Happy Birthday Nolan!

Sunday was Nolan's 7th Birthday! My oh my how that child has grown! It's so hard for me to believe that he's in first grade and getting to be a "bigger boy".

Since he chose to do a weekend at Disney with a friend back in October, we just had a small family party Sunday evening at our house.

I did a few decorations (hardly any) and everything was super simple!

The weather was PERFECT for some grilled hot dogs and chili! In Florida, we can never predict the weather and it turned COLD the day of his party! I LOVE COLD WEATHER!



The kids played on the trampoline, with the biggest kid of all (Cecil's brother)!!

They had fun on the swingset too!

Nolan got so many nice things for his birthday!!

DS Games.....(& more DS games)

Gift card to Chuck E Cheese.....

A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle motorcycle.....
Gift card to Walgreens so he can go buy an Icee after school!
Foosball (is that how you say it?) He LOVES this game!
A new baseball bat!!
Money, which he is very excited about!
Clothes (poor thing needed winter clothes so my mother-in-law hooked him up in that department!!)

After presents, it was time for CAKE! Y'all know I love a good cake! I always make the boys' cakes and Nolan wanted a baseball cake this year.
Here's my big 7 year old blowing out the candles.
And just like that, another year has gone by.......Happy Birthday Nolan!

~CB~

Last One

It’s my LAST post about Christmas activities (I think).  The Tuesday after Christmas, we had Christmas with Cecil’s grandparents and his aunt/uncle, cousins, etc.  There is a large crowd and it’s always busy!

Our boys came away with new clothes, pajamas, monster trucks, an ant farm, sleeping bags, skates and helmets, a puzzle, and all kinds of other items!

Cecil got a beautiful green/white dress shirt from his aunt!  She gave me a beautiful long sleeve shirt too—I can’t wait to wear it (sorry, no picture).

More toys……

A cool Duck Hunter game from one of the cousins!

Carter having some FUN.

Everyone has to have new pj’s at Christmas!  It’s a tradition!

Nolan’s ant farm and monster truck!

It was so much fun to watch the kids open their presents and have fun with their cousins!  Sorry-no pics of the cousins cause I didn’t ask their parents about posting them!

~CB~

A Family Gathering

Y’all thought I was through posting about Christmas didn’t you?  HA!  GOTCHA!  Nope, not yet!  Soon though, I promise!

On Monday night (2 days after Christmas), my Uncle and Aunt, who live about 25 minutes from us, and their 2 children came over for dinner.  Even though they live so close, I don’t see them very often.  I saw my Aunt and cousins over the summer at the beach, but it had been (sad to say) a few years, yes YEARS since I had seen my Uncle. 

For those that knew my Mama you’ll see the resemblance between she and her brother!

 

Me and my cousins, Wesley & Brooke

Anyhow, they came over and we had a GREAT time together just eating, talking, laughing, and watching the kids play!

Uncle Tommy & Cecil

None of us wanted the “traditional” Christmas menu, so we decided on deer meat, rice n gravy, and peas.

Uncle T & Cecil cooking the meat!

Let me tell y’all.  I don’t think I’ve EVER had gravy THIS GOOD!  Just looking at this picture again makes my mouth water!

YUM.  My Aunt Patty (if she’s reading this) will LOVE this picture!

Y’all.  There was so much eatin’ and talkin’ and playin’ going on that night that we drank EIGHT pitchers of sweet tea.  Ordinarily, it takes my family weeks to go through that much, but EIGHT pitchers were consumed that night!  WHEW!

Aunt Tracey slicing onions for the gravy.

Our kids had a GREAT time playing together!

There was football…..

Piggy back ridin’…….

Flyin’……..

Hide N Go Seekin’……..

 

A little bit of resting…….

 

Some sweet readin’ by the big cousins to the little cousins.  And I. LOVE. THIS. PICTURE.

And this last series of pictures is probably one of my favorites of all time.  My youngest boy, Carter, is into bull riding and roping right now.  My Uncle used to do rodeo stuff so he was giving Carter some roping lessons.  This is priceless and it makes me miss my sweet Mama so much it hurts.  I want her to see her brother interacting with her grandson……

On a much lighter note, my family is KNOWN for pulling pranks on each other.  Y’all.  We have done some CRAZY things before such as swim in a freezing pool on Christmas Day, write notes on our favorite food that says “Yuck, no good” just so someone else would not eat it, and this night was NO EXCEPTION!  My hubby and my Uncle decided to take one of our mounted deer and pose with it, then text it to my other Uncle so he would think they killed a deer.  (rolling my eyes and muttering “men” right about now)….

This is my Aunt T & I outside as the men were preparing their prank!

The prank worked for all of 20 seconds.  HA!  It sure was funny though.

I love my family so much and we had such an AWESOME time with them!  Love y’all!

~CB~

Extended Christmas

Yeah...I'm STILL posting about Christmas. I know, I know. I'll finish posting about it soon, I PROMISE. I have several other things I want to post about too!

On Christmas Day (in the afternoon), we always head to my Dad's house to spend time with him, my brother, my sister-in-law, and my nieces. All the kids get along so well and it's a JOY to spend time with them. I'll tell you, my brother and I fought like cats and dogs growing up, but when we started getting into our older teens, we got along (and still do) very well!

Only the kids exchange gifts anymore, and I always get my Dad something small, but it's still fun to watch the kids open presents!

Carter got a super cute monkey that sings and dances....
And a set to build a car and 6 or 7 other things with all the PARTS! (now it's keeping those parts all in one spot that is making me crazy!)Nolan got a neat mystery game to play and a puppy dog that sings and dances!
Taylor got some earrings that she had been wanting--they're called Flirties. I told her NO FLIRTING with those boys at the high school. HA! And I'm thinking by the look on Carter's face he was excited about those earrings too! ;)
Taylor also got a Kohl's gift card. It's what you do for teens. I'm not ordinarily a fan of gift cards, but I'm just about out of ideas for her!
Kailey got some new girlie pajamas, a necklace that she wanted, and the game Operation!


We get my Dad the "basics" each year, cause he's "older" and he needs them. Razors, t-shirts, etc. This year, I got him a styptic pencil though. Cecil has one and loves it, and really--I do recall many a morning seeing my Dad walking around with tissue on his face, so a styptic was the BEST gift!
Y'all know what a styptic pencil is? It's a small white chalky looking stick that you wet slightly and dab to your face after you've shaved and cut yourself! It stops the bleed. Bet y'all will all be looking for one next year for your man's stocking won't ya? HA! They are CHEAP and you can find them at my favorite store, Wal-Mart for about $1.00.

The kids played, we ate, ate some more, played some more, etc. It's just an all around great time!

Usually, the adults end up hanging out in the kitchen or outside...here, I think Nichole (my sister-in-law) had just gotten Cecil to try some sort of pepper relish or something? I'm not sure...

And it was HOT. And she laughed at Cecil. And when she reads this, she might well kill me for posting this picture.
Overall, another GREAT Christmas Day spent with family!! I LOVE IT!

~CB~