Extended Family Christmas

This past Saturday we headed up to Tennessee for my extended family Christmas. We always hold it at my Grandmother's house where we all bring gifts for everyone and she proceeds to not only make enough food for everyone but the whole country as well. I have a very close family up there. We are the only ones that don't live in that general area.

Well because our families have grown considerably over the years, we got a huge sign last year that we need to move the party when one of my grandmother's floor joyces (sp?) broke. We all felt it when it happened. Not only that but you could hardly get in the room where the tree and presents were located. SO this year we had it at my families church's fellowship hall. It was a lot less stressful and more fun except that my Grandmother appeared to fix even more food but hey, I'm not complaining we love every bit of it.

The next morning at church Santa Clause came and brought all the children gifts usually we head back on Saturday night because after the craziness Caleb never sleeps that night which he didn't but we just made our selves stay anyway it means so much for my grandmother to have all her grandchildren there at one time. So here are some of the pictures from the weekend.

This is Kimberly my cousin Courtney's 8 month old daughter. She is the cutest thing but so serious.This is Caleb explaining to Santa that he already got two of the things he had asked for the night before so he didn't need to bring those. It was so cute. He loves Santa. He has actually never been afraid of him.

We had our annual Christmas party with my best friend Amy and her husband Scott last Tuesday. This year we invited our dear friends Corina, Brian and their adorable little boy Sawyer to be part of the fun. I fixed lasagna for the group and we just enjoyed each others company and Corina's awesome gingerbread cookies she brought. Even though we don't see each other as often as we should I am so thankful to have these great people in my life. Here are some unbelievably cute pictures of Sawyer. It is so not my camera ability this kid is so stinking cute he can't take a bad picture.

Polar Express

Last night I took Caleb to ride the Polar Express with my mother-in-law, Susan. I had heard for years what a wonderful excursion it was and finally thought Caleb would be old enough to enjoy it since he is so obsessed with thrains anyway. I ws a little worried about the weather since we had constant downpours over the last few days but after a lot of prayer the rain held out on us from 4:00 until we got home.

Caleb was so excited he couldn't wait the 20 minute ride to get there. We stopped in for a quick piece of pizza before the train took off and then boarded. They had all the train cars decorated for Christmas and all the children were wearing their pajamas like in the movie. They had some of the workers dressed up on the train that danced and sang the whole trip. They gave out tickets like on the movie that they came around and punched. Then we got to ride to the North Pole and pick up Santa Clause. Santa came on board with us and gave all the children silver bells.

It was such a fun trip and really put me in the Christmas spirit.

I posted some of the pictures below but for some reason Caleb refused to let me take his picture so there are not many.

long time no post!

Wow! I thought I would do better at this but the last few weeks have just gotten away from me. I don't know where to even begin to start. Basketball season has us all busy as well as getting ready for Christmas. It is so much fun with Caleb, he reminds us as we hurry about and stress what this holiday is really about.

Our Thanksgiving was awesome! We had my whole family in for the long weekend and got to spend some good quality time tongether. We love spending time with them so much. My mom, Teresa and I went shopping on Friday after Thanksgiving and then we all took the kids to the Fun Factory on Saturday. Other than that, it was pretty uneventful.

I'm taking Caleb to ride the Polar Express tomorrow evening. He is so obsessed with trains and loves the movie I think he will love it. We were able to get free tickets through our very special friends Mr. and Mrs. Towne. Thanks again. I'm sure I'll post lots of pictures after tomorrow.

I'll post again after the train ride.

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving.

No pictues this weekend.

For the first time that I can remember all three of us were home this weekend with nothing to do. I loved it. Especially with basketball season here it was a nice surprise to get to actually spend time with my husband. As many of you know I am a Christmas freak and its not unusual for my Christmas decorations to go up immediately after Halloween. I held off this year and put them up on Saturday. Since I put up multiple trees and I had a three year old helping this year, it took all day on Saturday. Adam just sat back watching football laughing at me. Such a sweet husband I have sometimes.

Sunday we went to the early church service and then cleaned up the boxes from decorating. We all took an early nap and then took Caleb to see his first ever movie at the movie theater. He saw the preview for Madagascar 2 on TV and has been singing "I like to move it move it" since. Its really quite cute. I should video tape it. So I prepared Adam that he may not stay for the whole movie with it being his first. Boy was I wrong he even sat through the credits. He loved it.

I took the day off today as many of you know I'm getting ready at some point in the near future to have surgery on my jaw. I broke my jaw at Senior prom 10 years ago and was told nothing needed to be done then. Well 10 years later I have a world of problems. So I have another appt with the surgeon today so I took the whole day off. This is so much better than dealing with teenagers at 8 o'clock in the morning. I'll try to post some pictures. I just didn't take any this weekend. Have a good week.

Busy, Busy, Busy

We have been so busy the past couple of weeks that I haven't had a chance to update our blog. Basketball season is now upon us and as those of you that know me well know its not my favorite time of the year. While I love it because I know it makes Adam happy coaching, it also makes my life a lot harder. Adam has also signed up to do National Boards which is a certification for teachers and is a lot of work and stress. The next few months should be interesting around here.

Caleb had acquired a new energy and wildness that I have never seen before. He is also learning so much at daycare, he can spell his name, some simple words and write his name and letters. We are really blessed to have such a wonderful daycare provider. She works so hard with him and he is so far ahead of most kids his age. He is a little sponge. We will drive by Wal-Mart and he has to read off the letters. Every word he sees he spells out. While I'm trying to be very encouraging, it does get a little annoying.

Last weekend Adam's good friend Brad Hoover was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Western Carolina and a bunch of his fraternity brothers came up for the induction. We all had a great time and were so proud of Brad and his accomplishments (Go Panthers!!) Believe it or not, I actually forgot my camera basically the whole weekend. So no pictures from that.

This past weekend Caleb and I went to Tennessee to visit my family and go to my first cousin's son's birthday party. I have three cousins that are like sisters to me in Tennessee and always enjoy spending time with them and their families. Mason turned two and might just be the cutest little boy ever. He thinks the world of Caleb and Caleb of him so its fun to have them play together. They had a great time playing in the leaves at my Nana's house. Our visits are never long enough up there.

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Family weekend

We had a great time this past weekend, my oldest brother and his family came into town which meant my whole family was together. We had some family pictures taken and just spent time with my nieces and nephew. I took lots of pictures (imagine that) some of them are below.

Pumpkin Patch

We went this past week to a Pumpkin Patch with my best friend, Amy, her sister Lori and Lori's adorable son Alex. We had a great time and took some good pictures. Here are some of the better ones I took.

Just getting started

Since all of our friends have been doing this cool blogging thing for quite some time now I thought I'd jump on the band wagon and start one as well. I so enjoy reading about all of our friends growing families each week. Caleb is now 3 1/2 and I so wish I would have started this then.

We are having a wonderful time this fall and here are a few pictures of the fun stuff that has been going on with us.

We went last weekend to take pictures around Western's campus and then had Caleb's friend Autumn's birthday party. Both of us weren't feeling the best but we still managed to have a good time.