Church Christmas Party

This year at the party, all 3 of my kids sat on Santa's lap without so much as one tear. I was/am a proud Mama. Cole and Zeke were in the Nativity pageant and were the stars of the show. It is too bad too because Cole was a goat and Zeke was a shepherd not one of the characters with names. I guess they are that good. Sage was so sad she wasn't in it. She asked the Primary president if she could be a goat next year. We sang Christmas carols and Sage was up there with the leader, leading the music. It was so cute. McKelle was all over the stage when no one was performing. She had the time of her life just walking around up there.

Happy Birthday Cole!

Cole didn't want a friend party this year as long as he could have Zeke at his party. I gave him an opportunity to change his mind for two weeks ensuring him that Zeke would be at both the friend and family party. He insisted that he only wanted a family party. When Wes got here on Wed. Cole ran up to Allie and said, "Allie, I decided to not have friend party but you can come because you are family." It was kind of cute. So Thurs. around 4:30, we headed over to the Billy Blevins house and started our party.



There were enough kids to play some kid games so I got us all together to play Farmer in the Dale (his cake was a farm). Cole was the farmer and after a few seconds, he tried to leave the game. I had him finish the one game and then he said, "Dad, I don't want to play games." Will said, "Okay, it's your party, what would you like to do?" Cole said, "I just want to ride my new bike." So off they went outside to ride the new bike. The adults looked at the ads for Black Friday and the kids played in the toys and on the swing.




We ate a second Thanksgiving diner and then opened presents and had cake. I think everyone had a good time, although it was not birthday party style. I guess that is how they do it in the south! ha ha ha Cole only stayed up until 9:30 because he was so tired. Happy Bithday cole and Happy Thanksgiving to all. I am thankful for my little boy who is not so little anymore. Also, I am thankful to have had 2 of my siblings here for thanksgiving. That has been the first time in many years. I had a blast!

Vines

One morning, we were walking through the battlefield and we decided to off road it. We came across this area with vines hanging out of the trees. That was fun because I have never NOTICED vines before. The kids had a blast swinging on them and playing monkies and tarzan on them. Zeke was even to swing from one to the other. We didn't have cameras but here are some pictures from a different time when the vines were revisited.

Family Pictures

Thanksgiving morning we (Wes and his family, my family and Victoria and her family) got up and went to the battlefield do do family pictures. We were first with Victoria behind the lense. McKelle did not want to cooperate, we were never looking at the same time and I guess I don't enjoy that stuff at all. It is kind of funny because I love pictures but I guess I don't love them so much when I have to get a group of squirmy kids to cooperate.



That is why I don't do paid photographers. I don't have the patience to do 500 poses and try to make kids happy all in the same timing. We will just say that our family pictures turned out less than perfect but that is okay.



Every cute picture of McKelle that we were lucky to get, she has a very runny nose. I guess that is why you pay people to photoshop?! We did get a few cute ones and I was the one to end the session, not the photographer.

It's Fall!

It's fall time....finally. Cole has been wanting to jump in the leaves for months! Finally there were more than enough leaves to play in. When piled up, the pile was as high as the trampoline. We had so much fun playing in them all day long. The kids dropped when it was bed time. I got burried and tried to grab them and pull them in. The kids took turns doing cool tricks off the trampoline into the huge pile. It was a great time. I don't love our trees but this is the one time of year that I really am glad we have them. Even raking them up is okay. A lot of work but it is kind of fun. I still have tons more to do but it won't stop raining.

It's A......

BOY

Due April 16th. Can't wait.

Halloween

Halloween week was so fun. Mon. was doing errands and getting Zeke signed up for school, Tues. we went to the county fair, on Wed. we had a Halloween Party at the Rossville story time, Wed. night was our church Halloween party, Thurs. was a party at the Chickamauga story time, Sat. morning Kim and Megan took the kids to the aquarium, Sat. night was trick-or-treating. The kids dressed up for all events (Cole and Zeke did not for the aquarium). Candy candy and more candy. The church party was really fun. Dempsey and Sage won a cake on the cake walk. After that the girls ate while the boys were doing the other games (face painting, lasso a horse, sucker pull, bean bag toss and fish pond). By the time the girls were finished eating, all the games were over so that was kind of the pits. Last but not least, the trunk or treat. Victoria took the kids around while I haded out the candy. She told me that the girls were so excited to get candy and were having a blast. It was great practice for Saturday night. Also, Will went hunting before the party and he shot his first deer! That was a fun surprise. The kids loved looking at it and Dempsey always stood where she was right in the middle of the blood. On Halloween night, Sage and Dempsey were having a blast trick-or-treating and then we had gone half a street and Sage took off running and tripped and landed on her face. She had road burn across her cheek. The next morning, her eye was all swollen and turning kind of purple. After her fall, she didn't want to trick-or-treat anymore. The Vanderslice's street blocked off and they had a air jump thing, free pictures, free hot dogs and cotton candy and popcorn. It was really a fun little place to go so we went there. From there, we went home.

County Fair

We went to Dalton's county fair. It was so much fun. I have always loved county fairs but theirs was even better than Delta's. We went early in the day on Tues. It was a special showing for school kids (we got invited to go with a play group). They had all the farm animals, a bear, and another exhibit with zebras, camels and some I had never heard of. When we went into the live stock area, one of the little boys with us, Miles, was holding his nose. He told me how bad it stunk. So I asked him if he wanted to live on a farm with the smell. He shook his head and said no. Cole pipes in, "I want to be a farmer and live on a farm. I love the smell!" Dempsey was so funny. She was so excited to see all the animals. She was petting everything she could and running around like crazy. Cole liked to pet them (which consists of touching them with one finger quickly. Sage loves pigs. She sat with the pigs for 10 minutes just yelling at them. "Pigs, wake up!" It was a lot of fun plus, there were hardly any people there so it didn't matter if they kids ran around.