December, Where have you gone?

Wow! December has come and gone and I can'y hardly believe it! The month started off good with a SEC Championship Win for Alabama but slowly went downhill from there!! Jason was admitted into the hospital on December 9th with pneumonia and was there until December 14th. On December 14th one of Drew's good friends mother passed away unexpectedly and then on December 16th Kate got the stomach virus. We had been in Montgomery for her 2 year check-up and then meet up with everyone to visit Santa. Mom took her and Ben with her home so Drew and I could go to the funeral home. While we were in line Mom called to tell me Kate had thrown up all over herself and in the car!!! Joy, joy!! Poor little baby threw up from about 6pm that night until 1am. I think she threw up 12 times total!! She missed her Christmas Party at school. By Thursday morning when she woke up she was feeling like a new person!! Friday was a long day with it being the last day before Christmas break! That night I got the stomach virus and Jason was finally feeling better. The boys spent the night with Lizzie and Walker! I was sick...felt like I had been run over by a MAC truck!! By Saturday night I was feeling a lot better. Sunday morning, I was back to my old self!! But then, One of the boys came running to the kitchen while I was cooking breakfast screaming "Daddy needs you, he his sick"!! Oh but yes, Jason got the stomach virus on top of pneumonia!! Back to the hospital he went for 2 more days! And while he was there, I got to take care of Drew as he started throwing up Sunday night. I thought it would never end. Ben said he and Will would be the survivors and not get sick and that he would be the last one standing!! As of today, they still have not gotten sick (knock on wood)!! Finally Christmas was here and we were all well, thank God!!

Getting ready for Daddy to read the Christmas Story from the Bible!

With Mama Sally and Gramps

Ready for Santa!!!

Santa will get the BEST cookies here!!

Living in town with both of our families does have it's advantages!! We celebrated Christmas Eve with Mama Sally and Gramps. We went to the Candle Light Service at Church and then back to their house for Dinner and gifts. At 9pm we were finally headed home for the getting ready for Santa routine! The kids were in bed by 10pm and Jason and I by 12:30am!! Will got up at 3am complaining that he was sick. I thought "great, he waits until tonight to get sick" so I sent him straight to the toilet. Only to find out that that little sucker wasn't sick, he just wanted to see if Santa had come. I sent him right back to bed!! I was not about to get up at 3am and I knew Jason wouldn't either!! Then at 6:30, Ben ran in our room, threw over the blinds to the playroom and ran over to my side of the bed and told me Santa had come!! I told him to go get his brothers and come back to my room. I had to wake Kate up and get me cameras ready! They were so excited. I had them convinced that because they had been bad that Santa wasn't coming!! About 11am we headed to Mom and Dad's for gifts and then we were joined by Jason's family for lunch! Then Christmas night we went to Jason's parents house for the kids to get their gifts from them. It is so nice that we get to spend Christmas with both of our families! Yesterday, we drove to Destin to celebrate with Mrs. Vickie's side of the family. Will took his metal detector that Bibbie and Deeda gave him and we took it down on the beach to see if we could find any treasure but we didn't:( We had a lot of fun and the kids enjoyed playing with their cousins that they don't see much!

Waiting to see if Santa came!! Love the bedhead!!

Kate with her playhouse and other stuff!

Ben

Will

Drew got his Bass Pro Shop Set

Kate got pretend make-up and she loved to paint her toe-nails!!

Kate and Mimi had matching jammies!!

Lacey and Kate

Will, Ben, Drew, Walker, Lacey and Kate at Bibbie and Deeda's

Getting their BIG gift from Bibbie and Deeda

They all got their very own laptop! Thanks Bibbie and Deeda!!

My Family

Us

Drew didn't want to eat...only wanted to open presents!

Ben waited all day for this gift! He only saw it in Wal-mart the day before Christmas and he acted as if it was the only thing he wanted!!

Kate and Will

All the Great-Grandkids with Maw Maw

Close up of Ben, Kate and Drew

All the Great grandchildren with Paw Paw and Dora

Will and Kate opening their presents

Drew, Ben and Zachary opening theirs

Kate and Caden

Will already looking for treasure

They thought they found something!!

Kate

Ben

Drew

Will

So, as much as I love to celebrate Christmas and usually hate when it is over, I am actually not upset to see December go this year! I hope you all had a Very Merry Christmas and I hope that you have a Wonderful 2010!!!

Kate's 1st Haircut

So I decided today that since the boys were getting much needed haircuts that I would let Sherley trim Kate's ends. Kate's would not sit in the chair by herself so I sat with her. You can't really tell she got her haircut but I have the hair to prove it!! She is just so cute!!

Annual Visit with Santa

We took the kids to see Santa yesterday. Kate had her 2 year check-up and cried more at Dr. Wood's office than she did when we saw Santa! I guess that is good since I had to have a picture of her with Santa and not one with Dr. Wood! We had a great time, Bibbie, Lizzie, Lacey, Walker, Neemama, Amy and Mimi (aka Mary Hollis, Kate gave her that name!!) all met us there. Poor Kate had to sit there through 3 pictures!! She did great though!! Merry Christmas!!

Big Weekend

Friday night the boys participated in the Annual Children's Musical at Church, "The Best Christmas Present Ever!" Will had a part in the play, he played Clarke! He also sang a solo in one of the songs. The musical is about a group of kids putting on a birthday party for Jesus. They have sent out invitations but no one has responded. They try and get the news out using the local television station and the anchor thinks it is all a little ridiculous! The children end up telling "Rod Stark" that he needs to have Jesus in is heart. He then realizes that he is missing something in his life and it is Jesus! He accepts Jesus as his Savior and the party is a success. They had tons of people there!! The musical was a wonderful message and right on the kids level to help them realize too that Nothing is Impossible with God!! I don't have any pictures to share since I left my camera at home!

Saturday morning came around and Wow!! We are so excited that Alabama won the SEC Championship! All day I had a calm about me and I could just feel it. It was much different than last week during the Iron Bowl. This year, Alabama football has reminded me a lot of the 1992 season. I was a Junior at The University of Alabama and it was the most fun ever!! Fall in Tuscaloosa is one of the best times of the year. The weather is perfect but the feel of the excitement for football is indescribable! I know if everyone could experience game day in Tuscaloosa at an Alabama Football game they would all cheer for the Tide!! I can remember being pumped about every game but never believing that we would actually go all the way. I guess I just don't get my hopes up because I don't like to set myself up for disappointment! I think I knew we could beat Florida that year, but I honestly didn't really think we had a chance against Miami! I was just excited that I was going to be in New Orleans for New Years because I had never been before! I was going to a football game and if we won, great and if we lost, well that was okay too!! It was just football!! I was going to New Orleans and that is all I cared about!! Then game time got there, being in the Super dome was something I had never experience before. I was like a deer caught in headlights!! Then the game started, the atmosphere was awesome...the game just got better and better! And then George Teague chased the Miami player down the sideline and stripped the ball from him...the crowd went crazy!! I had a class with George that Semester!! This game is when I became a true Alabama fan, I finally understood what football at Alabama was and I couldn't believe that I was there to experience it!! It is and always will be one of my most memorable moments of college! My boys don't believe I was there. I wish I had pictures to prove it!! I want my kids to love Alabama Football as much as I do and I feel like they are getting it!! As one of Kate's first words was Roll!!! Whether she sees the Alabama A, Big Al, Football players in red and even Nick Saban she knows to say Roll!!! And sometimes she might roll her arms and say Roll Bide!!! She is 2!! So whether the SEC Championship leads us to a National Championship or not we LOVE the Tide and always will!!

Ben and Walker

Bess reading to Kate

Drew and Cole

Will and Cade

Kate sassy and cute in her Alabama Houndstooth!!!

After celebrating a big Alabama win on Saturday, our family was honored on Sunday at church to help celebrate something even better, and that is the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ!! During the Advent season different families participate in lighting the Advent Wreath. This Sunday was our Sunday! As Jason read the scripture, Mark 1:4-8, Will got the light from the Alter candle, gave it to Drew who lit the 1st candle and then gave it to Ben who lit the 2nd candle. Jason and I are doing our very best to raise our children in church and want them to know the true meaning of Christmas. I also pray each night that they will be followers of Jesus Christ and be leaders among their friends by sharing what they learn with others!

Trying to get a picture in front of all the poinsettias at church today. Not happening so easily!!

The kids in front of the Chrismon Tree at church. It is so pretty.

Our Family before we lit the Advent Candle.

Please continue to pray for little Erin Johnson. She is the 3 year old from Goshen that has a brain tumor. They operated last Friday and they were not able to remove it all during surgery because of bleeding and swelling. They finally were able to do a MRI last week and saw that indeed there was still some of the tumor left. Tomorrow the doctors will meet with the family to see where they go from here. Please keep them all in your prayers.

Have a great week!! Roll Tide and Merry Christmas!!!

Thanksgiving, Decorating for Christmas & ROLL TIDE!!!

What a BIG weekend we have had! Thanksgiving was great! We gathered at Mama Sally and Granddaddy's house for lunch. My parents joined us and we missed Amy this year as she spent Thanksgiving with the Drinkard's! We had way too much food and had to go back for supper!! Since Amy had to go into work at 3pm, Will brought Mary Hollis over!

We always get our tree the day after Thanksgiving and the Iron Bowl put a little kink in our plan but we managed to get it done just in time for the game! We get our tree every year from The Starlings. They have the prettiest trees in town! This year I picked out the first one Buddy showed me! It is probably the prettiest one we have had in a couple of years. We left our stand with the tree and LA came to pick it up for us and take it to our house. We then went home to fix some snacks to take to Lizzie and Brett's for THE GAME!!

We finally got t0 Lizzie and Brett's for the Iron Bowl. I was sick the entire game. I hate this game every year. No matter if we are 7-4 or 11-0. Game time was also Kate's nap time however she didn't nap. By the last 4 minutes of the game she was miserable. Jason went into Brett's tv room during the 3rd quarter to watch the game by himself. She couldn't decide if she wanted him or me. I went into the kitchen and tried to hold her in the football grip until she went to sleep but she would not go, so I just put her down. She then laid on the floor to pitch her fit. Finally, with a minute and a half left in the game she quit fighting and went to sleep on the kitchen floor! The game, in all sense of the word, wore her out!! I do LOVE Alabama Football but there are so many things that are so more important. While we were all caught up in the game The Patterson's were praying that their son would pull through it and The Johnson's were waiting in the waiting room of Children's Hospital to find out if their 3 year old daughter had cancer or not. So next time you get so caught up in your team losing a game, be thankful they are losing a game, things could be a lot worse!! Please do pray for the Patterson Family and the Johnson Family.

We stayed around for a little bit and then went home to start on the tree!! It was so late, well not that late, when we got home that I only got the lights and 8 ornaments on the tree! Those ornaments are the ones we get at Disney every year. I put the ones from last year on and then took the kids picture with the ones I got them this year. Kate was devastated when I took hers away and hung it on the tree. I decided that I wouldn't get the tree finished until she was napping the next day! Off to bed I went.....

Saturday I got all the fall decorations put up while Jason pressure washed the front of the house. He got the front porch done which was long overdue! Thanks, Jason! After all that was done I got the other decorations out. I accomplished a lot! Got the dining room table done, then I got my village out. Several of my light bulbs were out and I was out of snow so I had to make a run to Wal-Mart. While at Wal-Mart we ran into Lizzie and Brett and they bought Kate her very own Christmas tree! It is pink!! Got home, fed Kate and put her down for her nap. It was now time for power decorating so in the 2 hours she slept, I finished the tree, finished my village, decorated the outside of the house and then I began to clean up my mess as well as the mess the boys constantly leave around!! Then Lizzie and Walker came over to bring Kate her tree and help her decorate it! She knew just what to do and she was so proud of the finished product!! It has been a long day and so I am now off to bed!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I am thankful this year for my family, my friends, my health and all the many blessings God has given me.