Marathon Post.....

So this will be a long post hence the title's warning. So many things have been happening at our house that I have no idea really where to start but if you can hang with me for all the chatter there are pictures at the end. All of you with short attention spans can scan and move on to the pictures but you might miss something if ya do!

I've had all kinds of things on my mind lately. With the Holiday Season upon us, I have lists upon lists of things to do and remember. And more things pop into my head by the minute. I'm sure you probably feel the same.
We have a very busy December creeping up on us so I do hope not to neglect the blog too badly. I hope to take a moment here and there to really take in the essence of the season and appreciate it's meaning and festiveness. I hope you do too.

First I have a quick prayer request - a sweet high school friend's daughter had a major surgery today. My friend's name is Rhonda and her daughter's name is Bailey. Although I've never gotten to meet Bailey she seems to be a delightful young lady who needs our prayers. She seems to be in a lot of pain so let's all ask God to ease her distress and lift her up to Him!

My babies are now 5 years old as I mentioned in an earlier post. They had an excellent birthday party at Build-A-Bear Workshop and I will share those pictures with you soon. I tell you I just can not relate to you how amazed I am that these past 5 years have gone by so quickly.

We made it through Thanksgiving barely. To update you all, my purse was taken from my van on Thanksgiving Day. My advice to you is just be careful out there. Although this is the joyful Christmas Season there are so many out there that unfortunately are dishonest and desperate. I'm thinking this year it might be worse with our struggling economy and so many out of work. I don't know if that is what happened in my case or just a mean old meanie who took the $$ I was to spend on my babies' Christmas on Friday but I sure wish I could rewind that day and take more precautions so I wouldn't have to live this nightmare. There are so many worse things that could have happened but just getting a replacement driver's license alone felt like a major undertaking. I've had multiple conversations with the bank and had to cancel everything. There are many more things to mark off my list before I can get to where I feel more like myself again but I'll be just fine. And I find myself realizing just how much stuff I kept in my purse. Wow, from the obvious important stuff to my favorite lip gloss, I miss it all. Man, it stinks. Anyway, just be safe and be cautious!!

AND, you may have thought you got through the regular college football season without anymore rantings from me about my Tigers BUT oh how wrong you were! So I don't have any amazing pictures with my beautiful little AU cheerleaders for you but let me say how proud I am and will always be to be an Auburn Tiger. As dejected and down as I was on Friday after learning my purse was MIA, the fact that my Tigers put up a darn good fight in the 2009 Iron Bowl against a No.2 ranked UA was enough to bring a smile to my face. We may not have come up with the win but we came out of it stronger and with much more respect as a team than before. I am so thrilled at the fact we pulled together as an AU family and supported our team even after the loss like many just can't understand or believe. If you don't get it, don't worry, you probably never will and that's ok with me. I'm Orange and Blue, Tried and True Always! There, I'm done with that (Until Next Season that is)!!

Ok so I guess I'm done rambling until next time. Enjoy my mixture of Halloween-ish pictures so I can move on to more seasonally appropriate posts for you!!

Trick or Trunk at our Church with good friends Keely & Erica Strickland

Clara Paige's class on her field trip to Hargis Retreat Center for lots of fun Fall activities. What a great group of kids. Quick tid-bit of info: The little boy on CP's left side has a dad who is an Alabaster Police Officer. He just so happened to be the officer who took my report about my stolen purse. Small world!! haha! Thanks Officer Johnson!

The cutest darn lil' Cowgirls in these here Southern parts
you'll see anywhere. The girls had Cowboy/Cowgirl day at pre-school so this was their get up for the big event. They even had a real pony come visit at school that day.

My silly girls holding up their goofy faced monster pumpkins they made this year. We didn't carve a pumpkin so I found these funny mix-n-match pieces.
I know you are so over the Halloween stuff but I just had to post this one. We went Trick-or-Treating with Rachel's kidos this year. My kitty cats joined the Wicked Witch and Dorothy to wander through the neighborhood in search of candy. It was a great time!! I still have too much candy left over!



I love you all and hope you feel as blessed as I do even in adversity! Here's to the start of an excellent Christmas Holiday Season!!

Happy Turkey Day

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO EVERYONE!

ENJOY THE FAMILY, FOOD & FUN!

PS- WAR EAGLE!!!!!!!!!

BLessed

Today I am thankful for the fact that I have a job. I have a home that is comfortable and cozy. I may not be wealthy by today's standards at all but I am wealthy in the fact that I have a happy home full of love and am well taken care of. I am blessed beyond measure and for that I am honestly and completely grateful.

Tonight we had our second of what we hope to be weekly Family Nights. Last week we had Family Game Night which went over great. Tonight we had Family Movie Night and it was just as much fun. We watched Santa Buddies and it was a very cute movie to start out our Holiday Season with. More importantly Alex & I want our family to be close and have memories of simple times that we spent together. If we start now while our girls are young, hopefully it will instill a sense of family unity and spirit so they will cherish and look forward to it in the future as they do now. I know all too soon they will not want to spend so much time with us. Although that will tear me up inside when that time comes, I hope they will always feel close to us and be able to confide in us because of the times we took out of our week to spend together as a family unit. It is so important to me.

Half Way to 10!!

My babies are surely babies no longer as they are now officially 5 years old today! November 24th, 2004 changed our lives forever. Two of the most precious blessings were placed in mine & Alex's care on that day!! They are truly 2 of the many angels I have here on this earth! I love you to death my sweet girlies!!

Happy Birthday Gracie Michele and Maggie Nicole!!

I hope your day was as precious today as it was 5 years ago when I met you both!! You may look alike but your spirits and souls are so individually priceless to me and your whole family!!

HOWEVER, you will always be my babies!!

Today I am obviously thankful for the gift of my sweet Maggie & Gracie! However, I am also thankful that I am never alone! Huh?? Yes, I am not alone, ever. I am thankful that I have a Father that loves me without abandon, unconditionally and who is always there for me! When there is no other person around, He's there with me and I know it and feel it! His power and love makes me strong when I am weak. And believe me I'm weak in many areas all the time. I am so grateful that I am His!! There is nothing like the Love of a Father! Surely you've figured that out from my posts about my dad, so how great is it to know that there is a Heavenly Father waiting and longing to put his arms around us all and for us all to belong to him?! I am so lucky and blessed to know Christ and his love and to understand the sacrifice he made in order for my Father to know me.
So, I am thankful for my faith in the one, true God and the freedom to recognize and praise him. Let's not let that go! Let's be thankful everyday for that!

Remember...

Remember to be thankful this week and every week for all the blessings in your life. I know I try to appreciate all the things that God has given me! Sometimes I fall short and forget to give Him all the glory but at the least we have this time of year to focus on that very thing!

I'm going to try to be thankful for a different thing each day this week. Today I am thankful for my precious family that provides me with the love I need. I am thankful for a husband who is my strength and motivator. My girls are the ones who inspire me to be great and dream beyond my abilities. I am certainly thankful for that.

Have a great week. Don't eat too much and be safe!!

I couldn't find this song to put on the playlist yet but I already love it. It's a great way to look at being thankful forour loving families!! Lyrics are below:

Trace Adkins
All I Ask For Anymore lyrics
Songwriters: Beathard, Casey Michael; James, Timothy A

It was a home run when the game was tied
A pick up truck when I could drive
One pink line when Katie said I'm late

It was a passing grade, a pretty girl
All the money in the world
What mattered then kept changing every day

But when I bow my head tonight
There'll be no me, myself and I
Just watch my wife and kids please Lord
That's all I ask for anymore

Now a days it's crazy how
A passing storm, a siren sound
Can make me drop it all and pick up the phone

To hear her say that all's okay
Is all I need to know these days
Can't wait to see their faces when I get home

And when I bow my head tonight
There'll be no me, myself and I
Just watch my wife and kids please Lord
That's all I ask for anymore

Let 'em outlive me by a hundred years
Let their laughter dry up all their tears
Let 'em love and be loved back like I have been

When I bow my head tonight
There'll be no me, myself and I
Just watch my wife and kids please Lord
That's all I ask for anymore
That's all that matters anymore

The Great Pumpkin Patch

So, you'll just have to bare with me on the catching up. I know that they have crammed the Christmas Season upon us (which I don't mind) but I have some Halloween posts I can't pass up on. I can't miss out on documenting our families lives on my blog and in the words of my dear friend Kim Bowling, It's My Blog so this Halloween related post revolves around my twinkies and their first field trip. This is their first year of Preschool so they thought they were HOT stuff getting to go on a real live class field trip!! We went to the Grand Old Pumpkin Patch in Clanton. Check out the excitement in their faces below before we got out of the van!

Cuteness just pours out of them don't you think? Well I do even if I am their momma.

Momma just could not pass up some pumpkin pictures of my little punkins! I LOVE pumpkin patch pictures for some reason. I think it's all the fall colors and the brightness of the orange. Unlike some folks, I happen to love the color orange in case ya didn't know. ;)

Here they are with some buddies on the Hay Ride to the patch to pick out their pumpkins.
(Gracie is on the left. Maggie is on the right.)


And at last one more cute picture. It was quite a chilly day but such a good time for me and my girlies to spend together!!

Mardi Gras Girlies

While on our NOLA trip we picked up some Mardi Gras masks for the girls. They loved them plus the beads and ORANGE & BLUE boas we brought back. They looked hilarious but precious all at the same time!! Check out the pictures below.

More to come soon......

NOLA 2009

** I need to edit here for a second - a great big thank you to Alex's cousins the Shoenenbergers for inviting us to stay in their time share. Without them we could not have taken this little get away!! (Hope I spelled the name right)**

OK so I'm gonna attempt to post with my crippled computer. We've been so busy busy that it's been neglected. I've just been using other computers just to stay up to date with you guys. SOOOO, without further hesitation I'll get started with my marathon blogging while crossing my fingers it all goes well and my comp cooperates.

if you've never been to New Orleans, Louisiana then you are missing quite an explosion of local color, culture and cuisine! You either love it or hate it! Alex and I happen to enjoy it. My first trip was when I was 17 with a church group. Yes, I said church group. Can you believe our parents let us travel to the South's Sin City all those years ago? But I did fall in love with the architecture and the culture of it all.

Since I have so much to catch you up on I'm just going to hit some of the highlights you can't miss while visiting N'awlins.

Jackson's Square & Cathedral - beautiful place to take pictures.
Voodoo Museum we went to all those years ago when I was a teen that made it through the hurricane and all. This one happens to be located on Bourbon Street. (The true "Sin Station" of New Orleans but part of the city's fame) Our Hotel (Avenue Park Hotel) was situated in a lovely part of the Garden District. There was a quaint balcony on the second floor. If you look closely on the street behind me you can see the street car tracks. That was our mode of transportation on the trip. It's fun but quite an education on the stature of the locals!

Here's a local band playing in one of the bars we passed. It's not Billboard standards but it was amazing to see one guy play the accordion and the other play the modified washboard and it sound pretty darn good!! Excuse the poor girl who got to show off her back tat in my picture. I didn't want to go all the way in to take it so just over look her please.


And of coarse the beautiful French style buildings and houses. There's no other place like it and it's situated right here in the South ready for you to visit should you be brave enough.

We also saw the Superdome, street bands playing and dancing, we barely missed the USS New York sail down the river, Oh and there is the Riverwalk, Harrah's Casino, Cafe Dumonde for beignets, great creole cooking and much much more!!

still here.....

I'm still around just waiting on the computer to be fixed. I hate not being able to fill you all in on all our antics. Maybe I will be back up and running soon!

And Happy Veteran's Day to all. Be sure to thank a soldier or a Veteran should you get the chance.

Hang on for Me....

Well at this rate I'll catch up on posting next Christmas. The computer is on the blink again. Who ever came up with the evil plot of computer viruses should be hung upside down by their toenails! I'll see what I can do until the comp is back up and running! Maybe I can squeeze a few posts in until then. They just aren't fun w/out pictures. Have a great rest of your week!!