Portraits of a crazy family

I have been such a bad blogger!  After I posted Chelsea's senior portraits, I totally forgot to post our family portraits.

We had so much fun while doing this.  Roxanne is just so much fun to "work" with....even though it didn't feel anything like work.

There are several great pictures, but here are some of our favorites!

 

 

Thank you so much, Roxanne Ponds Photography!!

I hope you ALL have a most wonderful and fantastic weekend!  Praying for all of those in the path of Irene!  STAY SAFE!!

If a midnight movie wasn't enough excitement....

We decided to make Jameson even happier by taking him to the store of his dreams.....

The LEGO STORE!

Feeling a little guilty about not actually going on vacation, while on vacation this summer, we decided to do at least one more thing that Jameson would enjoy.  The child is obsessed with Legos, and he talks about them every.single.day.  He didn't know there was an entire store devoted to nothing but Legos, so the trip was a complete surprise!

We spent FOREVER in the store and he looked at every, single kit at least three times.  Let me just say, his birthday/Christmas lists have gotten much longer.

Time for that second and third job!

We all had a great time and Jameson finally managed to pick one thing to bring home with us.....

plus a few extra minifigures.

After leaving the Lego store, we raced to beat a severe thunderstorm and ended up at Five Guys Burgers for dinner.

One of Jameson's minifigures decided he wanted a bite, too!

We absolutely hated to see our "staycation" end, but in all, we had a great time"

-Chelsea had her senior portraits made

-Chelsea had a fantastic Twilight-themed 19th birthday party

-We spent some time with some really special people in our lives

-We celebrated Father's Day

-We went to a midnight showing of Cars

-We visited the Lego store

But most of all, we enjoyed just spending a lot of quality time together....

and at the end of the day, that's really all that matters!

I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Who said you had to spend money to have fun?

All you need is:

A beautiful, cool, fall day

A lawn mower

A big blue tarp

Some rope

Plenty of leaves

The coolest daddy ever 

 And

(Can you see him?)

A very happy little boy!

It's UP!

As I was looking though my very first posts, almost an entire year ago, one of the main things that motivated me to start this blog was my inability to finish anything I started. One of my very first posts showed my just-finished Christmas tree on December 23rd!

Last year, I was determined NOT to let that happen again. So, this year, our tree was out of the attic and up in the living room the Sunday before Thanksgiving!

I've NEVER, EVER, EVER in my life had my tree up before Thanksgiving! But this year, I wanted to be sure to get my decorating completed LONG before Christmas came.

Even though the tree was up, it still wasn't decorated.

Monday was filled with going out on a date with my hottie-hubbie and actually getting to see a grown-up movie for the first time in THREE years.

Tuesday and Wednesday was completely filled with work, work, and more work.

(Oh, and I did I mention that I actually got CUSSED-OUT by a patient on Tuesday? Not the way I wanted to spend my Thanksgiving week...let me tell ya!)

Thursday was filled with food, family, and fun!

I finally got a picture of my sister, Diane. She does such a great job every year making sure everyone has a great time. In this picture, she is doing crafts with the kids. And if you look in the background, you will see Laura and Selena going through the sales papers.

Selena and Laura

The cutest baby in the world, Bryson.

My sister's MIL, "Aunt Dot". We are so blessed to have her still with us.

My cutie-pie niece, Jessie.

The spread at my mother-in-law's house....YUMMY!

My super-talented sister-in-law's (Candie) soon-to-be new house!

Chelsea freezing to death while looking at the house.

And Friday was filled with SHOPPING! However, I did wait until the super-late time of 9:30 am before I ventured out into the craziness! No crazy mad rushes for this chick!

Oh, and that afternoon was filled with a little old ALABAMA football game, too!

ROLL TIDE ROLL!

So, yesterday, I was tired of staring at the unfinished tree and decided to get to work. Thankfully, my hubby was my swift-kick-in-the-pants I needed to make me stick to the task at hand. When I was ready to stop, he was there *gently nudging me to finish.

*handing me ball after ball, asking repeatedly "Are you done adding the green?" "Are you using the silver balls?" "There's a bald spot, what do you want to put there?"

After a couple of hours, we were finished! Here is the result....

(Yes, it does look a LOT like last year's tree, but I swear it's not...lol)

At least THAT part is done, now I wonder how long it will take me to finish the front porch?

**sigh**

Maybe that will be finished before December 23rd....

Our Annual Halloween Shin Dig

For the past several years, my wonderful sister Diane and her husband Jerry, put together a fantastic little get together for all the kids and grandkids. The kids (and adults) always have a great time!

This year was no exception!

Here are about a hundred pictures of our night.....well maybe not a hundred....but a bunch!

I hope you enjoy them and can tell what a great time everyone had!


My great niece, Kacie

Chelsea and Kacie (Chelsea decided not to dress up tonight because it was right after school and we didn't have time to do hair and make-up properly)

Chelsea

My camera-shy niece, Laura

My nephew Derek ("Duke") and his son Bryson, otherwise known as the "cutest baby ever"

Chelsea

Not-so-shy Kacie

Bryson

Bryson, he's as sweet as he is cute!

My other great nephew, Langdon

Langdon, I love his big, brown eyes!

Jameson in half-costume. (That is a tattoo on his face, not a cut...lol)

Laura

All the kids working on a craft project....my sister thinks of everything!

Uh oh....it's getting dark....time for the "creatures" to start coming out!

My crazy great niece, Jessie

Jessie

Jameson's pumpkin creation (also a craft project that my sister did)

Jessie's pumpkin

Chelsea and her daddy

Playing balloons with Uncle Jerry (My BIL)

Chelsea getting ready for the HAYRIDE!

Langdon (Just as cute as his baby brother)

Getting ready for the hayride! (My nephew's wife, Selena, in the gray shirt)

Jessie and Jameson ready for the hayride. (This is the ONLY smile on Jameson's face for the entire trip)

Stopping by to say hello to "Granny" (Jerry's mother, my sister's MIL)

Jessie sitting in Marty's lap....she squealed and hollered the entire trip. She was HYSTERICAL!

What is that in the trees? OH NO!! It's a GHOST!!!

Laura and Langdon. He's ready with his flashlight.

A little "something" we picked up along the trip.

Here is Jameson, sitting on the floor, between my legs, where he stayed the ENTIRE hayride. The only reason he is smiling is because it's OVER. He HATES to be scared!

Jessie going all Ninja on us

Bryson

Kacie with her pack of "blood"

Langdon with a cupcake face!

Bryson

I am embarrassed to say, the only pictures I have of my sister are either blurry or her eyes are closed. I think she would appreciate the fact that I didn't post any of those. But I want her to know that I really appreciate all of her hard work in putting this all together.

We had such a great time! I LOVE doing this every year with my side of the family. I hope this will be something that my kids will always remember.

Do any of you have any Halloween/Fall traditions?