Mermaids, Pirates, and Dorothy, Oh My!

Captain Samuel
We went "Trick-n-Treating" at Aunt Cindy's
"Lexi, your too big, but Itty Bitty, do you want to come be Toto with Hannah Grace?"

By the time we got to church, Hannah Grace had had enough of being dressed-up. I ask her what was wrong and she said, "They wanted me to eat my doughnut and I didn't want to and there were just too many people."
She perked up and we had a great time out with Grammy and Big Daddy for his birthday.

We all had fun, but we are glad they day is over!

Happy Halloween

Faith - The Little Mermaid - had her Halloween party at school yesterday and Hannah Grace - Dorthy - is having hers today, but they both had a Fall Costume Parade at school this morning.

As you can see Hannah Grace loved the parade, Faith wasn't too sure. Afterwards Faith told us, "I couldn't find you and it's too cold!".




























I can't forget the Ruby Red Slippers...

I will have pictures of the Samuel and the three of them tomorrow. The picture above was taken Monday night at Samuel's game. He was going on the field and had his hands to his teammates on a good play. I am so proud of him, he's such a good sport.

Have a Happy Halloween - Reformation Day!

But most importantly -

Happy Birthday Big Daddy!

Friday Family Funnies - D-Gate

Last week the Woodruff football game was the Charter Game of the week, so Sharon had made "D" "Fence" signs for the boys to hold up. About half-way through the game the little boy that was sitting behind us ask his mom, "What does that mean, D-Gate?"

At the games, when the team scores a touchdown they play this song, I really don't know the name of it, but we call it the jumpin' song - so here's Hannah Grace jumpin'

After the game Hannah Grace went home to spend the night with Jaba and Sha. We weren't worried about Hannah Grace but we were a little worried about Faith, that was the first night they had ever spent the night away from each other. She did find and I think she enjoyed it, but she was ready to see Hannah Grace again. Here she is waiting for Hannah Grace to get to Jacob's (Scott and Sharon other son) football game on Saturday.

Here are a few picture of Jacob (he's #68) at his game. This was their last regular season game, but Jacob made the All-star team. Way to go, Jacob!

Samuel had football pictures this past week, here are a few I took before he left (tyring to save some money).

His Daddy told him not to smile...

Have a great week-end!

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Please humor me with my recipes, since the blog is my way of scrapbooking and journaling, I have decided to post recipes when the girls and I are in the kitchen and then one day I can print them out and have a great "cookbook" to pass along...

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 sticks of margarine, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 small box instant vanilla pudding

2 eggs

2 1/4 cups self rising flour
1 bag chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix first six ingredients together using an electric mixer until well blended.

Add flour to mixture a little at a time until blended. Add bag and chips and mix using a spoon.

Drop by spoonfuls onto a lightly greased cookie sheet, bake 10 - 12 minutes. Do not bake too long, bake until they are slightly brown. After you take them out of the oven, gently drop the pan onto the counter top to "set" the cookies (this is a tip from Travis from his Arby's days). This recipe makes about 4 dozen cookies.

You can see our cookies on the sheet behind the girls as they enjoy licking the beaters. This cookie sheet is very special to me; this was Aunt Brenda's cookie sheet. Aunt Brenda always made everyone a tin a Christmas goodies each year and she and Nannie had been baking some of those goodies before the power went out, two years ago. I will never forget, on the Thursday before they went Home we had dropped by to visit (Stephen and Kyle were there too). Nannie had hot chocolate heating on their kerosene heater and we were all just sitting in the living room talking and Nannie brought out a container of some of Aunt Brenda's goodies, we were all so excited to get a early taste. I can see Aunt Brenda smiling now as everyone enjoyed her wonderful cookies and I can hear Papa saying, "Hey, what about me?" as Nannie passed out the goodies and passed him by and Nannie answering, "You don't need any!" That was the last time I sat in their living room with them; Samuel spent that afternoon with them and helped them make crafts for the nursing home and was protected by God that day. On that same day when I went back to get Samuel, Nannie and I laughed as she was trying to open a can of soup with the electric can opener hanging under their cabinet (which I also tried to get, but Papa had screwed that thing into the cabinet so that it was not coming down!). Each time I use the cookie sheet God brings back that wonderful memory and this past week I was able to share my wonderful memory with my girls.

Thanks for letting me share it with you!

A Visit to the Pumpkin Patch with my Girls

Last week I went to the "pumpkin farm" - it was really Ms. B.J.'s house - with each of the girls. On Wednesday I went with Hannah Grace's class and on Thursday I went with Faith's class. Each day I had a great time. Since we had gone to the pumpkin patch as a family, we were not going to go with the girls classes, but they got very upset when we talked about not going, so we went; and I am glad that I did - they are growing up so fast and, as I am seeing with a 10-year-old, they might not always want their Mommy around. It was special days and they may forget but I will always have the memories of a day with each of my girls. So, now that I think about it and honest, maybe I was the one who was more upset that I wasn't going to go...

Samuel after his football game last week.

Friday Family Funnies - Oatmeal Fun

Did you hear it?

Watch and listen again.

Jingle bells, jingle bells oatmeal fun...Hey!

I guess they are getting ready for their Christmas Program at school, but both girls came home singing Jingle Bells yesterday.

Fun Family Week-end

We had a fun family week-end together last week-end. If it is any surprise to you, it started with football!

We traveled to Greenville to see Woodruff play against Carolina. It was a good game for Woodruff...not so good for Carolina. The score ended up being 62 - 7. Carolina only had about 25 football players and only 14 in their band but had about 15 cheerleaders. The saddest part was there were only about 50 - 60 people in the home stands.

Anyway, Caleb (#56) got to play and he did great!
On Saturday morning we went with the church I work for to the Pumpkin Patch. The farm we went to was hit very hard by a frost and the dry weather, but we had fun and the kids didn't know the difference.

On Saturday afternoon we were invited to a bowling birthday party. All three kids had a blast!

After our fun-filled day the girls were in the bed and asleep by 7:00pm and I was not far behind them on the couch.

On Sunday morning we visited the church we have been going to on Wednesday nights for Awana; we enjoyed it very much.

So after a fun family week-end we are back to reality of football practice, homework, work, school, and chores, etc... - but Friday is not too far away!

It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

Just a quick picture of the "loves" of my life!
Here is Hannah Grace modeling a dress that I finally made for her. I'm going to make Faith a fall dress this week and then I'm going to try to sew pants...

Friday Family Funnies - Peanuts

Our life for about the past month has mostly involved football and Faith's favorite part of football is the snacks. A couple of weeks ago, she and her Big Daddy went to get boiled peanuts; she put her money on the counter and told the man, "I want a big cup of slimy peanuts".

Have a great (football-filled) week-end!

Let's Play Catch-Up

Like I said last Friday, I have been having trouble with my internet connection, but for right now it is working, so let's play catch-up...

On the Thursday Travis and I left for Orlando, it was 50's day at Samuel's school.

Doesn't he look cool?

It was Western Day for Faith.

And of course, we couldn't leave Hannah Grace out!

After Travis did his visit with the church, he and out had a romantic dinner, just the two of us (really just the two of us - there was no one else in the Japanese Steak House) - it was great fun!

On Friday morning we headed across the street to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. Now remember, just a few months ago we were in Orlando visiting Disney World - crowds and people everywhere. On this morning, we walked right in and jumped right on the Hulk Ride, no waiting just hopped right on. What a way to start the morning...

We rode a few other things and then rode Duley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls. Travis sat in the front seat and protected me and the other two folks that we riding with us from the water.

I laughed and laughed, which I should not have done...

Next we rode Popeye's & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barge. Not fun! We got soaked - I mean there was not a stitch of clothing on either of us that was dry. I guess it that was my pay back for laughing so hard at Travis.

Here we are with "Sam Am I" shortly after the ride.

Seuss Landing was my favorite part of the park - here we are with The Cat in the Hat. The girls were so excited that we got to meet The Cat in the Hat and others.

By lunch time we had rode everything in Islands of Adventure and headed over the Universal Studios where we met Shrek and Donkey.

We stayed at Universal Studios until about 5pm and really rode everything we wanted to. After we rode Revenge of The Mummy, I told Travis that I believed that I had rode enough thrill rides to last me a while and I was ready to go.

On Saturday we didn't have anything planned until that evening - we slept late and drove around trying to fine a Wal-mart and even took a nap that afternoon.

That evening we went to The Pirate Adventure Dinner Show - it was a lot of fun. Here's Captain Travis...

We had a great time away and the girls had fun at Memama's and Granddaddy's and Samuel spent the week-end with Grammy and Big Daddy and had fun with football and a birthday party.

Thanks again to everyone who helped us out with the kids.

It was fun to be away from the kids and act like kids ourselves...

One last picture of our Thing 1 and Thing 2

Friday Family Funnies

OK - I am having terrible trouble with my internet so I can't upload any pictures with this post. I was going to share with more picture from our week-end in Orlando...check back sometime over the week-end and hopefully I will get them uploaded.

Anyway, we visited a church this past Wednesday night that does Awana. Samuel has done Awana before, but we really had taken it for granted and not really thought about the girls never really doing any type of "program" at church. Because of their age there has really never been anything for them.

When we picked the girls up and were heading home. Faith could not stop talking; everything she said was one long sentence.

"Mommy, we played in the gym and um, Daddy, I got to run and um, I went to class and um, we talked about Jesus and um, I got a sucker and um, Mommy and Daddy, if I come back next week I get a badge and coat!"

If you know Faith, I'm sure you can hear her now - getting louder and more excited the more she told us.

It was so good to hear our kids excited about going to church. Of course, Samuel doesn't want to visit anymore - he has found where he wants to stay. Hannah Grace had a great time too, but she didn't say as much as Faith. She takes things in and thinks about them a lot before she will say much.

Travis and I enjoyed the prayer service. The pastor took special time in the service to pray for rain. All day yesterday as it was pouring and I was getting soaking wet putting the girls in the van at school, I was tempted to complain, but the reminded me to thank Him for answering the prayers of His people.

Please pray that God would direct Travis and I to the church He would have our children and where we are to serve and worship Him.

Have a great week-end and check back for me photos - some of them are pretty funny too...

Week-end Get-Away

Travis and I returned yesterday from a wonderful week-end get-away in Orlando. Thanks to Grammy and Big Daddy, Memama and Granddaddy, and Aunt Cindy (and Upward) who made it possible for us to leave the kids and spend some much-needed time together!

We had a great time. If you are thinking about going to Orlando - September/October is a great time of the year. It was not crowded at all, even compared to this summer. At Universal, I think the longest we waited was 20 minutes; most everything else we just walked right no with no wait.

I will share more pictures later in the week, but here is a picture of us at Universal Island's of Adventure in Seuss Landing.