Lexington Christmas Parade

Okay, one day we (Steve and I) will learn. It is ALWAYS colder than we think!!!! Sunday we took the kids to the parade here in Lexington. Let me just say, it's been a while since I was that cold. I didn't think my feet would ever thaw!!

Drew is enjoying a cup of hot chocolate. One local had a great ministry idea and was passing out the wonderfully warm drink. They could have sold it I'm sure but instead they were blessing the community!!

One of the nice things about parades if you are a kid, is free candy. You know, since they never get any at other times. Landon was in awe of all that he saw. Nothing bothered him--not even the fire truck who blew his siren right in front of him. (Right after that is when we took this picture)
Casey and her baby huddled to keep warm. Finally I got her to sit in my lap--that way she had my body heat and I had her to sit on my hands and keep them warm!!
So what was my favorite part of the parade?Seeing Santa. I knew when we finally saw Santa that we could get back in the car where it was warm!!! I think this was Steve's favorite part also!!

Cereal anyone?

The other morning, Landon wanted breakfast faster than I was able to get to him so he took matters into his own hands!! He got into the cabinet and opened the cereal and had some!!

Decorating the tree

This year was a lot of fun as we decorated our Christmas trees!! Landon and Casey both wanted to help Steve as he put the tree together. Shelby read us the story of Christ birth while the trio put the tree together. Drew and I just hung out and watched!!After getting the tree up, Landon decided the best place to be was in the corner, behind the tree!! You know in the most difficult place for us to get to him!!! Steve and I wondered what our parents did when we were little at Christmas. Mimi did say that one year the tree got put in the playpen. We found the solution for our tree. It has a baby play "fence" around it. Not the most attractive thing in the world but I'll still have ornament next year--and hopefully they will all still be uneaten. (That was just for Jennifer. I'm sure she's laughing, right Jen? Nate ate one of her ornaments when he was about this age!!)Shelby is getting pretty good at climbing the ladder to put the topper on. This was her year to put the angel on our big tree and Drew did the star on the other tree. I don't think that Drew will need a stool for the smaller tree after this year. He is growing like crazy!!Casey got the honor of hanging the first ornament on tree this year. Then Landon got some help from Mommy to hang his ornament. Then Drew and Shelby did the rest of the decorating. This was the first year that we let them do both of the trees. I did have to go and move one or 2 ornaments so that they would be in a safer location in case someone got inside of our fence!!!

Happy Anniversary...

Mimi and Kokopat!!!!!!!!
We love you and hope that you have a wonderful day.

USC Tuition Dollars Hard At Work....

This morning, I decided it was time to change the blog background. What do you think? Like it? I hope so because it made me sick!!!
See I got the background on there and guess what....
It looked great except for one small detail......
ALL of my text had disappeared!!!!
I almost cried!!! I called Melinda to tell her--knowing she and Jennifer would know exactly how I felt. Sorry Jen you were at work so you get the benifit of my experience and a good laugh I'm sure!!!
The first thing Melinda said was "I'm sure you can get it back. Are your background and text the same color?" Well DUH!!! So I changed my text color and guess what,
all is well again--as you can tell since you can actually read this post. I know that there are several of you out there who need to stop laughing RIGHT NOW (and you know who you are)!!
Melinda, thanks for not laughing at me--even if you did laugh after we hung up the phone!
For those of you who told me several times that you missed the links to other blogs, I remembered to put them back this time. And now if you notice, you will see when they have been updated!! Cool huh?

Happy Birthday Grandma

We hope that you have a wonderful day. We love you.

What a weekend

Steve and I owe Jack and Jammie a HUGE thank you. Casey had a wonderful time at their house on Thursday. Although after seeing Jack get the turkey ready to be cooked, they were not sure she would ever eat it again. The good news is that it looks way different by the time it hits her plate. We had a great time with the big kids and Landon helping to feed people who might have otherwise not gotten a hot meal. I know from talking to Drew and Shelby that they were shocked at all the people. They did great. Landon is still sounding stuffy but since he had to stay indoors all weekend, he has not had as much wheezing. Steve said he sounds just like he did when he got winded as a child in the winter.

We had a great, long and WET weekend. Well, it could have been better--FOOTBALL--need I say more? So what all did we do? Well, Steve and I got up at o dark 30 so that HE could go shopping!! Yes HE!!! He went and then he called and said "Do we really need this stuff? I'll be here for hours just standing in line to pay!" I said, "Nope I already ordered it online." There was nothing I needed bad enough to go out and get in that mob--not if I could get it on line--paying shipping (which I didn't have to do) would have been worth it!!! So Steve came home and we took a quick nap!!
After that we prepared for the Rooneys to come for a visit. We were not totally sure they would be able to come because Lance's mom had a heart attack on Wed. She is still in the hospital and getting NO rest but doing good.
Jennifer and I went shopping while the guys watched all 7 kids!!! Thanks guys we had a great time!!! We wanted to get a few things and at least we picked the day when it was still sunny and everyone could go outside!!
Here we are after shopping. The little girls love that we are "twins" just like they are. What makes us twins with them? Matching shirts of course--theirs are Tinker Bell.
Saturday morning was wet but boy was it nice!! Why? Because the rain "helped" everyone to sleep. This was the first time in history that all 7 kids (or any number of our kids) have slept past 6 when we were together. The first one to get up was Casey but she got in our bed and went back to sleep. So what time did they all start getting up? 8!!!!!!!!!
After such a great nights sleep the guys were willing to run out and pick up something the store had been out of on Friday. Don't we have great husbands? When they got home we had breakfast and then the adults spent the next hour or so laughing at each other? The kids got in on it to!! Why you ask? One word "Wii". Here is Lance doing hola hoops on the wii fit....We also spent time playing cards and telling kids not to run and referring who's turn it was on the gamecube, wii, computer, to use the dvd you name it. I think if Casey and Nate could have had control of the tv all weekend, they would have stayed just like this!! They really wanted to go out but with it raining and all.....
And can you believe it that even after 2 full days of rain, we were all still smiling.....
Well most of us were anyway. Some of us (Casey and Nate) didn't want to stop watching George and Landon really wanted to climb the stairs--not be held by mommy!! All in all it was a wonderful weekend. We hated that our sitter was out of town and we couldn't go out with Jack and Jammie but we were blessed by time with friends also.
PS all pictures of Casey may be in the same shirt from here on out. She has found 1 that is now her favorite and she is putting it on for the 3rd day. It's not the one she's wearing in the pictures because I did get it off of her for a little bit.