Christmas ...

I can't believe I haven't mentioned Christmas. I never knew before I was a parent that Christmas day could be so exhausting. I guess when you stay up late getting everything in order for Christmas Day then you get woken up early to see what Santa left, there is a reason for being so tired.
We let Carson & Emilia open one gift on Christmas Eve night and they chose gifts from their Aunt Rhonda that lives in Georgia. She had sent them pottery barn Santa sacks that were monogrammed with their names and it was so cute. We left them out in the living room for Santa to put their things in and he did!!!
I always like to cook a good breakfast that we don't normally have on Christmas morning. Normally it's sausage and egg casserole b/c you can make it up and put in it the oven the next morning. This year I found a recipe from Paula Deen that was french toast casserole, which was similar, you made it the night before and put it in the fridge and then just baked it the next morning. We normally have fruit pizza and monkey bread as well but this year we had sausage balls, bacon and eggs.
My parents always like to come over Christmas morning to see what Santa brought but this year since they had no plans on Christmas Eve they came to over to eat supper with us and some friends that don't' have family here and spent the night. It was neat having us all here together to get up and see what Santa left and then open our gifts from each other.
After all the gifts, eating and playing we finally got dressed that afternoon out of our PJ's and then took a nap. I had looked on line at the movie schedule and saw that The Tale of Despereaux was showing at 5:05 that afternoon and asked Carson & Emilia if they would like to go after a nap. They said yes, so we all went to the movie and it was really cute. Nannie got us all popcorn and cokes and we had a great time. We then came back home to eat supper (tenderloin and some veggies) and then Nannie and Papa went back home to New Albany.
On Christmas Eve night, our friends, Ben & Angie and their children Madelyn and Jackson came over for supper. We had Cornish hens, sweet potato casserole, broccoli Parmesan, strawberry salad and sweet potato biscuits, then Angie brought chocolate chip pound cake, Vince's favorite. We have enjoyed having them the past three years now, since their family is out of town, it's just a fun time to eat, visit and play games. This year the kids made reindeer food to put in the yard that night.
Today is the end of yet another year, and I wish you all a HAPPY 2009 with lots more memories to be made. I'm looking forward to it!!!!

Thanks Sonya...

Yeah, I finally figured it out with short instructions from my friend Sonya!!
I just picked the first one I came upon to see if I could get it to work and it did, so expect to see this one for a while :)
We sure have been enjoying this warm weather and sunshine!!! The kids and I have been able to take walks, ride bikes and wash the car and it was so nice to just be outside and not in rain or freezing. We're going to bed now! Yeah.

Help ME!!!!

I keep going to cutest blog on the block, picking me out a new background, copying it, going to add a gadget, clicking on HTML or whatever, pasting the blah blah and clicking save, just like the instructions say and NOTHING happens. Please send me some elementary instructions on how to change this stuff!!!!

Almost Christmas....

My goodness, I keep saying, I need to update this thing but can never find the time!!!! I just looked and saw that it was November 11 since my last post (and I was getting on to Amy for not keeping up!)
So many things have happened since then. I have had so much fun participating in things with Carson's kindergarten class, of course I wrote about the pumpkin patch but since then, we've made a trip to the Christmas Tree Farm in Hatley. It was on Friday, Dec. 5 and it was SOOOOO cold that day. We drove down that morning and the class got to pick a tree for their school room. They had so much fun. I love Frasier fur trees and normally we get one here in Tupelo but I had made my mind up that since I was going with Carson's class that we would also pick us out a tree while there. Little did I know that they only had cypress trees. I was a little disappointed b/c I really wanted a fur but one of his teachers told me how great they held up by getting one that was fresh cut. So after hearing that and seeing that this tree farm donates proceeds from the trees to scholarships in memory of their daughter, whose name was also Shawna, spelled the same as me, I gave in and got the cypress. And might I add that our tree is beautiful. I hope to add pictures soon. We immediately put it in water when we got home and have had hardly any needles fall off, it still looks great!! We decorated it the same weekend, with the big, colored, Charlie Brown, lights and our ornaments and I love it.
Then another exciting thing we did was this past Friday night, December 12, my parents and the four of us made a short road trip to Birmingham, AL to ride the Polar Express. Carson and Emilia LOVE this movie and watch it ALOT. I was looking back in the summer about going to ride Thomas the Train somewhere and ran upon this. I made a note on my calendar that the tickets went on sale on October 27 and got on-line that day to order our tickets. It was so much fun. They do the rides starting the weekend after Thanksgiving through the weekend before Christmas. All the rides are at night and you can wear your PJ's!!!!! What fun!!!! My mom bought Carson and Emilia new "polar" bear PJ's and red robes to wear and she and I also wore our PJ's. My dad and Vince opted to keep their jeans on. Anyway, you board the train car your ticket is for and it starts going.... you hear the story of the Polar Express and then you eventually end up at the North Pole. There, Santa, Ms. Santa and the Elves are waiting for you. The elves board the train first and give everyone a bell, then Santa and Ms. Santa board for autographs and pictures. Then the chefs come on with cookies and chocolate milk, then the elves come back on and give all the children a polar express Christmas Tree ornament. And I forgot to mention that the whole train sings Christmas carols so that Santa could hear us coming. What fun it was, and oh my, the memories we'll have of this.
I think that's all, considering that Christmas is now 7 days away..... time flies, and I still have the same wallpaper on this blog that Amy put on here when I first started. I go to Roan Johnson's and think how cute and neat it looks and look at mine and think how it never changes. Oh well, maybe one day I'll have time to figure it out!!!!!If I don't get back on here before next Thursday, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

The Smokey Mountains

Well, I added pictures from our recent trip to the mountains but haven't gotten around to a post until now. We went to visit my grandmother, the last grandparent I have living, the third week in October, who lives in in Sevierville, TN. She lives in an absolutely beautiful area overlooking the French Broad River with the mountains in view from her living room window. Anyway, I try to go visit her at least every 6 months and it was time to go. I was also trying to plan it with the leaves changing color although I think we could have waited a week or so longer. We did go up to to Wears Valley the day after we got there to make "Christmas Card" pictures which are some that I have posted. Then we rode through Cades Cove, the kids love looking for animals. We saw about 200 deer that day. We were able to go to my first cousins daughters 5th birthday party while we were there as well, which was at a bounce house in Knoxville that was really fun.
We did a little shopping and just visited with family, but had a great time.

Pumpkin Patch at Blue Mountain

This year Carson's kindergarten class went to the Pumpkin Patch in Blue Mountain, MS. We had been as a family a couple of times before and really enjoy this Pumpkin Patch. All of the kids but two could ride on the Church Bus this year so Madelyn and Carson rode with me since I was taking Emilia with us too. And Madelyn's mom, Angie and my mom also went. We had a really good time. We got there first thing before the other schools and were able to be first in line at everything since we were the first one's to start and that was nice. The children got to feed and pet the animals at the barn, we saw a peacock, ponies, goats, sheep and chickens, we each got to pick a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch and then we ended the morning with a sack lunch at the picnic tables. It was fun watching Carson with his school friends and being able to be a part of this day. There were lots of moms (and a few dads) who went and all of the children were very well behaved. I would also like to add that Carson's teachers are wonderful, Ms. Elizabeth and Ms. Fredda, they are two of the sweetest ladies I have ever met and they are obviously teaching these children so much! I appreciate them and try to lift them up in prayer everyday. Thanks Ladies!!

Wise Farms - Corn Maze, Ecru, MS

I guess we started the family tradition of going to Wise Farms in Ecru, MS with my parents 2-3 years ago. This is another Fall activity that we really enjoy doing. Vince has not gotten to go with us due work conflicts and I do hope that one day he will be able to join us. Wise Farms is a farm in Ecru that is the neatest place. They are open the month of October until Halloween. There is a corn maze that is always cut to be some kind of character or picture. This year they had the 8 acre maze which is the larger one and then a smaller one that was 1 acre. They have pumpkin shooting, a wagon ride, a pumpkin patch, a huge hay stack for the kids to play on, a trough of corn, a smaller barrel ride for the kids, and they even had pony pulled carriages this year. It's a great place to go as a family or even as a group since they also offer bon fires with hotdogs and such.
There is a web site wisefarmer.com if anyone that reads this is interested.
I forgot to mention that normally my brother and his family meet us there but they were not able to come this year so we took a friend of ours from church who also goes to kindergarten with Carson with us, Madelyn. She had a great time.