It's Almost Turkey Time

From our family to yours.

We're traveling to North Carolina today but wanted to wish you all the best this Thanksgiving holiday.

Experiencing the Circle of Life this Year

You may or may not remember this baby shower we had in September for a certain little pink bundle of joy that was coming our way.

Well, she made her arrival yesterday and I'm proud to announce:

Miss Mallori Jane was born on November 23rd at 5:47 pm.

7 lbs. 10 oz. and is 21" long.

Congratulations Tori & Jeremy!

May God bless you and your new little family.

I can't wait to go to NC tomorrow and see cute little Mallori for myself.

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In our family, Thanksgiving week always has excitement involved and this year we'll add another birthday to the calendar and celebrate two more at the end of the week all while giving thanks to Our Lord and Savior for the next generation.

While we're enjoying the Thanksgiving feast and blowing out birthday candles, this year something will be missing.....someone will be missing.

Thanksgiving 2008

This is the first major holiday without the head of our family and it's going to be difficult. I'm shedding tears already at the thought of Jack not being there to snitch a piece of cornbread as it comes out of the pan or him anxiously awaiting the dessert phase of the meal.

He loved family holidays. For him to see his children and grandchildren having fun and playing in his yard and around his house was complete happiness for him and I know that he's watching from above and has much better seats than we do, but it's still hard for those of us missing him.

I'm glad we have Mallori to show us how life goes on, but the circle of life is never easy and I thank God everyday for helping us find our way through.

Sending Happy Thanksgiving wishes to you and your family!

To stuff or not to stuff?

That is the question.

So, I'm watching Barefoot Contessa with Ina Garten one afternoon (ok, this afternoon) and she's preparing a Thanksgiving dinner for two.

She was using cornish hens instead of turkey (which I would never do for a Thanksgiving dinner) but it got me thinking.......

Do you stuff your turkey with dressing?

or

Do you put your stuffing in a separate dish?

Let me know how you do Thanksgiving dinner.

Forgot to mention - we have a separate dish

(I just don't like the thought of eating some of my food from the inside of a dead bird - that's just me.)

Never Tell Them They Can't Fly

Last week Tropical Storm Ida moved through our area and after the rains stopped, the winds kept howling. My two scientists wanted to see if, with the help of umbrellas, they could fly.

Who was I to say no to that experiment?

Let's take a look at the results.

So far, no good headwinds for liftoff.

Let's try the runway approach.

Well, that just caused an equipment failure.

But, wait......I see something up in the sky.

Yep - she definitely knows how to fly.

Children always love to experiment and remember....

never tell them they can't fly.

Virtual Thanksgiving 09

I love to scan magazine photos every year and put together a few that strike my fancy.

Let's just imagine for a moment that we can actually have this type of family gathering for the holidays.....won't you join us?

The setting:

We have several tabletop options.

Now, let's get to the food.

Mac n cheese for my little one - she loves it.

Time for something sweet.

Did you all have a good time and get enough to eat? Now it's time to relax and maybe watch some football while enjoying an after dinner coffee.

Thanks for joining us.

Home Meet

I'm still recovering from this past weekend.

We hosted a gymnastics meet at my daughter's home gym and let me tell you.....it is A LOT of work.

I thought I'd post a few pictures for family and friends that don't get to see her compete.

I didn't take a lot of pictures during the actual competition because they had professional photographers doing it and I'm usually too nervous/excited and just want to watch.

The shots I do have are of her during warm-ups, awards and afterwards.

Our team came in third place overall and they were so excited. This is the first time they've gotten a team trophy & all had to take turns holding it. So funny.

Boy, am I glad that weekend is over.

Look What I Found

As I was browsing the website of my favorite magazine of all time, Southern Living, looking for Thanksgiving ideas, I scanned the photographs and froze.

Look who I found.

It's Ree with the whole clan.

If you don't have any idea who The Pioneer Woman is, you must click as fast as you can to meet her and her wonderful brood. They are ranchers - with beautiful horses and not so beautiful cows. They homeschool and she has just published her first cookbook (which I'd better see under my tree). She is also a talented photographer and honestly she is the guru of all things house and home. I cannot sing her praises enough and love checking in with her & Charlie (their bassett hound) daily.

Here are some of the pics from the magazine spread but I really recommend that you just run out and buy it- drool is known to cause computers to malfunction and after seeing all of those delicious pictures of her food - it might happen to yours.

Let's take a peek.....

Ree, we love you and are so glad you decided to start your little blog. Wish your cookbook tour was coming a little closer to me - I just can't make it to Atlanta. I'm running out and checking the mailbox for my Southern Living magazine right now.....oh wait, I might have to wait until around noon.

Wish Us Luck

Man, do we have a busy weekend planned.

My daughter's home gym is hosting a gymnastics meet tomorrow and needless to say, that involves tons of work for us parents.

We are determined to make it the best meet ever, especially since the gym's owner was recently diagnosed with some health issues and won't be able to participate tomorrow.

We're headed in this afternoon and tonight to get set-up done and will be back at 7 a.m. tomorrow for all of the excitement.

Another thing we're looking forward to this weekend is Daddy returning from an out-of-town business trip. He's been gone all week and has been missed terribly.

I hope you have a great weekend planned and remember to enjoy some good family time.

***UPDATE***

It's was a great meet.

G's scores were vault 8.75(8th), bars 9.15(2nd), beam 9.0(1st) & floor 9.25(1st) for an All Around score of 36.15 to claim 2nd place!

Great job, G.....we're proud of you!!

Room Redo has begun

Hi All.

We're up to our polished nails in black paint around here as the Great Room Redo of 2009 has gotten underway (cause we all start projects when Daddy's out of town, right?).

Taking your advice, I've started the furniture transformation portion of the renovation and am contemplating the wall situation. I have a plan, I just need to figure out how to implement it.

Stay tuned, hopefully it won't take until the end of the year to be completed, however looking at our upcoming calendar, that's a very real possibility.

All I know is that so far, so good and black paint makes everything look beautiful.

Hope y'all are having a great week.

Why is this all I have?

Hope y'all had a great Halloween and did lots of trick-or-treating with those adorable kiddos.

We did and had a great time.

That's why I can't figure out why these are the only pictures that were in my camera when I downloaded this morning.

No, this is not our son in his tiny Batman costume.

He couldn't have pulled that off no matter how hard he tried seeing as how he's almost 12 and a couple of feet taller than this.

Batman was actually the son of some friends that were over. My son, I actually have no pictures of because he was running around the neighborhood with his tween-ish friends.

B ended up ditching the KISS outfit that was planned in favor of being an Atlanta Braves baseball player.....whatever.

I didn't end up going out on the hayride with all the kids. I was the official "candy giver-outer" and stayed home with the adorable baby you see below.

A great time was had by all despite the rain that plagued the neighborhood raid for treats.

Can't wait to browse around and see all of your Halloween '09 memories.

Enjoy your Sunday and that extra hour we got back this morning.

Can y'all believe it's November already??