Whew.. What A Busy Week

O.K. get ready for the enormous amount of pictures you are about to see. I will start with Christmas Eve.

When I got home from work this is how I found Autumn and Chandler. Snuggled up on the couch waiting for Jason and I to get home from work and take them to the movie. I am so happy that Autumn and Chandler are so close. They are only 15 months apart and are inseparable. Even at the age of 9 and 10 they still sleep in the same bed every night. I have tried to get them to sleep in their own beds but they are not interested in that. Back to the movie. All 5 of us went to see Yes Man. It was a really good movie.

After the movie it was time to get ready and go to Gucky and Paw Paw's (my parents) house for dinner and presents.

Chandler is trying to show a mean face. I would say he did a pretty good job.

We are considering getting my mom counseling for the amount of presents she buys us for Christmas. She did cut back this year. Each daughter, son-in-law, and grandchild only received about 10 or 12 presents each. Good thing she is cutting back. LOL

My sister and niece.

The only thing Jason wanted this year were Best Buy gift cards so he could buy a new T.V. Well, it just would not be fair to only have one present for him and so many for everyone else. So he received numerous Best Buy gift cards. This was his surprise as he opened about the 8th or 9th gift card.

At about midnight after being completely spoiled with presents by my parents we headed home. Once at home Autumn and Chandler started putting out cookies and milk for Santa.

When suddenly here comes a cookie thief. Porkchop STOP!!!!

Look closely and you can see the cookies in his mouth.





Ahhhh... delicious.

The next few pictures are at 1:30 a.m. when I am attempting to get a picture of the kids before they go to bed. Let me say they were wound up. I have never seen them quite so HYPER!!!

Take 1

Take 2 Yes Autumn is standing on top of the chair.

Take 3.......... I give up

Christmas morning

I bet you are thinking this picture was taken bright and early. Wrong, this was taken when they woke up at 10:15!! Taylor had been up since 8:00 waiting on them to wake up. He finally went outside and started playing basketball.

Santa overdid it a bit.

Taylor's favorite present was The North Face coat.

Autumn was beyond excited to receive her very own camcorder.

Can you tell by this face he was excited to get Club Penguin.

Once my sister and niece arrived she had to show Gucky and Granny some of the things Santa left for her, including an ice cream maker.

Once everyone ate breakfast and went home, this is where I found Jason and Chandler. They were laying in Autumn's bed watching Chandler's new Star Wars Movie.

We had a great Christmas with family and were blessed beyond measure.

O.K. it is over now. Hurry up and take down the Christmas decorations we have a special birthday to celebrate. I will post about this special birthday in a few hours.

Take Care,

Michelle

30 Day Re-Cap and Picture Overload

Is it really December 22nd?!?! We just had Halloween. We have been busy as usual. I have got to get better at updating my blog. At least I am not still at the beach right Mo. LOL

We finally finished travel softball for the season. It has been nice not to have that activity.
Taylor has been on restriction since November 18th so he has had to go everywhere we go including every tournament. Can you tell by this picture how much fun he is having.










We went to Michigan for Thanksgiving. We had a good trip with the exception of Autumn getting the stomach virus on Thanksgiving morning. She and I ended up staying home all day while Jason and the boys went to his Aunts house. One of my best friends from high school was also home for the holidays so I was able to spend alot of time with her and her family. We even did our traditional Black Friday shopping at 3:00am.

Jason and the boys stayed at deer camp for 3 days. By the looks of the pictures they had fun.





Friendly poker game....




Taylor helping cook. Miracles do still happen.

Jason, Taylor, Jeremy (Jason's brother), Chandler, and Bert as the kids call him (Jason's dad)

Ahhh... aren't they sweet

Jason and Chandler in front of their deer blind. To bad they did not see any deer this year. Maybe next year.

We are now into basketball season. Taylor started out playing with the freshman but they have now moved him to J.V. also. That is keeping us very busy with him playing on two teams. Autumn and Chandler have also started their season. I am coaching Autumn's team again this year. Out of 9 girls there are 5 on the team who have never played before. That should make for an interesting year. For the first time Jason is not coaching Chandler's team. We have so much going on he thought it best to take this year off. Chandler seems to be doing well and really likes his coach.

Autumn and Chandler had their Christmas parties at school on Friday. They had alot of fun and are excited to be out of school for Christmas break.

Friday night we went to Stone Mountain with my sister and parents. We have never been to the Christmas Celebration at Stone Mountain before but it was alot of fun. Chandler had to take a picture of Jason and I with this enormous Santa Claus.

Isn't he cute with his pigtailed Santa hat?! I had to quickly sneak it on him in one of the stores. I don't think he found it very funny.

They had a tent set up for the kids to decorate Christmas cookies. Brooke my niece is in the middle. That little girl loves to put on a show. Can you tell by the pictures below?

Well, sorry it has been so long. I will try and do better updating. I hope everyone is having a great holiday season.

Michelle

Halloween Pictures

Autumn and Chandler posing for pictures before trick or treating. They both decided this year they did not want to dress up. Normally I would be sad, but things have been so busy lately I did not argue with them. Autumn wore one of Taylor's friends cheerleading uniform from middle school and Chandler wore his beloved Steelers jersey.









Autumn was going to invite ONE friend to go trick or treating with us but by the time we were ready to leave she had 4. Of course they all HAD to sleepover. They had so much fun. I am always glad to have their friends at our house. We did our usual hayride for them. I think that will be the last year we do it. They never really rode in it, they were to busy running from house to house.

Taylor and his friends terrorized the neighborhood for a few hours before returning to our house to all sleepover.

Chandler had his end of season football party on Saturday.

I just love this sweet little face.

This is Taylor #3 at the Varsity game against Lowndes County. He is a freshman quarterback playing varsity with 2 senior quarterbacks. He has been doing alot of standing on the sidelines which he is not use to. Tonight they will play their final game of the season against Valdosta. USA Today had an article in yesterdays paper ranking our high school conference #1 in the nation. I thought that was very exciting to know how much football talent there is here. I am so proud of the team and their hard work.

GOOOOOOOO Bears!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Michelle

Happy Halloween and Picture Overload!!!

Saturday night we attended the Fall Festival at church. Along with what seemed to be everyone else in the town. They had a ton of games set up for the kids with candy at the end of each one.

I did not get many pictures because not long after we arrived Autumn and Chandler were off to play with their friends.

Autumn and Chandler with my niece Brooke (the blondie) and her friend Courtney.

On Wednesday night we finally found two hours at home to carve pumpkins.

"Chandler I can't decide what face to carve into my pumpkin"

"Autumn just listen to your pumpkin it will tell you what kind of face it wants."

"Chandler just sit down there is no way a pumpkin can tell you what kind of face it wants"

"Well mime told me and I am getting started"

"See Autumn it is really easy"

"Chandler you can't just start drawing, you have to think about these things"

"and plan them out"

"Oh, Chandler I have an idea let's throw pumpkin seeds at Taylor, that will be funny"

(notice the pumpkin seeds on his chest)

"Chandler help me Taylor did not think my idea was very funny"

"Chandler helllllllllllp!! I just washed my hair now Taylor is putting my head inside the pumpkin"

"Autumn and Chandler stop so I can carve my pumpkin while showing off my bulging muscles"

"Mom get a close up of my biceps just in case they didn't see them"

"Ahhhh the perfect pumpkin"

Chandler's finished pumpkin.

We are still waiting on Autumn to decide what to carve on her pumpkin we will post those pictures when she is complete. LOL

Last but certainly not least. I received my Fall Swap from the Perry Family. She did such a great job at picking out something perfect for me. I love these two ceramic pumpkins. She also sent an awesome wall hanging decorated for fall that says Give Thanks. The picture that I took of that did not turn out for some reason. Thank you Perry Family I absolutely love my fall decorations!!!!

Take Care and Have A Spooooooooooootacular Night.

Michelle

Jesse Is the Bomb!!!

Thank you Jesse for my new banner. She has way to much talent for one person. I think she should share at least a little bit of it with the rest of us. If you are interested in a new banner you definitely need to contact Jesse she is so creative.

We had a busy week-end but no pictures to prove it. Friday night Gucky, Jennifer ( my sister) and I decided we would participate in the neighborhood yard sale at Gucky's house. I had about one hour between the time I got home from work and the time the football game started to run through my house and come up with things for the sale. I could have stayed home from the football game to do this but of course there is no way I was missing a game. By the time I finished going through my house it looked like we had be robbed. LOL The yard sale was a success. All three of us sold 95% of the things we had put out to sale. I could not believe how many people came to the neighborhood for the sale. We had people at the house from 7:00am until noon non-stop. Chandler had a football game at 1:30 and they finally won a game 21-19!!
I can't be so happy about the high school game Friday night. They lost 21-14. It rained the entire game. By the time we got home it looked like we had been swimming with our clothes on. Taylor did find out yesterday that he will be playing with the varsity team for the remainder of the season. They will be playing Lowdnes County Friday night. They are ranked #5 in the NATION in class AAAAA. That should be an interesting game.

On Sunday the kids and I went to Homecoming at my grandparents church. Granny and Papa were so happy to have us there and we were glad to be there with them.

Last night Chandler had another football game and they won again. 2 games in a row I can hardly believe it!

I have to tell you a quick funny story about Chandler. On Monday nights we (the booster club) feed the football team dinner after their practice. Last night after we had served all of the players I made a plate of spaghetti, garlic bread, and cookies for Autumn and Chandler and sent them to sit down and eat. Once I sat down with the other parents and head coach to eat I realized OH NO..... Chandler has a game in an hour. I quickly told Chandler to stop eating the spaghetti and drinking the red
Kool-aid. (This would not be a good thing to be sick on while playing football) One of the dads said to Chandler "at least you are quaterback and don't have to worry about getting tackled or hit in the stomach". Chandler with his sweet, innocent 8 year old voice looked up at the head coach of the high school varsity team and said " he has never seen my offensive line" . In other words he gets tackled ALOT!!! That kid keeps me laughing each and every day.

Have a great night.

Take Care,
Michelle

Only A Loving Aunt Would Do This!!

Let me start by telling you a little about my younger sister Jennifer. First of all she is a "neat freak". Secondly, when she eats the food on her plate can not touch or she will not eat it. The simple thought of mayonnaise makes her sick. She would never dare actually touch it. So..... on to the story. After the big family Birthday Party and everyone had gone home Taylor discovered his retainer (that he had wrapped in a napkin and placed on the counter) was missing. Of course my reaction as a mom was have fun, there sure was alot of trash. His Aunt on the other hand decided she would help. OK now I feel guilty. I guess I will help too. I will take pictures LOL. In the dark they very carefully searched each and every dag of trash. Bag one... look at the reaction on my sisters face. I was waiting to get the picture of her throwing up which I thought was coming any minute. Notice Taylor's gloves AKA Ziploc bags.





Three bags complete and no one has gotten sick. And there is even mayonnaise in those bags.








Aunt says " Taylor this is the last bag I don't think we are going to find it". Taylor says "I will finish looking in that bag". Low and behold in the VERY BOTTOM of the last bag is the prized napkin. I felt sorry for my sister. She is such an awesome Aunt she will do anything for her niece and nephews. Even if it means digging in the trash.




My kids are so blessed to have her.

Take Care,

Michelle

Thank Heaven For Moms

The kids were out of school from last Thursday until today for Fall Break. We had many exciting things planned along with a little rest and relaxation. Those plans were quickly changed when the dreaded stomach virus hit our family.

Thankfully Gucky (my mom) came to the rescue as usual. She kept Chandler at her house for 4 days to keep him away from our germ infested house. On Monday and Tuesday when I had the virus she once again took over for me. She took care of the kids, cleaned my house, did the laundry and kept up the supply of soup, Sprite, jello, and Popsicles. Why is it that no matter how old you are when you're sick you still need your mom. I am so thankful to live close to my family. Hopefully the virus is over and we can look forward to the week-end.

This weekend Gucky and Paw Paw took Chandler to the corn maze and he loved it. So much so that he asked them to take him everyday. He has now been everyday for 4 days!! I am hoping to take he and Autumn this weekend and take some pictures to share with you.

Take Care,
Michelle