Full advantage of time with Uncle Toby

Mean octopus...

Fearful children...

Merry Christmas to all...

...and to all a good night.

Our world was rocked AGAIN...

As you may remember from a previous post from right after Nathan was born and I was perplexed by how to do the grocery store thing with two kids. (Wow!) Anyway, Kroger has once again rocked our world! There were no "car carts" available but can you get better than this?

Did we make a scene? Of course. Did we run over a few things? Mostly I did, as I was hollering back to Nathan to watch out. Did we have fun? We had a BLAST!!! We laughed hard!

These guys make my job SO fun!

(p.s. sorry for the poor picture quality, they were taken from my phone)

Yumminess!!!

Got together with friends Kendall and Mrs. Leah today to make some ever-so-delicious P-Dub cinnamon rolls. As part of the process, you roll out a hunkin' load of dough with an even more hunkin' amount of butter, sugar, and cinnamon. Naturally, the juiciness runs off onto the counter. You can see the kids were not disappointed at all. Nathan and Kendall thought it fun to paint each others faces...Abigail was not wasting a drop. (Her mama's girl.)

Downtown with Daddy

Since Tory started his new job with Chase bank two weeks ago, he has been downtown at the main branch doing lots and lots of training. (Which, for all wondering, he is LOVING it thus far.) We decided to pick a day last week to meet him and walk to Fourth Street for lunch and to see the gigantic Christmas tree. The kids loved it!!! And of course getting to meet Daddy is always a special treat. And in the words of Nate, "Do 'gin after naptime." We'll be back, Daddy.

Now Complete

We had the honor of having my grandmother visit in November with the rest of my fam. She is so dear to my heart and I miss her so often. One of the things that we love about her is that she and her sewing machine can do some pretty sweet things. I expressed to her about Middleman's sidekick, a.k.a. Puppy, not having one increasingly necessary component. And not two weeks later this came in the mail. You rock Grandma Payne!!!!

Confession

So Andrew Peterson was in L-town last night in concert. We were to go with our small group but found out tickets were sold out. Decided to go ahead and take the kids to the Marshman home where the ever-so-wonderful Graig's would be keeping the kiddos and use the night as a date night instead. We do NOT get enough of these so I was extra extra excited about some alone time on the town (Starbucks) with my man. Well, on the way, our fearless leader called saying he found some extra tickets. Not bad news, but sure was looking forward to a cup of coffee, and my husbands ear for about 2 hours. So, with our wonderful friends, Jeff and Rachel, we piled into the silver bullet and headed for the concert. IT WAS AMAZING!!! God is so good to have given us a better night than we could have ever planned. Great concert, amazing voices and instrumentals. And mostly a great night sitting next to the one you love and reflecting on the Greatest Love. I find myself refreshed in thankfulness for the sacrifice that came to take away my sin.

Check out his newest CD, "Behold the Lamb of God". You will not regret it!

Thank you Andrew Peterson, for a great evening. It was fabulous. In fact, I promise to name my next son after you.

When something falls behind the washer...

...you get it.

And this is the reward of your labor.

Happy 1/2 Birthday, Little Man

So sorry that you had to spend your day with your first ear infection causing it to be probably the fussiest day of your life yet, which then led to a day spent mostly in bed. Bummer day. But don't worry Little Guy, there are great things in store for you in the next 1/2 year of your life...good food, a little walking, maybe you will even be our first child to crawl, some good chats, and who knows what else. It's going to be so so fun 'cause you're so so so cool. We love you, Lukey!

We new this day would come...

As we were waiting in line at the store a couple of days ago, I turn around to see Abigail and Nathan getting distracted (happens quite frequently actually), so I again casually redirect them with "Abi and Nate, blah, blah, blah, blah" (I'm sure thats what they heard). Well...under her breath I hear, "My name is not Abi." She turns to look at me wondering what I will think of her stern remark to me. I let it slide and ask, "Really. What is your name then?". "It's Abigail." I could not help but bust up laughing. We never intended to start calling her Abi, it just happened, it's quick. Nor have we ever gotten the impression that she cared one way or the other. Later that night at the dinner table I was telling Tory the story and Abigail looks up at us and very princess-like says "On this day, I declare my name to be Abigail." This is so funny to us in more than one way. First of all, who knew she ever thought about her name so seriously? Who new she thought THIS way about her name? And how did she grow up so fast that now she has opinions of her own?

So, for the record, we continue to call her Abigail and Abi and she hasn't said anything else about it. I don't think she cares that much, right now at least. I think I just hit a button on that particular day that rubbed her wrong. Oh, we never cease to be amazed at the things they say. I love this girl!

Costume parties!!

Dress up day at ballet/tap class earlier in the week.

Ours is the cowgirl in the red.

We went to a fall festival party at a friend's house where the kids were able to dress up and of course got TONS of candy. Which leads me to explain the last two pictures you see. On the left, Abigail is running a quick inventory on her goodies. I mean this is very important to someone who is 4, 14, or even 40. Well, things did not quite meet up and we soon found an empty wrapper next to Daddy's chair. G.U.I.L.T.Y.! Shortly after the verdict was out, she was asking me how to spell "don't", "steal", "my", and "candy". That is where the picture on the right comes in. Watch out candy thieves...she is vicious.

Dearest Sister of Mine,

I am so sorry that this has happened to you, hair in a four-wheeler tire leaves a girl quite a mess. I guess you should be warned. I am tough. And my toys are tough too. They are not for little sissy kids, they are for BIG boys like me. Real men. So be careful. You should always use with extreme care and caution when using my very manly toys. In fact, you will probably always need my help if you use them. So please, feel free to ask for my assistance at any time. And send out this warning to all your little girl friends too.

With much love,

Your Biggest Bro'

Morning Tea!

There is nothing better for some very tired princesses than homemade lemonade and fresh strawberries to follow up a late night of slumber partying.

Last weeks "Huber Farm" for some apple pluckin' and punkin gettin'