Maxwell's Party

Maxwell had his final day of school before Christmas break today. His class had a day full of fun. In the morning they went around to the second grade classes that were hosting themed activities. His favorite class that he went to was the Polar Express...he enjoyed hot chocolate, received a punched ticket and was given a bell. After lunch he had his class Christmas Holiday Party. I was busy helping with the activities and didn't get a ton of pictures, but we had a lot of fun. The kids started out with a book swap, Maxwell took his time picking out his, I told him to go for the one with the good looking wrapping paper! ;)

 

 Maxwell patiently waiting his turn.

Abigail behaved so well...might have been the Cheese-Its...she was busy cramming them in her mouth!

Olivia's Christmas Party is tomorrow and that will wrap up school for a while, YAY! We'll be spending the next couple of days finishing up shopping and making some yummy treats.  After talking to some friends, I was convinced I was the only person on the planet that has not finished Christmas shopping.  However while driving to dinner tonight (some yummy Thai with some fun friends) I came upon some major traffic that was pointed in the direction of the mall...it's good to know I'm not the only procrastinator.  :)

Our church, New Hope Baptist, performed their annual Living Christmas Tree. After several months of practice, Olivia and Maxwell were so excited to finally perform the songs they had worked so hard to learn. It was a long week of 8 performances but it was completely worth it to celebrate Jesus' birth! Below is a clip of the first song the children's choir performed, "Follow the Star". Maxwell is quite the performer!

Olivia was very excited to have a speaking solo this year, she performed it the first four shows. We think she did wonderfully!

I cut that video short so I could take this cutie pie picture; Olivia looks so young to me for some reason...her sweet little round face.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good picture of Maxwell in his biblical costume during the performance, so here's one I took while he tried it on.  Sweet little boy.

The Living Christmas Tree show was absolutely amazing! Regrettably, Hudson and I were not Joseph and Mary again this year, they had a couple of age-appropriate teenagers instead. I guess we were deemed too old! The entire show focused on our Savior and the finale really brought the house down. There was everything from angels to wise men to kings and a sweet baby portraying Jesus. And how could I forget the real live camel!? I cannot wait til next year!

Edited to Add:  One of Olivia's favorite songs of the Tree:

Thanksgiving Day we packed up and headed down to Warner Robins to celebrate the holiday with family.  The kids were really looking forward to getting down there to play with their cousins and have some fun!  And they weren't disappointed, after enjoying a delicious meal, cousin Katie hooked Olivia and Maxwell up with some yummy smores.

 

My BIL, Les, fried a turkey for us to enjoy and oh. my. goodness.  It was the BEST turkey EVER!  There's no better way to cook a bird!

 

Mom with her grandchildren

  

Abigail kept herself entertained with my sister's candles.

 

Poor Maxwell, not a very gender balanced group.

 

Time to Catch Up

I'm so far behind, so now, it's time to catch up.  We had a wonderful time at our church's Trunk or Treat despite the misting rain.  It was a lot of fun and a great time of fellowship with our friends, and our class won 1st place for our "trunk" (which really wasn't a trunk).  We had a 50's themed diner and handed out mini ice cream cones, the kids loved this!

Maxwell recently finished up his first (and possibly last) year of football.  Our boy was not lovin' the sweating, he didn't complain during practice or a game but leading up to it, he showed no love for his head sweating under the helmet.  After witnessing some of the coaches on other teams and their behavior, I feel so blessed that Maxwell had the coaches he had, they were all so patient and really uplifting.

(Please excuse his hair, he had been running around and playing with about 18 other 6 yr olds.)

Although Maxwell had a good time, he was thrilled to hear that our church offers Upward Football in the fall that does not require helmets!

Some recent Sunday pictures
 

I had completely forgotten how difficult it is to get a good picture of a very busy one year old.

Abigail's descent off the deck..

Abigail loves being outside, especially walking around the backyard, fortunately we have a fence so she has free range. Her descent off the deck to get to that yard, is quite funny and quite long.

 

 

 

 

 

Our Little Getaway

I woke up Saturday morning to find out that my second guest blogger had gone ahead and created her post..all by herself. We had a wonderful weekend in the mountains of Georgia, it was absolutely gorgeous! We plan on going back every fall, we had a blast and it was so nice to get away for a weekend! Olivia did a great job of summarizing our little vacation, however, she did not include any photos. So here ya go!

My second "guest:'' blogger

What surprise was Abigail (Mommy) talking about??????????? I guess it was first floor at the North Point Mall or the American Girl Store.

Anyway, we DID go to " " " ". And, we went up north to Blue Ridge,GA where it was ALMOST below FREEZING. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Maxwell was in the pool the WHOLE time(literally)!

On Saturday, we went to a chocolate shop called Chocolate Express. We also went to a (maybe) 50s' diner.

On Sunday we had a brunch at The Lodge before heading on to Burt's Farm for a hayride, which had a Looooooong line :(

Then we went to the American Girl Store at the mall.i picked out Molly (Home front, WW II, 1944, etc.) which has glasses, braids, beret and other things like that. (ask Allie)

Well, I guess Maxwell is next.... bye! ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOING!!!!!

Introducing my first "guest" blogger....

Hi family and friends, it's me, Abigail. Mommy came up with this cute idea to let each of us kids write on her blog, I get to go first.

A lot has been happening around here lately. Daddy bought mommy a new camcorder and she absolutely loves it, she gets all crazy about electronics...I don't know what that's all about but she says she loves electronics just like I love my cat, Tiger. She has had the camcorder out a lot and always seems to have it pointed in my direction. See????

I can't believe mommy took video of me in nothing but a diaper! She said that's okay though because I can only pull that look off for a little while longer.

Ganmamma came to town a week ago, she is so funny and likes to spoil me with a lot of attention and a bunch of kisses. She kept me while mommy and daddy went out to eat all by themselves, which I'm sure was no fun without me!



I insisted on keeping the football in the picture...I love tossing it around with Daddy and Maxwell in the backyard.

Mommy says I am one busy baby and never sit still. So I shocked her when I sat still for this picture, mommy was happy so I think I may do it more often.


This past weekend, Nana and Papoo came to see us. They said they couldn't believe how big I've gotten, I think it's because I eat a LOT of food!

Daddy and Papoo like to sit and talk, mommy said I will be talking a bunch before we know it!


This is me and Papoo, he was so silly with me and tried to teach me how to wink...I would make a funny face and try my hardest to do it!


We all went to church and Sunday School on Sunday, this is me and daddy before we left. I love him a whole bunch, he gives me a bunch of kisses, talks silly to me and rocks me before bed...mommy says he's going to spoil me but I don't think he's worried about that right now!



While we were out eating lunch after church, Nana taught me "Nana face" which is when I smile super big and tilt my head to side. Mommy said I reminded her a lot of my big sister and she said as soon as she could, she'd get a picture of me doing this face. Mommy was not very good about taking pictures this weekend and did not get a picture of me with my Nana, she said she'd do a better job when we visited them at Christmas.

Olivia gets to write on this blog next, she loooooves writing so I'm sure she'll have lots to say, plus Mommy and Daddy said they have an extra special treat planned for us this weekend, I'm sure Olivia will write all about it!

In honor of our 13 year anniversary, I thought I'd take a moment and show some love for my hubby. Honestly, I don't even know where to begin. NEVER in a million years did I think I'd marry someone from Arkansas, but I also never thought I'd meet someone so completely perfect for me. Without a doubt, God had His hands all up in our business! Despite only knowing him for 4 months, I decided to spend the rest of my life with him and never once did I question my decision. God gave me an undeniable peace about it. Did I mention I was only 20 yrs old?



Aww, look at us. We were so young and carefree. I was so chubby and Hudson was so skinny...those were the days. And check out that adorable 4 year old in between us. Katie is now almost 17 yrs old and I would be one happy momma if my girls grew up to be as sweet as she is today.

With this being our 13 year anniversary, I thought it would be appropriate to list 13 things I love about Hudson.

1. His Faith. By far, this is the most important. Hudson's faith has seen us through some trying and difficult times. But his calmness during a storm has not only given me a peace, it has helped me grow in my faith....and that's priceless!

2. His love for me. I'm sure this will come as a surprise to most, but I'm not perfect. I know. Shocker, right? Being a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to certain things and also a tad opinionated, it's a wonder Hudson's still around, LOL. In all seriousness, Hudson is the first to shower me with praise for being, in his eyes, a great mom. He acknowledges on a regular basis, the difficulty of my job and his appreciation for what I do for our family.

3. His love for his children. Hudson began praying fervently for our children before they were even born and he continues to pray with them and for them every day. It's rare that a day or two go by that he doesn't make a comment to me about how sweet and precious our children are. Of course he knows that they are not perfect, but he sees them as the sweet blessings that they are to us. I thank God that my children are blessed to have such a loving father who truly understands the importance of his children having a relationship with their Heavenly Father.

4. He's compassionate. Hudson will be the first person to volunteer to help someone in need (unless it's me, in the middle of one of Abigail's diaper changes!). He has such a sweet heart. When I see Maxwell's sweet and loving personality shining, I know that he inherited it from his dad. I can imagine Hudson at his age...what a sweet, freckled face little boy he must have been!

5. His honesty. The man could not tell a lie to save his life. Unless it involved whether or not he really ate a salad for lunch at work or had dessert, and even then, his facial expression gives him away!

6. His work ethic. Hudson has the best work ethic of anyone I know. He's always gone above and beyond for his employer, cuz that's how he rolls. :) He's a rockstar and kicks butt at work to provide for his family.

7. I love that he insists on being the one who gets to wake Abigail up in the morning and he loves putting each kid to bed at night.

8. He lets me choose what restaurant we eat at, of course I always take his opinion into account!

9. He thinks nothing of picking up dinner on the way home if I've had a long day and don't feel like cooking. (of course this is rare, hehe!)

10. He takes pride in keeping our grass looking fabulous. And I believe, he has a little yard envy of some of our neighbors whose grass is more mature. Seriously, some of the yards around here looking like the greens on a golf course.

11. He's known as the "Jack of all trades" in our 'hood. He can grill, smoke, fry, stone, construct, paint, stain, plant, grow anything you ask of him.

12. He's smart. If I were as smart as him, I'd go around putting every one in their place! But he prefers sitting back, listening and then giving his thoughtful opinion.

13. He likes playing his guitar for the kids and even made up a silly song for Abigail that makes her dance. So funny!

Okay..I can't stop at 13.

14. He appreciates me. He's said many times he knows how hard it is to be a stay at home mom and he supports me having time for myself.

15. I'm so thankful he's the father of my children. Our kiddos are so blessed to have him as their daddy. Hudson wants nothing but the absolute best for them and he truly enjoys being with them. I think it's sweet that he is a little sad that we are done having children.

I love you Hudson and appreciate you putting up with me for 13 years!!

A Girl Needs Her Cheese!

Abigail's favorite place at our house is the deck. So, when she woke from her nap Monday, I thought I'd take advantage of the cloudy day and get some pictures on the deck. Abigail was having no part of it!




A bottom lip that only her older sister could appreciate. It's identical to Olivia's.


Not loving the settee


Time to bust out a snack, I decide on the one thing that never fails to satisfy this girl. Cheese. Abigail loves some colby-jack!


All Better! Cheeseburger!

My notetaking, football playin' children.

It is hard to believe that it is currently 71 degrees here in Georgia. I'm soaking it in with my windows open....sweet fresh air! After surviving some sort of stomach virus/attack this weekend, I finally feel 100% and am having a wonderful day. I cannot believe it is September already, where has the summer gone? Olivia and Maxwell are both enjoying school so far and have had no complaints...well, Olivia is a little perturbed with all of the notetaking she has to endure in some of her classes but she'll get use to it come about her junior year of college. I'm sure any day now, she'll suggest to the teacher that all the kids need to get one of those little mini-laptops to type all of their notes on, it would be faster!

I guess football season is around the corner, but honestly, I really haven't been following Auburn much this year. I do believe Chizik is a good coach, but I'm still annoyed with the board that pushed Tuberville out. Of course Tubs is probably sitting on a boat right now fishing in some treetops on Lake Martin while studying his bank statement and laughing at the University.

I do want to try to make it to at least one game this season, if for no other reason than to witness this scene in person again. AU's band started playing Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" a few years ago and the students really get into it...well I'm sure the whole crowd does but as usual most of the noise comes from the students. It's really cool when the band cuts out and you hear THOUSANDS of people singing "ooooh we're half way there, ooooohh livin' on a prayer". Bless their hearts, most of the kids weren't even born or were in diapers when this song came out. Man, I feel old!



I'd be a terrible mommy if I left out my most favorite, mean machine, don't blink or you'll miss him football stud. Here he is in all of his glory. Excuse the lack of eyes.