Tis the Season

We had our annual Advent by Candlelight at church last night. Such a wonderful blessing to hear Godly women give their testimonies and share their lives with us. It was an inspiration and a great kick off to the Advent season and anticipation of our Savior's birth. We decorated two tables and my sweet friends were so gracious to come. Everyone has such busy schedules right now and it is a big commitment to give up a few hours on a school night. I am so blessed to have these women in my life. I give thanks for them daily.

The two tables couldn't have been more different. I had a fun time putting them together and thank goodness for Farrah and my mom for being awesome helpers.

I am hoping this Advent season will bring each of us a renewed sense of hope, joy, peace and love. There couldn't be a merrier time for our family than right now. Blessed and thankful beyond measure.

Thank you mother for helping with the crocheting.

Farrah made banana fosters cake with nuts and rum. Delicious! Need that recipe.

Sweet friends Lindsay, Shannon, Blair, Tamara and Beth

Sandra, April and Chan Chan

Kendall Boggs Fine Arts and Crafts: It's A Christmas GIVEAWAY!!!

Kendall Boggs Fine Arts and Crafts: It's A Christmas GIVEAWAY!!!: Guess what y'all! It's Christmastime and that means its TIME FOR A GIVEAWAY!!! This is named "Serenity" It is 16 x 20 and retails at 375.00 ...

I've followed this sweet lady's blog for a while now. She's an amazing artist, wife, mother, cook and inspiration. I always like these blogs that you feel like you're part of the family! Ha!

I'm "BACK"

Here's what life has looked like at our house recently. Nana was here for a little over a week and was such a big help. What would we do without her. Ben's world has been turned upside down! In a good way!
No, I did not cut up Scott and put him in the food processor. This was my attempt at this yummy cranberry sauce mold recipe. I think my plastic has failed me.

There's been a slight lull in the blog. Since my last post I've had a little procedure on my back. Ok, maybe it was back surgery called a discectomy but I've bounced right back and am feeling great. I'll have to say the surgery itself was EXTREMELY scary! However, I made it through and am vertical again and feeling better. I haven't been able to drive so that's been stinky and I haven't been able to pick up Ben so that's been more than stinky. He's been a good sport though because Nana has been here. He is Nana's best friend. He wakes up screaming for her, leaves perfectly to go somewhere with her (waves his hand up and yells "BYE" to us) and doesn't ever like to be too far from her leg. It's a sweet relationship but I'm ready to get back to normal. Whatever that is.

There has been so much food in this house. Our friends were bringing different YUMMY dishes every night. We are so very blessed. There was lots of Mill Towne, lasagna, apple pie, spinach ravioli, sloppy joes, turkey/cheese biscuit sandwiches, chicken tortilla soup, pizza, spaghetti bake, a turkey, too many to name. And I've gathered you don't have to birth a child in order to get yummy goodness. KIDDING! All of that was great but I'd still go with NO SURGERY over the food. I'm especially grateful for those people this Thanksgiving that have prayed, cooked, ordered, visited, kept my kiddos and sent notes and cards. It means so much. Publix could've made their Thanksgiving commercial here with all of the love that's been in and out of this house.

Beautiful flowers from Scott and some from my sweet friend.

Now we're gearing up for a short trip down to Brunswick and we'll return just in time for Lills to be back in action for Nutcracker. It is an extremely short trip but I have to get out of these four walls. I'll just be a passenger. Rehearsals rehearsals! They've been long but fun!

Do you:

1. Have on a hat?

2. Have on gloves?

3. Have on black shoes?

4. Have on a smile?

A preview of some yumminess in their Christmas pi's.

Camping, Horses and Apples

Warning! All of these pics were taken with my iPhone so if you're looking for clear pics, this would be a bad post for that. Piper clearly misses his family in the above picture. It's obvious he has no home training.

My parents have been camping a lot lately so when Scott and Baxter headed up to Sucches, GA with some friends to camp Lillee, Ben and I drove 20 minutes over to High Falls Campground. Thank goodness for camper bathrooms, TV, electricity and s'mores. I don't think the boys had those amenities.
Games of Scrabble, hot chocolate, good friends to spend time with and mean games of Rummy and Go Fish were played.
Listening to spooky stories about Wandering Mary. Thanks so much Nana!
The boy's first camping expedition was to Sucches, GA. Mr. Doug and his wife were the kind hosts and Baxter had an absolute blast! Sounds like it was pretty primitive camping and apparently Scott wishes he had something called a Bivvy sack? I think it was 26 degrees when he and Bax appeared from their sleeping bag they ended up sharing. Brrrr.
Here these two sweet friends are at Knoxie's 5th birthday party. I think Ben would have rode bareback down the street on this horse alone. Fearless.

Lillee participated in Literacy Days at her school. She memorized a very long poem. It took a while to get it and even a longer while for us to get the motions down but she did an awesome job and I enjoyed getting to watch her.

We just headed up to North Georgia this past weekend for Scott's annual GACDL conference at Brasstown. What a beautiful weekend it was. Unfortunately, Lillee stayed behind for Nutcracker. She's a dedicated dancer I'd say. Thanks to our dear friends who watched out for her! We'll need you again soon I'm sure.

We made a quick stop at Mercier Orchards for some yummy pink ladies! We were having a fun time browsing until we saw this hooded wonder running like the wind to the back of the store! It was a short stop.
A few pics from the conference. After seeing this picture Monica thought she looked like Lady Gaga and I looked like Laura Ingalls. Maybe my wardrobe/hair/makeup could use some sprucing up!
It was a fun conference and since my parents were camping at Track Rock about 15 mins away the boys were able to spend the night with them. Scott and I enjoyed watching the LSU/AL game with my dad by a roaring fire.
Just a pic of daily life around here. Nothing surprises me with this one anymore.
A pic I was most proud of but forgot to include in the Halloween post. I made almost 100 of these little boogers. A quick and simple tutorial found here.

Halloween 2011

Someone said this past week that Halloween had turned into a season and not just one day! I couldn't agree more. Halloween parties, treat bags to make, church trunk or treats, festivals and then the actual night! More fun for the kiddos! Lillee has had her costume for a while. It was a hand me down from Mary Kate across the street. However, she went with a friend to the costume store and found these awesome go go boots! Wow! Baxter wanted to be Darth Vader. I tried to find a hand me down of one of those but couldn't and by the time I made it to Wal Mart they were all sold out. Oops. A clone trooper with wings on the butt that he called a dress it was! Good thing he isn't that picky. Then we realized we had nothing for Ben. We pulled out the Spiderman costume that Baxter wore 4 years ago and he was happy as a lark. He didn't know that I had sewn it up twice because Bax had worn it so much.

We went on our 3rd annual hayride. So much fun with good friends.

This policeman had my vote for best costume! Too cute. We couldn't convince him to wear his mustache. The parrot next to him was an original costume his mother made. Too cute for words. He had already won a contest somewhere else. Awesome!

His favorite treat of the night. He didn't come home with many treats in his bucket. As soon as he got a treat he would gobble it up as soon as he got back on the trailer.
Fred Flinstone himself!