It's a wonderfully, busy life........

So much going on lately!!! Starting to think its time for me to invest in a planner. The kids are watching Frosty the Snowman so I'm taking this opportunity to catch up on my blog! Between school, dance, church and family/friends/ Christmas gatherings, and of course the all important Christmas shopping it is definitely a busy, exciting time of year!

Went on a weekend trip to Cincinnati, Ohio to visit family the week before Thanksgiving. Word to the wise.... Not a good idea to work a 12 hour ER shift then drive 12 hours straight overnight. But soooo glad I did!!! Had a great time and the trip was definitely worth the drive! Spent Thanksgiving visiting family and EATING and visiting more family. I have soooo much to be grateful for and I thank God everyday for the many blessings in my life.

Finally purchased the really cute wreath I've been wanting from Pier 1(one of my FAVORITE stores). Thanks to Trina for her help on the decision making on that! Had a really great time cooking out with Jesse, Trina, Victoria, and Taylor. Good food, great friends, what more could we ask for?!

Went to Hanging of the greens last Sunday at WEBC, a first for our family. Absolutely beautiful!!! The kids were super cute ringing their little bells and singing. Can't wait for the Children's Christmas program coming up! Hailey's working on one of the solo singing parts and she's a little nervous about it. But I'm sure she and all the children will do an awesome job:)

Michael has been working on the outside christmas decorations at our house, which are about half done. He's doing an awesome job! He is so great at helping me get things done around the house and juggling his crazy schedule. Love, Love, Love him!!! I keep thinking of more decorations I want to do inside the house, but then I remember we'll be having to take them all down in a month from now!

Looking forward to our beach trip next weekend! Shannon, Kevin, Michael and I and all the kids have rented a beach house for the weekend and are taking Sheila and Wayne for their Christmas present. It's really hard to think of new and unique things to get them, so we thought a trip would be a fun present and a great way to spend time together! Soooo ready for a relaxing weekend at the beach!!!

Hailey and Mary Kathryn are getting more and more excited for Christmas everyday! Hailey is now asking for Santa to leave her a reindeer bell from his sleigh. Where Santa is going to find a reindeer jingle bell, I have no idea!! But I think he has most of the other things on their lists covered, thank goodness!

It's a wonderfully, busy life we live, but it's our life and we LOVE it!!!!

A head start on the holidays!....

The Christmas tree is up and decorated!!! We set it up this past Friday so we could let the branches "fall out" and make sure the lights were still working. Luckily they were and I was able to go on and arrange the ribbons on the tree. It actually took a couple of days to do this because I would put some on and come back and move them around and put some more on. By Sunday night I had it all arranged and we were able to decorate it on Monday evening. Hailey and Mary Kathryn were sooo excited! We let them watch Polar Express and dragged all the ornaments out and just let them go at it. Michael fixed us all hot chocolate with cinnamon and red and green sprinkles on top ( the girls thought that was just the best thing!) I did have to do a little adjusting of the ornaments when they were done because most of them had ended up right at their eye level! Now that the tree is done I've been gradually trying to decorate the rest of the house and hopefully it will be done by Thanksgiving. It's amazing how just having the tree up can really get you in the holiday spirit! A couple of toy catalogs came in the mail last week and the girls have been looking at them every chance they get! Mary Kathryn has been circling the things she wants and there are quite a few circles in those books (she's at that indecisive age:) Hailey, on the other hand, has been carefully writing her list. She has about 5 or 6 things listed that she REALLY wants and has them ranked in order of how much she wants them. That should make things pretty easy for Santa!!! Most importantly, we have been talking about the true meaning of Christmas and what the season is really about. So happy we also have our church family to share it with this year!!!

There's no place like home.....

Went to Carolina Beach this past Halloween weekend for K9 trials. Michael, Tazer, Jesse, and Bullitt did a great job and I was very proud of them! So happy to be back in my own bed though!!! The Kure Police dept took the girls and all the children of the K9 officers trick or treating which was super nice and they had an awesome time:) Love, love, loved the oceanfront room. There is nothing like falling asleep to the sound of the ocean! Especially had a great time hanging out with Trina, Victoria, Taylor, and Cassidy while Michael and Jesse were occupied with trial work. Nothing like a little retail therapy to ease the stress!!:) Looking forward to putting up the Christmas tree hopefully this week!!! Never to early to start celebrating the season:)

FALL is here!!!

Finally got a chance to visit the pumpkin farm last Wednesday. The girl's had a blast! I think their favorite part was playing in the corn. Hailey was so funny when she informed all the children playing in the corn box that they were playing in peacock corn:) I guess it must look like the corn that her and Mary Kathryn feed the peacocks at Mema and Grandaddy's house! It was great seeing their excitement as experienced some of the fun of the season. The girls got to spend some time with Abby and Papa on Friday afternoon. They enjoyed it and look forward to going to visit Abby and Grandma in Ohio! We also had a great time at the SWE vs. THS game Friday night with Shannon, Kevin, Sara Grace, and Trey. It was a great game and we were happy SWE won! Saturday night we all went to the Fall festival at WEBC. The girl's were so excited to wear their costumes and they looked so cute! Hope we make it back in time this Saturday from K-9 trials for the girl's to trick or treat!

Last week was a crazy, busy week but it's our life and we enjoy every moment! This week is K-9 trials in Carolina beach. Michael leaves Wednesday and the girl's and I are heading down on Thursday. Can't wait to see Michael and Tazer put all their hard work in to action!!!

Busy Wednesdays!

Wednesday is our busiest day of the week(the busiest of an already busy week!). Hailey has school, then homework, straight to dance class and then right over to West Edgecombe baptist for children's choir and GA's. Though often hectic, the girl's really love dance and church, so this is one of their favorite days of the week! Today is nice because it is actually starting to feel like fall. I can't wait until next month when I can start putting up christmas decorations! That's the start of my favorite time of year. Busy work week starts tommorrow for me. I'm working most of the weekend but hope to fit in a football game and maybe a trip to the pumkin farm. We'll see how much energy I have left after those long back to back days in the ER.

From the beginning

I started this blog to help me keep track and not miss a thing in our busy, crazy, but altogether happy family. The girls are young and so much goes on from day to day that it is easy to let it all go by without taking it in. I plan to enjoy and cherish each and every memory our family has together! Let me start from the beginning.....
I often think about how lucky I am to have found such a wonderful, caring, smart and supportive husband. We met in the Fall of 1999, started dating, and later realized that we couldn't live without each other. We welcomed our first daughter Hailey and three years later our little Mary Kathryn. They immediatly became the center of our world and we work every day to give them the happiest and fullest lives possible.