Thanksgiving Day...

This year might be the best Thanksgiving I have ever had! I have so much to be thankful for!! The day dawned and I attempted to sleep as late as I could! When I awoke there were only two others awake in the house and they were hard at work...

Mom and Lily were cooking away in their PJ's making Sweet Potato Casserole to take to Thanksgiving at Mary Ann's! The rest of the house was sound asleep! You know my mom was tickled pink to have some quality time with Lily... she thinks the world of that little angel!!


After a relaxing morning laying around, playing, and eventually getting ready, we headed to my Aunt's (My Dad's sister) for Thanksgiving lunch!!! We had to pace ourselves, because we had to eat twice this year!

Here you see Lily, Ian, Elizabeth, and Bentlee at the kids table! They had SO MUCH FUN playing together! When we left, Lily wasn't just asking when she'd see B again, like usual, but she was also asking when she would see Elizabeth and if Bentlee would see Elizabeth before her! TOO. CUTE!

Here they are at the top of the stairs! They played upstairs for quite a while! They had so much fun! Ian was being goofy since he was totally outnumbered by the girls!

Every Thanksgiving we take family pictures, so of course I have some of those to share! Here are Sarah, Ken, Bentlee, and baby Stiner (due in June)!

My precious parents! I hope I am half as amazing as they are when I am able to be a parent!!

Lily loving on her Daddy! I am telling you, these two have a bond that is so precious! She is like a mini-version of her daddy in every way! I love it! I can't say enough about what an amazing father he is!!!

And, of course, all of us together! This was just before we hit the road to head back to Murfreesboro for our second meal!!!

Chris' family was kind enough to agree to put off their meal until 4:00 so that Chris and I could eat with both families! :-) I thought that was so generous because it kind of broke tradition! We headed back to Murfreesboro - me driving and Chris and Lily grabbing a nap! We stopped at his Aunt Jan and Uncle John's house to pick up some yummy food and visit for a bit before we headed out to Milton to his parents...

...and we ate all over again! It was a wonderful meal and evening of visiting! We even watched Christmas Vacation - my favorite Christmas movie - and all laughed about laughing about something we've seen so many times!!!!

Saturday we went back out to Chris' parents to help them decorate for Christmas... I was too busy helping to get any pictures though!

Overall it was a WONDERFUL, PEACEFUL, APPRECIATED break! I am thankful for family and my wonderful life! I hope your Thanksgiving was as amazing as mine!! :-)

The Day Before Thanksgiving...

This year the day before Thanksgiving was filled with fun! Chris and I packed the car and hit the road early to get to Chattanooga for our day of fun!!! :-) We got there just before lunch time ready to roll! Ken picked Chris up right away and they headed to the golf course and Sarah came right behind him to drop of Bentlee for day of girly-girl fun! Lily had been talking for two weeks about playing with Bentlee and making plans! SO. CUTE!

It turned out to be a beautiful day outside, so we spent most of the day outdoors enjoying the sunshine! I love this picture I snapped of Lily sitting int the sun. She's so beautiful!!

Of course Grandmommy had to get a picture with her two favorite girls! My mom is the best playmate! She totally gets into all the games and pretending and participating! It's priceless and inspiring! The girls just LOVE her!

Here are their hands around a sidewalk chalk heart! Just thought that was a cute little photo-summary of our day!

Check out B's snaggle-tooth smile!!! She has THREE missing teeth! Of course all Lily's friends at school are losing teeth and B is losing teeth, so Lily is dying for a loose tooth! LOL!! She's not one for any discomfort or out-of-the ordinary, so I'll be interested to see how the actually loose tooth thing turns out with her! LOL Bentlee let them hang in her mouth until they literally fell out!! (I can't say much though, because I did the same! My papaw pulled my first 2 and I never let anyone near my mouth after that when I had a loose tooth!!)

Serious Sidewalk Chalking!!


In addition to sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and hopscotch (sp?) we had a lunch of crackers, grapes, cheese, and yogurt on the porch together, played baby dolls, doll house, and school!!

I'm telling you, these are two peas in a pod! They play together SO WELL! No arguing, they take turns, share... you even occasionally here, "No, YOU get the big stroller..." "Oh no thanks, why don't YOU have it this time!" LOL.... it's pretty amazing!

Sarah picked B up around 4:00. Me, Mom, and Lily headed to the mall for a little clothes shopping, daddy finished golf and met us at Couch's for dinner and then it was back to Grandmommy and Papaw's for some major doll-playing! :-)

The day before Thanksgiving couldn't have been any better! I have so much to be Thankful for! Most of which is an amazing-fun-welcoming family, a loving-compassionate man with a beautiful daughter, and uplifting friends that never cease to amaze me with their generosity! :-) Life.is.good!

Fun on the Farm...

It seems I can't stay caught up on blogging!! :-) Last weekend we headed to the farm for a good time... and boy was it! Chris, Lily, and I headed to Megan and Web's to play with Jack and Vance as well as Lauren, David, Dawson, Derick, Annie, and Presley! We had such a wonderful time! It was a beautiful day! The kids played and played outside (and so did the adults)! Web got out the four wheeler and the men give rides!! David took Dawson on a ride, Web took Megan on a ride, and Chris took Lily on a ride... then later took me on a ride... and then, at Lily's request, took us both on a ride together!!! It was SO. MUCH. FUN! We laughed and squealed and had the best time!

After all the outside fun, we headed in for grilled burgers and hot dogs and some more play-time! The whole evening was WONDERFUL! Unfortunately I forgot my camera (unheard of, I know)! BUT, Lauren was sweet enough to email me some!


This is Lily cracking baby jack up! She was saying "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, POP!" and he was laughing, laughing, laughing! It was so funny!

Here are Vance and Lily playing! They have such a good time together!

And here is just a a tiny sample of the outside fun the kids had! It was such a great evening! Megan and Web thank you for opening up your beautiful home to us! Lauren, thank you for crackin me up! :-) I can't wait for next time!!!!!

Questions...

Thought I would post some fun questions for a slow blogging day! Borrowed some of them from Betsy's post a couple of weeks ago!

What is your favorite thing to snack on while blogging? I don't really snack while on the computer... in fact I am not a big snacker at all! I pretty much stick to three meals a day! But I do love to sip a glass of wine while I blog, or browse the web, or work on my pictures!


What is your least favorite thing to clean? Without question, the bathroom! Specifically, the shower! UGH! Which is why I am SOOOO happy that I have a cleaning lady! YAY! And, she is amazing!

When you have extra money, what is the first thing you think to do with it? Extra money? I don't know what that is like! lol. On the rare occasion that I run across some extra money the FIRST thing I think to do is shop! But I try very hard to save! :-)

What would you do more of if you had more spare time? I would read more... a lot more! I love to read and I feel like it is so enriching, but time makes reading hard to accomplish these days!

What do you love to smell? I love the smell of honey suckle in the air in the summer time! It is so refreshing and sweet smelling!

I also love the smell of Chris. He always smells so good and his scent just relaxes me completely!

What is your favorite character of all time? Cinderella! Have always loved her and always will!

Do you have a hidden talent or a deep desire to learn something? I would love to have the time and money to expand my photography! I think it would be so fun to be able to make a little extra money one day with that hobby, but I have a lot to learn before that ever happens!

Would you rather live in the mountains, on a farm, or at the beach! That's a hard one! I LOVE the beach, but I think I would rather live on a farm... not a literal working farm, but out in the country here in Tennessee. (But a house at the beach to visit whenever I wanted would be too bad either!)

What is your favorite store? Again, no hesitation! I love Ann Taylor Loft! :-) I would have to say over half of the clothes I own came from there! If I could afford it, ALL my clothes would come from there! lol

I tag anyone having a slow blog week! I didn't answer all the questions... just took a few! You pick some and see if you can't share a little something new about you!

Game night and a cold...

I have been on a bit of a blog break and this will be a very short post because I have a terrible cold that is quickly turning into a sinus infection! BUT... that didn't stop me from having GAME NIGHT!!!! :-)

Chris and I hosted game night this weekend and had such a wonderful time! :-) It was, of course, the girls...



... versus the guys....

(Love Patrick's sad face going on!) :-)

There was, of course, dispute over who won over all, but we all agreed on one thing - IT WAS FUN! We laughed so hard, so much! We played our favorites... Catch Phrase, Mad Gab, and Squabble! It was a wonderful night!

Saturday gave way to another relaxing Sunday at home! I wasn't feeling to perky with my cold after a late game night, so I slept in! Chris played golf with Patrick and then we got together around lunch for the rest of a relaxing afternoon snoozing and watching football! :-)

I hope your weekend was great! Please say a little prayer that I get well soon! I have been fighting this since last Tuesday!!!

Fun filled weekend...

This weekend was packed to the brim with fun weekend activities!!! Friday was a work day, of course, but I had a lot more play in my day than I did work. My principal, our book keeper, and myself went to Cookin' To Build at the Civic Plaza to represent our school! It's a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity and we have many students who have benefited from their services! We entered my principals "Tiger Kitchen Soup" (a sweet version of Vegetable Beef Soup that was OH so yummy)! I was convinced we would come in first, but we didn't make the cut! We came in second though, to my good friend Gina! Megan was so sweet to set our spot in the shade between her husband's booth and Gina and Virgil's booth! I think it was great to help a good cause and good PR for our school... plus I got to get out of the classroom and into the community for a day and visited with friends while doing it! All around it was a wonderful day, capped off by dinner out Chris and Lily - you can't beat that!

Saturday brought a little housework... but the kind I like! Laundry, dishes, little things! It was a beautiful day! After lunch Me, Chris, and Lily headed to Lily's friend Caroline's birthday! SO. MUCH. FUN! It was at one of Lily's most favorite places in all the world - the " 'scovery" Center (as she says.... yeah, so cute!)!! They had the usual cupcakes and ice cream, then some gift opening. Followed by dress up and a treasure hunt. The real fun, however, came when they turned them loose to go play! I think Lily and her friends went down the giant slide 30 times if they went once!

The slide twists from the second floor down to the first, so she spent the better part of two hours climbing stairs and sliding down!! :-) After she was pooped from that, she settled down in the art area to paint! Check out the concentration!

After the Discovery Center, we headed to our friend Beth's to relax on her patio and catch up for a while. It was so nice to be outside because the day was SO beautiful! Beth has a trampoline and so me and Lily tried it out! She's never been on one before and it was a blast! (We were SUPER cautious, by the way, because they can be dangerous!)

As you can see, she took to it pretty quick! lol

1st time on a trampoline!!! :-)

You should have seen the static in her hair after all that jumping! lol. TOO. FUN! After playing so hard we were all starving! We met Chris' family at Cracker Barrel for dinner and had a WONDERFUL time! The dinner was in appreciation of our helping them through the remodel process, but really we were just glad to get together and visit and enjoy dinner together!!

And Sunday was....

Daddy's day! :-) A day of football and family and fun! Chris' parents came over for lunch and the football game as well as his brother and sister and their significant others and our friend Donnie! We have done this several Sundays over the past few weeks and it is becoming quite the tradition! Today it was SO nice outside that we opened all the windows and enjoyed the day while we enjoyed to company!

And one last thing.....

... about that "daddy" that I mentioned! He's amazing and wonderful to me! How many men do you know that would do this? That's right, ladies... he loves painting my toe nails for me! I am so blessed to have him! And for the record, in case you can't tell.... he does a REALLY GOOD JOB and rubs my feet to boot! :-) Life. Is. Good.

"Wine me up and watch me go!"

I saw that quote painted on a sign recently and although I didn't want to purchase the sign, it did make me chuckle! How true that is! :-) I thought it was a fitting title for this post because I am writing about two fun evenings I have had in the past week... one involving wining me up and one involving going (out with the girls)!

Last Friday night our new friends, Amanda and Patrick, went with us to Arrington Vineyards in Arrington, TN (just down the road between Murfreesboro and Franklin). We had so much fun! We had been planning our night for a while and weren't very excited when the day turned out to be RAINY!!!! However, we made the best of it! The guys took Amanda and I to bonefish! Mmmm... bang bang shrimp and pomegranate martini anyone? That is the only reason I ever go to Bonefish - those two menu items! I happened to also have the Lily's Chicken and Chris, Amanda, and Patrick all had steak. After dinner we headed to Arrington...

Above: Patrick and Amanda - they make the cutest couple! And you should see their new baby, John Beckett!! Below: All four of us at the tasting bar.

They let each guest have 6 pours so between the four of us and sharing a little here in there we all got to taste all the wines! My favorites included Red Fox Red which was a dry red with a long finish, comparable to a Pinot Noir. On the white side I liked their Chardonnay, although it had a very short finish. I also enjoyed their Viognier which was similar to a Sauvignon Blanc - and that was a perfect fit because Patrick's not a big wine drinker. We got a bottle ;enjoy while sitting on the coverend and enclosed deck with the hickory wood fire and jazz pianist playing! What fun! We also got a box of chocolate truffles and their Rasberry dessert wine! It was incredible (and I don't like dessert wine)! Perfect harmony between the wine and chocolate! I highly recommend this for a dessert course at your next dinner party! It'll sure have everyone talking!

Overall, even though the night was messy, the company and the place were great! We had fun and decided to try to do it more often! We want to go back on a pretty day and picnic on the grounds! It's a BEAUTIFUL place!

The other fun thing I did (and the "go" part of my post) was go out with the girls! :-) Me, Lauren, Megan, Lena, Betsy, and Courtney all met at Newks for dinner and then headed to the pottery place to paint and gab and laugh and catch up! It's funny... it took us 2 months (literally) to get together! We set the day weeks ago! I guess when you get 6 ladies with VERY busy schedules, throw in some husbands and kids, jobs, and other obligations it's HARD to find a free night that fits into everyone's schedule!

Here we all are! Because there were six of us we painted in the "party" area! It was fun to have that little area to ourselves! Let me tell you... these are some creative ladies!

I had to include this picture of Megan, Courtney, and Lena because I thought it was so cute! We really had the best time laughing and all catching up! We can't wait to get together again SOON! :-) Hopefully next time we won't be on a two-month waiting period!