elf yourself

so i just couldn't help myself... i know i know. these dancing elves are so last year. =) but i saw where brook posted her cute little family of elves and i knew i had to see my own family breaking it down. i LOVE trace and lucas the most- their faces are CRACKING.ME.UP as they dance! the boys absolutely love to watch this... trace begs to watch to watch the dancing elves. even lucas laughs hysterically! as trace would say, mom, we've already watched this 40 90 60 times! but i can't help it! :) hope this provides a good laugh for you. and if you too find that you can't resist seeing your own family breakdance, just go to elf yourself and get a few laughs of your own! enjoy!

thanksgiving weekend!

we had a WONDERFUL thanksgiving weekend! we woke up thursday morning and the kids loved watching the macy's parade on tv! we got ready and went to our first feast of the day at granny's house! it was so good to see all my family and cousins... i have a ton of them. as far as my cousins go, i think there are at least 12 of us, and most are married. it's crazy how we are all grown up now- and half of us have kids! i think there are at least 18 kids, probably aged 10 and under on dad's side of the family! W-O-W! seems like yesterday WE were the kids! (i didn't take any pics at granny's, sad, i know!) we always have the best food- ham, turkey, dressing, mac n cheese, sweet corn, FRIED OKRA, and a ton of other yummy country fixins! :) i think my aunt jackie and my granny started cooking at 4 am just to get it all ready!!

then after granny's we headed to huntsville for our second feast- at mamaw and pawpaw's house! again, it was great to see everyone, all our cousins- and the kids cousins too! i think there are 14 little ones, ages 8 and under! not all were there, but wow. it was a packed house anyways! there we had more yummy food! my fav food at mamaw's is always the turkey and dressing, and lou lou's baked beans! and all the desserts. rice crispy treats, cakes, cookies, pies, puppy chow, oreo balls. you name it!! i did take a few pics...

lucas had so much fun playing with this huge football outside! he would throw it at me (see bottom right pic!) then i'd throw it to him. he'd chase it. tackle it. throw it... you get the idea! :) it seemed wierd having such warm weather at thanksgiving, but when it wasn't raining, the kids really enjoyed playing outside. and we were able to take our family christmas pics without freezing to death, so i guess it worked out well! (the new pic up top of us 4 is a preview of what's to come from the photo session with page!)

i hate i didn't take more good pics... i do have some more but they didn't turn out all that great. so what you see is what you get! :)

josh and shannon kept all 6 cousins thanksgiving nite for a sleep-over! that means nate and i got to sleep in friday and have a quiet morning! i spent most of it on the couch in my pjs, ordering christmas gifts online! then i picked up the boys at half time of the game and went to trussville... at the 3rd store lucas had a major meltdown and i decided our shopping trip was over! :) after that, for the most part, we just hung out at home and had a great rest of the weekend! thanksgiving is one of my most favorite holidays, and one reason is def the 4 days off work! i could use more long weekends like that!!

i hope you had an amazing thanksgiving as well. (and see my post below as to a few of the things i am thankful for this year!)

next up: christmas decorations complete with pics of the boys helping put the ornaments on the tree :)

GNO

a few weeks ago my friend renee' hosted a GNO painting party at her house. i'm so glad i went... we had a great time eating, catching up, laughing, and slaving over our christmas painting. =) this painting was no doubt a whole lot harder than i thought it would be. but luckily we had a great instructor who helped us! it really was a lot of fun and i can't wait to do it again! thanks renee for hosting girls night, it was a much needed time of fun, and time away from my boys!

so here's my painting... in stages! some of us girls. working hard! after almost 5 hours of painting... the masterpiece is complete! :)

my painting now hangs in our dining room area for the christmas season! hooray... i'm so relieved nate thought it was worthy of going up with the rest of the christmas decorations. ha!

so thankful

a quick blast from the past... i came across these pics of my little turkeys from last thanksgiving and i couldn't help but share them! :) hard to believe how much they've grown in just a year!

top 2010 10 things i am thankful for right now:
#10- christmas is right around the corner! it's the most wonderful time of the year :)

# 9- the yummy food that comes along with the holidays (esp the sweets)

# 8- 4 days off work to spend time with my sweet family

# 7- my family's good health, so many people are dealing with horrible illnesses right now

# 6- friends that love us for who we are and not what we have

# 5- my home church of 25+ years, argo christian fellowship and the extended family we have there

# 4- my parents, in-laws, and the rest of my wonderful family, we truly are so blessed

# 3- trace and lucas, they light up my life and i could not imagine life without them

# 2- nate, he really is so much more than i could ever ask for in a hubby and daddy

# 1- my awesome god and all he has given me and my family. from salvation, grace, forgiveness, love... i can never say thank you enough or repay him for all the blessings in my life!

so tell me what could be better than wearing your

pj's and playing

in the leaves?

weekend in review...

weekend in review... cell phone style! ** for lack of blogging material, as well as recent pics. i stole this idea from erin and thought i'd share the lastest pics from my (not so high tech) phone.

well it was a long weekend, and not in a good way. lucas woke up sick with a stomach bug about 2 am saturday. def not how we thought our weekend would go. we had a very puny, mama clinging, tummy aching, pitiful baby on our hands. 2 baths, 3 pair of pjs, countless rounds of jesus loves me, lots of yucky laundry, tons of lysol, and several stinky diapers later, lucas finally started feeling a little better. shannon came and got trace sat morning so that he could play with caden and not be in the sick house- hooray! and later i did get to get out of the house and get a much needed pedicure saturday, another hooray! but i stayed home from church sunday with lucas, so he could rest and also so not to get the other kids sick. i really hated to miss church though. i missed trace's sweet choir singing (but everyone said he did so good!) and also nate leading worship. but i heard he also did a great job- as always.poor thing was so worn out from being up sick all nite that he passed out just like this on the living room floor. sometimes you just gotta surrender to that sweet sleep! and can you believe how big he looks in this picture? my baby is hardly a baby anymore. sniff sniff.
since lucas had 2 baths already earlier in the day, trace got to play in the tub by himself saturday nite. when i got him out i wanted to take a picture of him in his cute cars towel. his response, "my eyes are closed... so you can't see me." oh. ok! :) silly boy!
oh, and then there's this awesome block tower that i helped the boys build. i know, i'm talented like that! mama has mad block skillz :-]
luckily, our weekend ended better than it started. lucas was finally feeling better and by time sunday nite rolled around he was full of sweet smiles! although it's not the weekend we planned, i am thankful that #1, we had a very low-key weekend planned anyways, so we didn't have to cancel anything too fun. #2, that it was not during the week and nate and i neither one had to miss work to take care of our sick boy. and #3, so thankful for nate. he changed the nasty sheets on lucas' bed in the middle of the nite, then slept on the couch so lucas and i could have the bed, then changed our sheets saturday after lucas had gotten his germs all over them, and also helped me keep my sanity. i could not have done it without him!
so that's all i got friends! here's hoping for a much better week!

blessed by boys

so my birfday was friday... i am the big 2-8 now. getting old, i know! :o) when i woke up friday morning nate had this card with a rose sitting on the counter for me. inside the card were 2 of the most beautiful drawings of my boys! the picture below does NOT do them justice. if you don't already know, nate is an incredible artist! so i am the recipient of some amazing drawings of my 2 favorite little boys!! i could not ask for a better birthday present! overall, i had a pretty good day at work. then that night nate and i were able to go out, without the kids! he planned our date and it was nice to just sit back and see where we were going! we went to dinner, did a little shopping, and then went to the movies. we saw life as we know it... yes, it's a chick flick, but i'd call it more a romantic comedy- b/c it was hilarious. i did tear up a few times, but i def laughed more than i cried! great movie, go see it if you get the chance!and here are a few new pics of the boys. i am loving this cool weather, and i think the boys are too. they love wearing their jackets and zipping them up to the top, and wearing their hoods too! i much prefer trace's cute stripey hoodie in these pics over lucas'... if you can tell, his has scorpions and bugs all over it. yes, that kid is all boy! :)
these boys are gonna be HEARTbreakers one day!!!

* this is lulu's "mean" face... love it!

and trace was much more interested in the remote than mama!

i am so blessed by my 3 boys... i have so much more than i deserve or could ever ask for! i am so thankful for all that god has given me!

james 1:17 "every good and perfect gift is from above!"