first big game of the season

Here is my BIG boy! One of the mighty Ironbirds! This is Harrison's second year of coach pitched baseball. He loves it and we love supporting him! It's also his first year to wear a 'cup'. Had to put that in there so I will remember. That is kind of a big step in the direction of being a man...oh my! It's all new to me too. :)


Jackson practiced with Daddy while we were getting ready for the game to start.



she loves all the attention from her brother Jackson!

still can't believe he is 8!



Jackson spent most of the game jumping these bushes. It kept him and a few other boys entertained. :)



what a handsome boy he is!

our friend Duncan was playing in the game after ours so we stayed for few minutes to get some pictures of him too!


after we left the game, we headed over to CFA for a Peach Milkshake to celebrate the FIRST game! any excuse to get my hands on one of those milkshakes! :)

as you can see, Harrison got really tickled. we ALL got tickled. we were waiting in the drive thru and Anthony already had the window down but there was a car ordering in front of us. here is how that went...


CFA: "hello, this is Candace, may I take your order?" (or something like that)

Customer: placing their order but you couldn't hear anything.

CFA: "excuse me, I'm sorry, I can't here a word you are saying."

Customer: "HOW 'BOUT NOW!!!" "CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW" (literally SHOUTING as loud as you can imagine)

we had to roll up the window. we were all laughing SO hard. it suprised us and really got the boys tickled. Addison joined in on all the laughing. she hates to miss out on any fun. :) i had to snap these pictures of Harrison because he was laughing so hard he could hardly stand it. he kept repeating the whole thing and Jackson kept saying "HOW' BOUT NOW!!! "CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW!!!"

it was one of those moments I never want to forget. just having fun with our kids...and it didn't hurt that we had yummy shakes to share too. :)

the Zoo

Yesterday we took the day and went to the Zoo. It's a little less than 2 hours from us so you kind of have to plan for it. We planned to go with three other ladies and their kids. Anthony was able to take off work last minute...which is a HUGE thing. He just doesn't get to do that so we were even MORE excited when we realized he would be going with us!!!

The weather was perfect and we loved it! The membership was just a bit more than we were going to pay to get in so we went that route and look forward to going back...the place is HUGE and we just couldn't get it all in. AND, we can go to many other Zoo's across the country and the Aquarium so we think we have more fun trips in our future!


Flamingos...they were so pretty.

I don't have a ton of pictures of the animals. I don't really like having lots of pictures that don't have someone I love in them so I mostly took pictures of the people! :)

the gorillas

everywhere you turned there was something to climb on. I think the kids enjoyed that just as much as anything else!



we were kind of bummed that Mr. Lion was such a sleepy head.






see, I told you everyone love climbing on things.

except for Addison. she is finally on some allergy medicine now and feeling better but she was out of sorts for most of the day. poor girl!

it was such a blessing having Anthony with us. Daddy just always makes everything more fun and it also helps that he is so great at being a blessing. he was so helpful with ALL of the kids and helped the other mommy's too. he knows I have to do a lot of stuff on my own so he's very sensitive to that kind of thing. love him!

our favorite exhibit was most definitely the Polar Bear! He was SO big and SO beautiful. What a sight!

Christmas Eve 2009

Christmas Eve is one of my favorite days. The excitement and anticipation of what is to come is almost as exciting to me as celebrating Christmas with the kids. We had a low key day cooking and playing. Anthony was able to come home early from work too! The only bummer was that Mimi and Papa missed their flight and were going to barely make it to the Christmas Eve service. Thankfully they slipped in just after it started.

We started our own tradition last year of having party food/appetizers after the service for our Christmas Eve dinner. We loved coming home to all our yummy food and to spend some time with Mimi and Papa.





I know we take a lot of pictures but I'm gonna have to do a better job of making sure we get a family photo! I have no Christmas Eve family shot. :(


it was so much fun having Addison enjoy all the fun this year!

we always let the kids open one present on Christmas Eve. Addison opened one from Mommom, Jackson opened his present from Harrison, and Harrison opened one from Ma-maw.










this year I decided since we would be home for Christmas dinner I would make a Birthday Cake for Jesus. I've always wanted to do this but we've never been home to do it...and in VA there are SO many desserts it's hard to justify making ANOTHER cake! :) The kids loved it and I used Nanny's cake recipe to make my Christmas Tree Happy Birthday Jesus cake.

This is kind of sad...we put the boys to bed and then about 15 min. later I remembered that we didn't put the cookies our for Santa! OH NO! I went to get them but Jackson was already OUT! I don't think he realized he missed it but I felt horrible. Harrison wants to believe in Santa SO badly. I think there is part of him that knows it's just a game but doesn't want to give it up! He loves the idea of Santa and he was VERY glad that we came and got him. :) He decorated a few cookies for Santa and put out the milk.



making some food for the Reindeer

Once the kids were in bed...Harrison for the second time...we started getting things ready! I LOVE that part! It is SO MUCH fun to be a parent at Christmas! :) One exciting part of our Christmas this year is that Mimi and Papa were able to be with us! We haven't been with them on a Christmas morning in years...probably since they moved to FL. We always celebrate with them but there is something special about being together ON Christmas. They've been in Germany the past few years with Ian & Vonda and we are so glad they could be. It was nice though to have them this year and the kids were beyond excited that Mimi and Papa could celebrate with us! Thanks Mimi and Papa for making that special effort...and thank you Ian and Vonda, Ella Rose & Carolina Grace for sharing them with us this year!







don't you just love that! so cute!