Donuts with Santa

Every year at our clubhouse in our neighborhood we have donuts with Santa. It is a chance for the kids in the neighborhood to see Santa and tell him what they want for Christmas! The kids love it and they also get to eat as many donuts as they want. It is really great because it is the same Santa every year and after the kids tell him what they want, he gives them reindeer food to sprinkle on our front lawn on Christmas Eve.



Here is Dylan giving Santa his list.



Here they are enjoying their donuts. Dylan probably had 3-4 that morning! Can anyone say "sugar rush"???



Sutherlan with Bailey (her boyfriend/best friend).

Traditions

I have this tradition every year to get the kid's picture in front of the Christmas tree. This year, I chose to get one of them in their PJ's. I think we did this last year too. Anyway, it may seem goofy, but I have to stick with it now because I have done it every year since Dylan was born! I'm sure eventually he won't like it, but until then....



I loved this one! They are so sweet to each other "most of the time".



I thought while I was at it, I should get one of them separately for a frame or something.



Here they are showing off their ornaments. I let them pick out an ornament every year for the tree. This year, it was a Barbie ornament from "Diamond Castle" for Sutherlan and an ESPN ornament for Dylan.

My Little Helpers

We finally got our tree up and decorated when we got home from Birmingham after Thanksgiving. It took me several hours to get the tree up and then the kids wanted to help me put the ornaments on the tree. Anyone that has seen my tree knows that I have LOTS of Hallmark ornaments that I am very particular about. Of course, the kids attacked the box the minute I opened it and so I went crazy!! But, I know it is supposed to be "fun" and so I let them help me. I just asked that they let me get the ornaments out of the boxes. It was actually lots of fun to see them get so excited about putting ornaments on a tree. We even listened to Christmas music while we were decorating the tree.



They were so excited about the tree when it was finally done! Then, about a day later the lights went out at the top of the tree....Does this sound like anybody else's luck??? I guess it serves me right for being so crazy about my ornaments!! Luckily, I was able to "fix" the lights. It doesn't look exactly the way it did before, but it will get us through Christmas. It is a reminder that you should cherish these moments with your kids while you have them because they won't last long...They are already growing up faster than I would like them too!!!!

Food, Fun & Family

Yes, I'm just now posting about Thanksgiving! I've been so busy lately that I just haven't had time to sit down and post!! We went home for Thanksgiving and was with Brandon's family on Thursday and celebrated with my family on Friday. We had so much good food!! I got so many great pictures that I just have to post more than usual.



This was over at Donna and Hunter's house (Brandon's cousin). You can see...we had LOTS of kids and LOTS of great food!!



It was also Brandon and Christy Savage's birthday. They had them this AWESOME Alabama birthday cake made! Dylan loved it because it was Alabama Football!! Happy "34th" Birthday again, Daddy....We love you!!



I thought this was a sweet picture of the kids with EE (their great-grandmother).



While we had everyone dressed nice, we took some family pictures hoping to catch a good one for our Christmas card. We got some really good ones. Both kids were smiling!!! Also, we have never had a Christmas card with our whole family on it before..imagine that!



Isn't this just the sweetest picture?! She is getting so big :(

We then headed over to my Mom and Dad's. I think I went picture crazy this year! I just wanted to capture everything!



Here I am with Andrea and Mom. I swear Andrea is getting younger while I'm getting older! I'm supposed to be the baby!! ha ha



Chandler, Amber and Jada
Can you believe these are my nieces and nephew!! They are as big as me now.



This is us after eating a big meal....Don't we look happy??



Me, Dad and Andrea

We had such a great time visiting with everyone! I got a LOT more pictures, but can't possibly post them all.

Beatdown in T-Town

Dylan and Brandon went to Tuscaloosa Saturday to watch Alabama beat Mississippi State and move to 11-0! This was Dylan's second Alabama game this season (Ole Miss) and Bama moved to 3-0 in games he's attended. He went to the Independence Bowl last year in Shreveport, LA. as well. Brandon's Aunt Kay and Uncle Perry have tickets to all the games and sometimes invite Dylan and Brandon when they have extras. Thanks Aunt Kay and Uncle Perry!!!

Dylan, Brandon and Pops went down early and walked around the campus, hit the supply store for a sweatshirt (it was cold!) and found plenty of spots to play catch.

One of Dylan's favorite things to do is attend the "Walk of Champions." Two hours before gametime the players and coaches arrive at the stadium in buses. Fans line the sidewalk on both sides of the entrance to the lockerroom and cheer them on. Dylan sneaks his way to the front row and tries to high-five the players. He says "some do, some don't."

After the game, Dylan wanted to go back to where the players come out of the lockerroom and try to get his program autographed. He did really well. The whole cover of his program was signed by many players!

Going to Tuscaloosa is now Dylan's favorite thing to do. He loves the atmosphere and football is definitely his favorite sport.

Rock Stars

The kids were playing with my camera and this is what I found....I thought it was cute!

Halloween 2008

Last night we had so much fun for Halloween! Dylan dressed up like Dale Jr. and Sutherlan went as "Princess Liana" from the new Barbie movie "Diamond Castle". We went over to Rebecca's house and she made chili and also white chili. It was very good! :) Brandon made Collard Green and Black-Eyed Pea Soup. It was good too!!! We ate some chili before we went trick-or-treating and had some soup when we got back. Some of our friends from the gym and also some neighbors that used to live in the neighborhood came over to trick-or-treat with us. The kids had a blast! They have been eating candy all day today.

I told Dylan that since Halloween was on a Friday night that we would "camp out" in the den and watch scary movies after we went trick-or-treating. I've been recording movies all week such as Beetlejuice, Gremlins, Tim Burton's Corpse's Bride, Night at the Museum and Adams Family Values. We watched Beetlejuice last night for about 15 minutes and both kids were out! They were exhausted. So, we got up this morning and ate breakfast while we watched Beetlejuice again. Until next year.....



Dale Jr. and Princess Liana



Sutherlan, Bailey and Grier



Sutherlan, Dylan, Ian and Bailey