4th of July

We went to the river with my best friend, Ashley and her family for the July 4th weekend. They have 2 boats and a camper. We absolutely had a blast the first night and went back for another night of fun. (The second night we didn't take Carson. One late night was all the little guy could handle)

Ok so the first day we rode on Ricky and Tina's boat. Everyone got out and floated around in the river for a while, except Carson and I because of the tubes in his ears.

Lindsey had her first experience on the tube...with a little moral support...and strength from Tanner. Bahaha!

Jenna "drove"the boat for a few minutes before going in for the night.

We had great food and wonderful fireworks.

My kids were troopers and stayed up late. Carson finally crashed in the camper and Jenna fell asleep outside in the chair.

We had so much fun that we came back out on Sunday for some more sun!

Sunday we stayed on Tanner's boat and all took turns on the tube. Ben with with us this time and was named "ninja" of the tube. He was a machine out there! (In these pics - Ben, me and Jenna and then me and Ashley)

Jenna loved Tanner's boat because it went fast and she would scream ROW ROW ROW YOUR BOAT the entire time we were riding.

It was great fun. We ended that night with more food, hanging out around the campfire and playing with sparklers.

We had a great weekend but we were so sad to see Ashley go back "home" to Kentucky. We're all ready for the next time we can get together and do it all over again...but with Matt this time!!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

Carson rode on the horses for the first time on Easter. Here he is with Papaw and Apache. He loved it just like his sister does.

Egg Hunts

The kids got to attend 3 egg hunts this year. Jenna is a pro at them now...

The first one was at the armory. They hid about 600 eggs and there were about 12 kids there so they all got tons of eggs and candy! We ate after the egg hunt and decorate cupcakes. It was such a fun way to start off Spring!

The second egg hunt was the DZT egg hunt at Lee. I forgot my camera!! But someone e-mailed us this picture of Carson. The Easter bunny was there. Jenna isn't fond of those kind of things but Lindsey convinced her to give him a high five. That's a big step for us. :)

The last one was an egg hunt at the church property. Jenna got lots of eggs and prizes. We all rode on a hay ride and Jenna jumped in the jump twice. After that we went to my Grandmother's house for Easter Supper. We were so happy to be able to eat on the back porch. It is so nice out there! We look lots of pics but the only one I got on my camera was everyone torturing my sweet boy with "Annie".

Happy Spring!

Happy New Year!

We spent New Years at Grandmother's house. We ate black eyed peas, greens and corn bread. We all sat at one table in honor of me and we had Krispy Kreme in honor of Lorinda! Ha! We opened Christmas presents because we wanted to wait until Lorinda got in town. Jenna got more stuff for her kitchen! Isn't this the cutest thing ever? She loves it!! And she also loves Lorinda! Happy New Year! I am so happy 2009 is over and we are excited about 2010. No more chemo in this house and Matt is coming home this year!

Christmas!!

Our Christmas started Sunday the 20th in Fort Payne at Matt's grandparent's house. We did all the basic family holiday stuff; eating lots, opening presents and playing Dirty Santa. I sat in the wrong spot apparently because from every angle there was a window which made a glare on the pictures. So this is Jenna with her new piano from Granny and Jenna playing with her cousin Tytan. And that's all I got! From there, we traveled down to Daphne for Taylor Christmas. We ate at Felix's Fish Camp and then played Dirty Santa and let the great-grandkids open presents. They all racked up on the toys! They loved it. This was our first year without Paw Paw and we missed him so much. Maw Maw had something up her sleeve! Mrs. Claus(maw maw's neighbor) paid us a visit. We played a game and she handed out presents. Funny.

And then came Christmas Eve. We had dinner at home with my family. Poor Jenna had a fever and was sleeping and I think Carson was sleeping too. I can't remember. Since our oven is STILL broken we cooked two different kinds of soup for Christmas dinner. We ate and then it was time for presents!! I gave my mom the job of getting my kids clothes for Christmas which was wonderful for me! They got TONS of new clothes. Then it was time to make cookies(no bake of course, ugh!) for Santa and put carrots out for the reindeer.

Here are my angels sleeping on Christmas Eve.

Santa came to our house!!!

Merry Christmas!

At noon on Christmas Day we had brunch with the Anderson's and my grandparents. It was so good!! The kids had a great time with each other too!

This isn't a great picture but we haven't compared Baby Ben and Carson in a while. Carson is so much bigger and taller. Isn't that funny how different they are but they are slow close in age!?!

Then it was time to go to Matt's mom's house. We had a huge, wonderful Christmas dinner. Jenna loves birthday parties. I mean LOVES them. So we had a party for Jesus and she got to blow out the candle. Then present time!!! Jenna got a rocking horse and she LOVES it!

Matt sent us some pictures from his Christmas in Iraq.

We had a very, Merry Christmas!

Christmas Fun

We went to Anna's house while the cleaning lady was at ours this week. Anna made Rice Krispy Treats and we used Christmas cookie cutters, icing and m&ms to decorate.

Brant, Riley, and Jenna only cared about eating the icing. Anna and I took care of the Rice Krispies! It's almost Christmas!!!

Christmas Decorations

Since everything is our lives and our attic is crazy right now, we decided not to pull out all the Christmas decorations this year. Sad, I know. My mom settled for 3 little trees with white lights in the front window just so we wouldn't look like Scrooge and so we would have a place to put our presents.

I definitely haven't been in the Christmas spirit. I have almost all my shopping done simply because I want it all over with. The faster Christmas is over, the sooner it is until Matt comes home. Don't get me wrong, I am excited about my kids opening their presents and spending time with family but I am just ready for this year to move on.

Today I decided I should do something about my Bah-Humbug-ness(yes, I just made that up). I searched through the attic while the kids were taking a nap and found my Christmas tree and my box of ornaments. I put my tree up hoping to make me feel Christmas-y. We'll see how it works.

I found a place right across from Victoria's Secret in Hamilton Place that sells the cutest ornaments! And they customize them for free!! I can't tell you all I got because lots of people on my list are getting them but I did buy one for myself. This is to remind me of this Christmas in years to come and to be so very thankful that this part of my life has come and gone and also to be thankful that my husband will be home for the holidays, Lord willing, with our little family every year.

We miss you this Christmas and we are already looking forward to next Christmas when you are here celebrating with us. We love you, Matt!