Happy New Year!!

This will be mostly our Christmas though. Here is our tree. It's much more lovely in person though, you should come see it. =)

We like to leave our Christmas decorations up just as long as they last. Our Christmas tree last year went until February when Mama finally said it had to come down. So sad.

For fun, here are some of my favorite ornaments.

KD made this one, it's so cute! It's a Christmas elf with a skirt made of fake flower petals. =)

This year the boys played tricks on each other. Nathan here pulled out one of Mama's sweaters Christmas morning. Haha.

And the three pairs of shoes that I got. The snow boots are REALLY nice in this weather.

Our resident nut-case. Katiedid and her indoor soccer shoes. Indoor soccer is basically raquetball for soccer. Fun! She also got a new soccer ball. So she's happy.

And Nathan with the intertube we got. This is the real fun. Now all we need is a ski lift.

Lastly, I have been a very bad girl and not told any of you about my Thanksgiving. It was wonderful. One of my best friends lives in Atlanta (go figure) and her parents invited me to stay with them over Thanksgiving. We went to Myrtle Beach. It's not very often that I get to spend an 80 degree holiday. We spent LOTS of time on the beach. We found jellyfish and saw some incredible sunsets. We never got up early enough to see the sunrise, though. =)

We've all been doing well and keeping busy, of course! We are supposed to get snow on Friday; I'm not sure if I'm excited or not. I look forward to the beginning of winter, but I remember last winter and flinch. =)

Ben found this in an old scrapbook a while ago. It's me, for the record, and Ben says things haven't really changed much. Ha!

SOCCER!!

We played a good game this afternoon. We won about 7-2, and Ben got to score. YAY!!!! Katie did as well, but she was called offsides. Oh well, it was a good shot. Then we hurried home to make it to play practice at church. And now we are at home again listening to Daddy read the Fellowship of the Ring. Goodnight!

I love boats. Which is good, because we spent all of yesterday in one. We went to Tennesee this weekend with Aunt Audrey and Company. Apart from renting two pontoon boats on Sunday and spending all day in them, we managed to catch absolutaly NO fish, and it wasn't due to lack of trying. Oh well, fish must be smarter than we think. =) I also got to taste my first persimmon, before it was ready. Anyone who has done this can relate to the taste. Yegch!

Fall is definitely here and most of the garden is gone until spring. I'm looking forward to snow etc. despite the blizzard we got last year. I certainly hope we don't get that again!

And then the strangest news: we sold our milk cow. A family near us wanted to start milking and so we sold Maggie to them. We still have a cow that we can start milking whenever we want, but right now we're excited about a break and demonstrated that by sleeping in as long as possible on Saturday, BECAUSE WE COULD.

Last Saturday we went over to a friends house to make applebutter, which is delicious, by the way.

Nathan is playng in the fire. Who would have guessed it?

Basically, you start a fire and put MANY gallons of unsweetened applesauce over it.

And then you stir it. And stir it. And stir it. For about 8 hours. Fun, right? But it is really, because you're there with your friends and you can talk or, if your lucky, you can let someone else stir and then you get to run around other places. =)

More of it cooking.

And then, when it's all done, you pour BAGS AND BAGS of redhots in it for cinnamon, which is yummifying.

And then it all turns red like this and you add sugar to taste. Voila!

Besides applebutter we have been into lots of school and soccer. This morning I took the PSAT, oh my. We'll see how that turns out in December!

Many Meetings

Happy summer everybody! We've had lots of things going on lately. Most recently we went with Grandmother to Nashville to visit Mama's sister and her family. Somehow we managed to get back with only one picture that I could find. Lettie is on top of the pyramid and below her is Ben( with no hands!?) and Nathan. Then Katie, Justin, and I. James is in the middle of a baseball game, which he won. We spent most of the time swimming and had a blast.














Before that we went camping with Daddy's brothers. Uncle Mark's baby girl, the adorably cute Grace found something funny and nearly rolled out of the chair.


























Clark.



















Katie, with her hand made pipe, and Patience.

Justice

Daddy and Uncle Marshall.

Ben displays his crawdad.

Honor

The creek was a big hit, of course!

Grace eats a jacket.

Katie and her big buddy.

Ben

Quite awhile before that we went to a coal mine and got a tour. Everyone was impressed by the big trucks.

Spring has sprung!

Mama and Daddy. :)

Beautiful Maggie. She's 14.

Happy Birthday Ben!! Well, we officially have three teenagers in the house now, Ben is finally 13. Love you Ben!

Ornery!

His favorite game. Ben is on the far right.

Two weeks ago our youth group had a pancake breakfast and we sent the money from it to Haiti relief groups. It was immensely fun and we didn't poison anything and very little burned! Just kidding, everything went well. Ben, however, decided to be lazy and stay home since it was his birthday and all.

Ketchup anyone?

And here is the Pancake Queen of the day!