G-D-O!!!!

Last Tuesday, while we were visiting for Christmas, my sister in law, Skye, wanted to take Emma, Mia and myself to the American Girl Store and Bistro. Apparently, you need to make lunch reservations waaaay in advance so we decided to take our chances in hopes that someone had cancelled. Emma and I had never been to the store before and to be honest, I wasn't sure if she would still be 'into' it. Can I just say, whoever thought of the concept of the American Girl dolls is a genius!! I couldn't believe the things they have in this store. Anything you would want for your doll or your daughter, they have it! The longer we walked around, the more Emma seemed to enjoy it. Of course Emma and Mia brought their Julie dolls, so we had to look at all the accessories you can buy for her. Then we let the girls get their dolls hair styled Yes, you can get your doll's hair done and here's a little secret for you~ They use a toothbrush, not the official American Girl brush, to style the hair! They want us to buy a $7 hairbrush yet they use a 50 cent toothbrush! Anyway, back to the day....we checked to see if they had any cancellations and we were told that we could eat in the restaurant but that it would be an hour and a half wait. We opted to eat at Chick-fil-a and then did a little shopping in the mall. Then we headed back to the American Girl store and decided to eat dessert. We sat up at the bar and they put the dolls in little chairs. When they gave us the dessert menu, they placed a menu in front of the dolls too!

Emma ordered the fudge brownie sundae. It was A-mazing! As if the brownie, ice cream, chocolate syrup and whip cream weren't enough, they put some rice crispy treat bits in it too!

Mia ordered the chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich. It was sooo big but that didn't stop Mia from attempting to eat it all. That girl loves her some ice cream and chocolate!When I ordered, I told the server, "I just want a chocolate chip cookie." They were baking them when we sat down and they smelled sooooo good. Well, I got my cookie but it wasn't a plain old cookie~

Skye didn't order a dessert but she did have the rasberry spritzer drink and it was very good too! If the desserts were this good, I can only imagine that the food is outstanding!

I don't know how I missed it but at some point even Julie ordered dessert. ;) She ordered a blueberry muffin.
We had such a good time together. I'm so glad we were able to go. Thank you Skye for treating us! As we said that day, "good times, good times...."

Christmas Eve and Day 2009

The years when Emma and Dougie have to leave us on Christmas Eve, Santa always makes an early visit to our house. And this year was no different! We awoke Christmas Eve morning and Santa had left lots of toys and goodies for Emma, Dougie, Caleb and Asher! I took more video than pictures, which I'm sure you're glad after the picture overload in my previous post!

Caleb opening his gift from his brothers and sister........

GATOR GOLF!!!!!
Dougie helping Asher open his gift. A baby photo album, now he has one just like his brothers and sister had when they were babies! You can see Dougie wearing his favorite gift, a North Face!

Dougie insisted on taking a picture of me!

I don't know how I managed to miss getting any pictures of Emma. But you can see her hair in the picture of Caleb playing Gator Golf, so she really was there!

The big things that the kids got were:

Emma- an ipod dock and a coat for church

Dougie- North Face jacket and an air soft gun

Caleb- drums and moon sand (you'll see a video soon, I promise!)

Asher- a ball popper toy
After we ate a yummy(if I do say so myself!) breakfast of sausage gravy and biscuits, we loaded up the van(again) and headed to Steven's family. I can't even begin to name all the people who were there, well I could but it would take forever, just know it's A LOT of people. We ate a wonderful lunch and exchanged gifts. Then we spent the afternoon just hanging out, watching tv, playing cards and eating some more! Unfortunately, I forgot to take some pictures until we were ready to leave. But at least we got a family picture!

After leaving my in-laws, we had to take Emma and Dougie to there Dad's. =( It's always hard but we had such a great time celebrating Christmas with them. And as I have to do so often, I focus on the time we have together instead of focusing on the time we don't.

Once we dropped Emma and Dougie off, we headed back to my Mom and Dad's so we could be with my mom's side of the family on Christmas Day. It was a lot of traveling but it was so worth it!

On Christmas Day, we gathered at my cousin Kaylan's house and once again ate and exchanged gifts! It was another amazing day.
Caleb and Mia waiting to open gifts!

This is my Grandmother, the kids call her GiGi. She hates having her picture made so you have to sneak to get her picture. She'd die if she knew I was posting this here!

The family!

We decided after leaving Mom and Dad's on Saturday, not to go to the Farm this year. As you may know, we have to move in a few weeks, so we figured we better get home and start packing. (Which is what I should be doing instead of writing these posts!)

Christmas 2009 was a wonderful time of celebration for us. We are so blessed and give all the glory to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I hope you had a wonderful time this year too!

Love y'all dearly!

Christmas in ATL 2009

It seems like every Christmas, we spend some time trying to remember what we did the year before. When did we go to your mom's, did we go to the farm and so on. So this year, for my benefit and to your dismay, I'm going to record exactly what we did, so next year I can look back and not have to strain my brain to remember!
This year, we had Emma and Dougie the first half of Christmas, so we did A LOT of visiting from the time they got out of school until Christmas Eve. On the Monday before Christmas, we loaded up the van and headed to Atlanta to visit my side of the family. We got their by lunch time and had a great time just hanging out and letting all the cousins play together.
On Tuesday, the girls went and did something special together(see this post) and the boys stayed at Grandma and Paps'. I hear they did a little hunting and even caught 2 5lb. bass! Too bad I wasn't there to take any pictures but the fish is in my freezer ready to be cooked, so I know they really did catch something!!!
On Tuesday night, my family gathered at my parents house for dinner and gift giving. In attendance was my mom and dad, my brother and SIL and their 2 kids, my older sis and BIL and their son and my younger sis and of course my family of 6! Added all together, there are 16 of us! The kids had so much fun getting tons of gifts from Grandma and Paps and giving gifts to each other. Here are some pics from our time there:
Mia and Emma, Best Cousins waiting to open the presents!

Parents lingering around the dinner table!
Chaz and Caleb opening their gifts!
Dougie's favorite gift, a Dodgers sweatshirt. Dougie's 1st grade teacher is Jonathon Broxton's mother in law, so lots of people in our area are big Dodger fans! Don't you love how Emma strategically placed her gift?


Asher and Aunt Laura. Notice how she has her hand behind her back? Asher kept trying to grab her cup of eggnog!On Wednesday, we packed up and headed home. We were sad to leave because we love hanging out with our family. We know that we are so blessed and we can't wait until we get to be together again!

It has been so long since I've updated everyone with what's going on in our lives. So here it goes:

~Steven has taken an interim pastor position at a church. We are really enjoying getting to know the people and it is such a sweet church.
~I started a sub position for a teacher on maternity leave last week. I'm enjoying it, it's an adjustment though. The first part of the day, I'm in 8th grade and after lunch I assist in two 9th grade classes. One is a Math class and the other is a Gov't class.
~Caleb and Asher started daycare last week. It's the only daycare in our little town and it's pretty small. There is about 6 kids in Caleb's class and Asher is the only baby. So needless to say, he is getting completely spoiled!! Caleb loves going to his "school" and loves all his new friends. I was pretty conflicted about them going to daycare but I know it's only while I'm subbing and it helps that it is literally less than a quarter mile from where I am.
~Asher had tubes put in his ears 2 weeks ago. He is doing great and like Emma says, "I think the tubes made him sweeter." If that's even possible.
~We will be moving out of the parsonage it just over a month and we still haven't found a house to move into. If you think about, please say a prayer about that for us!

Well, I think that's enough for now. I hope you are enjoying this Christmas season with the ones you love!

Merry Christmas, Y'all!

Merry Cristmas, Y'all!

Getting to Know You, Christmas Style!!

My friend, Jen posted this on her blog and I thought it was fun.

1. Wrapping paper of Gift Bags?
Both, depending on the gift.

2. Real Tree or Artificial?
I love real trees but ever since Steven and I got married, we've used the artificial tree that he had.

3. When do you put up the tree?
This year we put it up the weekend before Thanksgiving.

4.When do you take the tree down?
Usually right after New Year's day but this year it will probably be right after Christmas.

5. Do you like eggnog?
Yes, the non-alcoholic kind. =)

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
My red bicycle

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
Yes, a Willow Tree set. I bought the pieces over several years.

8. Hardest person to buy for?
my nephew, he's 14.

9. Easiest person to buy for?
My kids!

10.Worst Christmas gift ever received?
I really can't think of anything!

11. Mail or email Christmas cards?
I usually mail cards but in an effort to save some money this year, I'll probably email them!

12. Favorite Christmas movie?
Oh there's so many!!! I really love Elf, Miracle on 34th St., Christmas Vacation, While You Were Sleeping (not technically a Christmas movie) and of course Rudolph!

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
After Thanksgiving but never on black Friday!!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
NO WAY!

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Peppermint bark, fudge, peanut butter balls.....the list goes on and on!

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
clear lights on the tree in our house, colored on the tree on the front porch.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
right now, Chris Tomlin's O Come All Ye Faithful but I also love me some Porky Pig's Blue Christmas. I just can't help myself!!!

18.Travel at Christmas or stay home?
travel, Christmas is a time to see family!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?
Now you know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen. Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen....but do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer!
Why yes I can!!!

20. Angel or Star on the tree top?
Star

Merry Christmas Y'all!!

Thanksgiving Recap with a side of Christmas Tree

We decided to decorate our tree the weekend before Thanksgiving. This is the earliest that we've ever put up our tree but I'm so glad we did. We let the kids put on all the ornaments and they really enjoyed doing it, especially Caleb. He's at the age where he really is understanding Christmas and it's so much fun seeing it all through his eyes. With every ornament he placed on the tree, he would exclaim, "Look, I did it!"

Asher was exhausted from all the tree decorating!

I know this post is already long but too bad!

On Thanksgiving Day, we went to my in-laws and spent the day with them. We had so much fun hanging out with everyone and eating so much good food! Caleb really had alot of fun playing with his cousins, Kaylee and Seth. The worst part of the day was having to hear Steven's sister and her husband talk about how Ga. Tech was going to run all over UGA. Well, I guess we all know what happens when you get prideful!!

That night, we headed down to the farm to be with my family. We had so much fun seeing all my aunts, uncles and cousins. Caleb had an absolute blast helping grind the sugar cane, making buddies with Uncle Kirby and playing with Chaz. Of course, Asher was sweet as ever and everyone feel in love with him!

Asher hanging out with Aunt Sandy.

Most of the cousins/great grandkids.

Asher getting in some cuddling with Mia and Hayley!

Caleb and Chaz helping grind the sugar cane to make the syrup!

We had a great Thanksgiving but we sure missed having Emma and Dougie with us. I hope you had a great holiday!