Christmas Festivities!

Below I am including some of the Christmas day pictures. I feel like we ran a marathon. We started out at home with our stockings and gifts and then moved on to mom's house. We opened gifts there for a bit, and then went to Jane and Cliff's (Connie's sister and brother-in-law's) for breakfast. It was incredibly tasty and as usual it was fun to see family. Jack got a huge kick out of a gift for Kaylynn, a Cookie/Elmo ball that shakes when you squeeze it. He thought it was the best thing ever and he and Aunt Courtney had a fabulous time giggling over it. Finally we returned to mom's for a late lunch with Uncle Allen and Aunt Judy. (And FINALLY a nap for Jack!!)

The best part of the day was when Jason received his ipod touch. He didn't expect it, which in itself is a miracle, because if you know me then you know I can be read like a book. I managed to keep it a secret and hide it in the bottom of his stocking - the last place you would expect to find a gift like that. He pulled it out of the toe of his stocking and it took him a moment to figure out what the heck it was, and when he did...there are just no words! He was thrilled and I was even more excited that he had gotten something he really loved and that I was able to surprise him! Christmas held lots of fun, excitement and time together, which as everyone knows, is the best gift of all! :)


Mommy and Jack opening his stocking


Playing with the kitchen that Santa brought. It was funny, it took him a few minutes to warm up to the idea. I think he was a bit suspicious at first and came to sit in my lap and open his stocking before he would walk over to it, but he finally did and my living room hasn't been the same since. There is fake food, bowls, spoons, etc. constantly scattered from wall to wall.


Jason a bit confused about the strange, unexpected item in his stocking.


Thrilled! :)


Jack really got good at unwrapping gifts. He always removed the bow and tag first, and then found the right spot to start ripping - he was a natural. :)


Sweet baby Isaac


I think we were all feeling like a nap at this point in the morning....


Jack and Aunt Courtney with the wiggle ball


Jack and Uncle Allen got in trouble for throwing empty plastic bottles back and forth across the kitchen at mom's! Because....of course...we don't throw things in the house..... :) HA!


Cheers! Merry Christmas! :)

Merry Christmas!

Here's a family self portrait taken before heading out to church! We were all dressed up and couldn't miss a great photo opp!Luckily today we got a tripod and remote so from now on family portraits won't be so difficult!

Here is Jack playing with the magnadoodle that Auntie Deidra and Uncle Jason got him. He loves it! :)


I will post Christmas day photos as soon as they are uploaded! I hope you and yours had a wonderfully blessed holiday!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

Christmas has seemed a long time coming this year, and I am thrilled that it is only a few days away! We celebrated Christmas at Jason's parents this weekend with immediate family and it was a lot of fun! We exchanged gifts with Courtney and her little ones, as well as Connie, Bill, Muir, and Grandaddy. Connie fixed an excellent dinner and we all really enjoyed spending some quality time together. Below are some pictures from the festivities. The kids are really growing up so fast!


Big girl Kaylynn in her "Big Sis" necklace


Happy baby Isaac!


"What do you mean there aren't any more cookies?!"


Jack, very determined, playing with the fridge DJ

I was also FINALLY able to get the ornaments up on the tree and finish decorating the house. I will post some pics of the final product later, but I needed to post a pic of Jack "helping." :)


The ornament box is apparently the perfect size for him...who knew?!

WOW! Where did November go??

So seriously..where did November go?? It snuck right past me and we are already 13 days away from Christmas - I can't even believe it!! We have been unbelievably busy and in the spare time we do manage to have, I find myself unable to move my lazy hiney from the couch.

So here I am, almost a month later finally updating the blog! :) A lot has happened in a month. Jack is a month older and more independent of course. He is still so very helpful with laundry and his new passion is being a sous chef. He can't stand to not be held while dinner or other goodies are being prepared - which brings on a completely new challenge - being productive with the use of only one arm. Because of his fascination with cooking we decided he might like a Jack-sized kitchen for Christmas. I am really looking forward to setting it up by the tree on Christmas eve. It will be extremely cute to watch him come running in on Christmas morning to find it here. I am hoping we can distract him from it long enough to open his stocking and other gifts!

I am almost finished with our Christmas shopping. I have maybe an item or so left, but most everything else is here and wrapped. We, however, do not have any ornaments on our tree. I am in a panic as to if they will survive Jack this Christmas. He can be extremely gentle if he chooses to be, but the key word there is chooses. He is after all, all boy! Things must be examined, thrown, bounced and completely taken apart if possible. Hopefully tomorrow I will finally get the ornaments up on our completely bare tree. It is still pretty when lit, but it's just not the same without ornaments!

I've included below some of the events I have neglected blogging about over the last month! It sure has been busy - but at the same time a lot of fun! :) Love to all!!


Jack at Allen and Judy's on Thanksgiving


Jack on Thanksgiving with a rubber chicken. If you know Allen and Judy then you realize that having a rubber chicken at their house is not unusual.


Jack visited downtown at the Lighting of the Trees on Market Square. We had lots of fun listening to carols and bells as well as watching his very first fireworks. (above) He was mesmerized. He also made the newspaper - a reference and a quote from Nana on the front page of the News Sentinel local section. Famous at such a young age... :)


Here he is enjoying the carousel at the Fantasy of Trees. We rode it 3 times. Basically as much as mommy and nana could stand! He loved all of the lights and there were two large bears wandering around in baseball uniforms that he was obsessed with. We would have followed them around all night if he had his way. I was shocked that they didn't frighten him. I could probably count on one hand the things that he is afraid of - getting his nose wiped is one! :)


All dressed up to go to the Blount Memorial Hospital Christmas Tree lighting with Nana. He was lookin' way too cute in his Christmas outfit!


Here he is riding ANOTHER carousel! This time we were at the zoo having cookies and milk with Santa!


Jack and Santa- a little suspicious of the big red guy, but not really scared.


I think this pic is just too sweet. He is sporting his Christmas PJs and examining an ornament. The next picture on the camera was one of him pulling the gold piece off the top of the ornament....lovely. :)


Oops... :)

Baby shower!

So our household survived the baby shower this weekend! I admit it was a little touch and go there for a while...I thought Jason and I might not make it...but we're still here!

It turned out beautifully. I am extremely proud and relieved that it went so smoothly! Lisa Silvus and Lisa Webb showed up about 9:00 on Saturday morning. I had finally finished cleaning and at least gotten started on the decorating and organizing the night before. Still with four/five people working, including my darling mother and Deidra, we didn't get everything finished until moments before people starting arriving at 11:30! Everyone had a wonderful time it seemed and I had a blast hosting it...I look forward to hosting something else in the future! :)

My cute little "B" outside by the front door...and the Southern Living candle/floral piece really came in handy...one of the best purchases I have ever made! :)


Ashley, the mommy-to-be, opened all kinds of cute presents!! Yay for Shannondale red!


Ellie will totally be a Vol baby! I can't wait to meet her! :)

busy, busy, busy

So I am pretty sure that I was always told that December is the busiest month of the year, but apparently, like Christmas, things are being bumped up this year. I feel like November is flying by and I can barely catch my breath!

At school as well as at home, things have been completely hectic. At school we finally wrapped up our last fundraiser, and as much as I love Shannondale and appreciate all that our PTO does for us - let me just say that this year we have experienced one fundraiser too many! The parents, teachers and students were all just over it by the time this last one rolled around and my class was really struggling in the sales department! Oh well...we did what we could! But now we are dealing...again...with all of the prizes, assemblies, etc, that go along with wrapping up a fundraiser. I just feel like we are constantly running out of the room to go or do something besides what I NEED to be teaching!!

At home I have been sent into a complete frenzy with Ashley's shower rapidly approaching. It is this Saturday and I feel like though I have been thinking and planning for it for at least two months that I am no closer to being ready than when I started! I really need to go right now, before bed, and finish making out my Thursday, Friday and Saturday lists. Luckily I have WONDERFUL people helping me with everything that needs to be done and I don't even know what I would do without them. At this very moment my fabulous best friend is working on a custom table runner made of too cute pink paisley fabric. I know Lisa S. and Lisa W. are frantically trying to figure out how they will juggle all of the snacks we decided to fix! I am desperately trying to figure out how I will have time to get together my very few food items while at the same time cleaning up continuously after my one year old. Something has got to give!! :)

Think happy, productive thoughts for me in the next few days! Love to all!!!

Halloween Festivities!

Here are some pics from various events in the past few weeks. I uploaded them the other night and then walked away, abandoning them and leaving Jason to simply post them. So now I am finally getting around to updating them with captions....here you go!!

Here are a few from Boo at the Zoo! Aren't you just lovin' our super cute penguin??

He was so pleased with himself and was giggling like crazy. He went through the hay maze at least 4 times. He would run out from the end of the maze straight into the crowd of dancing children at the "monster mash." Then he would proceed to bounce up and down....I tell you..he is a dancing fool!! :)




We rode the carousel....a lot! We got him a green wrist band so he could ride all evening, and boy did we get our money's worth!!


Riding on daddy's shoulders. It's tiring being so dang cute!! ;)

We also went to a McClary family picnic that same weekend and had a lot of fun spending time with family. It seems rare that everyone is in the same place at once!


Cutie Kaylynn...all bundled up..it was chilly!!


Jack....in his too cute Maryville College jacket! He thinks something is very, very funny.


These are my super tasty Halloween cupcakes that I made for the family picnic. I was trying out a cupcake recipe for Ashley's upcoming baby shower. I have been desperately trying to find a good looking EASY recipe, and of course Paula Deen came through - these cupcakes were so chocolaty, moist and tasty! Mmmmm!

Productivity is a good thing! :)

Wednesday was far more productive than Monday and Tuesday combined! Jack and I stayed busy and got quite a bit done! :)


First we Mr. Potato Head-ed his pumpkin...super cute...I mean...scary...


Our energy was flagging so we took a break and had a snack...mmm..goldfish and nilla wafers!


We dusted...


And swept...


We took a walk to reward ourselves! :)

You wouldn't believe how clean my house was. Yes, I said was....my clean house is now cluttered again. Sad!

Fall Break so far....

Fall Break has been tons of fun thus far, but there has been very little productivity in this household. Jason has been busy with school work and basketball, so I suppose you could say that he is productive, but all I have managed to do in the last few days is spend money - which in our case in two steps back as opposed to two steps forward!

I managed to get a little Christmas shopping done today and yesterday- yes - I said Christmas shopping. But don't worry - I will still be sure to wait until three days before Christmas to finish. I always think of at least one or two things that must be had and I run around like a maniac trying to nail them down with 48 hours or less until Christmas morning. It's an illness...it must be.

Jack gets to stay home the rest of the week starting tomorrow, which will be fun and stressful all at the same time! My hope is to get some things done around the house. I plan on letting him "help" as much as possible. My fear is, however, that the house will again be messy next week at this time and all of my hard work will have been in vain. Mom is off Thursday and Friday, which will keep Jack and I busy. Maybe that will keep us out of the house.

Finally, Jason's birthday is this weekend and as usual it's torture trying to drag out of him what he would like to do. We have established that there will merry making downtown on Friday evening, the McClary picnic is Saturday, as well as Boo at the Zoo that evening. Sunday, his actual birth day, will be his day to do with as he pleases. I am not sure where we will end up that evening, but hopefully it will appropriately celebrate his 27 fabulous years of life! :) I'll keep you posted!

Love to all and stay warm! Jack Frost is on his way.....brrr....

Pumpkin Patch, part 1....

Yesterday, Saturday, we went to the pumpkin patch to let Jack pick out his first pumpkin! It was a perfect chilly fall day and we really had a lot of fun! Jack was satisfied to just pick up really small pumpkins and then throw them....which we had some trouble getting him to STOP doing! Then Jason proceeded to pick up eighty million pumpkins and ask, "What about this one?" I think mom and Jason Trusley were worried we would have to traipse all over the pumpkin patch before we found one that would meet Jason's high pumpkin standards. If you know him, you know this is compltely normal behavior and basically to be expected. So we kept putting down pumpkins and picking up new ones, only to end up with the first pumpkin Jack picked....go figure! It was the perfect shape and size for Jack, as well as being a very nice shade of orange. Overall, it was a very fun day of friends, family and fall festivities!


Jack with his Auntie Deidra...


Jack and Daddy..the sky is very overcast...it was a chilly day!


Nana wrangling Jack...he was all over the place!!


Chillin' on a hay bale waiting for the hay ride wagon to come for us....

This is when my camera battery gave out...ugh!! Luckily Deidra had her camera with her so there will be more pictures (yay!), but only when I get them through email and get them uploaded....so keep checking back for more!

Love to all!!

Roughin' It!

As promised, here are some camping pics! Enjoy! :)


My beautiful backwoods boys! ;)


Watching the river


Playing in what else...the water! I am sure I don't even have to tell you how stinkin' cold the water was...but he waded right in!!


I swear he would have bathed entirely if I had let him, but mom doesn't want to deal with the cold/flu that would have come of it!!


On our "nature walk"...He picked up everything you can imagine, from acorns, to leaves, to pine cones. I taught him how to put things in his pocket, a skill I am positive every little boy must learn, and also a skill I am sure I will regret teaching him! :)


Okay, so mom and dad had a redneck moment and decided Jack should "ride" on the ATV in the Bass Pro Shop Outdoor World...don't hold it against us! :)


Meeting and greeting a rather large stuffed moose.


Mom had to take an obligatory "fall shot" with the pumpkins and hay at Outdoor World...Jack was incredibly patient with me! :)