Busy October

We have had a very busy October, but so much fun!! October is one of my most favorite months, b/c it's the kickoff to the Fall season, and all of the holidays are just around the corner. I love it!
Halloween was a lot of fun this year. We did lots of stuff Halloween weekend. The weekend before Halloween, we had our annual weiner roast at my mother in law's house with that whole side of the family. It's a favorite night of ours every single year. Sadie saddled up and rode the donkey for the first time. She loved it!


Sawyer...well, not so much...

I think he just didn't like the pink saddle. ha ha
Most of the family was there and had such a good time. We took 2 hayrides. One before it got dark...



And, one after it got dark...


We threw rocks in the creek, and Sadie even touched a yucky salamander!!!



Here's a pic of the kids all trying to find more rocks to throw in the creek.

All the boys played some football...

And the girls...well, they just danced...

Then, the boys played hide and seek...

And, the girls...ATE!

We had a great time!
Sawyer loved being by the fire and he pretty much stood there and ate all night long.

On Halloween Eve, we went to my mom's house for what was supposed to be a cookout, hayride, roasting marshmallows, etc. Well, the bottom fell out and it poured all night long, so the cookout was moved into the garage.




We still had fun though! The kids all dressed up in their costumes and just ate and played!





On Halloween morning, I had all of my high school girlfriends and all 12 of our kids over to my house for a breakfast playdate. It was so much fun!!!
Here are a few pics from our morning together.





Here is a picture of Sawyer and Harrison WAY too close to the TV!

That night, we had BBQ that Dennis had smoked all day long. It was delicious!!! It was the best he's ever done. It literally fell off the bone and melted in my mouth!! My dad came over and hung out with us. Then, my mom and Butch came by and ate dinner too.



Jodi, Clay and Reese came over and we went and trick or treated with them for a while.



Then, we came back here and hung out by the fire the rest of the night. It was wonderful! What a perfect night!!! Dennis' mom, LJ, and his grandparents all came by later on too.




Life is good, life is fine....Life is good...LIFE IS FINE!

Hilton Head 2009

Well, I don't know how I could fit all of the pictures and all of our memories into one post because it would be way too long, so I thought I would just summarize with some of my favorites!
First of all, the trip was awesome. It was perfect. And when I say perfect, I mean perfect. I wouldn't have changed one thing! The traveling was great, the house we stayed in was wonderful, the weather was unbelievable, the kids couldn't have been better, and the memories we made will last forever! I never imagined that it would be so great. I thought with 2 kids as young as ours, we'd just be trying to keep our heads on the whole week. But it was nothing like that. It was so much fun. Sadie woke up every morning and went to the back door (where you could see the pool) and said "ooooohhhhhh" and "aaahhhhh" because we had our own pool. She was beside herself. It was so cute! They both loved the beach. The sand didn't bother either of them. Sadie loved the ocean the whole time. Sawyer didn't warm up to it until the last day. He liked the pool better because it was warmer. The beaches in Hilton Head were gorgeous! There aren't any high rises or anything there to block your views of anything so it makes everything seem so nice. We saw some of the most gorgeous sunsets that I've ever seen. We were so blessed. I thanked God a thousand times a day for the time that we were having together. It was worth every penny that we had saved to take this trip.
Dennis amazed me on this trip as well. His patience with the kids is unbelievable. He is so good with them. And, if you know Dennis...he's not the most patient person in the world. But, for some reason when it comes to me or the kids, his patience is boundless. He played and played with them. He built sandcastles and dug holes in the sand every single day when Sadie asked him to. He would take them in the water a thousand times if they asked him to. He would swim with them for hours. And so on and so on. It was precious. Even when I would get to my breaking point where my patience was about to run out, he would still be going. Thank the Lord for that. And the best part was that he seemed to enjoy every single minute of it. He did it all with a smile on his face like it was the first time they'd ask him to do it.
We got up every single morning, ate breakfast, went to the beach for a few hours, came back and swam in the pool for a little while, had lunch, put the kids down for their naps, went out for dinner, played, went back down to the beach to look for seashells and run around, go get ice cream at the "Ice Cream Cone" and come home and go to bed. It was so much fun.
We took over 700 pictures so obviously I will not post them all, but here were some of my favorites! These are all different than the ones I put on Facebook.
This is Sadie's little footprint in the sand. So precious!

Me and the kids excited to see the ocean!

Sadie running away from the waves.

Daddy and Sadie headin' into the water.

The pool at our house.

Sadie eating ice cream at our nightly spot, "The Ice Cream Cone" where she ordered "playdough" ice cream every night, which was really called "Superman", but she thought it looked like playdough.

Sadie and I walking up the hundreds of stairs to get to the top of the Lighthouse in Harbortown.

Playing on the HUGE playground at Harbortown!

Me and Sadie walking down the path to go eat some dinner one night.

You can't really tell, but I wrote "Sadie and Sawyer 2009" in the sand and we tried to get their picture. This was the best we could do...

Sawyer's face is blurry, but he loved when Dennis would throw him up in the air in the swimming pool.

This may look like a sweet picture, but I'm really getting onto Sadie because she ran away from us on the beach.

Had to get a close up of the sand and pieces of seashells that are embedded into Sawyer's face. He could've cared less.

One of the gorgeous sunsets that we got to enjoy every night.

Dennis ate raw oysters almost every single night for his appetizer. Yuck!!!

Sawyer enjoying his first chicken wing on our way home from Hilton Head.

Dennis and I attempted to sneak down to the beach very early the morning we were leaving to catch the sunrise together and this is what we saw...

The huge jellyfish that Dennis spotted our last day at the beach! Glad I didn't see this on the first day or that would've been our last time on the beach!!!!

Sadie and I "shared" a huge dessert on our last night. It was delicious!!!

The gorgeous sunrise that Dennis got to see one morning.

What great memories we made and we can't wait to go back next year!!!

Oh, How I've Waited...

I think I can say I have waited my whole life for this. Okay, so it's just my children's panels hanging on the wall together to you. But to me, it's so much more. I can still remember the days, weeks, months, years that I prayed to have a child. It literally still hurts my heart deeply when I hear of couples who are having trouble conceiving. I know your pain. So, to look up at my wall and see these 2 panels hanging together, representing the first year of both of my babies lives means so much to me. It's something that we will have hanging on our walls for the rest of our lives. So many other pictures will change in and out of the frames, but these 2 will always be hung together in mine and Dennis' home for as long as we live.
Anyways, we have been so busy lately! I started a new mom's group at church, I-Mom. It's going to be great! I can't wait to see what all God is going to do with this group of mom's. I also started a women's Bible study at my church on Wednesday nights called "I Am". I think it's going to be amazing as well. For the first time in my life, I am praying so hard for God to change me, use me, let me know Him better, give me a hunger for His Word, etc. I am so excited to see what will happen over these next few months. Sadie started her first real "class" on Wednesday nights as well called "Jasper's Bible Club". I went and bought her a new Bible and she carried it around for days and wanted to read it during every spare moment that she had. She would sit down, open it up, and pretend to read it over and over. I thought we might have the next Beth Moore on our hands! ha ha They get special stickers and things for bringing their Bible every week and learning verses, etc.
As a mom, the most important thing to me is for my kids to learn all about Jesus from me. I want them to see God in me. I want them to see me pray. I want them to see me in His Word. Our pastor's wife asked us the other day: If someone were to ask your kids what they think is important to you, what would they say???? Would they say it's: cleaning the house? clothes? Money? Having the best things? Or, would they say "Mommy loves Jesus!!!" It's definitely something to think about.
We are leaving for our very first family vacation in a week. We are beside ourselves. I think Dennis would leave today if it were up to him. He's so excited. It's the first time he's been out of town in almost 4 years! I got to take Sadie to the beach a couple of years ago, but he didn't go, so it's been a long time coming for him. We don't even care if it rains every day. We're just looking so forward to getting away from everything and spending time together as a family.
When we get back from the beach, we're going to Gatlinburg for a weekend, then I'm going to the Beth Moore conference in Memphis, and so on. It's going to be a busy Fall, but I can't wait!!!!
I've also decided to do a half-marathon in November. What am I thinking???? Barbara asked me to join them in Chattanooga and do one with them because her and her best friend walk it together. I think we're going to try and make a whole weekend of it, so it should be fun, regardless if I can do the whole thing or not!!!
So, that's what's been going on in our lives. Stay tuned for lots of pictures from the beach!!

Sadie Day

It's been a long time since I've been on here to update. We've been extremely busy, yet things have also seemed a bit calm. Sawyer started walking last week. Yeah!! Our hope was that he would start walking before we go to the beach and he did! We leave for Hilton Head in just a few weeks now and we are all beside ourselves. We cannot wait! Our very first family vacation!!!!
Anyways, Sawyer went last night to spend the night w/ Dennis' dad and Barbara (aka PawPaw and Gimmy) for the first time. It was actually his first time to ever spend the night away from home. I was mostly at ease about it, but I was a little sad. I knew he was in great hands. I just didn't want him to not sleep good, etc. But, from what I hear, he slept great and has had so much fun so far. Praise the Lord!!
I couldn't wait to have Sadie all to myself for a whole day. For those of you that have 2 children close together, you know how it feels when that second one comes along...you feel as though you'll never get time alone with your first again...EVER! So, I have been looking forward to this all week.
As soon as David came to pick up Sawyer, Sadie and I got ready and headed over to Shelly's parents house to meet her and Greyson and go swimming. The boys came when they got off work and Ryan brought Mexican over for dinner. We had the best time. I know that all of you out there with only one child will roll your eyes at this...but, I couldn't believe how easy it was to just have one child again!!!! Wow! I had totally forgotten what it was like! Here are some pictures from our night.







As you can see above, Dennis was having just as much fun as the kids doing a few cannonballs of his own!
After we ate dinner and watched the gorgeous moon rise, we headed home. Dennis took Sadie to get some ice cream while I went and got some medicine for this horrible cold that I am fighting.
Friday morning, I got to sleep in until 8:00 which I haven't done since who knows when. Sadie and I got ready when she got up and we went to Monkey Joe's, which is one of her most favorite places! I gave her the choice to go to Monkey Joe's or the park, and she chose Monkey Joe's. We had a blast!
Afterwards, we went to get a cupcake from Gigi's and came home to eat lunch.
Here is Sadie's nutritional lunch...

A princess cupcake, a capri sun, and some crunchies. But, hey, this was "her day", so I let her get away with it.
I have so enjoyed having some time with her. I do miss Sawyer bunches, but I have enjoyed the break!!!

Sawyer is ONE!

So my little fella has finally made it to his 1st birthday. I think there have been many days in the past year where I thought none of us would make it! He has definitely kept us on our toes! What a joy he has brought to our family. He has created a whole new dynamic in this house and I wouldn't trade that little guy for nothin! He made our family complete and I thank God for him.
I went in his room first thing in the morning and took his picture right away. You can't tell but all of his lights are out and it's pitch black in this picture. The flash took care of that though.

We hung out together for a little while before Sadie got up. I just wanted to get a few pics of him on his birthday. Of course, he wouldn't let go of "Monkey" long enough for me to get a good shot.


We had dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings with my dad, sis, and Emma. Can you get any cuter than this???? I don't think so!!!!!



Afterwards, we came back here and Sawyer opened what few presents we bought for him. Well, Sadie actually opened them, as you can see...





This is a picture of Sawyer pulling on Dennis' leg, wanting him to hurry up and get one of his trucks open!

We tried to do the "cake" thing again, but he still didn't want anything to do with it. Oh well...I tried to get one good picture, but it just didn't happen this year.


I love my little buddy more than life!!!! Happy Birthday Saweeeeeeee!

Last Week of July 2009

Well, this is our last crazy week for a while, I hope! Tuesday started out with my 8 year anniversary!!! It's gone by so fast! I have been happily married to the love of my life for 8 years now and only hope that our next 80 will be just as happy! He is so good to me and I thank God for giving him to me every single day. I am blessed! I took the kids to Toys R Us today to finish up some shopping for Sawyer's birthday. My mom met me there because she had to get a few things as well. Tuesday night, we took the kids to David and Barbara's house and they kept our kids as well as McHaney so that we could go and have dinner with Daren and Rachel to celebrate all of our July birthdays. We went to Bonefish Grill in Cool Springs and it was just as delicious as last time. I crave that Bang Bang Shrimp and Calamari. I think I'm going to dream about it! We had a great time hanging out with them. We never, ever get to do that, because we're always with more family or we always have the kids, so it was so nice to be able to have a couple of hours to just sit, talk, enjoy one another and hang out. We picked the kids up and got home very late. The kids were DONE by the time we got home. Whew! Wednesday, I went to 1st Baptist to take the last of the birthday stuff to the lady that is helping with his party. My mom met me up there because I thought it was going to take a lot longer than it did. I took the kids to the play area for a little while after that and let them play. Sawyer was loving it! I'm so excited to see how he'll be at his party on Friday night!! Thursday, I got to go and get my hair done. Thanks mommy for keeping the kiddos for me!!! It was a nice break. I came home and did some things for Sawyer's party. Thursday night, me and the kids met Dennis at Red Robin for dinner and then went to Walmart to get the drinks and stuff for the party. It never ends!!! Friday was a busy day. We got up and went and bought some cupcakes from Gigi's. Sadie loves doing that. She feels like such a big girl getting to order her own cupcake. I got the princess pink one for her and I got a strawberry shortcake one for my friend Shelly for her birthday. Then, we went to the gym, and then we went and met the sweet girl who did Sawyer's birthday cake. It looked incredible! I was so excited!!! I sent her a picture of his napkin and she matched his cake to that and his little smasher cake is a 3-D haystack, complete with an edible pitchfork coming out of the top. Sooooooooooo precious!!! I was so impressed with her talent!
We've always used Mandy LeMay for all of our cake needs, but Mandy was "off" during July this year, so we had to find someone else to do Sawyer's cake. It's the same girl that did my sister's wedding cake and it was delicious! Friday afternoon was spent getting ready for the party. My dad came over and Dennis came home a little early and we all headed over to 1st Baptist to set everything up and get ready for everyone to arrive. We had so much fun! The party was a success! Sawyer did great for a while, then he got overwhelmed, hot, and tired and was pretty much DONE! It kinda made me sad, but he was a trooper for the most part. Once everyone was gone and he got to just crawl around the halls of the church and play with his new John Deere riding toy, he was in heaven! Most of the pictures have been posted on Facebook, but here are a few of my favorites!





All in all, I thought it was a great 1st birthday party. I know Sawyer won't remember a thing, but he had lots of friends and family there that love him to pieces! We tried to get a group picture of all of the kids at the party, but we are missing a few in the picture. Oh well...
Saturday morning, all of the new toys were out and Sadie thought it was Christmas. It was pretty funny. We hung out all day long. My mom came over to keep Sawyer for the night. For Dennis' birthday this year, I planned a surprise night out for him. It was the first night that we have had to get away overnight together since the kids were born! It was needed...badly! I planned for us to go eat at Stoney River in Cool Springs, stay in the "Embassador Suite" at Embassy Suites, and then have breakfast at the Loveless Cafe. We were soooooooo excited! So, my mom came here to keep Sawyer so that he could be in his own bed, etc. That made me feel so much better because I knew he would sleep good. She said he was perfect. We took Sadie to spend the night at David and Barbara's for the first time. She was so excited and the said she did great as well! Success for all!!! Dennis and I went to the hotel, checked in, and hung out for a bit. We got ready for dinner and took a few pictures. We had dinner at Stoney River and it was delicious. It's one of our favorite places. Here's a cute picture of the birthday boy! Here's a picture of me texting my mom during dinner to see if Sawyer had gone to sleep okay.

Here's a picture of the Village People, I mean a group of guys that sat right next to us. I only wish this picture could've captured what was really going on. Dinner was great and we had the triple layer chocolate ganache cake with shots of milk for dessert. Be still my heart... We rode the shuttle back to the hotel with a large group of soldiers from Fort Campbell who were sent to Franklin for a night out. What a way to be humbled. They were super nice. Dennis thanked them several times for their service. We had to finish off the cake before we went to sleep!! We got up Sunday morning and headed to the Loveless Cafe for breakfast. Dennis was more excited about this than anything I think. We only had to wait about 20 minutes and it was well worth it. Look at the spread of food we had!
The waitress who brought our food out couldn't believe Dennis was going to eat all of that food. She came back by a few times to see if he had eaten it all and was quite impressed! She did not understand where he was going to put it all. It was hilarious. We took our last few minutes alone after breakfast and rode around Brentwood/Franklin and looked at some of the most beautiful houses. It was nice to just be alone in the car, listening to our bluegrass Christian CD, talking, enjoying each other in the peace and quiet. We take it for granted! We went and picked Sadie up and headed home. What a night! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to my mom and to Dennis' dad and Barbara for allowing us to have that night together. I feel very rejuvinated and we made some great memories. Dennis and I needed that time alone more than anything!!!! We had so much fun! God answered our prayers and blessed us with the most perfect night together. Sunday afternoon, we got the kids up after 3 and a half hour naps and we went for a ride on the 4-wheeler. Fun times! Monday was Dennis' birthday!!!! Happy Birthday my love! I hated to send him off to work on his birthday, but that's just life, I guess. We had a great weekend, so I hope it made up for the fact that he had to spend his whole birthday at work. Every Monday, Sadie talks about how much she misses Dennis. She's used to him being here on the weekends, so she always expects him to be here on Monday mornings when she wakes up. So, I was trying to get her to say "Happy Bday" on video today so that I could send it to Dennis at work, but she just kept getting a sad face and saying "I miss daddy". It was breaking my heart, but kind of funny at the same time!

For his birthday dinner, we went to his mom's house. LJ fixed him a TON of crawfish and from what I could tell, it was delicious. I won't touch the stuff. It looks like bugs to me!




One of their donkeys had a baby right after dinner, and I got to watch it on the video monitor. It was pretty cool! I've never seen anything like that before!!!
That about wraps up our month of July. One word? Craziness! But, so much fun! Lots of memories were made as usual.
Sawyer's 1st birthday is Thursday, so I'm sure I'll post something then.
Thanks for hanging with me during this busy month!!

Week Three of July...the month is halfway over!

Week Three started with my sister-in-law's birthday! Happy Bday Rachie! Daren, Rachel, Dennis, and I all have birthdays in July, so we are going out next week to celebrate with them. We took the kids to Toys R Us Tuesday night to buy Sawyer some gifts for his upcoming birthday. It was a quite enjoyable experience until we had to leave and Sadie had a bit of a meltdown. I guess she was having too much fun getting to run around a toystore and play with lots of new toys!
Anyways, we've been laying pretty low this week. We've got a real busy weekend ahead! Thursday, the 16th, Deb came over to keep the kids while I went and met Shelly to have pedicures and lunch. It was wonderful!!!! Both of our birthdays are this month, so we decided instead of doing gifts, we would just spend some time together. It was so much fun! We haven't had an uninterupted conversation in about 3 years, so it was nice to be able to talk without the kids running around. Why don't we as moms do that kind of thing for ourselves more often????
Thursday night, we went to Indian Lake and had dinner at Qdoba. Then, Dennis took the kids and walked around and listened to the music while I went and used my Gymbucks at Gymboree.
Friday was Emma's 7th birthday. I can't believe it! I can't believe it's been 7 years since she was born. I literally remember it like it was yesterday! Dennis and I were leaving to go on a trip for our 1 year anniversary, and Emma was born just a few days before that. I didn't want to leave to go on the trip! I was so in love with that little girl. I missed her like crazy on our trip. She's such a precious little girl and she definitely keeps us all on our toes! She's going to be a little fire ball! Happy Birthday sweet girl!!!!
Friday afternoon, a girl from church came and picked up all of my consignment stuff for the Encores and More North sale in August. I had 11 garbage bags of stuff!!!! Wow! I also got rid of a couple of toys that the kids don't play with anymore. Friday night, we rode the 4-wheeler down to our friends' house in our subdivision and hung out with them, another couple, and all of the kids. It was a lot of fun. Saturday was my dad's birthday. I called him early that morning to wish him a Happy Birthday. Dennis, me and the kids went that morning to Indian Lake to the Farmers Market and walked around for a while. It was so gorgeous! It was even a bit chilly! We have had the mildest summer I can ever remember. There have been a few hot days, but we have had some of the most gorgeous days in a long time. We went to this new store over there called "Candylicious". It is so neat! Sadie is not a huge "candy" person, but she loved looking at all of the neat stuff. She picked out a blow pop and was so excited about it. I was trying to get her to get a really neat lolipop, but she wouldn't have it. She wanted the one that she picked out all by herself. We came home, had lunch, and hung out for a bit before putting the kids down a little early for their naps. Sadie was cracking us up because she has started "singing" all of the time and it is hilarious!!!! Here are 2 videos of her newfound fame!


After naptime, we headed to Brentwood to My Gym for Steele's "Titans" themed 3rd birthday party.


There were tons of people there. It was a bit crazy, but fun! I have lots of pictures to share. Even T-Rac showed up!! Sadie didn't want to leave the balls the whole time she was there.



















The parties there are extremely structured and the "hosts" are constantly trying to keep all the kids doing what they're supposed to be doing, etc. That doesn't always happen when you have about 25 kids running around like crazy people. Sadie had a few meltdowns because she just wanted to play, play, play! She didn't want to be made to sit in a circle! It was quite funny at times.
After the party we went by my aunt's house (my dad's sister) because they had a little get together for my dad and my aunt for their birthdays. It was pretty cool outside and I about gave Sadie hypothermia by letting her get into the swimming pool and swim with Dennis for a while. I just knew she wanted to so bad!!! She was freezing! Her lip was quivering and turning blue, so we thought it might be time to call it a night. She was having a ball!

After we put the kids to bed, Dennis built a fire outside in the firepit and we sat out there until about 11:00. It was cool enough to have a fire in the middle of July! And, I was freezing and had to come inside at 11:00! What is up with this weather? I will take it!!
Sunday morning we went to church and just came home and chilled. Sunday afternoon, Dennis took the kids to Deb and LJ's and then me, Dennis, and my dad all went to Ruth's Chris for dinner to celebrate my dad's birthday and to celebrate mine and Dennis' anniversary.




We had the best time!!!
While the cat's away, the mice will play!!!! (see pics below) I heard that aunt Rachie took very good care of my little boy and I appreciate it so much! Sometimes it takes a small army to help care for all of these little kids and I love it when everyone pitches in to help out!





What a weekend! Whew! We've got another busy, busy week ahead of us, all leading up to Sawyer's 1st birthday party on Friday! We can't wait!!!!!
Let me sign off by saying Happy Birthday to uncle Corky today! To celebrate with him, ha ha, I did boot camp this morning at the gym, just like he used to do when he was a soldier back in the day! I'm sure the things that I did this morning didn't compare, but boy, did it kick my rear again!!! We love you Uncle Corky!!!!
After we left the gym this morning, we took Emma her birthday present, played a while, and came on back home.
Let us take a deep breath and get ready for the whirlwind next few days. The last weekend of our July madness!!!! It's going to be my favorite!!!!