Merry Christmas!

The day is finally here!  We were expecting an early morning, but we woke up before the girls.  The girls finally woke up after Randy jumped in the shower.  Natalie was excited about the presents she spied under the tree.  Clarissa woke up and said, "Mommy, my heart is so grateful!"  Needless to say, we had a great morning.  

The First Snow Fall

It's December---so where's the snow!?  Well, in Tennessee, we usually don't get our first snow until January or February.  On the night of December 11th, we had our first snow fall!  And to top it off, our first snow day on the 12th!  The girls had fun making snowmen and snow angels.  It was a winter wonderland!

Columbia Christmas Parade

The first Monday in December is set aside for the annual Columbia Christmas Parade (unless it rains).  It is also set aside for what seems like the coldest night of the year!  So we bundled up and braved the cold all to see Santa and Mrs. Claus.  It's officially Christmas in Columbia! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a very busy Thanksgiving day!  After church, we decided to fore go the roasting of the turkey at home and had it at Cracker Barrel instead.  It was nice not to have to clean up!  Afterwards we headed up to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel to spend the day.  We first went to the Ice exhibit.  There were hundreds of figurines carved from ice!  I knew it would be cold inside, but was unprepared for the temperature to be 6 degrees!  Luckily they gave us an extra jacket to put over the ones we were already wearing.  The kids were a little scared of the Grinch but the ice sculptures were beautiful.  They also got to slide down an ice slide.  We ended our day watching the Rockettes in the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular.  Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for all of the fun!

Thanksgiving Feast

The kindergarten classes at Zion treated parents and grandparents to a Thanksgiving feast.  The girls were pilgrims and the boys were Indians.  They did a little program and then we had a complete Thanksgiving lunch.  Come to find out, the principal and some of the staff made all of the food, including cooking 7 turkeys!  It was all so good!

Happy Birthday, Clarissa!

November 16th brought Clarissa's sixth birthday.  We first celebrated with her kindergarten class.  Clarissa and I made a big cookie to share.  The kids loved it!  On Saturday, the 15th, the family went out for pizza at CiCi's and then up to Build-a-Bear Workshop to create a new friend.  Clarissa made a bear and Natalie made a moose named Lily.  To top off our birthday trip, the girls got to talk to Santa!  What a birthday!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween brought another year of debate--to buy a costume or to make one.  We went back and forth and Clarissa finally decided to buy one when she fell in love with a bride costume at Walmart (Natalie already knew she wanted to be Belle).  It kind of broke my heart to not make a costume, but it also saved me some time.  We had beautiful weather to trick or treat.  Thanks to the Kirks for letting us park at their place and for all the goodies!

Natalie's Birthday #2

Natalie celebrated again with her class at TLC.  The cupcakes were delicious!

Natalie's birthday

Natalie turned 4 this year!  We were just going to have a little party at home, but thanks to Hurricane Ike, we doubled our numbers!  We were so excited about having Uncle Ed, Aunt Amy, Hannah and Patrick here to celebrate.  We ate at McDonalds, played glow golf and had a pinata.  We had such a great time, and, according to Natalie, this was the "best birthday ever!"

Jack Daniel's Barbecue

We had some pretty busy weekends in October, but the one that Randy was most looking forward to was the Jack Daniel's Barbecue competition in Lynchburg.  Contestants from all over the country competed for the title of best barbecue in a bunch of different categories.  We tried some of the barbecue and it was great!  Of course, the girls wouldn't eat it so they had hot dogs and popcorn.  They also had their faces painted.  Later on we found out that a friend of ours was one of the judges!  He ate something like 20 pounds of food!!  Not me--I stuck to ribs and pulled pork.  Later that same night we went to the fall festival at Clarissa's school.  You'll see from the picture that they had a lot of fun on the train.  This was our busiest Saturday yet!

4 teeth gone and counting....

After a visit to the dentist on the 15th, the dentist decided that Clarissa needed to make way for her "big" teeth.  Her 2 bottom ones were trying to push through, but 3 other baby teeth were in the way.  The 2 were coming in very crooked, so the dentist is hoping that by getting the others out of the way, the 2 will come in straighter.  So how do we get rid of the 3 bad teeth?  Pull them, of course!!  Clarissa didn't seem upset by it, but Mom sure was!  We made the appointment as soon as possible and so on the 22nd, Clarissa had 3 teeth pulled.  Mom could not be there because she was already committed to subbing, but Dad took great care of her.  All Clarissa remembers is the dentist putting on the mask for the "happy" gas and feeling a little dizzy.  She has no idea how they numbed her mouth, and we are going to keep it that way!

Pumpkin Farm

It is that time of year again!  We have a couple of choices when it comes to pumpkin farms, but this year, we discovered one that was only 15 minutes south of us...we usually head north!  We set off on Sunday the 19th and it was a beautiful day.  The kids rode a train, we went on a hay ride and picked some huge pumpkins.  The highlight for the kids were the dogs for sale.  Afterwards we took a detour into Lynnville for some really good hamburgers.  What a day!

The Southern Fried Festival

On Friday, September 26th, we decided to take the kids to Columbia's Southern Fried Festival.  It's not as popular as Mule Days, but we wanted to check it out anyways. :) It was a beautiful night to go and the kids had a lot of fun.  You can see that they enjoyed getting their faces painted.  There was one disappointment for us parents though--where was all the fried food?!!!!  We were looking forward to plates full of southern cooking, a.k.a. fried food, and we had a really hard time finding it.  We found fried oreos, french fries and some fried fish.  KFC was the sponsor---where was the chicken, Colonel!  We ended up having pulled pork sandwiches, very delicious, but not fried.  Well, it's not like we will never be able to find fried food.  Our waistlines are just a little better for not having found any at its very own festival.

Clarissa's first tooth--GONE

I know, it's been 2 months since my last post.  Shortly after this picture was taken last month, our computer broke.  We have yet to get it fixed, but meanwhile, we have discovered that we can pick up a wireless internet signal from one of our neighbors.  So, after many weeks of subbing and not having time to make updates, here I am!  This picture of Clarissa was taken on September 26th.  She lost her first tooth!  She was so excited and of course, she put her tooth under her pillow.  The Tooth Fairy brought her a dollar and a little treat.  More updates to come!

I love broccoli!

So for dinner the other night I made some pasta and I was trying to figure out what vegetable to cook, broccoli or corn. Natalie insisted on having broccoli. So I made one of those bags of broccoli that you steam in the microwave which also had some baby carrots in it. Well, I brought it to the table and put some on Natalie's plate. She said she wanted more. So I told her to take what she wanted. As you can see in the picture, she decided to take it all! Except for a few we happened to steal, Natalie ate the whole plate of broccoli! Thank goodness we at least had some baby carrots left!

School Uniforms

We are on our third week of school...and we haven't been late yet! It's been tough getting into a new routine and some mornings are better than others, but we are making it. I wish they did this everyday, but they only wear uniforms on Wednesdays for chapel. Because it is so hot, Clarissa has been wearing khaki skorts and a uniform shirt. Like I said, I wish this was everyday! It looks so cute.

Kindergarten Pro

The day has finally arrived! Clarissa's first day of Kindergarten! On the way to school we asked her if she wanted us to walk her to her class and she said, "No, just drop me off at the door." Well, when we got there, most parents were walking their kids in, so we had to convince Clarissa to let us come with her. She's already a pro! This week she will only go on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Today she got out at 11am but the other days she will stay until 2:30pm. Next week will mark her first full week! That will be the real test, for her and for us!!

Clarissa is famous!

So, after church today, I went to purchase a Sunday paper at our local gas station. The guy that works there knows me and preceded to tell me that the Daily Heralds were all gone. They sold out really quick supposedly. He wasn't sure why. Just as I was about to leave, he found one behind the counter. So I bought it and went on my way. As I was eating lunch, I was flipping through the paper. I got to our lifestyles section (which is about 6 pages), turned to the inside and there was Clarissa! Her dance academy had put all the pictures of their recital in the paper! And to think, I almost didn't get a paper!

Parent Orientation

Last night, I spent 3 and 1/2 hours getting to know the school Clarissa will be going to for Kindergarten. We learned about all the new procedures and Clarissa got to meet her teacher. She was so excited about seeing her classroom! She is sitting with a group of 4 boys and only 1 other girl. Randy is not pleased! Monday is her first day....here we go!

Schools in session!

Natalie went back to school yesterday! She was excited until she got there and there were so many new faces. She felt more comfortable after finding her favorite teachers and friends. Today she stayed at school with no problem!