Happy Birthday Matthew!!!

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Happy Birthday Matthew!! I love you and hope you have a wonderful day!!

Full Month of December!!

It has been a very busy few weeks. After Thanksgiving was very cold. But that doesn't stop us from riding the 4-wheeler, we just bundle up. You can't keep Belle off. She will be the first one on soon as it is out of the shop.


Deer season has been open and since Thanksgiving, duck season is open. The Duck Buggy is loaded and ready to go.

We had our nephew one morning. I wonder what these two are talking about?

Cailin started decorating the tree before we got it up.

Cailin loves Charlotte's Web and Wilbur the pig. All pigs are named Wilbur. So it was fitting to get her ornament a pig. Here is her and Matthew putting Wilbur on the tree.

Here are our 2008 ornaments. I was really pleased with them. This year they came from Anythingdoughs.com. They have a really goo selection.

Here is my attempt at taking her picture in front of our tree.

We even managed to get Belle in one of the pictures, even though she does not look very thrilled.

There is the smile I was trying to capture!!

In the midst of the Christmas season, our family had a big loss. On December 8th, we lost my Pa. He had battled cancer for some time and it just overtook him. So, we made a trip to Oklahoma. It was a very hard trip. This was the first loss on my Mom's side of the family. There are seven grandkids. 6 girls and 1 boy. We decided to all spend the night with our Nanny. We sent everyone home except us. Chris, the only boy, stayed with us until about 12:30am. There were only 2 full sized beds and we girls snuggled in like we did when we were much younger. The beds fit us when we were much younger too. That was the first time we all had stayed at Nanny's ever. And somehow, Nanny got a good nights sleep. We got a little loud at times. But I will tell you our story. Before we started the sleepover all of us went to the creek where we had spent our summers playing while at Nanny and Pa's. On the way down it was so dark and trying to stay out of the mud was fun. We all just stood there and told stories about our times with Pa and Nanny. It started to get cold so we all turned to head back up the hill and Chris stopped and said "Look". You could see each of our shadows on the hill. The full moon had risen and was shining to guide our way back home. We knew it was Pa showing us the way back home, because it has never been that bright down in the hollow. It was one of those feelings that we will always have to share. The seven of us are all in different places but we will always have the Moon!!

Our friends Craig, Cathy, and Avery, sent Cailin this cash register for Christmas. She has scanned everything in the house. I have to watch the plastic bags, cause she will get a bag and put her scanned items in them.

Christmas Eve!!!

Christmas eve was fun. We went to my Brother-in-law and Sister-in-law's house for dinner. Everyone was there for dinner and presents. When we got back home, there was a package for Cailin on our front steps. It was pajamas that had fallen out of Santa's sleigh. After we put out the Reindeer food,

we went in and got our cookies and milk ready for Santa!!

New PJs from Santa!





Christmas Morning!!

A pig named Wilbur from Santa!!

Someone always gets underwear for Christmas!! This year it was Cailin.

Playdough--what was Santa thinking???!!

Her very own PINK computer

Uncle Michael, Aunt Jessica, and Jaden got Cailin a trunk of princess dresses, tiaras, slippers, and necklaces. She barely got all of her gifts opened from us and was ready to open the trunk. She has been wearing dresses every day since Christmas.

Cailin also got a play blow dryer that blows air. Here she is chasing Belle around the living room with it on. It was quiet funny. I hope all of you had a great Christmas season. This was a very fun Christmas for us. Cailin was really into everything. Santa, reindeer, presents, the whole nine yards. IT was wonderful!! Here's wishing you all a blessed and happy new year!!

Chopstick and Santa Claus

Wow!! IT has been a long time since I was here and updated. Things have been pretty quite on the home front. Saturday we went to see Santa Claus. This is the first year she would get close to him. She was really excited to go and wanted to wear her dress. How could a mother say no to that request. She said she did not want to sit in his lap, but would stand beside him. It was very sweet. She told him she wanted a baby doll, which was not on the original list. Guess I'm shopping for a baby doll now.

Saturday evening we met my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and nephew at the Japanese place where they cook your food in front of you. The kids really enjoyed it. Cailin was asking for no more big fire and my nephew was asking "Again, Again". Cailin did master the art of chopsticks. She tried using mine, but that was not working. Our waitress brought out a pair for her with a rubber band tied around the end and that is all she needed. She was eating salad with them. The only time she put them down was for the rice. She was not getting very far on the rice and she picked up her fork. But when it was time for the meat, she picked up the chopsticks again. The couple next to me was very impressed. I was to. I didn't even attempt the chopsticks. Of course, none of us had a camera, but I brought the chopsticks home. We'll try to get a picture. It was quite impressive.

It has been a hunting season ever since we moved to KY. Now, deer season and duck season have overlapped. Matthew is hunting both. I am trying to do our Christmas shopping, but I have a "teller". We bought Matthew a little stocking stuffer and she told him. She can not be involved in the shopping any more!!LOL!

I would also like to ask for your prayers. My Pa (Mom's dad) is about to lose his battle with cancer. I just ask that you pray for him and all of our family. It is so hard to let go but he has suffered long enough. It is time for him to go home. Please remember all of us.

Good luck in all your Christmas shopping!

Falling leaves

The leaves are falling and what better way to spend the morning but playing in them.

Play dough

Thank you Cousin Kimberly for the play dough. Cailin is having a blast

We all went for a walk the other evening when Matthew got home. After walking around the field and seeing the five scrapes and couple rubs from the deer, we were walking back to the house and in the back yard we saw this..... A buck had tore up this small maple tree. This tree is about 25 yards from Grandmother's back door and about 45 yards from our deck. He had done this just the night before. Guess the rut is about to get in full swing. Who needs to hunt out of a deer stand. I'm going to hunt in my back yard.

Cinderella needs a pumpkin

On Saturday, Matthew's office held a Community Festival. They had a small pumpkin patch. So off we went to pick our pumpkin.

There was also a pumpkin painting table. So we had to stop and paint. Can you see her cousin beside her painting? The two of them had a great time.

Yesterday, Cailin wanted to put on her Cinderella dress and take a picture with her pumpkin.
When she was done, she went to the porch. She pulled up the front of her dress, walked up the steps, sat down, and the fluffed her dress. It was cute. Now we are all ready for Halloween. To all of you that know I'm usually pretty Baa Humbug when it comes to Halloween, you should be proud.

Fall is here

Fall is finally here. But who would think of seeing a rose in October. We live next to Matthew's grandmother and here was a single rose blooming in her yard, in October. Notice the change in the Title. That's because today the Arkansas Razorbacks play the KY Wildcats in KY. I love my Hogs even though we are starting fresh this season with a new coach and minus McFadden and Jones. I am alone when calling the Hogs here, but I wear my colors proudly and still have my Hog license plate on the front. I had to take it off the back this week. We are all offically licensed in the state of KY, from our drivers license to the tags on all three vehicles. Wed-Thur-Friday, Cailin and I took a different vechicle to get tagged since here you have to have an inspection by the sheriff. It's all done. Hunting season is in full swing. Muzzleloader season opened this morning and Matthew has been gone almost 45 minutes. He tries to be quite, but I guess I'm a lite sleeper. Today is a Fall Festival at Matthew's office. They are going to have a pumpkin patch, games, and wagon rides. Cailin and I have talked about it all this week and are very excited about the pumpkin patch. I hope she picks a big one.

A Rose for my Rose, Cailin Rose

Usually behind the camera.



This is our other girl, Belle. I have decided that it is now easier to photograph her than Cailin. She listens when I say "Sit and stay". Cailin can't seem to hear those words. My parents (aka Nana and Papa) came for a visit last weekend. We took them to the park so Cailin could show then the Mississippi River. We all had a wonderful visit, Cailin especially. She even wound up in bed with them one morning. We were very glad to see them come and hated for the visit to be so short.
The tugboat was going up the river while we were there. Not the longest one I've ever seen, but very neat.

Soybean Burgers start here!!

Did the title get your attention. Remember in school how we all complained about eating soybean burgers? Well, this is where they all get started. This is just across the road from us, a huge field of soybeans. Cailin wanted to take her picture until we got there, then she wouldn't look at the camera. What a little stinker sometimes.

This is the closest thing I got of her looking at the camera all afternoon.

More Baby Chicks

Here are a few more pictures of Cailin and the baby chickens. I just couldn't resist uploading them.