We Were Pirates

Ahoy young mateys -- 

If treasure ye be seeking 

There's learning to be had 

At a meeting we'll be teaching 

Of treasures good, none bad 

So join your fellow pirates 

And your parents for some fun 

We'll be searching out the treasure 

Ye lassies will see how it's done

-from our New Beginnings invitation

This year for New Beginnings we went with a pirate theme.  We wanted it to be a fun night, but one that the girls could feel the spirit as well.  

We went to the church the day of, to decorate ahead of time.  Here it is complete, before the girls arrive all decked out in pirate wear.  

We had the serving table decorated as well with black table cloths and treasure chests with coins and gold and silver glitter and treasure maps.  I forgot to take a picture.

Below are the girls singing to start things off.  I was trying to get all of them and I don't think I did. oops:(

The girls also did a pirate skit that was cute.  It focused on treasures and what treasures they should be seeking.  I don't think I got any pictures of it.

the yw presidency and the Bishop 

I would like to thank Zachary for letting me borrow his Jack Sparrow Sword.

most of our yw leaders

the whole gang

We managed to keep the scouts and the young men out of the gym during our program.  It is always hard when food is involved.  We had cup cakes and meatballs and veggie trays and fruit.

Once all of the young women and parents had eaten and we were visiting, this happened.

You could tell when the food was gone because they left the table and went to where the girls were, to visit.

For the record... we didn't care that they ate the food.  It made clean up easy.  I just thought it was funny and told the story of how it typically goes in our ward.

Blog Updates And Snow

 Well, as you can see I have been trying to get this blog up to date.  There really has been no excuse for my not updating it, after all we have used I think 9 snow days this school year and it has been an unseasonably cold icky winter.  Maybe that is why I haven't felt like blogging. 

 Too depressing. 

 Don't get me wrong, I love when my kids have snow days, but I am tired of this cold. Usually if we get snow it melts pretty quick and it is sunny and only cold for a short period of time.  This mess started in December before the kids even got out for Christmas and it is still going on.  The kids have been out of school for the past two days because of snow.  

The good thing is that Zachary has had a cold and run a fever since Tuesday night, so he only missed Wednesday, so he will have less make up work to do.  The bad thing about it,  he didn't get to play in the snow.  He loves that.

It hasn't all been bad, we have played the Wii, and watched movies and stayed up late and slept in and just enjoyed spending time together. (except for when S & Z fight because they have been couped up together too long. Not fun!)

Just tired of the gloomy, cold weather.  Bring on the sun!

Things are looking up.  I think... I hope... Please weather people be right.

It is supposed to be in the 60's next week. Heat wave!

I don't think I am a winter lover.  I certainly respect the people that live like this every winter, only get a lot worse.  I don't see how they do it.

Music City Bowl

I don't have much to say about the game.

We went, it was cold, we had a good time until the end.  

The kids wanted to go, so Kyle got us tickets.

Our view of the Nashville skyline from our seats.

Hannah and Savannah

Savannah trying to make her Uncle John face.

The boys

I took this for Hannah.  She had her camera but, I don't think she could get this shot.

The band was amazing.  They did the circle drill and wowed everyone.  That is the first time I have ever been to a ball game where the fans stayed in the stands and cheered for the band.  I wish I had gotten pictures, but Hannah did, and posted them on her blog.  Nothing beats the Pride of the Southland Marching Band!

 The three amigos.  

There she goes again trying to make the Uncle John face.

I wonder if I will ever get a shot of all my kids smiling?

Christmas 2010

I know I am way behind, but....

The traditional Christmas morning photo.

I am sure my kids will be thrilled I posted this one.

SORRY KIDS :)

I forgot to take my camera or even take pictures when I had my camera with me.  I'll do better next year?

This was a fun Christmas.  Hannah got to come home.  Yay!  We didn't get to see her for Thanksgiving, so we were ready to see her.

Also, this was the first year in a while that all of my brothers and sisters were together.  We had a great time.

Also, for my whole married life, Kyle has been allergic to something at his mom and dad's house.  He spends the day we are there for Christmas out on the front porch or sitting in the kitchen(the only room in the house that he could breath okay in).  Then two boxes of tissue and at least one asthma attack later (at least two days after we would get home) he would finally get better.  Kyle's parents, every year (before we come) have tried everything to make things better for him.  They have deep cleaned everything -taken furniture apart and bleached and cleaned each piece, vacuumed everything in sight, dusted, had their duct work cleaned, etc.  Nothing seemed to work.  

This past year, they replaced their AC unit.  We show up for Christmas and Kyle can breath.  He was able to go in the family room and watch football and gab with everyone.  So the AC unit was the culprit and now it is gone and we had a blowing your nose and asthma attack free Christmas.  Yay!!!

I am sure my sibling will love this.  We had a ugly Christmas sweater contest this year.  Of course I forgot my camera, but lucky for me and them, I had my handy dandy phone.  The lighting was bad in the room, so my pictures turned out grainy, but I have to share the fun we had.

Aren't they cute?  

They look like they belong in a Christmas movie.

I have to say that Matt won the competition.  Candace bought the shirt he is wearing to wear under her vest.  I guess Matt wanted to compete, so he wore the shirt.

I just have to say that Jamie's sweater was by far the most unique I have ever seen.  To truly appreciate this beauty, you have to see it from both sides. There are no words to describe it.  Who comes up with these things?

Side A

Side B

Are you confused?  So were we!

Their hubbies didn't compete in the contest, so they posed together.  I think I have actually seen people wearing sweaters like these beauties.

The whole gang.  

They posed together and then we voted.  I think we all laughed until we cried.  Definitely funny stuff!

To finish off Christmas Day, we got a visit from Grandmama in her Titans jersey.  She had just gotten it and was excited to have something Titans.  We all loved seeing Grandmama.  Thanks Uncle Joe, for driving in our first white Christmas in 17 years, so that we could see Grandmama.

A Tale Of Two Trees

This past Christmas was the first Christmas in a long time that I was actually excited about. I used to love Christmas until we moved away from family and traveled for Christmas.  And then of course my kids would get sick.  What is Christmas without sick kids.  Then we would get home and I would take the decorations down and get the kids back in school.  Sounds relaxing, huh?
I have since moved back closer to family and my kids aren't sick every year, but the dread of former days linger.

Of course, it must be said, that while decorating every year, inevitably the lights on something either won't work, or they go out all together. That has been a constant every year.

This year we got the Light Keeper Pro.  I blogged about it in December with excitment.  It works, so I am still loving it.  The lights on our garland went out and voila, the LKP fixed the problem.

Here is our tree.  It is a bad picture, but I think I deleted the good one by accident.  It is a pretty tree with LED lights.  The tree was up and decorated, the garland up, wreathes on the door.  We are ready for Christmas.

Early in December, before the 8th when the Young Women were coming over for our Christmas party, the bottom half of the tree went out.  The light keeper pro doesn't work on LED lights.  Only the miniature lights.  I was ready to take the tree down and forget it.  We could still have Christmas with no tree.

Our new tree

Kyle came to the rescue.  Well, I guess I should say, he and Zachary came to the rescue.  While I took Savannah to dance, they went and got this new tree, with miniature lights.  Now, I can fix the lights with my light keeper pro.  I hope all goes well next Christmas.

Snow

On December 13, 2010 we had our first snowfall of the winter.  That is a little early for us, but the kids got a snow day out of it. Zachary was all about the snow day.  Savannah was excited about it too, but had exams the next day and wanted the snow to melt in time for her exams.  Now before you start wonder how it is that I have a child that likes to take exams, I'll explain the reason for her readiness.  If school is cancelled on the 14th, she would have to take an exam after Christmas break and she wanted to be through will her exams and take a break from school and enjoy her Christmas break.  They went to school on the 14th two hours late, but that was enough for Savannah to get in all of her exams before Christmas.  She was one happy girl. 

 

Zachary had a little bit of a cold and it was in the teens, but he begged and begged to go out in the snow, so I let him enjoy it for a little while.  He loved it!

TN vs Vandy

On November 20, 2010 we took Savannah and Zachary to see TN play Vandy.  It was more like a home game for Tennessee that for Vanderbilt.  Sad I guess for Vanderbilt.

We of course were seated next to a really drunk guy that made really stupid comments until he left during halftime.  He was wearing black and I guess trying to be funny.  Saying things like " I am wearing black, but I'm a UT fan. Do you think all of the UT fans will hate me?"  or "Where is the home team section? I don't see any black and gold."  He was a real genius.  Everyone in our section was glad to see him go.  We kept Savannah and Zachary as far from him as possible.  

Zachary is slowly learning to like football games.  Savannah on the other hand is really into them.

Zachary and Savannah enjoying the game

The game wasn't terribly exciting.  In fact, to be honest, it was slow and boring.  The ref's were horrible.  They kept making horrible calls and wrong calls and having to stop the game to review the calls made.  Like I said it was a long game, but of course, Tennessee won.  We were happy in the end.

Just a little tip in case you go to a UT game at Vanderbilt stadium.  If you buy your tickets through the Vandy office and are going to pick them up in will call.  Don't bother looking  for the will call on the map on Vandy's website for the stadium.  Just look for a tent out in one of the parking lots that has a small sign out that says will call.  Genius?