This Place Called HOME

Happy New Year Y'all!

2009-01-01T08:57:00.005-05:00

Here in the south we are just not used to dealing with cold weather. It was COLD last night. Well, cold by our standards anyway. (Not bone chilling cold like they had in Time's Square! -10 wind chill. brrrrrrrrr!)

We had a blast with our friends last night! We only stayed a couple of hours but it was a great time. We were all outside eating chili and chicken bog and all sorts of yummy snacks. The boys were shooting fireworks and there were several large roaring fires to keep us all warm.

We came back home and watched the count down on tv. Well, some of us did.......and one of us fell asleep 8 minutes before midnight. It wasn't me. It wasn't B-Man. The girls were sound asleep in their beds. It was hubby. He didn't seem to mind missing it and the first kiss of the new year at 12:20 am was just fine with me. :)

Lola showing me her cute new shoes.

Cold babies.

I love these 3 sweet girls sooooo much! They make my mama heart so happy!

Close up. REALLY close up.

B-man watching a movie on his PSP with his little sisters.

Lo with her future mother-in-law. They were singing and dancing.

I was cold. Really cold.

Daddy & his girls.

Happy New Year everyone!

Fashion Statement

2008-12-31T16:09:00.005-05:00

She picked out her own clothes. Her sister seems mildly amused. She insists that she looks fabulous in this darling ensemble. I think she is just about as cute as can be. Watch out Kimora! There's a new fashion diva on the horizon!

Catching Up!

2008-12-31T15:46:00.001-05:00

I totally skipped blogging for the month of December but I took a ton of pictures of the kids, our friends and extended family. We had a joyful Christmas with lots of fun, lots of eating and lots of laughter. We hope that you did too! Photos included here are from church, school program, home, enjoying the lights in town and our local Christmas parade that the kids absolutely LOVE! They are in no particular order. Tonight we will be going to our friends' annual New Year's Eve bonfire. Our daughter has been dating their son for a little more than a year now. They have been very good friends for about 5 years before they started dating. Just wondering if tonight will be the night he pops the question. We all have a feeling it is coming up soon. The kids are so excited about going tonight! We are playing outside this morning and most of the day so that the girls will be tired and take a late nap. Wish us luck! ;) See you next year!

I made matching shirts for all of us to wear Christmas morning. The girl's shirts all said "Official Santa Stamp, North Pole 2008 NICE". All of the boy's shirts said "Naughty". It was so much fun to see everyone in their matching shirts and sweat pants!

My baby boy. Oh my word but I do LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this little boy! :)

Hubby's favorite Christmas movie is "A Christmas Story". I just had to make this shirt for him to wear Christmas Eve. He loved it!

My only nephew. He is a sweetie pie!

Daughter and someday son-in-law. ;)

Our local Christmas parade.

Picking up pine cones to use for crafts before the parade.

She sang "Jesus Loves The Little Children" in her school's Christmas program. Of course, she was asked to wear one of her Chinese outfits.

Notice the white cowboy boots on my little angel.

The Meaning Of The Season

2008-11-18T08:56:00.007-05:00

Last year we started a new Christmas tradition. This was our youngest daughter's first Christmas. Even though she was 3 1/2 years old, she'd never received a Christmas gift or heard the story of Jesus. When I saw the Fisher Price Nativity set I knew that this would be so helpful in explaining it all to her and to her sister who was now 4 1/2 and had been with us for two Christmases. I called my hubby and talked to him about it after I returned home. He said he thought it was a great idea. He stopped and purchased the set on his way home from work that day.We wrapped it up and made a BIG, BIG deal about this being their first Christmas gift of the year. They were so excited when they opened it!! Their daddy sat down with them and told them all about Baby Jesus and read the Christmas story from the Bible. We let them know that this was a very special toy and that after Christmas we would put it away and that next Christmas we would bring it out again. They have already asked several times if it is time to get the Baby Jesus toys out yet. I plan on having the whole nativity set out on the coffee table when they wake up the day after Thanksgiving. They will be so excited!

Our older children enjoyed talking to them about the set. When anyone would give them a half a second the little ones would always run and get these toys to play with and talk about. We hope that the special meaning of the season will become something they are very familiar with just by playing with these toys and that our new tradition will continue for many years in our family.

If you would like to read about more family traditions that bring significance to the meaning of this glorious season, just check out The Inspired Room.

Show & Tell Friday

2008-11-07T21:59:00.000-05:00

Today I am participating in Kelli's Show & Tell Friday. If you would like to visit her site and see more Show & Tell participants, just click on the image above.

Since this is my first Show & Tell I wanted it to be something very special to me. These are pictures of my grandparents. The young girl is my great grandmother Sarah Jane when she was 16 years old, the man is her father Columbus. The couple is Columbus' mother in law and father in law. There was a photo of Columbus' wife at one point. My granny remembers it from when she was a little girl but no one knows what happened to it. Granny gave these pictures to my mom when I was in high school. I adored them from the first moment I saw them. When I got married my mom gave them to me because she knew how much I would cherish them. I am so proud to have these hanging in our home.

I don't think the mats compliment the photos or frames. Does anyone have suggestions on something that would look better?

Meet My Husband

2008-11-05T16:23:00.006-05:00

Amy at LivingLocurto is having "Meet My Husband Day". So, I thought I would post something about my hubby.
This is my very own Prince Charming. We met in December, 2000 through Yahoo Personals. If you knew my hubby you would say that he would NEVER, EVER place a personal ad. He told me that he decided to place the ad but before he pressed that final key on his computer to send it in he said a prayer that if there was someone out there for him that we would find each other. Only two women answered his ad. One was me and one was another lady he said didn't seem to have much personality. After chatting through IMs we found out that we lived less than 100 miles apart. Now we live in his grandparent's old farmhouse. If you take a right when you leave our house and drive something like 76 miles, turn left and go for about 8 miles, you end up right where I was living when we met. Like the distance between us back then, there have been very few twists and turns in our relationship. He is truly my soulmate. He understands me when no one else does. He's put up with my ADD and never complained. (But he sure is glad that I got help! ;) ) We've been married for 5 and a half years. Together we have six children....and one daughter in law! He is such an amazing father. He went from having one child to having 4 children when we married. My kids were 18, 16 and 5 when we married. His son was 10. Then within just a couple of years we adopted our first little girl from China, then a year and a half later we were back in China adopting again. Not many men would open their heart to that many children in such a short amount of time. He is "Daddy" to all of them. Some of them have other fathers......but he is daddy to all of them. Recently he was the Best Man at my oldest son's wedding. My son's father was there but it was my husband who was chosen to be his Best Man.

He is smart. Scary smart. It seems like no matter what anyone talks to him about, he knows something about it. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of South Carolina with a deree in Mechanical Engineering. (He's the person everyone calls when they can't figure out their kid's trigonometry homework!) Now he works for a large wireless company but he'd much rather be working on the farm or making something in his workshop with his hands.

He is an only child and his parents live right down the road from us.

He's been known to rewrite the lyrics of Jimmy Buffet songs and sing them to me to create the perfect song just for me.

He teaches Sunday school, sings in the choir and does an assortment of great things for our church anytime he is asked to help.

He has a great voice. He often hears that he should do commercials. Our oldest daughter works for the same wireless company. She has to call a specific phone number to verify if a customer's phone is working. My hubby did the recording for this line. She proudly tells her customers "That's my dad" when they comment on the nice voice they hear.

His favorite cookies are his mom's homemade gingersnaps.....and he puts cheese on them while they are still hot. (yuck.)

He wakes up all of the kids every morning before school. He carries both of our little girls to the living room and snuggles them down in soft blankets in their favorite chairs and he makes their breakfast and our coffee.

He is a member of The Men's Fraternity. He works diligently at serving God and being a good husband, son and father.

He loves me. I'm a lucky girl. :)

I can not begin to tell you how much I love this man.

Vote!

2008-11-04T10:14:00.004-05:00

Please don't forget to vote today! Since we live out in the country in a small community it only took hubby and I 15 minutes to vote. My mom had to wait more than 2 hours in the small town where she lives.
It doesn't matter WHO you vote for, just VOTE. Let your voice be heard! We live in an incredible country where we have this privilege. Don't waste it.

Cat Naps & Bedtime Books

2008-11-02T10:20:00.000-05:00

Our girls have two little cats. This sweet guy is Oliver. He was found in the field in front of our house. Our 10 year old son bravely captured him with a "dip net". He was a tiny little fellow when he became a member of our family. He loves to curl up with the girls when they take a nap. Last night both girls fell asleep in the living room before we were able to get them into their beds. Oliver took the time to snuggle with both of them before daddy carried them off to their room.

That's my girl!
Checking out some home magazines before drifting off!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T09:05:00.009-04:00

Carving pumpkins, oooooey-gooooooey s'mores and trick or treating! We all thoroughly enjoyed every minute of our Halloween this year.

Patriotic Bedroom

2008-10-30T14:53:00.001-04:00

This is our youngest son's bedroom. My hubby built the bunkbeds and the book shelf. We bought the oak teacher's desk at an auction when a local school was closing. I think we ended up paying about 10 cents for it. I'll post about that auction another day. You won't believe what we brought home for about $20!

Bedroom

2008-10-29T14:50:00.000-04:00

I love our bedroom. It makes me feel safe and happy. I just wish I could always keep it this organized!