60

Yesterday was the big 60th birthday for dad. Let the celebrations begin!! For lunch we headed to Grandma's to do a little celebrating with her.

Dad with his two favorite daughters!

Dad with sweet momma on his big day.

Sister is so thoughtful and got Pops some gluten free cupcakes for his birthday. Dad is allergic to flour... has been for most of his life... so he always misses out on the cake part. But not this year. Thanks to good ole Gigi's cupcakes.

Fulton made his Pops a birthday card. He was so proud.

And we watched him open gifts... got some good stuff. This whole time we are pretend celebrating his birthday... just wait to see what's coming later in the day.

And we celebrated Christmas with Grandma while we were there too. Grandma had several requests for Christmas and one was a wooden bread box. I searched high and low in the stores, no one makes wooden anymore. Never fear, the Petersons came to the rescue and found one online. She loved it.

Our attempt at a family picture. Gotta love some action shots. We left Grandma's house, flew home and rushed to get things ready for this........

A surprise 60th birthday party for our dad!! Woohoo! Mom, sister and I knew we wanted to do something big and fun for dad's birthday party.. it started out with just a few couples over to mom and dad's for dinner and then turned into a full blown surprise dinner party at the antique gallery downtown (where sister had her reception).

Sister and I, with the hubbys, got there early to get everything in place... we ran like crazy to get it all decorated and stopped for 2 quick seconds for a family photo in front of the tree before the big guest arrived. At least there is no spit up in this one.

All the guests arrived at 6:00 and we had mom and dad there at 6:30. He thought he was coming to a Christmas dinner that they have come to in the past. Look at the birthday boy!!! He promises us he was surprised... hopefully he was :)

Dad came in, greeted his friends and family, appetizers were munched on, and the dinner began. We served his favorites... bbq, cole slaw, potato salad, baked beans and the best random side dish... shrimp and grits. Delish!!

During dinner we had some "story times" and some told some pretty good ones on dad. I kept my mouth shut since Christmas is right around the corner and I don't want to put my presents in jeopardy. Dad even gave a little speech... it was sweet!!

Then it was time to cut the cake. And this cake was fabulous. Just a little side note here... if you haven't ever had one of Publix's cakes, they are really really good. Get it with cream cheese icing. Ok, back to the party. Birthday boy blew out the candles and everyone dug into the fabulous desserts.

There were some gifts involved, some gag, including this precious vest, and some real ones. He got some pretty good stuff even though people weren't supposed to bring gifts.

Just another random shot of the festivities. It was so good to have family, old friends, and new friends there to celebrate.

The Rawlins and the Monroe girls (with several new last name changes). Our parents have been friends for 35 something years. Can you believe it?! When I think about 2 families in particular that my parents have been friends with for this long, I pray that Matt and I can keep precious friends like this in our life for that long.

Sister and Steven, aren't they the cutest?!

Our family!! The night was so much fun. We had such a wonderful day getting to celebrate 60 wonderful years with Pops. Happy Birthday Dad! Please note the biggest party animal of the night had to be Fulton. He wore himself out... it's 10:30 am and he is still asleep. This is unheard of. Happy Christmas Eve!

Christmas At The Lake

Friday after school we loaded the car and headed to the lake to celebrate Christmas with all the fam coming in town. Mom, Aunt Susan and mema slaving over a delicious pizza dinner.

Aunt Keri and Uncle Pete got there just in time for the festivities too.

The guys added some grilling to the already random dinner we had going on.

This little fella was ready in his Christmas Pj's to snuggle with anybody who wanted him. This was our first adventure away from home since little bambino entered the world. I think we should invest in a small trailer to haul behind the car from now on... he requires so much stuff.

Saturday morning we woke up to a beautiful day on the lake and spent the afternoon visiting one of Papa's grocery stores. Fulton slept through the tour, we will tell him about it later. After a delicious fine meal at Jacks, the only restaurant in the town, we just happened to find out that Santa was going to be at the town bank for free pictures. Hot dog!! We stopped by, made sister run in and ask if Santa really was there and the lady said, Who?! He was indeed there and we got a picture... success!!

Harley was thrilled to be out and about and get to go on a little vacation. He loves being at the lake and roaming through the leaves. I think he was a little disappointed when he found out "that crying thing" was coming too.

We came back that afternoon, did some snuggling with pops, had an afternoon nap and got ready for dinner and Christmas with the fam.

This year we decided to do presents first. Our aunt Susan decided to add a little "game" to the fun and while we were at Papa's grocery store we were all to find the strangest item we could, purchase it, put it in a brown paper bag and we would all choose a gift later. Random. But it was fun. Matt and I left with hemorroidal cream and spicy hot spam.

Mark and Katie's little boy, Caleb, entertained us all during the gifts. I think he enjoyed the bows and wrapping paper more than anything. It will be fun next year when Fulton and Caleb can get into some trouble together.

Our little fam opening gifts. Fulton got some fun stuff. He was a champ the whole weekend!!

To say he was a little overwhelmed with all the madness would be an understatement. A little overstimulation for the poor guy.

We had a delicious dinner complete with "Crackers" and paper crowns. This is some crazy tradition our family has to all open these Chinese crackers. You pop them open and each person has a prize and a paper crown. And you have to eat with yours on.

And the other table. Thanks to sister for taking these pics. We will have to picture her in our mind with her blue crown on. Please notice on the far end of the left side, we actually got our Papa to wear his pink crown.

Fulton was pumped about spending some time with his great-grandparents.

After dinner the girls did our annual Christmas ornament swap. I got a good one!! This was my third ornament swap in the last 2 weeks. We have lots of new cute ornaments for our tree. It was a blessed weekend spent with our family. We are so thankful for our families!!

The Weekend

Here we are into the first week of December already... Christmas is just around the corner. Hooray!! Our weekend was jam packed, let me recap. Friday afternoon mom, dad, and I flew out of town heading to Tuscaloosa to see the Bucs play for the state championship again. We had some passes that looked official, even though they weren't, and we just kept going through gate after gate acting like we knew what we were doing and finally came across this guy. He took us through the Alabama locker room real quick and I think we were all so excited about that, we could have gone on home then.

We walked back down towards the field, after a quick good luck smooch, we were off to sit in our cozy warm box and watch the game. Fulton didn't get to see daddy before the game because he was taking a quick snoozer so he would be ready for kick off.

And boy did he have a good nap because he was so pumped up about the game. He loved it!! This little guy is so stinkin good when we take him places... he did fabulous!! They had a big flat screen tv in the back of the box and he loved staring at it (so much for that whole don't let your child watch tv before the age of 2 thing, right?)

KK and Pops are awesome as usual and gave my arms a break to hold the little booger. KK even got us a parking pass like 10 steps from the stadium. Too bad we can't do all this for AL games!

Saturday morning was spent recovering from an extremely late night and piles of laundry to do. Later we dressed festive and headed to our small group Christmas party. We had a blast fellowshipping with our precious friends and missed those that couldn't make it.

Sunday Fulton was a champ in the nursery again and then that afternoon we met up with the fam and headed to The Foundry for our annual tradition of serving dinner to a table of 10 men. Here's our table. Mom did a great job decorating.

We had a little time after our table was all ready and our meal was waiting to be served. Our family has really enjoyed being able to do this each year and show Christ's love to these men.

Our sweet fam. After serving and cleaning up we headed to dinner to watch the bowl announcements... Roll Tide!!

With A Thankful Heart

Fulton got to experience his first Thanksgiving and he enjoyed it. We have so much to be thankful for and I am always convicted that I not more verbally thankful to my Father throughout the year. I pray we can teach Fulton to praise his Father and thank him for our blessings all through the year and not just on Thanksgiving. God is still working on my heart, thankfully he is a God of grace and mercy and won't give up on me. We spent the lunch portion of the day with our sweet friends Justin and Elizabeth. They invited us over for lunch for some deliciousness and we left there with smiles. Here's our little turkey all bundled up and ready to go. He's looking forward to next year when he gets to actually eat turkey.

We rushed home in time for Aunt Keri and Uncle Pete to fly in from sunny Florida and we had dinner with them. The rest of the fam were all down at the beach for the week... Matt's team is still in the playoffs, which meant we were stuck here... thankfully sister came home that night and we celebrated some more with them.

Our Thanksgiving family photo... best we could get. There was only about a 2 hour difference in between our lunch and dinner... at dinner Matt actually pushed his plate away after only a few bites and said he couldn't do anymore. What?! I have never seen this guy push his plate away. Just too much food for one day. Hope you enjoyed the day with your family and reflected on how blessed we really all are!!

Just Don't Get It

This morning on the Today's Show they had a concert with Justin Bieber. I am just amazed at all these girls screaming and grabbing out at him just to say they touched the snowflake leather jacket of Justin Bieber. They said these girls had been lining up for days, in the rain, to see this guy. I just don't get it. Last year one of my students had "I love Justin Beiber" written all over her notebook. I asked, in all seriousness, does he go to our school? I had never heard of him... obviously I had missed the newest issue of Teen Beat. Look at this goofy guy!! Who, by the way, slacks his pants... and that drives me crazy.

So this got me to thinking when I was that age, was there a singer that I would scream and yell over and sleep with the pillowcase that had their picture on it?! Probably have to go with New Kids on the Block with this one. I always thought Jordan was the cutest... remember him?? Now, sister was an even bigger fan and I was jealous because she actually got to go to a concert and see them. I would love to dig up the picture from that one, complete with the t-shirt, crimp ironed hair and hairsprayed bangs. Love you sister!!

Enjoying Life

Lately, we have been enjoying our time with our little man..... let me recap the last few days. Daddy enjoyed showing Fulton his very first Christmas ornament on the tree. He seemed to enjoy it--he said he can't wait until he can walk and then next year he can pull the ornaments off the tree.

Friday night Aunt Keri, KK and pops came over to see little man and visit while Matt was at his football game. Which by the way, they are still playing and this is the last week of the playoffs, so Go Bucs!!

The fam loves to come over and spoil Fulton and I think he enjoys getting to look at other faces besides mine all day.

Look at this sweet face that we got to wake up to on Saturday morning.

Look at big boy in his overalls for the first time.

Saturday night we hosted a baby shower for Justin and Elizabeth, complete with a monkey cake by Hope.

Fulton was excited because that monkey was just his size. I think it brought back memories of his Halloween costume.

We were celebrating the upcoming arrival of baby Peyton, who should be here in the next few weeks.

They got some cute stuff...even his first St.Patty's Day outfit. I didn't get a picture but Peyton got a Christmas ornament just like his buddy Fulton.

A few of the girls in our small group with the mommy to be. It was a fun weekend and we are looking forward to Thanksgiving this week! Much to be thankful for.

2 Months

Our little man is 2 months old today... or if you are a week person... he is about 8 1/2 weeks. Going by weeks makes him sound more like a baby...which I don't want to end, so we'll just say he's 8 1/2 weeks today. This little fella has started sleeping through the night some... and I say some... because he likes to keep us on our toes and sometimes he will still surprise us with a 2:00 am wake up call. He is not a fan of doing his tummy time on his mat, but is working hard to hold his head up. If Fulton had to make his resume today, he would include napping, eating, drooling and gazing at the lights on his list of hobbies. Speaking of lights... we put our Christmas tree up last week (a little early I know and we are totally not trying to skip Thanksgiving) and Fulton loves to look at the lights. We may just leave that puppy up until March.

Sorry not to have any more exciting pictures and news, but we have just been pretty low key lately and haven't flown to the moon or traveled cross country or anything picture worthy. Life has been so fun with this little guy. Matt looked at me just last night and said, can you believe we are really parents to this little man? God is so incredible to let us experience this journey. Happy 2 months to our little bundle of joy!!

Bama Game

Saturday we loaded up the U-Haul (at least that's what it felt like) and headed to Tuscaloosa to let Fulton experience T-town at its finest... the Alabama vs LSU game.
Sister and Dad pumped and ready for the game. The campus was absolutely crazy!! It was packed with more people than I have ever seen down there before. Thankfully most of it was crimson and white and not that ugly purple and yellow.

Our best attempt at a family picture with all 7 of us. It was a beautiful day Saturday and obviously you can tell the sun was shining bright, since everyone was squinting.

Sister, mom and me... the three of us were a little worn out because we had spent the whole day Friday at Christmas Village (Fulton too--poor guy was a trooper though).

Aunt Keri and Uncle Pete with sleeping beauty.. little man doesn't want to let go of that frog for the pictures.

We decided to brave the madness and actually walk away from the tailgate for a few pictures in front of the stadium...I think Fulton was the youngest fan there Saturday--he should have gotten some kind of award for that.

KK and Pops made the trek with us too.. we missed the ESPN gameday stuff but did get to see the big bus. Maybe next time.

We finally made it back to the tailgate and Fulton was thinking... goodness this place is wild. But he did get to see the world's largest pot of gumbo at the Ferg. I couldn't actually see the gumbo, but the pot was pretty big.

Look at our sweet little man. He just loved looking around at everyone and I think he watched a little football on the TV too.. he was perfectly content the entire day.

After a long day, little buddy was pooped and ready to take it to the house. KK and I packed it up and headed home and let daddy stay for the game. His first tailgating experience was a success, complete with 2 dirty diapers and all!!