Man Coat

Funny story... This is J.J.'s "man coat" as the kids call it! A couple of weeks ago I had another blazer or man coat for him to wear to church, and this is when it got the name. The kids loved it and especially this boy. He was so proud to wear it, and asked Jeff to wear his man coat to church too. This morning I had all the kids church clothes on the back of the couch just like everyday. When they came down stairs to get dressed we heard J.J. say "YEESSS a man coat!"
You should see him wear it. His chest automatically puffs out and he puts on a proud smile. What sweet cheeks he is!

Icey Wonderland!

Although snow would have been a lot more fun...the ice sure is pretty.

It won't be long...

This is what we did tonight after supper, and they were so excited about it! I think because I let them use real tea, and we made chocolate chip cookies. It was the first time the twins had had any tea. We talked with our "British accents", and held up our pinkies. Afterwards L.C. said "That was fun mom." I so love that boy!

I just wish that I could hold on to these little babies and not let them grow up! It won't be long (Luke is getting closer) that they won't have anything to do with us, and will (like all teens) think that their parents are idiots. For now I am going to soak it all up and take lots of pictures because my little brain won't remember it all.

Tonight I walked by Pipi's room and she was laying in bed with her lamp on reading "Counting Kisses" to her babies. She does this most nights. I ran down to get the camera so I could video her, but by the time I got back up there she had finished and turned out her light! Such a sweet pea she is.

Jeff is at a coaches clinic tonight, so I have my precious No-Bo sleeping with me...that should be fun with feet and knees in my back!

Yesterday I was telling the little ones that I had soccer conditioning after school, so I wouldn't be around for the plans they were making. J.J. then said "YEESSS I get to have some Daddy time" Then he asked if it was sour dough bread day(Jeff brings a loaf home every Thursday.)

Oh one more random thought...which I have them all the time. Tuesday someone in our neighborhood (I think the one in charge of the association) stopped by and said that someone else had complained about one of our trees leaning too much. They were afraid that it was going to fall and possibly hurt someone. I think all the rain from this past week caused the leaning tree. Well I guess they were probably right, so 30 minutes before I had my keeno girls over we had a guy here cutting the tree down. I sure didn't expect to drop $100 bucks on a tree when I woke up that morning!! I am so glad now that it is cut down with all the ice we are supposed to get tonight. Such is life!

One of these things is not like the other...

This girl LOVES her baby dolls!

Nothing in common

These pictures have nothing in common. They are just some random things to blog about.

I love it when the kids dress up...especially when they "invent" their own costumes. These are the most recent.


We played twister the other night and had so much fun. I promise the kids did play too!!


Look what's for lunch. I saw this octopus somewhere and thought I would try it. You should have seen them trying to eat it. J.J. ate the head first and then the legs went everywhere.


The little ones convinced me to buy a baby watermelon the other day at the store. I wasn't so sure how it would be in the middle of winter, but it tasted great, and of course for my crew of watermelon lovers wasn't enough. It felt just weird eating watermelon in the dead of winter too. Almost like we were cheating on summer. I think we will wait until then to get another!

Don't you just love this beautiful bowl. It was a Christmas gift this year. It is hand made by an awesome carpenter that I know...Jeff's dad (AKA Ron or Papa)! It looks great on the dining room table that he also made us! He has started a venture in bowl making, and is amazing at what he does. All of the bowls are very unique. He has been making about a bowl a day and will start selling them soon!

Army Party

My Big boy turned 9 in December (23rd), but we decided to wait until after the holidays to have his party. He was so excited about having an army party, and it actually turned out to be pretty easy. You bark orders to the kids and they play along by answering "YES MAM" or "NO SIR", and if they don't you make them do push ups! Maybe we should play army everyday!


We love trick candles. It took him several tries to get these out. The bad part is more spit on the cake...yum, yum!

Designed by L.C. and decorated by me!


Here they are...ready, willing, and able!


Basic training...no smiles soldier...give me 10 more!


We played several games. This was the wounded soldier. They had to pick a teammate and "bandage" them with a whole roll of TP and them put them on a stretcher (towel) and bring them back to the start. This group was smart and picked their smallest (and cutest) player.


Target practice with various (nerf) guns!


Jeff set up a very cool obstacle course in the weight room for them to go through. They each went 3 times with the last time being timed,and they had to carry a nerf gun to hit targets along the way.


The final activity was a secret "mission". Jeff (the commander) made a map of the school that had rooms labeled on it. In one of those rooms was a missing person they had to find. They got to run the halls of the whole school searching. The teams had walkie talkies and communicated with the commander. After finding the missing person they had to return back to the command post with out being hit by a nerf gun dart.

This ended up being a cheap party. I went to the Army recruiter office and they gave me army footballs, pencils, and stickers for the treat bags. My sweet L.C. decided not to have presents but instead asked each kid to bring items to send to our adopt a soldier deployed overseas. We got a bunch of items that I now have to package up and send. Luckily I have a little break until I have to start planning the next Birthday (twins in May), but they have already started talking about it and making plans!

Snow Day!

We were excited to get a little snow at our house which started on Thursday night. It was just enough to call off school on Friday, but not enough to really play in. On Friday we decided to drive up to Highlands to see if they had any more snow which is usually the case. I wouldn't say they got a much more than we did, but it was certainly colder there. (Not that the 18 degree weather at home wasn't cold). It was about 10 degrees there. All of the lakes were frozen and covered with snow.


There is a place in Highlands, N.C. that we found a couple of years ago to sled. I don't think we are really supposed to be there, but so far we haven't been told to leave. I guess because there is nobody there to tell us to! It is at a state park that seems to be a really cool place in the summer with a lake to swim in and a lot of trails. Every time we go to sled we always say that we need to go back in the summer...maybe we will remember that this summer.

This hill (behind Pipi) is actually a road that leads down to the lake. Hey it works for us!



Hopefully we will get another chance to sled again this winter. The kids had a blast, and did not want to stop despite our freezing toes and their rosy, red, windburn cheeks.

This little girl was such a little snow bunny! I think we are in for a wild ride with this one. She rode down the hill with L.C. and had no fear...I really think the faster the better for her. Doesn't that "Sassy" hat suit her?!


Don't you love this little Angel!
What's funny is you can really tell here how much snow we were playing in.


Check out this "getup". I have to say though, he was the warmest one!

Christmas 2009

The picture above of Pipi is on Christmas eve when they saw a video message on the computer
that Santa sent them.






























Well here is how we spent our Christmas in no particular order. The layout is crazy, but I am too tired tonight to try and fix it. We had a great holiday getting to first spend time in Pickens and have 2 days of celebrating Christmas with family. We then came home for a couple of days and celebrated here. Santa A.K.A "Christmas" was good to everyone. It was nice spending time with everyone, but we were ready to get home to our messy house. It has taken me a long time to get everything unpacked and as you can see post pictures. That is why i am going to let these pictures tell the story instead of me!

Yet another reason to celebrate

I am really behind on blogging I know, but I needed to wish this old man a Happy Birthday. Only one more year before we celebrate a big one (He's already requested that there be no surprise party, so we won't have one... wink, wink). Last year I was really creative and came up with 38 reasons why I loved him, but my brain is not working now, so I am just going to say how lucky I am to have such an amazing husband and father for our kids. I guess we will be pretty old in double the amount old you are now (does that make sense?)! I love you my Jeffers...Happy Birthday to you!!!

I have a ton of great Christmas pictures I will catch up on soon I promise!

Happy New Year to everyone!