Belle's Singing Debut

The church where Belle attends Pre-K invited the children to sing at their Sunday evening service. The kids were really cute.

Happy New Year

It was so nice to be with my brothers over New Year's Eve. After losing dad 9 months ago and it being the 5th anniversary of my mom's death it was just good to be around family that shared the same love for these 2 important people.

On a lighter note...We spent New Years Eve just chatting. The kids had fun playing and Belle and Jake were out by 10:30.

Atlanta Trip

After Christmas, the kids and I drove to Atlanta where we spent 5 days with my brother Rich and his family. We went to the Georgia Aquarium and spent time at the park just being silly with my family.

The kids all get along really well. Belle found a new best friend in Ella. Someone to make goofy faces with.

Christmas Photos...Finally

On Monday, Dec. 22nd, we spent the day in Clarksville, TN. with Joel's parents, aunt uncle and cousins. We had a nice Christmas dinner together. Kristie's husband is in the Army and is serving over seas.

Josh was able to try out his new bike that he got while we were in Nashville.

We had a gift exchange while we were there.

Josh shows the gift that he picked. He got a ladies razor set while Belle received the male razor set. It was pretty funny. Josh's expression was priceless. He swapped it for a toy.

On Christmas Eve, we went to mass where Josh sang in the children's choir. Afterward we came home where their Christmas pj's were waiting on the table for them. Each year Santa drops by while we are at church and leaves these for the kids. Then we ate dinner and let the kids open their gifts from each other.

It is so nice how sweet they are to each other on Christmas Eve, knowing Santa is watching:)

Opryland Hotel

This post and pictures are a little backwards. If you scroll to the bottom you can read what this post is about...
On Saturday night, Belle got very sick with the stomach bug. As you see aove this as how she spent much of her vacation. We got our moneys worth out of that hotel.

Sunday night we went and saw the Rockettes. The show was awesome! They had a Nativity scene with real live animals that was real good. Even though Belle was still sick she loved the show. The above picture is the Grand Ole Opry where we saw the show

Look closely at this picture. Do you see the ladies face? She would walk on stilts around the hotel. She was a huge attraction.
Here is what was supposed to be the start of this post...

The weekend before Christmas we went to Nashville where we stayed at the Opryland hotel. Joel's parents met us there. We spent Saturday shopping and exploring the large hotel. You can see some photos of the hotel below.

Chicken Pox, Poison Ivy and Strep Oh My

This year has been full of many trips to the doctors office for both Belle and Josh. With Belle's asthma flaring up and Josh getting poison Ivy twice, and now just getting over chicken pox and strep, my car should automatically know how to get to the dr. office. Luckily Josh did not have chicken pox to bad, but he was still out a week with the "pops" as they call them and with Strep. Below is Josh's face from poison ivy. This was 2 days after he received a shot to clear it up.

Check out the next post to see what we did on his week off of school with the "pops". And if you are wondering--Josh did get the chicken pox vaccine.

Christmas Events

Can "ya'll" believe another Christmas is just around the corner? We have been busy preparing the house for the holidays. Check out the pictures below...

Joel's mom made us this beautiful stockings. Everyone that sees them raves at how beautiful they are. They are huge and look great hanging from our fireplace.

Above our fireplace we have this large cut out. Normal people put their TV, ours is strictly there for my Snow Village. Joel made shelves so that we have a place for all my pieces. If you look at the very top Graceland overlooks all of the village. The king reigns over all:) My mom bought this one for me when we first moved to the Memphis area. Each year I receive a new piece from Joel. This year I have had added some of my mom's pieces and so we had to annex the top of our entertainment center.

Josh has been home with the chicken pox all week. It has actually been nice having him home. we mad sugar cookies one day and decorated them the next day. As you see above Belle is decorating her star with a big blob of green frosting.

Today the kids decorated their gingerbread houses.

The Christmas parade--Once again Josh was in the Christmas parade. This year it was for his Cub Scout Pack 234. Joel volunteered to pull the float. So of course we had to include a picture of his truck, his love! I think he was more excited to have it in the parade then the kids. HAHA!

The kids spent the morning at Home Depot decorating the trailer. The did a great job. Josh is in the middle of the picture, right above the Christmas tree someone drew. Josh ended up walking the entire parade route handing out candy. That evening he broke out with Chicken Pox and Strep throat. We laughed that he infected all of Olive Branch in a matter of an hour!