Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

It has been a good day around here I hope you have had a good one too!

The girls both brought home a questionnaire about me from school and I thought I would share their perception of me!

According to Sophie:

I am 20 years old.

I am 11 feet tall and weigh 7 lbs ;0).

Her favorite thing to do with me is play dress up.

I work on the computer before school.

I say "clean up your room" a lot.

My favorite food is onions.

My favorite television show is Dora.

I do not sing in the car and I cannot dance.

I work at school.

She loves me a whole lot.

According to Macklin:

My 3 favorite places to go are Kroger, School and Publix.

The five special people she would invite to celebrate with me are Grannie, Papa, Manda, Jessica and Jana.

If she were in charge of cooking for me for an entire day she would make:

(her spellings)

Cerel and eggs

Pizza and mushrooms

Spigetti and for dessert: Chocholte mousse

(I don't know why she can spell mousse correctly and not chocolate :0) )

The three chores that she would help me with are:

Making my bed

Setting the table

Sweeping the kitchen

Watching Sophie while I rest.

(she couldn't stop at 3, wish this was real life)

And finally, my favorite things to to are scrapbook and teach!

Funny stuff.

I am very blessed to be the Mommy to three of the best kids ever!

Eight is Great!

Macklin turned 8 on February 8th and the celebration is still not over! We had a nice Saturday before her birthday eating at Elliston Place Soda Shop, Krispy Kreme and going to McKay's bookstore (her request) to get some new books. We went to church the morning of her birthday and then we were treated to lunch at the Olive Garden by Dann's Aunt Sharon and Uncle Dave who are in Tennessee visiting their daughter. That afternoon we had gifts and at small group that night we had cake and ice cream! But wait there's more.......We spent the weekend in Knoxville with Amanda, Jeremy and Will. Papa Ben and Grannie Annie came on Sunday and we celebrated Macklin and Elijah's birthday with them. There is still a friend party to come!

Macklin is our child that keeps you on your toes and certainly makes you "think outside of the box". She is very creative, always writing a song or a story or creating some sort of drama :0)! I love every inch of who she is and would not change one thing about her! I am excited to see what God has planned for her life. It has got to be something great! Happy (month long) Birthday Mackie! I love you.

A Very Merry

Boy, am I behind! If you are like me you are WAY OVER CHRISTMAS, but in the interest of preserving memories for my family, here is a quick recap of our Christmas. We celebrated with Dann's family in Indiana over Thanksgiving and got the only real snow we have seen this season. We continued the tradition of drawing names and making the gifts. Next year will be the 20th anniversary of this tradition. It is always fun to see what everyone comes up with.

Sophie was an angel in the Thursday CLC Christmas program and sang in the choir in the Wednesday program.

We went to East TN for Christmas and had a great time despite over 20 of us getting a stomach virus! Fun times :0(. Papa and Grannie were very generous (as usual) and we are very much enjoying our Wii and Wii Fit! The kids had fun playing with Will, Jadyn, Logan and Asha and loved being spoiled by their aunts and uncles!

Groovy Gobbler

or Turkey Dressing part deux.

You may remember from last year that Macklin had to disguise

a turkey so that he would not get eaten for Thanksgiving.

We disguised him as Santa Claus last year.

This year she was given the same assignment and we had to out do last year (of course).

This is what we came up with.....

She is hoping to win a prize! (but she is not sure there is a contest :0) )

I have never baked a turkey in my life but if your turkey needs a beaded wig this holiday season, I'm your girl!

Happy Veteran's Day

Thanks to all who have served and defended our country so that we may enjoy the freedoms that we have.
Let us not ever take them for granted.

Happy Grandparents Day!

Grannie Annie, Papa Ben, Gramma and Granpa

We love you!

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great 4th of July swimming at the Y, taking naps and going to Murfreesboro to watch fireworks. We hope yours was fun too!

Father's Day 2008

Were they callin' for rain?????

This was my Memorial Day Project.

BEFORE

AFTER
But sadly, I was interrupted by a monsoon! So I spent some time putzing around Pioneer Woman cooks. This is the result:
The recipes are cheese and olive bread, Marlboro Man's 2ND favorite sandwich (the chicken, we didn't eat it on a bun) and bacon wrapped, stuffed jalapeno thingys. We will be scheduling our EKG's first thing in the morning! ~Happy Memorial Day!~

Blessed

Happy Mother's Day to you and yours! We have had a fantastic weekend and hope you have too!

Happy Easter

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter weekend! We sure did!

~Happy Spring Break~

My Funny Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day! I thought I would take this opportunity to list a few reasons I love my valentines! I love the way Dann's eyes crinkle when he smiles, the way he always thinks of me first and yes, I love to hear him sing :). I love the way when Elijah tries something new he really sticks with it until he gets the hang of it. I love Macklin's creativity and her free spirit. She makes us all think of things in a new light. I love my Sophie's dimples and curls. She will forvever be my baby! Of course there are many, many, many, more reasons that I love them and I hope they know it! Have a great day!

Back home again........

in Indiana......okay not for me but for Dann. Elijah and Dann sing the song (Back Home Again in Indiana) everytime we cross the bridge from Louisville into Indiana. We spent the New Year holiday with Dann's family. We met in the Indianapolis area where both of Dann's sisters live. His brother, his wife and 7 (yes 7) kids and Dann's mom and stepdad traveled down from Ft. Wayne. There are 16 cousins in all so my kids always have a fantastic time!

Our tradtional gift exchange is that everyone draws a name.....then you have to MAKE your gift. I'll admit that this used to freak me out a bit but over the years it has gotten easier. It is much easier now that my older kids can execute their own projects. We had an easy year because we made the same gift for three people. I had Aubrey, Sophie had Thomas and Elijah had Michael (all teens). The gift we made was a total rip off of what Jana did for Elijah this past year for his birthday. I am not too proud to steal! The gifts were paper mache boxes that each one of us decorated to fit the person's personality. Sophie even painted her box! After you decorate the box you then tape 10 one dollar bills together and then tape the first one to the lid. The result is when you open the box lid a long stream of money rolls out. Needless to say it was a big hit with the recipients! Dann painted a beautiful watercolor for his sister Brenda's new bedroom and Macklin made some great fun foam paper dolls for Veronica (she's 3). David (Dann's brother) and Michael (David's son) had Dann and Elijah. They made them each a really cool folding wooden tables and Michael made Elijah some goo also! Bridget (she's 1 so mom helped) made Sophie tubs of play dough scented and colored by dry Kool-Aid. Matthew had Macklin and he made her the best bunny slipper ever! Deanna (Dann's sister, Matthew's mom) reports that Matthew thought up the idea and made them all himself. Pretty awesome for a teenage boy! Brenda (Dann's baby sister) had my name and she made me some cute Christmas pillow shams for my bed. We stayed up late on New Years Eve eating Papa Murphy's pizza and other fun stuff. The kids all stayed up until the ball dropped and were asleep about five minutes after midnight! Sorry for the length of the post. If you read to the end thanks for staying and enjoy the photos!

The Little Mermaid(s), The Jedi and a Biker Chick

Happy Halloween! We had a good time tonight. We went to the Gibson's house and trick or treated with Collin and Eric (does two years in a row count as a tradition?) and then we went to Pat and Amy's house. Too much candy but lots of cute photos!