my song

I thought I'd share something cute. W is totally into Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer this year. He loves to sing both songs. In fact, he has started calling Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer "my song". As in, "Mama, sing my song." Or "Mama, I'm going to see my song." Too stinking cute. I finally got him to let me record it.

As cute at that video is, I tried get him to sing it again and get better footage, but he staunchly refused and then stated he'd sing Frosty instead. Did you know Frosty has a gumpin nose, not a button nose? LOL! As you can see, he doesn't quite have it down pat yet. In any case, I'm sure that by December 25th he will know it word for word.

Blue Monday

This week has been way too depressing. Last week, a teacher at the boys school lost her 3yo son quite unexpectedly. On Friday, I found out that a cousin had been out hunting, shot a buck, brought it back to the truck and apparently had a massive heart attack and passed away while waiting to meet up with his hunting buddies. The thing that is so shocking about this is that he was in great physical shape and only 39. He leaves behind a 10 yo son and a 4 yo daughter. Today, I hear of a child from my hometown who tried to commit suicide. When his family found him, he was already brain dead and despite the best medical efforts, he passed today. He was in middle school. Life can be so hard sometimes. All I want to do is hold tight to my precious babies, thank God for his mercy, and pray for peace to those who are hurting so badly right now.

God's grace is so good and he is waiting to pour out his love on those who ask. When a believing person prays, great things can happen. So tonight I am praying. May peace find all who desperately need it.

santa express plus christmas parade equals tons of fun

We have been having the best weekend. Last night we celebrated S's birthday with a great group of friends. I was a little nervous because we were bringing a couple of different circles of friends together and you never quite know how that will go, but it went really well. However, I think the best part was that it was an adults only party and my awesome aunt kept the boys for the night so we wouldn't have to worry about picking them up late at night.

It was surprisingly eery this morning though when we woke up, because there was no sounds of little children in the house and everything was in the same place we put it the night before. You know we've really adapted to having kids when the quiet and neatness gets to us. Ha! In any case, I really missed my stinkers and couldn't wait to pick them up, because...

We had tickets to the Santa Express! W and G are really into trains and they got to go on an hour long train ride with a certain man in red making an appearance. Making the whole experience even better was having my aunt and her granddaughter (my cousin's child) come with us. W and his cousin, T, are 6 months apart in age and always have a fantastic time together.

Checking it out with daddy

Mommy says don't forget about me!

Trains are cool.

Hi!

Cousins at play

Auntie S, T and W

All aboard!

Are we ready yet?

The choo-choo goes "WOO-WOO."

Scolding Santa's Elf for sneaking the train without a ticket.

I got to say that the conductor was pretty cool.

Visiting with the big guy, Mr. Ho Ho Ho himself.

The plan was to go home after the train ride but as luck would have it, the town I grew up in was having their Christmas parade so we decided to stay and enjoy it.

In front of my grandmother's house

which is now owned by my aunt.

Enjoying his view of the parade

No matter how old you are,

everyone loves parade candy.

Thanksgiving at school

I'm trying to get caught up so there are a couple of posts here. :P

Will's school puts on an AMAZING Thanksgiving feast for its students and their families and this year was no different. Here's a couple of pictures of my little Indian.

Thanksgiving at the farm

When it comes to the holidays, each year we alternate Thanksgiving between the families. This year we spent Turkey Day with my FIL, SIL and her family. S went up on Monday; the boys and I went up on Tuesday. One of goals while there was to spend some time at the family farm, and in particular, I wanted to attempt to have our Christmas card photo taken there. As anyone who has had small children or has small kids knows, trying to get that perfect picture is often an exercise in futility. Here's a peak at one such attempt:

Despite it all, we did have a lot of fun. After our pictures were taken, we changed into comfy clothes (read: clothes that I wouldn't stroke out if something happened to them) and all went for a ride in the Gator. As luck would have it, we spotted 6 or 7 turkeys and a couple of deer. A bit later, we put G down for a nap and left W to have some fun with Grandpa as S and I went for a more "exciting" John Deere Gator ride (going up and down some very steep hills).

Boys goofing off in the shed.

Back into my picture outfit after Grandpa let me go

for an accidental swim in the pond.

late pumpkin patch pics

We went together to the pumpkin patch back on October 16th, but we forgot to put the memory card in our camera which wouldn't be so bad since our camera will hold a certain number of photos without the card. Ok, no problem, except we had misplaced our USB to camera cord and had been just using the card reader. Well, praise be! I found our camera cord today and downloaded the pics. And, you know, the world was completely missing our on seeing our Pumpkin Patch pics, right?

Riding my wagon and taking it all in.

Fun in the trailer filled with "cah-tin!"

Made it to the top!

Ready to get down.

Giddy-up!

Can you boys sit here for a picture for mama?

Okay, look at mommy.

Ok, guess not. I give up.

Let's go pick pumpkins.

Dis one.

Cooling it with the pumpkins.

"Ah" see horsey.

Hey, who goooooeess there?

We love farm animules.

Godspeed Uncle

When I woke up today, I grabbed the Ipod to check the weather and jump onto FB for a bit for an early morning commentary. What I found was my cousin's wife announcing the death of her husband's uncle, who is my uncle as well. (I think I shall post my thoughts on people rushing to post stuff like this on FB on another day.) Needless to say, I was a little stunned. You always are when it happens, even when you expect it to happen.

I knew my uncle had been in bad condition. In fact, he had lived in a lot of pain for several years. It's heartbreaking watching someone you love continually suffer so when death finally comes to them you feel relieved and guilty that you feel relieved.

In his prime Uncle R was quite a character. He was an incredible pharmaceutical sales man. My mom used to tell me that he was quite the BS'er and could sell ice to an Eskimo. More than that, he was a natural comedian. We often likened Uncle R to John Candy. There was always a story floating around about something he had gotten himself into.

My favorite memory of him though is of Uncle R, Aunt J, my parents and I riding around Lay Lake in Uncle R's pontoon boat with him blasting music from The Phantom of Opera. I'm sure we were quite the sight, but because of that day on the boat, my mother renewed her appreciation of broadway and I developed a life-long love for the arts, in particular The Phantom and broadway. I can't express how thankful I am to Uncle R for exposing me to something new that day.

Today, I imagine heaven is throwing quite the party. I can see him, my mother, and my Aunt Pam sitting around a table and jawing. I can hear bits and pieces of the conversation. It may go something like this, "Y'all ain't going to believe this, but..."

Godspeed Uncle R.