Happy Fall Y'all

Well, when you only seem to blog once a quarter it's more like a photo dump of life rather than posts by subject.  Boy, life is busy.  I'm not complaining, I wouldn't want it any other way.

Earlier this month,  we celebrated a sweet friend's divorce. 

?

Yes, I know that sounds unusual but if you knew the details you would be happy for her too.  Sweet Mary, the blonde beside me, is no longer my neighbor :( but has moved on to a much happier, healthier single life and for that we celebrated, with dinner and girly drinks with umbrellas in them.    

One Saturday night, I found myself with these rascals having a cousins sleepover.  Oh, the memories this brought back of my brother and cousins, Casey and Carrie, growing up together on Olde Mill Lane. 

 Who knew a blow up mattress could provide such cheap entertainment? 

I say cheap until someone jumped too high and knocked all the bulbs out in the ceiling fan.  I'm embarrassed to admit it took me a week to figure out why none of Trace's 4 bulbs came on when I flipped the switch.  I was just shy of calling an electrician when after nagging Jimmy about it for the umpteenth time he yelled from the couch, "Could the bulbs just be blown???"  Well... yeah... maybe.  Hadn't even thought about that. Duh.

 When I saw this picture, I was immediately taken back to 1983.  Oh my goodness, same combo, only reversed.  Casey and I were about the same age, Carrie was the younger sister and poor baby brother Andy was the only boy. 

 And no sleepover is complete in this day and age without a little karaoke sing-along with Frozen.

Let it go Lucas, let it go...

 I'm not sure what possesses my children to be willingly naked 90% of the time but they could seriously be nudists with very little effort.  In fact, when Carrie came to pick up her boys, Keatyn and Lucas were commando and chasing each other through the house.  Abram, bless his big brother heart, came downstairs to inform me they were both naked and locked in Keatyn's room.  Great.

Hope that's not bacon they're frying.

 Apparently my dad is baffled by her nakedness too.

 Keatyn decided on an unusually hot fall day that she wanted to do the ice bucket challenge...again.  Jordan and  Trace were happy to join in.

 We finally had a long overdue family dinner and got to see these precious kiddos!  They have grown so fast!

 Keatyn had her first "playdate" with Poppie from gymnastics.  Her mom, Jamie, and I are friends and since she has FOUR daughters under 5, I thought the least I could do was take one off her hands for a few hours.

Jimmy created a rope swing that would make most mothers cringe.  I seriously have to hide my eyes. But OH you should hear the giggles.  My children are total dare devils. 

 Trace's Tae Kwon Do class did a demo at the County Fair.  When he saw the stage he about chickened out, and honestly I was ok with that.  Then, at the last second, he ran up there and performed like a champ.

Mr. Hall called him up right out of the gate to show off his warm up skills.  He effortlessly fell into the splits and got a unanimous groan and gasp from the audience.  It's his claim to fame I guess.  ha!

He just tested and got his brown belt last week!  I'm proud of my little karate kid.

We've made several stops at the jump park lately and had fun with sweet friends.

 




Last week, our cousin Marilyn came in from Virginia.  We look forward to her visit every year around Nanny's birthday.  Her requests when she comes, Krystal's and family dinner.  We were happy to oblige.

 Trace's fall party at school.

 And the Wubbles that I spent way too much money on.  The "bubble" balls you see advertised on TV.  Yeah, don't bother. The blue one lived about 24 hours and the red one, less than 48.  :(

Love this.  She knows all the steps in how to cast and seems to really like it.  We will have to wait and see!  I could just eat her up with that ponytail!