Oh Christmas tree!

Let me just say that I take the Christmas tree very seriously. I know get over it right? Well, as I have posted before if I could decorate trees for a living my life would be complete.

When I was a little girl we had a tradition that Mom made chocolate chip cookies when we put up the tree. None of those cookies in a tube....the real thing. (the only way I make them) Isn't it funny how little luxuries like cookies aren't that exciting anymore. I mean it was a BIG deal to us. Kinda like a big deal when Mom bought Velveeta for cheese dip....anybody hearing me? HA! So I made the cookies and the tree is up ready to be decorated. We plug in the lights and.....none of them work this year. We all go to Wal-mart to be severely disappointed by the selection and head to Target. After we find what we need we head home and it is already 8:00! So I video Maggie and take a few shots of her decorating herself instead of the tree and put her to bed. She needs her beauty sleep. Parker stays up and helps me decorate....the bottom three rows of branches: ) I know growing up my tree was made up of the precious ornaments my sister and I made as children and we thought it was beautiful and it was. But, my tree is not one of those trees. I will have a tree as a centerpiece of our table to display those priceless works of art. I really am not that particular about anything else but the tree....it is my personal work of art.

Buddies

I had to make note that a prayer request has been answered. Tate is doing well. One of Parker's closest buddies had open heart surgery yesterday. Scary thought for anyone but to hard to comprehend as a mom. Please keep him and his mommy and daddy in your prayers. We love this little boy and want him back to normal as soon as possible. We have memories to make! As Parker so wisely prayed..."Thank you God for Tate. Thank you God for doctors. Thank you God for Hospitals." AMEN!

Reunion, Halloween... both not as scary as they sound

Two weeks ago we had our ten year high school reunion. It turned out to be a lot of fun. It is funny how similar we all were yet leading such different lives. At the park things were pretty casual. That night we all gathered downtown in a basement of a bar. It was neat atmosphere but the $120 dollar fajitas were not quite $120 worth. LOL. My two closest friends and their husbands (which kept Jer incredibly entertained) all caravaned in the Caravan. After talking with old friends till midnight we left to go to IHOP. From what I can tell our party at IHOP was a little tamer (but couldn't be less fun) than that of some of my friends from school. Jeremy and the guys were worked up to be some kind of silly. They had us laughing all night. It took me a few days to recover from being up till 2:30. I have never been good much past 11 or so.


Me and Jeremy, Adrienne and her husband Jeremy(or is forehead anyway) and Kristen and her husband Mark. Aren't we cute!

My old Jr. High drill team buddies. Shannon, Me, Amanda, and April


Halloween...

We had a great time Halloween. Instead of going to the carnival we decided to go to my sister Shelley's to trick or treat for the first time. Parker practiced with me at the front door several times before we left that day. Then I had to practice LOL. I finally finished his costume. Not that it was elaborate or anything it just takes a while when you get to work in 10 minute sessions. I bought the pirate t-shirt at Target and wanted to find some fabric to match the pirate pants to the shirt. Good luck with that! I decided to paint the stripes on. Being brilliant I first got black fabric ant tried to paint orange stripes...didn't work. Got smart. Black on orange....duh. I made the boot covers and about threw them out the door before I finished but they turned out OK. I had to let Maggie's costume out a bit....she is so stinkin cute though. Parker wore his costume the whole day before Halloween....target and the mall included. Fun times. We trick or treated in a Shell's neighborhood and Parker and Anna squealed they were so excited. As the rang the door bell they would say 'trick or treat' and when they opened the door they were silent. One of the funniest moments was when we got back and a group of older kids came to the door and Parker gave them a handful each but they just stood there wanting more I guess. Parker wanted to help them with what to do next and so he said, " Alright, go to another house now." We all cracked up.

We went to Jeremy's parents first to trick or treat. Like every year they go all out. My kid's have the best grandparents.

This is true Maggie. This tantrum is about to get ugly. I know it is bad but it makes me laugh.

Maggie really wanted Parker's glow stick. Big brother was nice enough to let her explore it.

All in all it was a lot of fun. I have such wonderful memories of Halloween as a kid. When else do you get to play dress up and show off to a bunch of strangers for candy? Sounds like fun to me!

Doesn't sound a bit like me!

What do you know I am behind in my blogging. I am going to stop drawing attention to the fact with the next post! This post is basically to caption some great shots of the weekend before last. It was a whirlwind but I love those kind! Especially when I can take my kids along places that most people wouldn't dare. I have two exceptional kids I might add. They both can be silly as loons but I wouldn't trade them for a million "perfect" kids. I take my kids with me everywhere. This weekend Jordan and I attempted a crazy task! We took our kids to the most amazing wear house sale of cards, invitations, plates and all kinds of fun things. It was a mad house! The kids did great though. When Jordan found out we would have to stand in line close to 2 hours we happily said I would take the kids to McDonald's to play and she got to stand in line...I think I got the better end of that deal! Here are some pics of my fab finds! Oh wait....I was going to get up to take pictures and post them but Jordan actually borrowed my camera! You will have to wait till tomorrow!

Back to the weekend before last

Jer's Granny has breast cancer so Mom-C and I took the kids to race for the cure. We didn't race mind you...if we did we sure didn't win! I made the kids shirts to get some pictures to send to Granny in the hospital. The kids did great and the double jogging stroller was the envy of all with children! Then we went to the toy store to look a doll Santa was thinking about for Mags. I needed convincing that spending an absurd (not American girl absurd) amount of money on her first doll was okay. She is just the one to take in those situations! Since we had our race shirts on we got 20% off our total purchase! That sealed the deal for me! I had so much fun it was like being a kid again except getting to pick what you got for Christmas! Does anyone my age enjoy toy shopping as much as me....I don't think so. Now I just have to keep myself from playing with everything till Christmas!

That night I had a sleepover with my Sunday school girls. What a great group. They are truly the most fun, down to earth group I have ever spent time with. They remind me so much of my friends in high school. They talked until 2:30 AM! Then I went home to sleep in my own bed. The next day was Church of course....amazingly I wasn't exhausted. But then....came.....the.....FAIR.

Having kids gives you a reason to have fun all over again. I mean I liked the fair post marriage pre kids but now....it is just fun to watch you own kids enjoy things. In that department I am doubly blessed. I have the two most enthusiastic, MOM DID YOU SEE THAT!...kids around! After the fair I was definitely tired. I ate so much fried goodness that I am shocked to say I haven't seen it on the scale this week.

My dears in the woods

Parker is officially a big boy! He went to the deer woods for the first time today with Papaw and Daddy. He was very concerned for me and tried to assure me the he would be home soon. He asked daddy if there was enough room so I could go. But I assured him deer camp was for boys only! This made his day....that and his new work boots. He was so excited to wear work boots to clean up the deer stand. He let me know that, "we aren't gonna shoot'em this time, Mommy." Ugh....not looking forward to my son (at any age) and live ammunition. I was not raised around guns or hunting so all this I must leave and trust to my dear deer hunting husband. It still scares the crud out of me. I know....boys are 'Wild At Heart'...read it moms of boys.

Tu-tu cute

My sweet friend Adrienne sent me this tu-tu for Mags. I put it on her and she carries on with her busy day. Little did I know till this weekend she made it. That makes it even more special. Thanks Adrienne. Here she is as my helper making supper. Who says you are ever too big for the bumbo?

What a weekend

This past weekend was what I have been looking forward to for a long time. Just my two best girls and no kiddos to drag around. We shopped and ate and ate and ate and shopped. We registered Adrienne at Target and was so impressed with all the new things that came out in the last couple of years. It seems a lot of manufacturers read my mind about the things that were wrong with their products. Adrienne was pretty laid back and basically got whatever Kristen and I recommended. FUN! I love bossing! Then we went shopping and I found a ton of stuff. Doesn't that always happen when you don't have money to spend? I found a great sweater and Banana and remembered why I love that place. It seems like I never go into real stores since kids and I am not sure why not. All in all it was a great time and I could have stayed longer if motherhood guilt didn't kick it. Ha. I love my girls! To bad we don't have any pics so I will just post the best one of us from last year.