Thanksgiving

One of my favorite memories from growing  up was spending summers in TN with my grandparents and playing all day with my cousins....I am so grateful the boys will have similar memories from their childhood.  They spent the entire week of Thanksgiving with Mimi and Grandaddy.  The list of all the fun things they did with them and their cousins could go on forever.  They were having so much fun they didn't want to go home!  So my mom, Joe, Allie and I joined them and the rest of the family on Thanksgiving day and had a wonderful celebration!   It was a beautiful day, we had wonderful food and spent lots of fun time with family! 

Little Mimi and Allie

Grandaddy Rearden with Cade, Jackson and Luke

No Thanksgiving is complete without football!

Grandaddy took all the kids for a hayride!

Catching chickens!

They made me do this....

2 chickens!

My wonderful family that I am so thankful for!

I am so thankful to God for blessing us with an amazing family...immediate and extended. We really enjoyed our day with family and I think that is what life is all about!!  Now after all that Thanksgiving fun begins Christmas fun!!

Beautiful Day

This past weekend was just about perfect because we had NOTHING to do!!!  It was the first weekend in a long time that we didn't have anything going on and it was so nice.  So on Saturday I decided to take the boys to Kennesaw Mtn so we could get out and enjoy the beautiful day!!  Daddy and Allie stayed home to nap and Nana joined me and the boys for our hike!  

We stopped to visit the llamas that are close to the Mtn.

Such a beautiful background!! 

We found lots of fun trees to climb on!

Me and the boys ventured up this HUGE rock!!  

It could not have been a more perfect day!!  The weather was awesome, the sights were beautiful and I got to spend some special time with the boys!!

Happy Halloween

I feel like October has just been a crazy busy month for us and I could blog for days about all the fun we've had...but I think I am just going to end October with halloween!! We had a fun halloween with 2 superheroes and a cute ladybug!!!  The boys were super excited this year about trick or treating and made it around the whole neighborhood!! Allie was equally excited but wasn't real sure why!! :)  Once everyone started getting dressed and excited she did too although she had no idea what was in store!!

Cade as Batman!!

Luke as Wolverine....he sure looks scary doesn't he.....

My cute little ladybug

rollin' in style!!

yeah for candy!!

checking out his loot!

already chowing down on the candy

ready for bed in her halloween pj's!

Hope you all had a safe and wonderful halloween!!  We will be enjoying all our candy for weeks!!

Allie is 1!

I can't believe my baby girl is one!! It just blows my mind how fast this last year has gone.  It really feels like I just got home from the hospital with her....

For this child I have prayed, and the Lord has granted the desires of my heart.  1 Samuel 1:27 

As we finish this first year of life I have so many prayers for Allie:

Thank you God for my beautiful daughter and the wonderful first year of life you have given her.  I thank you for her health and happiness.  She is perfectly and wonderfully made by you and I pray she always knows that.  I pray that you will guide her father and I to teach her to love you and seek you above anything else.  I thank you for the special relationship she has in her brothers and I pray they are always close and take care of each other.  She was the most perfect addition to our family and I pray for many, many more wonderful years together!

Party Time!

Although Allie's actual birthday is this coming up Saturday, we celebrated a little early with a party this past weekend. I honestly went to bed Saturday night feeling overwhelmingly happy and blessed. Saturday really could not have been a more perfect day...  the weather was beautiful (not a cloud in the sky!!), we had most of our family and close friends by our side, there was lots of laughter and a beautiful daughter who is just growing up so quickly! I am just so thankful that my children are happy and healthy and that we could all spend a great day together!

My wild and crazy kiddos!! :)

the birthday girl!!

we are working on walking...but I am definitely not rushing this baby to grow up!! :(

One of her very favorite things to do....she cries when she has to come in!

Some of the boys in the backyard playing football!!

"Happy Birthday to You!!"

My wonderful family!

She LOVED her cake!!!  She ate almost half of it and cried when we took it away!

Precious Girl!

Checking out one of her new toys!

All the kids!

Another new, fun toy!

On Allie's actual bday we have a home GT game so we will be celebrating her big day again at the tailgate this Saturday! You can't ever have to many bday celebrations...you only turn 1 once!!

Cupcake Fun

We are...I am knee deep in preparing for Allie's birthday party and family coming to stay at my house so things have been a little crazy around here!  Today we went to McEntyre's Bakery to order Allie's bday cake and they have an entire case of goodies to look at and get your mouth watering for!!  So......we decided to get a little treat and enjoy it when we got home!  We took a little break from the chaos and enjoyed the beautiful weather and our delicious halloween cupcakes!!! 

Can you believe he let that icing fall to the ground...what a tragedy to let that go to waste!

I'm not sure what this face is about! :)

Finger-lickin' good!! :)

I was just going to get cupcakes for the boys....seriously...what was I thinking!! There was no way I could resist the deliciousness!!

The boys captured me enjoying my treat!!

I tried to get Luke with an icing kiss! ;)

The cupcakes really were sooooo good!!! We enjoyed our time playing outside and eating a treat!! BTW - Poor Allie was napping during this time and missed out on all this fun! I really was going to share some of mine with her.....