Joy To The World...

...and joy on our Christmas tree! My sweet Mom has bought me a new ornament every year. (She started out buying one for me and Garrett, and now she still buys one for us, as well as Yancy and Katherine, and the grandkids!) She tries hard to find one for me that says "joy" and most years she's able to find one. So our Christmas tree is covered in over 30 "joy" ornaments and I LOVE IT! Thank you, Momma! I thought I would share a few of my favorites...

Just in case you're wondering, here's Yancy's favorite...

Opelika-Auburn News

It's amazing that Bullen and Andrew are in the paper at all. We still don't know how the newspaper found out they were going to speak. God is definitely at work in their lives! Here's the link...

http://www.oanow.com/oan/news/local/article/oms_greets_special_visitors/50907/

Bullen and Andrew are here!

Yea! I'm so glad that Bullen and Andrew are spending the weekend with us! I've had a bad week, and I'm feeling better already just spending the day with them. They have a way of helping me keep things in perspective. Our friend, Adam Massey, invited them to speak to his classes at Opelika Middle School this morning. They did a great job! I never get tired of hearing their story; God has done such amazing things in their lives. The newspaper was there, so we've told them they're gonna be famous! The article should be in tomorrow's Opelika-Auburn News. I'll try to remember to post a link to it.

Christmas Party

Monday night we celebrated Christmas with our Bible Study girls. We had breakfast foods on our menu since it was so close to Thanksgiving. Rebecca and I finally got to give our gifts that we worked so hard on. We made the girls- and ourselves!- a cookbook on Shutterfly. We included pictures of all of us and all the yummy recipes that we've enjoyed together. It was fun to see their reaction. Merry Christmas, Girls, and Happy Cooking!

Thanksgiving... again and again!

Thanksgiving is Yancy's favorite holiday and we got to celebrate it 3 days in a row this year! On Thanksgiving Day, we drove over to Thomaston for lunch with Yancy's grandmother- and aunts and uncles and cousins. It was a very eventful day! Yancy's grandmother, DeDe, as we like to call her, turned 83 on Thanksgiving Day. We sang happy birthday and had a yummy caramel cake, her favorite, along with lots of other delicious food. That afternoon, there was a calf born! It was so exciting and I was surprised how quickly it got up and going! Yancy was disgusted because he has a weak stomach, but I thought it was a neat experience. I think it was the 9th calf born in just a week, so it was sweet to see all the babies in the pasture. (I don't get out much!)

Happy Birthday, DeDe!

Yancy with his Uncle Paul and Aunt Cindy

Lots of baby cows!

Thanksgiving day 2 was also my birthday. I'm technically "in" my 30s now at 31. I really can't believe that! I still feel like I should be 20! Anyway, we celebrated with my parents and my brother's family. Garrett has 3 boys, so there is always lots of activity when we're together! They are definitely all boy! We all had a great time...

and here's the activity!

Yancy taught Garrison about the "atomic elbow"

I had a little help blowing out my candles!

Mmmmmm... yummy cake!

Thanksgiving day 3 was held at Yancy's Mom's house and it was Iron Bowl Saturday. We had SO much food; we could have fed 20 more people! We got to visit with lots of Yancy's family that we don't get to see very often. I enjoyed visiting with them so much, but I will have to say that I did not enjoy watching the game with a roomful of Auburn fans. I'll have to find a different venue for next year! Roll Tide! Anyway, we had a great day and we are still full from our 3-day feast!

Strategizing before the game...

Matthew and Papaw

Yancy refereeing the little football stars... they were hard-hittin'!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We all have SO MUCH to be thankful for!

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever." Psalm 107:1

Charlie and Duke's Day Out

Yancy has been off this week, so we actually get to spend a whole week together! Yesterday we took Charlie and Duke to Chewacla Park here in Auburn. We've lived here 4 1/2 years and I'm ashamed to say we've never been! It's really beautiful! I was afraid of how the dogs would act because they don't really get out much, but they did so good. They had a great time in the water and never tried to run off. Yancy and I had a fun time too. We ate a little picnic lunch and enjoyed the scenery, especially the waterfall. This is our attempt at a "family" photo.

My new favorite picture of Charlie...

Catching Up

I've been absent from the blogging world lately! I'll try to catch you up on what's been going on. First, we went home to Dothan the weekend of Halloween, and I took this sweet picture of my nephews. This was right after them trick-or-treating and they continued to eat candy all night long! They were dressed as a ninja turtle, power ranger and Jeff Gordon. (Garrison, the oldest, wore the Jeff Gordon costume when he was younger. He would say he was "deff dordon." It was so cute!)

We love them so much and wish we could see them more. We always have a great time playing together; they always wear Yancy out! We tried to get a picture of me with them and this is as good as it gets...


Last week, while Yancy was working in Huntsville, I went to Greenville to visit my great friends, Stacy and Suzanne. I hate that I didn't take any pictures. You wouldn't believe the things I learned to do with a sledgehammer!!! (Actually I helped Suzanne tear down an old shed on their land! Told you you wouldn't believe it!) We had a fun time and it was great catching up. We always laugh so much when we're together. I love you and miss you both!

This past Monday night we had Thanksgiving with our college girls. It was a delicious feast and such a fun time. I'm so thankful for them! Again, I took no pictures. I've got to do better!

Last night, my best friend Rebecca came over for dinner (leftover dinner, but dinner just the same). We worked on our Christmas gifts to our girls because we'll be having our Christmas party with them on Dec. 1. They get out for Christmas break early, so we have to party early. I can't wait to tell you what we made them! Anyway, it's always good to have time with Rebecca. When it comes to our time together, too much is never enough!

Well, you're all caught up now. I'm on my way to Birmingham today to see Yancy. He's camping this weekend with some friends. (What are they thinking? They're gonna freeze!) I'm having dinner tomorrow night in B'ham with some girlfriends and I'll be back on Saturday to see Mannheim Steamroller with my friend Teri. It should be a lot of fun. And then next week is the big week of Thanksgiving and my birthday. I'm really looking forward to it...good food, friends and family!