Ballet Shoes

On December 7th Kelly Belle had her ballet recital. She did a wonderful job. She really enjoys taking her classes.

I have included her performance video.

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Great Job Kelly Belle.
We are proud of you! Love, Your Family

Jack's a Senior Red Belt

On December 17th Jack tested for his Senior Red Belt. The way he is going he will be a Black Belt in 6 months. We are all very proud and scared :o) Here’s his awesome board break:

Kyle Singing to Mamaw

Mamaw's 75th Birthday Celebration

Patrick’s mother is wonder. I am very blessed to have such a sweet and caring Mother-In-Love (thanks Laura for the name). She is always there for us in so many ways. In November the family met in TN for a 75th Birthday Celebration. It was wonderful to see so many family members. My four kids performed various music for her. Kyle even sang. Kelly Belle told mamaw that she was this many.....gave her 3 quarters....75cents, a penny for each year of her life. Very cute.
Happy 75th Birthday, Mamaw! We LOVE you!!

A 3-D Evening

Remember when you were a kid and things seem so exciting and then when you did it, well it was ok. Patrick and I said, "Been there and done that" to the 3-D glasses. Now it was all new to our kids. And they were so excited about getting the chance to watch a movie in 3-D. I remember the first 3-D movie I saw was "The Creature from the Black Lagoon".
Well, we rented the glasses and the movie, "Journey to the Center of the Earth". The new one with Brendon Frasier, ok he's getting fat. But he is still cute to me. We got the popcorn and soda and then action.
I thought Kelly was going to scream and pop at everything. So her personality, "I can see it, I see it..." even though nothing was happening. She is so easily impressed, LOVE IT!
Jack, handle things as well as expected. Since this movie wasn't really scary and not gory at all. But it did have the jump out and surprise you, factor. Jack doesn't do well with suspense.

Shannon, thought it was "cool". And wanted to see it again. She thought the whole glasses, the movie, how it all worked was fascinating. Plus she wants to read the book, of course.
Kyle, well he lasted 5 minutes with the glasses and said, "You can hold them."
All the kids enjoyed the movie and hey, it was corny but I'd see it again.
We love family movie night (every Saturday night, if you are in the neighborhood, join us). Well with one exception, Jack can't stand when it's a Barbie movie. We just do it to drive him crazy.

We've Got Eggs!

Jack found 7 eggs today. We got these older chickens from a friend that was moving away. They never laid an egg so I thought they were too old. I just planned to use them as trash cans and tillers. Well today Jack noticed a nest. Who knows how long them have been laying and who knows which chicken is laying. We will try to figure that out in the next day or so, scientifically...as much as as 5 kids and a mom can.
We are very excited to start getting some eggs, especially during the winter months.

A Pepperman Day

Today my dear friend, Helen and her awesomely cool kids, Hazel, Ray and Dashiell came to play at our house. These are the type of friends that you can pick up where you left off any time and any where. I love when they come to visit, no stress. The kids all play great and the moms can just hang out and talk about anything. Just what I needed after coming home from vacation (you know the blues you get from returning home from a trip?) and from the sadness that winter is here. They were the perfect pick-me-up. After Helen and talk for the day I am totally ready to tackle a new project...what first? planting, crocheting, baking, sewing, or * ? Return and see what I decided to start? Helen brought a bucket of basil for us to work on. I usually have a sink full of dirty dishes but today I had a sink for of basil. Made some wonderful pesto. Which Shannon loves, especially pesto sandwiches in the summer. Take 1 cup a fresh pesto and mix with 8 oz cream cheese. Spread on slices of bread and top with slices of tomato and cucumbers. She totally flips for this.
Also today, Jack made a special sandwich (mix 4 oz cream cheese with 1/2 cup peanut butter, spread on slice of bread, top with thin apple slices, and carmel and another slice of bread..I added cinnamon on mine) for his 4-H project and the boys tried it for him. And to every one's surprise it was good.
Thanks Peppermans for a fun day.

My Baby Turned Six

Kyle turned 6 on October the 11th. A happy day but also sad, this is my baby. He is turning out to be a real goofy boy, wonder where he gets it? He is such a fun kid to be around. I like that he still enjoys to sleep and snuggle with his mom, he says he will move into his own room when he is 16, I'm starting to believe him. Here's a small clip of what has been happening in Kyle's life for the past six years.

Happy Birthday Kyle!
We LOVE you!!

Red Belt Success

Jack past his Tae Kwon Do testing last Wednesday. Poor guy, we arrived home at 3am form Florida, which he only practiced his form twice on our trip, and then he had to get up and perform his trumpet for a 4-H function and then go test for his belt. He did it! And we are proud parents.

4-H News

Well Shannon did it again. Her 4-H team won first place at the Challenge Bowl competition in Perry, GA. She studied for almost 3 months on several different subjects:
4-H Knowledge and History
Diabetes
Stinging Bugs and Pest
Internet Terms and Bullying
They all studied hard. The other Madison County team won second place. They lost only to their co-team...very exciting.
We are very proud of her and was happy to have a homeschooler on the team.

Necktie Skirt

I finally made one. Each year this sweet elderly man (in photo) brings his old ties to our church trip and the men can take them. Then on a certain day at our church trip they have a Lonnie (man's name in photo) tie day. Well my girls said they wanted to take part in the day but did not want to wear a necktie. So I made a skirt from all the extra ties for Shannon with a matching bag, and another purse for Kelly Belle. I plan to make Kelly a skirt too. I also made all the other girls a small purse from one tie. It was simple and really did not hold much except a sucker.
I found a great skirt pattern online.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Skirt-from-Neckties
It was fun and easy to make. The most time was in the prep work of the ties before sewing. I plan to make some more purses..those were my favorite to make.

The Black Kids

Last night I went the the 4o Watt club in Athens to see my cousin. Kevin is the drummer for the Black Kids band. It was so much fun. This is the famous club in Athens that REM played at. My cousin has been playing in a band since he was a teen. Their music has a retro 80's feel. They are #5 in London. And they have been on the Letterman show and will be on the Tonight Show.

My mom, her friend and two of my friends met for dinner at a Belgium pub. Then my cousin, Kevin met us there. WOW has he grown....6'5". I am the same age as his older brother. My aunt had 5 boys and the last were twins. So Kevin is the youngest twin. I think it's kind of cool that Kevin's twin brother has twin girls.

Well we spent the longest time getting reconnected and talked about how their success came about. He is such a nice person. I am very impressed with his attitude and his vision. I believe they will go far.

After going to another place for dessert we heading into the club, felt to special, we were on the guest list and just walked right in, we were 'with the band'. The opening act was still playing so we went to the look at the tour bus and talk MORE.

After hearing them play we headed home and I passed out!

It was a great evening. But I understand why you this kind of partying when you are young! I did not bounce back so fast.

Here Kevin is talking with my friend, Helen on the phone. She could not come...so cute!

A Full Day

We had a full and fun day. We decided to start the day with a walk through Bear Hollow. This is a great place in Athens. Shannon has even volunteered at the nature center. They have several animals that have been rescued and cannot be released back in the wild. It's also next to a great pond to walk around. This place reminds me of our old playgroup in Covington. But the best part, it's FREE.

We met Ryan there and then started walking, no plans just see how the day unfolds. I wanted to share some great pictures that Shannon took of some plants & flowers. I think they are great, but I am her mother. She is really starting to get into photography. I so need to get her a better camera and have her hang out with Andrea!

After walking and looking, we went to the Athens Library for the kids' book club. Ran into a awesome friend Stephanie (another LLL Leader)while I was there. Things just work out the way they should. We got to have a mini meeting with a mom at the library. I heard a baby of about 2-3 mths just crying it's head off....I had to find this baby. Well Stephanie had the same thought, we almost ran into each other, we had to seek, find and fix this baby. Happy to say all ended well, baby and mommy settled into a nice nursing moment...with the two of us smiling!

After the library I dropped Shannon off for her clarinet lesson. Then I took the kids home, put baby down for nap, feed other kids, baby wakes up, picked up Shannon, made cookies, made dinner for tonight and tomorrow night, schooled some, straighten up, feed baby, put baby down for nap, made snack for kids, listened to them practice instruments and read, give baby to mother, finish dinner, cleaned up, Patrick comes home, two kids go do horse chores, eat dinner, make beds for guest, mother arrives with a friend, chat, put my babies to bed and finally update blog.

The End.....to a long day. But I feel good about it all.

17 Years of Happiness

Well, it's really longer than that but today is my 17th year wedding anniversary. And I am celebrating it with my kids since my husband had to go to Atlanta to work today. But that's OK for the last few years we have gone out with our kids, we enjoy being together!

But I wanted to write and tell you how I fell in love with my best friend--Patrick, other than the obvious-he's cute!

I was 18 years old and quit college after 1 semester. Then my parents moved to NC. I decided to stay here in GA. OK I am on my own??? So I got a job at Wendy's in a mall (yes, I was a mall rat). How boring, I was a fry girl (not a fly girl). I kind of liked the no brainer job and I met LOTS of people. After a few months I became the opening manger (not hard to become if you have a brain). Every morning when I opened the store my first costumer was this sad looking blonde guy. He ordered the same thing every morning and did NOT engage in conversation. All the employees at the store would tease me, "Hey, here comes a cute guy for you" Patrick worked at another restaurant in the mall. And he is 6 years older than me so he looked like an old man to a 18 year old. Well that was the first time I saw Patrick.

Weeks later while at a singles night out at a club he recognized me. He said, "Aren't you that 'kid' that works at Wendy's?" Well I was so embarrassed and said I did not want to ever talk to him again. Then a few weeks later I saw him at one of our church activities. There's that guy again. I did NOT talk with him. Like I said I was quite a bit younger so we hung out with different groups of people. But he was everywhere I happened to be. I grew up in this church so I knew everyone. Everyone liked Patrick, they said he is a nice guy. Even my family kept saying it. Patrick even helped my parents move back to Atlanta.

Well over time I did talk to Patrick and yes he was a nice guy. Patrick, my roommate and I quickly became friends. The three of us did everything and went every where together. I remember calling Patrick up one night asking if he would go to the movies with me because I did not want to go alone, he did, and I never thought more about it except he was one of my best friends. The two of us became even more close. I never thought about anything more than friendship with Patrick since I was so much younger. He did secretly.

Then the day came I told him I was moving to NC to go back to college. This was hard on him. Well for the next year he came and visited me. Those were so long weekends for him driving back and forth. I still thought he was a great friend. Until one day a girl asked if there was something between us, " Why? Me and Patrick? No, we are 'just' friends!" I was kind of defensive, OK I was down right mad that she was interested in him. Well, he's MY best friend, right? One of my NC friends told me I was jealous and I totally showed it in my face when she asked about us. I totally denied it. I can't like Patrick, he's my best friend, I tell him everything! He knew more about me than he should have known. (Come to think about, it's kind of cool, that he still liked me after knowing all my dark secrets...wow!)

A couple days later and a lot of soul searching (and crying) I realized I did like him. He was the nicest guy I knew. He was always there for me with no strings attached.

I called him up and said we need to talk and have a real date. My dad was going to be in a play, thought this was a safe start. So Patrick drove from Atlanta to Charlotte, NC to Murphy, NC and then took me back to Charlotte and then back to Atlanta in 2 days. That's a lot of miles!! Well, after the play was over we were walking out and he held my hand. I thought I was going to die! It felt so right and better yet, he was holding my hand in front of my dad. No boy has ever tried that before (you have to know my dad....he is tough!). I thought wow, he felt comfortable doing that in front of MY dad, he's got guts! So we planned our next date. And that night he kissed me good night. I know this will sound movieish but I knew I was going to marry this boy!

6 months later we were married.

4 years later we had our first baby.

12 years later we had our last baby.

17 years later I still love to kiss and hold his hand.

21 years later I still love to serve him fries!

We have been through all the normal marriage issues but I know I married my best friend. This story proves nice guys do have it all! I hope my girls will find a man like their dad to marry. And I hope my boys will treat their wives like Patrick treats me-very sweet!

Happy Anniversary Patrick!

I love you, pickle man!

Spiderwick Party

I was not going to post about this but it turned out so well I needed to....for Shannon's 13th birthday we had a Spiderwick Sleep-over party. She had three friends

come. When they came in the door there were jars filled with colored water around the room....we asked if they could see anything in them? All said no, since they did not have the "sight" they could not see the creatures (more on this later). Everyone unpacked their things and talked for a little while. Then we ate pizza and soda. Then had cake, Shannon wanted dragons on it since this was a make-believe party. She requested a chocolate cake. The girls sang to her even though Shannon did not want them, too. After dinner they feed the horse. Then we watched the movie Spiderwick. Only one other girl besides Shannon has read the books. All my kids loved the 5 book series. It is a very intense movie. I would not have let my 5 year see it if not for, well the littlest one sees more things then the first. They had popcorn and some junk candy (which my kids never get, they were so surprised). But to contrary belief they did not gorge themselves. They made sure everyone got some. Towards the end of the movie I slipped a small torn note in the sofa. Someone found it and it read a riddle on how to find Mr. Spriderwick's Fieldguide. We hid it the same as in the book. Wrapped in brown paper, tied with string, sealed with wax, wrapped in old shirt, hide in a trunk. All this was hidden in the room. After they found the book, looked through it (it's a really cool field guide) they headed out to the trampoline with glow necklaces and bracelets. The younger children went to bed. They jumped for almost an hour, even in the rain....crazy girls.

They came in and changed into bed clothes.

Shannon opened presents. They then just hung out all night, I was with them while they showed each other stuff on computer. Not one complained of me watching over them and the computer...great girls! Then they went upstairs to sleep....after a few minutes of chatting. This was around 2am. Then I made the room change into Mr. Spriderwick's laboratory. Filled the jars with creatures (told you it was coming), hung fake spider webs every where, set tomato juice, oatmeal, salt, & honey on counter (see the movie or read the books to find out why you need this stuff), and even wrote on the walls coming down the stairs, "Click, Clack, watch your back." (I wrote with chocolate, so I could wipe it off...didn't have anything else).

The next morning, Jack hid the riddle clues through out the yard. When the girls woke up and came down stairs they read the message on the wall and we squirt water in their faces (this is how you get the sight, again read the book)....plus it woke them up more. Then they could 'see' the creatures in the jars....also they were surprised at all the room decor....this set the stage for the whole day. They feed the horse, then we had pancakes with strawberries, blue berries and whipped cream, yum!

Then the games began. They wore red shirts...did you know that sprites do not like red? They first made a circle of protection around the house.

Then we through fake bombs (water balloons) at the approaching trolls (siblings-Jack, Kelly Belle, & Kyle). Then they went on a Sprite riddle hunt. Shannon made up all the riddles, they were great!!! We rolled them up and sealed each one with hot wax seal. We even hid one at the creek in a bottle...so fun. Who says you need formal poetry class...she wrote 7 riddles this weekend that rhymed and made you think!

After the games we did lots of crafts. 1: Made Sprites, out of silk flowers 2: Fieldguides, notebooks 3: Pixie potion jars, sand art 4: Dragon figure, too big, sent home to finish. 5: Brownie house, this was a group effort for Shannon's brownie. Had bags that they decorated to take everything home in.

We ended the day with lunch, and then 'Brownie' (read the book) sundaes.

All the girls got along and we all had a fun! I was tired but I would do it again....it turned out great.