Our Fun Filled Week...

From MOPS on Tuesday, Chick-Fil-A on Wednesday, Thursday we spent the day with the Cornett's. (not sure how I missed getting pictures of that day, guess I was to busy visiting and playing Wii ;) Shopping at 4am on Friday, to decorating the house for Christmas! Saturday we spent the day with my side of the family, we had a fun day together. To Sunday certainly a day of rest.

His first time to try this thing kids call fun.

Way to go Jared!!

Here I am trying to attempt riding it. My nephew you see here, was great giving me lots of pointers. But I know what he was really thinking...Aunt Stacey just give up on trying and please just give it back to me ; )

Monica and Grace saw the goats while riding around, and of course Grace tried to pet them.

Grace and 2nd cousin Cole. It's great being 2! The Parents get to do all the work. One of them is probably saying to the other (How long do ya think we can get them to push us for?)

Papaw, Aly & Grace.

Great throw Caden!

Those girls love playing together.

Building rockets to launch!

Getting ready....

Just look where it landed! 75 feet away in the cargo rack of the four wheeler!

One more time.

Seesaw up & down, in the sky & on the ground.


Not 5 min. after leaving she was out.
Little girl had a hard few days.

Friday afternoon while Grace was napping, we put the lights on the house. This is the first year the boys got to help with this!

I was so nervous having them on the roof, but they did great!

We had great conversation ...

everything looks so different from up high.

We are all talking about which direction the tree Adam & Eve ate from would be.

We moved indoors to put up the Christmas Tree.

Caden put the hooks on the ornaments...

While Jared hung most of them.

Grace was a big girl/helper this year in her reindeer ears!

A Limo Ride

We have been patiently waiting for B's mom to send pictures, and we got these today! Thursday she called and asked if Jared could ride with B after school on Friday.

They were going to the Mall for B's Birthday, to play at the arcade, and eat pizza & cookie cake. Oh and a limo will be picking them up...

Since Jeff & I do not listen to the Breeze raido station, she told us that they have a drawing each week for a lomo to pick you & 9 of your friends up from school on Fridays. Well, B won Fridays drawing, and it was also his Birthday!

He had 5 friends (& his sister) ride with him. Too cool!

In two weeks I will be 34 and I haven't ever ridden in a hummer or a limo:( and now my 10 year old has done both. Jeff & I were so excited for him, just to see how excited he was. This will be an experience he will never forget!

Thanks again Johnna for the pictures.

Friday Family Movie Night...

Okay, first things first. This is a horrible picture of me. Thanks honey;) I turned, and he took the picture...ugh. Oh well, now that's out of the way, I'll tell you about our Friday night. We made plans to have our family movie night tonight. (You're now probably thinking, okay... so why is she holding a broken water pipe in the bath tub?) Well, I told Jared to go ahead and take his shower, before we start the movie. He's finishing up when he hollers...MOM can you come here!? I thought this was kinda odd, he hasn't needed my help taking a shower in quite awhile now. I hollered, I'll be there in just a minute. MOM YOU NEED TO COME LOOK AT THIS! I'm saying, what is it, whats wrong?...as I'm walking toward to bathroom. He was holding the faucet when I walked in. He said,"the knob you pull to take a shower?.well I didn't think I pulled it that hard, but I heard a cracking sound, and now the water to the shower won't work." (I knew then our movie just got canceled). "Okaaay....not good. I'll check to see if the water got your closet wet. (The pipes to the tub/shower are in the wall next to the boys closet). "And then I'll get your daddy." The closet was indeed wet, but it could have been a lot worse.

Doing a great job honey! He's my, Mr. Handy Man!

Jared giving us the look..."aw man what have I done,

this isn't good...and are they going to make me pay for this?!"

Caden was in the bathroom looking through the hole in the wall. Too funny!

Ms. Grace didn't want to help much, she just stood back and watched us. Removing the wall was kinda loud, I think it scared her a little. This job was somewhat a messy one. She kept saying "ew grose." If you look behind her, you can see the wet wall, and all of the clothes we had to remove from the closet. Thankfully this was an easy fix tonight, and it only cost us $5.00. Thank you Jesus!! And thanks to Netflix we can watch our movie tomorrow, and it won't be late!

4th Grade Essay

A few weeks ago, I blogged about Jared's 4th Grade Essay Contest during Red Ribbon Week. Today at school he was presented with this certificate! I am so proud of you sweetheart!

As my son looks at the certificate, he is getting one of his first exposures to the rewards both in recognition and in satisfaction for putting forth more than "just enough." Jared asked me many questions about my youth (this is Jeff by the way) and it thrills me to see him being recognized for being the thoughtful and smart kid that he is. We love you Jared and are very proud of you.

What do you believe?...

That is what I said to Jared yesterday when he asked me, "Is Santa really real?" I knew this day would come. He has been very leary the last two years, but continued to believe. He told me, a friend of his saw there mom & dad in his room the other night pretending to be the tooth fairy. "So, is she and Santa Clause real?" Again I said, what do you believe? "I think you and daddy are eating the cookies & drinking the chocolate milk we make for Santa." Ok, so he knows. Jeff and I told him the truth. I was shocked that he looked so disappointed after we told him. I said to him, you still believe if you want, I still like to.

When the kids were younger, Jeff and I struggled with the decision if we should even start the hole "Santa Clause thing" with them. As a little girl I was terrified of Santa (better yet any imaginary person) and was upset to say the least, when I found out Santa was a fake. I had been terrified for no reason at all.

We are really considering not starting the "Santa Clause traditon" with Grace. Now that we have disappointed our oldest child, and we'll have another to disappoint possibly next year.

Caden Cracks Us Up

A few times a week I lay down with the boys, just to talk about whatever comes to mind. Well tonight Caden says "I wish daddy would invent a machine that could fix our food for us. It would add a little bit more food as it moved down the line." I said Yes, that would be pretty cool. Jared also agreed with Caden's idea, and starts to explain another type of machine. His had "chips, not the sour cream and onion kind, but computer chips." He's describing it with lots of square pads and lots of chips that are continuously being added to the pads. Caden says at the end of Jared's invention description..."could you tell me again, all I heard was something about square pads?" Jared sighs,"mommy could you tell him?" Sweetheart I'm with him, you lost me. So he kindly explained it again and said, did you get it? Caden said, yep sure did. He said it in a way though I am not so sure that he did understand, but wasn't going to put himself or Jared through it a 3rd time.; )

Friday night we took dinner to a friend, who just had a baby. Jeff and I took the food up to the house. We stood at the door to keep and eye on the kiddos in the car, as we visit with the new parents a minute. As we are driving off Caden says "which one did she just have?...That one, the one standing at the door?" We grin and say,"no he's a little big don't you think?" Caden grins, "yeah he is kinda big."

Last week we are all sitting down eating dinner, and Caden noticed a crack in one of the dining chairs. Jeff said,"yes I need to fix that, it is on my to do list." Caden said,"what number is it daddy?" I started laughing, then Jeff laughs and says #9,334 ya little toot.

A Camp Out Weekend

Jared took these pictures while on our hike.

He is quite the photographer! We thought he did a great job.

~I love this one of her~

Grace was wanting to swing, and as soon as she did, she started to cry.

Much better now! She got to swing with her mommy.

Here we are trying to get a family shot.

The kids thought this was fun,

since we were the only ones at the park at the time.

After playing for 7 hours, we had a very tired little girl.

We had to wake her after she slept over 3 hours.

Grace trying to play Scrabble with the girls. ;)

Grace and our niece ended up dressed alike.

So we just had to get a picture of them. ;)

Play Time At The Park

While Jared was at scouts the other day, we had some time to play at the park . I love this time of year, when all of the leaves are falling. So I took some pictures of Caden and Grace playing.

Caden wanted to take a picture, so he took one.

He did a great job!

Caden and I enjoyed the swings!

She loved this slide! I almost couldn't get her to play on the other toys.

Drug Free Report

Last week was Red Ribbon Week at school. Well the week before, the 4th grade students wrote a report over, This Is Why I Choose Not To Use Drugs. Jeff and I read the report, and thought it was very good. We had no idea at the time, it was to be turned in for a competition. Well, yesterday I was at my sisters house and she told me Jared's name was announced on Friday, over the intercom as the winner or runner up over a paper he had written. Later I asked him about it. He said "oh yea, remember the report I wrote, the one I mentioned daddy in. The one over drugs, alcohol and smoking?" I said, yea. That one! I got 1st place! I said, that is awesome!!! Next time tell me and your dad, we want to know these things, boy! Sorry...I forgot.

Last year during red ribbon week, Jeff and I were talking to the boys about the effects of drugs, alcohol & smoking. Just two nights before this, Jeff and I decided not to tell the boys he used to smoke. Unless they ask. Well, they did. Jared asked me, I said, no I have never tried it. Then, Caden asked Jeff. We told them the truth, Jeff was very honest, and told them how smoking made him feel, and how he didn't want to smoke, but his body craved it. He also told them how he chose to quit, and how difficult it was. We could tell this scared them. They said "so is daddy going to die?" I said no not necessarily, he didn't smoke for so long that his lungs could not heal themselves, and he quit a long time ago, before Caden was even born.

Jared may have forgotten to tell his mom and dad about the contest he won, but he remembered the conversation we all had at Papacitas, that won him first place.