Thanksgiving Lunch

For Thanksgiving, we met the Warren Clan at the lake house again. We had really nice weather and got to spend some time outside.

As the girls were finished setting the table and about to place the food on it, we looked outside and saw the beautiful sun's reflection on the lake and beautiful warm temperatures so we decided to ask the men to move the table outside and enjoy our lunch on the lawn. The guys weren't too thrilled about it but obliged without too much complaint.

We ended up with some really pretty pictures and a great time and many memories were made that day.

We even moved the kid's table outside, too

The adult table



The sun kept coming in and out from behind the clouds

Blakesly sits at the adult table but may be wondering here by Uncle Brett gets to!

Matthew & Katie

These kids had gone on an adventure walk and came back with all sorts of treasures from the lake

Done with lunch - visiting around the table

Aunt Michelle & Lydian

We found a lizard that provided some after dinner entertainment for all


It jumped onto Gigi's Back - she handled it very well!

Okay - enough pictures!!!!

Julianna's 5th Birthday Party

We had a difficult time deciding if and what we would do to celebrate Julianna's birthday outside of just the family. But we finally decided on a party in the Family Life Center of a "sister" church - one where she went to Mother's Day Out for 3 years.

She invited friends from her Preschool, friends from church and friends from her Mothers Day Out schools. She had a good turnout and they had a lot of fun. We were pleased that we had a large room for the kids.

I had a friend who carried my camera around for the evening. She got over 150 pictures so it was a challenge to go through them, but I tried to pick some of my favorites.


Our sweet birthday girl

When the kids arrived, we had some paper with markers and stickers for the kids to work on a big sign that Rebecca wrote "Happy Birthday Julianna"

Lined up and ready for the first game

This was BY FAR their favorite - they had to run down to their teammate (dressed in over sized black long underwear) and stuff him with balloons

Julianna and Makenzie work hard to stuff their friend

These boys were brothers - we actually had the exact same amount of balloons in each boys clothes!

Pizza arrived so Mr. Matt prayed before we ate

Ready for the next game

This one was girls vs. boys!

We had a little bit harder time running down and popping these small balloons

The next game was a "quick change" where they had to go put on some of Christian's clothes and then run back to their teammate

The birthday girl (yes, it's a Wal-mart cake - she picked it out!)



What a sweet group of old and new friends she has!

And of course, if you know my daughter, you know we had to get the silly picture!

Julianna turns 5

Our sweet Julianna turned 5 on November 17th. What a cutie she is. And yes, as everyone said when we found out that we were having her - we couldn't imagine life without her. What a true blessing she is from the Lord!

A pretty Pink Fleece!!

$5!!!
A Pillow Pet!!

Of course it had to be the pink & purple one!!!

Julianna was given her own ipod (Mom's hand-me-down) which she was so excited about!

Julianna got her first "real" bike! Surprised? Yes - and of course it's pink and princesses!

Sweet thing!

I took a cookie cake to her at school and the class sang to her.

She requested that they sing the "Cha-cha-cha" during Happy Birthday!

Her teacher took this picture of us

Her dearest friend, Angela was out of town during her party so we got together at Taco Bell for lunch to celebrate with her.

Very excited about her Princess card with a Princess door hanger!

Fall Festival at Church

We had a Fall Festival at Church. No one said to wear costumes but for many previous years, we all have. The girls dressed up as the most beautiful Georgia Bulldog fans you've ever seen. What's even better is that their Georgia Tech Daddy painted their faces -much to his dismay - but he did a great job.


Even I decided at the last minute to dress up.... although much to my dismay, there was only one other adult there dressed up this year - Good Grief - I can't get it right!

We did some line dancing and even Matthew got out there (again, much to his dismay!)

He did a good job!

Rebecca had a lot of fun

Rebecca and some of her friends

See the Ninja in the sound booth? That would be Christian!!!

Blessings Poured Out

In my previous post, I shared what my mother-in-law brought us to be prepared. Well, she came to visit my kids for the day when they were out of school. The kids were soo excited about it and we had a great visit with her. She even got to see Christian's first basketball game of the season where he scored 4 points (which is 3 more than all of last season!!!)

She told us she had some more stuff for us - well, let me say her little Lexus must have been dragging over Mount Eagle because you would not believe how full her car was.

As we unloaded, she shared with me that she just felt led to do this and even though everyone thinks she's crazy, she just needs to do what she feels led to do. Below you will see the stuff she brought us - Holy Cow - talk about a blessing to our family. We are able to store a lot of these items and be prepared for any emergency that might occur (even if it's another flood like we had here in Nashville in May). But there was also a lot of stuff that just helps us now - you know how it gets tight at the end of the month??? Well, now this makes it a little easier.

So although there are those that thinks she's crazy, we have been truly blessed by her and appreciate all she's done. However, by writing this blog, the 3 of you who actually read it now know where to come if there's ever a catastrophic event!!!!

I must admit, however, that most of the toilet paper has already been used!!!

We won't run out of rice until we have great-grandchildren!!!

Each of these buckets are filled with individually sealed items of all types of food (as you can see on the lids)



For some reason, this was my kid's favorite bucket!!

Some more home prepared items - I love the mushrooms on the right (yes, I'm the only one in my family who will eat them but I will!!)

Be Prepared

We saw my in-laws briefly in the Fall and my Mother-in-Law told us she had some stuff for us. She's done some research and is concerned about a bill (S510) that has passed through Congress and is headed to the Senate. I don't understand it all, but it has something to do with making it illegal for you to grow your own food and then pass it on or sell it to others.

So Glynda has purchased and prepared us some emergency food to store away in case days get a little tough. We were thankful for her thoughtfulness and as a way to log what I have, I took pictures - so why not share them with you? Here they are.....

Freeze Dried Raspberries, bananas, Strawberries (makes me want a smoothie!) and some butter, shortening, and eggs

Freeze dried Ground beef, Cheese Sauce, Sour Cream, Refried Beans, onions & Carrots (mmm. I'm thinking Mexican!)

Here, she has freeze dried herself and put them in jars for us - I won't list them all but if you look closely, you will see apples, carrots, sweet potatoes, blue berries, green beans, peas, broccoli and oranges!

More stuff she has done herself - carrots, peppers, soup mix, slaw, rice and more apples

She totally hooked us up with rice.....

....and all types of Pasta!