Ice Skating Fun!

For Thanksgiving this year, we went over to my parents' in Jackson, MS.  My brother and SIL just moved over there with their two adorable boys in September, so it was really exciting to be there to celebrate their first holiday in their new city.

 

And it was cold.

 

I'm not talking chilly, I'm talking bone-chilling cold.

 

So cold the lake near my parents house froze and we were all able to ice skate on it.

 

See?

 

 

Ok, kidding.  I think it would be another ice age before Jackson would actually get that cold! (But, seriously, it was near freezing and to me that is beyond cold!)

 

The Baptist hospital near their house had set up an ice rink and sledding doohicky.  We decided to try our hand at ice skating despite the fact that our only other skating experience had been an epic fail trying to teach them to roller skate.

 

My mom, SIL, and I took the little kids over there to check it out while the guys (including Jack who I'm pretty sure now thinks of himself as one of the guys) were golfing.

I wish I had a picture of the incline.  It was steep!!

 

After some sledding, we decided to try some skating.

It was somewhat challenging at times but a lot of fun!

 

 

So fun that we even went back over there later that evening so the boys could join us too!

 

 

Fire safety and stranger danger!

Jack's class visited the Fire Safety Village yesterday.

Aside from being educational for the whole family (yes, we now have a sound fire escape plan) it provided loads of entertainment as Jack recounted the day's events that evening.

First, Jack demonstrated the Heimlich maneuver. 

He did save Dad from chocking, however, if his hands had been about 2 inches lower, I think there would have been a whole other set of issues.

We also practiced stop, drop, and roll.  It's safe to say my children have rolling around on the ground down pat.

Then there's stranger danger. (I understand this is a serious subject, and we have taken steps to ensure our children are aware of what do to around strangers.  However, sometimes what they say is just downright funny.)

First Jack informed us what he would do if a stranger grabbed his arm; he would pull away.

Alex asked him if he would say anything while he was pulling away.

"Yes," Jack replied,  "I would say [and he makes grunting sounds like he's trying to pull away from someone]."

"Anything else?" asks Alex.

"Oh yeah," says Jack, "I probably just say 'NO STRANGER NO STRANGER!'"

On to the next scenario.

Me: Jack, what would happen if a stranger offered you candy to help him find something in the grocery store or something?

Jack: I would yell NO, STRANGER!

And the clincher...brought to you by Melody.

Jack, again, demonstrating how to pull away from a stranger and how to a kick a stranger.

Alex says, "Ok, guys, if a stranger is pulling at you and you have to kick him, kick him right here."

(I'm sure you can guess where he pointed...)

Melody looks at him and says, "So, basically, you want us to kick strangers in the nuts?"

12 Years...

ago, I said "I do" to this wonderful man. 

That was such an amazing, special day and it's only gotten better.

In honor of our twelfth anniversary and because my husband commented to me that he doesn't think he gets enough face time on the blog I'm going to write 12 things I love about him.

In no particular order...

1.  He makes me laugh.  Usually with sarcasm.  (Don't roll your eyes, you know sarcasm is funny too!)

2.  He puts up with my annoying habits. *I'm not admitting to any annoying habits here, but if I had some, I'm pretty sure he would tolerate them graciously.

3.  He loves action packed superhero moves too. But, he will watch the sappy movies with me when I ask him (yes, that means he has seen Twilight).

4.  He tells me I'm beautiful all the time.  Even when I know that there's no way I'm looking good at the moment.

5.  He's an Auburn fan.

6.  He's gorgeous.  I would put a picture of him here shirtless, laying out on the beach, but I don't want all y'all to get too jealous. 

7.   He loves God, his family, and his friends. And in that order.

8.  He honest.  Sometimes too honest.  Whatever he says and what ever he does, I can count on him to do it with integrity. 

9.  When he takes me out on a date, he always treats me as though I'm the girl he's been dying to go out with and is so happy to finally be out with me.

10.  He's a hard worker.  Sometimes I complain that he works too hard but, in actuality, he's very committed to doing the best he can, he has a strong work ethic, and goes above and beyond always.

11.  He's always calm, cool, and collected.  There are moments I wish he would just panic right along with me, but when it comes down to it, I know that I can always count on him to be the rational one.

12.  He works hard at our marriage.  I have to admit, he works harder than me. He is almost always the better person and in that way, encourages me to be a better person.  I know he will always strive to put our marriage first and that his commitment to me and our relationship is unwavering.

Happy anniversary, babe! The past 12 years have been wonderful and, from what I hear, the best is still yet to come!

A little chair re-do

Those who know me IRL, know I am not crafty.  At all. 

I can draw a stick figure and...

Well, I guess that's about it.

But, after seeing my friend, Lindsey, revamp her dinning room chairs, I decided to give it a whirl!

Turns out, I'm craftier than I thought.

First you need to pick fabric.  I let Lindsey do that for me and she picked this fabulous fabric here.

I actually didn't take a before picture, but my old chairs were just plain, boring, off white.

First, I had to cut the fabric.

Next I asked my husband to be in charge of removing and then reattaching the seats from the chair.  Ok, I bribed him.  I got sushi and downloaded Total Recall.  The new one.  Whatever. Was totally worth it to have a helper with this project.

A handy staple gun is all that's needed to secure these over the old fabric. The key here is to pull it really really really tight!  There will probably be some extra fabric, so make sure to cut that off.

Screw them back on the to chair and...all done!

Super easy, only took a few hours and now my dinning room looks much fresher and livelier!

A Last First and Sparkles

Tuesday was a big day for Melody. It was her last first day of preschool!  This year she is in the Zebra class and is very excited. 

The first first day of preschool... 

and now the last first day of preschool.

My little girl certainly has grown up.  And thankfully gotten more hair (although I do miss those little sprouts!)

 

Thank you all for your anniversary wishes. Alex and I went out and celebrated our 10 years by watching Captain America and...

doing a little jewlery shopping!!

My wonderful husband got me a new, beautiful wedding band in honor of our tenth.  The ring in the middle is my engagement ring and we had a diamond band placed on each side. Isn't it beautiful?!

Melody, of course, loves it as well.  I showed it to her and she asked to try it on and said, "Ooooh! It has so many sparkles and it fits just me!"

10

My husband and I have been married for 10 years today.  A decade.

I remember when we had our first anniversary and I felt like 1 year was a long time!  Hopefully, in 40 years, we will be celebrating somewhere remembering back to when we thought 10 years was a long time.

The first song on the slideshow (Songbird by Eva Cassidy) was our first dance at our wedding.  I just liked the second (Something that We Do by Clint Black). I actually almost picked Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would Suck Without You but realized my mother would flip if I paid tribute to my marriage with a song containing the word 'suck'.

This video encompasses the last 10 years of our lives together. It's a little long, but well, 10 years is a long time.

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Mother's Day and Warriors

In my last post, I blogged about my children's love of Jesus.  Jack just loves to soak in knowledge of Him while Melody is a huge worshipper.  She has been singing her favorite song for all who will listen, including the staff at our chuch.  Our pastor loved it so much that he asked her to sing it for the congregation at all three services!  The video was taken at the 8:45 service and getting to hear her stand up there and sing pretty much topped my Mother's Day!

Alex parents were also visiting that weekend, so after church we all went out for my favorite Mother's Day tradition; brunch! 

So all that, along with a fabulous necklace and some beautiful earrings, definitely made me feel like one special mommy!

I know. Not a great picture.  It came from my phone.

...........................................................................................................

Some of you might remember this from last year.

Yep, he made me do it again.

Pre-race with our friend, Randy

It was fun and still just as muddy.

I did a little better this year than I did last year at #109 out of 726 women in my age group (that's 15th percentile).

And, yes, of course, Alex wants to do it again next year! 


Hosted by Krystyn at Really, Are You Serious?

The post where I brag on my husband

I need to spend a little time doing something I don't do enough of; bragging on my husband.

Plus, he's been waiting for me to post about this.

In the past, we've never really celebrated Valentine's Day.  We usually get a little treat for the kids and that's about it.  It's a cheesy, commercialized holiday and seems just unnecessary.

Sorry, ladies. Please don't throw things.

However, as I was spending some time reflecting on things I dislike about winter (it's freakin' freezing, it's long, it's boring, etc) I realized that a celebration is just what I needed to get me out of this funk.

So, I called up my hubs, told him about this revelation and pretty much ended the conversation with, "I know you are just going to knock my socks off with what you plan for us!"

And boy did he come through!!

He booked us a couples massage

(Not us...just some randoms that showed up on Google images.)

and got me an ipad!!

And it totally worked! I was able to break out of my mid-winter funk.  Although the fact that the next week, the temps rose to the mid 60s and have (mostly) stayed there may have had something to do with it too.

Valentine's Day may be my new favorite holiday.  I can't wait to see what he comes up with for next year.  (hint, hint, Honey.)

Out with the old and in with the new...

2010 has flown by.  Seriously.  Last month I dated a check 11/14/09.  I think at this point I just need to forget about 2010 and move straight to 2011.

But first I'm going to do a brief really long year in review.

2010 started out with Snowmageddon 1.

Followed by celebrating our princess turning 3 at her "Breakfast at Melody's" tea party.

February was quite interesting when I, the physician's daughter, totally underestimated Jack's tummy ache while Alex was over-reacting following his intuition.  Jack had his appendix out.

February had us celebrating Valentine's Day

And freezing our tails off while trying to smile about it in Snowmageddon 2.

In March I turned 24.  Again.

We entered baseball season.

And then we finally welcomed spring and Easter in April!

After a long, cold winter we really needed to spend some time with our favorite friends enjoying some fun in the sun and Sprrrring Brrrreak!

And then I went back solo for the Beth Moore conference 

And the Bon Jovi concert!  \m/ (Those are metal horns for all you non-coolrock-n-roll people out there.)

 Jack lost his bottom teeth and we had our last day of school in May.

As well as this infamous incident.

We celebrated Mother's Day and Grandma's 80th (and last) birthday in May as well.  She passed away in October and is now home with the Lord.

In June I dove out of my comfort zone and went camping.  Ok, fine, it was actually yurting. I understand you tent-camping people think there's a difference but to us 5-star-resort people there's really not.

And Batman Jack turned 6!

The summer was spent swimming. A lot.  And making sure certain body parts stay attached.

And doing a little tubing on Lake Oconee.

We headed back to FL in July where Melody and I met some real life princesses!  It was truly a magical moment for both of us.  I'm a little teary just thinking about it.

 In August we took one last vacation to Resort Mitchell and Charlie had his first haircut courtesy of Granddaddy.

Once we were back home, we were all ready for the first day of 1st grade

and preschool!

In September Alex and I were able to take a vacation to visit Ben in Colorado

and we took several family trips down to the Plains for some fun, family, football!

This little chubby cherub turned two

and my handsome Cub Scout went on his first Scout camping trip.  This was probably the highlight of his year.  That and getting his batman costume.  I only say that based on the fact that he mentions both things at least 10 time a day.

November brought a trip to the NC Mountains to visit Granny Gertie and (a mini) Snowmageddon 2.5.

Thanksgiving brought us to FL yet again.  We are definitely thankful for these friends...we've had a lot of fun with them this year and appreciate them hosting us so frequently.

Early December brought us Sasha who will ring in the new year with us and stay here until mid-January.

 We were happy to celebrate Christmas Day with Uncle Ben and his girlfriend, Bekah.

And we received an unexpected gift...a white Christmas! Georgia hadn't had a white Christmas since 1918.

I guess this makes Snowmageddon 3 for 2010.

We've had many adventures in 2010 and are looking forward to what lies ahead in 2011!

Happy New Year!