Family Traditions! (I almost broke out into song..Ha! Ha!)

Wow! This one is easy and I'm sure for the most part every ones answer to this blog hopping question is going to be some what similar. Decorating, cookies and the story of baby Jesus! My ENTIRE life my parents have gone over the top when it comes to decorating. I honestly couldn't stress the words over the top enough. It takes my folks a week and a half (that is working diligently) to set up their entire house. They have a Christmas tree in every room in their house and have themed bedrooms for the holidays. Memphis's favorite is the "snow man room"! It is CRAZY! My mother has always gone all out when it comes to cooking making. She mails them all over the world as well. I think when my brother was in Iraq or one of those places she even mailed them to him. She makes cookies ALL DAY and EVERY DAY for a solid week. Thousands and thousands of cookies. Once again I cannot stress the word thousands enough. The sugar cookies of course is where the family tradition part falls into place for us. We have always gone over to their house to decorate them and that is exactly what we will be doing next weekend! I will be sure to post more recent photo's of us decorating them since I can only find photo's from a couple years ago. I say this because the photo's I am posting I am actually pregnant with Sawyer and he is now 18 months old! You are probably wondering why I don't do the cookies myself since I cook all the time and I'm almost 35 years old. I'm not quite sure?!?! I think because my mother has done this forever and my holidays just wouldn't be normal if she wasn't doing it. I guess that for almost 35 years this is what I have always known at Christmas time. Maybe one day I will do this for my kids but I hope that day doesn't come to soon. That is because it means my mom isn't doing them. Lastly, my mother has always ready the Christmas story from the bible every year right before we opened our gifts!My mom and Memphis!PREGNANT! I was probably helping him finish the cookies faster so I could snatch them out of his hands and eat them!I don't know how we kept him from eating the candy!
I'm not sure who's tray this one was but if you think they are pretty then it was mine!

Hunting Season opens soon....get your toddlers!

The boys are ready for hunting season! Can you tell? This photo makes me laugh alot! You can't tell but Memphis has on camouflage slippers to. He was so excited to see that he could finally fit his hands into the gloves that Brent bought for him when he was I think about 1 yrs. They are the type that flip back and expose your finger tips...but camo! Sawyer of course does what ever Memphis does at all times! Brothers! I wouldn't have it any other way.

I'm Awesome..now I'm sad!

I feel like I never have a second to spare anymore. My house is atrocious!I'm not exaggerating either! I have been so run ragged lately and I'm not gonna lie because I did it to myself. The holidays are approaching and I don't have a clue where to start. I'm actually multi tasking right this second by eating soup at a very small desk and trying to type at the same time while the youngest is asleep and the other is watching Yo Gabba Gabba! On top of the fact that I am tired....I'm truly happy right now as well. I know when we first moved here I posted and wrote about how sad I was and how much I missed my friends in Tallahassee. I still do of course but I take so many trips over there that it's almost as if I have never left. I did declare one thing when we moved though and that is that I wasn't going to wait around to make friends this time. I wasn't going to stay lonely and sad and wait for people to find me and love me. I was going to put my self out there and talk to everyone and love everyone and yes! Pretty much force people to adore me! Ha! Adore me! I crack myself up! I should've put tolerate me! Either way I could sit around and wait for people to approach me or I could make it happen and that's what I did! So I went through meet-up.com. NO IT'S NOT A DATING SITE!!It's a site that you can actually start groups based on things like Protesters of America, Moms with twins, or Owners of dogs that like to poop on mail boxes! Well, I haven't exactly seen that group yet but they could start one! I do have to pay for the site but I thought it would be so worth it...to me! Does that mean I am buying friends? The logo I chose is the one above and I entered in all my specs. Christian parenting, Stay at home moms, Hips moms, Fit mom's (don't laugh!), Mom's with toddlers, blah, blah, blah. Anywho, it e-mails anyone that was originally looking in this area for a mom's group and WOW! Did I hit the mother load! In three months there are now 82 members! Well, there were actually 84 but I'll get to that in a minute. I actually have it set up to approve people because I prefer for it to be a group of only women. There's a message board and I can start a poll if I want and monthly calendars that I attach events to. We have done krispy Kreme donut tours, park picnics, Chuck E. Cheese meet-ups,craft days and mom's nights out. Just all sorts of things.It started off exhausting since I was waking at 5am and doing research on the area so I could post events...remember I just moved here!I eventually met Misty that was so gung-ho and offered to be the assistant organizer of the group and I am so thankful for that because she is also now my closest friend here in town. I don't think there is a day that goes by that we don't call each other at least 2-3 times! So now I am good and have a friend. I love this group and we have a thread that is labeled "Tell us about you" that gives everyone a chance to share a little about themselves and I love to learn about everyone. But, it cracks me up a little each time because each message usually contains a "Gina, I am so thankful for you starting a group like this!" or "This is such a good idea and thanks for making the group" WOW! If they only new that it was all for me...okay...and for them! I sound selfish but it's true. Like I said I wanted friends and playmates for my kids so I made it happen....viola'! Only thing is now I'm sad....sometimes. I also hear from women that they prayed for a group like this and sometime I hear how lonely they have been or don't have any friends or are in need of friends because they are newly divorced. I have met two women that have recently lost their husbands! I met another family that's husband has been laid off from his job and they are struggling hugely financially. They are struggling to pay their bills and can't afford anything for their children for Christmas. We also have another woman that joined and I am so thankful for her. Her name is Margo and she is a wife and a mother of a two year old daughter. She has battled liver cancer after being told that she had 6 months to live and she had WON! A this moment here and now she is at a hospital a few hours away in Montgomery were they have just told her that her cancer has come back and I am now waiting to hear from her. I am now not sure who needs who more. When you are around so many people with so much going on and so many back grounds and so many different views to just about everything it really puts life into perspective. The two women that are alone have now found each other as a support system and we are in the process of raising money to buy a Gift card to Toys R Us for the family that is without. As far as Margo goes...we are praying. We had 84 members but two people have left the group without me knowing why. At first I took it personal but I realize that I shouldn't and I for sure can't please everyone. To say I am awesome for starting a group like this here in this town would be silly because I seriously think it was God's plan not mine. To say that I am sad is so true sometimes, but, mostly I am just thankful.

Pizza Makin' a new family Tradition!

So we decided that we were going to try a once a month new family tradition. Making homemade pizza's! Honest to goodness this is the funnest and funniest thing that we have every done! I really don't know who was sillier the kids or Brent! We tried game night once before but Memphis can't grasp the fact that games have rules and that you are suppose to follow them. He had a ton of fun but it about drove us...the competitive folks..CRAZY! Yes, I know he was only three at the time...Ha! Ha! Brent decided that he wanted to become the master pizza flipper but after it hit the ceiling a couple times (want to mention we have a popcorn ceiling) he decided to stop! The pizza's were yummy!

Brent and his pizza making abilities...NOT!

I laughed until I thought I was gonna pee my pants!

This photo cracks me up every time I look at it. I know I look absolutely ridiculous because I was laughing so hard but here's the story. Every year we go to some kind of fair and every year I always get to go with Memphis into the fun house. Every year the same thing happens....Memphis smashes into the clear glass in the "glass house" part of the fun house! I swear I know he must be shy of a concussion but I seriously couldn't stop laughing because it was just so darn funny. As we started our journey into fun house I anticipated it happening and even that made me laugh! What's funny is that this year he gave me a sassy look and started off through the maze with his hands up feeling for the right spot to walk through and then he got to sure of himself and then ...Whammo! He got it good! Poor thing! I'm sure all he needed was a hug , but, atleast this year he laughed about it! I soooo can't wait til next years fair!

Peanut Festival!

 

The Orange Fest!

A Question Blog Hop! YAY!

This is Memphis saying to me at the fair..."Mommy I have a bit of the flu bug but I'll kiss you on your cheek!"

I have always wondered the who, what, when, why and how's that people came to seek our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and if you don't have a personal relationship with him then why? There are so many that have seeked him through hardships (my hardships being stupid choices) such as myself! Others through their family and just being brought up with their Faith. So that's my question! You may not feel comfortable telling everyone but I don't know all my blog hopping friends and so you can spill it and run!