Christmas card 2011

29:11 Creations

family fun day

On Friday, Warner had his class party and a half day of school. We had a fun day planned to start off the Christmas holidays! Our first stop was the movies. We took the boys to see Alvin & the Chipmunks - Chipwrecked. It was so cute, and Jackson sat in the my lap through the whole movie - success! After the movie, it was time to go see Santa Clause. We went with the Bass Pro Shop Santa this year. I didn't really know how Jackson would react. He was fine until it came time to sit on Santa's lap. I just sat him up there and walked away. He didn't last long!

Then it was time for Starry Nights at Shelby Farms. This was so much fun!! The boys loved sitting in the front seat, looking at all the lights, and seeing what they could find. The lights were beautiful.

I am loving my kitchen!! My favorite thing is the overhang we added at the last minute. The boys sit here for breakfast, snack, meals, etc. It is something I am really going to enjoy. I love having them in the kitchen with me!!

Oh Christmas tree

Thursday, December 15, we finally put our Christmas tree up. Our boys were so excited!! I had almost decided not to even bother with it this year. (I know, that's bad) But we did, and I am so glad!! Merry Christmas!!!

Kitchen, Kissy's visit, & Warner's Christmas program

We have countertops!!!! I am so so happy with how it all turned out. It was not fun to live through, but now that it is coming together, it was totally worth it. I even got to cook with week...YAY!!

Kissy to the rescue!! So thankful for my mom. She will interupt her week & change her plans to drive over 7 hours to come help me. We worked so hard, got everything put back in my cabinets, baked 15 cakes, and even had a little fun eating & shopping downtown.
Warner had his Christmas program at school this morning. They rang their hand bells and sang several songs along with reciting scripture. It was such a blessing!

Warner's Kindergarten class

Chris started on the back splash yesterday. I am so thankful for a handy husband - it is amazing all that he can do. It is looking great!! Just as I had imagined. We are so close to the finish line!!

lately

My dear friend and graduate school classmate, Amanda Price, went to be with Jesus ealier this week. She was an amazing person, loved the Lord, loved her family, and lived her life to bring honor and glory to God. She had an impact on every single person that knew her. I would love if you would pray for her family. She leaves behind her husband, Ron (coach of the New Albany high school football team), and three year old daughter, Molly Addison.

I have been holding on to these two a little tighter this week. We are not promised tomorrow.

Photo shoot at Hopson Plantation Thanksgiving weekend. We miss our cousins!

We had our first fire last week - loving this cold weather!

Jackson loves to help daddy with his cereal. Ready to have our kitchen back, so we can stop eating so much cereal.

Trying to get in the Christmas spirit even without a Christmas tree. We are waiting to get our tree up until after this kitchen renovation is over.

We got a little surprise gift this week - SNOW!!

We have cabinets!!!!! Countertops are coming today....and I will be a busy little bee unpacking boxes and getting things put away.

And....we've had two sick little boys around here. Strep throat!!!! Warner last week and now Jackson this week.

Here's to hoping my next post has pictures of a finished kitchen and a Chrismas tree!!!

Thanksgiving 2011

We started our Thanksgiving with Warner's program at school - The First Thanksgiving. It was absolutely precious! It was filled with sweet poems, songs, salute to our flag, blessing, and they recited Psalm 100. I was fighting back the tears. We have so much to be thankful for!

The following Wednesday, my family started to arrive! Chris & I hosted Thanksgiving this year, and I didn't know how we would pull it off without a kitchen. We did! We have a house on the farm that Chris was in the process of turning into his office/hunting camp, so we just got busy and made it work. It turned out great!! It was a beautiful day, the kids rode four wheelers, and we just enjoyed being out in the country. We had the entire Rayner side of the family - 10 adults & 6 kids.

cousins

how many men does it take to fry a turkey? It was delicious!!

Friday, we all headed to Starkville for the Egg Bowl.

Saturday morning Chris & I took the boys to the bakery on campus. Fun fun!!

tailgaiting fun!!

#1 and #2 fan ready to go into the game. Go Bulldogs!!!!!!

We had club level seats for the game, and it was such a treat. We were out of the rain!! Jackson slept the first half, so I got to actually watch the game. We loved every minute - the gold shoes and all! It's great to be a bulldog!!

our mess

Back in May we noticed some water under our wood floors in our dining room. We were moving our dining room table to the front yard for Warner's birthday party and while stepping on the floor, water would come up out of the cracks. After our adjuster came out then sent an engineer to check it out, it was filed under flooding. Since we don't have flood insurance, we had to repair and replace everything out of our own pocket. We had the entire back door replaced and were having the floor repaired, when our carpenter discovered that there was still water under the floors days after the last rain. After he started investigating, he found a leak in our kitchen coming from our ice maker...and turns out we had way more damage than we first thought. Our insurance company came back and made it right...and now we are living in a complete mess!! We had to gut our entire kitchen, replace the wall between the dining room & kitchen, and finally redo our floors. It is a work in progress and already taking way longer than I had anticipated. I never took any before picures, but here are some "during" pictures. The floors still have to be put down in front of the door.

Kitchen looking in from laundry room. The door at the end of kitchen goes in to dining room. I never thought I would say this, but I am so tired of eating out!!

MS State vs Alabama

We had another great weekend in Starkville! It was even more fun to spend some time with Kevin, Haley, Kepler, & Dax as well as the Barrett family. We went to the Hump for the basketball game, had fun tailgating with the Rowell's, and took both boys into the football game. Jackson was perfectly content as long as he had his popcorn! We were worn out by the end of the day! Jackson was asleep before we put the car in drive and slept on the table at Newk's after the game. We laid him in his pack-n-play when we got back to our hotel and didn't hear a peep out of him until the next morning!!

First basketball game for Warner & Jackson.

How many boys can we fit on the golf cart? Warner & Kepler on the back, Dax, Joe Barrett, and Jackson up front. They were loving it!
We even got to see our niece/cousin Maggie.

Warner was in heaven in the amphitheater, sliding down the hills on his makeshift sled...all the kids were doing this and it was chaos!

Warner got to play with his buddy, Camp.

In the game and enjoying our second box of popcorn.

We drove through campus on Sunday and stopped to take some pictures.

Blessed to be their mommy!!

We had a great weekend and can't wait to be back in less than 2 weeks for the Egg Bowl. Go Dawgs!!!!!!

helping daddy

Chris has been working in the woods a lot lately getting ready for deer and duck season. There is no place these two would rather be than out in the woods on the four wheeler with daddy. It was such a beautiful fall day yesterday, and I took my camera and got a few good pictures.