Twas the night before Christmas.....

...... and all through our place, there was excitement in the air.....

and cookie dough on our face.....

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
But we had lots to do before St. Nick would be there.

The children weren't nestled all snug in their beds,
They were running around screaming & hadn't even been fed.

Mommy was late with her Christmas Eve plans,
She had lots of traditions and only two hands!

There was baking and singing and driving to see lights,
She couldn't get it all done before the end of the night.

So Dad stepped in and made everything O.K.
Martha Stewart he was, if only for a day.

He was rolling and cutting and baking those treats.

The kids couldn't believe it and couldn't wait to eat!

Then they went out to put Rudolph's food on the lawn,

He would be hungry and reindeers must eat before dawn.

When they came back in, Mom had a surprise,
"The Grinch that Stole Christmas" -- "Oh, Mom! How nice!"

It wasn't too long before the boys were pooped out.

The girls made Santa's treat and went to bed with no pouts.


And as we all know, that's when the real fun begins.
Staying up late and sneaking everything in.

Dad eventually awoke to give Mom a little break,
It was a good thing, too, because it sure was getting late.

Finally, finally, it was time for some sleep --
That is until 3:30am when the munchkins took a peek.

Yes, they woke up THAT early and Dad had a cow --
He said, "Kids, you're crazy! Get to bed right now!"

A few hours later, they came in again quick....
But what to you know, within minutes Macy was sick.

Yes, you heard me right..... throwing up on Christmas morn
Oh no, what was it? Possibly the corn?

It only got worse for the next little while

But then she got an I-touch and sat up with a smile.

The kids were opening so fast it all was a blur

They were so happy that morning, of that I am sure.

I just hope those presents don't distract from the real reason
We all celebrate the magic of this season

The birth of Jesus Christ and the miracle of his grace.
I pray that in their hearts, He will always have a place.

Merry Christmas to all of you reading out there,
Hope it was a wonderful holiday--Have a Happy New Year!

Ornaments, Ornaments, Ornaments!

Being out of school and with Jacob still in quarantine, well, we've had lots of time to finish up some ornament projects for the kids' trees. This was one of my favorite ideas I found on the internet. You take a 9 oz plastic cup, some silver poster board, some batting and go buy some cute mini ornaments from Hobby Lobby (like snowmen, Santas, etc), buy a few little trees in the dollhouse section and waa-laah..... you have cute Christmas globe ornaments.

Madison making her snowman ornament

I finally let the girls use a low-temp glue gun and they were loving their new-found freedom

Me & my creative soul, Macy

Macy's favorite.... she made one of a Snowman Band..... we made a stage with glitterly black felt, she took 3 snowmen ornaments and glued them down. We found small gold instrument ornaments (one sort of looked like a guitar), we made a microphone for the lead singer and colored some sunglasses on him with a fine-point black sharpie, and then we covered a small cylinder shape with some foil for a drum. The drummer even has candy-cane drumsticks. Like I said before she's so creative.... most of it was her idea!

Here's the one I helped Jacob make

After all that ornament making, the kids decided to sleep in the den on a "fort" we made for them. At one point, Macy & Jacob even had a roof over their section. What is it about fort that makes kids so happy? We took this picture to send to their dad who was in Arkansas hunting for 4 days....
We Love You, Daddy!!

The Chicken Pox Nightmare

So if you've ever wondered how chicken pox looks in the beginning, well, here's an example. And this is a mild case because Jacob's had the vaccine. A few days ago, on Jacob's last day of school for Christmas break, I picked him up and noticed two small red spots on his temple. Then I looked down and saw the big one on his neck. I immediately thought, "Oh, no! Chicken pox!" I opened up his shirt and saw to my disappointment many more spots. Yuck.... not such a great start to the holiday.

Chicken pox has been one of my worst fears as a mom because as far as any of us can remember, I've never had it. And I hear that as an adult the virus is just plain awful. So I run Jacob immediately to the doctor. That was my first mistake..... doctors can't diagnose it that early and if it is chicken pox, they don't want them in their office..... it's crazy contagious.... something like 90% of people who come in contact with who've never had the virus will get it.

So the doctor gives me a list of things it could be, a prescription to a steroid in case it's a dermatitis, and sends us home to wait to see if the spots develop blistery sores and pop open. So for a few days we were quarantined. Yep, right at Christmas when I had just spent 3 full days baking for friends, neighbors, and teachers and not finishing up my shopping. Don't get me wrong.... I love baking all those surprises, but I just had ALOT more Christmas shopping to do and now I couldn't. Not to mention there was that looming fear of contracting the virus myself. Yikes!

So the next day, he had about twice as many spots and I was convinced it was chicken pox. But the sores never really developed the way normal chicken pox does, so I thought... well, maybe I'm wrong. Mistake number 2. The next morning my friend calls me and says her son just came down the stairs with the same red spots. Now I KNOW it's contagious and I KNOW it's chicken pox. She takes her son to the doctor and again the doctor (a different doctor) says it's probably not.... doesn't look like chicken pox.

The next day, she gets a phone call from her doctor saying her son's bloodwork came back with such a crazy reading that they needed to immediately bring their son back for more bloodwork. His platelet count was down to 18,000 when normal is between 150,000 and 450,000. The next test showed 16,000 and that doctor sent him immediately over to his pediatrician on a Sunday. The pediatrician took one look at him and said "definitely chicken pox" and sent him over to the hospital with a mask on for more bloodwork. Now his numbers came in at 15,0000.

Of course, the first thing that pops in my head is luekemia, but I wasn't about to say that to my friend who was already completely stressed. So I got on the internet and she did, too, trying to find everything we could on what could possibly cause these low numbers. We soon found out that a platelet count below 20,000 is considered life-threatening. Basically, your blood loses it's ability to clot at numbers this low. It's so serious because at this level you don't even have to have a cut or a bump to bleed-out.... you could just start bleeding internally from your intestines or even your brain and there's really nothing that could stop it because your blood can't clot. After staying up half the night and reading everything I could, it sounded like a blood disorder called ITP (idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura) which only around 5 in every 100,000 kids get each year. When I told my friend what I'd learned, she said, "Yeah, that's what the doctor said it might be." It can be triggered by a virus that affects your bone marrow such as chicken pox, ruebella or mumps. When a child is sick their body forms antibodies to attack the virus and in ITP, for some unknown reason, the body will also form an antibody that attacks their platelets. When the spleen removes the antibodies, it also removes all the healthy platelets. Then the child's body can't reproduce the platelets quickly enough and their platelet count drops dramatically.

The doctor, of course, was very concerned and contacted a pediatric hematologist from UAB and they decided the best course of action was to take bloodwork every other day to keep a close watch on him. It was a tough time for my friend.... she has 3 other very active young boys and trying to keep the sick one away from them so that he couldn't be hit or hurt in any way was pretty hard. Not to mention all the stress of the diagnosis. Many kids with ITP fight the disorder for months even after the virus is gone.

So long story short, after a few days, a few bloodtests and lots and lots of prayer, her son's platelet count gradually started going up again. Hooray! And just before Christmas, too. Times like these truly put all things into perspective. So I think I'll go now and hug my children.... oh yeah..... and wait patiently, worriedly to see if I, too, get those dreaded spots.

We are soooo happy you're better T!
Many prayers & blessings to you sweet boy!

A Christmas Musical

My girls had their Christmas program at school this week. Their music teacher, Mr. Wilson, choreographs a Christmas musical each year and the kids love performing. He always makes it fun for them, not your same old carols..... more like a little hip-hop, boom-boom pow Christmas. Maybe that's why they voted him teacher of the year!

Here's Maddie's friend Anna Grace acting out her part

Maddie, Casey & Taylor

Macy and her class

A wideshot of the room.... packed with parents

Here's Macy and one of her best friends, Kelli

The kids are getting very excited about Christmas now....
thanks Mr. Wilson for all you do for them!

Our Christmas Card

Lots of people have been asking if I'm designing Christmas cards this year. I wish that I could say yes, but for many different reasons, I decided not to this year. The printer I was using went up pretty dramatically on my cost.... I would have to go to a lesser quality paper and printing format in order to keep the price the same. Then the more I thought about it, well, the money I would make wouldn't make up for the time spent away from the kids in this all important Christmas season. I decided to focus on them, make lots of fun projects for them and really appreciate the magic of the season instead of adding more stress to it.

That being said, I really miss doing it.... I love designing, and I think Christmas cards are so important. They're a great way to stay in touch with those people we don't see very often and really.... who doesn't love a Christmas card? We all enjoy going to the mail box and seeing those sweet pictures of our friends' children. My own kids will practically knock each other over trying to get to the mailbox first! Not to mention, it forces all of us busy mommies to make the time to actually take a group shot of our kids. Without those some of us would never have a picture of all of our kids together. So HOORAHHHH to Christmas cards.... I hope all of you will keep sending them.

I thought I'd share ours this year for those of you who may not have received one... I try to remember everyone, but sometimes there's an address or two that I can't find. And I wanted to share just because I love this one so much. I've had so many people tell me how much it moved them (a Christmas card!!). I even had one friend call me and tell me it brought tears to her eyes. How sweet.

The front of the card

I loved this picture of the kids with Charlie.... this was from our second Christmas picture taking session. Unfortunately, when we decided to get a different dog I had to start all over with the picture taking. There for a moment I thought I'd just erase the old dog in Photoshop and add this new one. Joke.... I wish I were that good!

The inside of the card - a little celebration of the year - and a great year it was!

The back of the card

I thought about doing a beach Christmas card this year, but when we got the dog, I decided against it. So at the last minute I thought I'd just add some of our beach shots to the back of the card.

This one is definitely my favorite one ever.... keep sending those cards!!! We love receiving them.

Highlands..... Part 2

I had so much fun posting my last post from Jonathan's laptop in the mountains (I'm sure there are those of you out there giggling at me right now... me & my tech-savvy self). The wonders of technology! Afterward, we went out for a while to town and ate and ate and shopped a little, too. What a great little town.... full of fantastic restaurants and quaint little stores, and an art gallery or two..... something for everyone.... even a toy store which, of course, made the little ones happy. Here are some of the pictures I took on our last full day.

Here's our cabin in the woods.... pretty cute I thought

Here's a view looking up to the loft and the kids' room

A view of the kitchen

A view of the den

And the kids out on the porch.... although at 14 -35 degrees,

we weren't spending a whole lot of time out there - it was freeeeeeezing!

This was taken at the Old Edwards Inn, a beautiful hotel in town. It's a restaurant in the hotel called Madison's so little Maddie had to get a picture there

And Jacob at the toy store.... after an hour or so I was beginning to think we'd never get out of that place! We told the kids they could pick out one thing each and gave them a dollar amount. You can imagine just how many times they each changed their mind..... which in turn made another one want to change her mind.... and on and on!

A photo outside the cute toy store

We accidentally missed our time with Santa. We kept trying to get over there, and as soon as we were walking up, a family said, "Oh no, Santa just left!" Oh well, we took a picture in his sleigh anyway. Maybe he just left to go get a hot toddy.....
he couldn't have gone far without his sleigh, right?
Here's one of the enormous trees decorated in town for Christmas

And the trip was full of times like these.... treats, treats, treats!! Our favorite part!

It was a great trip, but I'm glad to be home now..... lots to do to get ready for the big day!

4 Days in the Mountains..... Brrrrrrr!

I never cease to be amazed by the technology of today. OK, I know, I'm a little behind the times, but Jonathan just bought himself a new laptop for Christmas, and here I am.... in Highlands, NC blogging while everyone is getting ready to go out for the day. I've never blogged from anywhere but my own computer at my desk. We can't even seem to get wireless working in our house -- the guys been out multiple times and something always seems to go wrong.
But here I am, in North Carolina..... I've imported my photos, uploaded them to Blogger, and well, here we are.... a new post in the mountains. Between that and my new Droid phone (which is waaaay complicated and came with no manual), I'm a little overwhelmed with technology these days! But it's so nice to be able to share a little of our vacation while we're actually still here ... real time blogging!

So on our first night here, we went to a local hang out. Yummy, yummy barbeque!

Maddie chilling at the barbeque restaurant

I love to make him giggle......

The kids bundled up the first night in the cabin.... they love all sleeping together. At least this time there was a king bed. It was really cute.... they brought a stack of Jacob's books into the bed, and they were reading bedtime stories to him.

Here's a glimpse of what the mountain looked like on our drive down to Asheville Friday morning. It was all of 14 degrees! No snow but the icicles everywhere were beautiful.

This is Bridal Veil falls.... it was frozen over. Normally you can drive underneath the falls, but on this day, there were thick sheets of ice on the road below.

Here's that beautiful house..... Biltmore Estate in Asheville..... 255 rooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces.... 175,000 square feet. Makes me cringe to think about all the cleaning involved! But it's so wonderful at Christmas here with all the garlands and wreaths and trees. I love the history of the house and just thinking about how it must have been at the turn of the century. Guests must have been amazed at the technology.... indoor plumbing, elevators, electric lights on the Christmas tree, working refrigerators and all the rest.

Jacob spotting something else he wanted at Biltmore in the gift shop.

This is in the wine cellar at Biltmore

Here are the girls at their "wine tasting" -- a little grape juice, please

Jacob tasting his "wine" too. I heard him say to the girls, "What flavor do you like best? I like this one." Uh-oh..... sounds like he may have inherited his daddy's genes.

Jonathan had to pull over to get a shot of these wild turkeys. He gets so excited.

We've been playing lots of games and watching family movies, well, I thought they were family movies. I saw The Goonies the other day at the store and thought "Oh, I loved that movie when I was little." Uh, maybe I wasn't so little after all -- although the movie is cute, it's got a few too many sh@#'s and he!!'s for a mama to feel comfortable with. I just kept apologizing to the kids, somehow though they didn't seem to mind at all.... imagine that.

So it's been great and we still have a day and a half left. We're off to town to shop and eat lunch. See ya'll!

It's Beginning to Look alot like Christmas....

And that makes me so happy! I love driving around and seeing everyone's houses decorated, and I especially love how excited my kids get if we are ever out at night. The gaudier the displays, the better as far as they're concerned. We're making hot chocolate daily and listening to quite a few Christmas tunes, too.... who cares if it's 70 degrees outside.... we're gonna get in the spirit anyway!

I thought I'd share a few photos of our house decorated..... I'm still planning to add some real greenery along with the fake stuff but somehow I haven't gotten around to it yet. It always looks so much prettier with a few magnolia leaves and holly branches thrown in. The Christmas tree, on the other hand, is quite real and just about to do me in..... 5-6 hours of stringing lights! I'm more ready than ever to cash in those evergreen branches for a beautiful plastic replica! I've always sworn I never would, but I guess you should never say never.

Here's the tree.... I had to move a bunch of furniture to make room for it, but I like it so much better in the den than when we used to have it on the front of the house in Jonathan's office.
Most of the gifts are ready, but of course, that makes the "PLLLLEEEEEEEASE can I open just ONE?????" from Jacob a wee bit annoying..... not to mention the puppy seems to like to eat frilly ribbons and bows.... ALOT.

Here's a shot of the dining room

The den mantle

The kitchen chandelier

The dining room mirror

Another display..... I love my angel

More dining room.....

And the girls opening another days' advent calendar surprise

And our favorite tradition..... decorating the gingerbread houses. This year I went a little crazy and decided to do 2 houses, a train and a village of little houses, too. Yikes! It was 2 FULL days of work, but I love coming into the kitchen and seeing it every day. It reminds me of all the great gingerbread houses my grandmother made when I was little.

Here's Maddie after her shower adding a few touches to her house.

And Ta-dahhhh!
The finished gingerbread village. Macy's designated each one as the school house, the playhouse for all the kids, the library, the church, the dentist's office, grandma's house, etc. I really love Jacob's train..... we've never done that one before, although I felt a little queasy smelling the black licorice train track. Oh, how I loathe licorice.

Here are Maddie's schoolhouse and Macy's playhouse for the kids.... they actually did quite alot of it themselves. But I have to admit.... I just can't give up full control. I wish I could let them do whatever they want but I'm just not there yet.... Mama's too much of a perfectionist I guess.

Here's a shot looking down the road through the little village

Jacob did alot more eating the candy than he did decorating with it.....
But, really.... should I expect anything more from a 4 year old?

And here's a close up of Jacob's gingerbread train..... Isn't it cute? Choo! Choo!

And this is what you find after a day's hard work making Christmas goodies,
yes.... Jacob asleep in Madison's toybox in her closet!
I couldn't find him anywhere and Madison went to help me.
She passed by her room and heard snoring.....
when she followed the sound, this is what she found.
How precious is that??

We're off to the mountains of North Carolina for a 4 day weekend..... can't wait!
I'll send some pictures.

An Advent Calendar

When I was a child, Christmas was truly my very favorite time of year. I loved everything about it.... especially how it seemed to make my family come together. My parents divorced when I was 10, but there were many, many years of turmoil between them before they split up (and many years after they split up, too!). Somehow though, the holidays always had a way of bringing them together and encouraging a temporary cease-fire. And therefore, I guess it brings back lots of great memories for me.

My mom was creative, and we had lots of traditions like making gingerbread houses and sewing special ornaments. I loved the music and the anticipation of opening all those gifts under the tree, and I especially loved the story my sister would tell me every year of waking up one night and hearing something on top of the house, and when she looked out, she saw Rudolph's nose shining in the black of night. I sooooooo believed her! I can remember waking up at 5:00am much to my parents' dismay..... back then it was so special to receive any kind of gift, and I could hardly wait to tear open the first package.

Ever since I've had my own children, I've tried to make the holidays a special time of year for them, too. This year I worked really hard in November to come up with lots of fun projects for them. And I created a little project of my own, too..... well, maybe not so little. It's an advent calendar for the kids to count down the days until Christmas. When I was a child, we would visit my mom's aunt every year for Thanksgiving, and there was a Christmas store in her town. I would buy an advent calendar there each year, and it was such a treat to open those little doors to find a new prize each day.

For years now I've wanted to make my own children an advent calendar to pass down and use each Christmas. So this year I got serious about it and came up with an idea to make a large countdown to display in the house. I scoured the stores for neat things I could cover with felt and hide prizes inside. Then I strung them all up on ribbons and attached a number to each of them. It was definitely ALOT more work than I anticipated, but now that I'm almost done, it was well worth the 100 hours or so it took to make. Here's a picture of the final result (well, except for day 21 which I still haven't gotten around to making!). If you click on the photos, you can see the a larger image.

Here it is hanging in the den. The kids wake up each morning and can't wait to find their prizes. Sometimes it's just a piece of candy.... sometimes it's a small prize....
and sometimes it's a piece of candy with a note about an activity we'll do that day.
It's been fun, and of course the kids are loving it.

Here are Maddie and Macy on the first morning about to open their prizes

There are stockings and ornaments, gingerbread men and houses, drums,
books, gifts and more all with prizes hidden inside.

Here are some close-up shots. I loved making all the gingerbread houses.... especially the church. The roof lifts up on one side to open the house up so the kids can find their prizes.

It was a huge project, but you could make it a little easier if you wanted to make one. I've seen small stockings at the Dollar Store or small gift boxes that you could string up, put a number on, and fill with treats. I even saw some cute knitted mitten ornaments that would be great to string up -- the possibilities are endless so have fun making one of your own -- your kids will LOVE IT!

Auburn Christmas Parade

Last night my girls got all bundled up under their new cheerleading uniforms and we all headed downtown for the annual Auburn Christmas parade. And although the hour (getting them ready) before we got there was, well..... pure H-E-double hockey sticks, it was so much fun to watch them. Maybe even worth all the chaos before. They were so excited to perform with their friends, and its always fun when the whole town celebrates the magic of Auburn and the joy of the Christmas holidays. The girls wanted me to post a few photos before I left for Atlanta so here they are........

The girls were so excited to wear their outfits and to get their pom-poms.
They've been working hard.... now it was time to show off a little.

Aubie entertaining the masses

Here they come.... the Rising Starz cheerleaders

Maddie was cheering as loud as she could..... I loved seeing that big, bright smile on her face

Rudolph the red-nosed...... uh..... landscaper

Miss Macy..... with POM-POMS!! My what a difference a year can make!!

Macy's friend, Morgan, and her little sister, Reagan

Heather, Stuart Scott & Sully..... freezing!

Jonathan, Jacob & me cold but having a great time watching all the kids and the floats

Thanks for cracking me up my funny friend.... you are so quick with that wit!

And loved hanging out with you, too, Bess --
you're quite a character yourself and I always love seeing you!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

November.... all in one post!

With my favorite holiday coming up..... (Merry, Merry Christmas!) and a pretty big list of things I'd like to do with the kids and for friends and family this holiday, well, November was quite a month. It was really important to me for the month of December to be as stress-free as possible, so I decided to get as much done in November as I could.....
Call it circumventing the chaos. I made a plan..... prioritized.... and blogging fell way down on the list.

WAAAAAAYYYY down.

But I got so much done (yay me!)..... I've decked the halls, the walls, the mantels, the doors, the chandeliers.... well, you get the point. I've come up with a million crafts to do with the kids for Christmas, and we've been working on them almost daily. I've cleaned out the attic to make room for the PLETHORA of Halloween paraphernalia I've accumulated. Laundry's caught up.... yes, even the ironing! Most of the gifts are bought, wrapped and hidden (double yay me!). I decided to make an advent calendar for the kids that I've been working on just about EVERY WAKING MOMENT, but it's really cute and I'm so glad I did it (I'll blog about that one later and show you some pictures). Oh yeah, I took Christmas card pictures (yes, for the second time -- this time with a different dog.... ugh!), designed the card (my favorite one ever), and I've gotten most of them in the mail or delivered around town. Whew, I'm tired just thinking about it all, but I'm telling ya.... I'm on the ball! It's a small miracle.

And now I'm ready to take off with Jonathan to Atlanta for the weekend for some much deserved R&R and a little Christmas shopping to boot (triple yay me!)

So here it goes..... some of the last month all squished together in one post..... a few pictures for you all.....

Here's a cute picture of Charlie.... he's 6 pounds now....

about twice as big as when we got him a month ago.

This is one of those pictures you always forget to take.... the nightly ritual....
bathtime craziness around mom's silk curtains she made.....
I know.... I'm insane to let them do it, but they have so much fun in there.

And we've had some spend the night company..... Macy and Morgan, the best of friends

Jacob and friends at his Thanksgiving program at school

Now that's what a mama likes to see!

Here's Jacob letting Charlie meet his cousin, Otto, for the first time.

Those dogs had a ball playing together. I've never seen Charlie have so much fun!

Yes, that tiny little head is Jacob in the leaves at his

grandparent's house in Decatur over Thanksgiving

Papa Scott got those kids working, piling up all the leaves

Caleb, Madison & Jacob at Aunt Donna's house for Thanksgiving

Uhhhh, it was a teeny bit windy there in Florence

Let the Christmas crafting begin!

Holly, Julee, Stacy, Elizabeth, Heather and me at Elizabeth's 40th birthday bash

Here she is, the birthday girl, Elizabeth Garrett. 40's not looking too bad these days!

And yes, my dear friend, You WILL ALWAYS be cool.

Hey, we finally got a picture together of just me and you.
Look, I think you're still talking instead of posing..... I know you love to talk,
but come on, we need a good picture together!

Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday to You!
Hey, party girl.... is that a beer bottle in one hand and a glass of wine and a cell phone in the other??? Does 40 make you the consumate multi-tasker or what?

Madison teaching Jacob to pump his legs..... we're all getting a little tired of pushing.

It's time to teach that boy a little physics!

Goofball 1.... Jacob MUST act silly during every picture taking session.
It's a rule that must not be broken.

Goofball 2

Goofball 3

Goofball 4... alright, I'll stop there, but there were many, many more!

Daddy and Jacob practicing for the majors

And there's been a whole lot of this going on this month. We've been making lots of keepsake ornaments for each of the kids' trees. It's so important to me that they all have ornaments that they've made themselves to show their own children one day. (Yeah, I'm a goofball, too)

Macy working on one of her Christmas ornaments

And a few more projects....

And this past weekend we did our other ritual.... getting our tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving, just like we did 15 years ago for the first time the day after our first date. See, he's goofy too. We're holding up 15 fingers for those 15 years. Yee-hah, that's quite an accomplishment!

Gotta run now, but here's to wishing that we all have a stress-free month, full of family, friends and laughter, and of course, may we all remember the true gift of Christmas..... the gift of our Lord and saviour.

Grandparent's Day

I feel like the lazy blogger..... no time for writing.... these days I'm just posting pictures. It's been so crazy around here lately, I haven't even been doing that very much either. Just like everyone else with kids, the week of Halloween is super busy.... parties, trick or treating, programs at school and this year the girls' elementary school decided to throw Grandparents Day in there, too. So Friday my mom came in town to visit the girls for Grandparents Day.

Here's mom and Madison

And here's Macy in her classroom before her party. That's her friend, Cally in the foreground. His dad is the new coach in Auburn and I have to say, that's one of the sweetest and most respectful children I've ever met. He told us he only ate one piece of his Halloween candy the night before because he was going to go give it to all the football players.

Here's Macy with Mic-Mic at her Grandparents Day lunch

Madison's also been pretty busy with softball lately.... here's a cute one of her team.
This is our last week of games and 4 nights a week of activities.
Hooorraahhhh!!

And then there's this.....
candy, candy, candy....
Causing alot of trouble, too....
Wrappers on the floor, in the couch cushions, under chairs.
My gosh, has anybody ever heard of a trashcan!
Now that I'm done stealing all of their chocolate, I think it's about time
to get rid of all the rest and put an end to all the candy wars. I know there are some
mama's out there that are right there with me on that one!

Oh, and I musn't (is that a word??) forget about Jonathan..... his favorite time of year is here. The deer corn is being planted, the tree stands are up, the guns are primed and ready...... it's almost that time for opening day. This weekend while he was up at the farm working, he came across this little coyote. The man will kill anything if it's legal! You just never know what he'll come home with..... dead and disgusting and too gross for me to look at...... and by the way, I wouldn't even take this picture.... he had to recruit Madison to do it. Yuck! I just hope he's not planning on stuffing it..... we're running out of room to display dead animals around here.

So everyone put your pets up safe and sound in your houses.... he's got the fever again.

I'm kidding, of course.