Happy Black Friday!

Do you know what time it was when this picture was taken?!?

8:00!!

We left our house at 8:00 on Thanksgiving night, dropped off Caitlin and Harrison at my parents' house, and then started our Christmas shopping! We started at Walgreens, then CVS, another Walgreens, drove by Toys r Us, Wal-Mart, Old Navy, Waffle House, Home Depot, and Lowe's. You may think we are CrAzY for doing this in the middle of the night, but we scored lots of great deals and finished our Christmas shopping except for a few things I need to order online. So no more shopping for me this holiday season!!! Yay!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Our Thanksgiving started off early. We got up and were dressed and ready in the car by 9:00 headed to my cousin's (Olivia) house in Helena. There was lots of traffic on the Interstate headed to their own Thanksgiving Feasts or maybe the Big Game. But we got there in plenty of time to watch the Patriots on TV and celebrate Thanksgiving with our extended family.
First there were presents to open...

which Pa-Pa tried to steal!
Then there was the amazing spread of food. I didn't get a picture because I didn't get in there fast enough before it was all gone.
Afterwards we tried to walk off all that we had eaten.

Harrison, Caitlin, and Laci took the dog, Snickers, with them.

I also tried to get some cute pictures.

I think he was tired here!

Thankfully I have my little model who is ready at a moment's notice for a picture!

Our Group Picture

Front: Caitlin, Laci, Harrison, Aunt Bobbie

Back: Randy, Beth, Olivia, Ma-Ma, Pa-Pa
We were missing my sister, Dana, and her family. This was their year to spend Thanksgiving with her husband, Scott's family. We had a great time together, though.

I am so thankful for my family, friends, and all our blessings that God has given to us!

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving with your family!!

Alabama/Auburn Day

On Wednesday, since we were forced by the School Board to go to school, the administration decided to make it a fun day. So they declared it "Alabama/Auburn Day" and we got to tailgate as well as have a contest for the best-dressed fan.

Me and my Bama Fans before school

My best friend, Laura, who continually proves with me that true friendship sees beyond school colors!

Harrison and his buddy, Russell, outside their classroom.
I asked Russell before I took this picture why he was wearing an Auburn jersey, and he said, "I really don't like Auburn. My Mama just buys it and makes me wear it!" I had to laugh!!

ROLL TIDE!!!!

First School Award

At the November PTO Meeting on Tuesday night, Harrison received his very first School Award!!!!
He is now part of the Platinum Math Club which means he has mastered his knowledge of numbers for the Kindergarten year. He was only one out of 12 Kindergartners who received the Award. (They have all year to achieve this award, but my cutie is so smart that he already has it down pat!!)
We were so very proud of him that we let him pick where to eat dinner--Nothing But Noodles!
Yay Harrison!!!!

C is for Christmas

On Sunday, November 21, after our family recovered from the awful stomach bug, we attended our church's Advent Workshop. It's our annual tradition of starting the Advent season.
We were lucky enough to be treated to a puppet show by the 5th and 6th grade puppet group which Caitlin happens to be a member. They started their show with the "Cartoon Song" (I love that song!).

Caitlin was one of the Smurfs in that song.
They then performed "C is for Christmas" for us.

Caitlin was the capital C in that song.

My star puppeteer in the pink.

Caitlin and her two best and oldest friends, Madelyn and Sarah. When you see one at church, usually the other two aren't far behind!
We then got busy making our gingerbread house.

Look at the concentration on those faces!

Daddy even got into the silliness!!

The finished product-YUM!

And I had to have proof that I was there too! (Plus I wanted a picture with my love.)

Why, Oh Why...

did the stomach bug have to visit MY house?!?
Harrison brought it home on Monday night, and we were up most of the night with him. Randy was the Greatest Dad Ever and stayed home with him on Tuesday. Along with that came the responsibility of doing the vomit laundry, mopping the floors, and Cloroxing the bathrooms. He did ALL of it!!
Caitlin then caught it on Wednesday night and was up most of the night in the bathroom. The Greatest Dad Ever stayed home AGAIN and did all the hard cleaning work for me!!
Can I just tell you that I married the most fabulous man EvEr?!?
Then...I woke up on Saturday morning with the most awful nautious stomach I have had since morning sickness! So I was the one to spend all day running back and forth to the bathroom.
Hopefully with all the Clorox we have used this week, our house will be germ-free for awhile!

Move Over Miley!

The most recent 5th grade project Caitlin had to do was to write a Math song. They had the option of making up their own original song or rewriting lyrics to an already published song. They also could work in groups to make it a little easier. Caitlin and her good friend, Hannah, rewrote "Girls Night Out" by Miley Cyrus so it was "Math Night Out." And on Thursday they even got to be stars and record it at an actual recording studio!

They were so excited to be actual recording stars!

Posing for their teacher

And, of course, I was there to record it all on film!

You know, when I was in Fifth Grade, we never did cool projects like this!!!

Good-bye Gallbladder!

Well after saying Good-bye to that mean gallbladder that had the nerve to quit working, I have not been doing much of anything!
My body has been healing, but while that has been happening, I have been resting, sleeping, and eating all the great food brought to us by our wonderful family and friends!
I feel very blessed to be surrounded by such sweet people.
Now on to waiting to be released by my doctor so I can get back to running...

Happy Trick-or-Treating!

We got Catwoman and Batman all ready Sunday night so they could go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.

They both loved their costumes!

And aren't they just the cutest kids?!?

We went next door and met up with Elvis, Supergirl, and Spongebob.

They were so funny together!

We started off on our long trek around the block getting lots and lots of candy.

Two Moms just trying to keep up with them all!

We saved our favorite house for last. Miss Molly in our neighborhood goes all out for Halloween. She served "blood and bones" and gave out tattoos along with candy. The kids LOVE Miss Molly's house!

We had such a good time made even better by being with our friends!

Frankenstein and a Creepy One

On Saturday we finally had time to carve our pumpkins!
Just like last year, Caitlin had no trouble at all cleaning out the pumpkins while Harrison didn't touch the "pumpkin guts" AT ALL!

Two sweet kids with the finished product! Caitlin picked a Creepy design, and Harrison picked Frankenstein to match our blow-up Frankie.
Fun Family Times!

Field Trip Time!

On Friday, amidst my never-ending abdominal pain, my class went on a Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch. We had a great time!

First we rode on a hayride to pick our pumpkins.

Had to stop in the middle of pumpkin-picking to pose with some of my most favorite First Grade teachers. Can you tell how cold we were?!?

We then got to listen to a story about growing pumpkins.

Next came petting the animals. Isn't that baby pig cute?

Then we entered the Corn Maze.

Me and my wonderful First Grade class after exiting the Corn Maze
We had a fabulous, but very cold day!!