And That's A Wrap!

I can't believe that 2008 is already seeing it's way out the door. This year has been full of great things, several not great at all things, and a lot of things that are just a blur of memories. It's been a life saver to have this blog again to be able to refresh my memory on all that has happened over the past 12 months. I had over a hundred things to post about! I even had a record breaking post with 17 comments! That's pretty good for a small town gal like myself!

We had a couple fun trips this year: Costa Rica and Florida.

I saw several famous people: "Jennifer" from Days, Brad Paisely, Kenny Chesney, my bff Leann Rimes and her cute black pumps, Rascal Flatts and Taylor Swift.

2008 ushered in 2 costume parties at the Morgan Casa.

2 things that have been a long time coming came to fruition in 08: My dad retired and Rhett stopped wearing diapers!

Cade finished Kindergarten and became a first grader that rides the bus all in this year.

We spent a lot of time at soccer games and t-ball games. I tried my hand at frying something and failed. And while perusing this past year I noted that a lot of posts had to do with Rhett and his crazy antics.

And, I will say, that just in time to be included in this post, one of my MOST favorite things about this year is this:

My dearest friend of 17 years holding her precious newborn baby boy after 2 tragic losses and 18 weeks of bedrest. Praise God! I couldn't have asked for a better way to close out this year.

I'm expecting big things for 2009. I'm not making any crazy resoultions, just keeping my heart and mind hopeful (and of course prayerful) that 09 brings a face to the little girl that runs through my dreams. It's not too much to ask is it??

Happy New Year!

Three Days of Christmas

We started out our Christmas celebration the weekend before so that we could spend time with my sister. She was on call the entire week of Christmas and wasn't able to travel here. Bummer! We headed to mom's house for some good dinner and family time. As usual, she was in her bedroom finishing up wrapping presents. My camera starting acting weird on this night. I only got a couple pics. Then by Christmas Eve it was completely on the fritz. That does not make me a happy camper being that I LOVE to take photos. Lucky for me, my husband loves me dearly and knows what an appendage my camera is to me so he's ordered me a new one.

The boys had fun playing with Aunt Tracie.

And they were thoroughly excited to see that she had gotten them "what they have always wanted!"..... Star Wars the Clone Wars for Wii.She also brought their favorite cousin on this side of the family: Chico Boy.


Dad had a reindeer search planned out. The boys had to look all around and find the hidden paper reindeer. Grant was the winner but due to the political correctness of this generation everyone received a prize.

Christmas Eve we headed to Bobby's mom and dad's for Christmas with his family. My camera was completely dead so I had to steal this picture from Bobby's sister, Wendy. The boys had a great time, as usual, hanging out with their cousins and they really racked up on some Lego's. So this get-together was definitely a hit for them!

As odd as it is, our kids slept later on Christmas Day than they have the entire 2008 year. I had to go and wake Rhett up. Our tradition is to read the Christmas story out of the Bible and then head down to do presents. This year we only had one complainer and that was Grant. He stated, "Well, I'm not EVEN going to listen to the story. Besides, I totally already know what's going to happen!" I'm glad he's so well informed.

This is one of the very few pictures I have from Christmas morning. I know. It's a sad story. Hopefully these Christmas memories will be forever ingrained in my memory. I'll remember that we made homemade sugar cookies and decorated them together and that I ate approximately forty two of them. I'll remember that nearly every gift under the tree was related to Star Wars. I'll remember how Bobby convinced me that GRANT really wanted Laser Tag guns and then I'll remember how he ran around the house that morning like a ten year old, hiding behind furniture and shooting at me. I'll also remember how blessed we are that we have a reason to celebrate and that God's precious gift is irrevocable. You don't need a camera to remember that one.

I Heart Christmas

Only four more days to count down and then shortly thereafter all of this has to be put away. I LOVE having Christmas lights on the outside of the house. We added several new things this year......bush lights, snowflakes and a little tree. Much to the dismay of Cade we, once again, vetoed the blow-up dooflachies in the yard. We can totally be friends if you have them. That's fine. But for me personally they drive me slightly bonzo. One of my most favorite things about Thanksgiving passing and Christmas being around the corner are the lovely red berry wreaths I get to hang out. I would prefer that they stay on the door year round but I feel that it's just not seasonally acceptable.

Ever since we moved into this house I have been telling Bobby that I wished we could have a little tree to put in the foyer. This year my Christmas wish came true when Lowe's decided to put theirs on sale fifty percent off and in a strange twist of fate I decided randomly to stop in. I immediately snatched it up because it was the last one and brought it straight home to put the little tiny Christmas ornaments on it that I found on sale at the Tarjay. I placed approximately 20 on the tree and thus far only five have met their maker. This is the third Christmas we've spent here and this is the third place that we've put the tree. It keeps getting the boot from it's former space. This spot looks like a keeper. And, hopefully next year there will be one more stocking on that fireplace mantle.

Ahhh, my little train set. I started collecting the pieces to this right after Bobby and I got married. I think I'm lacking just a few pieces but they don't make them anymore. Cade had the privilege of putting the set out this year and was extremely excited about it.
In fact, as I was snapping the photo of the train above I looked a little closer and noticed this. Can you see it?

Did you know that Rudolph used to be a Storm Trooper? Neither did I. Apparently one of the boys thought that would be an appropriate place for a lego helmet. I left it. After being made fun of so much, Rudolph can be whatever the stink he wants to be.

Then there is our Elfie tradition. The boys are once again getting such a big kick out of finding this little elf all over the house. Cade made the comment the other day while shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders, "You know? I mean, it's the weirdest thing........He doesn't even really LOOK real. Hmmm." Good times.


This is definitely one of my favorite times of year. I love the activity, the excitement, and the joy of getting to share the birthday of our Savior with the boys. I'll admit though, it's a daunting task to put all the junk back in the rubbermaids to wait patiently again for the next year to come. I'm pretty sure it will look like we've partially moved out of the house. By the middle of January I'll get back to feeling normal without twinkling lights surrounding me. Hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas day!

I Should've Been a Cosmetologist

Because anyone that can turn this: into this:

deserves some type of recognition. I have to give credit to my frizz control friends at Herbal Essences and some extra props to my kangaroo cronies down at Aussie. Without them this monumental moment in hair design would not be possible. And, thank you Ken Paves for your inspiration. ( You can pretend you don't know who Ken is, but seriously, he's Jessica Simpson's best friend and hairdresser to the stars. Come on. Read your US magazine.)

Birthday Bacon???

Today is this handsome fellow's birthday. You know, once you start getting older, birthday's aren't really such a big deal like they were when you were five. I didn't spend hours trying to find matching plates and cups with pirates on them. I didn't fill goodie bags with junk to give away. (Well, I don't do that for ANY parties really. I'm an anti-goodie-bag-giver. You have my permission to talk about me after you leave my child's party. I'm self-confident and firm in my conviction.) Anyway, instead of all that hoo-ha I decided to

take my maiden voyage in the boat that is bacon frying. Anyone who REALLY knows me knows that "frying", "bacon" and me NEVER flow in the same sentence. So you can see what a sacrifice this was. What a gift of myself it was to give. I know I will catch some flack from you fried fried lovers......you know who you are, but this will be the first time EVER that we have fried in our current house. We've lived here for over 2 years.

Needless to say, it didn't turn out well. I'm thankful for whomever it was that invented the handy, dandy microwave. Nobody told me that the bacon would crisp once you took it out of the greasy pan and laid it on the papertowel. I was cookin' it till it got all good and crispified. I love that our house now has the permanant stinch of burned up bacon. Sweet.

My cheesy eggs and the biscuits turned out well, though. It's easy to make homemade biscuits when they come straight out of that frozen bag. They were very Craker Barrelesque.So, here's to a very Happy Birthday to Bobby. I hope I have the privelege to make him MANY more birthday breakfasts. Next year I'll probably hold that bacon.

A Little Home Improvement

As most of you know, my handyman dad retired back in July. That has freed him up somewhat to do some projects for me. First on the list was putting up some bead board in our upstairs Jack and Jill bathroom. Here's the before shot:

Here is my hired hand (with the only due payment being undying love.....How did I get off so easy?? That's already been given!!) It was a pretty daunting task given all of the little walls and the fact that one entry door is on a diagonal which left for some weird angles to be cut. And here's the finished product!! I was so happy at the way that it turned out. It really spruced up the bathrooms and made it so much brighter!

I took some pictures of the boys in the tree at my mom's house and then printed them off at home and framed them. I thought it added a lot of character to the room.

I forgot to snag a picture of Cade's bathroom before. But here it is after:
I still need to add a framed picture in his. They only had three frames at the Tarjay. So, a big shout out to my Dad for all of his hard work. I can't forget my mom either. She did a alot of the caulking and helped me get it all painted (so did you Bobby, thanks!)

Now begins the countdown............how long will it take the boys to pee on the newly renovated walls? You may think I'm joking, unless you live with little boys or are one. In any case, it won't be long! At least I'll be able to spot it more eaisily on all these white walls! Yick....