the-owens-family

Disney Days - Where to stay - Off Property?

2012-01-31T06:01:00.000-08:00

We go to Disney - a lot. We like Walt Disney World - a lot. We get asked about Walt Disney World - a lot. (And we love it, so don't stop asking! Ha!) But I thought I would type out some basic info that I would have love to have known before I went to WDW for the first time and post them here on the blog so that I can (hopefully remember where they are and) refer people to them when they tell me they are headed out on a WDW vacation!

So, without further ado - here are my Walt Disney World Vacation tips:

First things first: Where are you going to stay?

Offsite: Here's the thing, I recommend that you stay onsite, if at all possible. (Reasons for staying on site to come.) But there are some Uh-mazing places at some Uh-mazing prices to stay offsite, so if offsite works best for your family or your budget - GO FOR IT!

They have everything offsite. From 6 bedroom homes with pools and game rooms, to 1, 2, or 3 bedroom condos, to regular old hotel rooms. I've had several friends who have rented houses, but I can't remember what rental companies they used right now. As they remind me of the rental company names, I'll come back here and list them, so that you'll have a starting place as far as house rentals go.

The condo options are endless - seriously. Be cautious about a 'too good to be true' deal though - as most condo places are time shares and sometimes they will offer unbelievable deals, but in the fine print you'll have to agree to a 2+ hour presentation about why you should buy into their time share. Yuck - not the way you want to spend your vacation time that's for sure! Again, I'll come in and add condo suggestions as people I know and trust recommend them to me.

The hotel rooms are endless as well! We have stayed at 2 La Quinta's in the Orlando area. Once was on our way to see a shuttle launch (so we didn't pick it based on convenience to WDW - keep that in mind!) - La Quinta Inn & Suites Convention Center. It was nice enough - not 5 star, so if you're looking for luxury go elsewhere! It is also closer to SeaWorld than WDW, so may be an option if you are looking into doing both SeaWorld and WDW and staying offsite.

(A super fuzzy iPhone pic of our room at the La Quinta Convention Center - I know you're loving it right? :-) We only stayed one night - I think for free with points, so I don't have any other pictures of the hotel. I don't even think we stayed for breakfast as we had to be in Cape Canaveral at 7 am or something crazy like that! I do remember this was the night before the "Royal Wedding" in England. Everyone was complaining about having to get up so early and we were up anyway, watching it while we got ready.

We've also stayed at another La Quinta for one night- this one was super convenient to WDW even though it was a few miles away from any park. Keep that in mind - when a hotel advertises they are " ONLY 3 miles from WDW property," they don't mean you are only 3 miles from the parks! They mean they are only 3 miles away from the edge of the property WDW owns. Once you get on WDW property you may have to drive another 3 to 10 miles to get to a park.

The best thing about this La Quinta though was there was no stop and go traffic to get through. You just got on the road and were on WDW property in no time. (Typically, once you get on WDW property, there is not a ton of traffic. Some stop and go, but we've never been in an actual bumper to bumper traffic situation on WDW property.) Some of the hotels on International Drive will take you 15 to 30 minutes just to get to WDW property. This is because of all of the stoplights and the massive amounts of traffic in that part of Orlando. I-4 gets backed up often too. Traffic is the last thing I'd want to deal with on vacation (which is one of the reasons I recommend staying on property :-) so be sure to chose your hotel location wisely.

That's all I've got for off property! Up next: On property. Lots of pictures for this one!

Lost & Found

2012-01-28T20:34:00.000-08:00

Long time, no blog. Not that I haven't had much to say. (If you know me, you know that's impossible! Ha!) And not that I haven't had much to report - it's crazy as usual around here. :-)

But you see, I no likey blog posts with no pictures and I figure all 7 of my readers (even you Russians -lol) feel the same way! And Big Daddy messed up my iPhoto big time last week. So badly, I couldn't even access my pictures. He says it wasn't his fault, but really - he was the one who started the mess, so it's just easier to lay the blame on the person closest to the fall out zone - right???? Ha!

In reality, he used his fancy schmancy Mac Book Pro to access some pictures on my simple ol' Macbook and it threw my computer for a loop. All of the sudden my computer was too big for it's britches. Kept asking me to 'upgrade to a higher version of iPhoto" all because Big Daddy had used a higher version of iPhoto to "edit the desired photos." We said to heck with that and eventually got around to asking all of our nerdy friends what to do - and someone knew the answer - Score! (I knew there was a reason I loved living in a city of engineers!)

We did recover all the pics though - even the oldest ones. This is from our first trip to Disney waaaaay back in 2008:

Despite all my complaining about the lack of iPhoto access, I have very few photos to share.

We had a great time over MLK Day weekend - We had some great 'new' friends over for dinner - here's a shout out to Last Morning's Adventures

We went to see Beauty in the Beast in 3D with the cousins. Which I loved.

I mean, really. Is anything more (cinematically) awe inspiring than that pan down shot of the chandelier in the ballroom while Beauty and the Beast are dancing??? I think not. ;-) And that Rapunzel short at the beginning? Hysterical!

We've had some playdates, etc. Just normal stuff.

Big Daddy has started on JR's 'new' room:

I bought ML a new dresser and lined the drawers with fabric:

And Miss Priss keeps me laughing. Today she asked me to take this 'family' picture. Then she asked to see it. After viewing the photo, she said, "It's pretty good, but too bad the kids (her dolls) are looking down instead of at the camera." And she was dead serious! Hysterical!

Happy Sunday Funday everyone!

And the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down

2012-01-12T16:54:00.000-08:00

Can I even have a post title that long? Guess I can!

It has been a week of rain, rain, and more rain. And then tonight??? SNOW!!! I wore flip flops on Saturday it was so warm. Crazy stuff.

So we haven't been up to much. I have caught up on some TV and cleaned out some closets. I've also been working on some plans for our next trip to the Mouse House.

Big Daddy has a conference in Orlando. Who are we to not attend with him and show our support? Ha!

The kids have had an after school play date each

and we are all looking forward to the weekend! It's going to be a busy one, in a good way.

Sleep Overs

2012-01-09T21:43:00.001-08:00

It was a weekend of sleepovers at the Owen's House! On Friday night, JR spent the night with a good friend from school. Big Daddy, ML and I cooked dinner and had a quiet evening at home. (It's always much quieter with JR gone. LOL He's got one of those loud voices and will always be one of those people who will never be able to truly whisper. Bless it. :-)

Saturday, Big Daddy and ML were able to spend the night at the McWayne Center. Judging by the pictures they had a pretty awesome time!

They saw an IMAX movie -

about Haiti (total God thing!) - and were able to do all kinds of other fun things. Big Daddy sent me movies of ML doing a zip line and a HUGE slide and all kinds of other things. So amazing to think my 'baby' is old enough to do all of this stuff!

It was a dads and daughters event, and Big Daddy said there were at least 100 other girls there. ML had a blast.

While ML and Big Daddy were gone, JR had a friend spend the night at our house. I hadn't really planned to cook, knowing the Big Daddy and ML would be gone, so we went to a local Mexican restaurant and had a good time eating chips and salsa and way too much other food and listening to some live music.

Sunday was dreary. After church, Big Daddy had a meeting, so the kids and I just vegged and ML and I ended up napping most of the afternoon. We woke up just in time for the best spaghetti ever, cooked by Big Daddy. :-)

Hope your weekend was just as great!

2012 - Take One!

2012-01-04T16:47:00.000-08:00

We had a great new year! We spent New Year's Eve celebrating the birthday of my dear friend, Ms. Susan. So excited to celebrate with her, as this was the first year in a long time that we weren't in Chicago for NYE.

All of our decorations are down and the house looks a little sad and empty. Look at all the space our tree was taking up in the family room!

New Year's Day seemed kind of off to me this year. No Tournament of Roses' Parade, church, etc. Different for sure. But we still had our greens and black eyed peas, cornbread and ham! Yum!

Today was a BIG day for ML. About a year ago, she first brought up having her ears pierced. We went over what having your ears pierced encompasses (including how much it might hurt) and she decided she wasn't ready. Well, for about a month now, she has asked every. day. if she could have her ears pierced. I kept putting it off. "Wait until after Thanksgiving." Wait until after Christmas.", etc. But she was relentless.

So with JR back at school, today was the day. I called all the local jewelry stores, but no luck. Our only ear piercing options were Claire's in the mall or a tattoo/ piercing place (Um. No thank you. I think they'd laugh us out of the place! Haha! A total suburban mom and her hairbow wearing daughter? Hysterical!)

So off the Claire's we went.

It was fast and easy. ML did cry, but she LOVES her earrings and she's shown them to absolutely everyone who will slow down long enough to see them. We went to Target and she showed them to everyone we saw. Love it!

New year and already new things.

2011

2011-12-31T12:10:00.000-08:00

It has been one wonderful, wild, and crazy year for the Owens Family! I am so glad we have been able to fill this year with so many wonderful (and sometimes unexpected!) memories.

I tried to limit myself to one picture per month, but as you will see, I kind of lost my resolve about 1/2 way through.

But for January, here's my one and only:

After an unexpected White Christmas, we were even more surprised by the over 5 inches of snow that fell in January! It shut down everything for more than a week. It fell on a Sunday and public schools were out Monday - Friday! Even though most roads were passable by Thursday, JR's school was one of the only ones who went back. The public schools had to remain closed because the school parking lots were too dangerous for buses. JR's school has no buses, so they went back on Thursday (lucky for them because then they only had to make up 3 days, not 5!)

This is my favorite picture from February:

And from March - in front of the fountain after the first 'dying of the fountain.'

April came in like a lamb - my favorite Easter photo taken late in the afternoon:

But sadly, April did leave like a lion. We will never forget the April 27th tornadoes and the deadly path they cut across our state. It still takes my breath away - the devastation, even now, when we drive through those areas affected.

This was the line at the first gas station with power - over an hour and a half away! - when we got there on April 28.

And one of the reasons for more than one picture. I wanted to include one picture from each Disney trip this year.

We purchased our first Annual Passes to Disney this year. And used them well.

May was full of recovery efforts:

And then a trip to see a shuttle launch.

And of course a stop by Disney:

June was summer, summer, summer.

And a once in a lifetime trip.

First to Disney:

Then to a never before experience to celebrate my in laws 50th Anniversary:

Then back to Disney (by now it was July)

August was baseball. Trip to Atlanta to see the Cubbies.

September was football. Trip to Auburn for first game.

October was the only month I didn't blog. I was too busy!

Trip to Disney for JR's birthday, per his request.

It really was a neat trip. It rained almost the entire time we were there. One night JR and I went out to the Magic Kingdom for Extra Magic hours and it was POURING RAIN, but when we got there, there was NO ONE there! In two hours we rode Space Mountain 3 times, Buzz Lightyear SpaceRanger Spin 3 times (without ever getting off the ride!). We rode on the Teacups, Winnie the Pooh, Snow White and Dumbo ALL ALONE! Dumbo - alone! It was a once in a lifetime experience for me! So fun.

Regular October photo:

November:

December:

Goodbye 2011! Thanks for being so good to us! Welcome 2012!

Christmas Decor

2011-12-29T05:40:00.000-08:00

Time, once again, to put away the Christmas decorations. My house always looks so sad and lonely after all the Christmas decor has been put away. On the other hand, it's much easier to keep things clean when you're not constantly cleaning tree/ garland/ centerpiece needles!

Here are some of our decorations from this year:

I let the kids help with decorating/ putting on even the breakable ornaments this year. The lack of 'spacing' the ornaments about drove me nuts, but I managed to hold myself back from re hanging the ornaments. Ha!

Our family room tree was HUGE this year! Like, takes up 1/4 of our family room big. Once Big Daddy started cutting it down we realized it was either 2 trees that grew into one or one tree that split at the bottom. We loved it though!

This was probably my favorite mantle yet. Although next year I would like to add something behind the wreath.

I loved this grouping on the left side of the mantle (just the silver stuff, not the birthday Elf of course. :-)

I loved having a dining room table to display our nativity. Not sure if I'll do it exactly like this next year, but this was nice for this year.

This was ML's first year to have her own tree. She chose pink. Of course.

I made her pink and white tree skirt and let her decorate her own tree. Which led to some unusual groupings of ornaments.

Like this. (I spy with my little eye, a certain photographer reflected in a silver ball or two. Hello there blog readers!)

Even pink ornaments:

This was probably the third year for JR to have his own tree. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to making his tree skirt this year. The one he always used before was used on the new playroom tree (see below.)

This was JR's new ornament, and it was hysterical!

Oh, the groupings! How you bother my OCD. LOL. I do love that JR puts these ornaments on his tree though. This toy soldier was one of the ornaments my parents made when they first got married and didn't have any money to buy ornaments for their fist Christmas tree together.

This was my first year to use mesh. I really liked how it turned out on the breakfast room chandelier.

And finally, this was our playroom tree. We love Disney. We love Disneyworld. And we have acquired just a *few* plush animals from our trips. This year I came across another Disney lover who talked about her 'plush tree' and even though I knew it would be 'only playroom' worthy, I had to give it a try.

I must say I loved it. It was perfect for the playroom. The kids could take the 'ornaments' on and off to their hearts content. They could rearrange whenever they wanted and I could have cared less. Perfect!

It also went really well with Big Daddy's Pooh tree skirt from his childhood (previously used under JR's room tree.) AND with the Pooh animatronic my grandparents gave to me YEARS ago, that had never before seen the light of day.

Now I'm off to pack up all of this stuff. Wish me luck!

Christmas in Chicago

2011-12-27T20:58:00.000-08:00

Just back from a whirlwind, fun filled weekend in Chicago! It was so awesome to spend Christmas with Big Daddy's entire family.

I posted this on FB, but seriously, I can't believe how different air travel is for us now. Gone are the days of strollers and diaper bags and car seats. Now the kids carry their own toys and roll their own carry on bags.

Sheesh - how big are they anyway?

Biggest landmark in, Park Ridge, Big Daddy's hometown - the Pickwick (Big Daddy dates himself by calling it the building where Siskel and Ebert walk in at the beginning of their old tv show, but it's known in our family as that building where they film the Disney show Shake It Up. They don't really film it there, they just show it on the show. :-) Our kids saw their first ever movie here. Princess and the Frog!

We arrived on Christmas Eve Eve and had dinner at the country club.

They were offering sleigh rides - so much fun!

But COLD! That wind!

On actual Christmas Eve I took ML and a niece shopping so that the kids would be (mostly) out of the house while 2 kids slept and the adults got ready for dinner. We picked up some boots for my niece and some last minute shopping for my MIL.

The kids had a ton of fun down in the family room with a puppet theater. This is JR doing the 'commercial' during the 'intermission' for the puppet show. He demonstrated a 'toy truck shaver, perfect for that little boy who likes to imitate his daddy." I thought that was pretty clever!

My in laws passed out a few Christmas Eve gifts. I love this picture of my MIL smiling in the midst of the chaos. She loves her family!

ML and her Grandpa Owens.

Christmas morning dawned bright and early and Santa was good to us!

Some of us (cough, cough) couldn't handle all the fun and had to regroup mid morning.

Isn't this neat? My MIL doesn't have a mantle, but has a natural stone fireplace. She needed a way to hang stockings, so she had these wood hangars custom made - I think they are amazing! She's been using them as long as she's been in the house - 45 years!

Christmas afternoon, it was time for even MORE presents at the aunts and uncles gift exchange.

What? More??? LOL

It was a fabulous visit! Didn't get to do any touristy stuff this time, but we are looking forward to that the next time! Hope your Christmas was merry and bright!

Hometown Christmas

2011-12-22T20:16:00.000-08:00

Packing, cleaning, putting away decorations and packing! Just took a break to sit for a while. Not much time, but wanted to document two fun things before we head to Chicago!

We were invited to make some fun cookies/ edible crafts with some of our dear friends. JR had school, but ML was out already, so we headed over.

Great time!

Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa

Can you say..... excessive?

Who needs Santa when you have Grandparents?

Off to Chi-town tomorrow! Hoping for snow, even though it's not in the forecast! My sweet little nieces from the Philippines have never seen snow and I so hope they get to have a White Christmas!

Merry, merry to you and yours!

Attitude of Gratitude

2011-12-19T06:50:00.000-08:00

Here are the party pics I promised! It has been just the best week. Tempered by a sobering reality check though. Our much beloved babysitter and daughter of our dear friends the B. Family, Miss A., lost her best friend from high school Friday afternoon in a car accident. Miss A. also lost another dear friend from high school in the same accident, and yet another friend is in the hospital still fighting for her life.

I struggle so much with gratitude for what I have. I do know that I have so much to be thankful for, but sometimes my deep rooted selfishness just comes flying to the top and I begin to think of all the things I don't have, instead of praising God for all the things I do have - and I don't like it. Not one bit. It was like God overwhelmed me yesterday with all the things I take for granted - "I keep you safe as you travel. When was the last time you thanked Me for that?" "I give your children health. When was the last time you thanked me for that?" "I give you resources that go way beyond your needs, even way beyond your wants. When was the last time you thanked me for that?" It really knocked the breath out of me - and sent me to my knees in prayer.

(me selfishly trying to hold onto my dirty Santa gift :-)

The accident reminding me of the fragility of this earthly life and the realization of my deep rooted sin, make me even more eternally grateful for the reason for this season of celebration. Come Lord Jesus, come! I need Thee, how I need Thee, every hour I need Thee.

With that in mind, we celebrated this season with some dear friends this week. Our church is very contemporary and one of the things they do well is to get people out of the church walls and out into the community. Instead of traditional Sunday School, we do the whole community group thing, meeting in people's homes. We are members of 2 groups. One group we are just members and one group we lead. We had so much fun hosting both groups this week! I loved being able to do something special for them to show them how much they mean to us!

I went with an aqua and red theme for our dinners, inspired by the giveaway over at Alamode.

ML and I hand dyed the doilies using some water and some food coloring. They turned out to be my favorite things! I used this tutorial. (And FYI - I used a minimal amount of water, about 1 teaspoon of blue food coloring in a pyrex bowl and just turned my doily around in a clockwise motion in the bowl.)

2 different tables:

We had a great time at both parties playing dirty Santa! We do one serious gift and one gag gift per couple/ person. It's always a great time!

Big Daddy modeled a purse he was thinking of 'stealing.'

My blessings abound, my heart overflows with gratitude. How great, how wide, how high, how deep, how endless is Your love for me?

Christmas cookies

2011-12-14T19:06:00.000-08:00

So much has happened in just 2 days! I guess that's the holidays for ya - uber busy and never a dull moment. We decorated cookies Monday night. I'm usually such a control freak when it comes to cookie decorating, but at Christmas I try to loosen up - on purpose - because I have such fond memories of helping my mom ice cookies at Christmas and I want my kids to have those same fun memories.

Well, I must have loosened up a bit too much because it was like a bomb exploded in the kitchen. There was icing on everything and sprinkles were everywhere.

The craziest thing though, was the green food coloring that inexplicably ended up all over the WALL, floor, and ML's feet??????? I still don't know how it happened!

Somehow I made it through without blowing my top (Totally an answered prayer from earlier that day! Thank you Lord!) and still managed to make these cookies, destined to be party favors for the party we were having on Tuesday.

If you are here looking for icing tips, you can go here to find my favorite links to royal icing tutorials!

Monday night our Elf on the Shelf ended up being held hostage by our Lego men. Another great Pinterest idea!

Tuesday morning dawned bright and early (there's a reason I look so tired in the picture at the bottom of this post - remember that and be kind okay? :-) We were so excited because I got to babysit Baby B. Tuesday.

We all packed up and went to see ML's Christmas program at school that morning.

It was great!

This is my super tired pic.

At home we got ready for the party (pictures to come) and got ML ready for dance. She wanted me to take a picture of her and ballerina Barbie in their matching outfits.

Remember those balloons our Elf arrived with? He left them for us, and this is what JR and ML did with them:

So cute!

Party pics to come!

Nutcracker

2011-12-11T19:48:00.000-08:00

Today I took ML to see the Nutcracker while Big Daddy took JR to a birthday party. One of the 8th grade girls in my small group at church was performing in several dances during the matinee. She is just the most amazing ballerina, it always a joy to watch her dance. She performed a duet in the 'Chinese' number and it was stunning. She has spent two summers studying ballet in Seattle and New York and her dedication shows. We were so excited to see her after the performance!

And ML REALLY wanted a picture with Clara. I remember my parents taking me to the Nutcracker when I was younger and dreaming about performing as Clara - I think ML might have similar ambitions. :-)

It looked like JR had a good time at his birthday party. It was at a skating rink, but it included all sorts of fun things! Big Daddy texted me this picture of him suited up for Laser Tag.

Tonight our Elf is all suited up to celebrate our big day.

He's borrowed a tutu from Ballerina Barbie and enlisted some Ballerina Princesses to dance with him.

He's also studying the program.

It's nice to be an elf.

Birthday Elf

2011-12-10T20:25:00.000-08:00

Waiting on Big Daddy to get home from the store with flour so I can roll out the sugar cookies (What? You don't bake at 10:30 at night? Crazy.) so I thought I'd put up some pictures of our Elf. Whose name is ............ Birthday Elf.

Yep. Birthday Elf - because Christmas is all about Jesus' birthday. They came up with that all on their own. Oh the cheesy-ness, but also, oh the sweetness of my sweet little children who thought up this name. Love them. Brings a whole new layer of meaning to "and a child shall lead them" in my life.

Since he was named after the true meaning of Christmas, I thought it was only appropriate that he go hang out with his main man.

Joy to the World!

The Time Has Come

2011-12-09T20:53:00.000-08:00

The days are flying by. I know we all say it and, for the most part, I know we all mean it. But I just made my last 'album' in iPhoto for 2011. Yep. Twenty ELEVEN.

Not news to most of you, but to me - If I sit with it for more than just a moment, I'm in shock. Eight years - eight short years since I became a mother.

(My then 7 year old)

Nine years - nine amazing, perfectly imperfect, exhilarating years since I became a wife.

(ML at the playground of the camp where Big Daddy and I met)

Wasn't it just 2003, like........ yesterday? I think I had just recovered from my fear of Y2K.

Every night when I go to check on my children after they are asleep, I am faced with the enormity of what all these little moments, all these short, busy hours really mean.

They mean life - the joys, the sorrows, the things people write book about - is lived in the blink of an eye. I've resolved to buckle my seatbelt and start paying attention more to the those around me.

On a totally different note.......Elf on the Shelf has come to live at our house and I'm excited.

I LOVE crafting - problem is - I'm not creative! Enter Pinterest. Endless ideas - woo hoo! Elf on the Shelf comes with endless Pinterest ideas, so I'm pretty pumped.

Our Griswald tree - it honestly takes up 1/4 of the living room.

We don't really 'do' Santa. - I should clarify. We 'do' have Santa gifts and our children 'do' believe there is a Santa, but not because we've ever told them there was one. When our kids ask us about Santa, our one and only answer is: "Santa represents the love of Christ. The love that Christ showed to us by coming to earth in human form to provide a way for our salvation." Period.

Which leads to some interesting conversations: "Mommy, how does Santa go to all the houses in one night?" "Weeelllll....... Santa represents love. The love that Christ showed us by coming to earth in human form to provide a way for our salvation." (You can see how weird conversations like this might lead our children to believe that we are completely crazy...... Ha!) And I just keep repeating that until they are either happy with that answer or so totally confused that they ~~go in search of a sane adult~~ end the conversation.

But JR has heard all about the Elf on the Shelf from his classmates and he REALLY wanted one. Kept asking for one every time we saw the boxes at Target. "Mommy, can we buy an elf? Please?" Really? BUY and elf? So we talked it over.

"You want me to BUY you an elf?"

Yes.

" An ELF. That I'm BUYING."

Yes.

"An Elf in a BOX."

Yes.

"What exactly is an elf doing in a box?"

I don't know - playing Monopoly with the other elves or something?

Ha! That kid cracks me up! And I don't have to worry about all the 'don't touch the elf' and 'the elf is magic' stuff because JR totally knows I am going to be the one moving him around. He just wanted one. So we're off on an elfin adventure!

And I'm off to start my 2011 photo book..... sniff, sniff....

ALSO! (How could I forget!?!) Raise your hand if you like free stuff! Raise it again if you'd like $25 to Amazon! Okay, then - head on over to Jennifer's blog - Small Journalings of our Blessings to enter her giveaway! She's talking all about Advent this month - great stuff!

Thankful

2011-12-02T20:28:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving vacation was everything I'd hoped it would be and more! On Wednesday, I forced Big Daddy to take off work early and drive us out to the Christmas tree farm to get our tree early.

For the first time since JR was born, we'll be spending Christmas in Chicago with Big Daddy's family, instead of here in Alabama at our own house. Big Daddy's one of 5 children, and his oldest brother lives in the Philippines, BUT will be home for Christmas this month - for the first time in many, many years - Woo Hoo! So all that to say, since I wasn't going to be here to celebrate Christmas under 'our' tree, I wanted to get it up as early as possible so I could enjoy it as long as possible.

Normally, I'm one of those people who doesn't like to put up anything Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving. I've always been opposed to the 'Christmas creep.' But this year I was so ready for Christmas - don't know why? Seems like I wasn't the only one either.

We drove out to the tree farm late Wednesday afternoon. They weren't technically open, but Big Daddy had purchased a HUGE tree from them for a tree lighting on Friday (more to come on that!) and he called ahead and they said they'd be there and to just come on by - so sweet! I really can't say enough good things about this tree farm. We've been going there for 8 years now. One year we forgot they took only cash and check and arrived, cut down our tree and had no way to pay. The owner took pity on us and let us go on with our tree and told us to just mail him a check - mail him a check? You just don't find kindness and trust like that many places.

So - we arrived - got our saw and headed out to pick a tree. Now. Here's the thing about our tree selecting abilities. You see....... what looks like just the right size out in the field, usually turns out to be a little more than we expected in the family room.

This year = no exception.

Here we are - totally unaware of the battle we are about to face:

JR took this one

And here is Big Daddy laboring away under the tree. He went through 2 hacksaw batteries and finally had to resort to hand sawing. After about 15 minutes of that, he asked me to come pull on the tree to try to tilt it over. When I went to put my hand in to grab the trunk (after inspecting it closely for small woodland creatures of course!) I realized, as my hand sunk in....... and in..... and in, that we had one big honkin tree on our hands.

Finally the beast came free and we headed over to the ~~(now hysterically laughing)~~ staff to pay. They were super kind and let us go out to the barn to pet the goats - some babies!- and chickens and horses. I think they really just felt bad for our kids - "What kind of people can't see that that tree has "Grizzwald" written all over it?" LOL

After the tree farm, we met my parents and nieces to watch the Muppet Movie - which was so great.

Then we went home for dinner and to make a few of these:

On Thanksgiving Day, we spent all morning in our PJ's watching the parade and cooking. Then after lunch we headed over to my parents. I had printed out some 'pinterest' coloring sheets for the kids.

After a YUMMY meal, the kids put together gingerbread houses.

Or at least 3 of them did - someone was more interested in eating their gingerbread house......

Friday, we had the lighting of that GIANT tree Big Daddy and his partner's purchased for one of their developments. It was great fun, but I didn't take any pictures. Sadness. But they were giving out free photos with Santa, and this is a picture of our picture:

One great Thanksgiving Weekend!

November Remembered

2011-11-22T21:03:00.000-08:00

IT IS THANKSGIVNG VACATION!!! And I am just a tiny bit excited. WOOOOOOOO!!!!!

I can't wait to eat, and cut down our Christmas tree, and eat, and decorate our house, and eat, and bake, and eat, and go see the Muppet Movie, and eat (popcorn, coke, and Junior Mints - Yes, I sneak in my Junior Mints - I mean, what kind of theater doesn't sell Junior Mints????), and eat.

But before I take pictures of all of that stuff and want to post them on here to remember, I want to post a few other things.

Last week, ML's dance class had 'visitor's week.' I took a few pictures of ML in front of her/ my/ my mother's/ originally my grandmother's vanity before we left.

I love the history of this set. I think about my grandmother getting ready for her teenage and college dates in front of this same vanity (she lived at home all through college. Ohio State was just down the street!) and it just makes me so sentimental. I have a picture of my mother putting on her makeup in front of this vanity on her wedding day.

Super cool stuff. We, the parents and grandparents, etc., got to come inside the studio and see our students perform the dances and moves they have been working on since August.

ML did very well. She kept telling me that she had to do 'a really funny dance.' Turns out it was her jazz dance. I guess the poor girl has been in 'pure' ballet so long, she didn't know what to think when they taught her the grapevine! Ha!

I do still love a good ballet position though:

She seems to like tap a lot.

By the way, THIS is what happens if you go shopping for Christmas presents right before you pick your child up from school.

She zoned in on it from the back seat like she has some kind of toy radar! :-)

The next day we dropped off our Operation Christmas Child boxes. This year I didn't let the kids go shopping with me - I just ran out of time. Instead I shopped before I picked them up from school and then dumped everything in a big pile on the kitchen island and let them pack the boxes themselves.

The next day was Thursday, the day of JR's Thanksgiving concert at school. I was lucky enough to have borrowed a lens for my camera from a good friend. I actually borrowed it for the Jr. High retreat I went on, but it ended up being a perfect week for a loaner! I photographed the retreat, ML's visitors week at dance and the concert with that lens. Many thanks David!

I would kind of like to know when I went from being the mother of a precious little child to being the mother of a frat boy????

And finally, we did something different this year for Thanksgiving. I made a mantle banner similar to one I found on Pinterest and then hung another string under the banner.

Each night at dinner we each wrote down something we were thankful for and clothes pinned it to the string. It's been kind of neat to see what the kids are thankful for! And funny to see their thought process. They went through each family member first. Then they were both thankful for Jesus. And then they moved on to the pets. Ha! I discovered that ML is very influenced by her brother, for whatever he chose to be thankful for, she was usually thankful for as well. So sweet in a way!

November, November....

2011-11-19T19:19:00.000-08:00

Look at me! I'm on a roll! Two posts, one week. Write it down. Ha!

So..... this is what JR looks like a LOT now......

nose in a book - can't stop reading to even walk into the grocery store, world might crash around him and he wouldn't even notice - in love with reading. And, I must admit, I love it. I loved to read when I was younger (still do love to read, but there's this tiny problem with free time.......) I loved getting lost in a book, being in a whole new world, experiencing life in someone else's shoes. Right now JR loves the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and anything Judy Blume.

And while we're talking about JR - I want to always remember this: Whenever the kids are about to get in trouble, we use the age old tactic of calling them by their full names to let them know that their doom is imminent. As in "JR Owens, you'd better stop that right now!" Well, it seems that whenever JR wants to 'call me out on the carpet' (or emphasize something to me), he says, "Mommy Owens!" With double emphasis on the 2 syllables in "mommy." Which I think is his version of calling me by my full name. Cracks me up! Every time!

My children LOVE to take pictures with my phone. I guess this is what I look like when I'm handing them something from the front:

(I've showered this week I swear.......)

And then there are the all important feet shots:

For his birthday, JR got my old iPhone, which now functions pretty much like an iPod touch. He uses it to communicate with his friends, but he has to use my app accounts, so I get lots of pictures like this one:

And then there are the fun shots we get while grocery shopping:

One weekend, my parents and sister & brother in law all drove up to Nashville to see Wicked. LOVE Wicked! But we had already seen it in Chicago, so I volunteered to stay home and babysit. We had a Pinteresting kind of day....

made some turkeys......

and then a banner I need to photograph.

ML loves her daddy!

And we love our Cgroupies! This is some of our Tuesday night Bible Study:

Last week was a crazy one. Which meant we all went different directions a different times, so ML and I had a dinner date one night.

And one night JR's school had a Skate Night, so we laced up and headed back into the 80's. I mean, we had a great time! Including ML skating ALL by herself for the very first time!

And then, last Friday, it was time for me to head off on a weekend retreat with 174 Middle Schoolers!

Thankfully only 3 of them were 'mine' for the weekend. It was an awesome time, I've never had such great discussion before - my girls are in 8th grade now and the just talked and talked. I love them so much - they are such a blessing!

The band that played at the retreat was called The Weight of Glory and they were AMAZING! The cellist in the group had performed at the CMA's Wednesday night with Rascal Flatts - how cool is that?!

That's her on the left w/ 2 of my small group girls on the right!

Not sure how cool it was coming from the CMA's to our middle school retreat, but she certainly sounded like she was happy to be there!

Their bass guitarist is a former member of our youth group, so we were pretty pumped.

I think their CD is on iTunes if anyone stumbles upon this blog and wants to look them up!

So much more has happened this month that I want to write down, but that's all for now! More to come.

October Remembered

2011-11-17T08:05:00.000-08:00

Man, I wish I loved to update my blog as much as I love to read them! Facebook totally wigs me out now, so I don't post as many pictures as I used to - making this blog the only way I can share pictures with our loved ones near and far, so here goes!

There were so many things I loved about our October, but I think it's the small stuff that I loved the most.

Like Chick Fil A before school with my favorite little girl:

And buying our first set of pom poms (because, after that trip to the Auburn game - guess who thinks being an Auburn cheerleader is her future career? Guess I'd better explain that it's more of a recreational sport than a full time job! Ha!)

And crafting with the kids. We made these door hangars for our teachers.

There were football pictures:

And first ever "big" school projects - hello Ancient Egypt!

And then of course there were bigger memories. Like a trip to Disney to celebrate JR's birthday (Yes, again!)

It was fall break for our whole school district, so we met up with lots of friends while we were there!

One of the many things I love about our trips to Disney now, is that we are able to slow down and take it more as a 'resort' and do fun things like play checkers after dinner. Or ride Big Thunder Mountain during the fireworks (best thing ever!)

This picture cracks me up, because it totally captures this stage of JR's life. He loves all the Disney characters, but lately he's been trying to act like he doesn't enjoy any of the 'girly' characters. Thus, this is the face I got when we met Alice at breakfast:

ML was so excited to meet Tiana!

We made some special memories this trip. The Saturday we were there it rained ALL DAY. And I'm not just talking a little rain. I'm talking a non stop downpour. I'm not going to lie - even though a rainy day at Disney is better than any other day at 'work', it was still pretty cold, wet and sometimes miserable. But the upsides were HUGE! As in, that night we had Fantasyland and most of the rest of the Magic Kingdom all to ourselves. I don't think I'll ever forget riding Space Mountain 4 times in a row without stopping. Or riding the teacups all alone. Or being the only (totally insane, completely crazy) people to ride on Dumbo!

Seriously. The only people on the ride!

Happy Birthday Big Guy!

And Halloween arrived and ML decided 2 days before that she wanted to be Alice. Yes. 2 Days. This would be the same girl who was offered an Alice costume at least 5 times while we were at Disney, but said every time, "No, I don't want to be Alice this year." Gah!

But luckily, ML has a grandmother who loves her more than life and is an amazing seamstress, so all was well.

This is ML at the 'character parade' at her school.

I have ZERO good pictures of JR on Halloween, but he went as a Rapper. Although, he was running around so much before Trick or Treating that he was hot and didn't wear his 'rapper' hoodie, so about halfway through the night he started telling people he was his friend Ben from school. - Hysterical!

And that was October!

This is just a tiny part of the beautiful view I get to see every day as I drive over the 'mountain' to take my kids to school. It is even more beautiful in October. How lucky am I?????

Let it Rain

2011-09-12T21:20:00.000-07:00

Well, after one long, hot summer, Labor Day brought us rain and cold! It was the first time in a long time that I remember Labor Day in Alabama actually bringing an end to the Summer temperatures - a novelty for sure!

It rained most of the day on Sunday, but our neighborhood picnic still went off without a hitch, thanks to the clubhouse and the smart thinking of our Social Comittee who ordered an inflatable water slide and realized that (as long as there is no lightning) a water slide is twice as much fun in the rain! Our kiddos spent over two hours racing up and down the slide until they were super cold, but they still didn't want to get off of the slide!

I hoped the rain would end by Monday evening when we had planned to grill out with my family, but alas the rain continued well into the night.

ML all bundled up on the drive over to Grandma and Papa's

Wii was invented for days like this!

Tuesday brought no end to the rain, but we bundled up in jackets and rain boots and headed off to school. We had both the Young Adult Bible Study at our house that night and JR had a football game, so we planned to divide and conquer with Big Daddy tackling (hardy, har, har, har! I made a football funny! :-) the game and me leading the study. After I picked up ML from school, we made cookies for Bible Study:

The rain never let up and all afternoon I watched my email inbox assuming they would be calling off the game any minute, but by 4:30ish, still no word, so we suited up and after dropping off ML at dance class, JR and I grabbed some yummy Mexican food:

In the middle of eating, Big Daddy called to say that they had finally canceled the game (1 hour before!) and that he would be able to join us for Bible Study! Yay! So we picked up ML and ran through the Chick Fil A drive through to get her dinner and raced home to get everything ready for our guests.

Wednesday finally saw a break in the clouds and JR's football game was rescheduled for that night. It was still a little chilly, but it was a great game. JR's team won something like 26 to 6. Awesome!

ML had fun running around with friends.

Thursday was supposed to be soccer practice for Coach Big Daddy and ML (still haven't seen her play this year - I am always at football with JR.) but Big Daddy called around 4 to say he wasn't feeling well. He was so sick in fact, he called to ask if we could come get him! Yikes.

Poor guy. He slept for a few hours and woke up feeling 100% better. Whew! I was so worried we were about to have the stomach bug invade our house.

Friday was ML's first Kindergarten Field Trip to the local Botanical Gardens. We love the Gardens and we had a great time.

The Children's Garden is one of my favorite areas. Big Daddy helped build this area of the Botanical Gardens. 1000's of volunteer hours went into this area, including quite a few Saturdays and afternoons given by Big Daddy to construct this treehouse/ gazebo and parts of the 'Rainbow Garden.'

I have precious pictures of JR at about 2 1/2 marching around the 'construction zone' of the Gardens in overalls and work boots, 'helping' Big Daddy construct the Children's Garden. The only thing recognizable in most of those pictures is the sidewalk!

The weather was perfect on Friday and after the Field Trip we drove over to have lunch with Big Daddy.

That afternoon was tooooooo perfect! We had lots of friends over to play and we just sat outside and enjoyed the weather.

JR and his friends were pretending to be spies (Star Wars spies I guess???) spying on the younger kids.

ML and her sweet friend from across the street made up a new game involving a small basketball and a bat. Still not quite clear on the rules of this game.

On Friday, I got a text from our dear friends the B. family inviting us for dinner on Sunday, but I knew we wouldn't be able to make it due to other plans, but we really wanted to see them, so I asked if they could spare a few hours on Saturday to come over and hang out with us! I was so happy they said yes!

So I got up early and ML and I headed out to get 'Game Day' supplies. We put the chili in the crock pot before we headed off to ballet.

As a side note, what is up with the ugly Crock Pot never dying????? I must admit to really, really wanting to buy one of those super cool looking stainless ones, but being too cheap to buy another crock pot when I have one that works already. Why can't this one die already? Why?

I finally snapped a pic of ML in her ballet attire.

And one through the blinds of her class.

Then it was home to cheer on our Auburn Tigers! And spend some time with our sweet friends.

Saturday night brought more time with more sweet friends who invited us over for the best steaks you've ever tasted!

Sunday it was off to church and then I took ML over to my parents house to play with my nieces. My dad has just finished the treehouse and it looks amazing!

We ended Sunday with our other Bible Study meeting at our house. Love, love, love our C groupies!

These days are so busy, I can hardly think. That's why I'm so glad to have this blog to write it all down. One day, I'll have too much time on my hands and I know I'll sit back and read about these days and be glad I have this blog to remind me of this sweet time!

Second Half

2011-09-04T19:15:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was a much calmer day. No football practice, so we spent most of the afternoon/ evening at home! ML dressed up in celebration:

Thursday ML had her first playdate with a friend from her new school. I didn't get any pictures, but it was great! Then on to football and soccer.

Friday was a big day - Grandparents Day at school! JR had been looking forward to this for a long time! Usually my in laws come from Chicago for this (they have the last 2 years) but this year they decided to come for Big Daddy's birthday instead. The two events are really too close together for them to come to both, so it was just my parents attending this year. My dad had a meeting that ran long, so for the first time, it was just one grandparent for JR instead of 4! He was totally okay with it though!

No pictures from Grandparents Day - #1 because they asked the parents to 'stay away' if we could because of space issues in the classrooms and #2 because as soon as it was over, we had to high tail it over to the doctor to get JR's ankle inspected. We told my parents we would meet them for lunch at 12:30 and ran over to the doctor's office. Well, the doctor sent us for an x-ray and we had to take a rain check on the lunch with the grandparents.

Look at these poor children.

They did so well. By now it was almost 1:00 and still no lunch for these two! Our 11:30 appointment turned into a two hour ordeal! We had to go to the doctor, wait to be called. Wait on the doctor, see the doctor. Have the doctor send us to the xray place. Submit our paper to the xray place. Wait to be called. Fill out more paperwork and fork over the big moooonay. Then take our papers over to the actual xray place and wait to be called again. Fortunately, I think the man who came out to call the next patient saw us sitting there looking so pitiful and had mercy upon us, because he took JR right back with him and he was in and out in 10 minutes! Praise God!

By 1:30 we were chowing down on some cheap Chinese food! (They put us in the back all by ourselves....... I wonder why???? Ha!)

After lunch we ran home and packed. We finished just as Big Daddy got home and we were on the road by 3:30 headed to the Loveliest Village of the Plains - Auburn, Alabama!

Because of the fact that most hotels in Auburn require you to stay 2 nights on game day weekends, we actually spent the night in Lynette, Alabama. It was awesome - so close. If you need a recommendation on where to stay, hit me up!

We were up bright and early Saturday. War Eagle!

We had so much fun - Tiger Walk

Eagle soaring, band playing, cheerleader greeting, seeing old friends who are students now. It was great! Not to mention a great ball game! We came from behind in the last 3 minutes to win the game! Gah!

After the game, we followed the crowd to Toomers where we saw even more people we knew.

It was sad to see the trees so sick.

They stand as a living testament to how letting something small and insignificant (like a football rivalry) fester in your heart, can become a big ball of anger and hate and lead to acting in a way that is just unkind. So. Sad.

But we were there for the celebration! And we were thankful for a turn to throw the rolls,

and celebrate with our 'family.'

In case you didn't know - We're All In.

:-)

First Half

2011-08-30T20:11:00.000-07:00

Things are still swinging around here!

Monday we were up and at 'em - headed off to school. After school it was waaaaaaay beyond time for JR to have a haircut. The wonderful lady who usually cuts his hair doesn't work on Mondays and we just missed her Saturday afternoon. I wanted JR to have his hair cut before the first football game Tuesday night, so we went over to Big Daddy's office and walked down to the barber shop right down the street from him. JR LOVED it - mostly because he got to watch Disney XD the entire time.

He's not allowed to watch it at home because most of it is too mature for him and nearly all of it is way too mature for ML. I can't keep them away from a TV once it is on, so therefore the rule is - no Disney XD.

After the haircut I left JR with Big Daddy and they walked next door to his office to the Brick House to have some dinner, while ML and I headed home to eat and bake some brownies for her Kindergarten Open House!

The Open House was a ton of fun and I was able to meet even more kids in her class as well as their parents, which was so great. I finally got a picture of ML with her teacher, Ms. Atwater. ML LOVES Ms. Atwater - she really is the sweetest! ML gets in the car everyday singing songs and just so joyful! I think that says a lot about the school she is attending.

Tuesday it was back to school and then after carpools, we headed to the bank to drop off some things in the safety deposit box (like my birth certificate that I got back from the passport people sometime in March........ yep. Those kinds of things! Ha!) While I was there I remembered that I still had ML's birthday money from her great aunts and uncles in my wallet. Usually we deposit this money into her education IRA, but JR has had a savings account for some time and I thought it might be time to open one up for ML. The bank was offering to add $5 to any new savings account (a back to school special for 'junior' savers.) So we opened up ML's first savings account!

Then we headed to Wendy's to have dinner with Big Daddy. We had hoped for a sit down meal, but ran out of time. Once again I sent off one child with Big Daddy and I took off with the other. Big Daddy and ML headed to soccer practice from 5:15 to 6:00 and I headed to football with JR for his first game! But not before I picked up the cutest shirt my friend Hillary made for ML. More to come on that in a little bit.

Can't believe this is my kid!

We didn't win the game, but it was close. The parents of kids who played last year said these two teams were always #1 and #2 and they actually played each other for the area championship last year, so I think it was a toss up who would win anyway.

Here's Miss Priss in her shirt that my sweet friend over at Mint Julep Monograms made for ML. So awesome!

Finally, a pic of the new table for Katie. Nothing too exciting, but I'm pretty pumped! Looks like the whole front of our house will be getting a makeover.

Full Swing

2011-08-29T11:07:00.000-07:00

What a week!

After Big Daddy's birthday party, things didn't slow down. Tuesday, Grandma and Grandpa Owens were still in town, so ML stayed home from school to play with them. Then we checked JR out of school and we all had lunch with Big Daddy and then went home to play with Grandma and Grandpa.

That night, Grandma and Grandpa Owens helped us out tremendously by taking JR to football practice from 5:30 to 7:30, while Big Daddy went to coach ML's soccer practice from 5:15 to 6:00 and I got everything ready for our Young Adult Bible Study that happens at our house on Tuesdays from 6:30 - 8:30. Whew! It was quite an evening. Lots of moving parts, but 2 extra set of hands certainly helped!

Wednesday we got up really early to take Grandma and Grandpa Owens to the airport. But after a late night and an early morning, we were all dragging. I think this pic of ML Wednesday afternoon sums it up best:

(And yes, I've just noticed that there are no less than 4 different types of polka dot fabric in this picture. I think I might need a support group for this problem!)

I got my second wind though, because that night was super exciting, as Pam Tebow came to speak at our church at a women's event called "Girls Night Out." There was an awesome dessert bar.

The ladies who worked on this event deserve a ton of praise, including my sweet BFF. Everything was effortless, even though there was a lot of work that went into it!

Pam herself was AMAZING. I really can NOT say enough good things about this woman. She just exudes the Holy Spirit. She talked about hope and let me tell you, as a wife and mother, and child of God, it was just so refreshing. I have never left an event feeling so at peace (and isn't that what we're all striving for??? Peace??? Well, you know, except for me - I mean anyone reading this knows me already and you know I've already got it all together. Right? Right? :-)

I didn't have the courage to take a picture of Pam speaking, (plus I was mostly mesmerized by her the entire time she spoke!) but I did snap one of Nicole singing! Nicole is just amazing, has just started attending that Tuesday night Young Adult Bible Study and she just got word that she has been accepted into Hillsong University in Australia!!!! WoooHooo!!! Nicole will be the third student from our church to study at Hillsong - we are going to be sooooo blessed when these students return and share their talents with us! (Hint, hint, hint. LOL)

On Friday, I finally purchased a dining room table! I am so excited! I have been looking for one for over 5 years. I've never found exactly what I was looking for at a price I was willing to pay, but I finally found one that I liked enough and the price was right, so I jumped on it! It's by a local lady who buys, refurbishes/ paints and then resells furniture. I'm smitten.

I drove out to Big Daddy's new subdivision to take pictures for his FB page:

We also had spend the night company, which was a ton of fun for the kiddos!

Saturday was non stop. First we had ballet, then a birthday party, then another birthday party, plus a trip to the Botanical Gardens.

ML had such a great time skating at her friend Katie's Birthday party! ML has known Katie since they were in the nursery together in preschool.

And speaking of preschool, I was excited to attend the second birthday party because the birthday boy was one of ML's classmates at her 'new' school. ML misses her friends from her old preschool terribly and is always asking for a play date. The only problem is, she is out of school at 12:20, but her friends aren't out until 2:30 or later. And we have to pick up JR at 3:00 and it is non stop every night trying to do homework, feed the kids something, and get to practices on time. So no play dates yet this school year for poor ML. :-(

Luckily, I was able to meet some really nice moms at the birthday party, and I think we will have a play date in the very near future!

Sunday, I worked on getting sponsors for the CARE Center 5K,

did bags of blessings with my small group girls (who are now in 8th grade! I can't believe it!) How sweet is this picture of (three) small groups praying over the Bags of Blessings they assembled?

Bags of blessings are bags of food sent home with at risk children every weekend to be sure that kids have food, even on the weekend when they aren't at school.

JR was a little jealous that his sister had been roller skating the day before without him. He's trying to work his way up to rollerblades, so I took him to the roller rink to practice his skating before practice.

After some MORE (yeesh!) football practice, we headed to Mellow Mushroom to end the weekend with some fun with our other Bible study group!

37

2011-08-25T09:11:00.000-07:00

On Monday we celebrated Big Daddy's Birthday.

It was a sort of thrown together at the last minute party - but aren't those the best kind? Big Daddy's parents flew in from Chicago and we had our closest friends over for dinner and cupcakes.

Speaking of the cupcakes, I tried The Corner House recipe for brownie cupcakes and cookies and cream icing and they were amazing! But I didn't crush my oreo crumbs enough and so my decorating tip was clogged and mine didn't *quite* look like the original. But they still tasted good - that's all that matters right? Right?

Happy Birthday Big Daddy!

Back to Life

2011-08-13T06:36:00.000-07:00

Not sure why, but for some reason, I just haven't wanted to post these pictures.

I should be MORE than excited about the kids going back to school. After all, I have about a million projects to finish that will go sooooooo much faster without all their 'help.' Like our office remodel. I still haven't even picked out a paint color!

(Neither of those colors are going to work BTW. The one on the left is waaaay too much like our bedroom paint color - not the look I was going for. And the one on the right? Can you say - Hello 1980's Country Blue? All it needs is a few pink painted hearts and we'd be set. This color falls under 'what was I thinking in the paint store?' Ha!)

but for whatever reason, I just haven't found the motivation to get these pictures posted!

Maybe it's been all the other things going on. Like Pinterest? Anyone else hooked?? I suddenly find myself wanting to scour our city for any type of bargain and paint it and turn it into something amazing. Like this lamp:

$4 at the thrift store. 1 hour and 1 awesome assistant later:

Love it! I know you can't tell by the photo on here, but it is the lightest green color, Sea Anemone by Martha Stewart, and I am in l-o-v-e.

We've also started into fall sports. This year we've taken the leap that every mother dreads - full contact football.

I can not believe that is my baby out there!

He looks so big!

And speaking of big, here, finally, are our first day of school pictures:

I'm not going to lie, it was a little difficult to focus these pictures through the tears:

Thankfully, my camera has an automatic setting.

Time

2011-08-07T19:42:00.000-07:00

My parents used to have a bumper sticker on the back of our Ford Aerostar (yep, yep..... the old Aerostar!) minivan that read, "The best thing to spend on your children is time." True. that.

With that in mind, I put down my camera this past week and just enjoyed my time with my kiddos. The only images I will have to remember this sweet time are a few blurry iPhone pics. It was our final week of summer and we celebrated in the most summer-y way we knew how.

By nearly giving ourselves a heat stroke braving the masses at the Mouse House:

And by cooling off in the best pool in the whole world:

And having even more fun in the sun at the beach:

And so, we bid a fond farewell to Summer 2011. It has been one amazing summer, one we won't forget any time soon! This week we start Kindergarten and Second Grade. Where does the time go????

These are days you remember.

Summertime

2011-07-31T11:28:00.001-07:00

It has been the loveliest of summers. We have eaten far too much, been to many wonderful places, and -best of all- laughed as hard as we possibly could as many times as we could possibly manage. Lots of porch sitting, and grill using, and lemonade and fireworks.

We saw things never before seen:

And took along some trusted friends:

We enjoyed the usual summertime traditions:

And we discovered that sleepovers with friends can really wear you out!

We are headed off to the beach and one day at Disney for one last 'hurrah' before we close the book on this summer of fun.

Vacation

2011-07-09T10:50:00.001-07:00

We went on vacation for 10 days. I'm going to try to limit my photos to just 5 favorites. Think I can do it?

Let's see.......

5 days of celebrating 50 years of marriage = Nothing short of magic!

50 years

2011-06-24T05:11:00.000-07:00

Today, my mother in law and father in law have been married for 50 years! In this world of 'it's all about me,' their example of love, devotion, and dedication to God's plan for their life is a shining example. So thankful for them!

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad Owens!

Mermaid Party

2011-06-18T19:46:00.000-07:00

Well, today was ML's Mermaid Birthday Party! We had a great time and are so thankful for everyone who came out to celebrate with us.

This party was so fun, but difficult at the same time. Difficult because there are so many cute mermaid party ideas out there, it was hard to pick just a few things to incorporate into ML's party. It seemed that there were 2 basic color scheme choices: pale pink/ peach with creams and whites or turquoise and green. Since 'the' Little Mermaid, Ariel, was the original inspiration for the party (what little girl doesn't love The Little Mermaid?), I chose to go with the turquoise & green.

This wreath greeted party guests:
Once inside:

Finished! ribbon topiary:
Cupcakes!
Cake & Candy table (sorry the plastic wrap is still on the Swedish Fish! - ooops!):

Mermaid cake - my very first time making a cake for my children. It's not perfect, but it turned out okay and ML thought it was awesome, which was all I cared about!:

Sea Shells above the lunch buffet:
Fish Craft area:
Fishing Game - just your basic 'Fall Carnival' style throw the fishing rod over and get a small prize back type game. It just so happened that JR & ML's existing shower curtain fit perfectly with our theme!:
Some pictures of ML (& JR) with Ariel on our many Disney trips:
Beverage area:

I put ML in a sweet smocked mermaid shorts set, but as per her usual schedule, about 30 minutes into the party she had already stripped down and put on a princess dress:
Cake!
It was wonderful fun and even though I can't believe she's 5! I am so thankful for my little birthday girl.

She's Back!

2011-06-15T17:20:00.001-07:00

So. I was one of those girls who played with dolls waaaaaay into the time when my friends were more into make-up and New Kids on the Block. Due to my 'delayed' development, I was - at that time- the proud owner of my own American Girl Doll, Molly.

Molly was much loved for the 2 or 3 years I kept her out in my room, but sometime in high school (at which point I hadn't played with her for years) she was lovingly packed up and put away. We brought her out again last year, roughly 20 years after she was first placed in her storage box. So, after 10 years in conditioned storage and 10 years in the attic, I was not surprised when her leg fell off in May when ML was playing with her.

I decided to ship her off to the doll hospital to have her fixed. I considered waiting until our next visit to Chicago and the American Girl Doll store there, but wasn't sure how long that would be. Molly looked so pitiful with only one leg, so off she went to be fixed. ML was totally devastated as she LOVES Molly. I think we sent her off the middle of May, so ML has been anxiously awaiting the mail lady every day for the past 2 weeks.

Today, the Fed Ex man dropped off this:

Reunited!!!:

Happy girls!:

Isn't Molly's hospital gown adorable? Molly also 'got her hair did' while she was in the hospital. Free of charge! How awesome is that? So glad to have her home.

2 Weeks of Crazy

2011-06-14T13:38:00.000-07:00

First - see post below - urgent prayer needed!

For my IRL friends - next year when I say something like "I can't wait until it's summer and things calm down." Please smack me in the head - okay? LOL! It has been CRA-ZAY. And I know it's busy everywhere else too.

Last week, JR spent the week at the Camp where Big Daddy and I met 9 years ago this summer. Such a sweet feeling driving in there with my own child to drop him off for a week of (day) camp! Bittersweet though in that I'm no longer a 'cool' counselor. Instead now, I'm an OLD mom of a camper! Ha! :-)

So last week was a blur, but this week we have Art everyday and we have something else fun most every day too.

Yesterday we went to a local rural school to help distribute lunches to children in need. I did this for the group of 7th grade girls that I work with at my church (it was our service project) but I brought the kids along to help. I knew it would be an eye opening experience for them and that they would have a good time.

Love my small group girls!:

Also - this week is CRAFT CRAZY! ML's mermaid birthday party is Saturday - so excited! Just have to finish up 1000 ideas I have. Is that too much to ask? Heehee! A preview of ML's ribbon topiary:
Here's hoping it will look better once it's finished!

Asking for Prayers

2011-06-14T13:31:00.000-07:00

Please pray for Rebecca and her triplets. Rebecca is 24 weeks along with 3 precious, much prayed for babies. Today Rebecca and the twins had surgery to repair a blood flow issue the twins were having. The next 24 hours are critical. Please pray that Rebecca and all 3 babies would heal quickly and there are 3 heartbeats in the morning. Thank you!!!

Baking, Crafting, and Baseball - Oh My!

2011-06-05T18:56:00.001-07:00

It. has been. a week. QUITE a week, I tell you. It seems like I can't bake enough.

Blueberry muffins....... yummmmmmmm....... :

And not just muffins - cookies, cupcakes - the list goes on! What is with me and the baking?!

And then I got to make this fun stuff for JR's end of the season baseball party:

Have I ever mentioned how much I love being indoors in climate control? Whelp. Now might be a good time to mention it. Because to prove God has a sense of humor, I have been gifted with a boy who would rather be outside than any other place on earth. If we are at home, he wants to play in the front with his friends, or ride his bike, or play ball in the backyard. If there is an organized sport, he wants us to sign him up for it. The kid just LOVES the outdoors. Forget TV, video games, and all that jazz. Give this kid a bike and a ball and you won't see him for hours.

But back to me. Ha! Now that you know how much I love my air conditioning, maybe you can sympathize with the 6 - SIX!- games in over 90 degree heat we've been to over the past week. LOL!

JR digging in after another HOT game yesterday afternoon.

Big Daddy and ML waiting their turn:

Our awesome Coach giving a speech:

But of course, they weren't really serious when they said 'end of season party.' No, there was still the tournament to finish! And we kept on winning. (Did I mention it was HOT AS HADES?) So there was lots of this:

And ML did lots of this:

And in the end we came in 2nd - losing in the last game. So proud of these boys and their coaches!

ML was a total mess. Snowcone dye on the lips:

Hairbow missing, dirty sticky hands:

And oh my word, those feet! :

Yuck!

Loading up the bags one final time:

So proud of my little Nat! Way to go JR!!! It was an awesome season (did I mention it was also a HOT season??) - so proud to point out on the field and say "There he is! That's my son!"

Love you!

Lobster Love

2011-05-29T21:47:00.000-07:00

We haven't really done much this Memorial Day weekend until today. Big Daddy took the kids golfing with a neighbor yesterday (to disastrous results........ let's just say - ML is evidently no more fond of heat and sports than her mother. Ha!) And then he took the kids swimming (which turned out to be a much better venture!)

But today - Today we kicked it into high gear. We had some of our favorite people over for lunch and then for dinner, one of our neighbors ~~lost her mind~~ was kind enough to invite almost our entire cul de sac and our children over for a lobster boil. We all paid for our own lobsters and we brought something to share. These little guys were my contribution:

Aren't they the cutest?

They were super easy. I just used a word document and imported a Clip Art file and punched them out with a 2 inch hole punch I bought at Hobby Lobby for a whopping $3. (Gotta love those 40% off coupons!)

I don't eat seafood (I know- gasp!) but Big Daddy is a big fan.

That's my handsome hubby!

But this guy?:

I have no idea who that crazy man is.......

I'm pretty sure we destroyed all semblance of calm in that house, so here's hoping our neighbors, their home and their beautiful back patio will soon recover from our invasion!

Dinner at the Ballet

2011-05-27T07:27:00.000-07:00

I am constantly inspired by Melissa over at A Little Loveliness. She does so many special things for her children, including a lovely dinner each year for her daughter's ballet recital. Inspired by this, we also had a special dinner before heading to ML's ballet performance.

Menu

Grilled Chicken Tenders

Sweet Potatoes

Strawberry Yogurt with Strawberry Garnish

Pink Lemonade

We also had great plans to make pink cupcakes, but bad weather and too little time spoiled those plans. Oh, well! We can always make cupcakes today right? Really, you don't need a reason to make cupcakes - at least not at this house!

After dinner it was on to the performance! ML danced as one of Alice's 'teardrops' in Alice in Wonderland.

I love this one because it shows how unpredictable dance can be at this age:

ML waving her scarf, and a little glimpse of ML's class assistant, whom ML and her classmates have named "Princess C." because they think she is soooooo beautiful! :

Daddy and his ballerina:

Royal Icing Sugar Cookies

2011-05-27T06:10:00.000-07:00

Today is SUYL over at Kelly's Korner one of my favorite blogs to read! I'm not a super baker, or even a super cook, but I've recently discovered Royal Icing cookies and they are SO much fun to make that I thought I would share!

I know if I can make them, anyone can do it! I started making them around Easter, and here is a (bad!) pic of the results of my first attempt:

See? Easy peasy.

I was inspired by Cindy over at Joel's Journey. Check out her amazing 'tutorial' on Royal Icing. It really has everything you need to know to get started! Check out her great reasons for making/ uses for baking Royal Icing cookies here and here.

I used this recipe from allrecipes.com for my Sugar Cookies.

And this recipe from allrecipes.com for my Royal Icing.

I will say it is super time consuming to make them, BUT so worth it in the end! Again, not the best picture (taken in the front seat of my car right before I ran inside the school to give these out! ), but here is an example of how I used some on sticks to make a fun bucket of cookies for my kids teachers at Easter. Just stick some floral foam in the bottom of the bucket, add some Easter grass (or moss, or tissue paper - possibilities are endless!), cover the cookies with cellophane or plastic wrap and 'ta da!' An easy, inexpensive, FUN gift for your friends and family!

Since then, I've also made huge Royal Icing heart cookies for tornado victims (was asked to help supply desserts to those who are feeding tornado victims 3 meals a day) and fish shaped cookies for an 'under the sea' party.

Just a few tips to help you get started:

1- keep the bowl(s) of Royal Icing covered with a damp wash cloth/ towel to keep it from drying out.

2 - Mix all of your icing at once. In other words, don't mix the color for the 'outlining' and then mix the color for the 'flooding' later. They won't match. See the carrot in the first photo above - hee hee! Mix all that you think you'll need all at once.

3- Finally, it only takes a tiny bit of water added to the icing to get it ready to 'flood' the cookie. Learned this the hard way! :-) (FYI- I got my flooding bottles at WalMart in the kitchen supply section.)

I hope you have fun making your own Royal Icing Cookies!

Last Day of School!

2011-05-26T10:58:00.001-07:00

Busy day here! In addition to it being the last day of school and Awards Day for JR, it is also ballet recital tonight!!!

But first things first, so we had a special breakfast to celebrate the last day of school/ beginning of summer:

The jar of sand and seashells is from our favorite beach. We collected them over several trips and I keep it on the wide edge of our master bathtub to remind us of the fun we have there. The other decorations you will be seeing again after ML's mermaid party!

Can't believe how much these two have grown!

Today:

Last August:

JR received an award for "A" Honor Roll and Helping Hands.

Sweet friends:

Then it was on to the auditorium to recognize some other big achievements. JR was recognized for representing the 1st grade in the Spelling Bee. ML sat very patiently.

Seriously, will my eyes never be open????
This is a little better:
Woo Hoooooooo! School's OUT for the SUMMER!!!!! I'll be back soon with details of ML's ballet dinner and recital pics!

Put Me in the Zoo

2011-05-24T17:23:00.001-07:00

I was able to attend JR's last Field Trip of the year yesterday. We went to a local (local meaning 2 hours away!) zoo and had a TON of fun. JR had to ride in a 'girl car' - meaning there he was the only boy in the car and he pretended to be not so happy about it. Of course, I know that he loves those sweet girls in his class as much as he loves the boys, but he had to make a big show of saying, "Aw man, I have to ride in a girl car!" Ha!

ML was more than happy to stay behind and spend the day with my mom. By all accounts they had the best time playing outside, having tea parties, dressing up, and watching movies while we were sweating to death at the zoo.

I really had the best time riding down with C's mom and the kids. She is just the nicest person and a saint for driving us all! Can't ask for more than that, especially after I discovered that she had just returned from a trip to Indiana on Sunday.

I have always loved that Dr. Seuss book Put Me In the Zoo. I have an old, raggedy copy from my childhood sitting on a bookshelf in my office.

Don't think I would put these three in the zoo though. I was more than happy to take them back home with us! Sweet kids and special memories!

Pomp and Circumstances

2011-05-21T09:49:00.000-07:00

So this week, I was once again reminded that I'm one of the 'lucky' parents, for while I have to say goodbye to Preschool, some parents are having to say goodbye to high school! I'm sure I'll be ready for JR's and ML's graduations when they arrive, but at the moment - I just can't quite wrap my mind around it!

'Our Miss' K., has been an amazing babysitter for us over the past year. She is reliable, mature, and just overall a wonderful person. We were not surprised at all when she received a full scholarship to the University of Alabama! As hard as it is to see her go to 'that school' (HA!), we are so proud and so happy for her! 'Miss' K.'s parents were kind enough to invite us to her graduation luncheon and we were happy to attend and celebrate her accomplishments!

K. and JR

K and ML

K and one of my dearest friends!

We weren't able to attend the graduation ceremony, but we wish K. and all the other graduates we know the BEST of things to come! Can't wait to see what God does in these young people's lives - each graduate we know is a young person full of potential. No doubt God has great plans for them!

Friday morning, we got in the car to head to school, and guess what happened?????

Absolutely nothing.

Nada.

The car was dead as a doornail.

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

I was too freaked out by the whole hybrid battery system that our car uses to attempt to jump it off myself, so I called a tow truck to take it to the dealership. All the while, kind of stressing out about all the things I needed to do that day - not the least of which was GET JR TO SCHOOL! , how would I get them done without a car, etc.

Well, when to tow truck guy arrived, guess what he had to do to even get the car in neutral to get it out of the garage? Jump it off. Sheesh! It started right up and I was able to take the kids to school and drive directly to the dealership (I couldn't turn the car off however - had to leave it running the entire time I was in the school!)

The dealership determined it was just my 'regular' car battery that had died, NOT the much more expensive hybrid battery (whew!) And Big Daddy was able to drive the company truck around all day, allowing me to drive his truck (so sorry to all the curbs in the area that day - not a one was safe. :-) Reminding me once again, how very blessed I am - even in the worst of my circumstances.

Yesterday was REALLY ML's last day of preschool (5 days were added on after graduation to make up for our week off for snow.) And it was finally time for the ceremonial 'tossing of the sparkly shoes.'

ML has to wear closed toed shoes to school every day. Problem is, she's not much of a tennis shoes girl and very few of her outfits go with tennis shoes anyway. Ever since she discovered the glitter shoes at Target, we've had at least one or two pairs at all times. Some times they are red, other times pink, this past November we chose silver. By about March they were looking pretty bad, but I thought, "Why buy a new pair of shoes for just 2 months?" (She lives in flip flops in the summer.)

I probably should have just caved and bought a new pair though! This was the result of those extra 2 months:

Oh well, next time we'll just buy a pair in every color. :-)

The End of an Era

2011-05-18T08:06:00.001-07:00

For seven years now, I have driven at least twice a week to the same, wonderful Mother's Morning Out program here in our town. My children (and our whole family really) have been immensely blessed by the children's programs offered by this local church. I really can't say enough wonderful things about our experiences here!!!!

I will miss the teachers, the friends we have made, and the times we have shared. This past Friday, ML graduated from preschool with a wonderful little program. Today, I'm taking a look back at her preschool life in pictures. Here are a few of my favorites:

I must not have taken a photo of her first day in the toddler class in 2007 (gasp! :-) Of course, that has been almost 4 years ago, but I'm pretty sure I probably had a good reason. I'm not saying ML was a difficult toddler or anything, but I am saying I *might* have been too excited about 4 hours to myself to worry about taking any photos! Ha!

Here is a photo of her from October 2007 though. Incidentally, it is also the very first photo EVER posted to this blog! How's that for full circle?

August 2008, last year with JR in preschool:

August 2009:

August 2010 - So special to have your cousin in your preschool class!

Last Friday, May 13:

Preschool reunion for JR! A few of his preschool classmates who were also there to see their younger siblings graduate:

ML performing:

We will miss all of our sweet friends!

Totally and completely typical of these two!

And so we say, "Good bye Preschool, Hello to Kindergarten!"

Can't believe I am now the mother of two grade schoolers! Where has the time gone? Precious days - flying by too fast!

Blast Off

2011-05-17T19:41:00.001-07:00

It was quite the journey, but we got to see a shuttle launch!!!! Yesterday, we witnessed Endeavour leave on it's final journey into space. I know space exploration isn't everyone's cup of tea (to be honest, just thinking about space kind of freaks me out :-) But I have always thought it would be amazing to see a shuttle launch in person.

I'd heard stories like - if you're close enough, you can feel the sound vibrations of the shuttle launching in your chest. I'd also heard that the noise carries for miles. I thought it would be quite an experience and boy was I right!

Endeavour was scheduled to launch April 29, 2011 in the late afternoon. We were given VIP tickets that would allow us to access Kennedy SFC for the launch. Close enough to 'feel'! Yay!

Two things on our mind that morning:

We met up at a hotel in Cape Canaveral to board the bus that would take us to KSFC.

Lots of bling:

People were lined up all along the roads leading into KSFC and the Air Force Base. They said they expected 750,000 for the launch.

We got to see many interesting buildings on our way through the Air Force base and onto KSFC, but this was my favorite. It's hard to even describe how big this building is. The water tower gives some sort of reference, but not enough! It is the largest single story building in the world and those grey doors roll up to let the shuttle out. But not all the way up - the doors haven't been rolled all the way up since the days of the Apollo program. Hard to imagine anything bigger than a shuttle isn't it?! They said that the building is so big it needs it's own weather report. Water can condense inside and it can literally rain inside the building.

The first thing they had us do when we arrived was take our picture with the countdown clock:

We had just finished getting our lunch when the bad news came over the speaker system: No go for launch. :-( Most of our group was in a 'pre launch briefing' so we ate our lunch and played in the Saturn building while they finished the meeting.

We were one of the last buses to leave and we ended up being kind of glad. We were stopped on the road because the President was landing right beside us!!! How cool is that? Closest I've ever been to a President that's for sure! He got into his motorcade with his family and set off to tour some of KSFC and see Atlantis (last shuttle scheduled for launch some time in July.)

Fast forward about 2 weeks. Monday, May 16, 2011 - We arrive back at the same hotel at 5:30 am (ouch!) to board the bus once again:

We arrive just after a beautiful sunrise. Everything still looks like a go for launch with less than 2 hours to go. But wait - there is a cracked tile! We hold our breath while we listen to Mission Control (over the loudspeaker system) talk through the tile repair. Success! Tile is repaired perfectly. Still all systems go.

The astronauts are locked into the shuttle:

The kids find ways to keep occupied during the final 9 minute hold (which, deceptively takes about 40 minutes! Those NASA people and their confusing lingo! Ha!)
And then, the 9 minute hold is released!!!!! It really is Final Countdown time!!!!!
I wonder what those astronauts could be thinking, sitting out there on that platform. I would be a complete mess! Heck, I was so nervous and excited and I wasn't even near them!
We made the kids come up and sit with us during the final minutes of the countdown. For a second I thought the 3:30 am wake up call was going to come back to bite us when it looked like ML was going to have a meltdown right at launch time:
But she quickly recovered and we were ready to watch.......

this.......

And it was amazing. And it was unreal. And it made me proud to be an American. A part of a country that leads the way in exploration and innovation. The sound waves were my favorite part. We weren't able to see the shuttle for long, due to the cloud cover. But the sound waves hit us seconds after the shuttle was gone from view and lasted for a good minute or so. You can see them shaking the camera on our video of the launch! You really can feel the vibrations in your chest. Amazing.
Godspeed Endeavour! Support our Space Programs Everyone!

Dance

2011-05-11T14:39:00.000-07:00

It's almost recital time! ML's ballet class is practicing hard in preparation. Yesterday was ballet for us, and I got these pictures of her class through the window.

Tomorrow, we need to make a drop off at our local charity. Anyone else ever look at all those garbage bags of donations and wonder, "How did I ever acquire all this stuff anyway?"

Also, I'm hoping to make a trip over to help with the tornado relief again. I won't be able to do nearly the good work Big Daddy has done, but I hope to help in my own little way.
This makes me sad. I know this isn't the worst of it, but even over a week after the tornadoes, people are still living with trees in their houses!

My sweet friend Donna and her daughter and I volunteered with the food services for tornado victims and volunteers last week. It was a blast! Also, you should ask Donna about the tour of the area I took her on - it was very scenic! Ha!

April 27

2011-05-09T18:45:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, April 27, 2011 - In which, my home state of Alabama undergoes a Torndado Emergency. We were woken up at 5:59 am to our weather radio warning us of a tornado in our county (the first of many.) 4 tornadoes pass within miles of our house that day. We watch helplessly as one by one, cities and towns filled with friends and loved ones are obliterated by tornadoes. We are in our storm shelter from roughly 1pm (after seeking shelter at my son's school from 11 am to 12:30pm) to around midnight. Our power goes out at around 4:30 that afternoon.

We emerge at midnight to find there has been ZERO damage to our home and neighborhood. Praise God!

But all 4 of us lay in the bed in the darkness that night. Big Daddy and I are listening with headphones (so as not to wake the kids) to the local radio stations as they begin to receive damage reports. Northern parts of our county - Gone. Whole towns in counties south of us - Gone. Already 4 people dead in our county. A friend whose husband is in law enforcement in a neighboring county texts me and asks me to pray for her husband who is helping to load bodies found in a field, into emergency response vehicles. He has told his wife he is already breaking down - this from a man who many days never even calls home until way after the scary parts of his job are done. I frantically text, call and Facebook all of our friends in affected areas. Miraculously, no one we know was killed and very few were hurt! Praise God!!!!! Finally, around 2 am, my husband and I turn off the radio and go to sleep.

The next morning my dad (who works for our local utility comany) calls at 5:45 to tell us the power will be out for up to 10 days. There is no way to pump gas, there is no way to do much of anything really. We decide to leave town.

My neighbors who stay have a great (not perfect, but great!) time camping in their homes. We have a few adventures ourselves - away from home - but our hearts are in Alabama, with the people affected by the tornadoes.

Sunday night the power comes back on and by Monday evening we are back home!

Since that Monday, we have been going non stop. Collecting supplies, delivering supplies, sending Big Daddy out to clear downed trees and do other general clean up.

I have seen more love, more compassion, more Christ - like behavior in my community in the past 2 weeks than I can ever explain. We are here for each other and we are in it for the long haul.

So proud to say my home is in Alabama.

Easter Weekend

2011-05-07T17:31:00.001-07:00

Easter weekend feels like a million years ago now. But at least I have the photos to remind me!

Egg coloring with cousins at my parent's house.

Easter morning:

We had lunch and our first Egg hunt at my parent's house:

Sweet cousins only 3 months apart in age! 3 months to the day!

When we got home from my parents, JR took these pictures of us:
Squinty!

For dinner, we went over to our friends - the S. family's- house where we dined with not only the S family, but also our sweet friends the B. family!
(that's Big Daddy hosing down JR's shoes in the background. They had taken the kids down to the river for a walk while the Easter Bunny hid the eggs. JR got at little too close to the edge and fell in the mud.)

Another egg hunt! Success!

Fun times!

I swear we're normal. :-)

Baseball 2011

2011-05-07T17:26:00.001-07:00

It's that time of year again. Baseball time!

Proof I am NOT the best of photographers:

Batter up!

What does ML attend baseball games for? Concessions. What does she look like when the allotted money runs out? This:

Ready!

Proof that sometimes, just sometimes, I get a good shot:
Sweet things.

Easter Love

2011-05-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

I know the pictures are terrible, I was running like a crazy woman Easter week, but here are the Easter cookies I made to give out as gifts to friends, teachers, etc.

Because, why should Christmas get all the good cookies?????

An April to Remember

2011-05-02T08:45:00.000-07:00

Hello All!

It has been one crazy April - beyond just April showers that's for sure! It's been so crazy, I'm not even sure where to begin, so I've decided to just start at the beginning:

April started off with baseball, baseball and more baseball (more on that in a later post!) It also started with the much anticipated Spring Break. Our spring break was super late this year - our school system decided they wanted to do all of the standardized testing before spring break, so for the first time in memory, our spring break was in April! I know some of you have spring break in April every year, but for those of us used to a break in March, waiting until April was super difficult!

The kids and I flew into Orlando on a Monday. My mother in law flew into Orlando from Chicago, and by the time we landed, my mother in law already had our rental car waiting! We made the short drive to their condo and were soon on the beach!

On Wednesday, my father in law flew in. On Thursday Big Daddy joined us. Pool time was WAY more fun after that!

We did quite a few things this trip we hadn't done before. One was feeding alligators! (Or crocodiles??) We were given small bits of 'meat' - really more like meat flavored dog treats - that we attached to bobby pins and then let the meat hang over the fence with a cane pole and string. When we arrived, the crocs looked pretty comfortable on the platform, but they got pretty lively after they saw the cane poles!

Of course, these crocodiles were at a mini - golf place (I mean, aren't they all? :-) So we played a rousing game of mini golf (which I dominated, no matter what Big Daddy says!)

And of course, lots more beach time!

The last new thing we did on the trip was visit a local Zoo/ Gardens, where the birds were the biggest hit!

If they don't Win, It's a Shame!

2011-04-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

Whelp. No "W" over Wrigley today - but there's always tomorrow! AND THIS IS THE YEAR!!!!

Right? Hope springs eternal for a Cubs fan!

Today was slightly bittersweet for us at the Owen's house. This is the first time in a long time we haven't made it to opening week. We were there last year at Turner Field for the Season Opener:

Perfect weather + third largest crowd in Turner Field history + Atlanta traffic = nightmare at the beginning of the game!

Cub's worst opening day loss since 1898 (or something close! I swear! I'm totally not making that up!) = painful end to the game. But honestly we were so glad to be there and everything about that day was so memorable. I love that we can say, "We were there."

In 2009, we didn't make it to opening day, but we made it to opening week - at Wrigley Field! Woot! I think we were playing the Cardinals. It was a great game (I *think* we won!) and it was made all the more special because Big Daddy's dad, was able to come with us.

I love this picture. One of my favorites:

But, since we took of 8 days of school to go to Disney in December, plus it was supposed to be freezing in Chicago, we decided to skip Opening Week this year, in hopes of seeing the Cubbies over Memorial Day weekend and in August when they will be in Atlanta.

I still wanted to make this day extra special, so yesterday the kids and I made some "snack boxes" using old shoe boxes, construction paper, and some black ribbon. At Wrigley Field (like all other ball parks I'm sure), the vendors walk up and down the stands selling hot dogs, cokes, 'adult beverages', and a million other things. The seating is so tight, that if you are 20 people in, you just pass your money down the aisle and then the vendor passes back your change and your food/ drink.

So, I made a little ribbon 'holder' for our boxes, so they looked like a Cubbies vendor box:

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks!

They were a hit! And now I wish I'd made them a little more durable, because the kids want to use them all weekend.

We made it home from school in the 6th inning, and we were excited to sing "Take Me Out the Ballgame" with the rest of the crowd. Despite the fact we couldn't actually be at the game, JR was more excited in a way, to come home and watch the game on TV, because Big Daddy has told him stories about coming home after school to watch the games when he was a kid.

Tradition. It's the little things that count!

Go, Cubs, go!

It's Almost time!

2011-03-31T18:49:00.001-07:00

Right now, the stands sit empty.....

And the press box is quiet and still......

But soon, there will be the sound of cleats on the crushed brick that lines the field.

And the roar of the crowd in the stands!
Let's Go Cubbies!

These pictures were taken during our tour of Wrigley Field 2 years ago. It was a wonderful experience and I recommend it to any Chicago visitor or baseball fan.

Here's hoping the "W" flies over Wrigley tomorrow! (If they get to play at all - there's a chance of snow -Yikes!!!) We were at the season opener last year in Atlanta, and let's just say...... things didn't go so well! Ha!

We're going to rush home from school to catch the last few innings on TV, and we're having some pretty special snacks to celebrate! More on that tomorrow!