One Christmas is never enough

The distance to the moon is about 240,000 miles.  The distance to the sun is about 93 million miles.  By comparison, the 2,400 miles that we drove this Christmas season should seem like a short trip to the fridge during a commercial break, right?  It's all about perspective.

Here are the exciting details of our intra-planetary journey...

Christmas in Spring.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

...and guarded by ninjas with pirate head-wear.

The kiddos ripped wrapping paper and bows did unravel.

Then we woke in the morning and started to travel.

Christmas in Lake Charles

At Mimi and Pop's house, we had such great fun.

We ate till we were stuffed.  Then battled with nerf guns.

On Matt!  On Jennifer, On Sam, Shelby and Anna!

Santa is supposed to find us in Louisiana...

Christmas in Baton Rouge

Frosty served as a landmark for Santa to find the way.

And Nora babbled and toddled to brighten everyone's day.

The kids awoke to find they were on Santa's "nice" list.

Scooters and hula hoops!  Their smiles were priceless.

With the children content, their faces still aglow,

We stuffed the car like a sausage and drove to Ohio.

Christmas in Dayton

The mood was festive despite my hurt back.

Those mid-westerners got crazy with their booze and their hats. 

With Pop in his shirt and Mimi sporting a 'stache,

we partied too late.  T'was past time to crash.

On our final day in Ohio, we were fortunate to see

the Wesleys and Crawfords who trekked in from Indy.

It was great to see all despite the long travels, the plight.

It was well worth the trouble, a Christmas delight!

Farewell, Summertime 2013

Well, September is over.  The brutal heat of Summer has given way to the slightly lesser heat of Autumn, so I know it is past time to update the blog.  We did so much this Summer that it would take far too long to recap everything, and nobody has time to read all that.  I will attempt to synopsize everything using only pictures and the ancient Japanese poetic art of Haiku.

Disney trip in May
Six Proctors made memories.
Tourists everywhere.

Sam is FOUR, not three.
Anna dances beautifully.
Matt feeds family.

Drought claims backyard tree.
'Fam likes beach, kayak for me.
Cousins from Indy.

Hilton Head, last trip

before Anna started school.

Where did five years go!?

We are older now.
But surprise, we still party
and eat awesome cake.

guest post by Matt
-Next time I won't blog on muscle relaxers.  I promise.

Just a Good Story

The day before Anna'a dance recital at the Woodlands Arts Festival, she had a dress rehearsal at her dance school.  Her teacher calmly sat in the corner of the room spouting commands at each stage of the choreography as Mary Poppins belted out "A Spoonful of Sugar."  With each command, all four of the tiny dancers executed their steps.  They weren't quite ready for Bolshoi yet, but they did quite well considering their age.

On the car ride home, I told Anna how proud I was of her.  I said how impressed I was that she listened to her teacher so well, that she knew the steps and that it was obvious that she was getting something out of all her practices.  With each compliment, I glanced back and saw Anna with pursed lips sheepishly looking down.  It looked as if she were going to cry.  I felt the same strong emotion as I reached back and gave her a gentle pat on the leg.  Truly, this was a touching moment.

When we parked the car in the driveway, Anna hurriedly unbuckled herself from her carseat, jumped down out of the car and shouted, "I DID IT!"
"Yes you did!" I confirmed.
"No, Mom.  I had water in my mouth the whole way home, and I just swallowed it!  Just now!  I held it the whole way home!"  And she turned and skipped inside with her pink backpack in tow.  Like I said, truly this was a touching moment.

Springtime

Q1 2013 has been good to us.  Our little girl turned 5 years old!  

We got to celebrate her birthday in Baton Rouge where Nanna made a beautiful, delicious cake.

Back in Spring, she had a great party at a gymnastics training gym.  We had all the typical trappings of a birthday party, friends, cake, presents, and the kids especially enjoyed one of those huge parachutes (sorry.  not pictured).  Everyone had a blast.

We welcomed a new car into our family.  The kids love riding in the new Volt, and I love driving a brand new car without having to pay for it.  Thanks, employer.

Sam embarked on his journey toward the fame and riches of major league baseball.  We have a long way to go, but we're making progress.  In the early stages of the season (T-ball), we were lucky to get the kids to run to the right bases.  It was pretty common for the kids to just stand at the plate after hitting the ball.  We have played 7 games now, and everyone runs the bases the right way.  I call that success!

You'll notice that our team's name is Tigers.  I assure you that this is strictly coincidence.  Every team in the league was arbitrarily assigned a collegiate team. We drew the Clemson Tigers.  Oh well.  Close enough.

This is Sam with his buddy, Jake:

Here's Sam flashing his power swing:

We had fantastic weather for our "annual" crawfish boil.
Our crawfish boils used to look like this:

Now they look like this:

I can't tell you which style of boil is more enjoyable, but I can say without hesitation that the day after a boil is much easier when the evening doesn't end with fire-blowing.  This year I was able to get up in the morning to bring the whole family to see Anna represent her dance company at the Woodlands Art Festival.

Here is a video of Anna's dance:
http://youtu.be/rxvdz4d1SYg