Merry Christmas!

Luke 2:11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

Just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Make sure to take time to remember the real REASON for Christmas. I'm so thankful for our loving and forgiving Saviour!
What is your gift to Jesus this year?

Enjoy spending time with your family and friends this Christmas season!

I can't wait for Nathan to wake up to see what Santa brought him! He has been so excited about Christmas this year! So much fun!
Merry Christmas everyone!

First Church Performance

Nathan is in a Choir/Mission Friends class on Wednesday nights at Church, and they put on their Christmas program last week. It was Nathan's first Church performance! It was great! They sang 2 cute songs and they all did a great job! Of course I was very proud of him and couldn't stop smiling the entire time he was singing...it was so sweet!

Pics from Thanksgiving Feast at Preschool

Nathan in his computer class at preschool

Our little pilgram at his Thanksgiving Feast!

performing their Thanksgiving skit

It's a pig, it's a train...and it's PINK!

the above train is the old pink pig from Rich's

I am all about traditions. One of our traditions we started 2 years ago was to go ride the Pink Pig at Macy's. It's a pink pig train that goes around a track in a tent filled with all things pink! The kids LOVE it! We also go visit Santa while we're there...it's a great time had by all!

Jack's back!

It is our tradition for "Jack", our friendly scout elf from "The Elf on the Shelf", to come back from the North Pole on Thanksgiving night. So we read the book that night and got up the next morning looking for where he might have landed. He was where he is every year on his first flight in....the fireplace mantle. Nathan was so excited to have Jack back! He gets up every morning looking for him.

"Jack" needs to do a better job finding a new spot every night...sometimes he forgets to change locations! ;-)

Gobble, Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! There is so much to be thankful for! I am thankful for a loving and forgiving God, my family, friends, and good health! I hope you all have a wonderful day of fun with your family, friends, and good food!
I am hosting this year...I love to host Thanksgiving! My parents are coming over today and we're so excited to see them! I have all my casseroles assembled and ready to go in the oven, my pies baked, so I just need to pop the turkey in the oven!
Enjoy the day, and have safe travels!

He's back!

That's right....Edward's back! "New Moon" opens tomorrow night...can't wait!!!!

Spooktacular Autumn

Halloween was a lot of fun again this year. Nathan went as Wall-E, his favorite! I think he made a very cute little Wall-E. We went trick or treating in our neighborhood...in the rain. Oh well, he had fun and that's all that matters. We also went to our church's "hallelujah night", however there were so many people (which is a great thing), Nathan got a little overwhelmed. So we left after a few minutes and went back to trick or treating, which is what he really wanted to do...he loves it.
I know I just posted about loving Fall, but the above pic of the leaves and Nathan in the background on his "john deere" captured another wonderful reason to love it more! :-)

We LOVE Fall!!!

Enjoying the pumpkins at a local pumpkin patch

Nathan looking out over the mtns. at Amicalola Falls

at the VERY TOP of Amicalola Falls looking down at the waterfall

Picking apples at an apple orchard/Farm in the North GA mtns.

playing in the corn bin at Southern Belle Farms

riding the cow train!

We have had a very fun Fall season! It's definitely my favorite time of year. Once Starbucks puts Pumpkin Spice Lattes back on the menu, I'm ready for the fun to begin! :-)

We went to our favorite pumpkin patch/farm again this year. Nathan rode the cow train, shot corn cobs out of the shooter, went down the hay slide a billion times, had smores by a campfire, went on a hayride, and saw the piglets race. It was a great time had by all!

We found a new place to visit this year as well. It was an apple orchard/farm in the North Georgia Mountains. They had tons of apple trees with huge, bright red apples. We picked a lot of apples, sipped apple cider, petted tons of farm animals, raced the John Deere trikes, bungee jumped (on a trampoline..haha), and had the best apple cider donuts.

That same day we went to Amicalola Falls...it was BEAUTIFUL! The leaves were changing the falls were gorgeous, we hiked a little on some paths, and saw an awesome sunset from the top of a mountain. We all had such a great time and can't wait to go back!

These are just some of the reasons Fall is my favorite time of year!

What are some of the things you love about Fall?

Preschool Fun!

Let me just say, I debated on sending Nathan to preschool this year so much, it was keeping me up at night. I know...crazy! I'll be honest, I felt kind of guilty for sending him. After all, I am a stay at home mom, and he is already well socialized with all the playgroups, moms groups, and church activities that he's already in. So why should I send him away for 3 days, 3 hours each of those days, especially when he still has 2 more years before he starts to school???? And I'll be honest about something else, I also felt "indirect peer pressure" to send him, you know...."everyone else is doing it, maybe we should". Preschool is so different all over the country. A lot of kids never go to preschool and they turn out just fine. It is emphasized in some areas of the country and not in others. A lot of areas only send them the year before they go to school, at age 4, which is why it's called "PRE"school. In other areas, a lot of kids start "preschool" at age 2. It is different everywhere and it also depends on your situation. I always say "to each their own". After becoming a mom, I learned better not to judge. Things you say you will never do, you end up doing, and vice versa. I learned quickly there are some others out there that will judge everything you do, including whether or not you send your child to preschool. I adopted the philosophy, "whatever works for you and your family is what you should do, no matter what anyone else thinks". So once I adopted that philosophy, I looked into preschools, and I loved what I saw. So, we decided to send Nathan to preschool 3 days a week this year, to the 3 yr old class. (he's 4, but he has an August birthday) We love it! It was a good decision for us. He has learned so much in such a short time. I had been working on his letters with him, sometimes he would get it and sometimes he wouldn't. But his wonderful teacher just knows how to teach it to him and make it stick! He had no interest in holding a crayon to learn how to write his name, he would just not do that for me. But his teacher got him to do it, and it also helps that he sees all the other kids trying to write their names. He loves his gym class, music class, chapel, and most of all computer time! And he really loves snack time, he always tells me what snack they had and who brought it. :-) His teachers are great, and he always says he has fun...which is most important at this age!

So whatever you decide on preschool vs. no preschool, it shouldn't matter to anyone else, because that's just it...it's YOUR decision. There is no right or wrong answer. Children will do just fine with or without preschool. I really shouldn't have stressed over it so bad.

We are very happy with our decision to go ahead and send him, he is loving it!

Grab Your Surfboard!

Nathan decided he wanted to have a "surfing" party for his 4th Birthday this year. So we found lots of party items with a surfing theme, and I decided I would make the cake this year....a surfboard cake! I thought, "how hard can it be to cut out a surfboard??"....I don't really know what I was thinking. I practiced making cakes and cake icing for weeks. I spent so much money on practice cakes, I really should have just bought one! I wanted an almond cake w/ buttercream icing. It did taste pretty good, but let's just say, I'm NO cake decorator!!

We had a blow-up /bouncy waterslide, kiddie pool, and slip and slide. The water was much needed as it was probably the hottest day in August to be outside.

Nathan had a great time playing with his friends and knocking down the seahorse pinata.

On his actual birthday, I always ask him what he wants to do that day. This year he wanted to go to the Aquarium. So he and I went to the Aquarium for the day and had a great time! We stopped at Johnny Rocket's for milkshakes after the Aquarium, and after his dad got home, we went out to dinner that night at a restaurant of his choice, Longhorn.

It was a fun 4th Birthday! I can't believe my baby is 4 years old!!!

Remembering

Today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. I am remembering the 3 angels we have in Heaven due to miscarriages. I am also thinking of and praying for all the families who have lost their babies too soon.

So thankful for our little boy, Nathan!

Summer Fun

These are just some of my favorite pics from Summer!
Nathan playing with his papaw



Ok, so this wasn't technically Summer, but I don't think I blogged about Nathan playing T-Ball in the Spring! It was so much fun!!


Having fun at Callaway Gardens!

This was on our "tubin" trip in Helen, GA.

Tubin' down the Chatahoochee River!

Enjoying a Braves Game!

He said, "this is the life"! LOL

4th of July...watching the fireworks!

This picture cracks me up! They had so much fun doing this!

4th of July parade

Beach Trip 09'

I know it's Fall, but I don't want to forget about our "summer happenings"! We had such a fun, busy Summer! We went to Santa Rosa Beach, Florida in July...it was great! Santa Rosa has a beautiful beach and is located on "scenic 30-A". We went to Destin one night, since it was so close, and ate at Harry T's. This use to be one of my favorite restaurants in Destin, but it has changed locations and menus, I doubt we'll go back...was much better in the old location! We also ate at Goatfeathers, it was really good! Nathan had bunkbeds to sleep on in our condo, he loved them so much, he asks for them quite often! They call the area of 30-A, "The Beaches of South Walton", and all the beaches and water was so pretty! Nathan learned how to use the "boogie board", he had so much fun with it! It was a very relaxing vacation...just what we needed!

Hi there! I'm back....

It's been almost 4 months since I've blogged! Crazy! I have still been reading and catching up on other blogs, but have neglected my own. I've been in a slump for a while, but hopefully with my favorite time of year going on, maybe I'll be back on track with things!

So much has happened since I last blogged! I am trying to figure out how to make my photos work in a collage so I don't have to do every picture by itself. I forgot the name of the program that does it, but I never can make it work??

In one of my last posts, I was talking about my sister's baby shower. Well...she had her baby! He was born on June 22nd. He had a very scary entry into the world, but he is here, safe and healthy now. My sister fell at work, right on her stomach, on a concrete floor. She had a placental abruption, and ended up with an emergency c-section. Baby Gage had to go into the NICU for a week, but was ok after that. My sister had a longer recovery, but everything is good now! We are so thankful things turned out the way they did. They both scared us pretty bad! Placental abruptions are nothing to fool around with, they are very dangerous for both mom and baby. But as we all know God is an awesome God, and we count our blessings everyday!

Here is a picture of our new nephew:

We love him so much!

Swimming lessons!

Swimming lessons went great again this year! This was his 3rd year for lessons. He has been wanting to jump off the diving board, and he finally got to!!! He was so excited! I was so happy to see him jump in and swim to the ladder by himself! He also got to use the kickboard this year and he enjoyed that as well. He still doesn't love to "float" on his back yet, but maybe one day!

He took with two other friends, Caroline and Carson. Of course the favorite thing to do still is go under the water and collect the toys off the bottom of the pool! And his new favorite thing is jumping off the side of the pool into the shallow water!

Getting ready for a new nephew!

Lesa, Casey, & Kristi...friends since birth!

Mom, Casey, & Kristi

My sister, Casey, is due to have a little boy anyday now! We are so excited to have another little boy in the family! They have yet to pick a name, but I'm sure they'll come up with something! Her due date is the 29th of June, but the dr. says it will be anytime.

I went to AL a few weekends ago and helped give her a small shower to celebrate the upcoming arrival....we had a great time! She got tons of cute boy things. And Big Sister Kalyn, got a few things too! I will go over to AL again once she goes into labor...we can't wait!

"Time" to catch up!

Tball season was over for us the first part of May. It was kinda sad! Nathan misses playing, and his new friends he made from his team. I feel like it rained most of the season, but it was still a great season! We all really enjoyed it!

The team got trophies in a small trophy presentation at a local restaurant. It was a great first experience with "little league"!

MOTHER'S DAY

For Mother's day this year I told "B" I wanted to go to Six Flags...I know not your typical mother's day request! I LOVE amusement parks and Nathan LOVES Six Flags! So I wanted to go and take him before it got too hot and crowded, and we heard Mother's Day was a great day to go. (we went last year, and had an awesome time...Nathan has talked about it all winter wanting to go!) So we went to church, then decided to eat because it looked as if dark clouds were rolling our way. So we ate at the local Japanese restaurant, had a wonderful lunch, then it started raining. Good thing we didn't go on to Six Flags! The rain finally stopped, so we went to a park that has a splash pad and lots of great playground areas. It was a great day just spending a lot of quality time with the ones I love most!

LAST DAY OF MDO

Nathan went to the same Mother's Day Out program this year as he did last year. We again LOVED it! He went on Tuesdays from 9-1. It was just the right amount of time for us. It allowed me to get caught up on things, run errands, schedule dr. appo's, or just chill out and have "me" time! He had 2 wonderful teachers, Ms. Tricia and Ms. Michelle. We will really miss our MDO time. He always loved playing with different toys than what we have, and loved his playground time, friends, and teachers. They are there to love on your children, and that's exactly what they did!

He will start Preschool in the fall, and truely I have so many mixed emotions about it......

SUPERHERO FEVER!

This little guy is SO into superheros right now! What I find so amusing about it, is that he hasn't even watched any of these shows! He's never seen Superman, Spiderman, or Batman....but he LOVES them! We have all the superhero pajamas and he talks about them ALL the time! I hear other friends talking about their kids loving it too, so I guess they just pick up on things very quickly!

This is such a fun age!