News Update

Hey, blog friends!  I just wanted to let everyone know that my site may be a little crazy for a few days.  I needed to renew my blog domain, and I wanted to make the switch to wordpress.  This blog will still be here under a blogspot name, but I may not update it once I move things over to wordpress.  I want to make sure I can keep up with everyone over there once the switch is complete.  Thank you for your patience.  I hope to be coming back to more regular blogging very soon.  In the meantime, visit with me on instagram or facebook.  Have a great weekend!

2018 in Review

As has become the norm the last couple of years, I am still way behind on logging our memories here.  I am currently about halfway through 2018, and I hope to get even more caught up in the next few weeks before our new baby girl arrives.  That is probably being a bit ambitious, but it is January...the month of resolutions so there's mine I guess.  I did manage to get our yearly Shutterfly calendar prepared so I do have that little gem to help capture some of the highlights of our year.  Here is a little summary of our year told by our calendar pages:

I guess to simply live, laugh, and love is a pretty good theme for our year.  We took our annual Spring family pictures in Savannah's famous Forsyth Park.  It was such a gorgeous day. 

We rang in the New Year together and enjoyed the very very rare snow day that hit our area of Georgia before proceeding north. 

We gave and received lots of love in February after celebrating our Daddy's big 40th birthday. 

Mattox is definitely a believer in making his own luck.  He was not feeling very photogenic for St. Patrick's Day, but he did enjoy celebrating his 3rd birthday.  Evan enjoyed a Harry Potter 11th birthday complete with a Hagrid made cake and receiving his invitation letter to Hogwarts. 

In April, we celebrated Easter and attempted to get a picture with the Easter bunny.  It was pretty epic with two out of four boys not loving it.  Brody turned 7 with a special Skylanders cake and a visit to an amusement park. 

My boys made me feel extra loved on Mother's Day, and we visited Mattie for Easter. 

June was month filled with love as we celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary and Father's Day. 

We enjoyed the fireworks and 4th of July celebration in downtown Savannah. 

We experienced a lot of summer fun with several trips to the beach and fun at the pool. 

Our big boys headed back to school to begin 6th grade and 2nd grade. 

We had lots of fall fun at the pumpkin patch and dressing up for Halloween.  Mattox and Grayson brought back the police and convict duo while Brody was a cute Harry Potter and Evan dressed as a dark figure of death.  

We were very thankful in November to announce our newest addition. 

December was a festive month as we celebrated our baby Grayson's 2nd birthday and Christmas. 

So long 2018.  You brought us many happy memories.

2017 in Review

Yes, I am still behind on my posts from 2017, but I did get our yearly calendar made on Shutterfly.  We love our calendars during the year, but I really love using the calendar pages as a little yearly scrapbook summary of our year.  I add the pages to our big family scrapbook.  I no longer have the time or energy to create handmade scrapbook pages so our calendar is an easier way to keep this project going.  Here is a little summary of our year told by our calendar pages:

Our annual Spring family pictures were taken at the famous Driftwood Beach on Jekyll Island.  

January brought us so many big changes, but we welcomed in the New Year in a peaceful way at home together before the chaos began. 

We celebrated our Valentine's in our new home and visited Tybee Island for some beach pictures.  The beach in February was surprisingly pleasant.  

We celebrated these two cuties on their birthdays.  I love my March boys. 

In April, we celebrated Grayson's first Easter and Brody's 6th birthday with a Minecraft theme. 

My boys made me feel extra special for Mother's Day. 

We celebrated our precious Mattie's 4th birthday in June with some yummy strawberry shortcake. 

We had a fun 4th of July weekend with lots of fireworks spread over several days. 

We definitely enjoyed exploring all of the beaches in our area and figuring out which ones we really liked. We visited Tybee Island, GA, Jekyll Island, GA, Hilton Head Island, SC, Hunting Island, SC, Sullivan's Island and Isle of Palms, SC, and St. Simon's Island, GA.  

The big boys headed back to school in early August to begin 5th and 1st grades. 

We enjoyed our first Halloween in our new neighborhood.  Our family dressed as a Doctor Who family with Brody as a Dalek, Mattox as The Doctor, Grayson as Baby Stormageddon, Me as the Tardis, Eddie as a Cyberman, and Evan as the mysterious Silence that nobody "remembered" seeing.  

The highlight of our year will probably be our Thanksgiving trip to Disney.  It was an amazing trip for our family. 

We ended the year with a wonderful Christmas together as a family.  

Newsworthy November {2017}

November was a fun month for our family ending with our fabulous Disney Thanksgiving vacation.  It was a perfect way to usher in the Christmas season. 

Mattox put on his "mustache and goatee" for Movember.  Haha!  

We had some fun with the light brite.  I don't usually let him play with it because I don't want the little pieces scattered all over the house, but he was having so much fun. 

I got all dressed up for a girls' night out, and I couldn't resist kissing my little man.  Obviously, I need some kiss proof lipstick.  Haha! 

The girls' and I ready to have some laughs over Bad Moms Christmas. 

Sometimes those facebook quizzes are right on...and sometimes they aren't.  I do not think I am anything like Marge Simpson.  I was never a fan of the Simpsons growing up.  I definitely am not the peacekeeper in the house as I am usually the one doing the yelling and losing my temper.  I may have been guilty of treating my kids as being younger and more dependent than they are.  The second quiz was more on point as orderliness is definitely a big priority for me.  I am still very OCD.  Anxiety is also very high. 

We all love our big brother Evan around here and were so proud to watch him play football like a champ this year. 

Brody really loves any opportunity to paint and create art.  He wanted this cheap little wooden box at Hobby Lobby and couldn't wait to paint it.  Mattox had to paint too. 

I was a little late taking Grayson's 11 month pictures.  He looked so big and handsome in his bowtie. 

The big boys got more awards for their church programs and scripture learning.  I never get decent pictures of them in their hats and shirts.  They keep their hats with their badges on them at church so I never get to see them up close.  The badges are really pretty as they are designed by some very artistic young men who lead the youth. 

Mattox says it isn't real love if you don't feel choked and confined.

Big brother Mattox loves showing Grayson how to play pirates.  They do like to make messes together.  This one was pretty tame.  They usually have all the toy bins emptied out on the floor. 

Brody lost his first front tooth.  The replacement tooth was already coming in so we knew he really wouldn't be singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth." 

Mattox practiced being a football player while Brody practiced his reading. 

Brody took pictures of our church friends at one of our football games.  Our sons were on the same team. Brody and little Michael were astronauts, and Mrs. Shay was a princess in her castle. 

The big boys get an early start with breakfast before school.  I tackled a big project organizing and purging some of the boys' school papers from past years.  

Mattox, Grayson and I attended a special Thanksgiving library storytime.  These pictures were taken by the library staff. 

Making our cornucopias. I can't believe Grayson was still small enough to sit in his car seat. 

Reading Thanksgiving books and playing. 

Mattox and I colored our masterpiece together.  He prefers using the glue stick to make his projects though. 

Building with blocks is always fun. 

Grayson developed a love for watching Mickey Mouse cartoons, and Evan brought home a candy car he made in STEM lab. 

Grayson decided crawling was dangerous, and he needed a helmet. 

But big brother took his helmet because he wanted to play football. 

Brothers hanging out together in Evan's room.  Yes, Evan sits like that to play video games.  Haha! 

Little brothers take big brother down! 

Well, I never really documented our recent car purchases.  It was more of a necessity than for fun.  Eddie had not had a car since the end of 2016 when our old Jeep had major repair needs and was not running.  We decided to sell it as is instead of paying the big bucks to fix it.  We got a decent price online, but we weren't ready to take on another car payment at the time because of a new baby and an upcoming move.  Eddie used my really old car that had been used by his mom as a car to drive around town.  It was not in good shape for long distance driving.  We put a little money into it to get some tires and brakes and other issues repaired, but it still needed major work.  After months of being scared of him driving that car over 45 miles to work on one of the most dangerous interstates in the country, we knew we were going to need to get him something more reliable.  Our other van was also at almost 100,000 miles so we also knew that it was going to be needing major repair work in the years ahead.  We shopped around and decided it was more worth it trade the old van in while we could still get a decent price for it and get two newer cars that would both last.  We found a newer van and a Dodge Journey with a third row seat that would together equal just a little over what our previous car payment had been.   We did have to drive down to Orlando to a dealership near the airport that had a big inventory of well-priced newer model low mileage used cars mostly from rental cars used at the airport.  Most rental car agencies replace their fleet of vehicles every year or two.  Anyway, our new rides are a dark gray Chrysler Town and Country and a silver Dodge Journey.  

The boys attended a hunting event at Daddy's work.  They were hosting disabled veterans and letting them hunt on the bomb range land. Evan wanted to climb up the big tower. 

We enjoyed playing outside during big brother Brody's cub scout meeting. 

These boys showing off a more typical playroom mess.  I was still working on my big organization project, but I did make a pecan pie for a special Fall treat. 

I finished making our Disney shirts.  Ordering six personalized Mickey shirts could have cost a small fortune so I made my own. 

Grayson taking over the driver's seat.  We often had to sit in the car during football games because the bugs were so bad. 

Evan attended his best buddy Justin's football birthday party.  I loved watching our pastor's family play a fun game of cornhole together. 

Justin blowing out his candles.  He and Evan really get along so well, and we are so thankful for this friendship. 

We finally hit the road for Orlando, and we had to make a stop in Jacksonville for some Pei Wei Asian food and Rita's Italian Ice.  The delicious Fall pumpkin spice flavor was back so I enjoyed my pumpkin spice shake. 

When we returned home from Disney, this boy's cute glasses were in the mail.  He immediately loved wearing them and exclaimed excitedly at everything he saw.  On Sunday, he was twinning with our Associate Pastor in his argyle sweater and glasses. 

Mattox found his new favorite ornament for the Christmas tree...our Mickey ornament from our last Disney trip.  Evan and I had a little fun shopping at Home Goods.  I am really kicking myself for not getting that entertainment cabinet as I have been wanting a new one for a long time since our old one had seen better days after a couple of moves.  I liked this one, and it was priced well at $299, but we had just returned from an expensive vacation so it just wasn't the best time.  Evan really wanted that Chinese gong, and I thought Eddie really needing the Hindu statue for his meditation room.  Haha! 

Mattox and Grayson were looking cute in Christmas pajamas, and Mattox was enjoying riding his horse. 

A pretty busy month required a relaxing ending.  A bubble bath was the perfect answer.  And I really enjoyed my toast with the homemade blueberry jam I got at our Christmas tree farm. 

More Christmas pajamas.  I just love footie pajamas on little boys! 

Hmmm, obviously Santa thinks I am naughty.  Haha!  And I am glad Eddie is so out of shape and couldn't keep up with me climbing that mountain.  

This scripture really meant a lot to me this month.