Did you have a great Christmas?

We had one of the best Christmas' we've ever had. We got to be with all of the kids, grandkids and my sisters and their families. It's not many years that we can get everyone together but the last two years have been a success. I only wish Mother and Dad and Jimmie and Milton could be here to enjoy their great grandchildren as well as their grandchildren. So far there are twelve great grandchildren for Mother and Dad and three for Jimmie and Milton. AND more to come I'm sure. This year is going to be a year of great blessings and answered prayers. Among the great grandchildren, the boys sure outnumber the girls. For now anyway. Just look.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year. I pray God's richest blessings on us all for a great 2011.

Pictures!!!

Finally I have gotten my pictures uploaded from our New York City trip a couple of weeks ago. One thing before I start explaining what everything is. I was reading Pioneer Woman's blog where she and her girls went to New York City just a couple of days after we did and she talked about the girls getting these "free" hats at Rockefeller Center that cost $20. We did the same thing! There are these military guys I think it was, standing out by Rockefeller center handing out cute NYC knit hats for "free". Then they ask for a $10 donation. Oh well, the hats are cute and definitely worth it.

Ok, the first two pictures are floats and people from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day that were involved in shooting a new movie called Tower Heist. That was exciting to watch. Didn't see any movie stars though. 

 

This was where we ate the first night in the City. So very good. Italian family style.

Then we went to see the Rockettes. This was something I have always wanted to do. It was fabulous.

Times Square as it was getting dark.

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and ice skating.

At the Today Show on Friday morning.

Jessica has a friend, Valarie, who lives in NYC and took us to a little place for lunch called Penelopes.

The Empire State building at the top. You can see for miles.

We rode the subway a lot. It was a good way to get around the City.

Jessica is standing in front of the Statue of Liberty although I probably don't have to even say that. She is as cold as she looks. The wind was blowing VERY hard.

Yeah! The big piano from the movie Big.

And of course, Central Park.

New York City here we come

My daughters, some friends and I are going to New York City this week for a long weekend. I am so excited. I have been before but not at Christmas time. There is so much we want to see and do, I'm sure we won't be able to do near all of it but we are sure going to give a good try. Pictures to come.

Thanksgiving

Cooking my first batch of dressing for the holidays this afternoon for a Thanksgiving dinner tonight at our church. There will be others making it as well but I really like the way our family has always cooked it. It is just good old fashioned cornbread dressing with sage. Nothing tastes like the holidays like cornbread dressing. I was going to take a picture as I cooked it but that didn't happen so I will post a picture of the finished product.

We will be going to my sister's for dinner on Thanksgiving day and we always have the same food. We have tried to have different dishes but the families ALWAYS just want the traditional foods so...  After dinner the ones going shopping on Black Friday morning gather around the newspapers to make our strategy on what, where and when. We almost always end up going to Wal-Mart first because you can price match and we take advantage of that. Every year I say I don't have much to shop for because I give my kids money for Christmas. Now don't get all bent out of shape. This is what they want since they have been grown. I do get the grandkids presents to open though. But I always end up with a lot of stuff anyway. Who can resist those good sales. As of right now, I already have a list going because I have been getting emails from a website that gets the Black Friday early. What can I say...I love a good sale.

I pray  you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are a blessed people!!!!

A day late

Well, here I am, a day late (and usually a dollar short). Oh well. I just wanted to say thanks to all of our military past and present for their wonderful sacrifices they have made for our freedom and especially to my Dad who served in the Navy during WWII. I love the picture I have of him in his Navy uniform. How handsome he was. No wonder Mother fell in love with him.
I also want to take this opportunity to wish my mother a happy birthday. She would have been 82. God blessed me with two amazing parents that raised me in a Christian home, loved me, provided for me, gave me wings to fly. Mother and Daddy worked hard all of their lives to provide a home for us four kids with us never really knowing how sometimes hard it was financially. They left us with wonderful memories of fun times together. I love you Mother and Daddy and miss you tons.

Greenwood Fall Festival

Karen and I will be at the Greenwood Fall Festival this Saturday with lots of goodies from our antique booth, More Than Sisters. There will be lots of booths, arts and crafts, food and fun. Bring the family.

What a weekend!

OMGosh, what a weekend we've had. Saturday we finally had Noah's second birthday party. He had an absolute blast. Jenny MADE her own Buzz Lightyear suit and showed up at his party handing out prizes for all of his friends that came. It would be interesting to know what a 2 year old actually is thinking about stuff like this. Does he even know what a birthday party is? He sure knew who Buzz was and was not afraid of him. Kacee did a great job of preparing for his party. Once she downloads the pictures, I'll post some here.
Sunday was our church's annual Hee Haw fellwoship which is based on the old TV show but we serve dinner. This year we added Chili to the menu and had baskets of candy on the tables so the little kids could go from table to table "trick or treating." We had some really cute costumes. Noah was Buzz at his birthday party and was going to be Buzz at Hee Haw but his costume got dirty so he wore his Woody PJ's with a cowboy hat and the boots he got for his birthday. He looked so adorable. Jenny also made Jonah's costume...one of the little aliens from Toy Story. She did a great job with it. Jenny showed up at Hee Haw as Buzz and gave out Junior Ranger certificates to the kids. Lots of the kids had their picture made with "Buzz" and so did several of the adults. Hee Haw was great fun, lots of laugh and lots of good food. This is the biggest fellowship we do at our church. Everyone comes.
This next weekend should be just about as busy since my sister and I are going to set up a booth at the Greenwood Fall Festival at Bell Park. Plus Gary and I will have the boys for a lot of the weekend. Kacee will be out of town and Jamie and another leader are going to have the church youth boys annual video game night Saturday night. Maybe after this weekend it will slow down for a while.

Birthday

Today is my sugar bear Noah's 2nd birthday. Happy Birthday, Noah. Nana and Papa love you.

More repurposed furniture

My sister, her sister-in-law and I have been very busy with our antique booth lately especially redoing some of the furniture that we have been putting in there. A couple of weeks ago, we bought this chair at a garage sale for $1 and the little stool at an auction for $5. I forgot to take before pictures but here is how it looks after. We absolutely love doing this. I am linking to Miss Mustard Seed Creations for Furniture Feature Friday. We painted it a gloss black and recovered both the stool and the chair bottom. Take a look!

Wild Things Farm

Last weekend we took Noah, Jonah, Sierra and Brian out to Wild Things Farm which is not far from here. It is such a neat place in the fall especially for the kids. They got to pet goats and baby pigs, see peacocks, milk a fake cow, go on a hayride, wander through the corn maze, shoot a corn cannon and pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. So much fun in just a couple of hours.

Radio City Rockettes

The magic of Macy’s brings you the high-kicks of the world-famous Radio City Rockettes®!Kick off the day with the world-famous Radio City Rockettes® at Macy’s! The stars of America's favorite holiday show, the Radio City Rockettes, are coming your way and want to teach you their moves!

Bring along the little ones as The Rockettes® will show them how to perform those eye-high kicks, provide a glimpse of the history of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular® and tell them what it takes to become a world-famous Rockette. They'll even get to join in a mini-performance and receive an “Honorary Rockette” certificate!

Following the Dance with the Rockettes experience, snag a photo and meet with the stars of the world's most precision dance troupe while they're in your town!

Want to see the Rockettes on stage in all their glory? Spend $50 or more at this event and receive a pair of tickets to their Radio City Christmas Spectacular during their national tour. Plus, enjoy a special offer of 25% off your ticket purchase to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular in addition to your two free tickets with code MACYS at www.radiocitychristmas.com (offer not valid for NYC shows). It's the perfect way to bring holiday cheer to your family this season!

While you're in store, be sure to register to win a VIP Meet and Greet with the Radio City Rockettes and four tickets to your local Radio City Christmas Spectacular show!

Rockettes at Macy's (all events begin at 2:00PM)

8/14 - Fresno Fashion Fair - Fresno, CA

8/14 - Mission Viejo - Orange County, CA

8/14 - Valley Fair - San Jose, CA

9/18 - Washington Square - Portland, OR

9/18 - Green Hills - Nashville, TN

9/22 - Palmdale – Los Angeles, CA

9/25 - Oak Park - Kansas City, KS

10/2 - Cherry Hill - Philadelphia Metro *

10/2 - Edison Mall - Ft. Myers, FL

10/16 - Bridgewater - Bridgewater, NJ *

11/6 - Burlington - Boston/Burlington, MA

11/6 - Providence - Providence, RI

Rockettes Radio City Christmas Spectacular Tour

12/14 – SaveMart Center – Fresno, CA

12/6-12/7 – Honda Center – Anaheim, CA

12/16-12/17 – Oracle Arena – Oakland, CA

12/18-12/19 -- HP Pavillion -- San Jose, CA

12/23-12/26 – Rose Garden Arena – Portland, OR

11/19-12/24 – Ole Opry – Nashville, TN

12/9-12/12 – Nokia Theater – Los Angeles, CA

11/19 – Sprint Theater – Overland Park, KS

11/11-11/28 – Barbara B Mann Performing Arts Center – Fort Myers, FL

11/2-11/29 – Providence Performing Arts Center – Providence, RI

12/3-12/9 – Citi Performing Arts Center – Burlington, MA

* Free tickets with $50 purchase, 25% off discount code and VIP meet and greet giveaway not applicable here

Linking here at blogrollers

Weekend at Jenny's

Gary and I were on "vacation" last week and decided to go to Jenny's on Friday for the weekend. I love going over there but don't get to go very often. We got to take the boys with us because Kacee was going to a dental hygiene conference in Little Rock for the weekend and Jamie went with us. We had such a good time, we always do when we go to Tulsa and when we have the boys. Noah has been talking some but this weekend he took off. He was talking, repeating things we would say and just being his cute sweet self loving everything that was going on. He is one of the happiest kids I think I have ever been around. We took Noah and Jonah to the Tulsa Zoo Saturday thinking since it is "Fall" surely it wouldn't be so hot. NOT! It was in the mid 90s. In September no less. Needless to say, we didn't get around to all of the animals. I was just too hot and Noah was getting very tired.
Back at Jenny's, she had gotten him more cars. OMGosh he has probably close to 100 now and loves them all. I sure hope she has decided to stop buying him more cars. Noah and Jenny have a very special bond and not just because of the cars. She had the same kind of bond with my nephew, Andrew, when he was that age. When Jenny is around, Noah doesn't see anyone else but her and that's just fine her. Here are pictures of this weekend.

Meet Me on Mondays

I am joining Java over at Meet Me on Mondays. So here goes.
1. What is my favorite Pasta dish? Anything spicy, creamy with bowtie pasta, veggies and chicken.
2. What is the last thing I do before going to bed? I think that would have to be kiss my hubby goodnite.
3. How many nights a week do you go out to eat? We eat out a lot, like 3-4 times a week. I really wish we didn't at times. But living out of town from where my husband pastors makes it sometimes much more convenient. It's either that or eat at home very late.
4. Are you an avid book reader? Oh yes, definitely. always have been, guess I always will. Fiction is my favorite, like John Grisham or Mary Higgins Clark.
5. Would you rather have x-ray vision or bionic hearing? Hard to say but I guess x-ray vision. No particular reason.
So there you go for Meet Me on Mondays. Come join us.

Labor Day Weekend

It's Sunday night and I am sitting in my living room watching tv with Gary and typing here. So far we have had a good holiday weekend. I went to an auction Friday night. I have found I really like going to auctions, they are fun and interesting to see what kind of deal you can get. Saturday morning, Karen and went garage saleing to a citywide garage sale. We didn't find just an awful lot of good deals but did find a few really good things. Then we went over to the Habitat Restore shop. That is the coolest place. You just never know what you are going to find there. We have been buying old wooden windows that we then take to our antique booth. They don't last long there. I love those windows with all that chippy paint. We actually got some cabinet doors that I have used to make the chalkboards. We got several different sizes of doors and lots of windows and I have already started working the cabinet doors. Today I started painting and repurposing and staining. I have a lot of stuff in my carport that needs to be finished although we don't have room in our booth for anything else right now. I just hope we can sell a lot of stuff to make room for more. I am really enjoying doing this more than anything I have ever done before.
Today after a terrific service at church we took Noah to the park to ride the train. We were going to last night but he fell asleep and slept until it was too late to go. He had so much fun not just riding the train but also at the park on the swings and the slides. His friend Alyssa and her mom went with us. They really seemed to have a lot of fun. Creekmore part is such a great place to take kids and there were so many people there with their families, playing, grilling. Everything smelled so good. I hope to get to take him back in a week or so and maybe go on a picnic. I love to picnic. He was so tired and sleepy but he just kept on playing. Jamie got some video and pictures that I will try to post later.
Tomorrow we are probably just going to work on stuff around here and maybe try to finish up some painting. Nice holiday.

Building a home

All I am going to say is go to this link to be encouraged on how to build a home. I love what Tracy has to say. Titus2atthewell

Chalkboards

I have finally finished these chalkboards I have been working on. I know everyone is doing them and I wanted to give it a try. First I found these cabinets doors at the Habitat Restore store in town. They didn't have any handle holes so I didn't have to fill in anything. Just prime and then paint and sand. I have been wanting one in my kitchen ever since I saw one my niece had painted using part of an old door. I am going to put them in my antique booth but I may have to keep one of them. We'll see. Oh and I am linking to Under the Table Dreaming's Sunday Showcase.