The Hay Clan

Snow in the mountains

2012-02-01T06:58:00.000-08:00

Finally the last post for 2011! It's only taken me the whole month of January to complete it! I am now ready to have my blog printed for my annual Hay Clan yearbook. Yea!

After Christmas this year, my mom, dad and grandparents were heading to the cabin in North Carolina. We couldn't just let them go and have all the fun. So after putting a coat of paint on the bookcases, P and I packed up the girls and headed north. We really hadn't planned on going, so I didn't have anything ready. I ran in the house, threw some stuff together and 45 minutes later we were in the truck driving. I was quite proud of myself for the quick preparation! It was after 11 pm when we pulled up, but no one seemed to mind. We only stayed for a couple of days this time, but the girls had a blast none-the-less!

The girls love to "hike" around the cabin and play in the trees:

Rope climbing is a big adventure too. I bet they have a dozen ropes tied to trees and whatever else they can find! Here is a great shot of Miss Priss being a great big sister as she helps Little Bit climb the "mountain".

Finally at the top. The view is so much better from here!

After a couple of minutes hiking around on top of their newly conquered mountain, Little Bit got hung up in some sneaky little briars. It was Mommy to the rescue! I handed the camera over to Nonna and she captured the heroic rescue!

Thankful to be out of the briar patch!

Mountain Man Pop

Another picture Pop is gonna love me for! Most of you know my dad doesn't normally look like this. He's usually a clean-cut kinda guy. This fall he decided to see how long he could grow his beard. I told him to leave it til next Christmas so he can play Santa for my photos!

More "mountain-climbing"!

The guys decided to help Jim with a few projects around the cabin since they were all there. The biggest project was to get the satellite cord out of the kitchen window. They had to drill holes, climb ladders, move, shake and everything else you can think of. Here they are in action:

I said it was too bad P wasn't in his kilt! Pop said he'd have to hold his own ladder if he had worn it!

We were really hoping to see snow and get to play in the snow. It did snow, but by the time the girls went out to play in it there wasn't much left. They were determined to get their snow fix though! They both went around and collected as much snow as they could in their little cups. After packing the snow down tight, they flipped the cups over and made snow castles. They can entertain themselves with just about anything. Why do we keep buying all these toys??

Little Bit's masterpiece!

Miss Priss wanted to add a little flare to hers. She packed hers with half snow and half dirt.

What a grandmother will do to appease her great-grandchildren! Too bad for her I have a camera and just happen to be in the right place at the right time for great shots like this! Granny T went looking for the perfect cups to make snow castles with. As you can tell from the above pictures, they managed to find those cups!

Finally made it to the top of the "mountain".

One last picture (that I'm sure she's gonna love me for). This is Granny T sitting in the kitchen sink trying to fix the window. It wouldn't close all the way so she was going to make it happen! I just couldn't resist snapping a picture. I swear she is always doing something like this! Busy, busy bee!

We had a great time at the cabin as usual. Can't wait to get back there again. Hopefully next time their will be a little more snow!

bookcases

2012-01-27T08:28:00.000-08:00

These bookcases, along with the quality time spent together building them, was my "big" Christmas present this year! I have been itching for some new bookcases for a long time now. We debated on just buying new bookcases, but none of them we looked at were full wood or worth the price tag that adorned them.

So, my wonderful, wood-working hubby suggested we build some custom made for our study over Christmas break. I was THRILLED! It was a project for the whole family to join in on. Just FYI this is a LONG blog post.....just sayin'.

Little Bit ready to help!

We started by cutting 4' x 8' pieces of cabinet grade plywood into strips.

They are 7 feet tall!

Then we cut the 15" deep tops and bottoms.

P nailed them together for the frame.

Then we cut the bead-board backing for each one.

We nailed the bead-board onto the back of each frame.

P standing back to admire the work done so far with his cup of coffee.

Shelby had to come down to the shop to monitor and make sure things were done properly. She directed everything from her bed (which is right in front of the fireplace!)

Now its starting to look like a bookcase!

The girls would steal our ear muffs every time we put them down. It was hard to get mad at them seeing as how they look so darn cute in them!

Next came the doors for the cabinets on the bottom of the cases. These were the most challenging pieces to make because they have to fit just right in order to work! I had no doubt P could pull it off. He really should be a carpenter.....maybe one day.

In order to get the cabinet doors perfectly squared, P used this cool old contraption called a framing vise he salvaged from his great grandfather's shop.

It lines the two pieces cut at 45* angles up and holds them there while you nail them together.

Now that the frames were nailed together, we had to figure out how to insert the bead-board into the center. P being the creative master he is, added a decorative piece that also added thickness to nail the bead-board to.

The frame is ready.

Next, insert the bead-board and nail it in.

Voila' - a door is made!

P used his new cool screw driver to attach the doors to the bookcases.

Last but not least came the oh-so-fun painting.

P brushed one while I rolled another....

And then we swapped for a final bookcase that looked like this!

Oh yeah, and we had to take small special brushes to paint around the hinges. (Oh and a little proof to show I helped! ;)

This picture doesn't quite to them justice, but I will add another picture late as it is now full of books!!

I <3 my new bookcases!!

letters

2012-01-26T07:15:00.000-08:00

I got this idea from a both we saw at Homestead Hollow once. All the letters are from random things around the house. I thought it was pretty cool.... I am still on the look out for better ones, but this is what I have for now. The S is my favorite.!

Christmas night at Pop and Nonna's

2012-01-24T06:40:00.000-08:00

Last, but not least we end our Christmas party rounds on Christmas night at my mom and dad's for Christmas dinner and.....you guessed it more presents!

Santa brought our whole family a new tent for camping this year, so my parents got both girls a new sleeping bag. (Look very close...they are both wipping out their new knives to cut into those boxes!)

They both have better sleeping bags than Mommy and Daddy now! Its time for some camping!

The girls both got their first knives from Daddy for Christmas this year. Those were a HUGE hit. Here's Little Bit using that knife to open the box of her new sleeping bag. She was going around asking everyone if they needed her to open anything for them.

Again, I'm sure Pop is going to love me for this one, but it shows the true excitement on his face. He got a new 50mm prime lens for his camera! I think he liked it!

Miss Priss and another new set of legos! This girl loves to build.

Granny T found these two cute ballerina dolls that looked just like the girls. They even had the right color leotards! Miss Priss with her blonde her dressed in purple and Little Bit with her brown her dressed in pink. They were a perfect match.

Christmas Morning

2012-01-24T06:24:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning came and went faster than ever. I still can't believe it's already passed. Santa left way too much as usual and the girls loved every minute of it as usual!

Before the girls tore into everything!

Little Bit excited about her new travel mug.

Miss Priss excited about her new I-pod. Still can't believe Santa on that one! I didn't get an I-pod until my late 20's. Something's wrong with that picture!

Mommy and the girls checking out all the new goodies. If you look really close you can see Shelby snuggled up in there too. You can't leave her out!

Shelby got some new bones in her stocking and she decided the best place to chew on them was right in the middle of everything!

P enjoying his Christmas morning too. He got enough fabric to make his Great Kilt. More to come on that later!

Christmas came and went so fast this year. I don't know why, maybe its because Daddy is back home and we were just all very excited. It was fun while it lasted.

Christmas eve at Mimi and D's

2012-01-24T06:23:00.000-08:00

Our next two stops on Christmas Eve were right next to each other. First we go to Mimi's for dinner, gifts and company.

The girls at Mimi's. That's Cindy in the background and I can't imagine what she is laughing so hard about, but it must have been really funny!

Then we head over to D's for more presents!

The girls have been itching to open those gifts for weeks now!

Little Bit showing off her new horse set to go with her dollhouse.

Miss Priss and her AGD clothes.

The girls got smart and put the boys to work opening all their boxes!

Both of them playing with their new toys....like they need anymore! They sure do love getting new toys though!

Christmas Eve at Granny's 2011

2012-01-24T06:21:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve is always a crazy day for us. It feels like we have to go everywhere. Lots of traveling and lots of people to see. Our first stop on Christmas Eve is my grandmother on my mom's side. We have had Christmas Eve at her house every year of my life!

Granny opening her gifts. She looked like a kid tearing into those packages.

Cousin Chip just relaxing.

Everyone sitting around enjoying each others company.

The girls and their new pillow pets that they loved!

Their new granny gowns. That's what my cousin Cacy and I called them when we were growing up because Granny actually made them all for us!

Little Bit and her Aunt Carolyn.

The Hay Clan

My mom and her sisters.

The sisters and their momma.

Christmas at Granny T's

2012-01-24T05:55:00.000-08:00

Our annual gathering at Granny T's is always the weekend before Christmas. It marks the beginning of the Christmas season for me for some reason. School is usually already out and we are all ready for a little Christmas cheer.

This picture doesn't exactly fall in chronological order here, but it's my favorite from the evening. Granny T is getting ready to read the Christmas story to the grand kids and the granddaughters are all ready to listen. They just all look as happy as can be!

To begin our evening, we all gathered for a yummy dinner.

My dad is gonna love me for this one!! Hehehe...I couldn't resist! Love ya Pop!

My mom with her sister Carolyn who joined us for the first time this year. Little does she know she is stuck with us now! We all enjoyed having her around and I think she kinda liked us too!

The "old folks" and their glasses!

Pop, Nonna and Jay.

Robert, Melissa, Turner and Taylor. (Tyler and Victoria had to work and weren't able to join us this year)

Papa Jim and Granny T

The Hay Clan

The whole crazy bunch for a silly picture. Some of them are sillier than others!

Reading the story of Christmas.

Opening gifts!

All the excitement of new toys!

Best part of the Evening:

Jay had to hand over the highly coveted "SPOONS" trophy!

Every year we play a card game called spoons. Its kind of like a musical chairs game. Instead of trying to sit in a chair, you have to grab a spoon. The one left with no spoon in their hand is out.

We have been playing this game at our Christmas gatherings for years, but last year the game got a little more interesting....Pop created an actual prize...the spoon/hand trophy. You get to keep it all year and come back as the champion to beat the next year!

Somehow Jay managed to win last year?? But not this year! He had to hand it over! Gotta bring it home again next year. It looks to good on my new bookshelf not to!

Miss Priss sharing her piano recital piece with us. There wasn't enough room for everyone to join us at her recital, so we had our own private recital. She did great as usual!

All the girls are taking ballet this year and they were gracious enough to show off their moves. This is 5th position I think ;)

As usual, a great time was had by all!

Hay Clan Mistletoe tradition

2012-01-23T09:13:00.000-08:00

While the mistletoe bats on Errol's aik,

And that aik stands fast,

The Hays shall flourish, and their good grey hawk

Shall nocht flinch before the blast.

But when the root of the aik decays,

And the mistletoe dwines on its withered breast,

The grass shall grow on Errol's hearthstone

And the corbie roup in the falcon's nest.

Thomas the Rhymer

Tradition ran that the fate of the Hays of Errol (an estate in Perthshire, Scotland) was connected to the mistletoe that grew on a certain aik (oak) tree. The vast oak tree was of an unknown age and held a profusion of mistletoe. Many charms and legends were considered to be connected with the tree as well as the duration of the Hay family and their united existence.

It was believed that a sprig of the mistletoe cut by a Hay on Allhallowmas Eve (Halloween), with a new dirk, after surrounding the tree three times sunwise (clockwise) and pronouncing a certain spell, was a sure charm against all glamour or witchery and an infallible guard in the day of battle. A spray gathered in the small manner was also placed in the cradle of infants and thought to defend them from being changed for elfbairns by the fairies.

Finally, it was affirmed that when the root of the oak had perished, "the grass should grown on the hearth of the Errol and a raven should sit in the falcon's nest." The two most unlucky deeds which could be done by one of the name of Hay was to kill a white falcon and to cut down a limb from the oak of Errol.

When the old tree was destroyed exactly is unknown, but the estate was sold out of the Hay family and of course it is said that the fatal oak was cut down a short time before.

As many of you know, our family is big into our Scottish/Celtic heritage. We are members of Clan Hay as well as other Scottish societies. We enjoy attending several annual Scottish Festivals and events throughout the year, but we hadn't started any of our own traditions. We knew the official plant of Clan Hay was the mistletoe, but after reading the above story we decided to make our own family ritual from it. Instead of Halloween, we chose to go out and cut our mistletoe down on the first day of winter.

P reading the story of the Hay and the mistletoe.

The mistletoe hanging in an aik tree on our property.

P cutting the mistletoe with his dirk.

Posing for me with the dirk and the mistletoe.....as you can see he's so happy I have my camera! :)

The beautiful mistletoe, berries and all.

I found some ribbon at wally-world that is very close to the actual hay tartan (pattern). It made a perfect bow to decorate and hang my mistletoe with.

Papaw and D came over for the first annual cutting of the mistletoe and we plan to continue our new tradition for many years to come.

Kindergarten Christmas party

2012-01-23T07:18:00.000-08:00

Little Bit had a great time at her school Christmas party too. The kids ate, opened gifts, played games and really enjoyed their parents being in their classroom with them. I know it won't last forever so I am trying to enjoy every moment of the girls actually wanting us around! Little Bit got a big surprise at her party....Daddy came to hang out! She loved that!!!

Running to greet Daddy as he walked in.

Enjoying her special pizza lunch.

I just had to take a picture of their cute little morning board. They are learning their letters, sounds and some sight words. Its just so cool to see what all they are doing.

They played a game with the gifts and this is what Little Bit ended up with. She was super excited about her gift!

Little Bit and her wonderful teacher and she just can't hug enough!

Best buddies. They are the two Little Bit's of the class.

I think they all enjoyed their first Christmas party in "big school"!

3rd graders party down

2012-01-19T07:24:00.000-08:00

This year both girls were able to have parents at their school Christmas parties, so of course I had to go! I mean, who else is gonna take pictures! For Miss Priss's party, the room mother put together a great spread of chicken nuggets, fruit, veggies, cookies and all kinds of other goodies. The kids ate, played a few games and opened their gifts from the teacher. They had a great time just hanging out and not having to do school work.

Miss Priss and Caroline are good friends. They take ballet together and were excited to be in the same class again this year.

Miss Priss and her wonderful 3rd grade teacher. She's had a great year! Can't believe it's already half way over.

Piano recital

2012-01-19T07:09:00.000-08:00

Mixed in with all the Christmas parties was Miss Priss's second piano recital. She did a fabulous job as usual! We were all so very proud of her.

Her piano teacher is also a voice teacher, so she had all the girls from both piano and voice classes perform an opening number.

I love how confident she is when she goes on stage. If she were nervous, you would never know it!

Love that grin. She's happy that it's over, but she's also proud of herself for not messing up!

Each year the teacher has all the girls sign the poster that is hanging over the stage. They are suppose to write something they are thankful for. Miss Priss wrote: "I'm thankful for my sister." How sweet is that! I just love my girls!! They are so lucky to have each other as sisters!

Ballet sneak peek and Christmas party

2012-01-19T06:47:00.000-08:00

December was a VERY busy month for us. Once we finally got over all the sickness, we were on the go non-stop it seemed. Every time we turned around there was a party to go to. One of the first parties to start off our season was ballet. For this party the parents were invited in to see what their girls had been learning all semester. Talk about adorable!!!!

This is Little Bit's class. She is actually in a combo class where they do jazz, tap and ballet. They began with showing off a little tap routine.

Then it was on to a graceful ballet twirl and leap!

With a jazzy finale!

Next we watched Miss Priss's class perform their graceful ballet moves. Her class is strictly a ballet class.

Look how tall she looks here! I still can't believe she is growing up so fast!! She'll be as tall as me in no time. (Of course this is not saying very much!)

All I have to do is call her name and she turns to smile. Maybe I go a little overboard with the pictures.....NAH!!! :)

My precious ballerinas!

Now that all the performing is over....

LET THE PARTY BEGIN!

I think she was ready for the treats! Crazy girl!

Love this idea of sitting them around a tablecloth on the floor. Makes for easy access and clean up. They don't seem to mind being on the floor either.

At this point she is tired of me taking her picture.

Little Bit loved the green cupcakes!

All the sugar is getting to her!

They both had a great time at their parties and they both did a wonderful job with their performances. We all had a wonderful afternoon!

Fun Fall Fotos

2012-01-19T06:45:00.000-08:00

One beautiful fall Saturday we were asked to do a photo shoot at the gorgeous Mathews Manor. It is a picture perfect setting for sure! While we were waiting for the family to arrive, ~~I tortured the girls by making them walk around to have their pictures made~~ the girls and I had to check it all out and take some pictures for ourselves. They are just so cute I can't help myself!

They had a great time running around and they really loved it when the family having pictures made arrived. The pressure was off of them!

Even though it feels like torture now, I am SURE they will love having all theses memories captured in print when they are older......well they better! ;)

A picnic at the park

2012-01-08T16:43:00.000-08:00

Little Bit's class had a picnic in the park back in early November. The day before was absolutely beautiful. The day of the picnic was cooler and it even rained on us a little. Overall it was a great day for a walk to the park and a picnic.

Getting instructions from the teacher before entering. At least some of the kids are paying attention!

Little Bit looks so serious about what Mrs. Donna is saying!

Happy to have her roast beef from Arby's.

Little Bit and her buddy Sarah.

On the slide....

and the monkey bars.....

and the swings.....

and the pull up rings.

The kids had a great time. I love seeing the girls make friends and have fun, but its always nice to see they still get excited and want to show off when mom's around. I'm glad I got to go hang out with Little Bit for the day!

I loathe Shigella and the Chicken Pox!

2012-01-08T15:32:00.000-08:00

My second reason for not blogging lately......sick children.

I didn't even know what shigella was until here very recently. I could have lived the rest of my life without knowing what it was. For those of you that don't know, shigella is a bacterium that causes food poisoning and diarrheal illness and can last for several days. My poor Little Bit got it!

This sweet little face was absolutely pitiful for 5 days straight. There was no eating or sleeping for either one of us for those 5 days. It was a mess. It actually all started the day we surprised the girls at school. Little Bit wasn't feeling all that great, but she was active and it just seemed to be a little bug. By that evening we knew we were dealing with something completely different.

The poor child was running to the potty every 20 to 30 minutes. Being only 5, she's still quite the mommy's girl and insisted I tag along to comfort her. Looking back at it now, I'm thankful she was so persistent because I may not have noticed the blood in her stool. We had never dealt with this before so of course I called the doctor who told me to come in asap.

After 3 hours at the doctor's office we were finally on our way back home. The shigella was not confirmed at this point, but we were pretty sure that's what it was. All we could do was wait it out and wait for the doctor to call in an antibiotic (which he couldn't do until it was confirmed).

It just so happens this was the week of Thanksgiving and the first week P was home. It was not the best timing for sure. We all missed Thanksgiving due to the fact Little Bit was very contagious and we didn't want to risk infecting everyone else. Thankfully the rest of us managed to stay clear.....well of the shigella bacteria anyway!

Yes, the rest of us managed to stay clear of the shigella, but bless her heart Miss Priss somehow ended up with the Chicken Pox (even though she had the vaccination) the very next week. Poor thing couldn't go to school for the whole next week. She didn't seem to mind too much. Thankfully it was nothing like Little Bit's mishap. Miss Priss didn't feel bad, she just had bumps all over her. Oh and that annoying little itch.

Needless to say, Thanksgiving was very interesting for us this year. Daddy came home, Little Bit suffered with shigella, Miss Priss itched with chicken pox and Mommy just ran from one end to the other trying to keep it all together. Nice way to throw Daddy right back into our crazy lives! We are thankful it is all behind us now and that Christmas was not quite as eventful!

P.S. Turns out there were at least 6 other confirmed cases of shigella at the elementary school. Rumor has it when digging down to replace some water lines in downtown, the workers dug too deep and hit a sewer line. Some of the sewage got into the water and that's how the shigella started. The school even closed for a day to have the building cleaned by a professional service. Crazy stuff I tell ya! Hopefully it is all behind us and the rest of the year will be much calmer!

Welcome Home!

2012-01-08T11:44:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm one of those crazy people that love surprises. Not to be on the receiving end, but on the giving end! It's always better to give than receive right? :)

So I had big plans to surprise the girls at school with their daddy coming home. Knowing their daddy doesn't like big hooplas, I could only convince him to do it on a very small scale which was fine we me as long as I got my pictures. Only problem was that he came home on a Friday afternoon. That didn't exactly give us enough time to get him to the school that day. That meant I had to keep him hidden and all to myself all weekend.....darn! ;)

My parents were able to keep the girls all weekend so my plans would work. They took them to school Monday morning and the girls didn't have a clue! We started by going to Miss Priss's room first. Her teacher had all the kids sitting in the floor facing away from the door. She told them they had a special veteran coming to visit and P walked through the door. Miss Priss jumped up and bolted to greet her daddy. I don't think she wanted to let him go!

Little Bit's surprise wasn't as easy. Her teacher was sick that day so they had divided the kids into different classrooms. We weren't sure where she was and how to get to her without spoiling the surprise. Finally Mr. Byrd, the principal, found her and brought her to us. Poor thing thought she was in trouble and didn't know what was going on until she saw Daddy! I don't think she wanted to let him go either!

The paparazzi following them out of the building. We were snapping and videoing the whole ordeal!

Finally getting to go home with their daddy!

Thankfully my parents did join us because unfortunately the SD card from my camera burned out on me and I lost everything! I was VERY upset, but at least I do have a few pictures of the event.

After surprising the girls at school we headed to Trussville to surprise P's mom at her office. This surprise was little harder to keep secret. For those of you who know me, I'm not good at keeping things like this too myself. I just get too excited. I somehow managed to keep his homecoming a secret though. Yea me!

This surprise was great! P's mom, Donna, is the office manager at a Doctor's office so she has to deal with unhappy patients from time to time. I called the front desk lady, Nancy, to let her know we were coming and to get her to help us out. She was amazing and I still don't know how she kept a straight face. Nancy convinced Donna there was a very upset patient waiting to speak to her at the window.

Donna did not want to deal with this! Then to top things off she noticed someone standing there with a video camera (she didn't notice it was her own granddaughter though!), so she just knew she was in deep trouble with this crazy patient.

As she finally came to the window, she had a confused look on her face. When she realized what was actually happening......

She screamed and ran around to the door to hug his neck.

She kept saying "Oh, gosh, oh...."

Even though she called me sneaky (hehehehe), I think she was quite surprised and happy to have him home!

All in all, my surprises went pretty well and everyone played along with my craziness. Everyone was excited to have him home safe and sound.

The last two months....

2012-01-08T09:38:00.000-08:00

In order to explain part of my absence over the past couple of months we have to go back to the Spring of 2011. On the 18th of April, the girls and I took P to the airport. It was the last time we saw him for the next 7 months. You see he is the national guard and was deployed to the middle east. I wasn't allowed to blog about this for several reasons, but the most important was safety. Because he is in the special forces, it was safer others didn't know where he was and it was safer for us because no one needs to know we 3 girls were home alone.

Now that he has safely returned, I am allowed to blog about it!!!!

The unit being briefed before the ceremony started.

I just love this picture!

Daddy and his girls as he gets ready to leave.

Miss Priss hugs Daddy before he leaves.

Little Bit hugs Daddy before he leaves.

P was deployed with a lot of great guys, this is just a couple of them!

One last wave.

We were fortunate enough to get to go out on the tarmac to watch the guys get on the plane.

This is the last shot of P as he gets on the plane. He's the one on the steps about to board the plane.

There they go....

on their LONG flight!

So what does this have to do with my absence? Well, my wonderful hubby came home exactly 7 months later on November 18th and I've been a little pre-occupied since. There was no big welcome home, just a short drive to the armory to finally be in his arms again! With the holidays and other crazy events in our lives, I haven't exactly had much time to blog. Now that things have slowed down a little I hope to get caught back up and stay updated!

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts, prayers, encouraging words and helping hands. A special thanks to Mark, Rose, Pop, Jay, Papaw and Robbie for helping me keep the place up while he was gone. I couldn't have done it without you! Thanks to everyone that kept the girls, changed the oil in my car and just kept me going! We are truly blessed to have such wonderful friends and family in our lives!!!

The Hays girls fall photo shoot

2012-01-04T11:41:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while I take the girls out for their own photo session. They ~~think it's torture~~ love it! Its nice having my own camera and being able to use it to take my own pictures. The only bad part is that I can never seem to find the time to edit my own pictures. I am always editing someone elses! Oh well, maybe I will get around to it one of these days. Guess you'll just have to enjoy the un-edited ones for now!

Now those are the girls I know and see all the time!

Sassy girls!

Sisterly love!

Where have the last two months gone????

2012-01-02T14:08:00.000-08:00

OMWord.....where have the past two months gone?? We've had a lot and I do mean A LOT of things happening in our little world, but I must say I'm a little disappointed in myself for not blogging about them sooner. Yes I said sooner so that means I will be blogging about it all! I sure took the pictures to document. Here is just a sneak peek of things to come SOON!!!

Trick or treat, smell my feet....

2011-11-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

Yes my 5 year old has learned the rest of the song and won't stop singing it!

This year the girls chose to wear their Scottish princess dresses for a second time. There was actually no coaxing involved either! We had plans to dress up as witches, but since the dresses still fit, they wanted to wear them one last time. It suited me just fine! No fuss - we already had everything we needed.

We started off at Pop and Nonna's (thanks to Nonna for having them ready when I arrived!) and then walked through town for the business trick or treating. I love that about our little town. All the businesses down town stand outside their doors with candy and goodies from 4pm to 6pm on Halloween. Its awesome!

Love this one.....they look so big!

Waiting patiently in line for more candy!

Asking Sparky where the candy was!

After finishing up down town, we headed over to Papaw and D's to trick or treat in a HUGE neighborhood close to their house. I swear the neighborhood is endless and they all get into the whole Halloween festivities! The girls love going from house to house filling up their buckets with candy!

We didn't know this little girl and she probably thought we were crazy, but her costume was just too darn cute. Gotta love those southern belles!

After trick or treating we went back to D's house for some good ole Chick-fil-a (and to see all the goodies they had collected). Another successful Halloween in the books!

Halloween Party ballet style!

2011-11-04T11:14:00.000-07:00

One more thing I love about our new dance studio.....they have parties!!!

The girls had a blast dressing up to go to ballet class last week. They danced for the first half of class and partied the second half. Everyone brought a treat to share, it was quite nice!

I do have to admit something here though.....sigh. October has been a really busy month for us and the days started to get a little jumbled. Sooo, Mommy may have gotten the day for the party wrong. That's right Mommy sent the girls to the dance studio in their costumes treats in hand a whole.week.early. I think I was more embarrassed than they were thankfully. Daddy laughed and laughed and made sure to tell the girls it wouldn't be the last time one of their parents embarrassed them. At least it wasn't a week late!

Phew....had to get that off my chest! ;) Thankfully they had their regular ballet clothes with them and were able to quickly change for class. Here are a few pictures from the correct party day!

My "Scottish" princesses.
(Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots)

Little Bit and her tap, jazz and ballet class.

Little Bit's class saying the blessing before eating....so stinkin' cute!

Waiting for all her goodies!

The grand ballet party table.

Cuteness!

Miss Priss's ballet class.

Sweetness!

Ready to dig in.

Another grand ballet party table.

Miss Priss and her buddy from school that's also in her ballet class. They were both beautiful victorian princesses.

We are very much so loving dance class this year! The girls are doing a great job and I can't wait to see their performances at the end of the year!

Mathews Manor Pumpkin Patch 2011

2011-10-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my children are 5 and 8 and this is the first year we have gone to a pumpkin patch! That's crazy! I guess the month of October has so many activities, we've just never had time. Anyhoo....we decided to check out the new pumpkin patch in our neck of the woods this year. It was their first year to try it and I think it was pretty successful. Little Bit really enjoyed it.

Since Miss Priss went with Papaw and D to Georgia for a Scottish Festival, Little Bit and I decided we needed some mother daughter time for ourselves. What better way to spend a BEAUTIFUL fall Saturday?? While Mr.Mark helped weed-eat and clean out gutters, Ms. Rose was able to join us as well.

Getting ready to go in I had to stop and take pictures in front of all the fall goodies. Thankfully Little Bit humored me and smiled!

Once we were in, the first thing she wanted to do was the bouncy slide.

At first she was a little hesitant without Miss Priss by her side, but she quickly got over that! I think she could have stayed on the slide ALL-DAY-LONG!

When I finally managed to pull her off the slide, we went over to check out the Hay Maze.

I don't think Little Bit completely understood the concept. She thought it was just a fun place to run around in. We finally convinced her to find the exit so we could go see what else there was to do.

Next we took a break for a quick snack. Cute spider cupcakes and some sweet tea!

Then it was off to the hay ride to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins.

Little Bit walked ALL over the ENTIRE patch to find the perfect pumpkin.

She examined each one!

And finally found her perfect match! It couldn't be too big or too small.....it was just right!

Mrs. Rose and Little Bit enjoying a s'more as we waited for the tractor to come back and pick us up.

The farmer was also a photographer or so he said! ;) He did manage to get a nice shot of the 3 of us!

Concentrating on making sure she painted her new pumpkin just right.

Last but not least she had to get her face painted. This girl was really good at painting whatever the kids requested. They didn't just have things to choose from, this girl made it up as she went!

Little Bit was thrilled about her cat.

After a long day at the pumpkin patch, Little Bit helped me get ready for the afternoon's photo shoot. She said "Here mommy, I'll pose for you!" Now why won't she do that when I'm taking her pictures??

We had a great Little Bit - Mommy day for sure. We missed Miss Priss, but I know she had a blast in Georgia. Miss Priss took her camera this time, so I will be loading some of her pictures from the Scottish festival soon.

The big K-5 zoo field trip

2011-10-17T12:54:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I had the pleasure of going on Little Bit's first field trip. She's in Kindergarten, so of course we went to the ZOO! It was the perfect day for an outdoor trip. We couldn't have asked for better weather. And best of all, the trip just happened to fall during my fall break....so I didn't even have to take a day off (although I would have!)

We started our day on the animal carousal. Little Bit had to ride the tiger to show team spirit!

Then we moved along to the barnyard animals. I love that they have added this to the zoo. The kids see "normal" animals that live around here and they get to pet them!

She's so funny! She loves ponies and insisted she have her picture made in front of them so I could put it on the blog!

Just cute!

Digging for dinosaur bones!

Little Bit and her little friend we walked around with all day. They were so cute together and just fed off of each others excitement!

Watching the massive alligator snapping turtle.

Amazed by the bobcats.

Okay I thought this was cool. The momma and daddy lions had cubs. They were all so cute and the daddy would just come by and play with the cubs.

Checking out the giraffes.

The elephants are finally back!

I had to include the next two pictures because I LOVE my new lens. These were taken right in front of the camera! So cool!!! I can't do that with my other lens. You have to back wayyyyy up to get the shot. This lens is more for those great close ups!

Waiting for the train on platform 9 3/4.

On the train ride. I think she was little tired of smiling!!

Riding the carousal around one last time!

This was the funniest part of the day for me. Watching all the kids line up and seeing Little Bit as part of her little school group. They were all like little ducks following the momma and Little Bit was so big. Its hard to watch the grow up so fast.

Another first has come and gone. We had a blast and I was so glad I got to tag along. Its fun to watch them grow, but sad at the same time because its going so fast.

Whoo, hoo, hoo loves edible fall crafts....we do, we do!

2011-10-07T08:18:00.000-07:00

Fall is in the air and I am in LOVE! I'm in love with the weather, the decorations, the holidays, the colors of the leaves and most of all with a new website I've found.... Pinterest. Its basically an online bulletin board that you can pin all those great ideas you find on the internet to. Its the modern version of clipping pages out of a magazine and physically pinning them to a cork board.

I see things on the web all the time that I would like to try, but if I'm not looking at it I forget about it. I bet NO ONE else out there is like that!! HA! So this keeps ideas organized and categorized for me! I'm officially addicted to Pinterest!

After finding some great craft ideas on pinterest yesterday, the girls and I decided to go home and get started on these yummy edible creations! First we made witch's hats from striped cookies, hershey kisses and orange icing. This was super easy for little hands and not to mention super cute too!

The girls unwrapping all those kisses! That was the hardest part of the whole project (well I take that back, the hardest part was keeping them from eating everything along the way!).

Our finished batch of witch hats!

The second project was another easy one for little hands after the initial baking and icing of the cupcakes. We made our adorable Owl cupcakes with Oreos and M&M's. While sitting down to watch TV, we twisted the tops off the Oreos and place the M&M's into the white filling. Once we placed the Oreos on top of the icing, we topped it off with an Orange M&M for his beak. Super cute and once again super easy!

Thanks to Pinterest for making me feel like an actual organized person and for leading me to all these cute ideas. The girls and I had a great time creating and just spending some quality time together.

More projects and fun ideas to come soon I'm sure!!

Back to Ballet 2011

2011-09-23T12:39:00.000-07:00

And so it begins again! Ballet is back for the 2011-2012 school year. Thankfully we are not driving 500 miles for lessons this year! YEA!!! We managed to find lessons for ballet and piano right here in town. Its wonderful and the girls are already having a blast.

New do!

2011-09-23T12:29:00.000-07:00

One night this week Little Bit fell asleep early so Miss Priss and I were able to spend some quality time together. We decided to try an experiment. Both girls love to have their hair braided, but they love to take it down after a while and see the crinkled curls even more. So, we thought we would try it out on Miss Priss's whole head this time and let her sleep in them overnight. It took a long time to complete the braids, but in the end I think she was quite satisfied with the results.

The morning after she had slept in the braids all night. She was so excited and ready to take them down!

Finally getting to take the braids down.

Little bit had to get in on the action too! She loves to help her big sister do anything!

The final product. Feeling her time was well spent having to sit and have her hair braided!

From the side.

My favorite quote from the morning: "Momma, I look like Taylor Swift!"

Gotta love her!

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head....

2011-09-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was certainly a rainy one! Since it has only rained oh maybe half an inch over the past month, we were pretty glad to see it! I knew the rain would be falling for a few days so I had the girls go play outside while they could Sunday morning before the rain moved in. As they were playing it started to rain. Instead of coming in, they wanted to continue playing outside IN THE RAIN. Of course I had to say yes! They know if its not lightning, mommy will probably say yes.

So they gathered their umbrellas and preceded to get soaked! What a fun rainy day!

Little Bit's poor umbrella just wasn't holding up!

The decided to ditch the umbrellas and just get soaked! What better way to accomplish that than to jump in some puddles!

She will probably have my head for this picture one day, but I couldn't help myself. Her face was just too funny!

I think they enjoyed their rainy Labor Day weekend! I know I sure did. Let it rain!

Cake Boss.....kid style!

2011-08-29T08:25:00.000-07:00

Saturday the girls were invited to a cake decorating party. It was actually a "trial run" party for a friend of ours that is trying to start a business. Its a GREAT business idea!! After watching the girls have a blast decorating their cakes, I was SOLD!

The idea is simple...these ladies bake the cakes, spread a thin layer of white icing over the cakes, buy all the icing and candy and let the kids go to town. They will do birthday parties or any kind of kid party and they come to you wherever you might be. Both girls have already asked me when we are doing this again and if they can have a cake decorating birthday party.

Here are a few snap shots I took. Sorry for the yellow tint to the pics. I was so excited to bring my brand new flash my wonderful hubby gave me for our anniversary, but I forgot to bring the batteries for it. UGH! I will touch them up later, but for now I just couldn't wait to get them on the blog!!

The bowls of yummy candy......mmmmmm.....so tempting!

Little Bit thought so too!

The kids waiting patiently to get their cakes.

Here they are acting as if they are all shy!

Miss Priss listening so intently to the directions and rules! She's soooo my rule follower!

Little Bit watching how to use the fondon icing.

Little Bit adding a little detail to her fondon star.

Ah the story of Miss Priss for the day! I do believe she has a future in the world of cake decorating!! Either that or she's very OCD! :) She had a very distinct idea in her head before she even got there of what her cake was going to look like. She even wore a certain dress to match her cake! She started off very precise and followed through to the end! Everyone oooo-ed and ahhhh-ed over her creation and she just grinned from ear to ear.

I told Little Bit to decorate the sides (what I meant was the side of the cake - she took it as the sides of the cardboard! - too cute!)

This is one of my favorite pictures of the day! Miss Priss is so involved in making her cake perfect. If you look just past her though, you will see Sarah enjoying the other part of cake decorating fun - eating as you go!!

Miss Priss working diligently on completely her vision.

Little Bit working tediously on placing the different candies just right!

Miss Priss taking a quick break to pose for a picture with her cake. I searched through the different candies to find colors to match her scheme. We found m&ms that worked beautifully!

The masterpiece almost finished.

Little Bit's masterpiece ready to eat!!

So proud of her artwork!

The final product and the proud artist. We added one last touch to make it complete. Around the bottom are snowcap candies pressed into the cake. Now its all ready to EAT!!

Little Bit's masterpiece is ready to eat too! My favorite part is actually the non-editable pipe cleaners springing from the top!

The girls had an amazing time and I had a great watching them. Good luck to our friends with a wonderful idea! I really think you're on to something!!

First day of 3rd grade and KINDERGARTEN...... it's just not right!

2011-08-15T07:58:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of school for both of my kiddos. They are now both in real school. It's so hard to believe!!! Of course they have been excited and ready for this day for a couple of weeks now. I started school two weeks before these two, so I took the opportunity to take the morning off and take them to school myself! I was able to take Miss Priss to her first day of kindergarten 3 years ago and today I was able to take Little Bit for her first day. They are just growing up too fast!

Little Bit's first day of Kindergarten.....

All smiles! The backpack is almost as big as she is!

Then she had to show off her 1st day outfit without all the bags!

Wow....1st day of 3rd grade for Miss Priss!

She's stylin' with her over the shoulder backpack!

Showin' some sass with her rockin' 1st day outfit!

Sisters....so excited about being in the same building together this year.

Telling Shelby bye.

Little Bit outside her classroom.

Following Ms. Donna in to find her seat.

Sitting at her table coloring, waiting for her classmates to all come in and start the day!

Miss Priss is very independent, so when I asked her if she wanted me to walk her to her classroom and she said yes, well I HAD to go!!!

Miss Priss outside her classroom. (After the picture I got a look like.... "Mommmmm.... please don't follow me in!")

So I didn't follow her in....

But I did sneak this one shot of her unpacking and getting settled into her desk. ;)

I know they will have a great day and a great year!

Saor Patrol at the GMHG 2011

2011-07-21T21:58:00.000-07:00

This year's main entertainment at the GMHG was the wonderful bagpipe and drum band Saor Patrol. Saor (pronounce shore) comes from the Gaelic word ‘Saorsa’, meaning freedom / liberty. So Saor Patrol means freedom patrol! The music was great and the guys were really cool to watch! I must say they really look the part!

We had no idea Saor Patrol was going to be at the festival this year. I was walking by one of the signs and just happened to see their name written very small in light green. Most of the time I don't know the bands that are preforming, but in this case I actually knew who they were before going to the games. P discovered these guys on youtube a few months ago and quickly fell in love with their style. You can check out their sound here . It's not for everyone I know, but we really enjoy the music so it was AWESOME to get to see them live!

This guy (Charlie) is amazing. Not only does he look the part, but he can play the mess out of those pipes! If you have ever watched the movie "Gladiator" with Russell Crowe then you have seen Charlie before. He's the guy at the beginning of the movie that leads the Germanic hoard against the Romans and brandishes a severed head. You can watch it here.

The drummers in action.

Miss Priss enjoying her first live concert!

The guys warming up.

Pipes and drums! Love it!

The whole band.

Alba gu Braith!

(Scotland Forever!)

Glad we were able to see these guys! They are the real deal from Scotland! Love to hear them speak! They are currently on tour in Germany and took their one weekend off to perform here in the states at the games. Hopefully it was a good experience for them and they will want to come back again!

GMHG 2011

2011-07-21T21:25:00.000-07:00

Ah, finally time for the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games. They only come around once a year and they always seem to come and go way too fast! This year was good, but it just wasn't the same. The guy that I buy my Scottish Blend Tea from had just sold my tea 30 minutes before I got there, we didn't stay for the whole festival this time and it was HOT!! That's all I have to complain about, so it couldn't have been too bad! ;) We were in the mountains not having to work, listening to bagpipes, seeing people in kilts, shopping for scottish treasures and enjoying the food!!! What more could you really ask for?!

Entering the games!

Papaw, Mr.Moses, Miss Priss, D and me standing in front of the Hay Clan tent.

Me and Miss Priss

Watching the highland dancers compete.

Papaw, D, Miss Priss and Me

Me and Miss Priss. This trip to the GMHG was a first for Miss Priss. I must say she enjoyed every minute of it!

Miss Priss and Charlie from Saor Patrol. He just looks so cool! Miss Priss was thrilled to have her picture made with him and he was nice enough to take some time out to pose!

Miss Priss and the Hay Clan fairy.

Miss Priss with the Hay Clan convenor Mr. Moses.

Miss Priss the viking!

Miss Priss posing and hoping mommy will be finished taking pictures soon!

This is what a full day of the GMHG will do to ya! I think she enjoyed it! ;)

Thomas reunion day 3....part 3

2011-07-21T20:28:00.000-07:00

We ended day 3 of the reunion (which was on the 4th of July!) with watching the fabulous fireworks show in downtown Murphy. The town really went all out for the celebration. The had live music, venders, the firework show of course and my favorite BOILED PEANUTS - yum!

Everyone watching as the fireworks lit up the sky!

Pop, Joel, Jeff, Erica and Karen in the background.

Nonna, Little Bit, Haley and Miss Priss sitting in front.

The reunion came to a close with the end of the firework show. The girls enjoyed meeting and playing with cousins they had never met .I think it turned out very well and everyone enjoyed their time together. Hope we can get everyone together again soon!

Thomas reunion day 3....part 2......Waterfalls!

2011-07-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

After eating and walking through Franklin we were off to see all the beautiful waterfalls. Western North Carolina is full of creeks, rivers and these gorgeous waterfalls. I swear they are around every corner. All the waterfalls we visited were between Franklin and Highlands and they were all right off the road. The pictures just don't do them justice, but we can always try!

Cullasaja Falls

This first waterfall was literally right off the road and there was no space to really pull off to look at it. It was probably the most beautiful too! We were able to squeeze into this one little spot on the side of the road for a quick picture before we had to keep moving.

Jodi and Jay

Dry Falls

The second waterfall we visited was Dry Falls. This waterfall was really cool. They have a great parking area and a very nice trail down to the falls. The name of this waterfall accurately describes the falls because you can walk behind the water and stay dry.....well mostly! The girls really enjoyed walking around the rocks and going "under" the waterfall. It was also beautiful to look at!

Pop, Nonna, Miss Priss and Little Bit standing under the falls.

Pop, Nonna, Miss Priss and Little Bit again under the falls.

This was from the other side of the waterfall.

The crew that went sight seeing.

Back row l to r: Jay, Debbie, Bonnie, Jodi, Cherry, Tom, Mike and Cindy

Front row l to r: Sierra, Joel, Little Bit, Me, Miss Priss and Pop

Had to have a picture of me and the girls standing under the falls too!

The next waterfall was Bridal Veil Falls. They had the signs for all of the waterfalls and I didn't think to start taking pictures until the last one! Way to go Miss Photographer.....oh well!

This waterfall was cool too! You could drive under it. I ran across the street to get pics of everyone driving under the bridal veil!

Miss Priss and Little Bit hanging out of the window!

Jodi and Cindy waving.

Tom and Cherry's crew under the veil.

After visiting 3 of the falls we decided it would take too long to see the others and get back in time for fireworks that evening....so we stopped off in Highlands, NC and drove by this amazing view. Of course I had to stop and get some pictures. I could sit and stare at this all day!!!

And I don't think I am the only one!!

Miss Priss and Little Bit with their Pop.

Downtown Highlands, NC. It was a very cute little town. The brick building to the left is a SPA. Hint...hint!

Just thought it was cool. You don't see very many Jeep trucks.

This was one of the old cars that was in the 4th of July parade from earlier in the day. I just thought it was cool and had to stop and take a picture!

So if you know me, you know I like to take pictures of barns! This barn and the view behind it was amazing. I wasn't able to capture what I saw though! I was so disappointed! There was no good place to pull off on the side of the road! It was nothing but a huge hill! I just know if I could get to the top of that hill and look down this would be an AWESOME shot. Oh well, better luck next time!!

Thomas reunion day 3....part 1

2011-07-19T18:26:00.000-07:00

The third day of our reunion was quite a long one! It will actually take me 3 different posts to get to all of it. Part 1 is our visit to Franklin. We started out our day with the idea of traveling to Franklin to visit all the beautiful waterfalls in the morning. Well with our bunch, we got a late start and ended up in Franklin just in time for lunch. So we stopped at this cute little 50s diner. It was good food and it gave me some time to take some pictures of the beautiful little town of Franklin, NC.

I really like the way this picture turned out!

More to come with this picture as soon as I do a little research!!

Me and the girls visiting the Scottish Tartan Museum. We didn't have time to go in the museum this time, but it was cool to get to take the girls on a walk through this cute little town.

Thomas family reunion day 2 rafting

2011-07-19T11:52:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of the reunion most of us that were old enough decided to take a rafting trip down the Ocoee. I have been once, but it was a very long time ago. More recently we have gone down some of the smaller rivers, so I was a little nervous about going down the Ocoee again.

Randy, Jodi, Daddy and me wating to go rafting.

We were in a very serious discussion here before the trip apparently! :)

Wating to hear all the safety instructions and horror stories of those who didn't listen to the safety rules!

On the crazy bus ride to the drop off point. Poor Jay is not smiling in this picture! He was super excited and had a great time....I don't think he thought he was in this picture! Otherwise I am sure there would have been a smile on his face!

See, I told you he was excited about the trip!

Daddy and Jay.

Debbie, Randy and Jodi. This was the first rafting trip for all of these Florida guys and they loved every minute of it!

The brave cousins that went on the adventure.

Daddy, Cindy, Debbie and Randy.

Our boat getting started out!

On the river. We had a blast!!!

We had the best guide from the outfitters. He took us on all the cool rapids and did several "tricks" with us in the boat. This picture is of us sitting in the center of the boat with our paddles up because we were going round and round in one of the rapids. I think this one was called the bucket filler?? Because as we were doing the 360s, the boat would fill up with water and push us the other direction. We saw other boats try to do this, but they weren't successful!

After the cool 360 bucket filler, our guide got out of the boat, climbed on top of a rock and took this picture of our group for us.

On the left from front to back (which is actually the back of the boat) Debbie, Jodi and Daddy.

On the right is Jay, me and Randy.

Jodi

Daddy

Here we are taking a break to take a picture.

I bought a waterproof camera for the trip cause ya know me and pictures......(:

Just my feet floating down the Ocoee!

We were able to get out and swim for a few minutes to cool off and relax a bit.

After the adventure we all stopped to have lunch. It was an interesting experience. Apparently the whole area was having power issues. Thankfully our pizza was the last thing out of the oven before the power went out. The rest of our bunch wasn't so lucky! They had to leave and find food elsewhere!

It was a great trip and I can't wait to go again!

Thomas cousins' family reunion 2011

2011-07-19T10:34:00.000-07:00

Every 2nd weekend of July we take a trip to North Carolina for the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games. This year my dad's cousins were having a family reunion in North Carolina the weekend before the highland games, so we were able to spend even more time in the mountains! It worked out perfectly to visit with family as we were vacationing. The first night we arrived in NC we all gathered to eat some good ole BBQ at Rib Country....yum!

The whole crew was together a couple more times, but this was the only group picture we captured with everyone that was able to make it!

From left to right back row: Sierra (cousin Cindy's daughter), my mom, me, cousin Cindy, Cousin Debbie, Jodi (cousin Debbie's daughter), cousin Karen, Cherry (cousin Tom's wife), little Tom (cousin Tom's son), little Tom's friend, Brandy (cousin Tom's daughter) and Brandy's friend

From left to right middle row: Mike (cousin Cindy's husband), Jay, cousin Randy, Jeff (cousin Karen's husband), my dad (who is one of the cousins) and cousin Tom

From left to right bottom row: John (cousin Randy's son), Joel (cousin Karen's son), Erica (cousin Karen's daughter), Haley (cousin Karen's daughter), Little Bit and Miss Priss

Beach pics

2011-07-18T16:27:00.000-07:00

I realize I am back-tracking a little here, but I have so much to blog about and it seems like no time to actually blog. So bear with me. :)

These are our afternoon beach pics with the matching white shirts. We were at the beach so I couldn't resist! I also had the opportunity to get Granny T and Papa Jim out there for some pics! I'm glad I talked them into some pictures and I think they will enjoy them too! ;) Thanks to Jim for taking the pictures of me and my girls too!

These jumping pictures were hilarious to take! One of them would jump two seconds before the other, which doesn't seem like a big deal until you capture it on camera. This was the only picture where they are both jumping up at the same time and have somewhat good expressions on their faces! The girls were too funny!

Aren't they cute!

If you can't tell, we really enjoyed our trip to the beach! :)

Rafting down the Ocoee 2011 sneak peek!

2011-07-03T19:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a sneak peek of our adventure from today! We had a blast if you can't tell!!! ;)

Garden update

2011-06-30T19:45:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't exactly been updating about the garden like I wanted to, but I've been a little busy actually working in the garden and in the kitchen. I have been picking, canning and freezing quite a bit over the past couple of weeks. Seems like everything decided to come in all at the same time! Soooo, so far I have canned 13 pints of green beans, 2 and 1/2 quarts of tomatoes (lots more of those to come), 10 and 1/2 quarts of kraut and frozen countless bags of squash. It's a busy time of the year, but I love it!!!

In just a week or so the corn will be ready and the rest of the tomatoes should start turning! Busy, busy, busy, but come winter we will all be happy with all the summer veggies we have to eat! Yum!

Kraut

Tomatoes

Green beans...yummmm.....my fav!

More to come soon!

Class of 2001 - 10 year reunion

2011-06-30T16:36:00.000-07:00

It has been a little hard to admit, but I have actually been out of high school for 10 years now! Some days it seems like it was just yesterday, but others it seems like a life time ago. Way back in the day I was super nerdy and super involved...imagine that! I was queen band nerd as the drum major, beta club president and even the Senior class secretary/treasurer. I ran for the office simply to have the title and get to sit on the front row at graduation! Little did I know or realize the office held a lot more for me in the future. Guess who is suppose to be in charge of getting the reunions together....yep, the class officers!

So....with the help of our class president's wonderful wife, Dre' (who didn't even attend our school), my best friend from high school, Celeste and our class valedictorian, Kelly, we managed to put together an amazing reunion. It was a huge success thanks to all the hard work of the above mentioned and another classmate, Emily, who donated her grandparent's BEAUTIFUL blueberry farm and her husband the DJ to the cause. We couldn't have done it without you!

The beautiful venue.

The adorable table candles.

Drink and dessert table.

Me welcoming people as they arrive. Here in the picture I am welcoming Chris, who told his wife he wouldn't be able to make it due to work. Alice was quite surprised and excited to see her hubby! How sweet.

Alice

Celeste and Emily in deep conversation. I'm sure they weren't gossiping about anyone!! ;)

Hey Katie.

Kelly reading our senior prophecies.

Everyone hanging out.

My favorite pictures of the night:

20 years of friendship. We 4 have been friends since I moved to Springville way back in 1991. We were all in Mrs. Cagle's 3rd grade class.

Besties!

All the graduates of 2001 that came to the reunion. We have a great turn out of 30 graduates.

Special thanks to my date: my dad! He was our photographer for the evening and captured all these great shots for us.

Next time I am handing the planning portion of the reunion off to whoever wants to take it! It was lots of work, but I think it turned out pretty good.

Our newest neighbor

2011-06-29T19:40:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks I have noticed this little guy running around the garden, playing near the creek and hiding under my house! Fortunately we plugged the hole he was using to get under the house becasue he turned out to be a SHE!!!! How do I know you may ask? Well the new cute, furry little kitten under the shop seems to be a big clue. Apparently our new little friend is also a new mommy.

Of course she is a wild cat and won't even come close to us, but this is where I caught her sleeping the other morning....on the back deck. She is a pretty little thing and I'm pretty sure she's keeping the mice away. So for now, I guess she can stay. Quite honestly I don't even know what else to do with her! At least she's not costing me money in food!!!

Birthdays, swim lessons and playing at the park with friends

2011-06-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was a big day for the girls. First, it was Little Bit's official 5th birthday!! Of course it was no big deal to Little Bit because she had already blown out her candle at her birthday party. And as you know, once you blow out your candle, you are officially another year older (according to Little Bit). So HAPPY BIRTHDAY Little Bit!!!!

We started the day with swim lessons. This is the 2nd year the girls have taken swim lessons and I can tell a difference already. Miss Priss has always been fairly comfortable with water, but Little Bit was a little more cautious. This year both girls jumped right in and went full force. They are both enjoying the water!

After swim lessons we met up with some friends at the park. Alice and her boys are here for the week, so of course we had to get the kids together and let them play for a while.

After a long morning of swimming and playing, we all went to Chickfila for great food and company! It was a great way to spend a 5th birthday I do believe! I still just can't believe she's 5! Time flies when you are having fun!

More pics from the birthday bash....

2011-06-19T21:57:00.000-07:00

A few more pictures from the party!

Mommy and her birthday princess!

Mommy and both of her beautiful princesses!

Four precious princesses sittin' on a fence!

P.S. I forgot to say thanks to my photographers for the day! Thanks to Pop and Uncle Jay for taking pictures during the party for me! It made for one less thing for me to have to worry about!! :)

Little Bit's 5th birthday party.....tangled style!

2011-06-19T10:14:00.000-07:00

"Let down your hair and join us for a tangled birthday!"

This year Little Bit decided that she wanted to have a Rapunzel birthday party. Thankfully Tangled is very popular right now, so it was quite easy to accomplish. We had a great time eating, playing and just hanging out. Thanks to everyone for coming, you all made Little Bit's day very special!!

The birthday girl!

The party getting started.

Courtney and Granny in deep conversation.

Alice just happen to be in town and got to bring 2 of her boys to hang out for a while.

Little Bit and Abby.

Jay and Aunt Carolyn.

Nonna helping Little Bit on her new BARBIE BIKE. Pop and Nonna surprised her with a new big girl bike!!

And she's off!

The poor bunny surrounded by all the kids that "just wanna play with him"!

The beautiful birthday cake D made.

We made a few cupcakes to go with the cake just to make sure we had enough for everyone. I made the flower suckers for each of the cupcakes out of vanilla candy melts. They turned out really cute if I do say so myself and they were quite easy to make!

This was Little Bit's face as everyone sang happy birthday. She was trying not to smile.

Officially turning 5 according to Little Bit. Once you blow out your candle, its a done deal!

Friends Katie and Sarah.

Papaw, Aunt Les and some of the kids getting the pool ready.

Little Bit opening all of her wonderful gifts.

Of course Miss Priss got a couple of gifts too. Here she is posing with her beautiful new necklace.

Brody liked my flower suckers!!

Brycen chasing bubbles.

Brycen and Katie playing with the bubbles.

All the beautiful girls in their bathing suits getting ready to splash around in the princess pool.

The girls playing in the princess pool. It was a little small, but I think they had a good time just splashing around. They were all just too cute!

Little Bit had a wonderful 5th birthday party. She's growing up way to fast though!! Another year gone by....sigh**. Can you believe she starts kindergarten this fall???

Thanks again to everyone who came out to celebrate and a special thanks to those who came to help me get everything ready. I think it went very well and I couldn't have done it without you!

Last full day at the beach....sigh

2011-06-09T19:53:00.000-07:00

**Sigh.....our last day at the beach....bittersweet....you wanna stay, but its nice to go home too. Well by the last day Little Bit warmed up a little to the ocean waves. I still can't believe she actually went out as far as she did. We had gone to the pool the night before where she played with her floaty and felt confident. The next day that confidence carried over to the ocean and she had a blast "riding" the waves with Miss Priss. They played for what seemed like hours just a giggling! It was a great day.

After a long day of surfing, they girls took a break to dig in the sand.

Last but not least our seagull friend that hung around in front of us just walking back and forth. Miss Priss did a great job taking this picture!!

Tomorrow I will try to post our "formal" pictures from the beach....can't wait!!!

More beach fun...

2011-06-08T15:27:00.000-07:00

Day 2 at the beach is more great fun. We went to the beach in the morning, then along came a huge thunder storm that sent us in for a while, then back to the beach again after dinner for a little more play time! The girls met some new friends, played in the sand and the water and saw some sea life!

Both girls stopping to pose for the camera!

The girls met some new friends that were digging a huge hole! They asked if they could join in and help.

Little Bit helping out.

Miss Priss helping to dig.

Taking a break to smile for the camera.

This is Little Bit's Phebe (from Friends) run. I just love the carefree-kid run!

Miss Priss heads out to ride the waves.

Little Bit thinks she wants to go too.

She doesn't go quite so far.

Smiling for the camera.....

....only to get blasted by an oncoming wave!

Both of the girls make new friends so easily. Its nice to see them interact with others. Here is Miss Priss and her new friend riding the waves together.

Watching for dolphins with their new buddies.

Okay if you look REALLY close you can see the top fin of a couple of dolphins. There were probably about 3 of them that were playing right in front of us and every time one of them would jump up in the air, I would miss it with my camera. Oh well, guess we will just have the images in our heads as memories!

Little Bit was not all that intersted in the wave riding, so she came back to start digging a new hole.

Miss Priss after riding the waves and getting blasted a couple of times!

Day 2 down.....one more full day to go!

Got my toes in the water......toes in the sand.....not a care in the world.....a cold drink in my hand.....LIFE IS GOOD TODAY!

2011-06-06T16:14:00.000-07:00

Ahhh.....the life as beach bums. When Granny T and Papa Jim asked us to join them on their trip to the beach, of course we immediately said YES!!! We are here on the beautiful white sandy beaches of Panama City Beach soaking up the sun, playing in the sand and just plain ole relaxing! Here are a few pics of our first day here.

Miss Priss is so proud of her sand castle.

Granny T relaxing and watching the girls play.

Little Bit making her sand castle.

The girls finally looked up at me so I could snap a picture of them playing.

Little Bit, Granny T and Miss Priss enjoying watching the wash crash at their feet.

We had to throw Papa Jim in a picture too!

Mommy and her girls. In every one of these pictures, the girls were blinking! Oh well, guess the sun was too bright.

The view from our 11th floor balcony.

The girls playing in the sand. (Taken from our balcony.)

Still have a few more days to go! Off to enjoy it...... :)

Homemade Laundry Detergent

2011-05-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

Okay so I have been wanting to make my own laundry detergent for a while now. I bought the supplies months ago, but never seemed to have the time. So after seeing two good friends, Holly and Jessica, write about their experiences with homemade laundry detergent I had to get on the ball.

Not only do you save money by making your own laundry detergent, but your clothes last longer and dry softer. So far the detergent has been great and I have calculated the cost per load is about 2 cents (which is awesome compared to the 46 cents a load from store bought)!

There are recipes out there for powder or liquid detergent. Holly and Jessica both made wonderful powder detergents. I happen to prefer liquid detergent, so that's what I made. Whatever style you like, the basic ingredients are the same. Here is what I did if anyone else out there is interested in making your own laundry detergent too! Have fun!

Step 1 -collect all your supplies (found at Wal-Mart). You will need 1 five gallon bucket, 2 cups of washing soda, 2 cups of borax, 2 and 1/4 gallons of water and about 1 and a half bars of ivory soap.

Step 2 - finely grate bars of soap.

Step 3 - add finely grated soap to 1 quart of boiling water.

Step 4 - keep on low heat and stir until all soap is melted.

Step 5 - pour the soap water into five gallon bucket and add the Borax and Washing Soda. Stir well until all is dissolved.

Step 6 - add 2 gallons of water, stir until well mixed.

Step 7 - fill old container with new homemade detergent and no one will ever know!

I may try a defferent soap next time, but other than that I have been very satisfied with my new detergent. It didn't take long and it made enough to probably last through the summer! My next idea is a homemade washing machine....ha! You'll have to stay tuned to see that one! ;)

The Hay Clan

Snow in the mountains

bookcases

letters

Christmas night at Pop and Nonna's

Christmas Morning

Christmas eve at Mimi and D's

Christmas Eve at Granny's 2011

Christmas at Granny T's

Hay Clan Mistletoe tradition

Kindergarten Christmas party

3rd graders party down

Piano recital

Ballet sneak peek and Christmas party

Fun Fall Fotos

A picnic at the park

I loathe Shigella and the Chicken Pox!

Welcome Home!

The last two months....

The Hays girls fall photo shoot

Where have the last two months gone????

Trick or treat, smell my feet....

Halloween Party ballet style!

Mathews Manor Pumpkin Patch 2011

The big K-5 zoo field trip

Whoo, hoo, hoo loves edible fall crafts....we do, we do!

Back to Ballet 2011

New do!

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head....

Cake Boss.....kid style!

First day of 3rd grade and KINDERGARTEN...... it's just not right!

Saor Patrol at the GMHG 2011

GMHG 2011

Thomas reunion day 3....part 3

Thomas reunion day 3....part 2......Waterfalls!

Thomas reunion day 3....part 1

Thomas family reunion day 2 rafting

Thomas cousins' family reunion 2011

Beach pics

Rafting down the Ocoee 2011 sneak peek!

Garden update

Class of 2001 - 10 year reunion

Our newest neighbor

Birthdays, swim lessons and playing at the park with friends

More pics from the birthday bash....

Little Bit's 5th birthday party.....tangled style!

Last full day at the beach....**sigh**

More beach fun...

Got my toes in the water......toes in the sand.....not a care in the world.....a cold drink in my hand.....LIFE IS GOOD TODAY!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Last full day at the beach....sigh