New Years Eve!

Happy New year!! On Ali Edwards blog (see right side toward bottom of list), she has asked for everyone to pick a word for 2009. My comment:
I believe I will choose "STOP" as my word for 2009. Stop and appreciate my family more, stop and enjoy the simple things in life, stop and be content and just love my life the way it is.

It is open until sometime tomorrow if you are interested.

We finally made it back from our trip down South. We had a good time visiting with family. My grandmother is not doing well and it was really great to visit and see her. (She was given 4-6 weeks to live in Sept. 2007; she has breast cancer and it has spread into her lungs-really all over.)
So, what are you doing this evening to ring in the New Year? I am going to bed early! I've had a wiggle worm sleeping with me since we were gone out of town!!

New blog release date: January 1, 2009

Shh! It's a secret!

I will be gone for a few days, but I will be working on ideas for the new blog. Don't ask me-it's a secret!

Ok, so yesterday, I did not stay home all day or even cook, except for throwing together a homemade pizza kit with Landyn. I went out with Jason, the boys, and Jason's parents. Then, I had the great idea that I needed to go see 4 Christmases-so MIL and I went. It was really funny. But that meant today I had to really work extra hard on putting away the Christmas decorations, laundry and cleaning up because the boys and I are going to ElDorado tomorrow to visit my grandparents. We are picking my dad up after he gets "off" at 12:30 (he's a pastor) and then we are meeting my mom who's already there. So, later!

What a Lazy Day

I am so excited to have a lazy day today. No stores to HAVE to go in, no food I HAVE to cook, no more presents that I HAVE to get wrapped. Just staying in from the coming wet weather, cooking spaghetti, and reading my new magazines. Jason has things to do, Kordyn has things to buy! Landyn and I have no agenda. I would love to go to the after Christmas sales, but I'm content to wait and just see what bargains I can find later. Like my new background? I went ahead and changed it because Christmas is over! And I'm working on being more organized this upcoming year. Have a great day! BTW, coming soon, a NEW BLOG from me-stay tuned for the new release. Sorry there will be no midnight release party!

Merry Christmas!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Snow, er, Ice day fun

Since we were stuck at home all day on Tuesday due to the "Winter Blast 08" (gotta love kait 8), we wrapped presents, made Christmas presents (sorry no pics b/c they are presents for people who read this!) and played. Wednesday, today, we ventured out after lunch and went to the mall-for 5 hours!- and then on to Winter Wonderland. Even though we fought the icy roads and parking lots, it was a great day!! Don't you just love the way that Landyn "helped" put the packages UNDER the tree! Maybe he is a little OCD-he even lined them up largest to smallest!

Christmas Decorations

I have finally finished my Christmas decorations. Here are some pics for you. Please disregard any toys, dishes, etc that are also in the pics. Remember, we live here and I have kids!



1: the boys decorating the tree. 2: the tree topper
3: top of my entertainment center 4: pie safe cabinet in kitchen

I have decorated probably every surface in my house but these are my favorites!
Merry Christmas!

Updates

What a week we've had! I know that this is a crazy time of year, but I have really tried to keep our lives calm, peaceful and NOT busy.(Landyn sleeps all night when not sooo tired!) This week was not one of those! We've had: concerts, head colds, Christmas parties, parades to ride in and finally, last night, an evening at home! I think we need really work on this week being not so busy; especially since when we are pre-occupied, Landyn starts exploring on his own and "finds" Christmas presents, hands them out, surprisingly to the correct person and has so much fun playing with them! Note to self: find new hiding spots next year. But who can be mad at a little 3 yr old who looks at you in his thick little glasses and says,"you buy this for me?" Just melts your heart!
On a new topic, I am making a commitment to cook more at home and I am going to even try new! recipes. I will blog the ones that "make" it!! Jason will be so surprised when I actually cook dinner instead of picking up things. Look out, Kroger, here I come. On a positive note, I will probably qualify to save 10 cents off a gallon of gas after this trip!
Coming soon, pictures of my Christmas decorations-I am still putting on the finishing touches. Hopefully, I will blog this tomorrow. We have Jason's party (Families, Inc.) tonight and the boys are spending the night with Mamie and Peet so we are going shopping after! Got to get this finished so that we can wrap!!! I hate having an empty tree!

Happy Birthday, Landyn!

Today, Landyn is 3!! For a little boy who had a rough start in the world (which continued until he was about 18 mo!), he is the sweetest, gentlest and quiet! kid!!! We are so blessed to have him complete our family. Here are some pics from his party: Top : checking out the fireman birthday cake, middle: all dressed up like a fireman and his new "guitar hero" guitar! bottom: eating on the red plate at school! (wearing his birthday shirt!)
Wish he could stay this age forever! We love you, Landyn!

Pictures from my trip

Here are a few pics from my trip: the horse and carriage you can ride around the Biltmore estate, a view of the mountains of Tennessee, and the Biltmore at night- all lit up for Christmas. There are more, but they are on my mom's camera, she has a night vision thingy on hers and we used it alot!

The details

Tuesday, Nov 25-left Jonesboro and drove until my eyes were ready to fall out (made it to Knoxville)
Wednesday, Nov 26-arrived in Asheville, NC. shopped in the Biltmore Village area. This was a beautiful area. All of the shops are in old houses that the servants used to live in. Ate lunch at Chelsea's English Tea. Then that evening, we went to the Biltmore for the candlelight Christmas Tour. It was absolutely breathtaking. I have never seen so many trees. The one in the banquet room was over 35 ft. tall! We shopped in the stable gift shop-so many great things they had.
Thursday, Nov 27 (Thanksgiving Day) We went back to the Biltmore and toured the farm and winery. Really neat places. Then we had our Thanks. lunch at a French Steakhouse. Really good food. We then drove to Gatlinburg. We were really not impressed. We liked the Asheville area better! But we finally got the hang of the trolley system and rode around and saw a lot of lights. AND shopped again! (Do you see a pattern here?)
Friday, Nov 28-We drove into Pigeon Forge and shopped at the Christmas Place-if you ever go to Pigeon Forge, you gotta shop there! It's like a Wal-Mart full of Christmas stuff. Really neat stuff!! Then on to one of the outlet malls. Finally, all shopped out, we ate dinner at the Happy Days Diner
Saturday, Nov 29- Shopped at the Old Mill Village in Pigeon Forge. I bought some really neat pottery! After lunch at the Old Mill Restaurant, we started our drive home. But, we only got to the other side of Pigeon Forge and had to stop at a Shabby Chic Antique store. We only made it to Cookeville because it was really raining hard and we were really tired.
Sunday, Nov 30- We got a late start because next door to our hotel was a club that played loud movie until 3 am. We stopped in Mt. Juliet and shopped at a Home Goods (it's a TJ Maxx) really great place. Then about 5 pm, we finally arrived back in Jonesboro.

I will have to blog some pics soon, but I haven't had time to load them into my computer because now I am sick! I have too much too do this week (Landyn's birthday is Sunday!)