A Wedding!

Well, as if we weren't busy enough....Anna and James were in a wedding tonight! They were so well-behaved, and it was a very pretty wedding. It was the first wedding for both of them. They bought Anna a beautiful dress that hopefully she will be able to wear again....despite the tea stains from the reception!!! Oh well, that is what dry cleaning is for, right? Anyway, I was able to get some great pictures of them!!! James was so excited about the tie he had on before we left. He and Brian went to find one that would match Anna's sash. Unfortunately, it wasn't the right color so I successfully convinced him to wait until tomorrow to wear it. I couldn't help but think as I watched them walk down the aisle how quickly they will be grown up and getting married themselves. It seems like just yesterday that Brian and I got married and now my babies are 7, 6, and 2 years old!!!

Happy Birthday Emma!

Emma Dean is 1!!!
Rose, Anna and Olivia!
Alli and her baby!
Tuesday night, we had my niece, Emma's, 1st birthday party. (Alli and Brandon's baby!) She was so precious, I just had to post some pictures of her! Melanie and her children were also able to come up early for Christmas and so they made it to the party. Anna had to be near Rose, or talking to Rose, or at least touching Rose...the entire time. She just loves babies!! Get ready Leslie...she is soooo excited about Erin! Well, that is all I have time for, and I didn't really have time for that. I am having the youth group Christmas party at my house tonight and haven't done much to prepare for it yet. Also, some friends are coming in from out of town and are spending the night with us tonight.....NEEDLESS to say.....I must be going! Merry Christmas!!!

A visit with Santa and some GREAT news!

First of all, the kids had their annual visit with Santa last Sunday. Luke was not too happy about the whole thing. He was fine and actually liked the experience last year, but you know what they say about getting older and wiser....Anyway, he was crying and I didn't think he would go up there, but Anna and James came to the rescue. You can always count on siblings! After he saw Santa, he kept saying over and over as if to convince himself,"Santa not scary!" It was really cute!

And the good news is...........................I finally got my mantle!!!!!!!!

I still have to prime it, fill in nail holes, sand it, and paint it with a few coats of semi-gloss paint, but I am so excited. Of course, this will all take place BEFORE Christmas......what else do I have to do!? Yeah right. I am about to go crazy with all of the things I have to do (just like everyone else, I am sure) but there is always time for a 'project'!!! Especially one I have been waiting on for so long, and waiting very patiently, I might add!!!! Anyway, hooray for the mantle!!!

I've been "fairy" busy!

Today, we had Anna's birthday party. We had a fairy theme and I went all out. I have never really had a big party for her, so I tried to make this one extra special. I took all of the furniture out of the school room and decorated it like crazy. We had 12 fairies in total. We played fairy limbo and had a treasure hunt to find our fairy dust. We also made fairy halos and painted their nails. It was a lot of fun and I hope Anna will remember it forever. However, I now lack the required "get up and get it done-edness" to get everything back in order. Therefore, Anna will have a fairy room to play in for a few days! I better get everything back in order soon though, I can only stand things being crazy for so long!!!

Happy Birthday, Anna!

Lost her first tooth-May 2007
First ballet recital-May 2007
Soccer game with "coach"-May 2007
Vacation-July 2007

April-2006 Vacation- 2007
New Earrings!- Today
( I sure wish we would have gotten a digital camera when she was a baby! Oh well, we are up with the times....for now!)
Wow! My baby girl is 6 years old. Many different people have told me how quickly it goes by, but you really don't understand until it happens to you. I know my children are still young, but I am definitely getting a little taste of it. Last week, we watched some of our home videos from when James and Anna were little. It just made me cry to see how big they have gotten. My thought was I hope I savored every minute of it. I know I will think the same thing five years from now, when I watch the home videos we are making now. (which are not many) I like pictures more than videos. It is much easier to look at pictures of my babies, than to hear their sweet voices and see them in action. It did help me realize that it is so important to spend time and cherish every moment with our children.. They are such blessings!!! Anyway, Anna wanted to get her ears pierced for her birthday, so we took her to the mall. I think I was more nervous than she was. She was so brave. She just held the little teddy bear and squeezed my hand. She never ceases to amaze me. I don't know what I would do without my Anna......she is such a sweetheart and I am proud and blessed to be her "mama".

Peter Pan!

Here is the Peter Pan group! We had a very nice time. The choreography was great and the actors were very entertaining. It was a really good show but it was a little long for children. I would suggest going to see an afternoon show if you are taking little ones. It was about 3 hours long. James, Anna, Ethan and Isaac were perfect during the show even though I know they were tired. They didn't move a muscle. They were absolutely precious. I am so glad we were able to spend some special time with Ethan and Isaac. By the way....... doesn't my tree look pretty in the background? Well about 5 seconds after this picture was taken, it fell down right on my mom with no warning. Water poured out everywhere, all of the ornaments fell off, and a few balls broke. It was pretty upsetting and embarrassing, but I held myself together, gathered the kids up and went to the show. I had to calm Anna down, of course. She thought her "favorite ornament" was broken and she came unglued! I don't even think she had seen that ornament until mom picked it up off of the ground and it wasn't even broken. Nevertheless, I had to console her before we left. Isn't it funny how things happen? I had put so much effort into it and then........kerplunk! Oh well, things happen. After we got home, I acted like it was good because we get to decorate the tree all over again and the kids liked that. Everything turned out OK and we had a great night!!!

Happy Dec. the 1st!!!

Happy Dec. the 1st! My mom would always say that to us when we were growing up and it just puts me in a good mood. Well, it is 5:30 in the AM and I am waiting on my friend Shannon to come pick me up. We are going to Santuck. Santuck is like a year round craft show that happens the first Saturday of every month. I have never been but have always wanted to. I hope I find some good deals. I have no idea what I am looking for, but whatever it is....I hope I get a good deal! Also, I am taking James and Anna to see Peter Pan at Shakespeare tonight. Ryan is bringing Ethan and Isaac up and for them to go, and my mom is going also. I have heard that it is wonderful. I am so excited. I just love to see just about anything in a theater. I am so excited that James and Anna are getting to the age where they enjoy it just a little bit, too. Brian, Ryan, my dad, and Luke will stay behind and watch the SEC championship. I am sure they will also have a good time. Well, she is here.....gotta go!!!

A personal problem.....

I have a personal problem and it is greatly intensified this time of year. I take all of the parties, and company, and beautiful decorations, and shopping, and gift-giving as invitations to completely obsess about everything! My problem is that I am an extreme over-achiever. This, coupled with the fact that I am a huge people-pleaser is not a stress-free way to live. I just got home from a ladies' night at church and I had such a great time. There was a short devotional and the lady who spoke, used the example of filling a bowl with big rocks. Then she added pebbles. Then sand and then she added water. She said you can always add more, but you have to put the big rocks in first. We have to prioritize and realize that the little things aren't as important as we think they are. Still, I am sure that I will be spot-cleaning my horrible carpet before my family comes for dinner Saturday night, and that I will have to get my tree up and decorated before they get here. Also, I will try my hardest to get Anna's bed painted before her birthday party next Saturday .... which I am sure I will obsess about when I have time . I am crazy.....I know!!! Well, I will pray about it.....but I guess admitting that I have the problem is the first step!!!

An update on "happenings"

So, I took Luke for a follow-up appointment with Dr. Trumbull (who I love) and I was in for a little surprise. I told him all about Luke's symptoms and gave him the papers. He said that there is no way Pneumonia could have come on so fast. I told him that our other thought was that it could be allergies. He has always broken out in a rash when we are in different surroundings or for no reason that we can tell, and he had done this the night before. He said that was definitely it. This was both a relief and a little nerve racking. A relief because he didn't have Pneumonia, but apparently, he could just have an allergic reaction causing him to stop breathing at any time without any warning. He gave us a prescription that will help with his allergies, but I have to basically carry an inhaler with us at all times. I never know what he will have a reaction to and I still don't know what caused this one. I will just pray that he quickly outgrows this sensitivity to whatever is bothering him.......On a slightly less important note, (I hope you know I am kidding) my mantle is still not here. SHOCKER!!! I am still keeping up hope that it will be here soon!!!

Happy.....well, scary Thanksgiving!!

Brandon and James
Matthew, Luke, James, Anna, Brandon and Grant
My sweet Luke!!!
We went down to Florida last Tuesday evening for Thanksgiving and were having a great time. We woke up Thanksgiving morning and noticed that Luke was having a lot of trouble breathing. He also had a fever and a horrible cough. The weird thing was that there was no sign of this the night before. Anyway, Brian and I decided to take him to a 24 hour clinic and "thankfully" there was one open that day. Well, they gave him a breathing treatment and sent him home. When Brian walked him through the door, I said, "You have to take him back." His lips were blue and he still wasn't breathing well. Brian took him back and they gave him another breathing treatment. They checked his O2 level and it was really low. They sent him by ambulance to the hospital. I pulled up just in time to see them hooking my little baby all up to machines and he had a breathing mask on. I had to follow the ambulance but Brian did get to ride with Luke. Can you imagine how I felt? It was pretty bad. My heart was lightened a little when they rolled the bed out of the ambulance Luke said, through his wheeze and the mask,"This is fun, Daddy". I love that boy. He had everybody smiling. A few chest x-rays and several hours later, they told us it was Pneumonia. Scary. They gave us steroids and an antibiotic. Thankfully, he is doing much better now. Sometimes, we get a wake up call as to what we need to be thankful for. I am thankful for our health!!! Anyway, we did have a great time in Florida. Thanks to Steve and Leslie for putting up with us last week. We had a great time with y'all, as usual. It was great to be able to spend time with Chris and Melissa, and the boys, too. We had a really great visit.

A New Tradition

This evening, our family started something new and I hope it will become a family tradition. We decided that since we will be going out of town for Thanksgiving and will SURELY be in the holiday spirit when we return home, I decided I would like to have the house already decorated for Christmas. We started by going out as a family and letting the kids pick out their own decoration. They each picked a little nutcracker and they are absolutely adorable.( I love it when they pick something that I would have picked....alright, there might have been a little encouragement in the favor of the adorable nutcrackers, but can you blame me?) I picked out the cutest metal houses that hold a tea light. Anyway, after our shopping trip, we came back home and had supper and hot chocolate together. I could not find my Christmas CDs so I turned to the "Sounds of the Season" channel of TV. (we later found that I had "cleverly" packed them away with the Christmas decor) I love this channel by the way. So cool!!! We went on to decorate everything except for the tree. I just have to have a real one and therefore the tree will have to wait to be picked out until our return.....shortly, of course, after our return. It has been a fun family evening and I hope my family will remember it as fondly as I will!!!

Baby, it's cold outside....

I am so excited about the weather. I am sitting here drinking my first "justified" cup of coffee for the season. Usually I just drink it because I like it, but today....it is cold. I know 50 or so degrees is not cold to some people, but I am a southern girl, and to me, a slight chill is COLD. I can already see that this Christmas season is going to be ......can we say......DANGEROUS for me. I have already spent so much time on amazon.com. It is great, but also a little bit addicting. Oh well, I will just have to keep my "holiday spirit" in check!!! Also, my mantle WAS ORDERED and should be in today or the beginning of next week. HOOOOOOORRRRRAAAAAYYYYY!!!!

My Mantle!

Well, I think my mantle might actually be ordered tomorrow! I am so excited. This has taken so long and I am not exactly sure why. I guess I am seeing first hand how home improvements are not as easy as they seem to be. I was hoping to get my mantle before Thanksgiving so I could decorate for Christmas. I will be happy now if I just get it before Christmas....I know it is just about impossible but I can dream, can't I? I just have this "get it done now" personality and it is so hard for me to wait. Anyway, it is being ordered.....at last.....as far as I know!!!

Trip to Helen, GA

This past weekend, our family, my parents and Allison's family went on a trip to Helen, GA. The plan was to actually see Helen. But once we saw the cabin, we decided to stay in....and around. We all stayed in a cabin together. We enjoyed the place so much that we only left once. This, one time, of course, was for a good cause...THE CABBAGE PATCH FACTORY!!! It sure did seem like a bigger deal when I was 5 years old. I don't think they have changed one thing about it since then. I am not quite sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing!! No, we had a good time there. The best part of the trip was where we stayed. Brandon did a great job picking the cabin! It was nice and secluded, and there was a beautiful creek right outside. The kids just loved it! We played in the creek(well the kids did), watched football, played cards, and just had a great time. It was really great to be able to spend time with my parents and Alli and Brandon and their kids. It is good to be home though...wow, that relaxation really wears me out!!!
The Cabbage Patch Factory!
Anna and Olivia- Aren't they cute?

Priceless!!!

This bench is right by the stream. It was so nice.
My baby girl and me.
Look Mom....no hands.(and not too sure about it)
I am glad I was the picture taker!

My Little Nerds

Anakin and Yoda, ready to defend the force!

The kids have been excited about Halloween for about 5 months and they knew exactly what they were going to be. Luke was going around telling everyone,"I be Yoda". I don't think he knew when or why he would be Yoda.....he just knew that some day......he would be Yoda!!! We had our trunk-or-treat on Sunday night and it was great. I think that this trunk-or-treat idea is genius! Get everything done in one central location....plus blow up jump things and hay rides!!! Great!
Padme and Yoda
My little Star Wars junkies!!!

Happy Birthday James!

I just can't believe that it has been 7 years. It has been such a blessing having James in our lives. He truly is such a sweet spirit. It is just so neat to see how he is turning into a little man right in front of our eyes. I am so proud to be his mom! I love you James Clark Wakefield!!!
My precious James!

James' Seventh!

How do you like the cake? I have to tell you...those cake makers are way underpaid. Making a cake is not as easy as it looks. Anyway, the party was a lot of fun and it was a beautiful day! My Mom and Dad got James a flag football kit and we put it to good use. Everyone had so much fun. There is just something about having flags....it makes the game WAY more intense!!! James' actual birthday is Nov. 1 and I cannot believe that it has been seven years already!!!