Ringing in 2012 in style with 2 parties!!

We went to a sweet little Diva's birthday party for the first part of our New Years Eve celebration. 

She got lots of great gifts and we even rang in the new year, really early, with a toast to the birthday girl!

We then headed over to my friend's Mom's house to party karaoke style...

Everyone got into the action and had a turn at singing....

and there was even dancing to several songs

It was a great time that was had by all who was there.  We all had so much fun, food, and the boys were excellent...although if memory serves me correctly my lil man didn't make it to midnight.

Cheers and a Happy Blessed New Year from our family(ies) to yours!



Thanksgiving 2011

We, as in we I mean Mom & I, made all kinds of things for Thanksgiving (with the help of Publix-ya know because we both had to work until Tues).  We take Thanksgiving seriously around here, being thankful for everything God has given to us and so much more.  Even on face book there is always a "thankfulness aire" about the month of November.  I love it!!  I love to show how thankful I am, even in the midst of the storms that are around us. 

I digress though... getting back on track....

We cleaned up the house making it all sparkly and getting everything all cleaned up (including the kitchen) and setting up the table to be festive for the season and full of all the yummy food that we (& Publix) cooked. 

We also had a guest too, one of my husbands friend came after work to eat with us (it was his holiday & weekend  to work).  So we had somewhat a full house and it was wonderful.  We are working on new family traditions since our family traditions have changed somewhat.  I can't wait for them to be in place and for my kids to be excited and to know what to expect each holiday. 

Halloween 2011

So we visited everyone's Fall Festival's or Fall Family Gatherings this Halloween.  It was different for sure, but we had a B.L.A.S.T.!  yes, I am behind on posting but it is for our memories so sue me!!! 

I believe my kids were:

 a Magician

a Green Ranger

a Cowboy

A Jester

A kid in a magicians hat

and a doughboy but I didn't get a good picture of that!!!



We hope that you had an awesome Halloween, but remember to still shine your light for Jesus, and that you got lots of yummy candy too!!  (We are still working on our stash :])

Labor Day aka Monsoon Day

Well, Tropical Storm Lee hit the Gulf of Mexico and the southern states and now for Labor Day we are not laboring, but chillin out inside the house watching TV and waiting for pizza.  I know it sounds like a blast doesn't it?! 

The boys? They have been hopping around acting like crazy kids, but that is ok...really it is because tomorrow we get back to our "normal" schedule and everything should be dandy.  We really do not do good when we are off our schedule, but I enjoy having the kids home so it isn't a big deal ( I enjoy it better when I am able to take them outside somewhere though!).

I have a new bloggy friend that I've been talking to via email because she is hosting a 21 days of prayer for anyone's boys.  If you want to join us- no matter how old your boy(s) are then go here.
I read the first chapter last night & I can't wait to get on my knees for the Double D's!

Hope you have a wonderful Labor Day; whether it is raining or sunny!

This is where

I try to catch up somehow...

I like reading blogs about God, parenting, adoptions, photography, & photography challenges.  Many of these subjects intertwine together, but some of them don't.  I love reading them & getting ideas & even trying to take the pictures for the challenges....my BIGGEST problem is the uploading them and linking them up in time {sigh}. 

So this is the post that I try to "catch up" by doing the "Sparkle" challenge from The Paper Mama, "Fireworks Shot" from The Pioneer Woman, and You Capture from I Should Be Folding Laundry.  All of these are Fourth of July related and I just L-O-V-E the 4th!!!

So here are those photos along with linking back to the person's blog....

My Sparkle

from The Paper Mama

My Fireworks Shot (not very great but we had a great view!)

from The Pioneer Woman

My Patriotism

from I Should Be Folding Laundry

I also have a red, white and blue.  I heart Faces has a carnival up (it is not judged) with this & here is mine, but I do not have the link up at this moment!!

Photo Inspiration: Red, white, & blue (for some reason this one isn't clear but it was in the camera-oh pooh!)

from I Heart Faces.com

Our Veteran's Day

Many people who know me knows that I do not home school my kids, but I do believe that when they are at home from school on a school day that we can still have fun & learn new things all at once.

So I took the boys to Linn Park by the Jefferson County Courthouse so they could see the statues of those who risked their lives to help us be free today. 

We read all the plaques, talked about what a Veteran is, how they helped America and Americans, & about those who are overseas right now. 

They were in awe but the excitement of Linn Park was too much for them & they did not want to stay for the parade-which was OK because my tummy started to scream by the time the parade started. 

I showed them The Birmingham Museum of Fine Art (it was closed, but they saw it & wanted to go in it [field trip anyone!!]), The Jefferson County Criminal Court where I went to listen to some court cases when I was VERY prego with Big D, and The Jefferson County Jail.  They liked hearing the stories about each of the places I showed them and wanted to know more.

We then tried to go to Morris Ave for a pre Christmas card photo shoot but it was closed for road work :(.  So we went to McDonald's so they could play in the play dome & to eat lunch and then we came home to clean up some.

This squirrel asked  me to photograph him, so here is the picture of a SQUIRREL!!
What was your Veteran's Day like?

Pajama Day @ Mom's Day Out & a Movie

Thursday was p.j. day @ Mom's Day Out and of course I took some pictures of my class.  Normally, I would just upload them up to Facebook and "tag" their Momma's but it is summer and I have many more than I usually do.  

I thought that due to this reason I will upload some of my "group pictures" here as well as some other & upload those to their Mom's on F/B too :).  Is that a win/win or what?

Unfortunatly, I don't think I got a single picture of my OWN kids during the P.J. day!  What type of Mom does that!?! 

We also went to see the new movie The Last Airbender on Thursday with Joey.  It was alot of fun, but we all agreed on one thing--it was way.too.different for our taste.  Now don't get me wrong, it is a good movie with lots of good special affects & action.  They changed many things and left out some of our favorite scenes from the show.  So to recap....good movie if you are unfamiliar with the Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon show, but you MIGHT  be disappointed otherwise.

In other news, we almost have our living area done & we have all the computer stuff out of the back room to make it into a dining room.  We are hoping that this will help us sell our home soon (LORD, please let it be very, very soon. Thanks! Joscelyn) and so will the updates.  I am thinking of putting it up on the market by  For Sale By Owner until the summer's end.  During school we will not have it up for sale.

That is all that is happening in our land, how about you?

Valentine's Day

I tried very hard to take pictures for V-day sort of like Amber did here at her blog.  The pics (one of them is the one on the top of our blog) turned out great....the greetings however is not turning out so good.  I have looked ALL over the place, well not really, to be able to make something similar to her greeting card.  I do have the pics being printed out so that I can give to grandparent's & the such but it still isn't the same...that & the fact they won't be ready until Valentine's Day itself.  UGH!!!  I think I am going to upload them again somewhere else. 

So here is our little photo shoot we did up at Clearview before the Super Bowl game.  Enjoy!

Here is what is was supposed to look like, but in card form.  Or something similar.

Here is another verison, just with some different pics.  I only got two with the hearts this one & the one above.

So what do y'all think?  And do you have any ideas pnce I'm able to have my prints on what to do?

Tablescapes

Around mid-November (I know it is December) our home church had a women's ministry event called Tablescapes that I was able to go to.  I had NEVER attended Tablescapes before & really didn't know what to expect.  A friend from choir said that she would do a table that I could sit at, unfortunately she didn't get around to doing one so I sat at another table with 2 other choir members (& friends!).  The event was so funny & I laughed so hard & I cried...it was wonderful to get to know the ladies of Clearview better.
Here is a picture of the place setting I sat at....

My first Photo Shoot

Here are a few of my first photo shoot.  It was actually an impromptu photo shoot for two of my 2ND cousins.  One of them a senior in high school and the other a 4 month old baby.  Here is a few shots that I love!!

CAC

CAC

CAC & Aunt Leah

CAC got kisses from Aunt Leah

Senior Pictures:

All of these.....

were take in @

my Grandparent's home during

Thanksgiving.

You can see these and more if you are friends with me on Face book.  Normally, I post my pics here & then face book, but they LOVED these SO much I posted them there first, by request of course!  So, tell me what you think & how I did =).

More posts are to come after the 11th.  I will be out of class then & I'll have lots of time to catch up until  then BEST WISHES during this wonderful season!!!!

Busy Little Morribees

We have been busy little bees this past week & a half. So sorry to have sort of "bailed" on ya during a give away it wasn't my intentions. I also have been at a loss of what to blog about. I have a few things from July that I could tell you about, for example: our TEN year anniversary, my 31st birthday, and VBS from my Dad's church. I also have Joey's surprise bday party & my Grandparent's 70th wedding anniversary that I would like to talk about. I think I will go with the most recent & still possibly tell you about July in a very near future post. I am almost to 100 post!! Yipee!! Remember to comment so you can possibly win one of the prizes from this post and pick out one of 3 prizes. Lil D will have the privilege to pick out the other two names & choose for you what you get.

So here is my week...

my anatomy books for this semester

I spent half of the week starting to study for my Anatomy Lab exam (on Friday) and my Anatomy Lecture exam (on Monday) beginning on Wed. I have found out that I still have LD, which I was diagnosed with as a child, and I have a hard time with being sure what I have studied has sunk in. Plus, the Anatomy Lab exam is going to be all "fill in the blank" style test-which I suck at horribly. Please PRAY for me while I am trying hard to study for these tests. I also have a math exam coming up in 2 weeks in Pre cal-can we say YIKES!! I feel like Wil E Coyote with a little sign when he is fixing to fall from the open sky.


Joey's bday cake, YES it is Auburn/Alabama colors-WARR EAGLE!!

I also started to purchase food & settings for Joey SURPRISE birthday party. It was a "get together" style birthday party & the colors were basically Auburn & Alabama football colors. (Or at least that was the colors on the cake) We ate some great food made by my WONDERFUL Brother in Law & his Wife, we sang, the kids got to play on the playground, & we chatted around the tables. It was SO much fun, but Joey had figured it out by the time he walked into the door (not to mention he wasn't happy b/c someone locked the doors & he had to walk around) so he wasn't surprised & we got him looking mad with pictures instead of surprised. Oh WELL!! I tried!!

Joey in his bday crown. Isn't he pretty?
The remainder of the guest by 8p.m. We had a wonderful time!!

Sunday, (well actually Monday) was my Dad's parents 70th Wedding Anniversary!! Wow what an accomplishment. We went to the community center where they had it and ate some more good food, chatted with family from my Dad's side ( & quite honestly I don't know half of them), got some copies of old photographs of my Grandparents, my Dad, & my Uncles, and talked to the happy couple for a while.

All because 2 people fell in LOVE, 70 years ago!! My Dad's side of the family (minus a few)

After the Anniversary party we high-tailed it back to church so that we could start a new year of preschool & children's choir and return to AWANA after being off for a week. So busy on Sundays this time of the year, but it is SO much fun!!


My Grandparent's children (My Dad is the smallest boy there)

On Tuesday I got the kids up and out the door early because I had to take my Mom to have sinus surgery. We got there @ 8:30 a.m. and we left there by 1:30 p.m.. Her Doctor said that "she did great" and that "all was well" so we are just waiting for her to heal up. She did tell me while we were waiting for her to be discharged that her "head felt much lighter" and that the headache that she was getting that morning was completely gone-good drugs or sinus surgery? She is doing good for all who want to know & will be up & going probably within 24 to 48 hours. YAY!!!

J.B. & C. J. G (The day after their wedding-I believe)

So here is my question for you...How many years are or were YOUR Grandparent's married?