Spring!

Our spring break fell early this year. It had to do with all of the stupid state testing they do…you know, the testing teacher’s have be a slave to for half the year. We were so disappointed because for the first time ever my 2 sisters and I had our spring breaks during 3 different weeks. What it ultimately meant was a rather low key (but still fun) time at Nene and Grandad’s house.
The weather was beautiful and the kids spent a lot of time down by the creek. Avery Grace is helping Caroline build a fairy house from nature.
  Here they are with their finished product.


Avery Grace’s fairy had the mansion on the hill, so to speak. Very fancy!
  We took the dogs on a walk and pet the many horses we saw on the way.

My dad runs into us on his way home from work and gave the girls a ride back to the house.
Avery wanted me to take a picture of the bubbles she blew as she washed her face. We have cheap thrills.

The best part about visiting my parents is all the outdoor fun. This is what Caroline’s feet looked like at the end of the day.
They all look like something the cat drug in by dinner time. But oh how they slept well at night. ;-)

We always dye Easter eggs when we are there…
 




These 3 aprons have been around FOREVER. My sister’s and I used to wear them…can’t you tell? It looks like they came off the set of Little House on the Praire. Lol!
I took my blog header by the creek one day.

Then afterwards we hid eggs for the girls to have an Easter egg hunt. It was starting to drizzle which is why they wore their rain boots.
They look so big to me in this shot. I have pictures of them all in this same location with their baskets as young as 18 months old. They all just look so tall. 

Hunting…

Avery kept running past the “golden” egg. I guess we hid them better than we thought.


One of the many looks I get regularly from my dad. Hee hee!

Speaking of my dad, he made me this beautiful rugged cross for me!!! I LOVE it!!
  Hanging around outside waiting for dinner to be ready…






I’m sorry…am I boring you or something? Caroline loses interest rather quickly when I start to photograph her. :)
Unless of course she can pose like this….


That girl is full of personality I tell ya!
My older sister’s spring break overlapped weekends with the end of ours. One night we celebrated all the March birthdays and my dad’s retirement from Fed Ex.
Jackson and Amberly (the twins as we call them) were so excited to have a couple of days together. 
My birthday boy.


I don’t understand why he won’t kiss me? Ha ha!
My dad (another birthday boy) got a musical card that Caroline really enjoyed dancing to.

My older sister turned 43. Her nieces and nephew call her Gigi. Get it? AnGIe is Gigi. My mom’s name is EugeNIE (Nene). So I am destined to be a Mimi when I have grandkids.
We were due to go home on Sunday.
Sunday morning Jackson and Amberly come to me like this.
“Can we PLEASE stay an extra day?”
YES…
or no????

How can you not crack up at that?? They had only seen each other 1.5 days at that point. :(
I am convinced that it is the little things in life that mean the most.
What will they remember 20 years from now… that Monday morning of school or that extra day spent with family?

Family time. . .

This Thanksgiving was spent in Memphis. I am sure you have figured out that we switch off years with the grandparents. The year we do Thanksgiving with my family, we stay home and do Christmas with Brent’s family. Works out great.

Here is the puppy posse. Aren’t they adorable? However there is one missing. My older sister’s dog Rowdy. He never gets to hang with the fam though because he is a pee’er. Is that even a word? He lifts his leg all over the house. He spends his holidays at the kennel up the street. These 3 rock the joint though. I love the puppy posse.

Before Thanksgiving we had a girls night out and went out to eat and to the movies. We saw the new Twilight movie. Not horrible, but geesh! Sometimes it seems so campy, I mean the acting is just excruciating in parts. Almost laughable.

My 19 year old nephew is always the MAN when he comes around. The kids flock to him like a moth to a flame. He does not mind at all and will play around with them all they want. He will make a great dad one day.

Here are a couple of shots I took in between our family portraits.

The leaves are always a hit…

My older sister Angie standing in for me as I worked on my camera settings. My dad took our family pictures. He is pretty good and always comes up with some interesting angles.

All of the pictures were taken on my parents property. It is just beautiful.

Of course….there was smores. They make them  EVERY time and the kids LOVE it.

Ahhhh…Thanksgiving morning. We had our aprons on and were ready to cook up a storm! Alright fine, I admit it, my knife was just a prop. I mean, who the heck uses a knife that large anyway? But I look intimidating right? If you saw me like this on a dark street would you run the other way or just laugh hysterically? Yeah, me too.

Avery Grace is our little table setter. She pays great attention to the details.

We had 2 turkeys. One baked and one fried.

I photographed the 3 little ones and their matching outfits while waiting for the food to cook.

They took the shoot very seriously.

We love this moss covered tree. It makes for a great back ground.

My sister’s family on the left, and my mom’s sister and her son (my cousin) on the right. We had a VERY full house. 19 people under one roof for 4 of the days. Crazy!!!

Oh look! The moss tree again. Hee hee.

The little girls toasting with their sparkling apple cider.

My dad took this shot of Brent and I during Thanksgiving dinner. I love it. Great symmetry with the candles.

We had too any people to get a shot of the whole table. It looks like we had just finished dessert.

Caroline loves her some Big Daddy Counce.

The next morning the girls headed out for some Black Friday shopping. We were not too crazy as we left at about 10:30am. As much as I love to shop, sleep trumps shopping in my book.

After some shopping and dining I did take some pics of my little sister’s family. She found an adorable area to shoot in-- someone else's front yard.  I think I want a family picture there next year. Well, if my parent’s still live there. My dad retires from Fed Ex in March. This just might have been our last holiday spent in Memphis. :(

The next day was the IRON BOWL!!!! Yep, I made all my kids dress up in their Bama gear for the game! :)

A group shot of some of us. We are all Bama fans except for 2 people.

Here is my hubby hugging on one of them. ;) The other is my little sister’s husband, Shaun.

The twin teenagers celebrating our awesome victory!

The Auburn fan still hugged on the 2 little Bama cheerleaders.

Victory is sweeeeeeet!!! Roll Tide!

We also celebrated my nephew Madden’s 6th birthday that night.

Another outstanding holiday with the family! Leaving is always so hard because we usually don’t see each other again until spring break. However, I will see my mom and sister Angie for Market in January.

We will now get back to our regular scheduled program…..Christmas posts!