Yesterday we decided to head to Atlanta to go to Fernbank Museum with the kids and my parents. The special exhibit was all about Antarctica and the IMAX film was excellent! We really had a fun day exploring there. Of course, the great ending to the day was stopping at Starbucks for their great hot chocolate... YUM!This is the video we took of Mitchell and Amelia discovering what Santa had brought them. Amelia is pretty excited about her Northface coat, and Mitchell is slightly confused about the ping pong table that Santa left for him... I wonder why? We thought that you would enjoy seeing their reactions!
What a wonderful Christmas day!! Mitchell and Amelia woke up at about 7:30 and were ready to see what Santa brought them! I think that they were happy with everything! Following our family tradition, after seeing what Santa brought all of us we ate a yummy breakfast of eggs, bacon and monkey bread. Then we all get dressed and gather around the Christmas tree with some Christmas music playing and open all of the presents. We all got a lot of really nice gifts from family and from each other... we can't wait to use/wear/spend all of them! The rest of the day was spent relaxing, playing ping pong, and cooking dinner. My parents came over later in the afternoon for dinner. We just finally got our dining room put together, so we got to use it for the first time... I was so excited! Amelia had even made place cards for everyone with a different picture on each one. The day was special because we had great quality time together. As Amelia said today "we didn't even leave the house yesterday!". In my opinion, that is a wonderful day! 
This past Sunday night Amelia had her recital for the voice lessons that she has been taking since September. It was a small recital with just six girls singing a song that they had been working on and they had a reception after the show with all of the girl's favorite treats served. All of the girls did a great job singing! Of course we were all very proud of Amelia being able to get up in front of everyone and sing like that! We had a slight problem with video during Amelia's performance so we convinced her to sing again for us at home so we could save the wonderful memory! The only difference here is that she didn't have the music to sing to, but she did a great job even without the music! Enjoy!
We have had a really fun Christmas season so far, especially spending time with our families! Two weekends ago we traveled to North Carolina to visit my sister, Debbie, and her family. We had a nice relaxing weekend there with lots of good food and treats, jigsaw puzzle solving, opening presents, and catching a basketball game of Brandon's Saturday morning. I think that their dog Yogi enjoyed all of the attention, especially from Amelia! On Sunday morning we headed over to Dave's parents place for a nice long visit with them. We let Gramps and Gran Ann open their presents from us while we were there and also got to open ours! We ended our NC visit with a great lunch with Dave's brother, Jerry, and his family and Dave's daddy. Then we hit the road to get Mitchell back to Athens for his youth group Christmas party that night. What a fun weekend!
We just had a wonderful weekend with my best friends from college and their families! We have been getting together for the Clemson homecoming weekend for many years now, and it gets better and better as the years go by! We all look forward to this weekend all year long and the time spent together at the place where we all met is well worth it. We were all lucky to form a friendship with Meg's husband, Larry, when she met him at Duke after we graduated... he even wore a Clemson shirt for us (although the Duke shirt was right underneath)! We stayed at two cabins at Tugaloo state park right on the lake. We have stayed here for three years now and the kids all enjoy having space to run around outside. There are seven children between the three families and they have the best time playing together! Isn't it neat how children don't really feel that a whole year has gone by and play together as if they see each other every day? They have known each other since they were born, so they have a really special bond! 
We had a really beautiful Saturday! Mitchell played in his first "round robin" tennis tournament and did really well! He played against six other boys in his age group and they would play five games with one opponent then rotate to another and play five.... and so on. Mitchell won 15 out of the 30 games that he played and we were very proud of him! We had great weather to sit and watch and enjoyed relaxing while we cheered him on. Check out the color of the leaves... it was breathtaking!
What a fun Halloween night it was for everyone! We started out the evening having some of our neighbors over at our house for a chili dinner (a family tradition of ours). After the kids patiently sat through dinner they finally were able to get dressed for trick-or-treating! Amelia went out with Claire and Mitchell was able to meet up with some of his friends in the neighborhood to walk around. After getting quite a collection of candy we all made our way back to our house for dessert and digging through the candy... Jake got very curious when Amelia and Claire went through their candy on the floor! After everyone was full of sweets Mitchell and his friends went to Kyle's house to sleep over (brave Mom!) and everyone elso went home for the night. 
I don't think that Mitchell and his friends got very much sleep on Halloween night... he crashed on the sofa with Jake during the football games until dinner time... two sleepy boys!
Sunday evening we went to our church's fall festival and had a great time! The kids all wear their costumes and we all get to enjoy games, prizes, hotdogs, a chili cook-off, and last but not least... trunk or treat! People decorate the trunks/backs of their cars and the kids go around and get their first big dose of candy for the Halloween season... they love it! It was a beautiful day for the event and everyone had a fun time.
The long awaited day is finally here... the release of High School Musical 3 in theaters!! A group of moms decided to take our girls for a night out, so I waited with a small crowd at the theater this afternoon to get the tickets. I was glad that I had because it was sold out well before the show! We all went out for pizza before and then enjoyed the movie along with a packed theater. It was very cute and the girls loved it! Thanks Disney!
On Wednesday my mission friends class at church packed their boxes for Operation Christmas Child. If you have never heard of this organization, it is well worth your time to look it up and learn more about it. The boxes are packed for a specific age and gender specific and sent all over the world to children. The DVD that we watch is very moving and really shows the excitement of the children when they receive these presents. It is a wonderful learning experience for our children to learn the importance of giving!
As I have probably mentioned before, Amelia will be in the production of "Big" the musical in November. This is her headshot that will appear in the program. She is really growing up!
This past weekend we got to enjoy some more great fall weather attended the annual Fall Festival in downtown Watkinsville. There are lots of crafts, lots of very greasy food (yum!) and some fun activities for the kids. Mitchell and Amelia really enjoyed the bungee jumping thing and the rock wall... they did the bungee jumping twice! After enjoying a wonderful fried lunch topped off with a funnel cake we all headed home to watch football and relax.
This weekend was also Oconee High School's Homecoming game and dance. Clara (in the blue) lives next door to us and babysits Mitchell and Amelia. We were able to take some pictures of Clara and her friend Amber while they waited for their dates to arrive. Don't they look great!!
Mitchell and Amelia had their fall break this past Friday and Monday, so we left Dave at home (he had to work) and headed to Myrtle Beach, SC for a long weekend. We had to deal with some rainy weather, but it got better with each day that we were there and we were able to enjoy the warm weather and have a great time camping with my parents in their camper.
Our first full day at the beach (Friday) was the rainiest day there for us. We did manage to sneak in about 15 minutes on the beach under very cloudy skies before the rain started to really fall... Mitchell and Amelia were so excited to get that much time out there! Then we headed to the indoor pool where we stayed pretty much all of that day (thank goodness for the indoor pool and hot tub!). That night we all went out for a great seafood dinner... yum!
Saturday morning was still rainy, so we played in the indoor pool again until lunch. After lunch Mama, Amelia and I went shopping at Broadway at the Beach where there are lots of cute little shops to look in. Amelia is funny (and challenging) to shop with because she wants everything that she sees! We also fed the huge fish and met some friendly ducks on the boardwalk. Mitchell and Daddy hung around the campground and watched lots of football, rode bikes and ate icecream. After dinner we found a great place to play putt putt... ten holes of the 27 total holes were inside a cool building that looked like a pyramid. This worked out very well since it started to rain while we were playing! It was lots of fun!
