Turkey Time!!

Thanksgiving has always been my MOST favorite holiday!  I love the family time... I love that the sole purpose of this holiday is to give Thanks for the many blessings God has given us... and I love the food.  (I know the last statement is true because I checked out of the hospital with Parker after only 36 hours just so that I could get home for my Granny's Thanksgiving Dinner!  Ha!!!) 

It's just a great time to be with the ones you love!

Love it!!

With my bestie... :)

:)  Don't know what I'd do without these ladies...

All the grandkids...

A group picture...

with sweet Manley

  

Ava with one of her most favorite people... Kelsey! 

Love her smile with all those teeth missing!  Too cute!

don't know where Lily is for this picture...

2/3's of my crew...

 with one of the funniest men I know...

sweet Matthew with his "E"!

Happy Birthday Parker!

Parker Douglas... my sweet, sweet Parker...

How in the WORLD can you be 10 years old???  In some ways, I feel like you are just starting Kindergarten...but other days you make me feel like you are close to heading off to college. 

Words cannot express how much I love each and every one of my precious children!  Words cannot fully express how much I love having you for a son!!!

I remember bringing you home from the hospital... not knowing what I was going to do with a boy!  I've only been around little girls, and a baby boy was something new in my world.  But now I couldn't imagine a day without all the boyness that you bring to our lives!  Every year I will tell you the same thing- I love you to pieces... I couldn't imagine a day without you in my life... and that I am so thankful that God picked me to be your Mom!!!  Everyday I think you make me a better person...everyday you teach me something new... and everyday I look at you and know I was given a true blessing 10 years ago! 

Happy 10th birthday to one of the best boys I know!!!! 

As Grandaddy always told you...
I know you are going to do great things in your lifetime... and I CAN'T wait to see what they are!

I love you sweet boy!
Mom

As always... we headed to Shogun for your birthday dinner...

with my MOST favorite people..

the silliest group of kids...

Mimi and E

with Grandmama

And Deanne, Shane, and Andrew...

We had some neighbors over after school on your "real birthday for pizza and cake...

You also had Drew, Cooper, and Colin spend the night and you headed to Incredible Pizza...

And another night...Daddy took Zach, Ethan, and you to a Grizzlies game...

But guess what...I didn't get a picture!!!  Me... of all people... forgot to take a picture!!
Just wanted to make sure you remembered!!  :) 

I think it's safe to say that you had a GREAT 10th Birthday!! :)

Happy Birthday Lucy!!!

Can't believe it's been a year since we got this silly girl!  It's been a very fun year with her... but also a few moments that made me wonder what we were thinking when we decided to get a dog.  Ha!  I've always been a huge dog lover, but never fully had to care for one by myself!  I've never had to pay for food... take care of baths...etc!  It's definitley been a learning process.  We are fortunate enough to have my cousin, Ryan, as our vet... so I have NO reason to complain in this area!  He makes house calls to give her shots and we get all our medicine for her at cost... so seriously... NO reason to complain.  But I could compain about the hair I have to clean daily... the smell of a "dog" when she comes in from outside...the flowerbed she has decided to dig in several times.  But in a funny way, I would compare her to one of my own kids... yes, there is sometimes a trail of dirty paws on my floor and nose marks on my windows... but I couldn't imagine our family without her!  She is always there to show love when someone needs it... she is always happy to see us... and she is so fun to play with!!  We love our sweet Lucy Liu!!!

Instead of giving her cake...

we figured she would appreciate a hamburger straight from the grill!!

I think we were hoping for too much...

I really wanted her to blow out her own candles... ha!

With her favorite people!!

It's Candy Time!

I have always loved Halloween! Maybe it's because I had the best memories from Halloween as a little girl! I lived in the MOST close knit neighborhood growing up. Neighbors not only knew eachother, but spent all spare time together hanging out. There were cook outs behind the Spinosa's house... volleyball games in the in Pennington Gap cove... Easter egg hunts in my parents backyard...traditions of all the kids banging pots and pans at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve... and so many more. The kids that I grew up are not only friends, but feel more like part of our family. And my parents friends feel more like my aunts and uncles. These people will forever hold a special part of my "memory bank"!! It's hard to put into words how much I love these memories... I just know I am blessed because of them. Now that I'm all grown up, I am so grateful for the fact that we live in a neighborhood that is very much like one I grew up in. There are so many young families and everyone knows everyone. It's like our own little community and I love it! I don't think you could ever get the same type of neighborhood as Blue Ridge Park, but I feel its somewhat close to what I had a kid. And Halloween is definitely one of my favorite times in Oakwood! People everywhere... KIDS everywhere... trailer rides... neighbors sitting at the ends of their driveways passing out candy... Just SUCH a fun night!!

Just Kickin' It...

Soccer Days are here again!  And this year, we have a new player on the field.  Lily played for the first time this season.  She loved practices, but didn't like all the eyes on her during the game.  She got a little "camera shy" so to speak!  It took alot of coaxing to get her out there, which was so surprising for our out-going little miss...but we took it in stride.  It actually got quite comical towards the end of the season.  :) 

There was another first this year... Manley started to coach Ava's soccer team.  Manley has never played soccer before, but he was a fabulous coach!  We ended up coming in 1st place this season... even tied a competitive team twice.  Such a fun group of girls that did a GREAT job!!! 

Silly Lily hanging out on the sidelines... where she liked to hang this season.

Daddy and his girl!

Sweet neighbor, Garret, who was on Lily's team...

The winning group!

The number 7... for an upcoming 7 year old!!

The "Cheetah Girl" in action...

With her favorite "Coach"

Meeting Duece!

We got to meet Deuce McCallister at the Boys and Girls Club Sports Ball and oh my... he's huge and all muscle!  But he was such a nice guy!  Signed some things for us and was so nice to talk to.  

Another memory from the night... the Mediknow Ring!!!  Every year, they sell keys to all the people at the ball.  The keys cost $25.00 each.  The key you bought could possibly open the glass box, and inside is a $5,000 ring from Mednikow Jewlerers.  The last time we went, I bought one... and before I even got a chance to try it out... someone else's key worked.  So this year, I didn't even think it worth buying one.  When it was time to unlock the box, we sat and watched as each person came to try out their key.  Some people had 4 keys, some at 2... there was even a man who bought 16 keys!!  They got down to the last 10 people.  Of course, we were all standing up there by the box with the rest of the people... waiting to see who had the key that worked!  Key by key went into the lock.. and not ONE of them opened the box.  The last girl in line was so excited... but sadly... her key didn't work either.  They never had this happen before and everyone was looking at everyone... none of the people in charge could understand how this happened. 

Finally, they came back and said that every person that was left in this room was going to get a ticket.  It didn't matter if you bought a key or not... if you were still there... you were getting a ticket.  On my ticket, the numbers were 245653!  Shannon, the wife of a guy Manley works with had 245658 on her ticket.  We sat there as the numbers were called out... 2...24...245...2456....24565....  Shannon and I looked at each other and realized we had a 1 in 9 chance of getting this ring.  Finally, they called out the last number... 24565..4!!!  FOUR...NOT 3 like I was so hoping for!  So this not only meant that this woman was standing behind me when they gave us our tickets... but it also meant that I was 1 number away from getting a $5,000 ring!  Crazy!  I swear it took me a week to get over that one!  Ha!  Such a funny memory now... but at the time... Ugh!  So close, but not close enough.  :)

I would definitely LOVE to go back and refix this hair and touch up my make up!  Ha!

But wouldn't trade the man with me!  Love him... such a fun night!

Ten Years, Three Kids, and One Dog Later...

September 2, 2000... Wow!  Seems like ages ago... but it also feels like it all happened just yesterday.  On this day, I married one the greatest blessing that God put into my life. (I say "one of the greatest blessings" because the other three blessings came in the years that followed!)  :)  These past ten years have been full of laughs and wonderful, perfect moments... but like all marriages, its also has some bumps in the road.  But with every bump, I only love Manley more!  He has been my best friend and the most wonderful husband a girl could ask for!  I am so thankful that God thought enough of me to put him into my life!!!  When I think about Manley and the family we have made, the words to one of my favorite songs comes to mind...

These are the moments, I thank God that I'm alive..

These are the moments, I'll remember all my life...

I've found all I've waited for, And I could not ask for more.

These are the moments, I know heaven must exist..

These are the moments, I know all I need is this...

I've found all I've waited for, And I could not ask for more.

I could not ask for more than this time together...

Could not ask for more than this time with you...

Every prayer has been answered,
Every dream has come true!

Right here in this moment, I'm right where I need to be-
Here with you... Here with me

I've found all I've waited for, And I could not ask for more! 

Just the easist way to describe what I feel about the life we've created...

I could not ask for more!!!