Christmas with the Cards

We had the Cards over last night to celebrate Christmas. We made personal pan pizzas. It was so fun!!! Cindy brought over some yummy cookies for dessert and we enjoyed our pizzas. They were really good.
We exchanged Christmas gifts. The kids were so excited to open their gifts. The girls got princess houses with little dolls and Aidan got a pop up play environment (that's what it's called).


FUN TIMES HAD BY ALL :-)

Christmas Party with MY GIRLS

Top Picture (Tracie, Kristin, Maggie, Janie and Charlotte)

Bottom Picture (Maggie, Kristin, Charlotte, Tracie and Janie)

I have been SO BLESSED to have these girls in my life. They are all freshman this year in college. We have been doing a Bible study together this semester and it has been a wonderful time.
We decided to have secret santas. We all drew names and gave our secret santa little gifts through out the season. We found out who had us at the party. It was so much fun. Charlotte had me. I got the coolest calendar from her. She took 12 pictures from my photo albums and had them made into a calendar. It is such a fun gift!
The girls all gave me a gift certificate to an outdoors store to get some sandals I've been wanting (Chacos). I ordered them and get them real soon - YEAH!

Staff Christmas Party

We had our church staff Christmas party the other night. It was a lot of fun!! We gathered at Debbye and Blair's
home. We had a wonderful meal that every one pitched in for and brought a dish (pot luck). It was a great time. Then we played pictionary. It was SO MUCH FUN... especially since the ladies won! haha. What a great night!

FOLLOWING IN MOMMA'S FOOTSTEPS

My sweet Avery is now at the age where she can do some "bigger" chores. I taught her how to vaccuum her and Addie's room the other day. I LOVE to vaccuum! I wanted to share the joy with Avery. She enjoyed it as well... runs in the family. She loves to use the dust buster around the house.
The other day she helped me put stamps on Christmas cards... She washed potatoes for me... and she cut foil for me to wrap the potatoes in.
I am so proud of this girl... she's precious!!!
To know her is to love her!

ADDIE'S FIRST SLEEP OVER

Addison went to sleep over at Charlotte's house. Aunt Charli is what we call her. Charlotte (for those of you who have not met her) is an 18 year old friend of the family. She goes to our church (that's how we met). I have done Bible study with Charlotte for 2 years now. Right now we are doing a study with 3 other of Charlotte's friends too. Kristin was also at the sleep over. Kristin is Charlotte's best friend and has become very near and dear to my heart as well. She is one of the girls in my Sunday night Bible study. She is a freshman at UT.
So when Addie went to spend the night with Charlotte and Krisitn, we (me, Ted, Avery and Aidan) went out to dinner. We all talked about how much we missed Addie. Avery has gone to spend the night at Charlotte's before. Aidan is next I guess... Addie and Charlotte have a real special relationship.

OH CHRISTMAS TREE...

We put our tree up (a few weeks ago)... I am a litte behind on my blogging. It was a sweet time. The kids are getting more of the age where they can help more. The ornaments were in one location (I had to spread them out). Charlotte came over and helped us. It was a FUN day!

VISIT FROM ALEX!!!

Alex Herrera came for a visit a few weeks ago. It was a great time!!! We had such a good time. There were a few leaves left on the trees when she got here. She missed the Fall colors by a few weeks. The first day she was here it SNOWED. It was so pretty... it looked like we were in a snow globe. Alex gave the kids gifts ... Aidan got this Cars t-shirt which he now want to wear everyday of his life! Avery got a Barbie and Barbie kitchen and Addie got her first Barbie (Avery was glad so that Addie would focus on her own Barbie).

We took Alex to some fun places. It was such a great 5 days. COME BACK AGAIN ALEX.... we loved having you!

Alex is one of the students we first met when we worked with the Youth at Irving Bible Church. We met Alex at the beginning of her Senior year. She was in Common Ground (the college ministry we did for 2 years at Irving Bible Church). We've known Alex for about 8 years... She's a blast!

THANKSGIVING 2006

We had a great Thanksgiving! We spent the day at the Mazon's home. We had a great meal with great fellowship. We had quite the spread. Each family pitched in and we had a wonderful meal The Mazons had this great pile of leaves in their back yard that provided a great amount of entertainment. The dads took the kids to the park while the women hung out around the house (with the napping kids). We had a great day. The Blockers were also there. Alex Herrera was visiting for the week and she joined us and also a friend from church named Chuck.
and some great desserts.

Leaves, leaves GO AWAY

Today is the day for us to see our grass again. We have 6 trees in our front yard and they have lost their leaves. While they must be feeling naked, our grass is feeling smothered! So today Mr. Bruce came over to help us blow the leaves. They got them all moved out of the yard and into a GIANT compost pile in my neighbors back yard (she told us to dump them at the bottom of her hill). Ted was shaking the trees because there are more leaves and we will be doing this again next weekend.... it won't be as bad though.

They blew them all into one HUGE long pile and are moving them out one tarp load at a time. The kids had a blast playing in them. The Randall kids were over and a few neighborhood kids as well. Our house was the place to be. It was like a giant ball pit but with leaves... and on the street (which is kind of dangerous)... WE WERE WATCHING...
HAPPY FALL YALL!

Cold Nights... our favorite!

Now that the nights are cold our favorite thing to do is put a fire in the fire place and all lay down in the living room. It's our favorite time of year. The other night we all (except for Addie) fell asleep in the living room by the fire. What a sweet family memory.

Some friends just gave us some fire wood to last us a while (Thank you to the Rankins!).

I LOVE THE FALL!!

Women's Retreat

I went on the Women's Retreat last weekend. It was SOOOO enjoyable. I didn't take too many pictures (I wish I would have). We had 40 women from our church go up to the mountains and stay in three different cabins. It was absolutely beautiful. Our topic for the weekend was living FULLY ALIVE. The speaker, Kimberly Waldron did an incredible job. I had a wonderful weekend.

The group picture is my discussion group that I faciliated after each lesson we attended. The other pictures are of Charlotte (aka Charli).

THE SMOKY MOUNTAINS

We went up to the Moutains on Friday (before we went to the Nascar place). We drove up to the
TN/North Carolina border which is at the top of the mountains (it was COLD). It was Avery's birthday on Friday. She so enjoyed being all together and getting a day away. Ted took the day off and we headed out at 8:30am
and didn't get home until like 6:30pm. It was absolutely beatiful. When we left we went so Becky and Gwen could get a rock from a stream. They about froze their hands off getting the rocks out of the water.

NASCAR HERE WE COME!

Nanny Beck and Nanny Gwen treated Avery and Aidan to a day at Nascar. They had a blast (we did too!). The Nascar place is a place in Pigeon Forge. You can ride in the race cars.
Ted and I got to drive them in the bigger cars. They had a little ride they got to ride (Ted and I rode it too). They also got to ride in a train (which Addie loved!). Even Nanny Gwen and Nanny Beck drove in the race cars. It was a fun day!

Ted's sisters come for a visit

We had such a great time with Gwen and Becky... Ted's sisters. They both live in Port Arthur, Texas. They drove the long 14 hours to be with us and we SO appreciate it! They are incredible with the kids. They both spent lots of with the kids. Becky painted a jewlery box with Avery. Gwen and Becky took all three kids
and went to Wal-Mart (they are brave :-). They took them to McDonalds. The kids had a great time... and that was all the first day. They surprised us and made us a BIG POT of VERY YUMMY gumbo. On Thursday we took a drive and saw the beautiful colors of Fall here in East TN. We had lunch here at home and then Becky and Gwen kept our kids while we had Life Group. On Friday we headed to the Mountains... it was SO MUCH FUN. It was a sweet time bonding with our sisters.... They are two special ladies!

Meet Ruff-ie

This is Ted's sister's dog... Zoe that Addison insisted on calling Ruffie - by the time Ted's sisters left... I was calling the dog ruffie too....

Ted's sisters Becky and Gwen came for a GREAT visit. We had such a good time with them. The kids enjoy being with their Nanny Beck and Nanny Gwen. Ted and I did too!

Trick or Treat

We went to the Blockers for their 4th annual Fall Festival gathering. Amanda way out did herself this year. THE FOOD WAS GREAT... she had all these cold cut trays with incredible breads and all kinds of goodies. There must have been like 50 or more people there hanging out... it was so much fun. We then hit the neighborhood and went trick or treating. Ted and I went as high school sweet hearts (haha). We both wore our stuff from high school.
My favorite was Johnny and Becky dressed as Troy and Gabriella from High School Musical... very creative.