2nd Annual Couples Christmas Party

We officially kicked our Christmas festivities off with our 2nd Annual Couple's Christmas Party. It was SO much fun last year that we KNEW we had to do it again! I knew I would do a few things differently this year to make it a little less stressful (because we have it on Friday night and most people work). So, this year everyone brought their favorite dish and we ended up with a delicious spread of food! Last year, we played Pictionary and I was a little worried that some of the guys would be dreading us bringing that up again. Then, I was told while I was asking around trying to see if they were up for playing again, "What do you mean? We've got our game faces on!" Answered that question. Out came Pictionary. The boys cheated. The girls won. There were lots and lots and lots of laughs.

Most of our kids were up at ZiZi and PopPop's and, from what I hear, they had themselves a grand time too :)

                                

Me and my big brother

And the sis-n-love

We love a house full of people!

Sweet friends!

Love her!

Jonathan & April

Julie & Morgan

Dirty Santa got pretty intense over a light-up Christmas present!

No telling what kind of exaggeration he is making...

Sweet Anna! She is too funny for words!!

A good time was had by all! 

(That's the present that everybody fought over!)

Carsyn was so tired when I picked her up at 10:00 but she spotted the stockings when she came in the house...I had put them up after she had left for the night and she had her own idea about what they were for. 

Perfectly logical, right??

I got a text message and picture from mama while Carsyn was with them...

"Carsyn wanted me to paint her piggies so I did. Then she wanted to blow them dry and stick her nose to her toe. Carsyn the pink-nosed reindeer."

:)

Thanksgiving 2011

 

Our 2nd stop for Thanksgiving was at Grannie and Granddaddy's. Dylan, Daniel and Kaylee were able to come and Grannie was SO excited to have all of the family together! She cooked a delicious meal and we had a great time visiting!

ZiZi and her boys

Grannie wanted to get a family picture so I was trying to set my camera up on the car with the self timer and I caught some fun shots while doing so. I'll only share one :)

(I only promised that I wouldn't put it on Facebook, Mama)

Didn't quite get everybody looking but at least everybody looks happy :)

Our 3rd Thanksgiving was the same day for supper with David's family. There are no words to describe Mrs. Barb's meals. It's always fun to get all of the kids together over there because we don't get to see Berk and Branson as much as we would like. The kids always have a great time! 

Then...night came. And instead of going to bed like normal people, me, mama, Vicki, Liz, Kecia, Casey, Kelly, Karissa and Aunt Pam all headed out at 10pm to go Black Friday shopping. Except technically it wasn't Friday. It was still Thursday. This experience made me realize that I HAVE to end one day before I start the next or I am just a blob. Completely function-less. I really don't know if I got anything accomplished. We had so much fun! Seriously, the things we had to do to keep some of us awake was amusing in itself. And then to watch Vicki in all of her glorious energy at 2 am was a hoot. I was extremely glad to see my bed when we finally got home. My body was plum sore from fatigue!

And then, the Christmas tree had to go up before the weekend was over, of course!!

Tada!

Carsyn and her tree!

What a difference from last year!!

Love this idea that I got from a friend! Put your Christmas cards on the tree for all to see! Works great with a revolving tree...another idea that I got from a friend :) You get to see the whole tree that way! And Carsyn like to imitate the tree...spin round and round and round :)

We have so incredibly much to be thankful for! I don't think I could list it all if I tried! Thank you Lord for all of your blessings!!

Kicking off Christmas

Mama and Daddy kick our Christmas season off with their "Day before Thanksgiving supper and tree decorating." It's so much fun to have all of the kids together to decorate the tree. I love looking back at all of the ornaments from years passed. Grace is always the one to ask lots of questions about them and I love getting to explain the stories behind them to her :) We finished with almost as many ornaments as we started with.

The kiddos love their Uncle David!

Before the decorations...

And...I thought I had an "after" picture. But I guess not. Hey, to get one of them all looking was an accomplishment!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Finally!!!

Carsyn is FINALLY becoming the least bit interested in repeating words after us!

These are her words to date!!!

Mama
Dada and Daddy
Da-doo (this is what she said the one time she was trying to tell me to get her pappy...she hasn't said it anymore...she just points to her mouth)
Dowa (Dora...must come from ZiZi's house...she refuses to watch TV for a millisecond at our house)
ZiZi...she's finally making the Z's instead of Ch's
Ah Pop - Pop Pop
Nannie
Grannie
Ahhhsh or Ah-eeeee - Ashley
Gay-Gay or Ja-ge...Grace or Gracie
Chi-chet...Chiclet (mama's little dog)
Ub U...Love you
Tyder - Tyler
Dease - Please
Boo-boo
Delly - Jelly
Ah-Ah - Hot Hot (with hand up :))
We think "shuck" is "truck" but it hasn't been consistent yet
Dea - Deer
Chee - Tree
Ho Oh Oh - What Santa says :)
Duice - Juice (or anything to drink)
Pe-boo - Peek a boo

That's all I can remember right now.

So, I might be a little giddy with excitement. It really makes a difference to put it in writing!

Merry Christmas!

So, a couple of days might have turned into a week or so...but that's ok :) With changes in management at work and competition season at gymnastics and the simple fact that I have done hardly any Christmas shopping (when I was supposed to be done by the end of November), I just can't seem to catch a break! I sure hope things slow down soon so I can actually enjoy the holiday season.

Thanksgiving was awesome. Four...count them...1, 2, 3, 4 feasts...Mama & Daddy's thanksgiving supper plus tree decorating on Wednesday night, Grannie & Granddaddy's on Thanksgiving day, David's mama and daddy's on Saturday and Nannie and Papa's on Sunday. LOTS to be thankful for :)

We did manage to get our Christmas tree up. I have a law...it doesn't go up before Thanksgiving but it must be up before I go back to work from the Thanksgiving holidays. We HAVE to go Black Friday shopping (which was quite the experience this year) so that only leaves 2 days...Saturday and Sunday. We also have Thanksgiving on those days so that narrows it down to a pretty short window of time! I might or might not have broken my law by 2 or 3 days.

After decorating mama's tree on Wednesday night, I thought Carsyn might be right on target with her decorating ideas...

Just stick her toys in it and no worries!

After she went to bed, I changed my mind and decided to go with the real ornaments :) MUCH to my surprise, she has touched one thing on the tree except for one ball that I let her get but she usually doesn't even get that! She just waves at it and smiles and says "Chee!"

We also have to go out the front door daily and wave at the small Christmas trees out there :) It's too sweet!

So, my thoughts are, once again, beginning to come in bits and pieces so, I will leave you with quite possibly the sweetest thing I have ever seen...Josh said it was the only way that Carsyn would take a nap while she was staying with them. Carsyn loves her "Ga-cie." Seriously. Adores her.

Have an awesome weekend!

I sure hope to get started on my finish my Christmas shopping!

I have totally been called out by my one reader. I've been a slacker. Actually...I've been a crazy-busy-unable-to-catch-a-break slacker. Can I use that as justification? I promise to do better :)

So...while I try to put something good together, I will share this recipe :) It is super easy and very tasty (especially after a couple of days)! 

Cooking anything with Carsyn awake is not an easy task...I think I've mentioned that before. The tv doesn't entertain her. Toys don't entertain her for long. You get my drift, right? I was able to make these in less than 15 minutes WITH Carsyn in the kitchen.......

I can't bring myself to call them cookies, but that's what they are named...

Holycraptheseareamazing Cookies

Print Version…Ingredients:

(Makes about 3 dozen cookies)

…

1 cup sugar

1 cup corn syrup

1 jar (18 oz ounce) peanut butter, crunchy or smooth (I like creamy.)

6 cups corn flakes

3 oz good quality chocolate of your choice (I used Scharffen Berger Semisweet 62%.)

…

Preparation:

…Combine sugar and corn syrup in a medium saucepan. Place over medium-high heat and stir until the mixture comes to a full boil.

…

Remove from heat and stir in the whole jar of peanut butter. Mix well.

…

Add corn flakes to a large bowl. Pour peanut butter mixture over corn flakes and mix well, taking care to coat all of the corn flakes.

…

With a tablespoon or cookie scoop, scoop out and form into 1-2 inch balls, depending on your preference, and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or wax paper.

…

Put the chocolate in a small bowl and melt in the microwave for about 30 seconds. Stir until smooth.

…

Drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookies.

…

Read more: http://stickygooeycreamychewy.com/2008/01/06/holycraptheseareamazing-cookies/#ixzz1fDHVbtQM

Now, if you made it through the recipe or you skipped it and came to the bottom, you can see the real reason that I was able to get them made with no interruptions :)

Yeah...she found her a good source of entertainment...

I'll be back...

Lauren

October Fun!

Warning: Kinda lengthy...but I feel all accomplished and caught up now :)

We kicked October off with our annual pumpkin carving with Josh, Vicki, Grace, Mama and Daddy. The girls had a great time! Somehow David, Grace and Vicki...and this year, Carsyn, end up doing all of the dirty work then we all jump in on the carving :)

This is how you do it, Carsyn!

Like this, Grace??

Ok...I got this!

Fun stuff!

We had to strip down after we got too messy!

Sweet girls!

Grace and her pumpkins!

Best we could do...gotta teach David about those things called shadows...

Next...the zoo. Already blogged about that :)

Then...the Corn Maze...right here close to home! A board member of ours at work had the Corn Maze this year and we were so excited that it would be right here close to home! It exceeded all of our expectations. It was big enough that there was PLENTY for all of the kids, big and small, to do AND it was small enough that you didn't have to have them tied to you the whole time. Not to mention the fact that you run into all kinds of people that you know when you are close to home :) The kids had a BLAST and they were pooped when we left!

Dylan and Kaylee...this picture is SO sweet to me!

2 peas in a pod

She found a cob of corn on one of the displays and ran with it!

Can you say Bobo?

The big kids had to have a little fun too!

The next weekend...the Pumpkin Patch in Clanton with Greg, Kriston and Chloe! We don't get to spend a whole lot of time with them, so we jumped at the opportunity :)

Chloe and Carsyn

Sweet girls!

Chloe did so good on the pony! Carsyn wanted to pet them...but wanted nothing to do with riding them!

The tractor train! Chloe was so funny holding on tight the front of the cart.

Finding their pumpkin!

What did you say, Daddy?? Wait on you??

Don't worry...I got this.

Roasted corn anyone?

Greenville Gymnastics showed out once again at the Pirates of the Cahaba meet!

Carsyn and the girls

Carsyn has been spending a lot of time with me at the gym this fall. The girls just love her and she loves them. During our team practices, if a stranger walked in, they might think that we run a circus. The girls know how to tumble around her, they know how to grab her if it looks like she might be running into danger. The level 3s can do their whole routine around her dancing. On vault, they do this in the picture until it gets their turn to keep her from running up the runway. They are great with her. And I am so grateful for parents who are understanding. They understand why I have her at the gym with me and they are so good with her too!

Last Friday night, we went to the CCA ballgame to watch Gracie Luke shake her little hips! She's got the shaking down pat. We joke that if she would pay more attention to her dancing instead of trying to sing the song that she is dancing to, she would be a pro! As you can see in the pictures, she has to make faces while she is singing...she gets all into it...

Really getting into the music!!

Good job, Grace!!!

Finally, we finished up October trick or treating! It's so fun to get the kids together and let them dress up. We enjoy taking them to our family to visit. The kids had a great time! We all gathered at Zizi and Pop Pop's Saturday afternoon and Josh had the trailer ready for a hayride for the kids. We went to Nannie and Papa's, Aunt Debbie and Uncle Allen's and ALL the way over to Mrs. Barb and Mr. Charles's. We were FREEZING by that point.When we left to go uptown to Trunk or Treat, guess who got in the front. Yep...the men with the babies. All of us women and older kids were still freezing on the trailer. After we got done uptown, the same people got in the truck and Dylan snagged him a seat. I told Josh, "We are going to wrap up and you get us home!" We were thinking that 5 minutes of freezing was better than 15...right?? I'm not so sure. He SPUN out of the parking lot at the store and must have driven 65 all the way home. Needless to say, I'll be careful what I say next time. We got back to Zizi's for some hot chocolate and chili and such! We had a great time with all of the kids for the rest of the night. Grace cracked us all up when she said that her mama had put her hair in a bun with a panty hoe :)

And that's about how long the halo lasted...

Daniel, Dylan and Kaylee

So sweet :)

Carsyn made several transformations through the night...

Cowgirl angel??

Some other memories from this fun October...

We are wearing bows now!!! We've been through some training and several conversations about them :) I even told her that I would let her wear more blue if she would wear bows!!!

Grace made all A's (yay Grace!!!) and her reward was to go get a feather in her hair. She did just that Saturday. Vicki brought her by for us to see it on their way home. Grace asked Carsyn if she wanted a feather in her hair. Carsyn, very emphatically, shook her head "yes" and off they went to Carsyn's room...and came back with a feather in Carsyn's hair!

It has been quite a month! A busy, fun-filled one! Life is good. God is GREAT! I wouldn't trade mine for anything! 

:)