles on their faces at the same time. But there are just some photos that are better than others, even if they aren't "perfect." My apologies to Ashlynn, who may or may not like this photo being on the internet!!!

Minus Ashlynn, this could be a contender for the framable Christmas Eve pic. I love Sam's lips, even though I have no idea what he's doing, and Cooper's Ironman helmet is a nice touch as well.

I'm digging Sam's new look.

Ahhh, the Kids Table!

We loved the pj's from Kori and Kali so much that we had to change into them at 1PM! Makes total sense to me!

The Christmas Day cousin photo, Sam not pictured. He was happily napping when this photo was taken.

There may have been a few things missing during our Christmas festivities this year, but that doesn't make it any less meaningful and special. We missed Vovo A LOT during the holidays but Christmas is always about counting your blessings (in my opinion) and with all that can go wrong in your life, I promise we still have lots to be grateful for. It would have been easy to crawl in a private little hole in our own house this year and not come out until 2011. By doing that, though, we would have missed out on all the amazing friends and family that we still have in our lives. We would have missed so much fun, love and laughter in addition to the warm, fuzzy feeling in our hearts that we get from being surrounded by such love. What fun is that?

Sure of You

"Remember we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it is a comfort to go hand in hand." Emily Kimbrough

This quote jumped out at me rather randomly one evening while conjuring up blog posts in my head. I knew the perfect photos to put with it. Sad as the occasion was, I can't complain about getting to spend the better part of a week with uncles and grandparents that I just hardly ever see. There is a strange comfort you get from these lifelong relationships, these people who you hardly ever see, some you hardly speak to other than something typed into a computer or a phone. I was somewhat (but not really) amazed at how much my heart seemed to fill up when I was around them. Much of it, of course, had to do with the sadness of the week and what it all meant for them all to be here. However, much of it was also that peace you feel when you're around people that just make you feel loved and comfortable and safe. Those people who, without trying, can make you feel like you're wrapped in a warm blanket. While the week of my father's death, his funeral and his buriel was the most difficult week of my life thus far, there was also this peacefulness that came along with it, too. Just the reminder we all needed to let us know that no matter what the world hands us, as a family, together we can handle it.

Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh!" he whispered. "Yes Piglet?" "Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you."


To my amazing family (all of you), I am so, so sure of you. I thank you for the blessing that you are to me and the comfort that you give me.

An Ariel Dress-Up Party

As promised in our Halloween post, Kendall determined her 4th birthday party theme approximately last April when we were putting the finishing touches on Cooper's 5th birthday party around the corner. As she is a typical 4 year old girl, she loves all things Disney Princesses and has no feelings in particular for Ariel over the others. But by-golly, an "Ariel Dress-Up party" was the theme. This worried me a bit, seeing as how Kendall has all of about 4 girlfriends and about 2 dozen of the boy variety. Much like last year's Tinkerbell movie night party, we got it figured out just fine. Kendall and 2 of the 3 girls at the dress-up party. We had to get creative, for sure.

The Party Crew. Not a bad looking bunch (when they're dressing up! Ha!).

Kendall and Drew. There is just something I find magnificently fabulous about this picture. Not the least of which is the fact that we can totally use it in their senior slideshow.

Kendall and Cooper are posing for the first picture at the party. Cooper refuses to hold up 4 fingers for being "4" since, quite obviously, he isn't 4.
Kendall thoroughly enjoys a cupcake at her school party.
The family party. Finally, someone sees the humor in the trick candles!
I feel like I can actually SEE Cooper saying "when is MY party again????"
I had to slide one in here. I just love my typical Birthdays in Pictures blog I normally do and I needed a newborn baby fix for this one. I just happen to find her the cutest little swaddled-up princess I've ever laid eyes on. And what a little lady she's turned into. In our 4th year we've seen many, many changes in our sweet little girl. One of the ones that shocked me the most was actually the fact that we are shopping in the "girl's" section of stores for many of her clothes!! I believe that's one of the criteria for "officially becoming a BIG GIRL!" We're still seeing our fair share of drama and fits pitched, they are just done so with a better vocabulary and increased Beyonce-esque feel to them. Much like the pop diva (maybe, I don't really know), Kendall can turn on a dime if her pasta isn't just the right temperature or if her apple isn't sliced perfectly. She has also nailed the whole batting of the eyelashes and sweet kisses when she really wants something or if she can tell she's about to be in trouble. In year 3, that was still needing some work. Now she can melt my heart and magically cause tears down my cheeks with a little pat on my back and a tiny whisper of "Mommy, I love you so, so much." It's so fun to be 4 and so fun to watch it, too. I have a funny feeling she's going to continue to be the most wonderful, kind, and loving friend, sister and daughter a parent could ever ask for.

We continue to be blessed, that's for sure!

November Catch-Up

Yeah, I said November. Maybe I'll get December done soon, too, but until then... Here's that blog of pictures-only-no-stories I was assuming I would have to do, at least once. This is our November 2010, in a tiny little cyber nutshell.

Uncle David (Vovo's brother, we got lucky and have 2 David's!) came to visit all the way from California (and he survived a weekend full of those kids!
Kori and Kali attended their first UT football game AND UT basketball game all within less than 24 hours of each other!

Miss Kendra gave Kendall an early birthday present and took her to the Princesses on Ice show. Safe to say, this little princess was in a "whole new world" that afternoon! By the way, our babysitters ROCK.

I love a good baby belly and we got to celebrate my college roommate's little bundle in November. I kinda hate her for how great she looks...I bet you have to look more than once to find the bump!

My first real photo shoot outside of class! Thanks to my Photo-Friend, Jen, who arranged a pregnancy photo shoot for Amanda, Alex and baby Skylar. It was an amazing amount of fun, once I got rid of my newbie jitters!

His second trophy came from his fall soccer season! I can see we'll need a trophy-only shelf soon if we keep this "everyone wins" thing up.

November finds lots of awesome birthdays. To name just a few, cousin Jonathan, Uncle Jeff, Miss Joy, Kendall and her bfbf (best friend/boyfriend... yes, I just made that up) Drew. Here's the happy birthday boy flying through the air with the greatest of ease... and the greatest of smiles! It must be awesome to be FOUR!

This was at Drew's party and was just too cute of Kendall and Price to leave out. Safe to say, these kids enjoy their gymnastics!

Hmmmm. Let's see. What did I leave out?

May The Force Be With You

Or, with me I should say, as I attempt to catch up on blogging. My first one, it seems, is from Halloween. Like, that holiday a few holidays back, 3 months ago. Can we say it together please? "UGH." I do so enjoying writing, but I find myself getting entirely too frustrated trying to remember funny stories and quotes from the kids from things that happened months ago. So, what I expect to happen is that you'll see a few posts with mostly pictures and very few words.

So our kids tend to make decisions about things way in advance and actually stick to them. I'm serious here. Of course, NOT what they want to order in a restaurant or what underwear they want to wear on any particular day! Rather, the bigger decisions in life. Their birthdays are almost exactly 6 months apart and while planning one party, I can pretty much promise you the other kid will determine, and stick to, a plan for their next party in six months. This has honestly stood true for the past several years. So, it should come to no suprrise that if asked in advance by their parents (which rarely happens, unfortunately) they would know what they were going to be for the next Halloween if we asked them at Easter. This year, Kendall decided around January that she wanted to be a black and purple witch for Halloween. Then, Cooper decided he wanted to be a "storm trooper." When discussing costume ideas for Kendall other than being a witch, the word "princess" came up and it was all over. The purple witch was long forgotten and the quest for the Princess Lea costume began. We looked EVERYWHERE for that costume. It only came in a child's medium in every single store in East Tennessee. So, like every good mother would, I... no, I didn't MAKE one with a needle and thread, I bought a Cleopatra costume and totally rigged it with safety pins and scissors. But still, I consider myself a good mother here. Not entirely because of the costume though... have you seen that hair?!!

I promise you that's Cooper in there! Or, as we like to refer to him, Storm Cooper.

You may not believe me, but it was pretty much unplanned. Dave and Emily were seriously considering having Sam be Yoda and when we told them our idea, it went from "in consideration" to "absolutely must."2010 was the year of Star Wars I believe! Again, totally not planned! Buddies and neighbors, Cody and Cade were a perfect addition and rounded out the Star Wars characters on our block! Our obligatory Halloween-On-Front-Steps shot. I think they were a little tired at this point! Or coming off their sugar high. Probably both.

I wonder if we'll make it to the Thanksgiving blog before Valentine's Day?

Everytime A Bell Rings...

You know the rest. Or I assume you do. A very special person became a very special angel recently and I've been trying to blog about it ever since. I haven't blogged in over a month. I've thrown this particular blog post around in my head for days, weeks even maybe. How does one post a tasteful farewell to someone without becoming "Debbie Downer?" Maybe I should have chosen to skip it altogether. That's a thought, so I don't lose any of my faithful blog readers, but I simply can't. I love to write. I write about all the special and important moments in our life, I treat this blog like the scrapbook I'm neither patient nor creative enough to do for real. To not blog about this particular time in our life would be like skipping a birthday or Christmas. It's simply too important to leave out.

On December 13th, I lost my father to that horrendous "C" word. My grandparents lost their first-born son. My children lost their grandfather, my husband lost his father-in-law, my step-mother lost the love of her life, my 3 uncles lost their big brother and so, so many people lost an amazing friend, boss and family member. Much like Christmas morning, the season's first snow and a love for all things miniature, I've tried to look at this through the eyes of my children with a different kind of approach. As parents of a 4 and 5 year old, we've had to get creative when talking about death so we don't make it scary or tremendously sad... 2 very easy things to do. Cooper and Kendall have a view of Heaven similar to an episode of The Care Bears. It includes, but is not limited to, puffy white clouds, bright beautiful rainbows, rivers, mountains and probably a few Matchbox cars and Barbies, too. Vovo was sick for 2 years so the kids don't really remember a time seeing him without his oxygen in his nose or when he was able to get down on the floor and wrestle with them. To them, Vovo has always been sick and now he's the lucky one that gets to go meet God and play in the clouds.

Everytime a bell rings, an angel gets it's wings! When discussing angels, Kendall was very enthralled with the idea that her Vovo would now have wings and would be able to fly, much like Tinkerbell. She even asked if Vovo could fly back down to see us now that he has wings! Cooper seemed thrilled that Drew's grandaddy, who passed away in November, would have a new angel-friend. His exact comment when we told him Vovo was an angel now was "Oh! Now we have two angels! Vovo and Drew's grandad! They can be friends!"

With death comes sadness, for sure. Even though my father was suffering an unimaginable pain and burden at the end, we were still praying for miracles right along with the prayers that he would go with peace and comfort. We're human, so we act on human nature which is to not wish someone to be gone. That being said, I've tried hard to not be sad for anyone else but myself. I'll allow myself to be sad for my loss, but in regards to my father, much like my tender-hearted children, I choose to believe that he's the happiest he's ever been, bouncing like Cheer Bear or Love-A-Lot from cloud to cloud with his new friend, Fred and all the others gone before him. Watching over us, special angel wings and all.