Tacky and Wacky Christmas

Matt and I went to our FIRST Tacky Christmas sweater party on Saturday night. I love friends like the Vernon's who open up their homes for fun events such as this one. I honestly thought it would be easier to find a tacky sweater than it actually was. Matt and I went on "the hunt" last Wednesday night. After TWO different Goodwill stops, zilch was found, and we needed to get to church. I had some ideas from google searches, but even those weren't do-able with the Goodwill selections. What to do? What to do? I really didn't want to spend any money and didn't want to hit up all the consignment shops in town. SO, I decided to text my friend April who has attended some of these parties. She brought me a stash to EEP the next morning. My mom also found a sweater she had from "back in the day". Matt and I sported matching snowmen attire. We look purty tacky, don't ya think.

Some more tacky party goers.

Love making memories with the bestest of friends!

It's Beginning to Look A lot Like...

...the end of November birthday season

We wrapped up November with Nana's 60th birthday. Both my mom and my mother-in-law turned 60 in November. Wanna know something even cooler (I don't think I've ever mentioned this in my blog), my mom and Debbie were pregnant and working together at Dishman when Matt and I were seedlings. Our families were such good friends, we even went on vacation to Fairfield Glade and have some kid pics of us together. If I had a scanner and actually knew where the pics were, I'd share them. I know they are up in my attic somewhere. Anyway, my mom and Debbie are still the closest of friends and took a beach trip with some other friends this summer to celebrate their 60th.

Me and the sister-in-laws decided to give Debbie a Pandora bracelet and some charms. Here she is opening up all her cards. Our kids especially got into making cards for Nana. Isaac's was super cute. It had cats all over and said "Have a PURRtastic birthday". I was thinking PURRfect, but he said PURRtastic. Love it! We had a wonderful celebration with Nana.

Matt celebrated #35 the last day of the month. Over Thanksgiving Matt's cousin Katie brought a delicious pie to Mamaw Deaton's. It was from the Pie Kitchen in Louisville. I brought a slice of it home. Trust me ya'll, it wasn't a little one. It was a whopper. Matt and I devoured it the next day and were yearning for more. I decided to order one online and got it the day BEFORE his birthday (yesss, love it when things work out). I hid in the fridge and surprised him with it the next day.

Umm yeah, gonna be ordering more of these in the future.

I got him a South Warren sweatshirt. Being the undefeated bowling coach and all, he needs to look the part. All the kids at school love it because it's Underarmor.

I also got Matt a gift card from Karson for IHOP. We just got one in Bowling Green and cannot wait to try it. She also made him the cutest card with his life time-line.

...fun events with friends season

Roller skating to celebrate a friends birthday and hanging out with Ms. Tinsley her teacher.

Miles BFF Samuel spent the day with us last Sunday. Miles and Samuel simply can't get enough of each other. I wish I could've caught the shot of them holding hands on the way into Pap and Nana's for lunch. C-ute!

I had to run a couple of errands and left the boys with Matt. When I returned home, they were in FULL super hero gear and jumping on the trampoline. Love these boys and how well they get along and just LOVE each other.

...the beginning of basketball season

What a difference a year makes. I decided NOT to coach Ms. Karson's team this year. I sure am glad about that decision. Matt's bowling matches have fallen on the nights of our practice and usually overlap a great deal. I have had to drop Karson off a couple of times just to avoid trying to "contain" the boys for an hour+. Her practices are two nights a week and now that games have begun, once a week. The sad thing about the new practice schedule (now-January) is her practices are on Wednesday nights. Ugh. I don't think it's THAT big of a deal to miss church, but Karson likes CHURCH and wants to be there. I am leaving the decision in her hands. I think she's leaning towards splitting it up--such a smart girl.

Team Shock had their first game on Saturday and got STOMPED. However, my little #4 was all over the court, the ball, her girl, and even got a foul. WHAT? She has gotten aggressive and knows what it's all about this year. She scored 4 out of 10 points. I couldn't have been prouder and LOUDER. I am going to have to work on that. I swore I would never be "that parent"--eeek.

Coach Brock rallying the team after our the SMACKing. I could tell Karson was blue. It's hard coming off an undefeated volleyball season and experiencing a loss after ALL the hard work they've put in at practice. I have a feeling we will win a few though.

....Christmas program extravaganzas

I DARE you to find a cuter elf than my Isaac. Oh my! Isaac was the only one at Plano in the Christmas program this year. It's for grades 2nd and down. This year's performance was called "The Incredible Reindeer". I love our music teacher Ms. Cothran. She is so talented and creative with these programs. We're blessed having her at Plano. I did, however, have a TIME finding Isaac a solid red elf suit. You would think it would be easier to find green or red sweatsuits this time of the year, but I struck out everywhere I went. I ended up with a pair of fleece pajama pants from Wal-Mart, and a fleece jacket from Children's Place. I was afraid Isaac would complain about it because he's so HOT natured, but he didn't. He even got into put the rosy cheeks on. LOVE IT!

It's hard to read, but my caption says, "Here's Isaac, behind the giants with ears." Isaac is such a shrimp.

A clip for your enjoyment.

I love this season and time of the year. Looking forward to more HOLIDAY posts!

Family Photo Shoot

I have been meaning to post these family pictures for a while. I love blogging but simply haven't had time to devote to it lately. I was so glad that Debbie scheduled these family pictures last month. I can't think of the last time we had ACTUAL family pictures by a photographer. My skilled friend Melissa can take some excellent pictures. I don't know what it is about picture taking that annoys my kids, well, mainly MY BOYS. I'm glad I have lots of individual pictures of the kids from school, and Karson has even more because of sports. I promise I don't take THAT many pictures, but I do love chronicling our lives. And really the only way you can do that is through pictures, video and journaling. So KIDS, get over it =).

I had this one blown up to a 16x20 by MPix. I took it to Hobby Lobby today for framing. The pictures posted above are the ones I used for our Christmas cards this year. I ordered 50 from VistaPrint and loved the cards, but the picture wasn't quite as clear as I wanted (and it looked a little distant). I ordered an additional 50 from Wal-Mart this week and actually like them better. Here are some more of my favorite shots from the SHOOT:

The Deaton Ladies
My family-in-law. Aren't family-in-laws great! I seriously don't know what I would do without mine. Wonderful, wonderful people!

I think Debbie used the color version of this one for her Christmas card?

I LOVE this picture and would consider it my favorite, but Matt's smile is odd and Isaac is looking down instead of at the camera. I thought the colors and editing were beautiful though.

Family close up.

Just a swingin'. Hope you enjoyed our photo shoot!

Hogwarts 101

Super Saturday classes at Western has become one of Karson's favorite fall activities. She's been attending since she was in first grade. Matt and I are fortunate having a "gifted" child that is quite talented academically. In first grade, I was asked to attend a meeting at Plano for gifted children. I was basically told at the meeting that there is no funding for children like Karson and anything they can do outside of class/school to enrich their learning would be highly beneficial. That statement makes me sad for many reasons. One of them is that I can't understand why our state wouldn't want to put extra funding behind these (meaning MY) child who has SO much potential and could expand her thinking by LEAPs and BOUNDs by being challenged. But, fortunately, Matt and I can and will make financial sacrifices for her to attend the gifted studies programs at WKU and place her in camps (all per her request) to help her achieve all the academic goals she wishes to reach. Our Isaac is equally as smart but has NO desire to do Super Saturdays. Part of me wants to push him, but the other part says don't sweat it, there's time. And, honestly, he's 6 and still has A LOT of growing up to do.

Karson was one of the fortunate FEW at Plano that was able to get into Hogwarts 101 with Ms. Neesa Richardson. All I can say is WOW, this woman brought her 'A' game to class every week. The first day of class, the children used the sorting hat to determine which Howarts House they would belong to.

Waiting for the results....

Karson was selected for Ravenclaw along with another girl-

-I have no idea who she is or where she goes to school.

Karson was really wanting something that identified her with her house. I scored a scarf on Amazon and since we're PRIME members, had it in 2 days =). She wore it to class the second week. She also brought a Quidditch trophy I altered to make it look like something they might receive at a match.

Her friend Becca was the only other Plano student in the class. Becca and Karson played volleyball together this season. It's nice knowing a buddy in class.

The class concocted some kind of green potion on this day also. Karson was tickled by it. Me, not so much. My kids don't do well with anything like that. It usually ends up stuck in their hair, on their clothes, carpet, anywhere that it doesn't belong. Glad she had fun with it in class because it went straight into the garbage when we got home. I know, no FUN mom, but truly, that stuff was messier than ten tubs of Moon Sand.

On the third week, the kids got to play Quidditch. This was Karson's favorite day.

The kids grabbing at the seeker.

I didn't take MOST of these pictures. Her teacher provided each child with a powerpoint of the Hogwarts experience on the last day, HOW COOL! Karson always came home with a newletter or some project they worked on like wand making, broomsticks, potion (ick), etc. The class experience was worth WAY more than the cost of attending. We can't wait to take our kids to Universal Studios SOON so they can have the Harry Potter Experience. Thanks NEESA for a wonderful class!