Long time, no see!

Having gotten "blogged" down with daily life, I gave up posting to try and keep up with the rest of my busy family. Having finished the Christmas letter for this year, I realized we needed an update. So here, for your viewing pleasure, are some pictures from last year, with the promise to keep you more updated in 2009. Really, I promise. No kidding!

See? Here are beach pictures from June. Yep. June. We stayed at the The Tides at Tops'l, near Gulf Shores, AL. We had a blast, and headed out to the beach our last night there for a few photos.

Look! Christy has a tan!

They look so sweet in this picture...

They're still smiling, even though we're about to leave the resort.

The Beachmobile, a rental we had to return after the trip...

We don't look very happy about that, do we? Maybe next time...

That's all I've got for tonight. Maybe I can post some more tomorrow!

Ideas for Granny's Party

This is my favorite - Lilac Bough. The whole grouping, see how the dark purple (wine?) looks good with the tableware? I think that would be nice for the round tablecovers. I like the green accents as well.

The tablecloths are plastic, and appear to be full color (as opposed to the vintage rose below)
The beverage napkins are the ones I think we'd use - size wise, they're the easiest to handle. A case has 210, and we could add some green and lilac solid colors as accents if we needed extras.
This is the vintage rose. A little chintzy for my taste, but if we were doing just the tablecloths and beverage napkins and went with solid green and pink plates, I think it could be nice. Round tablecloths would be either that rosy pink or the green.

Tablecloth is linen-like paper. No more expensive than the plastic (not much, anyway), but they are white with the color on the sides and a stripe on the top. With people there, they'd probably just look like white tablecloths. I'd be more tempted to get some green and pink tablecloths and actually purchase the luncheon plates with the rose pattern.

This is cute but a little more modern. It's called Petals and Polka Dots. The luncheon plates are the smaller pink plates, the three smallest plates are beverage plates.

Beverage napkins. Again, the smallest. There is a tablecloth that goes with this but if we go this route, I'd think we'd pick four colors (orange, pink, yellow, fuschia) and have three tablecovers in each color, with solid round tablecovers too. OF the three, I think Granny would like this the least. Very springy, but not very "90th birthday".

Call me and let me know what you think. I've made the blog available to anyone, so you can have Amy look, too, if you want.

The Preschool Graduate

Tonight was Anna's graduation from Little Tots, where she has attended for 2 years.
She's had so much fun there, and learned so much.
We're really thankful for her teachers!

I can't believe she's ready to go to Kindergarten!

Anna and one of her best pals, Barrett Brown.

Saying "Hi!" to Mrs. Cheryl, her teacher from last year.

Starting off with the pledge of allegiance.

This isn't a great picture, but you can still see her smile!

Heading across the stage after receiving her diploma.

Lisa Carter is Anna's teacher, but Lisa Davis is pretty special to Anna, too.

She calls them Ms. Lisa and Miss Lisa to tell them apart. They're both married.

Ms. Lisa has been just what Anna needed in a teacher.

Love the cheesy smile on Anna?

Thank you Ms. Lisa!

Hanging with some buddies after graduation.

A rare photo opportunity.

Jerry's folks came down to watch the festivities.

We LOVE our Grammaw and Pawpaw.

Daddy's girl!

Jerry now claims that stage 1 of his 6 part plan is complete.

He wants this picture again when she finishes elementary school, middle school, high school, college, and grad school. hehe. We aim high!

Daddy's Little Helpers

The other Saturday, the kids got to help Jerry with a project in my laundry room.

They're painting the supports for new shelves where the sink I never used was.

Anna takes her painting very seriously. She got to help paint the laundry room a while back.

Caleb resorts to fingerpainting. Easier than the brush.

Aren't they cute?

Holding the Kittens

So did we tell you about the kittens? Long story short, the first Sunday in May, we found a sweet cat in our front yard. A sweet, rotund, female cat, very friendly, looking for food. Jerry fed it. 2 hours later, we had 4 new cats - the new Mom and three very cute kittens. That was a Sunday night. We told Anna and Caleb no holding the kittens until their eyes were open. So.... 8 days later...

Big sister first. This is the chunky monkey of the bunch. Which our guess includes three males.

Junebug (that's the Mama cat) is smart to keep such a close eye on Caleb.

He can be "extra" loving.

See the eyes? And they're already starting to play.

Or fight. Your choice.

The gray and white one is the one that Anna named "Zat".

In honor of the letter Z, which she learned about that week in school.

So far, he's the one she likes the most.

Jerry's holding out for one of the Orange & Whites. Go Vols!

Soccer gal

A few pics of Anna's latest soccer accopmlishments.

The name of her team is the Blue Angels.

Anna traps the ball during practice. Landon cheers her on.

A little ball-handling action there.

The girl trying unsuccessfully to get the ball away is one of her best friends, Lindsay Holland. They were so cute - hugging each other at each break in the game.

Catching a ride with Daddy after the game - she scored 7 points!

Caleb guards the ball during practice. He's a hoot!

Watching Anna play wears a boy out.

Isn't he cute with the book and the PB&J moustache?

Tree Horses, Trucks and Christmas Trees

Okay, so it's been a while since I blogged, but my computer

went kaput slowly and I was loathe to spend the money on a new

one. Now that I have one, I wonder what the problem was.

I love this new machine!

So we spent last weekend in Knoxville, and now that I have

the new computer, my camera battery went kaput

after the first day. Wouldn't recharge. So I gave up on pictures

for the weekend. But I did get some cute ones at Mom and Dad's house.

Tina, did I ever show you my "tree-horse"?

I never told Mom and Dad about it

(just never thought to - they'd never seen it before last weekend),

but it was this tree near where the old shelter for selling

Christmas trees was. It had a kink in it that was just

the right size for a saddle. I played on that tree for years,

especially those years before I got Nick (my first horse).

I showed it to Mom and Dad this weekend while taking

the kids on a walk in the woods. The kids thought

it was neat, and Mom and Dad couldn't believe I'd

never showed it to them. I really don't know why I didn't.

Caleb was really excited about the tree horse.

Anna's excitement was slightly more subtle.

Anyway, we headed back to the trees, and Caleb

was fascinated by the new power poles back in there.

He was convinced he'd see something in one of those holes.

On the way back, Anna walked the last leg of the

trail back by herself. She walked up the gravel road,

and we walked along the lower pasture. Mom met her on

the other side, and she told her "Meemaw, I thought something

might get me, but it didn't."

She was SOOOO proud of walking in the woods by herself!

Afterwards, we played outside for ages.

After the big truck got boring (as much as they tried, they couldn't fit both rear ends onto that seat), they split up and Caleb played basketball with Daddy while Anna played with ALL the My Little Ponies on the front walkway.

When we were leaving, Caleb gave Daddy a hug and told him

"I love you, Peepaw! Know why? You're my BEST friend!"

What a great visit!