O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Enjoying hot chocolate after a cold day at the Christmas tree farm
This marshmellow is very yummy1

View of the tree farm from the top of the mountain

This is our tree!

Ducks standing on the frozen lake. It was cold that day!

We headed to the mountains of North Carolina the first weekend in December to get a Christmas tree. I know we could go to the lot down the street and get one but when we can we try and make a whole day of going to get the tree and cut it down in the mountains. It's a different experience every time and one that we talk about and remember year after year. The kids really enjoy it. This year we went to Sugar Plum Tree Farm in Plumtree, NC. It was about a 3 hour drive and was extremely cold that day. Ansley got her wish.......it snowed while we were there. It was very neat to be picking a tree in the snow but we were so cold we couldn't feel our fingers or toes anymore! We picked a beautiful tree and ended up staying at the tree farm for hours. They had lots of actitivies: meeting with Santa, sitting in the warm indoors eating popcorn and drinking hot chocolate, shopping in their Christmas store and roasting marshmellows in the fire pit outside. It was a fun day!!

The human hamster wheel

Trying to run over Uncle Scott

Our neighbors gave this to the girls a few weeks ago. We took it to Conyers with us at Thanksgiving. They had a blast playing in it and it was great because it wore them out!

Ice Skating

Ansley loves going to the outdoor ice skating rink every year during the holidays

Elisabeth taking a break from ice skating with Grandmother and Poppy

I am having so much fun!

Elisabeth Ice Skating with Grandpa

Such a ham

We went ice skating at the outdoor rink in Conyers, GA while we were there for Thanksgiving. We go every year. Ansley loves it and so did I until I fell on the ice 2 years ago and am convinced I broke my tailbone. Haven't skated since. I just sit off to the side and take pictures and video. I'll get back out there eventually. This is Elisabeth's first year skating. She had a great time but Ron and John were very tired afterwards since they are the ones that had to help her skate. She couldn't really hold herself up at all. Enjoy the pictures!

Wordless Wednesday

(I know it's wordless Wednesday but I just have to add that our poor dogs are abused. Poor Winston is wearing a pink headband with a bow. Who knows what they will do next!)

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We traveled to Conyers and had a great time visiting family. We didn't participate in Black Friday shopping......I just couldn't make myself get up early and be out with all the crowds! We stayed in bed and slept instead! We brought our puppy, Belle, with us to Conyers and she did really well traveling in the car. She slept the whole time. She enjoyed running around outside at Ron's and even got her feet wet in the lake. We'll have to bring her back in the Spring or Summer to do some real swimming. :-)

Unfortunately we came back to some bad news. First a teacher's assistant at Ansley's school passed away the day after Thanksgiving and then our neighbor's daughter passed away on Monday morning. She was in 10th grade. It is so very sad. It has been a rough week so far to say the least.

National Adoption Month

The first gave you a need for love;
the second was there to give it.


Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us. James 1:27 (NLT)

November is National Adoption Month. There are so many kids that need forever families. Won't you consider adopting? If you can't adopt please consider other ways you can help orphans in the US and around the world. Visit www.cryoftheorphan.com to find out ways you can help.

Thankful Thursday

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." - Philippians 4:6 (NIV)

A few more vacation pictures

Elisabeth dancing the night away

Ansley hanging out by Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman

Playing in the beautiful water in Grand Cayman

Ansley having her hair braided on the boat

It was a little windy on deck each night. Look at that hair fly!




The girls with Belle

Straight Hair

Most of you haven't seen me with straight hair and I rarely have my picture taken with it that way. I thought I would post this picture because a few people can't believe that my hair can actually be straight. As long as it doesn't rain and the humidity isn't high then it will stay very straight. Elisabeth told me I couldn't leave it that way for long.....I needed my curly hair back. She said my hair was broken. :-)

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for:

1. Nice weather for the Citadel Oyster Roast last Saturday
2. Gas is $1.82 / gallon
3. My grandmother is doing better
4. Outdoor ice skating rink will be up and running when we go to Conyers for Thanksgiving
5. Children's ministry at our church
6. John made it to Washington DC safely this week
7. Sidewalk chalk
8. Bite size Snickers candy bars
9. A recent visit from Ron and Jan
10. Elisabeth is now wearing underwear!

Wordless Wednesday

Picture of the new puppy

After a hard day of playing

Winston and Belle playing

This is Belle. Isn't she cute?

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful for:

1. 1 Chronicles 29:11-12
2. Jamie Bailey
3. John's new office is now finished! The open house reception is tonight!
4. People who are willing to open their hearts and homes to adoption
5. Our new puppy and the fun Ansley is having with her
6. The house for rent in our cul-de-sac is being rented to a nice family (she's a 4th grade teacher and has a daughter a little older than Elisabeth -- Yay!)
7. Operation Christmas Child
8. Generosity of our Sunday School class
9. Living in a country where we have the opportunity to vote
10. Being able to worship openly and freely

Our new puppy

Last Saturday, November 1st, we got a new puppy. It's a black lab (surprise, surprise). We love labs and just can't seem to branch out to anything new. It's the only kind of dog we've ever owned. I really wanted a yellow lab but they shed so much and I didn't think it would go very nicely with my dark hardwood floors. Seeing all the hair on the floor would drive me nuts. Don't get me wrong, the black hair is on the floor......I just can't see it. It blends right in. And that makes it OK with me.

She's 10 weeks old and the girls named her Belle. She has a pink collar with rhinestones on it (guess who picked that out? The girl who likes a little bling.....Ansley). John couldn't believe we put a prissy collar on his dog. Oh well. It's a puppy collar so she'll outgrow it soon enough. For now she looks as if she should be in the movie Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Funny movie for those who haven't seen it. She's eaten my plant outside and dug most of the dirt out of the pot and tries to chew on the cover of the portable fire pit. Oh well. That's just what puppies do. Winston and Taylor did the same thing when they were puppies and we lived through it. Winston loves her and plays with her alot. It's fun to watch. We haven't seen him play like that in a long time. We are currently crate training her so she sleeps inside in the crate at night and we put her in there sometimes during the day when we are gone. Hopefully she will be housetrained soon! :-)

Halloween!

The pirate family

We had fun trick-or-treating (even though it was quite cold!). The girls got lots of candy. Elisabeth enjoyed it much more than she did last year although she'll tell you that she didn't like the sporky houses (she's really trying to say spooky but it comes out sporky for some reason). Ansley went to her friends house afterwards and they decorated cookies. I love it when Halloween is on a weekend night so there isn't a rush to get kids on a sugar-high in bed at a decent time. It just doesn't work very well!

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for:

1. no hurricanes during our vacation
2. women's bible study
3. Elisabeth not being afraid of the characters on the Disney cruise
4. Elisabeth is almost potty trained!
5. A cool school project: "Flat Ansley". We mail flat Ansley to a relative to live for 2 weeks so the kids can learn about different parts of the US and other countries.
6. Crockpots
7. Ansley and watching her play the game Twister
8. Our parents
9. Ansley truly loves her little sister
10. Trick-or-treating is on Friday this year instead of a school night (I'm sure the teachers are thankful also!)

We're back from vacation

Headed to Key West - isn't the water pretty?

Docked in Key West (Disney boat in the background)

You never know who and what you might meet in Key West!

Eating breakfast on the top deck

Coming into Key West

Well, we finally took a whole week off last week and went on our first cruise. We had a wonderful time. The boat was great (Disney Magic), food was good, entertainment was good and we got to see places in the Caribbean that we had never been to before. And the best part was that it was cold here but we were warm on the beach with sand in our toes! But now we are back to reality (and freezing temperatures at night!). I highly recommend a Disney cruise. They treat you really really well. The girls had a blast and are ready to go again. As usual we took hundreds of pictures. I will post a few now and will post more later. I still haven't gone through all of them yet.

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for:

1. Elisabeth's belly laugh that makes me laugh so hard I could cry
2. Finding a formal dress for the cruise.....on sale!
3. A good parent/teacher conference with Ansley's teacher this week
4. Warm sunny days with low humidity
5. Advil Sinus medicine
6. John - a great father and husband
7. My van - so my kids don't ding doors in the parking lot when trying to get out of the car :-)
8. God always has a plan for us even though we don't always know and understand it.
9. Elisabeth's MMO teacher, Karen Adams. She's so loving and sweet and Elisabeth loves her.
10. VACATION STARTS TOMORROW!

Pumpkin Festival

The Roman Revenge pumpkin catapulting machine

Those 2 dots in the sky are pumpkins flying through the air. Unbelievable how far and high they could go!!

Ansley & Elisabeth on the wagon ride

Lost in the corn maze (the corn isn't that tall but believe me it's harder than it looks!)

Elisabeth loved the little hay bale maze

Ansley "driving" the tractor

Pumpkins everywhere

On Saturday we traveled to Lowry's, SC and went to a pumpkin festival at Cotton Hills Farm. They had wagon rides, a corn and hay bale maze, food, music, petting area and best of all.....the pumpkin catapult. It was so cool to watch. They had a contraption that would fling the pumpkins so high and far that it was unbelievable. Mike Redding from Carolina Traveler was there and we got his picture but I don't think we got in any of his shots so we missed our chance to be on TV. Maybe next time. We got 5 pumpkins (3 big and 2 small) and John spent most of his Sunday afternoon carving them. I'll have to post a picture of them later. They look really good.

Where did Elisabeth go?

Here I am!

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for:
1. My friend, Robin, who can babysit Elisabeth on short notice
2. 2 wonderful daughters.......true gifts
3. Only 1 WEEK UNTIL VACATION
4. Ron made it to Houston safely
5. Magic Erasers (makes cleaning tubs and showers so much easier)
6. Radio station New Life 91.9 (our local Christian radio station). It's awesome!
7. A great 2nd grade teacher for Ansley
8. Our great dog, Winston
9. Our families
10. Triple coupons at Lowes Food grocery store.

I hate spiders

For those of you who know me well know that I hate spiders. Big or small....it doesn't matter. Well, this is what I found when I went to the mailbox the other day. I almost had a heart attack. The picture doesn't do it justice. The spider was big! And bright yellow. It's not a spider I see around everyday. I sprayed it with hornet and wasp spray because this spider was definitely too big to kill with a shoe. It gives me goose bumps just looking at the picture. Yuck! But everyone can rest easy now......it's dead. :-)

Hamster Ball Derby

Get ready....Set.....Go! Emma's first time in a Hamster Ball Derby.

Ansley and Emma

All the participants in the Hamster Ball Derby

John had to work some this past Saturday and Sunday so while he was working I took Ansley to the local pet store, Petco, so our hamster could compete in the Hamster Ball Derby. What!? You've never heard of the Hamster Ball Derby!?? Neither had I until our neighbor told us about it. Ansley desperately wanted to take Emma (the hamster) there to compete. So we arrived early in order to participate in the practice rounds and Emma did fairly well. But when it was time to really race she got a slow start (she decided to groom herself instead of focusing on the race) and came in 2nd in the qualifying round. So, sad to say we didn't make it to the final competition and we didn't win a prize. But don't you worry. We're practicing for next year's competition!



We had to miss Cameron's wedding this weekend in Hilton Head, SC (Cameron is John's cousin) and we really hated that we missed it. The weather was beautiful and I'm sure the wedding was beautiful too. John's business is busy and the new condo is almost finished and we leave in 1 1/2 weeks for vacation so things are a little crazy (but good) right now. We send our Congrats to the newly married couple. We can't wait to see pictures!



I'll write more soon -- Stephanie

Thankful Thursday

I am thankful for:
1.Great neighbors
2. Our church family
3. Consignment Sales (I'm a consignment sale junkie)
4. Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
5. Ansley likes school and is having a great year so far
6. Elisabeth still takes a daily 2 hour nap :-)
7. Cooler weather
8. Our vacation is only 2 weeks away
9. Finding gas for the van before the red light came on to warn us we were running on fumes
10. A day of rain last week (so our new grass seed will grow)