Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas again this year. Such a blessing to have our family and our health to enjoy time together. Christmas Eve, we had lunch with Mike's dad. We then went back to our home and opened our gifts with the kids. The kids really enjoyed their gifts, but by far their favorites was Logan's new cell phone and Madison's new iPod!! To see the excitement on their faces makes it all worth it. We then had a candlelight Christmas Eve service at our church. This is a special time spent with our church family and a time for us to reflect on the reason why we all celebrate this great season. At the end of the service our pastor called all the children up front and read to them the Christmas story from the Bible.
Christmas morning started VERY early at our house, as our kids were awake at 1:15am to see what Santa had brought. We were pretty sure that he must have JUST left it because Logan said he heard something outside and our dogs were barking! We had to make them go back to bed around 2:30am; and lo and behold they were back up around 7am! (We are so making it a rule next year that no one will get out of bed until
6:30am!)Logan got a Wii, and Madison got the Molly American doll along with other things. Mammaw and Pappaw always come by early and check out the loot that Santa left for the kids.
We always go to my mom's at lunch Christmas Day and to Mike's mom's that evening.
We had a wonderful day with our families and actually got to enjoy some sunlight afer a solid week of rain!
At my mom's I got a picture of ALL 29 of us who were there.
I am very grateful for each and every blessing that God has blessed us with.
Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Nashville

Okay, I'm really behind on this blogging thing! We went for a long weekend in Nashville the weekend before Thanksgiving. We have not been anywhere this year on vacation after building a new house, and a swimming pool. I just felt like I had to get away just for a couple of days. We had a great time. Got there Friday night and ate at the Rainforest Cafe, which I love. The last time we had eaten at one was at Disney World and Madison was 3. She was absolutely terrified of the "thunderstorms". This trip however, no worries. The kids had money to spend and spent some of it in the Rainforest Store.
Saturday morning, we had breakfast with the Grinch. Two other families from our church, The Bishops and The McClellans, were also in Nashville and we spent the day together. We all had a great time. Mike even went back to the room to watch the Ole Miss game while we stayed at the mall and shopped. We made lots of pictures in the Opryland Hotel, which was what I used for my Christmas card pictures.
The kids were amazed by the lights outside the Hotel, and the beautiful Nativity Scene outside.
Sunday, we met up again with everybody and went to see the ICE! exhibit. This was How the Grinch stole Christmas story carved out in ice sculptures. It was incredible. It was 9 degrees inside. While we were in line, we were given parkas to wear inside! Oh, and there were also two slides made completely out of ice inside. The kids (and Mike) loved this! I stayed below to make pictures! ha
Monday I had to go back to work, while Mike was off for the week and my kids were out of school for Thanksgiving break! (So not fair!)
It was nice to just get a way!!!

Heartfelt Thank you to our Veterans!

It's Veteran's Day! I know that most of us take what our veterans have done for us for granted, they are the reason we enjoy the freedom that we have in our country and are still fighting for us to this day.
Logan's 5th grade class presented a musical, patriotic program today called "Voices of Freedom" in honor of our veterans. There were many veterans present today for this, some from WW2 to Iraq. I saw some moved to tears. When I see a grown man cry, it really moves me. The last song that was performed was "Taps", we were all asked to stand for this and I saw several of the veterans saluting those who lost their lives for us. Really touching. I do think it was great for these school children to see actual faces of the people who fought for our country.
There was a slide show presentation shown to the music of God Bless America. Some of the most beautiful sites in our great country from the planes to snow capped mountains. If Earth is this beautiful, can you imagine how beautiful Heaven will really be?
Here is a picture of Logan and my parents after the program, and also my dad's name during the presentation of veteran's names.

Election Day

Well, I have officially cast my ballot for the Presidential Election. I am trying not to feel anxious about it; I am not watching the news.....yet.
I know that we are not to be anxious about anything; but we are humans and that is a hard thing to to. I know that God is in control no matter who wins tonight, it is all in His plan. I know that my family will continue to keep our faith in God. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1). I know that He is going to take care of his people, and I take comfort in that. "For I know the plans I have for you, saith the Lord, plans to prosper you and give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 My prayer is that God WILL Bless America!!!!!!

~~~Halloween Party~~~

We went to a Halloween/Costume Party Saturday night and had the best time. All the adults costumes were so great. We brought our kids in costumes and they had a blast.
Spent the evening around a fire sitting around and talking with friends.
I think it may be the first time that I have dressed up for Halloween in my adult life! We decided it would be an annual event. This was with our Sunday School class, we have such great friends who are just a blast to be around.
The BEST costume hands down was of our friend Jackie, who dressed up as Joe the Plumber. I laughed all night--and still can laugh hysterically when I look at the pictures of him. I posted the pics from the party on my facebook page.
I will have to post the picture of Joe the Plumber, Sara Palin and John McCain; especially since election day is tomorrow!!! Here are just a few of the pics that I made, there were too many to post them all. My friend, Hope was the best Snow White and her husband was Prince Charming. Jessie and Kelby were awesome pirates; and here's me and 'Stef the Ref'.

Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween has been very eventful so far. Started out my day with my daughter's class for breakfast, they were having "Muffins for Moms" day. Madison always enjoys me coming to school when I have the chance, and of course I do too!! There were lots of Moms there, but I would say close to half of her class didn't have Moms there. I always feel sad for those kids whose parent's can't make it.
I later picked up pizza for Logan's class party and spent an hour or so with his class. Then, went back by Madison's class for a short time while they were having their class party for Halloween. Enjoyed my day at school!
Later, we went trick or treating with my friend Jessie and her two boys Adin and Andrew. Weather was great, made a lot of stops, and the kids had a great time.

GA Fall Party

Madison's GA class had their fall party at Mrs. Lisa's house last night. They had hotdogs, smores, and cupcakes to eat. Then we went on a hayride, haven't been on a hayride in many, many years! I remember getting ambushed on hayrides in years past-so glad this was uneventful. It was cold, but we were all snuggled up together and with our fleece blankets around us. When we got back from the hayride,the girls broke off into teams and had to go around in the dark, with just a small flashflight and find pipecleaners that were their team's color.. These were attached to trees, or hedges all around the yard and house. It's not as easy as it sounds to find these in the dark. Some of the pipe cleaners had plastic spiders attached to them. If you found one with a spider attached-these were worth more points. The team with the most pipe cleaners won--our team won with 41 points! yeah. What was funny, was while on our search you would hear little girls yell out "spider" with excitement. We are terrified of spiders in our household; so normally when you hear "spider" yelled loudly it is in fear-not excitement. I couldn't help but laugh at that thought.

1st place!~~Flag Football

Logan's flag football team (coached by his dad!) won 1st place in the league championship! They played two games back to back in the 40 degree temperatures.
Madison and I watched the game intently sitting in our vehicle on the 30 yard line (which is like the 50 yard line in real football) so we had "great seats".
The boys were given medallions after the game, yet I had to practically beg them to pose for a team picture afterwards!! After the team picture was made, they "tackled" Mike to the ground and the entire team was on top of him. I said it was a good thing there wasn't a cooler of Gatorade nearby or else he would have been frozen for sure.
Logan and his friend Brooks, pose with their medallions.

Slime~~Time!!

Our church had it's annual fall festival yesterday with a theme of "Slime Time". The kids play games and earn tickets to turn in for prizes. There was a mechanical bull, jello-eating contests, and our pastor presented a wierd science style message that was really neat! We had a chili supper afterwards. The weather was perfect, and everyone had a great time.
My niece and nephew, Hailey and Peyton stop to pose for a minute. Madison wanted her picture with Andrew, but I think he didn't like sitting on the hay! Logan is showing Adin his handful of slime!!! yuck..

My first Blog! :)

Wow, the thought of blogging your thoughts and memories down for future references and to preserve precious memories-where was this idea in 1998 when I had my first child? My husband and I on so many occasions have said how we needed to write down some of the funny things our kids have said and ideas they have come up with throughout the years. Did we ever write down one thing? Uh, no! Well, since my poor memory won't allow me to go back almost eleven years now since I've been a mother--I am just going to start with the present.
Afterall, there really IS no time like the present, right?

October has already been a very busy month! Logan has had flag football games every Thursday night! Madison has ballet every Monday night! We had our school PTO fundraiser the "Falcon Fest" on Friday, October 3rd. We spent four hours there and the kids had a blast! Madison was in a beauty pageant on October 4th-she looked like a little princess in a beautiful lime green dress. She did not place, but she looked like a million bucks!
Then, our church had our evening services at the Pumpkin Patch Farms at Blue Mountain on Sunday evening October 5th.. It was great, after the kids had finished all their actitivies at the patch--we had a song service and a message. 3 children were saved at this event! It was awesome! What an eventful weekend...
Madison and I went to a Mother Daughter GA camp on October 10-11 at Camp Garaway. There were around 40 of us from our church. Madison really enjoyed meeting the two missionary speakers. We had a great time.
Last Friday two of my dear friends, Jessie, Sara, and I went to Memphis for a girls day out for a little shopping. The sad thing is, that we really only went to Target and out to lunch! (Isn't it amazing how much time you can spend in Target?)haha
Enjoyed the day with friends though, and that was what it was all about!