Thanksgiving 2010

We had a pretty good Thanksgiving, besides the fact that the stomach bug got a hold of our family. We are all still recovering from it, but it hit TAG & Averly the worst. Poor Averly’s 1st Thanksgiving was spent throwing her little guts up. I felt so bad for her, but she really never slowed down. She was determined to keep on going strong! 



My sick little angel. :0(

 

Silly boy!



Riley loved waking up Thanksgiving morning & watching the Macy’s parade! His favorite float was Spiderman, of course! He also helped us make the dressing this year. He loved to stir the cornbread!



Getting ready to go eat!

   

My little cousin, Charlie. Is he not the cutest thing?! I love his curls!

 

This is the only picture I got of the 4 of us. I didn’t do too well with the camera this year. I promise my dad & many other people were there, I just didn’t get any pictures of them. And I just realized I didn’t even pull my camera out at TAG’s family dinner! I’m lucky to have gotten any pictures at all, really!



Nap time. Needless to say, neither of them got a good nap on Thanksgiving Day.



I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Thankful for Real Life

TAG snapped this picture of me & the kids a couple days ago & I just had to laugh. This is me in real life. This IS my life. Me with no make up on, only I’m usually in sweatpants. Wrestling with kids who are pulling ornaments off the Christmas tree, not even facing the camera. One child half dressed because he refuses to take his Superman shirt off for 2 days straight, who is whining & wanting me to hold him too. All that’s missing from this picture is me trying to cook supper while folding a load of laundry all in the midst of things. Yep, this is my life. Not always smiling babies with ironed smocked outfits & big bows in their hair behaving ever so perfectly. I know I tend to only write about the happy & exciting things in life when we all know life has just as many downs as it does ups. Regardless of if you are currently in an “up” or a “down” I’m sure we could all think of ways it could be much worse. We have all been blessed in some sort of way. God never promised life would be a bowl full of cherries, but He did promise He would never leave us or forsake us. For that I am most thankful. I couldn’t be more grateful for my two biggest blessings. I have learned so much about myself and about my faith through these precious two. I am thankful that I have the wonderful husband & family that I do to lean on for support or anything for that matter. I am thankful for our health. I am thankful for the roof over our heads & the food in our pantry. I am thankful for the small, but close extended family I have & the love that we share in Jesus Christ.

I am thankful for my crazy-hectic, beautiful, sometimes stressful, always fun, perfect for me, real life.



Happy Thanksgiving & remember to count your blessings!

Dawgs vs. Hogs

I finally got to go to my 2nd game of the season, the last home game, for State. TAG, his sister & her husband get season tickets, but I opted out to stay home with the kids most game days. Anyway, Brooke was in a wedding Saturday so I got her ticket. Some other people in our group had some extra tickets too so we invited my dad to go. First of all, my dad is the biggest Tennessee fan ever. (Me too if we want to be completely honest. Like, we bleed TN orange type fans. But since I married the world’s biggest MSU fan, I go along with it.) :) So it was very weird to see my dad wearing ‘purple’ as he calls it! But he went all out, cowbell & all!

 

We have lots of Arkansas fan friends that came to the game as well. I think we ended up having more Arkansas people at our tent than State! It was a good time though & we love them to death!

Some of our best friends, Mary Duke & Anthony.



Kim & Jay. Aren’t they cute?!



Apparently the camera liked us at the game. My dad & Josh were on TV for at least a good 30 seconds. Just them standing there with their arms crossed after Arkansas scored in the 4th quarter. We got all kinds of texts, calls & Facebook messages letting us know right afterwards! Also, TAG & I were on the Jumbotron! We didn’t know it until after the game when a friend of ours asked if we saw ourselves on it. I asked what we were doing & he said it was after State scored one time & TAG hugged me & gave me a kiss. I told TAG I was just relieved he wasn’t picking his nose or something embarrassing like that! Haha!

I cannot believe football season is almost over! It flew by, just like the rest of this year did!

A Little of This…A Little of That

There’s been a lot of nothing keeping us super busy lately {if that makes sense}. We’ve been going & doing but it’s really nothing out of the ordinary around here. It seems like I have so much to update on, I don’t even know where to begin.

Averly is about to be a 5-toothed babe. She has 3 right now that are totally in & 2 more on top that are currently breaking through. She is still crawling super fast & pulling up on everything. Including our legs while we are standing still & even Riley’s shirt! I have even caught her standing a few times by herself until she realizes what she is doing & she quickly sits down. As I mentioned before, she just got her big girl car seat & on 11/18 she went for her first ride {to Target, of course} in it. She has recently started clapping her hands. She is so feminine & soft when she does it. It’s so precious!



Riley is semi-potty trained!! I say semi because he still has more accidents than not daily. I’m sure if we really pushed it hard, we could probably get to where we need to be but more & more people are telling me not to push it; that he will do it on his own soon. So we’ll see how that goes. He’s getting ready for Santa! My mom pulled in the driveway last night & he ran to the door thinking it was Santa coming to “bring toys”. I can’t wait to see his reaction on Christmas morning this year!

He is still just my sweet boy that loves to help unload the dishwasher & throw the football. 



I can’t believe Thanksgiving is this week! I am so excited for the holidays this year! I can’t wait to stand around in our circle Thanksgiving day naming everything we are thankful for. I have been so blessed & have so much to be thankful for, not just on Thanksgiving, but every single day.

*I’ve had several people ask about where I get the kids’ clothes monogrammed. I use several different local shops & I also have a friend that does some cute stuff (y’all will see their cute Thanksgiving outfits she made soon). I know that’s not much help, but hopefully you can find someone in your area(s) that do monogramming/appliqué. Or, if you live in my area & want their numbers, let me know &  I will be happy to give it to y’all.

Free Shutterfly Christmas Cards

Shutterfly is doing a promotion for any blogger to receive 50 free Christmas cards! All you have to do is register and then share it!

I am trying to get an early start on my Christmas cards this year, but with two kids this time around, it is not quite as easy to get a good picture of both of them at least looking at the camera! Haha!

It is so hard to decide which cards I want to use, but here are a few of my favorites:

 

I think this is one my ultimate favorite. What do you think?



We ordered this card for Averly’s Birth Announcement from Shutterfly. Love.



Ahh! It's so hard to pick just one! I really love them ALL!

They also have some pretty cool Christmas party invitations. I want to throw a big party just to send out some of THESE invites.

I'm also thinking about ordering some of THESE fun gift tags. How cute are they?!

Go check it out if you haven't already!

Wordless Wednesday

Christmas Lights

I’ve been putting our Christmas trees & decorations up the past week & yes, it has taken me a week due to 2 small children “helping” me pull things out & put them where they think they should go.
Averly had her first Christmas light experience in all of this as well. She was so cute just staring & poking at them.

 

Riley showed me his best Rudolph impression.



I cannot wait for Christmas this year with these two! It is going to be so much fun & I can’t wait to start our own traditions as a family of 4! I’m sure Averly won’t really get it this year, but I know Riley will! He is already looking through toy catalogs & saying “Santa bring it!” when he spots something he wants. He has also been saying “Happy Birthday, Jesus!” & dancing to Christmas music with me.

 

Let the season begin!