Santa

Yes, this is the best pic we got and yes, it is framed and sitting out with all the other Santa pics.

Decorating the Tree

Against our better judgment, we put up a Christmas tree this year. The boys love it but they can't stay out of it. More or less, I have to redecorate the tree every night after they go to bed. This involves gathering ornaments from around the house where they have been tucked away in train cars or hauled around in dump trucks. I realize that putting a tree in your living room and then covering it with lights and shiny things and then expecting that your two young boys will stay out of it is not a realistic expectation. Maybe next year?

Emory gives himself a round of applause for a well-placed ornament

G.G. Turns 90!

These pics are from about a month ago but I just now got them together. My grandmother turned 90 in November and we went to her big birthday bash in Morristown. All of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were there. All together she has seven great-grandchildren and it was really fun (and wild) to have them all in one place. (Luckily, the church had a great playground.) It was a beautiful party for a very beautiful lady! Happy Birthday, G.G.!

The boys give GG flowers

Children, Grandchildren and Great-Grandchildren

Great-Grandchildren (Thank you, Emory)

My Very Own Tree

Jack is so excited about Christmas this year that I feel like his little head is going to explode everyday. He declared on Monday that we needed to decorate his room for Christmas so while he was at school Emory and I went out and found a little tree for his dresser. Jack and I then spent three days making salt dough ornaments to decorate it. He loves this tree. He even asked is we could scoot his bed next to his dresser so he could sleep under it. I'm not sure how we'll ever get it down after Christmas.

Thanksgiving

We stayed home for Thanksgiving this year after being on the road so much this month. AnnMomma and Joe came down, along with Uncle Jeff and his family. Once again, we were visited by yet another stomach bug (how many of these things can really be out there?!). Thursday we all managed to be well enough to eat and cook and have a nice day. David smoked an amazing bacon-wrapped turkey breast. Really good stuff. David's dad and brother have a tradition of going out and hitting the sales on Friday morning and this year they took David with them (although they worried he would slow them down...).We all went out a little later (they left at 4:30 am) but since we live in a pretty small town, there wasn't all that much going on.

This pilgrim is sooo excited about the holidays

Gonna help daddy with his grillin'

Jenna gets in some much-desired time playing with trucks ;)

Yes, there is turkey under all that bacon

AnnMomma, with no room in her cart for bargains

Zoo

We went to Tennessee a couple of weeks ago to celebrate G.G's 90th birthday (Pictures to come. As usual, I took very few and so am in the process of gathering them from different sources. No time to pick up a camera when chasing little boys, I guess...). As usual for us, we started the trip out with a stomach bug so only Jack and I got to go to the zoo with Papaw and Mary Ann. It was cold but Jack loved it and we had a really nice time. The zoo was almost empty but the animals were out.

Driving the Safari Truck

Birthday/Running/Indiana Fun

We went up to Indiana for David's birthday and so he and his brother could run a half marathon together. I didn't get any good pictures (this seems to be a theme for us lately), but we had a really great time. The boys love to play with their cousins and David and I even got to go out to dinner. AND David ran in the race, his fastest one yet...

Group pics are just impossible

Ava is prone to spontaneous splits these days

The girls are very patient with our rowdy boys. This is right after Emory pulled out a big chunk of her hair.

Happy Birthday!

Halloween

Well, it is almost impossible to get these two boys to stand still for pictures. I tried my best. They went as The Man in the Yellow Hat and Curious George. David worked tirelessly on the hat and really did a great job. They looked very cute but no one will ever know that because we couldn't get a decent picture of them all night long.

Haberdasher

Before the big party at school

And More Mud...

What would we do without mud? How did we ever live without it?

More Pumpkins, etc.

We went for more fall fun at Trunnell's Farm. They had pumpkins and hay rides and tractor tricycles. We have really done the Fall thing this year.

Face Painting

Hay Ride

"Tractor" Ride