Nan, Julie and me.
Mamarene and Nan.
The girls spent a lot of time gathering pecans outside. Addison, Madeline and Claire.
Matthew and Brooks played football outside with Uncle Jason for a long time.
Pop and Mamarene.
Cheers! Anything Uncle Jason does is fine by Matthew.
Sweet boys. Matthew and Blake like to play, they are only 4months apart. I can't believe I actually got a pic where they were both smiling and being still.....
Didn't last long!
Opening gifts at the end of the visit.
Aunt Melanie had quite the snack spread with all the favorites!
Soda in the bottle is tradition, it just tastes better that way! =)
The boys in the back yard. Matthew likes to feed the fish and watch them.
Madeline discovered the iPad this visit, we didn't see her much afterwards.
Helping Uncle Bobby clean up the workshop. She enjoyed gluing some wood scraps together.
Matthew didn't like the horses getting too close.....
This one was so cute I used it as one of the pics on our Christmas card.
Looking at the fish with Aunt Melanie.
Watching the clouds.
"Ride, ride, ride... hitchin' a ride."
Had to include this one of Nan's bizarre way to eat chili. I'm bad about making sure I have the 'perfect bite' each time (Julie is too) but this was odd. She takes the Frito, adds the sour cream to it, sprinkles it with cheese, then spoons a bite of chili on top.... for each bite. Now ask how long it took her to finish the bowl. =)
Loving on Uncle Bobby.
Madeline loves the movie she got!
Nan & Jason.
Uncle Bobby & Aunt Melanie
We went ahead and did Santa pics at the mall once it was evident the Iron Bowl wasn't going to turn out the right way. We took advantage of the low crowds since most people were watching the end of the game.
Matthew was NOT thrilled about Santa and refused to sit next to him. Funny thing, Madeline was reaching behind him trying to scoot over closer and he thought it was Santa's hand on him so he yelled out "SANTA'S TRYING TO TICKLE MY BOTTOM!!" Santa was a little surprised and quickly assured all the parents in line that he was in fact not doing that! ha ha
Since we were going to be at Disney World the week before Christmas we decided against a live tree. We put up the two 4ft artificial trees instead. I thought Aunt Nancy would die when she saw that one of them was white with color lights but she kinda liked it...
So the Iron Bowl didn't turn out the way we wanted, but we had a good time during out pre-game preparations and snacks.
Madeline got a black eye the week of Christmas card pictures thanks to her little brother and his great throwing arm. Just look what a full sippy cup of milk will do at point blank range...
We spent Thanksgiving in Decatur as usual. Sassafrass was all decked out in her finest!
Sue sets a beautiful table!
Sidney and Madeline are best buds.
Kids table!
I tried and tried to get Matthew's picture with this turkey but he did NOT like it!
Matthew took up with Hanna for most of the day.
Snuggling with MaMaw.
He's got the Full Belly Blues.
Since Madeline loves to have breakfast in bed, Jeff thought Matthew might. Nope. He wasn't quite sure what to even do with it.
In early Nov I took Madeline with me to Lexington and Madison. In Lexington we looked at Dee's old houses as well as some where I lived, Grandaddy's drug store, The Bear Den and other highlights. We also played on the playground at the school!
This is the same old tree that I played on when I was in 1st-3rd grade. We would play on the tree roots with Matchbox cars. Had to have our pictures made with this tree.
We stayed the night at Aunt Nancy's & Uncle Jason's. Madeline is hooked on their Wii. This is Nan demostrating her skill at Wii Boxing. I have film too for anyone interested. It's great blackmail.
Then we stopped by MaMaw's on the way home for a quick visit. I love this picture!
This had me in fits of giggles. At school Madeline's class had to make a list of things they would like and things they would miss if they had to live back in the days of the pilgrims. Note the very last item on the 'miss' column. =)
Does it get funnier than coming across one who fell asleep on the toilet trying to poop??? I think not. And no, we are not potty trained yet. He may be the first to attend kindergarten in diapers.
Group shot of the 8 girls on the trip. That would be Madeline on the far right in 'the pose'.
Each night one girl was responsible for making the meal, either breakfast, lunch or dinner. Madeline was in charge of the hotdogs on the Coleman grill for the first dinner.
The massive hike we had to do through the woods. I don't normally exert myself this much.
Silly girls. This was taken at the bird preserve and lucky us, we got there just in time to watch them feed the predator birds. And guess what was in the bucket? Dead rats! I. Am. Terrified. Of. Them. The feeder guy thought he was being cute by shaking the rat bodies at the girls to freak them out and there I was bent over the deck rail inches from barfing at the sight of them. Not cool Mr. Feeder Guy. Not cool.
Next up- canoeing. Have I ever been in a canoe before? Why no, I had not. Did I want to be in a canoe out in the middle of a LAKE with 2 eight year old girls who couldn't canoe? NO. If we had tumped over I don't know what I would have done because I am terrified of swimming in lakes. We all know there are dead bodies down there just waiting to pull you under! =)
She was loving every second of it.
Then to the petting zoo. Poop. Every. Where. And pigs that bit and goats that jumped on people.
Pumpkin decorating. Now this is more my speed. This was a lot of fun. And the talent show they put on that night was fun too. 
Look who wins Mother Of The Year award subcategory: the things we do for our children.