Are we still alive?

Barely. The flu (confirmed by lab tests) has taken over our house. The total body count is 4 of us, hopefully Bri and Andrew stay healthy. Oh my gosh it is sooooooooooo awful. Arick and I have it the worst. Keep us in your prayers. Arick has been crying off and on about how horrible it is.

Auntie Shelley goes home

Auntie Shelley left for Buffalo this morning. It was so much fun having her here. We laughed a lot, cried a little, and just really enjoyed being together. Her Auntie skills were put into good use and she totally captured the hearts of all of my kids, especially Ella. We sure will miss her.

The last 24 hours in pictures

The last 24 hours have been bliss, well except for the sleep deprivation and this cold that has taken my voice. It has been one of my most favorite Christmas' by far. Visits with family and friends have been perfect, the food delicious, the Spirit abundant, and the smiles plentiful. As an added bonus I got incredibly spoiled by my wonderful husband, children and my Mom and Craig. In fact, it was the first time in years that I have been completely surprised by my gifts. What fun it is to be surprised! Yet as much fun as it was to receive the joyful reactions from my children, Andrew, Craig and my Mom were even better. Today was a fabulous day. You can see all of the fun that we had in the many pictures in th slideshow.

I do hope that the rest of you had a Merry Christmas as well and that this new year is full of happiness.

Ella at 16 months old

The above is a picture of Ella taken a few days ago. The photo captured the face we have seen a lot around here. She has developed this habit of sticking her tongue out like that and it is so cute. She comes by this trait honestly from her father and grandfather who are known to do the same thing.

It is hard to believe this tiny (18 pounds 11 ounces at her check-up) troublemaker is 16 months old. I wish this time would stop flying by so fast. She has such personality and she is beginning to understand and say so much. She can say the names of all of us, as well as the words: baby, hi, baba, no, three, and amen. She also babbles a lot and gets frustrated when we can understand her. She adores all baby dolls, climbing the stairs, and being chased. She is a wonderful sleeper and still takes two naps a day. Our favorite thing about Ella is her laugh, which can put even the grinch in a good mood. She finds so many things funny so we hear her laugh often. Her best laugh happens when you try to surprise her, what a hoot that is.

My top 25 movies

I was tagged to list my top 25 movies so here is my list. I thought it would be much harder to come up with 25 but I definitely had to whittle it down. The ones that I chose either had to have to be ones that I can watch over and over and still enjoy it, or they were movies that made me think about them for weeks after I watched them. I did not put any movies, although I was tempted to with ones like Shawshank Redemption and The Matrix, that were originally rated R (I don't watch unedited rated R movies) that can be seen edited on TV, because you can't rent them edited. So here is my list:

Mary Poppins
Spitfire Grill
Gattaca
You've Got Mail
Annie (the original)
Sound of Music
Castaway
October Sky
Ocean's Eleven
The Pelican Brief
Pride and Prejudice (A&E version)
Pursuit of Happyness
Sliding Doors
Hitch
Men in Black
Elf
The Santa Clause
Big
Contact
Disney Pixar's Cars
Anne of Green Gables
Catch Me if You Can
The Bourne Trilogy (cause you can't watch just one)
The Fugitive
National Treasure
The Italian Job (oh I know, that is #26, but I just remembered it and it deserves a spot)

You may have noticed that none of the Harry Potter movies are on there. As much as I love the books and the audio recordings, the Harry Potter movies are just too short for me to truly love. Now if A&E would like to do a long miniseries as good as Pride and Prejudice, well I will revise my list.

Now I tag Jamie, Logan, and Monique, and anyone else who wants to do so.

Brianna's homework assignment

Brianna wanted me to share with you her latest homework assignment that she worked really hard on. She is so pleased with her work. This was done with very little parent help and we didn't let her use spellcheck. Andrew helped her format and insert the picture, and she typed 90% of it. He also would read it and tell her what sentences she needed to write in a different way but not how. She is one smart cookie.

You know you live in Tennessee when . . .

Santa Claus is a drive through experience! Drive-thrus are crazy popular here in TN. I just didn't know how popular. Here's the story.

This last Monday night, Andrew was in charge of Family Home Evening. He planned a little car trip to go see a Christmas lights display. You know the kind that you stay in your car and drive through after paying an entrance fee? Well this one was very fun and at the end was a barn that you drive through to get to the exit. Much to our surprise and the kids delight, in the barn was Jolly Old St. Nick (he was watching Monday Night Football in between visits from the children, ha!) Santa came right up to our car and asked all the kids what they wanted for Christmas. We had know clue that Santa would be there so the kids weren't sure exactly what they wanted yet, however, Santa reassured them that they could change their minds. We topped off our night with some Frosty the Snowman Cocoa (a.k.a. chocolate Frosty's from Wendy's) and headed home very happy.

As silly as a drive-thru Santa sounds, it was definitely our best Santa experience ever. Seriously, no crying children, you wait in your comfortable warm car, no trying to keep your kids from running away, no long lines, and no overpriced pictures, how can you top that? We will definitely do that again next year. A new tradition, love that.

(sorry no pics because the evening was a surprise and I didn't know to bring my camera)

GeoBee

Yesterday, Brianna took a school-wide test (4th grade and 5th grade I believe) for the National Geographic Bee. Brianna came in 9th. That allowed her to participate in the 100 question test today. Brianna was very excited about coming in 9th yesterday, so today she comes home and says to me with perfect drama,"Mom, remember that practice geography bee thing yesterday and how I came in 9th? Well, yeah, I just won it for the whole school." Then she whips out her medal. A real medal from the National Geographic Bee which has engraved on it "2008 School Bee Champion" She is so stinkin' pleased with herself. Apparently, she is now famous at school and will have her picture in the paper. A kid at school even asked if she could hug Brianna because maybe some of her smartness will rub off. Yeah, that's my kid.


And for a little dose of humility, Brianna only got 24 out of the 100 questions right to come in first. The next closest was 18. Apparently, geography isn't very advanced in 4th grade.

A photoshoot of three stylish sisters

I had another great session today and it was really fun. I am still struggling with group shots, so I think I will focus on learning more that this week. The three beautiful girls are daughters of my good friend, Sandy. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

I created a poll, please vote!

I am trying to pick a website address for me as part of my effort to start a photography business. I would wait but I have learned that waiting means risking having some of the web addresses taken by someone else. So I have created this poll to see what potential customers would like best. Please vote so that I can purchase my domain soon. Thanks!

Happy Birthday Ben!

Ben is married to my sister-in-law, Paula. He is a great dad, husband and uncle we want to wish him a happy birthday from all of us here in Tennessee.

So to Ben :
"Happy Birthday! We hope you had a great day!"

Our fears

We all have our fears. Andrew's fear is losing one of the kids in a crowd, my fear is a house fire, Brianna's fear is getting bad grades, Arick's fear is getting lost, Ty's fear is showers, and Ella's fear, well hers is balls. Yep, you read that correctly. Our little punkin is scared of balls. Beach balls, basketballs, soccer balls, etc. If you roll one towards her, she runs away in a panic with sobbing soon to follow. Absolutely hysterical to watch, not so much fun for her, but fun for us parents. Maybe Bounce-a-Rounce 2007 was just too much for her to handle.

Don't be fooled by that sweet face!

Don't be fooled by that sweet face. In that little brain of his, he has dreamed up plenty of mischief. Unfortunately for me today, the stars aligned (a.k.a. mommy was busy making lunch when he discovered a perfectly sharpened pencil and lots of empty wall space) and his dreams became reality. 100 ft of scribbled wall art later, he came to me so proud to show me his accomplishment. Oh how his excitement/giddyness was quickly erased (both literally and figuratively) in the ensuing freak out by me. Ugh, two broken hearts today. It is so hard to punish sometimes. Thank goodness for Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

Brianna at a glance

It has been a while since I have posted about Brianna, so here is a current picture and a few facts about what is going on in her life right now.

* She is attending a gifted and talented program at her school that she totally loves.
* She is currently reading Harry Potter 5 and can't wait to finish it.
* She is doing very well in piano and is currently practicing the song "The 12 Days of Christmas."
* Her current challenge in life is to keep her room clean much to my frustration. Ella will have lots of access to her stuff and she doesn't realize the importance of keeping everything out of reach just yet.
* She is an incredible helper. She will change Ella's diapers, help me make dinner, watch her siblings, without much complaint and usually with a smile.
* Her current sport is archery and has earned 3 awards so far.

The winner is . . .

Susie. At first I didn't know which Susie, but after a quick phone call I solved the puzzle. She didn't believe me when I told her, so I have to put this on the blog to make it official and all. Thank you all for taking the time to read my blog and leave a comment.

Some statistics

One of the reasons I am doing the blog birthday prize (which includes a gift certificate to Target by the way, just in case you needed more incentive to leave a comment and be entered to win the prize) is to see who is reading the blog. According to my idcounter, I have had:


Total hits: 6068
Total visitors: 2961
Average visitors per day: 12
Total for last 30 days : 481

I am very surprised that I have had that many hits and it totally makes me curious to find out who. Even more interesting is where you all are clicking from. If you go to the bottom of this blog and click on the map, you can also see a very general area of where the visitors are from. Quite interesting.

By the way if you have a blog of your own, the idcounter and clustrmap are free, just go to their website and sign up. I bet you will be surprised at how many visit your blog too.

Happy Blog Birthday

So I just discovered that I have been blogging for 1 year, and I would love to mark this occasion with a contest. Leave your name in the comments section and I will draw a name and mail a special surprise to the winner. It would be a lot of fun for me to see who is even reading this blog. You have until Sunday night to leave your name. I will draw the winning name on Monday morning. Good luck!

A family of four photo session

Yesterday I did a family photo shoot. Photographing families and toddlers are the hardest to photograph and I knew that this would be a challenge. The family was so gracious to let me do my thing without pressure and they were very patient. I did make mistakes and I learned a lot, so it was totally worth it.

I just love this photo:

Poor Arick!

This cute kid is very sick, so sick that he had to miss trick or treating, and that just really stinks.

"Attitude determines your altitude"

If you asked me a year ago how I was doing, I might have responded that I was doing fine or okay. Today, I might respond with the words wonderful,great or fabulous. Why the change in answers? Well,I have changed my attitude. I started counting my blessings and focusing on what I have, not what I am missing. And you know what? My life is pretty great. Everything isn't perfect and I still have my quirks and struggles, yet that isn't what I dwell on anymore. I love living with this attitude! I have never been happier. One of new my favorite sayings is, "Attitude determines your altitude." That is so true. I don't know why it took me so long to figure out how much my attitude can affect my life, but I am so grateful I finally did.

Disclaimer: Please don't confuse my new attitude as perky. Perky does not exist in my life, especially in the early hours of the morning.

(This picture of me was taken yesterday by a friend. I very much prefer being behind the camera but I figure one picture every few years won't hurt.)