I am back!

Well, I haven't blogged in a year. There has been lots of changes in our house the past year! I am getting back in to the swing of things. So look for a new updated BLOG coming soon!

Brycen (Batman) is Three...

04

November -

It is hard to believe that my baby is three! Seems like just yesterday he was a newborn. He is a very funny little boy. When he laughs...everybody laughs! He has a BIG imagination and he is pretty much convinced that he is Batman most of the time! Other than that he is Granna's baby and tells me this when he gets in trouble. He loves his big brother Brayden and tries to keep up with him, which makes for lots of competition! He is both a Mommy and Daddy's boy, mainly depending on what or who will get him what he wants for the moment. (Pretty smart, huh?)

We celebrated his 3rd birthday Thanksgiving weekend. He had a Batman b/d party (of course) at Burger King. One of my favorite parties ever. Didn't have to decorate much, we bought all the kids happy meals and they had a blast playing together and since it was inside...it didn't matter that it was pouring the rain. :) My parents and a couple of my brothers came up for Thanksgiving so they got to be here for the party as well. His favorite presents was the bat cave by imaginex from us and his batman bicycle from Pa & Granna.

November came and went almost as a blur but I wanted to go back and write this post since I haven't been blogging the past few months.

Pumpkin Time!

We have been enjoying the fall weather! We took the boys to October Fest at Desoto Caverns. They had a hay ride, free root beer, popcorn and pumpkin fudge. Tim bought my boys tomahawks there, so they have been cutting down tree's every since! LOL! :)

Our favorite thing about October is going to the pumpkin patch at Old Bakers Farm. This year they had a birthday party for Mr. Baker celebrating his 100th birthday. There he was sitting in his rocking chair just as content and happy as anyone could be. (It reminded me of my Pappy and all his stories of his days on the farm.) Tim's sister & family met us there. The boys enjoyed spending time with Konner & Kooper. They showed Konner around like they owned the place. LOL!

My boys enjoyed all the farm animals. They got to ride a BIG horse as they called it. We watched the civil war re-enactment then later they had a shoot out on the street that seemed like you were in a old western movie. That was great! We RAN through the hay maze. My boys and their Daddy slid down the huge slide made from many bales of hay, over and over again! Picking out their pumpkins was my favorite thing. Brycen wanted the first one he saw, a pumpkin is a pumpkin to him.:) Brayden on the other hand couldn't decide? Big or small? Orange or green (or both)? Lumps or no lumps? Stem or no stem? After we walked the entire field he finally found the perfect one. :) He was happy and so was I! Of course the wagon and hay rides were a lot of fun for them too! Tim made friends with the blacksmith and he made both of my boys horse shoes with their names for free.

We loved the folk and blue grass music. Tim bought the boys harmonica's and they tried to play along with the people. LOL!

We had a great day on the farm and...I didn't have to clean any stales or bale the hay or feed the animals. *GRIN* Really though, I hope to get a place out in the country one day where my boys can run free all day because they sure did sleep good after a day at the pumpkin patch!!!

"Don't blink"...4 years goes faster than you think!

It's hard to believe my little man turned 4 a couple weeks ago! His birthday party was last Saturday. (He had been asking for a Auburn football party for about the last 6 months.) He loves football and so does Daddy. So Auburn it was!!! Turned out pretty cute and was cheap on the budget because we used the Auburn stuff we already had to decorate. :) Also I got some plain football stuff from Target $1.00 bins. (I love those bins!)

Pa , Granna, Austin & Anthony came up for the weekend. (We had revival too.) Brayden was born during a revival and every year since, revival has been on his birthday. Guess that is what happens when both your Grandpa's are preachers. LOL! Works good for my family because they love to have more than one thing going on at a time. I was just glad that they got to be here for the party!

We had the party @ Desoto Caverns, our favorite park. Dad and Mom fixed the pigs-n-blankets and hot dogs, while Tim, Anthony & I went early to decorate. We ended up having 12 kids. We had a couple football games for them to play and we all got to go on a FREE hayride. The hayride of course was my boys favorite thing!!! Brayden got lots of cool presents! (Now if I could just find room to put them away.)

It seems almost like yesterday I was planning his first birthday! I hope the next four years goes a lot slower...

Alaina & Rolands Wedding

Our trip to Indiana was awesome. A week that will not soon be forgotten!!! Spending time with all of our families and some great friends and the wedding preparation was a blast. :)

My boys loved spending time with Papaw Stringer...playing ball and riding his John Deere tractor with him was right up their alley.

We had some good meals which included Ind. sweet corn, and Top Hat pizza which is 2 of my favorite foods. If you go hungry there it is not from lack of food! Mamaw still makes the best homemade dressing. Aunt Gale made quite the feast for us on Thursday. (YUMMY!) Aunt Linda cooked a breakfast brunch on Friday for us girls and what fun we had there with the bridesmaids, Melody, Aunt Brenda & Aunt Joy. Some of which is recorded on video!!! LOL! Many thanks to everyone who feed us, and for letting us crash your houses!

One of my favorite things was Girls Night Out the night before the wedding! Amy did a great job planning that! (I almost didn't go because I didn't know if Tim could get my boys in bed. They did fine with out me and I am proud of that!) We all crowded up together and went to the Melting Pot in Indianapolis for desert. Which was delicious! We talked of old memories, lots of girl things and MELTED away some stress! This too is on video but not for everyone to see...!

Of course the favorite part of the whole weekend was THE WEDDING!

The Arts Garden Park is beautiful. I loved the flowers, lily pond, the bridge into the ivy covered gazebo. Pretty much loved it all. It was the perfect place for a wedding.

Us girls got ready at Aunt Wanda's. We had our hair fixed there and all the pre-wedding jitters and excitement. Amy picked up Top Hat pizza and bread sticks for us. Alaina received a special delivery, a dozen red roses and a card from the Groom. How sweet is that? After getting ready we went to the park for pre-wedding pictures. My sweet husband bought the bride and all the bridesmaids 20oz Diet Dr. Pepper's and we were sipping these in between pics and goofed off some. After we were done with the pics Blane Ridenbaugh slipped Alaina away before the Groom and Groomsmen showed up for their picture's. A few last min. touches back at Wanda's house before the wedding. Uncle Dave showed up to escort Alaina and the bridesmaids to the wedding in his antique wagon. (Sweet ride!) When we arrived at the park there was lots and lots of people there.

A little before 5:00pm a harp started playing. Followed by violins played by Roland's sisters. The Groom and groomsmen walked down and the wedding started. Roland's nephews walked through the garden and down the aisle ringing bells. Then the bridesmaids, followed by flower girls (Roland's nieces), Then the Bride (Alaina) and Dad walked with Brayden and Carter carrying her train and Brycen tagged along behind them. One by one we walked through the garden and down the aisle. (I am proud of my boys for walking down the aisle, I didn't know if they would but they did just fine.) Brycen saw the flower girls throwing the petals down and so he got his out of his pocket and threw it down too! LOL! Then he told Brayden to throw his down too. Boys will be boys!!!

All eyes on Alaina, as her and Dad walked down the aisle. She was a beautiful bride and Daddy's baby girl. (There was a few tears.) Then Dad and Andrew sang "I loved her first". (More tears.) Then Dad gave her away...(I'm still not sure why they do that. For real, how can you just give your daughter away.) Just kidding, I know it's tradition. Then the Fathers of the Bride and Groom took turns doing the sermons, prayers and vows. The singing was by: Anna V., Aaron, Erica, Lorine and Randy. All the music was beautiful!

Roland had eyes only for Alaina, and she looked so happy. The unity sand was cool. Pink for Alaina, Brown for Roland. A sweet first kiss as Man & Wife. Congrats to Mr. & Mrs Roland Stagmeier!!!

After the wedding there was lots more pictures to take. Dad & Mom rented a horse and carriage as a surprise. So the newly married couple went on the first ride. The reception was under the pavilion. (Thanks to each and every family member and friend who pitched in and helped decorate.) It all looked awesome! My parents fixed a full course meal and there was lots of salad, pasta, snacks, and a chocolate fountain with all kinds of goodies and a punch table. The wedding cake was square's stacked up with brown ribbon and pink flowers. The grooms cake was a football. The cakes were really neat. Everyone seemed to enjoy visiting with music playing. Roland's brother in-law and Amy both gave speeches that brought tears to my eyes! Then there was the bouquet and garter toss. Watch out folks because Aaron caught the garter!!! :)

The marriage license was signed and the Groom & Bride were off in a Orange Mustang. I am so happy that they had a beautiful wedding day! I wish them the best marriage and a happy life together! I love my little sister and my new brother in-law!!!

Late night ramblings...

This was a busy week & weekend for us. I made plans to go to Indiana to my cousins wedding with my Mom. Then Mom wasn't feeling well, and since Alaina's wedding is only 2 weeks away we decided not to go. I already had my bags packed so then I had to turn around and unpack them. Bummer!
My sister in-laws decided to have a yard sell. So I stayed busy cleaning out and getting things priced for that. Cleaning out and organizing then re-organizing seems like a never ending job at this house!!! My Hubby helped by cleaning out our storage building. You gotta love it when He decides to clean out and go through stuff because that doesn't happen very often! :) Friday we had a good yard sell day. Busy but good. Imagine having a 5 family yard sell while watching 6 kids ages 3 and under (with 4 of them being 2 yr. old)! Actually you probably couldn't imagine but it is a site to see! Saturday we got rained out so we are planing on having yard sell this coming weekend also. More time to go through junk. *JOY*
Also Sis. Ruby Thrower age 99 passed away this weekend. So we went to her viewing tonight. What a long blessed life she had. Wish I could have got a few more secrets of life from her!!!
This afternoon after lunch at my in-laws, I came home and laid my boys down for a nap. Tim had a computer to work on so I slipped away for a couple hours. I don't hardly ever do that but needed to get stuff to make pies for the Thrower family and I was looking for a shirt. I really enjoyed having 2 hours to spend in town by myself. I think I might slip away more often on Sunday but I sure wished for my sisters and cousin Melody's company for a half price drink during happy hour! I miss you girls!!! Anyway I have a busy day tomorrow. I am baby sitting my nephews. So I am gone for now.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!!!

We picked my parents up at the airport Wednesday night from the Bhm airport. (They flew back in from Oregon.) We ate at Kobe's with them, my boys wore their new chef hats. They were just too cute! My parents stayed a few days with us and we really had a good visit!
We went to Anniston Friday afternoon to the park. We took some bread to feed the ducks. The boys really enjoyed that. I had their picture's taken at Sears and they did really good. (I was proud of that!) We went out to eat at Longhorn with Tim's family. Afterwards we went to Wal-mart and that is where the surprise came from...
Amy, Amanda, Michael and Carter showed up at Wal-Mart! What a surprise! I had no idea they were coming!!! (My husband planned the whole thing and kept it a secret!) So the Labor Day weekend turned into a big party for us!!!:)
Saturday we went to the McWane Science Museum. We love that place and have enjoyed our membership this year. Supper was at our favorite local restaurant Old Town Grill...Yummy! Sunday afternoon Amanda, Amy & I went to town for a bit. We took our bridesmaid dresses to my mother in-law to alter for Alaina's wedding. Then we went to Sonic for 1/2 price hour... 3 diet dr. peppers with vanilla. :) Then we went to Burkes...Amanda got a awesome shirt there. I will let her share that later.:) Monday we slept in a little because our lack of sleep caught up with us. We went to Desoto Caverns to play for a while this afternoon. Amy & Aaron racing in the bath tubs was def. my favorite!!!:) We came home and grilled out before they left town.
This was def. a fun weekend...laughter echoed off these walls!!! These are the good times, don't ever forget that!