Maiden Voyage

Sam finally got 'Blue Ball' up and running. 'Blue Ball' is what Lily decided to call it. This picture is just for show, they didn't really ride it by themselves together.

Lily did amazing! She was never scared, she just took off with it.

I love this picture of Sam and Marah.

This is Sam giving Lily last minute instructions.

Sam drove it up to the parking lot where we tried it out. This picture really shows how small it is, or just how big Sam is :)

ridin' 4-wheeler from Roxy Long on Vimeo.
You always learn things after the fact. We kinda just let Lily go for it. Most of you parents out there are probably immediately thinking how stupid we are, don't worry I agree. It doesn't go very fast but we didn't consider centrifugal motion. The video shows how Lily would turn it too sharp which would make it whip around pretty fast, and then the poor little girl doesn't know to straighten it out or let off the gas. After I stopped recording, she tried it again and got going too fast on the turns, Sam tried to grab the 4-wheeler to stop her and she went flying off. She cried for just a second but wanted to get right back on. I'm way proud of Lily, but not so proud of us parents. We learned and stayed with her from then on. She loved it and was pretty disappointed when we headed for home.

4-wheeler from Roxy Long on Vimeo.

Marah also loved it! She just sat on it while Sam led it around. I'm still a little concerned about the whole thing but it sure was a hit with the girls. We'll have to be really careful with it, but I actually think they'll learn a lot of responsibility and confidence with it.

Christmas Break 2008!

We had an incredible Christmas and it's always sad when it's gone so quickly. Here are just some of the pictures of our fabulous time!

Uncle Jeremy came and the girls just loved his attention.

Mars-bars trying to be like her favorite Aunt Whits.

Following tradition, the girls get to open their new p.j. presents on Christmas Eve. I decided to let them open their presents from their Grandma L. because I knew they were blankets and thought they would like taking them to bed the night before Christmas. They were the cutest blankets ever and the girls absolutely loved them. Sam and I got one as well and the girls made sure we all wore them where ever we went that night and then on to the next morning. So, thanks grandma for the awesome gifts. The girls have slept with them every night since Christmas as well.



Christmas morn from Roxy Long on Vimeo.

You know.... I really thought Marah would like this wig for dress-ups....I was wrong.

This is a contraband gift from my mom that she got from the sherriff's office. It got a good laugh and I'm sure Sam will have fun using this guy as a target.

This picture is obviously leading up to the next.

Yep, it's what it looks like. The girls got a fourwheeler from grandma and grandpa!! It was a surprise for Sam as well because it is just as much a gift for him as it is for the girls. Mom is not so sure what she thinks but Sam is definitely excited. It needs work so we haven't tried it yet. Marah and lily both got helmets, gloves, and goggles, so stay tuned for their first ride.

bobble head from Roxy Long on Vimeo.

four wheeler from Roxy Long on Vimeo.

This is my all time favorite picture of the day. A picture of sisters holding pictures of sisters. These were the tear jerker gifts of the day as well. I guess when my dad saw this picture of his 'roxy' girl and his 'rock climber' girl climbing rocks together, he knew he had to do something with it. If you know my dad, you know his love for rocks and just how many meanings there are behind this gift for me. In fact, he always tells me the reason he named me roxy was because of this love. Anyway, the one on the left is a frame he actually made out of rock and they both say 'rock on'. I was amazed. It's gifts like these that you never forget. Thank you so much mom and dad for making such an awesome gift.

Little Marah just loved cuddling with Uncle Jeremy while he was here and I loved this picture.

Lily and her Aunt Sarah.

We went sledding at the school during the break and had lots of cheap fun.

snow jump from Roxy Long on Vimeo.

I was so proud of Lily for being brave enough to jump off. She is usually such a chicken.

Couple days later, Sam, me, and a couple friends ditched the kids and got to try out my awesome new snow shoes that Sam got for me (and him). We had a pic nic on this gorgeous spot and then had a blast sledding down some fun hills on the way back. I'm excited to get out and explore some more. We want to try to rig our bike trailer into a sled so we can take the girls along.
The following is just a slide show of a bunch of other pictures I liked.

Two Months in a Glimpse

This slideshow is just some of the pictures from the last two months since i've been so behind. It includes Mar's 2nd b-day, thanksgiving, christmas tree 'shopping', and the girl's showing off their amazing gingerbread houses. I was pretty impressed with how creative lily got with her house. Anyway, i'll try to stay more updated now that things are slowing back down.

Gorgeous Baby!!

Okay, so there are a lot of things I have not posted yet but I wanted to put some of these pictures up real quick. My cuz was kind enough to let me attempt to take some pictures of her beautiful new baby. I'm just learning how to use photoshop and have a lot to learn but here are a few of my favorites. I wanted to post them so that my cousin could see some of the finished ones. She got pretty upset right at the beginning so we didn't get very many but there were a few that turned out.

This one of mom and babe is my favorite.






I have a lot to learn about photography and editing but I have a blast doing it and am very grateful to K for letting me give it a try.

Only Highlight of Election Day

November 4th was Grandpa's birthday, so at least something good came out of that day.

Grandma wanted to get a picture of Grandpa with the greats. Marah wasn't too excited about it.

My mom gave Grandpa a bottomless bag of goodies. Lily just kept pulling one candy out at a time and filling up Grandpa's hands and lap.

Marah sniffed out the bag as soon as it was set a side. One sucker is never enough.

One of the gifts in that bag was a toy airplane. Grandpa had a lot of fun trying to hit people with it and he was a pretty good shot. One of the other toys was a gun that shot suction cup darts. Grandpa kept aiming for Grandma's rearend. I actually took a few of his stray bullets. It was fun watching him having so much fun with cheap little toys. It is hard to think of what to get Grandpa when he just doesn't need anything, but I was impressed with what my mom came up with. They were just silly things that would be thrown away then next day but they created some fun memories. I love how Grandpa is always up for playing. You can't help but be happy when you are around him. He may not remember our names but you know he loves us.

Lily made him a cute elephant card that she was so excited to give him. I'm so glad she has had some time with her great grandpa.

Here is him throwing the plane. I wish I would have gotten some of him shootin' people with the gun, especially him being after grandma.

Happy Halloween!

We had an awesome Halloween and I had a blast dressing up my beautiful girls. Lily obviously had to be a fairy. I made Marah be a pirate which I've wanted someone to be for the last couple years. I figured Marah doesn't have a say yet so that was what she was going to be. I just loved both of their costumes and had a lot of fun doing Lily's hair and make up. I did a little photo shoot in my back yard and got some fun pictures that I've been so excited to share.

We stopped at Grandma and Grandpa's on our trick or treat trek.

We hit the very end of the carnival at the school. We basically just wondered around. Marah was quite scared of all the people in costumes. This huge 10 ft. creature really scared her as you can see her clinging to her laughing dad. Have to admit I was a little scared of this one too.

No forces that I know of could have stopped these girls from stuffing their mouths with candy as we went from house to house trick-or-treating.

Lily loved the pumpkin she carved. She drew the face and I helped her cut it out. She loved it!



Saying good night...



....or so we thought. We didn't take into account how much sugar they had both consumed.

So the following are the pictures of the little photo shoot. I was so surprised so many worked out and have been so excited to share them. I may have gotten a little carried away with some of the photo shop stuff especially with some of the fairy ones, but oh well. I don't know if it was because Lily was the cutest little fairy I've ever seen or what but I got way into the fairy stuff that night. The girls were so crazy on sugar that we actually ended up watching the whole Tinker Bell movie after their bed time and it is all about all different kinds of fairies. It was just such a magical night and I didn't want it to end. It's fun to have peaks through my girls eyes into the make believe world every now and again. I find it really hard to pretend as I've gotten older but every once in awhile I have nights like these where I feel like a 4 year old again.