In front of the Christmas Tree....Take One.

 Yesterday morning I thought I would try to take some pictures of them in front of our tree before church. As you will see I was only semi-successful. 

 Do you like Alder's outfit? I love the smocked shorts outfit made by a dear friend years ago and passed down to us. Yes, he does look like he could go yodeling in the Swiss mountains, but precious nonetheless. He insisted on wearing his wellies to church. What can I say?

By the last few shots I had bribed them with two jelly beans each....can you tell? 

Ha. 

Forgotten Thanksgiving

I love, love, love Thanksgiving. I love the day, what is all about, the turkey, the list of things that I am thankful for that go through my head the whole month of November, the gluttony, the laid back feeling that Thanksgiving carries with it, and the colors. I can get really annoyed with all the "Christmasing" that goes on before even the 3rd week of Thanksgiving. It drives me crazy that people decorate for Christmas BEFORE Thanksgiving, that stores have all their "stuff" geared for Christmas, and so on. I feel like, with all the commericalism of Christmas, that Thanksgiving is becoming a forgotten holiday. Anyways, I will get off my shop box. We enjoyed the holiday in Chattanooga with our families. As always it was non-stop fun from the moment we arrived into Chattanooga.

So thankful for wonderful families, healthy children, and the little kicking baby inside this belly of mine, my home, and so so so much more. 

 Wingfield Thanksgiving dinner at the Fairyland Club. The little table...Win (18 mos.), TH (23 mos.), Alder (2 1/2), and Kingston (18 mos.)

 The bigger but still little (because all 13 cousins are under the age of 8) table...Demi(6), Stoney(almost 6), Teddy (4), Shaw(3), Wilder (2), and Josie(4). 

Settle Thanksgiving with our beloved Great Aunt Nina. She is wonderful, full of joy, happy, still plays 18 holes of golf, and is in her upper 80's. We just adore her and my boys love calling her GGNina (that would be for Great, Great, Aunt Nina to them).

My Dad and Alder. My Dad is the master chef in all areas of cooking, but totally rocks the house on Thanksgiving Day. Alder is looking in (I think) total amazement at the size of the turkey. I am too. It was huge AND delicious. 

GGNina and Alder reading the story of Thanksgiving together as my Dad carves up the turkey.

Sweet boys intrigued by the fire. Poor Kingston. He did have pants for dinner, but they just did not seem to get on him after his nap.

Some of the delicious food and (drumroll please.....)

my Dad's gravy. It may just look like some super yucky goop in this photo, but I assure you it is not. It is certainly heavenly in all ways and if we could bottle it and sell it (hey, that may be a good idea) then I am sure we would become millionaires. It is a family recipe that has been handed down through the generations and its the only gravy I will eat. In fact, it has left all of us in the family utter snobs about gravy. All other gravy is goop if you ask me. Some of Jared's family came and ate Thanksgiving dinner with us a couple of years ago and they still talk about it. I should share the recipe because everyone everywhere should be able to take part in eating turkey with this wonderful gravy poured upon it. I'll ask my Dad about posting the recipe...he is sort of protective over it. Ha.

My Mom's beautiful table and in the center the famous and adored Cranberry Conserve. I make Cranberry Conserve for neighborhood Christmas gifts and I have people ask me all year long, "are you going to make that yummy red stuff again this year?" Here is the recipe. 

I usually triple the recipe and buy the jars at Wal-Mart, tie on a ribbon, and there you go. A wonderful holiday gift. The recipe comes from Dinner on the Diner by The Junior League of Chattanooga. I highly recommend the whole cookbook, but this recipe is a must. The conserve goes great with any holiday meal.

Sweet Kingston and my Mom making Thanksgiving cookies. 

I'm thankful for.....

our 3rd baby who is growing perfectly, is seemingly healthy, and kicking Mama all day long. 

It is a joy to be carrying this little one in my belly. It is such an unique gift to feel your little one grow and grow inside you. I am so thankful for this little one. I feel like I am counting down to Christmas day in awaiting the arrival of this baby. I cannot wait to hold it, kiss it, nurse it, and kiss it (did I already say kiss it???). 

This picture above is the baby's profile and the one below is of the baby taking "a breath." The last picture is looking at the baby's head, ear, and his/her arm wrapped around its head. 

Amazing. 

It's Great to Be an Auburn Tiger!!!

This is our crowd at the Auburn game a couple of weeks ago. It was frigidly cold due to wind and sitting very high up in the stadium. I failed miserably at trying to photograph everyone at the same time. It is Jared, Alder, Demi, YaYa, Josie, Stoney,Strib, Papa, Kingston, and Uncle Jackie. It was a fun day and a great first game (homecoming and Auburn played UTC and obviously smoked them) to take the boys to. Alder waved his shaker, watched the game, enjoyed the festivities before hand like the eagle flying and the marching band and Kingston just ate fistfuls of popcorn and tried to stay warm inside Uncle Jackie's coat. 

Kingston just clung to Uncle Jackie that day and it was so sweet to watch.

Alder's favorite, the Marching Band

And our family of 4 1/2. I mean, will I ever get a picture of my family with both boys looking at the camera?

Our cheesy little Kingston. If only the cute matching jackets that my Mom bought the boys for the season could have been a nice burnt orange for the day....that would have been perfect for pictures. 

Cousins Demi, Alder, and Stoney waiting so patiently outside Mellow Mushroom. 

And of course no Auburn game day would be complete without the rolling of Toomer's Corner. The kids absolutely loved it and Alder kept looking up at me saying, "Mama, did it snow?" 

War Eagle!

October in Pictures

Random Shots and Thoughts

I just happened to have my camera the other day at church and I snapped these of Kingston. I think his reddish hair photographs so nicely against the light shining through the stained glass windows. He is my little buddy during the church service. I keep him occupied and entertained and Jared has Alder. The system works nicely now that it is "man on man" but what will happen when we go to "zone defense?" And not just for a 1 hour church service, but everyday with 3 little ones 3 and under? I am trying to prepare mentally, but am not really intimidated by the jump from 2 to 3 just because the jump from 1 to 2 who were 16 months apart was harrowing. We figure that will help put the jump from 2 to 3 in perspective.

There are some really sweet things about living in a small town and one of them was watching the homecoming parade last Friday. It is going to sound crazy, but it can be an emotional thing to watch such a parade. The streets are lined with seemingly everyone in town out to support the Tigers, to hear the marching band, to see the pride on the faces of the football players, coaches, cheerleaders, and the supporters. Combine all of that with the thunderous sounds of the fire trucks, police sirens, and honking cars and you may just find yourself really moved. I did. Its the heartbeat of America, a small town at its best. 

I took the boys and they absolutely LOVED it. LOVED IT! I dressed then in the school colors and tried to explain to them what it was we were about to see. Words cannot explain it and so I just let them wait, listen, and watch for the parade. 

Alder was captivated by it and it was clear that all the sounds and the spirit of the whole parade moved him too. 

Alder stood on the side and "conducted" the parade as they passed. He shook his arm with a very serious look on his face. He acted as if he was sending them off to "war" or something like that (not that he has any idea what war is). In the picture below, he may look as if he is angry, but he really just being serious and "conducting." He got a real kick out of the fact that the many floats that passed threw out candy. That was certainly an added bonus. 

Recently we made a homemade trail mix as an afternoon activity and it was a big hit. In this pictures though, it seems like Alder is whincing in pain or is not enjoying the activity. I assure you he loved the whole experience, but the kid consistently makes halirious facial expressions. Currently when he talks, he wrinkles up his nose, his brow, and squints his eyes and just talks. Oh, and at the same time he is twirling his hands. So silly.

Anyways, I just gathered a lot of "snacky" type things I had in the pantry and put them in individual bowls and then let Alder go to town by adding them to a big container. We used pistachios, chocolate covered raisins, cereal, golden raisins, crasins, sunflower seeds, cashews, and white chocolate chips. It was as easy as pie and somewhat healthy too.

And by the way, this funny-faced guy is paci free as of two weeks ago and is in a "big boy bed." He tells everyone how, "I'm a big boy and I threw my pacis away because they were broken and I a big boy." Of course taking him to Wal-Mart to pick out any toy he wanted as a reward for giving up paci helped immensely and he picked out Disney's Robin Hood. He is currently addicted to it, is Robin Hood for Halloween, and is daily practicing how to shoot his $2 bow and arrow. 

And some more random thoughts....

It is us VS. wasps right now in our house. Is anyone else having this issue? I can handle the recent influx of roaches, but wasps are a little intimidating when you have two small children and these wasps are aggressive. Between Jared and I we have killed about 15 in the last two days and I hear one right now flying against the windows in the dining room. What is the best thing to do about them?

I am 20 weeks pregnant today and still find myself struggling through each day. Seriously? This pregnancy has been so different that it still surprises me each day. But I am encouraged by the fact that I am half-way there.

Happy Hump Day!