Bat-Jack

Nothing like seeing Batman fly by on his scooter. This is neighborhood watch at it's best.

The day after Thanksgiving

Much like a decade ago, Nate and I celebrated our 10th anniversary surrounded by family, turkey and football.

Happy Anniversary, Natey! I love you!

Thanksgiving

Since Christmas is in 3 days I thought I should go ahead and post something about Thanksgiving...

We celebrated with lots of McGoodens in Siloam. The boys and I (emphasis on the I) made our traditional Thanksgiving craft... and edible turkey.

A roomful of McGoodens enjoying their Thanksgiving feast.
Our family. Whan Jack saw this picture he pointed to all the happy "saces" (still having some difficulty with that initial F sound) then to Grant's "sad sace". There always has to be one...
The boys with their GREAT-grandma Shaffer.

The boys with their GREAT-grandma Billye (again, note the token sad face. Same kid. It was a rough night).
Now, we can move closer to Christmas with Thanksgiving officially behind us.

Go Longhorns?

Generally, the term "longhorns" is used in a derogatory way in our home but, much to his father's disgust, Max's basketball team this year was the Longhorns. Grant wanted to make a t-shirt to support his brother's team. We made a Longhorn cut-out, traced and colored it on a t-shirt.

Go SPRINGDALE Longhorns!



But, I couldn't just leave it at that....

Enough said.

Jack's Rope

A little girl, Hannah, from Jack's preschool died yesterday. I was trying to talk to him about her death because they were going to be praying and talking about it in chapel today. After we talked (and I cried continuously at just the thought of it all) about Jesus and heaven and not being able to see Hannah any more Jack said, "But I have my snake rope." I was very confused and asked what he was talking about. He said, "I have a snake rope, a Dora rope and a Diego rope. I'll pull BJ back and put him in Nikki's house (Nate's sister's dog who died a couple months ago), pull Eli's Daddy back and give him to Eli and pull Hannah down and put her back in school."


Sweet boy. I had the reddest, puffiest eyes by the time I got to work.

Intruder

Today when we got home from school/work it was evident an intruder had been in our house. He got in through the sliding glass door that was left unlocked. He created a huge mess in the living room, our bedroom and Jack's bedroom. He raided the pantry eating a whole loaf of bread, 2 hot dog buns and a hamburger bun. He ate my shoe. He shredded a dirty pull-up. He destroyed Max's poetry notebook. He consumed the corner of my cookbook. He knocked down a vase of flowers from my dresser and scattered pheasant feathers all around. He ate half a plastic bag. He removed the majority of the lower ornaments from the Christmas tree then proceded to destroy them, leaving the debris to litter the living room. He ate my Christmas present that Max made and wrapped then put under the tree this morning. To top it off, he chewed through the wire of a strand of lights on the tree making only the very bottom strand lit and the remainder of the tree dark.


Bad, bad Harley.

Gymnastics Joe's

To celebrate the big number 8 we headed to Gymnastics Joe's for a party like no other. Joe and his helper dude entertained the kids for an hour and a half straight. The last 30 minutes was spent eating cake and opening presents. That's my kind of party: little effort on my part!

Getting some early instruction from the man himself, Joe.

Kids of all sizes could have a great time. Note the "dip" in the line from all the little guys anxious to play with the big guys.

Max even got his name up in lights on the marquis in front of the mall.

And of course, the amazing cake by Shelby Lynn's. Yep, it was a WWE party.

To quote Max, "My best party ever." Enough said.

Eight.

During my lapse in blog posting Max turned 8!

In his ripe, old age of 8 Max is into: all sports (but at the top of his list if LSU football), playing catch, watching WWE then wrestling his dad and brothers, Bakugans, reading, instigating his little brothers, and is slowly becoming a Razorback fan (unless they are playing LSU). This year he has also had his appendix out, lost his 2 front teeth, made it into GT and has held hands with his "girlfriend" during circle time at school.

My little Romeo is growing up....

Some kids and a Nana

Since we had all the cousins together we of course had to attempt some pictures...

A rare moment of my boys cooperating.

And, Grant is done.


You just have to wonder what they are thinking in their little heads.

As good as it gets.

Throw in a Nana and Jack is done.

Can you imagine what it's going to be like taking pictures of these little people at the upcoming weddings?!

Leah's Shower

Bekah and I threw Leah a wedding shower at Lindsey's house. There were lots of fun people and lots of good food. I still can't believe Leah is getting married!

mmmmm.... Fall is a great time to throw a shower because there are so many fun, fall foods. Other than the caramel apple debacle, everything turned out wonderfully.

The future Mrs. Powers

The moms.

The sisters and a mom.

The sisters, a mom and a soon to be sister-in-law.

Congratulations Leah!

The last day of soccer!

I'm not going to lie, I was so excited for soccer to end! Don't get me wrong, I love that all the boys want to play and have fun doing it but navigating the schedules of all 3 of them and spending HOURS every single Saturday morning at the soccer fields can wear on a mom and dad. Unfortunately, there's talk of a spring soccer season!

Since the last game fell on our crazy weekend, lots of family came to the last games.
Ava, complete with band-aids on her face.

The mighty Biscuits!

Max
Grant... lovely.

Stink pot, or Jack, depending on the mood.

Good job, boys! Anyone not want to play anymore?

Family Fun

A few weeks ago we had a CRAZY busy weekend: Nana was in town, last soccer games, Parrishes, Leah's wedding shower, Adam and Annie's engagement party and Matt and Leah's church shower.

To start off the fun, the Parrishes came in town so Max finally got to meet his only boy cousin. Max was enamored.

Sutton also got to meet his Uncle Nate.

All I can say about these two is TROUBLE.

They are both a mess... but they love each other (most of the time)!

Davey finally turned the big 3-0. When I ordered his cake I told Shelby Lynn's "he likes watching football, drinking beer and home improvement projects". I think they hit the nail on the head (ha ha).

And of course, every old man needs his very own Snuggie.

Matt got to practice being an uncle, too. He's a natural.

Grant's Fieldtrip to the Pumpkin Patch

After being postoned once due to rain, the kindergartner's finally made it to the pumpkin patch, on a cold and dreary day. None of them seemed to be bothered by the sloshing mud or constant drizzle. They were too excited to be on their very first big kid field trip!

I know I'm biased but really, does it get any cuter than this little boy?

Grant's class amidst the many pumpkins. A mum met it's death after being trampled.

Grant and Mrs. Shaw

Hopefully the next fieldtrip won't require me to wring out my socks when I get home...

Catch Up, take 1

So, way back when, Pepaw loaded the kids up in the redneck limosine and headed out to buy some pumpkins. We then enjoyed a neighborhood carving experience.

The result: our very own carved pumpkin patch on our front porch...

complete with glowing Boxer head. So scary....

abandoned but not forgotten... entirely

I don't remember how I ever had time to blog. Maybe working an extra day this year has taken it out of me more than I realize! Someday, when my camera is fixed and I can once more download pictures I will return. Until then.... (I mean, what fun is looking at a blog without pictures?!)

Scary Stuff

When we were at Nate's parents house on Sunday the subject of Halloween came up. Max began a pathetic little tale of how his big, mean mom only had boring pumpkin and leaf decorations, nothing fun for Halloween. Boo hoo. Good ol' Pepaw and Aunt Nikki quickly came to the rescue after going on a little outing and coming back with bags full of cobwebs, spiders, bats, face planting witches, skeletons, grave stones and mummies. Max was elated. So sporting their newly aquired skeleton, jack-o-lantern and eye ball t-shirts, the boys (with help from their big, mean mom) decorated the front entry way for Halloween. Don't be scared.

Thanks, Peep, Memaw and Nikki for swooping in on your brooms and saving the day for my neglected little children. What would they do without you?!