We wish you a Merry Christmas....

...and a Happy New Year!!  Merry Christmas All!

My Favorite Decoration, Christmas Singing and Christmas Cake Party

Can I share with you my most favorite Christmas decoration??



Charlie enjoys them too!



Every year I enjoy decorating my house with pictures of my family and friends.  For the 25 days leading up to Christmas I get overly excited to go to my mailbox and open up my Christmas cards.  I love to see every one's smiling faces from year to year....it definitely fills my house with Christmas joy.

Last Wednesday night Mary Selwyn's choir class had "share time" for the parents.  They are a little too young to participate in the actual Christmas programs at church so all the parents met in their classroom to hear what they have been working so hard on.  They sang Away in a Manger and they sounded like little angels, of course.  Shay and I have been enjoying hearing MSN "practice" every night over the monitor before she falls asleep.  It was fun to watch her sing with her friends.  I must say that Mary Selwyn and Owen definitely sang the loudest.  (They were kind of the stars of the show...shhhhhhhh.)

Today we had a Christmas cake decorating party with Mary Selwyn and Adeline's friend (We missed Owen and Collins and hope they feel better soon).  The pumpkin cake party was so much fun we decided a Christmas party was a must.  We had a great time and appreciate Mitzi making all of our cakes.  During this party we also had Jenna from The Polka Dot Pavilion come and let the kids decorate ornaments for the tree.  They turned out adorable.  We are so happy that our friends could come and help us celebrate Jesus' birthday in this way!

Outfit (and almost all in this post) courtesy of Cathy Cole Designs



Our finished ornaments



Just for the record TLC...

I have lived in Dothan for 5 years now and have never once participated in or even heard of lawn mower racing.  Thanks Bama Belles for telling the world that lawn mower racing is regular past time in Dothan.  I have taken a poll of friends who have lived here longer than 5 years (like all their life) and turns out they have never heard of this activity either.  Thanks TLC for making us look like Hick Town USA!  I give this show two thumbs down....minus Jana and her story because my heart breaks for her.  Jana had an appointment with my doctor last night on the show, Dr. Nicholls, who is fabulous.  I can't wait to ask for his autograph when I see him in January.  Also I found out last night when I was watching Bama Belles that "anybody who is anybody in Dothan goes to Cowboys."  Guess we are nobodies! (:

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

Tonight we went to see Santa but we are too cheap to pay $16 for one 5x7 so we just took pictures from afar.  I didn't take the good camera because I didn't think they would let us take our own pictures. I only had my small one so the pictures didn't turn out great.  I wish we weren't so cheap because the picture they took was very cute.  Both of the girls did surprisingly wonderful sitting in his lap and telling him what they wanted for Christmas.  Mary Selwyn is insisting on having a mermaid barbie (?) and Adeline is easy to please, she just wants four babies!! It was a painless and sweet experience.  The first year that seeing Santa was a success.  Merry Christmas!

La Tech

Last weekend Shay and I made a trip to Choudrant/Ruston Louisiana to watch our best friend Jeff coach at Louisiana Tech University. This is the first time we have been to one of his games since 2005 when he was at Texas. (Sadly we never made it to Iowa.) Unfortunately Tech lost but they hung in there with a great Nevada (quarterback) team. We have had plans to attend this game since July and Shay was such a good sport to go support our friend even though he had to miss the first half of the SEC Championship. WAR EAGLE, by the way. It was a long 10 hour trip for such a short weekend but it was worth it to spend some time with some of our greatest friends. We just do not get to see them enough.

Maura and I had the best girl time...she colored my hair (for the first time ever) and we had tons of fun talking wedding stuff! It was fantastic. Maura was a fabulous hostess and tour guide.

Jeff coaching... Shay and another friend spent the whole pregame on the field but I forgot to take a picture of them down there.

Thanksgiving for 4

This year, I decided that we were staying home for Thanksgiving, just the four of us. There were many factors that played into this decision but the main one is that the last year of our life has been utter chaos. It has by far been the hardest year on my marriage, my kids and our family as a whole. I could think of nothing better than staying at home for a calm, non-traveling Thanksgiving. Thankfully Shay agreed. Shay made a delicious ham and I made all the sides (minus the dressing Mitzi contributed). I had very messy, I mean good kitchen help. I'm proud to say our Thanksgiving dinner turned out very yummy. We plowed through our leftovers.


Although I love seeing our families, especially on holidays, I am so glad I made this selfish decision. More than ever it was so important to me for it to be just the four of us spending time together and being thankful for one another. It was so special and my heart was so full that I cried at the dinner table during our meal. I am truly thankful for my family and the weekend we have had together.

The Kitchen Help

Notice how much flour and brown sugar ended up on the counter instead of in the casserole. (:

I almost forgot to mention that when we were eating Shay asked Mary Selwyn what she was thankful for and she said, "I am thank-you for me because I am the best cooker. This food is yummy." It was pretty funny. Shay said, "That wasn't really what I was thinking," and she said, "I am thank-you for Mommy, Daddy and Adeline too." That was more like it!

Our little Indians. Mary Selwyn made an Indian dress with her cousin Kate. Mommy tried to make Adeline one out of the only paper bag in the house....it was a pretty sad attempt but it worked for the 30 seconds she wore it.


Notice the color of our feathers..... War Eagle! What a stressful dream season! We enjoyed watching the game a celebrating just the four of us too!

Of course we spent the rest of the weekend decorating for Christmas. The girls are loving all our lights. We put a tree up on our front porch and garland on our white picket fence. I told Shay our house really does look like that white picket fence house they say every little girl dreams about. I'll have to post some pictures when I take some.The girls also have little trees in their bedrooms this year. Adeline drags you to her room every chance she gets to show you her tree and tell you, "Mineeee," just in case you were confused as to who it belonged to.
I am also very proud to say that I addressed, stuffed, stamped, licked (with a little help from Shay) and mailed my Christmas cards. I must admit it is so nice to have that done and out of the way.



I hope your Thanksgiving weekend was as special as mine. Now we are in the Christmas spirit, are you?

Halloween Hangover

After a trip to the pumpkin patch and scarecrows, two fall festivals and trick-or-treating, we are one worn out bunch. I have definitely had enough Halloween for the year. I'm exhausted. It was fun and now it is time to muster up the energy for the rest of the holiday season.....which I really am excited about, just too tired to be excited today. I'll start tomorrow, or next week. Here are a few pictures from the seeing the scarecrow's at the botanical gardens.

MSN and Natalie posing with the Lady Gaga Scarecrow....they thought she was just as weird as the real one ha ha. Happy End of Halloween!!!

Fall Fun

Even though most days here it feels like the middle of summer we have been enjoying some fall activities. The girls and I made a quick trip to the pumpkin patch one Monday morning. We didn't do the whole hayride excursion but that was just fine with all of us. It was a fun morning.








Last Friday we hosted a little fall party with Mary Selwyn's friends and their mommies. My sister-in-law Shannon gave me some holiday cake molds and of course I couldn't wait to try them out. It took me a couple tries to perfect the pumpkin cake but I finally did and I made 7 for Mary Selwyn and her friends to decorate. Adeline had a few friends come also. They decorated pumpkin sugar cookies. It was a fun time full of fellowship. I'm thankful that I can be a stay at home mom and plan activities like this.

Before I perfected the cake

After

Big Kid table

My Centerpiece

Almost all the children at our party, some are missing. They weren't in a picture taking mood.

One of the decorated cakes

Decorating cakes

Little Kid table

This is Mary Selwyn's friend Austin. She LOVES Austin as you can tell. She told me, "he is SOOO sweet." The play so sweetly together too. They were playing grandma and grandpa, so cute right? I'm afraid MSN may be a little boy crazy but at least she picked this precious boy!!

Last but not least we had our neighborhood fall festival. Have I mentioned lately how much I love my neighborhood. It is so fun and kid/family friendly. We dressed the girls up in their costumes and headed to the park. I won't post many pictures from the festival because I'm sure I will have many more from Halloween night but here is a little sneak peek.

Mary Selwyn is obviously a clown. Shay's Mom made this costume for Shannon when she was little. It is really cute. This was my first face painting experience. It went fairly well I think.

As for Adeline..... remember Scardey Cat blog from Halloween two years ago? (I don't know how to link to my old blog, sorry) It is A's turn to dress like Silas for Halloween. This picture turned out a lot cuter than the one of MSN and Silas. I guess he isn't scared anymore.