Hello Again....

Since it has been a year since I went into "blog-hibernation" I thought I would take this post to get reacquainted. As I sit here tonight, the kids are away at Maw-Maw's, we still have one more day of Christmas vacation and the house is fairly clean and organized following my swift removal of all things Christmas. Dare I say that I am sort of relaxed? Bored even? Not for long. Soon the hustle and bustle of life (school, work, sports, etc) will begin and again make it hard to keep this blog up to date.



I'll start with Chase. A year hasn't slowed him down. He is still a fiery ball of energy trapped in the body of a 9 year old little boy. He is in third grade and doing great. Loves sports, Auburn football, hunting with Dad and just doing anything outdoors. He is currently playing city league basketball and will start his first season of Minor A baseball in the Spring.

Kayli is officially a teenager now at 13 (almost 14) years old. I can't believe we have a teenager. She is in 8th grade and will go to Decatur High next year - ugghhhh - where does time go??? She is a beautiful, sweet, caring, thoughtful, young lady.....whose body has been taken over by a stubborn, eye-rolling, door-slamming, radio-blasting teenager......but we love her just the same! :) We have recently discovered that she has a beautiful singing voice and are looking into voice lessons which she is very excited about.

Mark is still working as an Equipment Operator at Decatur Utilities is currently in the running for a Foreman position. The decision between he and one other person will be made this March. We are crossing our fingers as this promotion would be huge for our family....and the ol' checkbook! ;) He has worked so hard to get to this point and truly deserves it. He works so hard to take care of our family and I am so proud of him.

As for me, I have been working at a great company called PeopleTec for a little over a year. They are an Aerospace/Defense Contractor in Huntsville. I can honestly say that I love my job and the people that I work with. I have TWO SEMESTERS left until I finish school!!! I will graduate in August with my Bachelor's degree in Acquisition and Contract Management. It is hard to believe that my almost 3 year journey towards completing my degree is ALMOST OVER......Can you tell I am ready to be finished????

That about sums up life as of today. 

We are looking forward to great things and happy times for the next year to come. :)

Here's to a New Year....

I took a trip down memory lane today and realized how important this blog is to me. As I read through all of my posts from 2010, I relived every moment as if it were yesterday. I noticed how much younger my kids looked, how different things were that year, how quickly life can change---good and bad, and most of all how quickly we forget the details of the memories we make. I am so happy now that I took the extra time to trap those moments in writing. Unfortunately, I let life get the best of me in 2011 and I gave up on my blog. It is hard to find the time to make these posts but my "New Year's Resolution" (one of many) is to make the time to write these memories down for my family.

Because I am a year's worth of memories behind in posting, I will not make the effort to relive 2011. It was a unique year for our family. We were dealt lots of cards ranging from untimely death to the miracle of birth. It was a hard year and now that it is officially 2012, I would prefer to move on to what this year has to offer. Bigger and better things? Maybe. Happiness, laughter, love and good health....that will be enough for me.

Music City Bowl 2010....

A couple of weeks before Christmas, Mark got an exciting phone call from Chase's football coach. Because his team had won the Mighty-Mite Championship, they invited our team to attend the game and participate in the pre-game ceremonies. As if this weren't exciting enough, UT was playing in the bowl! Can you imagine how excited Mark and Chase were!

So, on Dec. 30, we suited up in our UT gear and headed to Nashville to cheer on the Vols!

Once we got there, we found our team and Chase prepared to head out on the field....

And there they go.....

Chase was so excited because he got to slap the players hands as they ran out of the tunnel. How exciting for an 8-year-old boy who LOVES football!

We watched from the stands and cheered him on as they took there spots....

After that, we all watched a great game....

However,  UT was denied the win after a controversial call.

Here was Mark's thoughts on that situation....

Poor guy....he loves his team but they just can't seem to catch a break this season!

Aside from the loss, we all had a great time and were so happy to have the opportunity to attend the game!

Christmas 2010 in Pictures.....

Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Season.....we did!

Sneaky "Steve".....

Check out the mischief that "Steve" the Elf has been into since he arrived at our house!

Snow angels on the counters....

                                    A snowball fight with Barbie....



And his latest escapade (I am almost too embarrassed to share)......

           He painted Daddy's fingernails while he was sleeping!!!

Chase loves getting up every morning to see what "Steve" has done. And I am so glad that "Santa" made that special late delivery last week! =)



Meet "Steve" ....

(Because when you think of elf names, of course, the first one that comes to mind is "Steve"......right?)

Well, for Chase, that was true. So......

Meet "Steve" the Elf !!!

Last week, on his own, Chase went to NorthPole.com and "ordered" an elf from Santa without telling anyone. That is, until yesterday, when he looked at me with that pitiful little face and said "I guess my elf won't come this year."

Well...I bet you'll never guess what happened!

 Miraculously, our doorbell rang tonight and I bet you can't guess what was on the doorstep? Yep....Steve the elf!

Chase is Super-Duper excited.....

We can't wait to see what kind of mischevious stuff "Steve" will get into while we sleep!

Merry Christmas!

A Bittersweet Thanksgiving....

This year we had a low-key Thanksgiving. Life has been a little hectic lately, for all of our families. We have had several changes and a few sad times, so we didn't much feel like a big celebration. Don't get me wrong...I still feel like I have so much to be thankful for and we actually did end up having a pretty good weekend. It was just a little bittersweet.

Our week started with some bad news. My Great-Granny Hyatt passed away on Tuesday. She was 92 years old but was still completely independent. She lived on her own, was still driving, loved to sing with her singing group, and was a fiery little lady. She had a few minor health problems but nothing major. So, it was kind of a shock when she just died in her sleep. We had visitation on the Friday after Thanksgiving and the funeral on Saturday. She was a sweet lady and will definitely be missed by all....

Another big change that has happened recently is that my parents have recently decided to down-size and have put thier house on the market. Since my Dad has been working from home a lot lately, they decided to be snowbirds and stay at thier condo at the beach while it sells. It has been a little strange but we are getting used to it. Especially because my Dad got all of us kids web-cams and set us up with Skype. It's still not the same but at least we can look at each other while we talk.

Since they were at the beach, they made the long journey home on Thansgiving day so we had a late Thanksgiving dinner at my grandmother's house. I didn't take any pictures but I did steal this one of us girls from my sister's blog....

(We had Thanksgiving lunch earlier that day with Mark's parents but, like I said, I didn't take any pictures.)

It was overall a pretty good day but all of our hearts were heavy with the loss of Granny Hyatt. This was really the only time of year that we saw her and it felt really strange to not spend Thanksgiving with her.

I decided to try to have some fun over the weekend so the next day, my sister and I decided to participate in the Black Friday madness! We got up at 4:00am and headed to K-mart to try and grab some of those great deals. Here is what we saw when we pulled up.....

YIKES!!!

The line was SO LONG and it was RAINING and FREEZING!!! We sat in our car for a few minutes but then decided to tough it out in line....



We ended up getting a few good deals there and went to several other places that day. It was fun and we actually got a lot of shopping done. Thank goodness because Santa is a little busy these days....if you know what I mean!  ;)

Like I said before, it was a bitterswet holiday weekend for us but we managed to make the best out of it. It really makes you think about all that we have to be thankful for when you lose a loved one. I am especially thankful to have a great family, healthy children, great friends and a wonderful husband!