Every year we troop out to the pumpkin patch for some annual pictures and to enjoy the new crisp fall breeze, this year was no different! We went to a little farm that has an apple orchard and pumpkins on the vine, a horse drawn carriage and a tractor pulled hay ride! They also have little wagons hooked up to tricycles, a swing, a pond for fishing — really everything we could possibly imagine!! The day was absolutely perfect — the perfect temperature and completely carefree!! These are some of my favorite pictures of the day!

Thanks for looking!

It has been a while since I have added something crafty to the blog — don’t worry the hands have not been idle — I have just been making lots of stuff that is top secret!! However this little book I made back in July for our scrap class and I thought I’d share it with you!! I have been making more and more mini albums using the idea of just gluing two photos back to back as the page. This is especially handy when you want to go back and add pictures later. For instance a Halloween album where you want to add just a couple of photos of the costumes each year — I think these will be the books the kids look at and laugh at later because they will just show the growth, and the style changes, and the hair-dos so much more clearly!! Anyway — here is what I did to show our summer fun!

I used the Summer Book Template from the House of Three and the paper is all WeRMemory Keepers. Thanks for looking.

Today was vocabulary day at school! Audrey was dazzling! Lots of fun!!

We have made it to Gainesville and now we are just waiting for the game! The anticipation really is half of the excitement! Can’t wait to see Tebow out there leading the charge against Tennessee — these are the weekends we live for!

See you on the other side!

when you get your sister’s iPod (all by yourself), bring it downstairs (all by yourself), actually get it on your head (all by yourself), and get it to play something (all by yourself)!! Holy cow — I could not stop laughing when Hill just showed up Saturday morning jamming to Elmo’s Word on the Street! He was SOOO proud of himself!! (I was too actually!)

So I guess I am going to have to give in to the fact that EVERYONE is getting big at my house! Especially if you look at it from this perspective!

Here are just a few of the many taken on Audrey’s birthday! I think the girls (and brothers) had a great time!!

This was our first pinata experience!

See! I told you we had a great time!

She is SIX! It really is impossible for me to wrap my head around and yet it happened, right before our eyes!

The birthday fairy came!

The school lunch, and snack, and song and dance came!

The party of SIX girls (and two little brothers who will be there whether you like it or NOT!) came!

The teacher came (to the party! and jumped into the pool with the girls, fully clothed!!)

The dance class came!

And then bedtime came!

It was a blur — but she is OFFICIALLY SIX!

(before she went to sleep she said, no lie, “Next year, I’ll be seven you know!”)

and with that we begin a new journey — forget SIX — we are on the countdown to SEVEN!!

pee ess: pictures are still on the camera — coming soon!

I can’t tell you just how busy the first week of school is for a teacher, but being new to this again and being in a new place and starting all over seems really monumental, AND THEN add on the first experience as a school “parent”! Man — I really can’t keep up! But Audrey — man she hasn’t missed a beat!! She thinks school is the absolutely the greatest thing since sliced bread — so my independent little miss has taken kindergarten by storm (and I certainly wouldn’t have it any other way!) Now if we can just get the tennis shoes on ON the RIGHT DAY!!

Here are some photos from the first day!!

August 22nd finally arrived and this sweet couple got married! We have been waiting for this day for so long and finally it arrived and the Lord spared us the rain for one sweet afternoon so we could ship these two off in style! Everything was so beautiful and the day was filled with many small blessings, just as I am certain their lives together will be!

Thanks for letting me and my crew be a part of your perfect day! We love you two!!

I really haven’t thought about this list in a while and the other day my sister asked how it was going — so I decided to revisit the list before we get into the swing of school so that I’d have an idea of what else needed to happen before October! I was pretty excited to see that quite a bit of my list is ready to be checked off!!

So here is my original post from Jan.1, 2009.

Happy New Year!! We rang in the new year very quietly last night right here at home after putting the kids to bed. My little guys are going to wake up at dawn no matter what we do — so we don’t stay up late. Will actually wanted to get up and hunt this morning so we’ll do our celebrating today at lunch! I am not one for New Year’s resolutions — so this year I thought I would make a simple check off list — I am going to do 33 things before I turn 33. Here they are:

1. Finish one scrapbook a page per child per month (3 “Photos I Love” Albums) in progress!

2. Take my vitamins (everyday!!) not happening

3. Fill every frame in my house (I hang a lot of empty ones when I find them on sale – weird, I know!)

4. Eat at Tubby’s Tankhouse (in Savannah)

5. Drink lots more water check!

6. Sign the kids up for T-Ball Audrey was the only one old enough! She was on the Kiwanis club team!

7. Send my oldest off to Kindergarten (without too many tears) next Monday, my friends, Monday!

8. Eat candlelight dinners at home We had Pioneer Woman’s steak and smashed potatoes and apple dumplings, on our wedding china! It was delicious and Audrey loved it!! (no pictures though — so we’ll have to do it again!)

9. Go with my sisters and mom without the kids to do something girly – My sister and I went to Atlanta for Scrap Etc.

10. Read a book on the beach I read ‘A House for Hermit Crab’ which is a picture book to the kids — not exactly what I originally had in mind — when the kids are bigger I might get to enjoy something on my own level!

11. Finish three quilts – I made a couple for Etsy and the one for the 4th — I have some others in progress — so this should happen!

12. Take a photography class – I took Alison Tyler-Jones ‘Art That Happens to be Your Life’! It was fabulous!!

13. Celebrate my baby’s first birthday –

14. Read the Bible in a Year (this will take until the end of the year — but I will do it!) still working on this!

15. Send a birthday card to EVERYONE in the family – not happening!

16. Read Charlotte’s Web out loud to Audrey

17. Call my sister more check!

18. Eat at the Melting Pot check!

19. Teach a class at the quilt shoppe check, check, check!

20. Do the photography for a wedding SATURDAY!! I can’t believe it is this SATURDAY!!

21. Hang shelves in my bathroom

22. Add a tally to the win column for Tiger football – Spring 2009!!

23. Find a great bargain check!

24. Put marshmallow fondant on a cake check!

25. Teach Cray to swim –more to come here!

26. Get flannel Christmas sheets for every bed in the house – check!

27. Move the crib out

28. Learn to make homemade biscuits

29. Use the manual setting on my camera regularly check!

30. Start a Bible study at church check!

31. Take pictures of Hill’s first steps check!

32. Teach Audrey to read – more to come!

33. Celebrate something little everyday – CHECK!!  There is so much to be thankful for — we are so blessed!! At our house we enjoy the little things!!

So I have a few more things to master — and a couple of months to go!! This list thing is really working out! Do you really thing Will is going to take me to Savannah before Oct? It’s all for the sake of the list, right?!