Ornament Swap Numero Uno

I am blessed with some FABULOUS friend who are blessed with so many different talents.

One group of friends has gathered together in the recent years to have a cookie/ornament swap.

I was not able to attend this party this year because LB had a basketball game that was rescheduled for that night.

So, I sent my ornaments with my friend Sandy.

Here is my story behind my ornament:

I was cleaning out my craft room and realized I had entirely too many things in it!

So I decided I would not buy ONE thing for my ornaments.

Everything came from my craft room. I found cookie cutters (who has cookie cutters in their craft room?) that I think I had bought for our annual cookie swap.  I had plenty of scrapbook paper and even found silver embellishments to add to them.  I used E600 glue to attach the ornaments to the paper.  Once the paper and glue had dried, I carefully cut it out.  This was MUCH easier than cutting them out then attaching.  Using the same glue, I then attached the embellishment to the the cookie cutter.  Finally, I attached some craft twine to the back in order for my friends to hang them on their tree.

I was pretty please with how they turned out!

LB made this one for a school project.

 Here are the ones my oober talented friends made for me.

Made by Sasha Gott

Made by Kristen Hicks

Made by Lauren Beene White

Made by Sharon Kea

Made by Bonnie Hendrix

Made by Allison Cross

Made by Nocona Canady-Flatt

Made by Ashli Rogers

Made by Ashley Deffenbaugh

Made by Lynne Moore

Made by Keli Westmoreland

Made by Sandy Thompson

Made by Kimberly Gott

Made by Sarah Buckley

Don't I have such creative friends!!!

I am thinking I need a tree next year JUST for ornament swap ornaments!!

Decking the Halls

I usually go all out for Christmas, but, for some reason this year, I was not feeling it.

Maybe it was the fact that every tree I tried to put up had something wrong with it.

Yes, I am sure that was it!

Anyways, despite the fact I usually put up at least 3 trees in the house, we FINALLY got

ONE tree up and that was enough for me!

LB let Carter put the angel on the top.

These are always some of my favorite pictures, and this year he just looks so big!

I know it won't be much longer before he won't need to stand on the chair to

put the angel on top!

North Pole Breakfast 2014

One of the favorite traditions we have had is our North Pole breakfast.

We have usually done this for breakfast on Christmas Eve, but this year we had planned on doing it the morning after Thanksgiving since Walker and Lucy were going to be here.

We made Lucy a to go box so she could celebrate with us - we really missed her!

I really missed my SIL, Amy, being there to help me get everything together.

I really liked the paper goods this year. They are from Oriental Trading. I just thought they were adorable!

The Menu:

sausage balls

gingerbread doughnuts

snowball doughnuts

cinnamon rolls

I just love this time of year and all the reasons we have to celebrate!

Trimming Gran's Tree

For my mother, trimming the Christmas tree has always been a family thing.

She has always enjoyed as much of the family being there for this event as humanly possible.

I remember when we were younger, we would have a special supper for the night we trimmed the tree.

Therefore, she had already planned to put the tree up Thanksgiving night.

This is HUGE for her!!

However, I know why she did it - family was in and she wanted everyone to be there to help

because family is an important part of the Christmas season.

And, of course, what is Thanksgiving without ending the day watching a little

Longhorn football!

Damon even taught the Auburn child to say Hook 'Em and do the the longhorn sign!

May YOUR holiday season be full of family, friends, fun, love and laughter!

Thanksgiving Time

Thanksgiving was suppose to bring Richard, Amy, Walker and Lucy up to Henderson.

They got as far as Clanton, AL, when Lucy started complaining about a sore throat.

They stopped and she was diagnosed with strep so they turned back around to head to Auburn.

Walker was ADAMANT that he come to Tennessee, so he and Richard headed back up this way.

I know 3 kiddos who were very glad to see each other although they missed Miss Lucy so much.

The love is pretty evident, isn't it?

We even ventured over to our house for a movie and tent one afternoon.

While we were so thankful for Richard and Walker coming, we missed Amy and Lucy so much and can't wait to see them again.

Off to Nashville - All By Ourselves!

Well.... another first is in the books.

LB is off to Junior BETA convention in Nashville all by herself.

She and her girls are SO excited - as the picture shows!

Apparently, we don't need to worry about our girls because Gideon is going to take care of them

(and hopefully Mac will look over them, too, as he is in the picture!).

I know they are going to have a BLAST!

Running for MSYC

The weekend of Homecoming at FHU brings one of our favorite 5Ks of the year - the MSYC 5k.

The kids love seeing their favorite people from one of their favorite places on earth.

They really enjoyed this year's 5k again.

It's amazing that 5-6 years ago, she would not even go NEAR Steven.
Now she begins the race on his shoulders!

Carter did a great job running this year. Although he didn't place (because he was in a major

age group with college kids), he ran a personal best!

They did not run the whole race like this!

LB did a great job, too, a personal best gave her second place in her age group.

LB loves Leanna!

Got to LOVE MSYC!!!!