Softball!

Madison has moved up from T-ball to girls 8U Softball! Her tryouts were a couple Saturdays ago (same day as Chase) and she has been selected to play on the Tarheels (as in NC Tarheels!) team. We're excited about playing with the "big dogs" this season! And we love the powder blue!

T-Ball Tryouts!

Chase did a great job at T-Ball tryouts... and he made the team. :o) He'll be on the Reds this year and since this is his third season, I know we'll be seeing great things! Of course he does still have a bit of that bobble-head look going on with his batting helmet - cute huh?! Stay tuned!

Thursday Night Knitting Club!

Madie enjoyed knitting with Aunt Cindy's group last night. She's working on a beautiful scarf! One row at a time...

Lord...

Change My Attitude...Before It's Too Late!
Started a new Bible study last night. With fifty other women, the discussion will be endless but hopefully I can be fixed! God Bless You.

Clean Toilet

Okay so I spoke to my blog mate (BM) and learned a few pointers on changing colors for this fabulous forum and other wonderful tricks. I explained that I couldn't justify "playing" until I had cleaned at least one more toilet...so guess what? It's clean and I'm back! So don't be surprised if this blog goes from black to white to hot pink and back every few days. It'll be fun...come along..... :o)

Tommy Teddy

Chase brought Tommy Teddy home from school for the weekend. They both needed a haircut!

100 Books

The first graders at Duncan Creek had a lofty goal for 2008 -- read 100 books each by January! Madison had no trouble and enjoys a good book (Junie B Jones, Barbie, Lucy on the Loose...) The school recognized the students' achievements at a special ceremony held Friday, January 23rd. All together the 1st graders read over 20,000 books!!

Reflections

Madison entered the Reflections contest held at her school; it is a forum for kids to showcase their talents (or dreams at least) in the categories of Visual Arts, Music, Photography, Dance and Writing. This year's theme was "WOW"...and doesn't Madie's sunset make you say Wow! She was proud to receive her honorary award at a special ceremony held this past Thursday (1/22/09) -- .

Mountain Fun!

The kids love to visit Clayton and see their friends Laurel and Corbin Smith. They live just across the street (actually it's past the chicken house, across the creek, around the bend and up the mountain!) from Mimi and PopPop's cabin.

This past fall Laurel (born just 2 weeks before Madie) turned seven and the kids enjoyed hayrides.

On another visit the kids got to go up to Brass Town Bald (Georgia's highest mountain) for a hike. Aren't they too cute!?

Merry Christmas!

Well, I'm back. I hope to post here more often as the new year begins...







We had a great Christmas, although if I eat one more "left over" Christmas cookie I will definitely pop! We spent two days up in Clayton at the Keener family cabin... with Mimi and PopPop, Aunt Cindy and a special visit from Christopher all the way from Texas! The kids enjoyed Gator rides and we all loved lounging around and admiring the beautiful tree! I crocheted scarves for all the girls...









The weather was cold so PopPop kept the fires burning and we were able to enjoy visits with Aunt Elena and Uncle Tom and the kids all went to see Aunt Genus. Aunt Genus just celebrated her 95th birthday!






































We headed back to Hoschton on Christmas Eve to await ol' St. Nick. Madison did a beautiful job reading Twas the Night Before Christmas for us. Then we hung our stockings and set out some cookies. Christmas morning was great -- the kids loved getting all their Star Wars and Hannah Montana toys! Mike got a new router and I got a cool new guitar!

Holidays Are Here!

The kids enjoyed a lot of activities at school during the holiday season -- I did enjoy many (if not all) teachers and fellow-parents extending "Merry Christmas" wishes vs. "Happy Holidays." This is a great area of Georgia with good "all American," Christian values. We're so glad to be among the majority here! Okay, enough of the soap box...on with the pictures.

It all started in early December with holiday luncheons (ahem...Christmas luncheons!)...first Chase on Tuesday and then Madie on Thursday. Turkey and Stove Top stuffing (Chase ranted about how "this is the best stuffing I've ever had".... he didn't touch my "Bell Seasoning" version the week prior!)

During Madison's luncheon we all enjoyed a special rendition of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer sung by her class! She's in the first row, second from the left.

Not long after that, and after celebrating a few birthdays, we drove out to Thompson's Christmas Tree Farm to pick out the perfect tree. We thought we might cut our own but couldn't resist the majestic 10' tall firs. Any one would certainly withstand the weight of our ornaments, each with its own story, and stand tall in our great room -- something I was really hoping for. So we found the perfect tree... Okay, almost perfect, I couldn't see the TV from the kitchen sink any more but twas a small sacrifice.

The next thing on our list was attending the Duncan Creek First Grade presentation of 'Jingle All the Way' -- It was great -- Madie is in the second row on stage (behind Santa's chair) and her special friend Matthew even had a special role as one of the elves.

And we had tons of fun at the Polar Express party (1st Grade) -- I even volunteered to help with snacks and hot chocolate -- you should've seen me in my jammies...or not! And Chase had a great party in his class. They played Bingo and made reindeer food and decorated cookies (I brought in the trees!) Madie made a cute little "gingerbread" house... actually Chase did that too! We had three houses to eat this year!

The Christmas cantata at our church was absolutely wonderful...hundreds made up the choir and orchestra!

The holidays continue...I'll post this and start another post ...some day soon!