Christmas Pics...by Shannon Byrd Photography

Unfortunately, I am not a Get-My-Kid's-Pictures-Made kinda mom.  But this year when Marty said that Shannon Byrd Photography was going to use a vintage-y set I decided I would go ahead and have their pics made for Christmas...Of course this meant getting their Christmas outfits made ahead of time NOT my usual wait until the last minute thing that I do.  The greatest part is that when you purchase certain packages you can buy the digital images.  So, here are a few of their Christmas pictures...thanks in part to Shannon Byrd Photography.

Dear Santa,

Please bring me a Cleaning Elf to clean my room.

Love,
Annaliesse


Yes...this is actually what she asked for from Santa :)

Catching Up!

Let me begin by saying that technically I am cheating...it is Thursday, November 17 as I write this but shhhhhhh....I am going to schedule this post for Saturday, November 19.  Why? Because November 19 is my darling husband's birthday! He is slowly catching up to me. Oh I know he'll never completely catch up- or if he does, I won't know it ;)- but in my mind he is gaining on me. Let's just leave it at that.

We just recently celebrated 16 amazing years together and I can honestly say...ignore the cheesy in it...that I love him more now that I did then.  Cliche?  Yes.  True? A thousand times yes!  He is my very best friend.  He makes me laugh...even when I am trying hard not to.  He listens.  He encourages.  He loves me.
He is the best daddy in the world!  Really!  He's a much better daddy than I am a mother.  It may have something to do with not being with them 24/7 but then again, it probably doesn't.  He LOVES for us to all be together. ALWAYS!  He never gets tired of it. He doesn't ever need a break from us.  He works very hard to provide for us...for me to be able to stay home...sometimes he works too hard.  He can't stand to miss out on anything in our children's lives.  He will take a few hours off from work to be at a school event- even if it means he has to stay a little later to make the time up.  He makes memories with his children...the kind that money can't buy.  I could go on and on about him but I think I'll just stop and say...

Happy Birthday Trent!! We Love you!

Halloween update

I know, I can't believe it either!  I am posting my Halloween pictures 2 weeks after the event rather than two MONTHS later! Unfortunately, I had to endure my computer screaming at me during the entire photo upload, reminding me that I am low on disk space and need to delete old and unused files.  Oh well, they are on my computer now.

As I mentioned before, we sort of scrounged things up last minute...I am especially thankful to my SIL, Nickie, for letting me borrow not one, but two of the costumes worn by my lovelies...the Belle princess costume and the Auburn (I know, I can't believe I'm letting her wear it either) cheerleading outfit.  I made Grace's Thing 2 costume and Mason pulled out some hunting clothes.  Voila...Halloween 2011!

We were invited to the Malones for Halloween.  The food was great!  The kids loved the hayride and really just getting to be together.  Watching them race from house to house all packed together reminded me of my days of Trick or Treating with all my friends in my neighborhood.   

Poor Annaliesse...after hitting about half a dozen houses she was getting tired.  I reminded her that she probably didn't have much candy yet so she looked in her bag ready to argue with me and with great surprise said, "You know, you are right!"  I peered in and saw that she had even less than I expected...I looked behind us and saw a trail of candy.  She had dragged her bag along the ground and put a big hole in it.  She was losing as much candy as she was getting... 

Once again Aunt NickNick came to the rescue and gave her another bag.  By this time everyone else was waaaaayyy ahead of us and she had a lot of ground to cover to make up for her loss.  The hayride had continued on to keep up with the others so she was forced to walk the whole way...I know, terrible isn't it, having to actually w-a-l-k!

About halfway back to Jeff and Kara's she informed me that "candy is very unhealthy for you" and "why do we do this anyway?" !! :)  Fortunately, for her, she has three older siblings who were happy to share their candy with her!

 Grace and Carley wanted to go as Thing 1 and Thing 2.  Grace chose Thing 2... unfortunately they didn't actually Trick or Treat together so she did kind of look funny without her Thing 1 with her :)

 Mason has plenty of experience being a hunter!

 Thank you Nickie!! Roo looks beautiful in her Princess Belle costume! For her though, the best part was the make-up!!

 Yeah, I don't really know where the whole "War Eagle" thing came from...I guess she is just showing her rebellion early in life.  I'm hoping she'll get it all out of her system now!  Bailey, maybe you can talk some sense into her!

Thing 2 is finally united with Thing 1!!

I have my suspicions that this may be where the Auburn influence is coming from!!

The whole group!!

Carley, Grace, and Hannah

Besties Annaliesse and Allie!

Couldn't you just eat her?!? She is looking adorable as Strawberry Shortcake!

"I'm ready to go...Mom, you wanna rethink this paper bag?"

Annaliesse, Macy, and Katie-Claire stayed warm on the hayride!

Hannah, Peyton, Grace, and Madeline

Ellie joined the hayride as a beautiful bride!

Thank goodness that's over!! for another year at least.

November 3, 1995

Well everybody, yesterday was my 16th wedding anniversary and it NEVER occurred to me to let my blogger friends in on my happy day. I don't really think my wonderful husband reads this much...why read it when you live it, right?!...but I will wish him a public Happy Anniversary! 

It has been a truly wonderful 16 years!  We even have four mostly precious children to show for our time together :)  Thank you Trent for filling my life with happiness...and chaos!

Two Posts, One Day

TWO POSTS!!
How is that possible? You ask.
Aren't you neglecting your parental duties?
Do you have nothing better to do than blog all day?

Yes, it is true that I am posting twice in a day...in a relatively short amount of time.  Yes, it is true that I do have better things to do than blog all day~ which I have been doing by the way (the other things, I mean, NOT the blogging). 
HOWEVER...I have Edda Bear Anderson (Ella Blair/Blaire- sorry Linds I'm not sure if there is an "e" at the end or not) at my house today and she is keeping Annaliesse quite occupied.  Well, she was until Katie Claire came home. Now Katie Claire is keeping Edda Bear quite occupied.  Soooooo while I have a little free time I am going to take advantage of it.

Today Katie Claire had a book character parade at her school.  I went and it was cute. I know, I know, you're thinking "just post the pics and being done with it". Spare us the whole monologue.  I would, but where's the fun in that?  :)

So last week - and by last week I actually mean the Friday BEFORE fall break- KC brings home her newsletter and following week assignments like she always does. I glance at them and then set them aside.  After all, there will be a whole week before I have to really think about what's going on AFTER fall break. 
Fall break comes and goes...pretty quiet and uneventful.  We don't go anywhere or do anything much and we certainly DON'T think about school!

Sunday night, on our way home from church, goes something like this:

KC: MOM!! My parade is tomorrow and I have to dress up like a character from my book!
Me: Katie Claire! Surely it isn't tomorrow...that sounds like a Friday kind of thing.
KC: No it IS tomorrow!  And I HAVE to dress up!
Me: What book do you have?
KC: A book about giraffes and a book about tigers.  I want to be a giraffe.
Me: There is no way I am going to find a giraffe costume at 9:30 on a Sunday night!! Nothing is even open!
Some brilliant person remembers Walmart is open...maybe it was me who remembered...I don't know.
We stop at Walmart and I manage to find a tiger mask, a tail, and some orange and black striped tights. 
When we get home I check to make sure that this thing IS actually tomorrow...
What do you think?
If you guessed NO then you are correct...or maybe you just paid attention to today's date and when I mentioned above that I went to her character parade today :)
Not only was the parade NOT going to be "tomorrow", the guidelines also stated that there could be no masks- yeah, I know, wait it gets better...AND that it had to be "homemade".

Soooooooooo...long story short- who am I kidding it's a long story :) I take back the mask and tail and buy some face paint and orange fabric (I'm gonna keep the store bought tights and they'll just have to get over it).  Go home and sew orange stripes onto a black leotard. I do make a tail, per Daddy's request, but forgo the tiger ears.  I have to admit that it turned out much better than I anticipated.  She looked pretty cute in her first homemade costume.

See for yourself!

No, I didn't serge the edge of the strips.  Yes, they are fraying. No, I don't really care.  How many times will she wear this again anyway?!

We She had issues with the tail.  The issue being that she didn't want one!

 

This is why I do not include "makeup artist" on my resume!

Yeah, I know, zebra stripes and tiger stripes.  You can never have too much animal print?  Or can you?

There was an adorable Cat in the Hat costume and a Chef Mickey but since I don't know who the kids are nor do I have permission to post pictures of their kids, you'll just have to take my word for it!

Into the Maddening Crowd

It's that time of the year.  The one where we rush out into the maddening crowds trying to find something for our children to wear so that they can go door to door begging for candy.  The one where we spend a small fortune for a costume that they will wear ONCE. at night.  in the dark. 
Every year I put it off until the last minute as though the day isn't going to actually come.  Then I hurry around at the last minute scrounging something up.  Yep, e-v-e-r-y year.

I have recently decided that perhaps it isn't all my fault.  Yes, my kids tell me months, even a year in advance what they are going to be for Halloween.  Yes, I have plenty of time to make it happen.  Yes, by nature I am a procrastinator.  But...

My kids are wishy washy.  Indecisive. On the fence. Vacillating. Waffling. Wavering.  However you choose to word it the bottom line is THEY CAN'T MAKE UP THEIR MINDS.  I know they can't help it...it comes honest.  A little from me and a little from their Daddy.  You should see us trying to decide where we should go to eat or what we should do for fun as a family.  But that is a whole other post that I won't get into right now!

This year they have changed their sweet little minds at least a dozen times.  Katie Claire has vacillated between Auburn cheerleader, the bloody Scream character, a vampire, a clown, a tiger, and Mario.  Annaliesse has waffled between an Alabama cheerleader, a vampire, a witch, a unicorn, Luigi, Belle, Cinderella, a gorilla, a fairy, a genie, and Snow White. With all this fickleness what else can I do BUT wait until the last minute?

The good news...We have finally decided- or at least narrowed it down to no more than 2 choices- on a costume.  
Even better news...It only comes once a year and it's almost over!

Sorry, you'll have to wait until next week to see the final outcome!

It's That Time of the Year Again!

Saturday, October 15 marked the beginning of the 2011 hunting season.  For any of you with husbands who hunt you know what that means...life as a single parent. 
Trent had actually gotten to where he wasn't hunting quite as much as he did when we first married.  Then Mason reached that age. The age where all he does is eat, sleep, breathe hunting.  For him it really doesn't matter what kind of animal he hunts.  Big or small he loves it all - no, I didn't mean for that to rhyme but it's kinda cool that it does :)
Now that Mason is so into hunting Trent has pretty much caught his second wind with the whole hunting thing and most Friday evenings and Saturday mornings/afternoons I don't see much of them...except to see Trent asleep on the couch after he gets home from hunting.

Mason killed his first deer in third grade with a rifle.  He started hunting with his bow either last year or the year before and he only killed one (well, half of one since he didn't make a good shot and Trent had to shoot it again).  So this past weekend was pretty exciting for him.  Friday evening he shot a doe and Saturday morning he shot a 5 point.  It was his biggest deer yet!
For those who are appalled I won't really apologize because we do actually eat the deer. It doesn't go to waste.  For those of you who are appalled that we eat the deer...Have you ever tried it?  It's much cleaner and healthier than beef!  We really do like it better.
Anyhow, here are some pics of his doe and buck.

This is the doe that he shot Friday evening.  It was his first bow kill all by himself!

This is his first buck killed with a bow. It is also his biggest buck- a 5 point.  We are trying to teach him to be selective with the bucks he shoots but for a 13 year old who has only killed does and a couple of spikes I guess this seemed pretty big to him. :)

The next picture is one of him with his very first deer.  It was a spike...although at the time he shot it he thought it was a doe.  When he found it he realized it was actually a spike.  He was 8 1/2 years old.  Look at how young he looks.

Now by comparison...this is the kind of bucks his daddy shoots.  Of course when he was Mason's age I'm sure he was probably excited to shoot the size deer Mason kills.

And just because I'm posting hunting pics...Here is one of Mason with the ducks he killed during last year's youth duck hunt.  He enjoys duck hunting a little better than deer hunting.  I think it's the challenge of hitting a flying target.

For the record, I don't condone needlessly killing animals (except maybe field mice that want to try to sneak into my house to get out of the cold...and poisonous snakes...or poisonous spiders).  Usually once Mason gets us a deer or two and gets a deer for one of the teacher's aides at his school I am very particular about what Mason and Trent shoot and what they plan on doing with it.

In about a week or two I'll have a freezer full of venison!