Joy Gift

Practicing one of their songs.

Anna Grace as Mary and Zeke as a wise man.

Josh the cow.

Sara Abbett as a wise man.

Lacie the sheep.

Our annual Joy Gift dinner and program at church was December 7th. Meredith and my mom directed the children in a precious play about the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. It was absolutely one of the cutest things I have ever seen. The children knew what they were supposed to do and did exactly as they wanted instead. Though it was short it made a lasting memory for all involved.

Gingerbread House

We all had so much fun making a gingerbread house tonight. I wish I could be one of those crafty moms who makes her own gingerbread and icing but alas, I bought a kit at Target. Anna Grace said in the middle of the process, "Decorating the gingerbread house is one of my favorite Christmas activities." Who knew? I'm glad I bought one this year!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

...everywhere we go.

We had our annual Hanging of the Greens at church on Sunday. It is always such a beautiful service. The children are adorable putting up wreaths, poinsettias and hanging the chrismons on the tree. The tree is beautiful and the windows look pretty with the candles and greenery in them. I made my babies stand in front of the tree to try for a Christmas card picture.

We also started with our house. Timmy waits 'til the last possible second to get our tree for the den but we managed to put up the trees upstairs. The playroom tree is finished except for the star which must be in one of the other boxes and Josh has a GO Tigers tree in his room. We should have everything out by tonight but plans tend to change.This is how the girls helped with finishing the playroom.

Yesterday I went to AG's class to make ornaments for their class tree. I had a great time with the kids. Since I had all the supplies already in my car we made a few more with my three and Cameron and Lacie at my parent's house last night. FUN!!

This morning was the children's Christmas Program at school. All of the kids did a wonderful job singing, dancing and with their speaking parts. I am a proud mommy and aunt.

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

This is my favorite holiday. Not a bunch of stress just getting together with family and eating all kinds of yummy food. What could be better? I love being surrounded by my parents, siblings and nieces and nephews. My children are excited about watching the Macy's parade. Anna Grace told me to wake her up when it started. Since they were all up by 6:20 yesterday I have a feeling she will still be asleep at nine. We have turkey day at our house every year which is great because it forces me to get things cleaned. After the celebrating it is minor cleanup and we are ready for the chaos of Christmas decorating. Of course I haven't quite been as motivated to get the house clean as I had hoped but it will be done before the crowd gets here.

A Roller Coaster Ride

After a delicious and nutritious dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches and a can of chicken noodle soup I sent the kids upstairs to get their baths, put on pj's and lay out their clothes for school tomorrow. After screaming up to them to get moving approximately 37 times I thought they had finally settled into their night time routine when Josh, sobbing like his favorite super hero had just turned to the evil side, scream down to me, "Maaaamaaaa come here. I think there's a bug in my bathtub. It looks like a roach." Being a big girl I bravely went up acting cool to deal with the bug. I need to say here that I hate bugs especially roaches. Why in the world would we have roaches now that I have worked so hard to clean. Josh was inconsolable and refused to bathe in his tub so I put him in mine. Within seconds of hearing water running in my tub Sara Abbett was downstairs begging to bathe with Josh. Thankfully they managed that without fighting or splashing too much. Finally we settled down, read a bunch of books, had hot cocoa and apples for a bedtime snack and went to bed happy. God is so good to me.

A Day of Rest?!!

I thought Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest. Not in this house on this Sunday. After weeks of constant chaos we were finally forced to clean kid land, AKA the upstairs. It was in such a state of destruction that even Timmy lost his cool over it. So being the wonderful mom that I am I agreed to help the kids clean up their rooms and the play room. GROSS is the only way to describe it. We spent hours cleaning out, filling trash bags, making a charity pile and organizing just the playroom. It is pretty satisfying to see then end results. The carpets are hopelessly stained but everything is in its place. While we were working on this huge task, I asked Timmy to help Josh with his overdue project for school. He was supposed to make a drum and turn it in Friday. Well, after maybe three minutes J came back upstairs and said they had finished his project. Seriously, I couldn't have gotten out the supplies to make a drum that fast. Anyway, when I finally came down to check out the masterpiece, I was NOT happy. They had taken an old ice cream bucket and glued some pompoms on it. When Tim left to go hunting I pulled the pompoms off and made another attempt at a drum. Now don't get me wrong, I am not delusional enough to think my project is good but at least it looks like we tried. Jeez, I hope nothing happens to me and Tim has to take over running this place. After repairing the drum I concocted a meal from the crumbs left in the house. Lest you think I am a heathen let me add that this was all begun after Sunday School, church and a long lunch at McDonald's. We have the most amazing preacher who touches my heart with every sermon. I don't miss church if I can help it and especially for housework. Before I have everyone over for Thanksgiving I will have to clean the downstairs but for now I am satisfied with many hours of hard work and a single room I can tolerate. I love it all and my life is good.

Josh playing the NEW drum. Now just imagine how bad the other one had to be.

Busy Busy

Life has gotten the better of me and I have not even tried to find the time to update on here. We have had Anna Grace's birthday,

Halloween parties at school,

Halloween night,

Anna Grace's birthday party,

and Anna Grace's birthday trip to the beach,

laundry, housework, some pretty decent weather for playing outside,

Rabbie's trip to Clemson with Daddy

and the usual chaos. Life is good.

Happy Birthday Anna Grace

Wow does time ever fly. It has been ten wonderful years since our beautiful Anna Grace was born. Happy Birthday my precious girl.

Girl Scouts can Party

The girls Scout troop had their Halloween party Friday night. They did a bunch of line dancing and running around. I am not one to enjoy such things but it is always such fun watching the girls enjoy themselves with their friends. They had a few snacks too. Sara Abbett, my healthy eater, came up to me and said, "They only have junk to eat here." I promised to make her a salad when we got home. Where in the world did that kid come from.