Still kickin'....

...barely.

We hosted Thanksgiving for about 25-ish people yesterday.

I cooked a 19 pound turkey with a little help from Google and my parents.

We had enough food to cover the entire ping pong table in the garage.

I washed dishes after the 25-ish people ate (with help, of course).

I went out at 8:30pm to stand in line for Toys R Us's 10pm opening.

I woke up this morning at 5:30am to get back out in Black Friday Madness (which I actually do enjoy and only do it because I love that time with my mom and mother-in-law...we always have so much fun).

I played with two kids most of the afternoon.

I decided to remove the futon in the playroom to make room for the Christmas chaos that will be coming in 4 weeks.

I worked with Chad to move the futon to our bedroom, which naturally led to rearranging every piece of furniture in our room, as well as vaccuming up assorted dust bunnies.

I clipped Harris Teeter coupons for tomorrow.

I balanced the check book, paid some bills, and updated my Christmas Gift List.

I am laying in bed typing this post feeling sad that I didn't get a single picture in the last two days.

I forgot to wish Jake a happy 13 month birthday.

But I'm still kickin'.

Barely.

Way Back When-esday- Turkey Style!

I have so many things to blog about (yet so little time...might be that 2 dozen people coming over to my house Thursday expecting food or something- ha ha!)

So, instead I leave you with my two turkeys on their first Thanksgivings.....

(Brooklyn 9 months old)

(Jake 1 month old...and his shirt says "Thanksgiving Rocks" not "Sucks" ha ha!)

Happy Thanksgiving, ya'll!

Making History...

Brooklyn's Kindergarten at school recently buried their time capsules. According to Brooklyn (because I really do not remember receiving anything in her backpack or folder about this project), "when they are 18 they will come back and look at their pictures." It's a great idea, and I hope that in 13 years we will be coming back around to check out what she buried.

Such a big girl even after only 9-ish weeks of school!

And just because I think it's hilarious...

This is not really a "Patriotic song" but it is another song that Brooklyn has learned in school, and it just happens to be my favorite to date. :-)

And what a grand flag you are!

Way Back When-esday

Don't you just love Way Back When-esdays when you can smile back on the memories??

These two pics are from November 2009. Jake was just a few (maybe three) weeks ago.

This was probably the ONLY time that Ansley has been bigger than Jake. :-) We love you, little A!

And this picture is so sweet because Brooklyn's best friend and "little sister," Zoe, was giving up her pacis around the time Jake was born, so she gave them all to him. Precious!

Sorry for the delay...

It really has taken me this long to get another video to load....slooooooow moving over here in BloggerLand.

But, I hope you enjoy the next in our "Patriotic Series."

For your listening pleasure...

In honor of Veteran's Day this week, Brooklyn sang a few patriotric songs for ya'll!

But since they are taking forever to download, I am gonna have to post them one at a time. Maybe the next one will load by NEXT Veteran's Day. :-)

There is probably nothing more anticlimactic...

...than Halloween pictures posted on the 11th of November. :-)

Here's Brooklyn at our church's Trunk or Treat. The afternoon was beautiful, and the kids had a blast. Brooklyn was dressed as The Little Mermaid.


Brooklyn and Avery visiting a local trunk.

Avery, Brooklyn, and Allie helping "pass out candy." Yeah, right. :-)

Later that night, we allowed the kids to wear their costumes to church to the Shout service. Here's Brooklyn and her "little sister," Zoe- The Little Mermaid and Jasmine.

As most of you know, Jake started running a fever October 30th, so no Halloween celebrations for him that weekend. But a few days later, I managed to play dress up with him and snap a few (poorly taken) pictures of my little lion.

Yeah, I know, buddy. Dressing up in mid-November is just not the same.

Happy Veteran's Day, ya'll!

Boo.

Way Back When-esday

Date: November 6, 2009
*This was Brooklyn's first time holding her baby brother. (Yes, it took 2 weeks, but we were patient and she did it perfectly on her own time.)

Did someone say FREE t-shirt?

I wanted to also share this contest on my personal blog. Please hop on over to GRD's blog and show us some love. :-)

Here's the contest...

We are excited to announce our first-ever GRD Blog Contest!
Here's what you have to do:
1. Become a Blog Follower of Grace Reigns Down. (To do this, just scroll down the righthand column and click "Follow.")
2. Leave a comment on THIS POST about why you love GRD.
3. Do both these things before Friday, November 12th at 11:59pm.

*We'll hold a random drawing on Saturday, November 13th, and announce the winner then!**The winner will receive a FREE newly designed GRD t-shirt! We'll even mail it to you if you can't make it to the show, so anyone can join in the fun and enter the contest!!! Good luck!

And he said, "Let me eat cake!"

On Saturday, October 30, we held Jake's 1st birthday party with some family and friends. It was a beautiful day, and Jake had a great time (despite the beginnings of a mild fever).

I ordered Jake's cake from Walmart- a half sheet cake for "Baby's 1st Birthday" and it actually came with a 4 inch "smash cake" and candle for free. Though I am not the biggest fan of Walmart in general, I do have to say they make a pretty decent cake.

The party favors were small pumpkins that said "Thank you for coming today." I played off the orange in the cheese puffs. :-)

Only one more picture left to fill in the 12 month collage!

Jake opened presents throughout the party. He did as best as he could for a 1 year old.

In full disclosure, this was not the first time Jake has had sweets before. He has had the occasional lick of a Cool Whip spoon or ice cream cone. But, he really has not had anything like a whole piece of cake. He started off by checking it out cautiously...

Then, he decided that a spoon would be lovely...

He slowly moved to using the spoon AND his fingers...

And then he just threw caution to the wind!

And ended back up with the spoon. :-)

He just couldn't believe how lucky he was!

Jake was indeed a lucky boy! He had three special friends from the "UNC crew" to come and celebrate with him. Here are Ansley, Graham, and Cooper.

This picture cracks me up....Ansley and Jake are like "Hey.....I think I know you!"

Happy Birthday, sweet baby boy (again!). We love you so much and are so proud of what a precious almost toddler you have become in the past 12 months. I cannot wait to see what the next year holds for us!

School Pics 2010

I still have not forgotten about Jake's birthday party or Halloween...just haven't had the time to upload pics and well, put Jake in his costume. :-)

It's never too early to start thinking about...

...Christmas cards!!!

One of my favorite things to do each fall is start planning my Christmas card for the year. I think we were pretty slack our first Christmas or two with Brooklyn, but around 2007, I discovered the flat photo card! Thank goodness for Shutterfly's option to do photo collages, because I would have never been able to pick just one picture each year!

Here are two of our cards from years past. I usually try to incorporate significant events from the past year in our card without even saying a word (ie: Disney World or say, the birth of another child!).

This year, I am so excited because I will be using one (or several!) of the photos from a Molly Cook session (to be taken this weekend). I started looking on Shutterfly's website last week to see some of their new designs...oh my goodness! There are so many to choose from- literally HUNDREDS! I like to do a different color and style from the previous year(s) so I am so thankful that Shutterfly saves all my old projects in "My Shutterfly" account. (I would never be able to remember otherwise, and though I am sure the recipients don't remember, I just want to keep things "fresh.")

Here is just one example of a 2010 Shutterfly Flat Stationary Card. I love the green, black, and white color palette, the multiple photo spots, AND the cute monogram. I may have just given away my holiday card template because the more I look at this one, the more I love it. :-)

In addition to having an endless supply of holiday cards, Shutterfly also has some of the best photo gifts I have ever seen. For the past 3-4 years, I have given my grandparents one of their 12 month calendars (perfect for the people who have everything and need nothing but pictures of their great-grandchildren).

And want to personalize your gifts just a bit more? Visit their gift tag selections to purchase something supercute to personalize all those awesome gifts you will be giving this year.

So, now I am off to peruse the card selection, work on this year's calendar, and maybe even design a gift tag or two.

Happy holidays, ya'll!

(In full disclosure, in exchange for this review I received 50 free cards from Shutterfly.)

Way Back When-esday

In honor of Jake's 1st birthday last week, here is a picture of my first baby on her first birthday.

And just so he isn't left out, here is Jake exactly one year ago....

Want to play along with Way Back When-esday? Hop on over here to link up!

Shameless Plug...

The band has been busy....why don't you hop on over here and see what we have been up to. :-)