Sweetness...

Go Colts!!!

We had a super fun night last night watching the game with friends and family, and celebrating our huge victory over the Jets. Superbowl, and Saints, here we come!!
Go Colts!!!!
For those not interested in football, or even worse, those who don't like the Colts (haters! ;), here's a picture of my cutie patootie. Happy Monday!

Be sure to head on over to Jamie's blog, and check out her hairbow giveaway. You can enter, just don't win, because I'm going to ;).

Christmas at Opryland

This is one of our very favorite Christmas traditions. Every year we head to Opryland to see the lights and eat at a fabulous dinner buffet. This year we went on Christmas Eve and expected it to be crazy busy. Thankfully, it was just about right. There were still lots of people there, but not as many as we expected. Dinner was sooo good, and the sights were amazing.

Christmas with our second family

After the stocking stuffer we went to have another Christmas with friends who are just like family. Can you believe all these girls?? And another on the way! Poor Michael... (I would have slept through this picture too!)


Yes, I know the picture is fuzzy, but it was too sweet. They must be telling secrets. That's something that little girls do best.

Vince taking the afternoon off after a big win...


These girls are just like sisters to me. We have been through so much together.

Christmas

Just a *little* late ;). We had such a wonderful Christmas this year. We were able to fit in so many visits with friends and family - some that we hadn't seen in way too long. We are so blessed.

Christmas started with Brad's extended family annual Christmas Stocking Stuffer. Maggie was a ham all night. I have about 100 pictures of her looking just like this. She would stare someone down until they would look at her and smile, then she would try to charm them with her ways. She's crazy....


Opening her stocking...


Trust me when I say *I tried* to find a family photo with Brad's eyes opened. There were 3 total, and his eyes were completely closed in the other two. Not sure where Kate is here - probably eating candy ;)


One of Brad's cousin's little girl was cracking me up with her "makeup". She couldn't get enough on. She was putting lipstick everywhere!

44th Street Fabric

I just found this a-mazing fabric blog with the CUTEST fabric ever. I can't WAIT to get my hands on some new Moda fabrics and make some cute, cute skirts for my shop just in time for Valentine's Day!

I'm blogging about it, in hopes of winning their drawing this week, and getting my prize DOUBLED! Yeah!! So if you're into fabrics, head over and check out 44th Street Fabric and enter to win!!

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

We finally put up our Christmas tree and got down a few of our decorations after Kate's constant nagging. I pulled out last year's stack of Christmas cards and the girls went through them one by one, especially stopping to look at the Sleeping Beauty card from Shelby, and all the photos. They have their own little tree in their room that they have decorated, redecorated, and drug around from one room to the other. This is what Christmas is all about.

Livie found this Santa hat and fell in love with it. "Mom, I just love this hat like Santa. Can I please sleep in it tonight?"

We had our first snow last night! Kate could not think of anything else except getting her coat on and going outside. When she had asked me one too many times, I said, "Kate, it's not time yet. When it is, I will tell you. Don't ask again." So she found herself a little chair and set it up in front of the window so she could "watch it" :). I finally scrounged around and found some warm things, and like any good mother, I am watching them play from the warmth of my office window :).

Making Cider

1 Little, 2 Little, 3 Little Indians

The whole tribe...


"How"

Potato Creek State Park

The girls and I got to take a spur of the moment vacation with my friend Alaina and her three sweet little boys. We had such a great time. The playground was visible from our cabin, so the kiddos spent quite of bit of time there. We also managed to squeeze in a trip to the local orchard to pick some apples.

The tire swing was their favorite, and we had to intervene once they started looking green.



This kid has the greatest eyes ever. What a cutie!


Getting all six of them to pose proved impossible. Maggie and Ty were not wanting their siblings to hold them :).


The view was breathtaking! Hasn't this been the most beautiful fall?


Thank you, Alaina, for a wonderful time!

Ever wonder what 70 would look like?

Happy Birthday, Joy! 70 looks GREAT on you!

Kate helping Miss Joy blow out the candles, then blow out the candles again, and again, and again... Paw Paw had to throw in his "trick candles" ;). After pumpkin cake, we enjoyed a fun and relaxing game of Quiddler in which I *almost* won. (no need to say who actually won - that's all water under the bridge ;)

Not my favorite day

I overheard the girls talking among themselves this morning:

Olivia - "I wish we didn't have a mom and dad and it was just us kids. You know, just us, and Taylor and Ella and Ali and Caleb."


Kate - "Yeah, that would be fun! I wish our mom went to work and our dad stayed home!"


Olivia - (laughing) "Our mom can't go to work! She's not very strong!!"


Kate - "Yeah, but some moms go to work. The ones that are taller than the dads."


Definitely not the heart warming conversation every mom dreams of overhearing, but really I couldn't help but laugh. How do they think of these things?


In their defense, it has been a rough day. We've been slowly sliiiiding down the path of talking back and not obeying with a happy heart, and I was determined that today would be different. I haven't seen the difference yet, but I'm sure it will come with time :-P. I am very tired of answering to "Mooooooommmmm!" and hearing crying. Oh the crying. I know I am blessed beyond belief, but this has just been one of "those days".


This afternoon we ran out on an emergency run to get my sewing machine fixed. It works well enough to use, but it wasn't feeding my material through properly, and I needed to get it back to perfection before a big sewing day tomorrow. I have been looking for a place up here to replace the sewing center I went to in Murfreesboro. Unfortunately I haven't found one yet. The people I met today treated me like I was stupid. Every question I asked they answered in a demeaning way. I asked the lady what kind of needles she liked best for embroidery and her answer was: "embroidery needles". Wow. Thanks. When I asked the man what was causing my feed dogs to not work properly, his response was "user error". When I asked him what the user error was his answer was "various things". No expounding at all. I had to prompt every reply. When I got packed up to leave, he very snidely commented that if I was so dependant on my machine I should have a backup - as if this idea had never crossed my mind before, and I could pick up a spare for a measly $5.


The day ended with a successful trip to the library. I just love our library. It has a huge children's section that is it's own room entirely. I can set the kids free in there while I shop around. They also have a huge selection of audiobooks - I go through about 2 a week, listening while I sew or do housework. Speaking of housework, that's what I really need to be doing right now. I'll end with a few photos of the girls that we took a couple weeks ago at Olivia's birthday party. I'm sure most of you have already seen them on Facebook, but here they are for those of you who haven't ;).

They're all smiling!!!

Wonder what daddy was doing behind the camera ;)

Trip to MI

Brad's boss lent us his guest house in Michigan for the weekend of our anniversary. It was the first time we had really gotten away since kids, and it was marvelous. Really, marvelous. We loved just being free to do what we wanted when we wanted without worrying about naps or bedtime, and being able to eat junk food for breakfast or lunch if we wanted ;). We had landed with several gift cards to various places, so our first stop was to a super nice outdoor mall on our way up. We went to all of the stores we had gift cards to, and ended up with $200 worth of merchandise for $15 out of pocket - and all kinds of new clothes for our trip :). It was a blast!

Then we headed to Shipshewanna, IN for the day on Friday. It is Amish/Mennonite country, with lots of delightful shops and wonderful eating places. The people were so friendly, and the kids were so cute with their bowl cuts and "plain" attire. We stumbled upon one of the greatest fabric stores, that Brad basically had to drag me out of. We also did the Menno-Hof museum which was most informative, and a buggy ride.

Then we headed up to Diamond Lake that evening to sleep in our cottage. The view was amazing, and so many of the houses surrounding the lake were multi-million dollar homes. It was just like something out of a magazine. Saturday morning it rained, so we took the opportunity to go and see a movie - something we both love, but don't get the chance to do very often with the kiddos. By Saturday afternoon it had cleared off, so we headed back to the lake to do a little jet-skiing. Wow. Neither of us had done that since the we went with Adam and Rosie 5 years ago. It was even better than we remembered - even if I couldn't sit directly down on my rear end the next morning in worship (do I need to say that Brad was driving??)

That evening we drove to South Haven to eat at a nice restaurant and watch the sun set on Lake Michigan. It was the perfect anniversary weekend. I can't believe how fast 7 years has gone!

(This wasn't from our trip ;). Brad took this picture yesterday after I watered the flowers and I thought it turned out so cool I just needed to post it :)