Christmas Lights

Saturday night - like Saturday wasn't busy enough with the parade and pageant- we took the kids to Hollywild Zoo to see the Christmas lights! Craig was just overwhelmed with joy to be going there - ha ha - especially since we waited on the road outside the gate for 40 minutes because it was so crowded. We sure had a good time though, even Jennie went with us this year!

" Are you sure this door is supposed to be opened? We never rode like this before!"
Jennie and our silly girl riding with the door opened on their side. It was so cold - notice the blanket!

Drew tries to get a deer to eat from his hand, but it never came close enough!

Aunt Jennie and Mikayla throw food to the animals!

Drew feeds an emu a piece of bread. He is braver than me - but he dropped it before the pointy beak took it from his hands!
The emu wanders to mine and Miki's side of the car! Notice Aunt Jennie's hand - she was trying to close the door.
An upclose look at the emu - in all honesty it was more scared of us than we were of it!
Drew and Miki feed the donkey.
Craig feeds the buffalo!

Another Busy Saturday

Well - as Craig put it - another Saturday full of activities! Mikayla was in her first pageant today. Drew was invited to ride in our hometown Christmas parade this morning as well. Mrs. Hayes, one of his teachers from 4k, asked him to ride with their church after she heard how much he'd been wanting to ride in a parade. He had been asking since last Saturday when Mikayla was in her parade. We had a slight problem though because of times. The parade started at 10 and the pageant started at 11, but registration started at 10. Mrs. Hayes offered to bring Drew to the pageant after the parade, but I hated for her to have to drive the 15 minutes out of her way to get there. So, Poppi came to the rescue again. He wanted to see his "little man" in the parade anyway and his "princess" in her pageant so was gracious enough to pick Drew up after the parade and come to the pageant together. I am saddened that I didn't get to see my little man in his first parade, but I have pictures coming soon thanks to Mrs. Hayes. Drew had a ball riding with his friend Bryson, waving to everyone and wishing them a Merry Christmas, and throwing candy for everybody to pick up. Look for pictures from the parade soon! Here are some pictures from Mikayla's pageant:

Right after I had gotten her dress on - she looked real thrilled didn't she?

Aunt Jennie holds while we wait for the pageant to begin. She still doesn't looked like she is excited to be here.

Mikayla goes on stage (with the help of daddy) for the first time for the group line-up. We were hoping that Mikayla would walk on stage holding daddy's hand, but after the first step she wanted him to hold her. She is such a performer, but she doesn't like everybody watchin'!

So mommy has a turn to see if she will show her beautiful face. I had a hard time with this part because this was not something I was prepared to make her do! I even told her "we don't have to go up there if you don't want to". She wanted a trophy and a crown so she decided to go with me holding her. She never smiled or waved to the judges, but we sure are VERY proud of her! It takes a lot to get up on that stage with all eyes on you! They were able to see her beautiful face - she was even named Overall Angel Face (she had the highest score for facial beauty in her age division)!

Mikayla in her element - with her "bubba" and Poppi! We were waiting for scores to be tallied.

Mikayla and daddy go back on stage to receive prizes - Mikayla's favorite part of the whole process! They are checking out the prizes that had already been awarded to her!

Mikayla was crowned princess of her age division, and was awarded a tiara, sash, and trophy. She also received a prize for overall angel face, and received other participation prizes!

Mikayla and daddy leave the stage with all of her goodies. Look at her with her tiara - doesn't she look precious? We always knew she was a princess!

We are glad that Mikayla seemed to have fun while participating in this (for the most part)! She met some other little girls and had fun interacting with them. I liked this pageant system because every girl/boy that participated received gifts/trophies/crowns. I also liked that it was a more "natural" pageant system - I'm not into making Mikayla look like a mini model. There were still some fancy clothes/hairdos there, but we were very happy with Mikayla looking just like she looks every other day! My favorite part was the sheet we filled out for Mrs. Patti to use while she emceed. It had the usual things on there like her name, age, parents' names, hair color, and eye color, but it also had questions on there that Mikayla had to answer about her favorite things. It asked about Mikayla's favorite T.V. show and she answered "Barney". Then it asked who her favorite person was and she answered "Aunt Jennie". Then it asked what she wanted for Christmas and she answered "a princess T.V. and Dora". She might give you a different answer to any of these if you were to ask her right now. That's the cutest part in my opinion! We are very proud of our little munchkin - but, just in case you were wondering, we will not be participating in pageants that often.

Christmas Parade

Saturday, we got up early to get Mikayla ready to participate in her first parade. Her dance company was going to be riding on a "float" in one of our local parades, and that is all she had been talking about! Craig, and I were pretty excited, but we were also a little skeptical about her riding without one of us! Drew was all set, and even had his bag ready to catch candy! He was pretty excited to see his sister riding on a "float", but he also had a hard time understanding why he couldn't be in the parade also! We are sure it won't be long before he has a chance to participate in a parade with one of the many sports teams he plays on! Mikayla surprised us all by riding the entire parade. Even when she got almost to the end of the parade and saw her Poppi waving she didn't cry to get off the "float". She just smiled, waved, and blew him kisses! Mikayla seemed to have a wonderful time being in the parade and Drew sure had a good time getting all that candy! I'm sure they will both won't to participate again next year!

When we first arrived at the line-up of "floats". At this point, she was not real sure she wanted to ride - and she didn't want me to get too far from her side! Even with her eyes closed, I still think this is such a cute picture!

Mikayla feels more comfortable as she sits in the lap of one of the other little girls' mom! This is the same mother that helped me so much with Mikayla at last year's recital, and Mikayla loves her. This is just before the parade begins, as the girls and adults get prepared to wave and throw candy!

Daddy and Drew wave to Mikayla as her "float" passes by! You can see her at the very front closest to us! She is pointing out her family for all of the other children to see! Her teacher Ms. Andrea (at the very back of the float) rides with them along with Shannon's mom and Morgan's mom!

More Christmas Lights

A close-up of the decorations! The spots you see in the pictures are unfortunately rain, not snow. Hopefully we will get a good snow this year!

The wide-angle view (I was trying to get everything in this picture)! The front yard is full with a snowman, train, and flying Santa and sleigh. You can also see the soldiers on the porch, the lighted wreaths on the windows, the icicle lights, and the lights on the bushes. Craig has since added some carolers to the left of the snowman.
This is the decorations in our side yard. Since these don't like up, Craig shined two spotlights on them so they would be seen at night!

On Tuesday, while Mikayla and I were at dance (tap/ballet) Craig was going to finish our Christmas lights. He had already added lights to our bushes in front of the house, but I had been wanting to add icicle lights this year! So, he went over to my mom and dad's house to borrow my dad's big ladder. We gave Craig a ladder for his birthday this year, but his is not tall enough to reach the tallest point on the edge of our house. Mikayla and I left with Craig on the "little" ladder working on the lights on the lowest ledge. He had climbed the "big" ladder a couple of times while I held it and he said "I don't know if you'll get them on that tall point or not". I just told him to wait until Mikayla and I got home so I could hold the ladder for him. Mikayla and I were surprised when we got home to see that he had finished the roof. I had a feeling that my dad must have come over to help, but Craig said "me and my helper" finished it - his "helper" being Drew. When I asked Drew "who fixed our lights?" (thinking he would answer "me and daddy"), he promptly answered "Poppi and daddy". I just turned and glared at Craig for letting me think that he and Drew did it by themselves. Then I found out my dad was in on the whole thing to - and in fact - told Craig to tell me that he and Drew did it! Thank goodness my son tells the truth - ha ha! The house looks really beautiful - these pictures really don't do it justice - and I am so thankful for the wonderful men in my life!!

Busy Times = Fun!

These precious children of ours sure are keeping us busy! Drew finised up his last day of Karate on Monday as I took Mikayla to her tap/jazz dance class. Then Mikayla and I left directly from dance to meet daddy and Drew at the church for Drew's first basketball practice. He is playing basketball for the first time this year with the Upward program. This is a wonderful program because not only do they teach the children the foundations of basketball, but they are also teaching them things that they will take with them for the rest of their lives. They are teaching God's word through devotion time at every practice and game which is something I am grateful for. They also teach teamwork, cooperation, and compassion which are all so very important in this day and age! So, until basketball season is over, Mikayla and I will rush directly from dance to Drew's practice every Monday. His games will be every Saturday morning, and we are hoping that the games don't start next Saturday because Mikayla is scheduled to be in her first pageant. I'm not a big pageant mom - that's the reason she's never been in them before now, even with lots of coaxing from many of our friends. I am really looking forward to this one though because it is a simple Christmas Pageant. The children only participate in two categories - beauty and photogenic, and the clothes are "off the rack". In other words, not a "pageant dress"! I never could validate spending all that money on a dress that the children only wear a few times (in some cases, only once). Also, there is no make-up allowed at this pageant - only lip gloss for the girls! All of the participants receive a crown and trophy so it is not hurtful to those who don't "win". We will see how it goes - I hope I am not being naive. I know we are extremely proud of our princess regardless of how she does in this pageant, and we certainly don't need "judges" to tell us that she is beautiful. My hope is that she has fun and that she loves her trophy (she has really been into those since she received her first one at her dance recital in June)!

On Second Thought...

Jump back to Thanksgiving day...
I'm not sure if I've ever posted a picture of Craig and I on here, so on second thought, I decided to add these. They were taken on Thanksgiving at my grandma's house.

Craig shows his silly side...he is such a clown! I was trying to push him away before the picture was snapped. I didn't succeed - but we got a good laugh out of it!

After he got over being silly, we made a better picture! I wish that we had gotten Drew and Mikayla in this picture though!

Sunday!

Sunday morning we got up and headed to church as usual. Then we went to enjoy Sunday dinner at Mimi and Poppi's house - again, as usual. Then we came home and got naps before we returned to church for the "hanging of the greens" service. The children performed one of their songs from their Christmas Musical during this service so it was extra special for Drew. It was a beautiful service, and everyone did a lovely job!

Look for more pictures of the children's choir when they perform their complete Christmas Musical on December 17th!

GOOO GAMECOCKS!!!

On Saturday, November 25th, the football game we (well I) had waited all season for was played. It was the Clemson/Carolina football game, and I, of course, had predicted all season that the Gamecocks would win! I always held onto hope in previous years, but this year I felt we really had the team and had been executing well enough to get the win. Craig, who most know is a Clemson fan, even said the only thing the tigers had going for them was that they were playing at home - that's right "The Valley"! It didn't matter to me - I was still confident that my boys would walk away with the win and a win at Death Valley would make it that much more special! During football season, we have regular Saturday night cookouts with family and friends while we watch the games. We for sure couldn't miss a get-together for this game. Since it was a day game, we decided to do finger foods instead of a cookout. We had chips and dip, crackers and dip, cheesesticks, fried mushrooms, chicken wings, brownies, a meat and cheese tray, etc. All the good stuff that is not so good for you. It was a nice change from our Turkey and Dressing that we had been enjoying since Thursday! Daddy, Jonathan, (Jess couldn't make it), Jennie, Samantha, Beth, B.J., and "big Drew" came over to enjoy food, company, and of course THE GAME! Of the 11 people at our house, only 3 were pulling for Clemson: Craig, my brother Jonatha, and Samantha (whose uncle is a professor there). You can imagine what our house sounded like when Clemson went for the field goal to tie the game, and the kick was wide left! We went nuts - we were screaming, jumping up and down, and of course giving the three tiger fans a hard time! We all had a wonderful time - and of course we weren't TOO hard on the tiger fans, but it sure was nice to hear them say "wait 'til next year"! GOOOO GAMECOCKS!!

Jonathan enjoys some of the food while giving me a hard time about the game. At this point the tigers were up by two touchdowns. I told you Jonathan - it's not over 'til it's over! "Big Drew", B.J., Jennie, Beth, and Samanth cheer on their teams. Notice all the Gamecock gear!

Daddy just loves to have his picture taken - can you tell?

During half time and after the game, Daddy and Craig got the leaves up out of our yard. Daddy had worked that morning, so he was still in his work clothes. Drew and Mikayla enjoyed getting up leaves as well - well more like jumping in them!

They also loved riding the lawn mowers. Drew laughs as Poppi runs beside him! A.J. in the back just can't wait to get out of his doggy pen. He usually has the whole backyard to roam, but we have to put him in his pen when we have the gates open of course.

Mikayla rides on daddy's lawn mower - a lot slower!

Then, Mikayla had to have a turn on Poppi's with Poppi running beside her.

Christmas Decorations

We spent the day after Thanksgiving decorating for Christmas! I always love getting our tree and village up the day after Thanksgiving. We also usually get our yard decorations up as well. Since we added to our decorations this year, we had to put those up in stages. We were able to get some of the decorations in the yard up on Friday too! I didn't get any pictures of our tree or the village, but you know they will be on here soon enough!

This was the first year I put garland and bows on our porch. I think it turned out very pretty, and this is something we will do every year. You can also see our inflatable flying reindeer and sleigh, and one of our favorites the train. We also put my favorites, the toy soldiers, on the porch again, and the wreaths were hung on the windows. Look for updated pictures of Christmas decorations soon!

This is the inflatable snowman that we added this year it is on the other side of our front yard.

This reindeer and sleigh with Mr. and Mrs. Claus is in our side yard. They don't like up, so Craig put the spot-light on them so you can see them at night.

Happy Thanksgiving...So I am a week late...I know I know!

Craig, Drew, Mikayla, and I spent Thanksgiving morning enjoying time together and getting food ready to take to Grandma's house. My dad's whole family gets together at my grandmother's house every Thanksgiving! My dad has a pretty large family - two sisters, and a brother. There are 15 grandchildren, and too many great grands to count so it is always a full house. This Thanksgiving was no different! My grandmother bought the house across the street from my mom and dad's house last year so we didn't have very far to go! When we got there, my dad, Uncle Mike, and KK (my dad's sister) helped to finish up the cooking. If you ask me, it looks more like they are sampling!

After we ate, we spent most of the day outside. It was unseasonably warm for November, and we enjoyed the beautiful sunshine!Grandma, KK, my cousin Kathy, and her husband Hank pose for a picture!

Daddy and Craig enjoy rocking on the front porch while Aunt Jennie fixes Mikayla's pig tails. She had already taken them down - imagine that!

Drew is seeing how high he can throw - he had fun with all of Grandma's acorns!

Mikayla gets a piece of gum from Mimi. Mimi and Poppi are such softies when it comes to Drew and Mikayla. My mom says they follow directions very well.

While Mikayla gets gum, Drew shows off his collection of acorns. He wanted to bring these home, which of course Grandma was fine with. Mommy and Daddy weren't so sure!

One of my favorite pictures of my dad and Mikayla. She is Poppi's princess for sure!

When Poppi showed that he could climb this tree, you know Drew had to have a turn! Drew thinks there's nothing like his Poppi!

Keyleigh and Mikayla love each other! Keyleigh is the daughter of my cousin Mikie and his wife April! You may remember Keyleigh from a post from last year's Christmas with the title "Twins". They still look so much alike, a lot of people say they could be twins! Too cute if you ask me!

Daddy enjoys the rocking chair as all of the great grands get in on the act of collecting acorns. Aunt Jennie and Uncle Jonathan (my sister and brother) pose for a picture...awwww!

No School!!

Last year was the first year that we have gotten the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off as a school holiday! It was really nice because we were able to go to Florida to spend Thanksgiving with GG Ma and GG Pa. We also took Drew and Mikayla to Disney while we were there. We had a wonderful trip, and even considered doing that again this year. We decided to stay home this year, but we plan to visit Florida again next year. It's probably a good thing we stayed home this year because Drew woke up this morning sick. I wasn't surprised as Mrs. Batson had written in her newsletter this week that there had been 6 children in his class with strep throat. Craig took Drew's temperature this morning when he first got up and it was 101.7. So, we called the doctor's office when they first opened at 8 and got an appointment with Dr. Berry (our favorite) for 9! My mommy intuition is usually on the money, and this time was no different. Doctor Berry's diagnosis - you guessed it - strep. So, it was off to Eckerd to get his prescription filled. Then we took breakfast to daddy at work while we waited. Then it was back home for his first dose and then straight to bed. He was pretty exhausted and he wanted to watch one of his Disney movies. Mikayla wanted to watch too - but she watches from the safety of her chair. We are trying to keep the spread of germs to a minimum - pretty difficult with two little ones! So - no school, but with rainy weather and a sick little one we are content to spend the rest of the day inside! Who knows - we just may talk daddy into getting out the Christmas stuff when he gets home!