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!