Holiday fun, Part I....

December has kept us busy, but oh how I love the holidays!!!!  I'm one of those who wants to put the Christmas decorations up the weekend after Thanksgiving and play Christmas tunes through the new year! We started our decorating by putting up our "Charlie Brown" tree that we have at the cabin.  (Kinda sad, but  when it's dark and the lights are lit and you squint your eyes, it's perfect! Ha!)

After a quick post-Thanksgiving trip to the mountains, we kicked it into high gear....

The infamous "Weinermobile" made a visit to the local Kroger and I just had to take the kiddos there to see it!

A peek inside:

The perfect tag:

John's mom came to spend a couple of days with us and we headed downtown to see the lights at the Botanical Gardens.  It was unbelievable!  I didn't know what to expect; and we were blown a way.  Of course, the night we decided to attend the temperatures took a dip to the 30's after days of mid 50's....but that added to the Christmas-y feel!

We really can't wait to do that tour again!

Next, we went to see Santa....

They shuttle the parents away from the photo area, so I had no clue what the kids were telling him.  He had quite a few chuckles and a few puzzled looks...hmmmm, oh what did they say!

It has definitely been a wonderful holiday season, I'll finish our fun in my next post!

Ho! Ho! Ho!~
Laurie

 

Do you hear what I hear?

It's the sound of my heart breaking....

Finally found a good version of this to post:

I purposefully didn't watch any of this over the weekend.  Watched the GMA coverage on Monday morning and lost it.  To the point of crying in line at Walmart while I was picking up the gift for Lily that I wasn't going to get...But I decided, I am lucky and I will have my sweet children's faces to watch on Christmas morning and she deserves it!

Bless these babies souls and all of those affected by this tragedy.  Christmas means more to me this year than EVER.

Why~
Laurie

Giving

That's one thing I love to do...give!  I love making things and giving them away.  I can spend hours on the internet, find a good recipe or creative craft and I want to go right out to buy the supplies and try it out.  Then, if I love it, I'll make a bunch of them and give them away.

This has been one of my favorites, lately.  Actually, I've blogged about it before, but I love it so much....it's a do over!   (Now pay close attention, because it's quite difficult!) It requires the following ingredients -- 1 can of pumpkin and 1 box of Spice Cake mix and, oh yeah, that's it.

Mix together, bake and voila!

This year I found a recipe that included a good icing to go on top, so I guess it did require a few more ingredients.  Delicious!

Wrap it up all nice and pretty and deliver to a neighbor...one that you are especially thankful for!!!

“It's not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” 

― Mother Teresa

Give~
Laurie

My Monthly Post

It's my new trend...monthly posts.  It makes me feel like a slacker, but it's the best I can do!

Halloween is always a fun time in our neighborhood!  So many kiddos and lots of decorations--and who can overlook the mega-load of candy!  This year I was informed that my decorations were too "cute" and not scary enough.  So, I had to upgrade to skulls and headstones.

And with the scary decorations came scary costumes.  Gone are the days of puppy dogs and mermaids.  This year brought a zombie and a vampire princess.

 

Yep, he looks gross, but I was a bit proud of my make-up job!

This was taken prior to smudging dirt on me....a Dirt Devil! Ha!

Unfortunately, Halloween played a trick on Lily Clare as she fell victim to the local stomach bug the day before.  John took her around to a few homes, but she didn't feel very good and wanted to come home.  But look at this....some friends brought the trick-or-treating to her and shared some of their candy!  What great boys!  (Even big bro Sam took along a second bag and asked for treats for his little sis!  So sweet!)

And for a little more Halloween fun, I made some treats for Sam and Lily's classes at school...

Cute little witches hats....

and some "bloody band-aids"!  I know, gross, but do you think the kids liked them?!?! Oh, yeah!!!

Fun times~

Laurie

The Moore Entry....

into the 2012 Neighborhood Scarecrow Contest:

No 911 calls, yet~

Laurie

Fall is football, cool breezes...

the wonderful colors of the leaves and.......the beach!!!!!

Yep, you heard that right, the beach!  It's been a tradition for about 6 years to head to St. Simons Island in the Fall with John's parents.  We continued the tradition again for 2012 and had a blast, as usual!

John and the kids bought a new toy while we were there, a casting net, and it kept them busy for hours!

Lily Clare enjoyed scooping the dropped fish off of the sand and putting them back into the tide pool.

 Three shrimp were caught and John promised Sam that they could cook them and eat them....ta-da!!!

On our way off of the island and headed home, we took a little detour and visited Fort Frederica.  It's the fort where the British settled and fought the Spanish to eventually start the British colony of Georgia.

I'm in love with Spanish moss!!!!

Family fun at the fort!

Beautiful!!!

A little brother / sister love on the tour!

After our tour, we hit the road and headed back to Alpharetta.  Such a neat drive between SSI and our house!  We take back roads and drive through so many quaint, little towns.  I am always wanting to stop in these little towns and visit and take pictures and John is always racing the clock and trying to set the new record for our commute!  Well, believe it or not, I got him to stop twice for me!!!  Yep, felt like I won the lottery!!!  He pulled over for this:

And this:

I love the apiary building!!!  Do you know what that is?!?!?  An "apiary" is where beehives of honey bees are kept.  This is in the town of Gardi, GA and fronts the railroad track.  It's estimated to have been built in the early 1900's and was originally a general store before it was used for the apiary.

The cotton fields...well, they are just a perfect Southern sight!  The kids had never really paid attention to the surroundings (that's what happens when you have a DVD player in the car) and when we pulled over and they stared at the white puffs...they were amazed.  I grabbed a couple of pieces and the amazement doubled!  Such a different sight from what we see on a daily basis!

What a great trip and even better to stop and smell the roses, er cotton, along the way!

Glad to be in the land of cotton~

Laurie

R-E-S-P....

O-N-S-I-B-L-E.....sock it to me, sock it to me, etc.  Well, that's not exactly the song that Aretha belted out years ago, but it's the song that we're singing in this house!  Do you recall this blog post? Guess what???  Lily Clare was recognized as a Responsible First Grader this month!!!  We are so proud!

And look at all of this swag!

A free meal at Shane's Rib Shack, 2 free meals at Chili's, a free round of mini golf, book marks and a pencil!

Way to go sweet girl!!!  We love your responsible little self!!!!

Proud Mama~
Laurie

Can you smell it???

Fall is in the air!

I don't have a favorite season, because I love something about each one of them.  But there is something special about those first few mornings of Fall when you walk outside and you are surprised by the cool temperatures.  The humid air is gone and you have to run back in for a jacket to keep you warm!  I do love that!

I do love getting out the Fall decorations, having a fire in the outdoor fireplace and pulling out the boots and sweaters!  I do love to watch the chameleon-like leaves changing from the summery green to the oranges, golds and brown of the new season!  I do love to pull out my chili and soup recipes!  Yep, lots to love about Autumn!

Delicious autumn!  My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.   ~George Eliot


If only I could fly~
Laurie

Hmmmm, what excuse this time?

Wow, a month since my last blog????  I wish I could say that I had been hanging out here:

 or doing something like this:

 But the unfancy truth is that I'm a:

I have two kiddos that want to be involved in every after-school activity (I'm thankful to have outgoing kids!) and I kinda have a problem with walking past a volunteer sign-up sheet and ignoring it.  For some reason, I always pick up the pen and write my name.  (I'm grateful to be able to stay home and do these things!)  So, not complaining about it...it's just a fact.  And by the time 9:30ish comes around and I can finally sit down, my brain is a bit too fried to blog!  So, as I sit here next to my sweet, little feverish Lily Clare (woke up with a yucky fever), I finally have some time to catch up.

September brought us birthdays for Lily, Chandler and Nana.  We celebrated all of their special days a little early while we were in Alabama for Labor Day.

Our Webelos Scout is on duty for popcorn sales!

We were amazed by the "blue moon".

I had an incredible "girls weekend" at the cabin.  Who would have thought that we'd able to get nine women together for a road trip on the first try!  A big shout out to all of the guys for playing  Mr. Mom for the weekend.  As we were all sitting around the dinner table, we realized that we had left almost an entire neighborhood mom-less!  But no catastrophes occurred!

We didn't take hardly any pictures.  But of course, one of us eating!

I took everyone "back in the woods" and we had a great hike to the Chattooga River!

I am so blessed to have these girls in my life!  A drama-free weekend filled with so much laughter!  (Oh, and lots of food!)

Catching up~
Laurie