Christmas 2010

FINALLY, this Christmas is over! It was great, but Ashley wasn't here and it just wasn't the same. We're ALL looking forward to this coming Christmas. Ash will be home and we will have a new baby in our family. It will be fun watching Ash and Court competing for the baby's attention!! ha

We went to alot of Christmas partys and ate enTIRELY too much.

I already posted some pics of earlier parties we attended last week. Here is the Christmas party at my Aunt Aurelia's, in Travelers Rest.

First off, it started SNOWING while we were there! The first Christmas Day snow since 1963!

There was tons of food!

Mike and Court enjoyed it!

So did Britt!

and did Larry Jr. and Lauren.

When it started snowing like crazy, we left and headed back to Mike's parents house to get ready for the Christmas Day party there!

we atarted off there waiting for Donna and Mark to arrive from Virginia. The weather slowed them down, but they eventually arrived.

SO, we started without them!

Court and I entertained!

Harley even enjoyed it!

Then, Dillon and Court sang and picked...

Then we opened loads of presents...

Britt found $$ in her socks!

Silker and Papa enjoyed watching!

Everyone opened!

Court LOVED her show boots she got from Silker. She starts riding this spring in competitions on a horse and she'll wear these boots...

Court's boyfriend got a really neet cooler from us to take fishing...

Courtney also got a hat to wear in the competitions. Girls, from what I learned, wear straw hats, boys wear felt. Here is Grandma Terry wearing it...

Finally Donna and Mark arrived and we opened up MORE presents!

Here is Mark...

Deanna opened up tons too...

Britt was glad to open all night long!

It was a fantabulous day and Ashley was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO missed. All I know is this coming Christmas, she will be HOME and sitting right in the middle of the floor with her sister and cousin and NIECE! Imagine the pics that will be taken then!

Yesterday, I had to work, but that didn't stop the girls from playing out in the snow. Britt's BFF, Kristen who lives up the road, played with them, just like old times.

Here is Kristen, whom I think is beyond beautiful!

Harley had a "ball"! BAH-HAAAA

haaaaaaaaaa!!

ad did Cassie and Harley together...

Boomer preferred to sniff out stray critters in the snow..

I think they all got cold fast!

That's about all I have time to put pictures on here for. Here is the link to ALL my pics...

http://picasaweb.google.com/112298489614175847253/Christmas2010#

I posted the link to the pics taken from Silkers Annual Christmas Party in a posting a couple days ago.

Hope everyone survived the snow, travel or not being able to be home this year.

We missed Ashley as I said above and it's SOO good to know she'll be home more this year and for Christmas.

Have a great day!

Christmas at Silkers House

I wanted to put a link on here to the pictures we took at Silkers house at her party. We had a BLAST and we won't forget it anytime soon!

One of the games we played was, "Place a Cookie on your Forhead and Wiggle it in your Mouth". Grandma Terry excelled!

Harold was there, but was tired.

Silker directed the festivities...

there was alot of laughing too!

Here is a link to all of them.

DARRELL AND ASHLEY...we really missed y'all there and you were both on all our minds. If your ears were burning that night, it was because we were talking about y'all! ha

http://picasaweb.google.com/112298489614175847253/20101223#

Gotta go get ready to head to my Aunt Aurelia's house. More pics to follow! Then tonight, we're headed back to Silkers house to open MORE PRESENTS!!!! : )! More pics to follow of that too!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Christmas at my parents

Well, this week has just been a night mare with Court's truck broke down again, no Christmas shopping done, food still to be cooked and NO one in our family has any Christmas Spirit in us at all. I wonder if we have like, Post Tramatic Stress Disorder!

Today was Mom and Dad's annual Christmas Party and it was so nice. They really went thru alot of trouble "purdying" everything up for us and all the cooking and Dad's tree was gorgeous and his mantle was "Marty Gras" looking!

Here are SOME of the Grandkids...missing are Ashley, WHO WILL BE HERE NEXT YEAR, and Alex, who has pneumonia, so was home.

SO, here is LAST years picture complete with all Grandchildren...

Here is THIS years Christmas photo. Where each missing child was, sits their Christmas sacks!

That's last years Christmas picture in front of Lauren. That was all Dad's idea and they had fun making that picture.

Here they are opening presents...

Here is Dad's mantle.... : )

and tree....

Here is where he plays and practices...

and here is where the kids ate...

He had it all decorated up and we sure did enjoy and love all the trouble they went thru!!!!

Mike was in bed sick as a dog, so he was unable to go. He has an ear infection and Vertigo. I think the vertigo medicine made him worse. We made him a huge plate of food and took to him afterwards. He got up to eat that, but was miserable.

Well, that's it for the moment, I think. Court and Dillon have gone to see the newest, "Baby Fockers" movie, which Mike and I really want to see. Britt has gone to a friends birthday party, but will be home early.

One of the high-lights of our day was ASHLEY CALLED HOME! It was SOOOOOO wonderful hearing her voice. I swear she sounds so grown up sometimes. She sounded happy and I heard her smile, so all is well. That did my heart SOOOO good to hear from her. She emails pretty frequently and her friend, Kori email me toooooo, which I love! She's also one of my many blog readers! HEY KORI!!!! Did I just say it was WONDERFUL hearing from Ashley? Our Christmas is very much dimmer (and MUCH quieter) this year because she's not here. She is SOOO missed and everyone talks about her all the time. Some of it's good too! hee

All I know is next Christmas, Ashley will be home and we will have a baby in our lives. I have quit taking ANYthing for granted, because everything changes by the minute. We, no matter what we think, are NOT in control of one single thing. We can't predict our futures, because futures are changeable too. We can't count on material things, because they break down. alot. Even if we're riding in them.

I think I'll hang some rosary beads in Court's truck or something. I know! I'll put a picture of Grandma Terry in it, that'll scare away the bad Karma! BAH-HAAAAA! Scare away any car jackers too! ha

The only real, REAL thing we can count on is family. No matter how much they get on your last nerve, how much they never listen to a word you say, how much they make fun of your cooking, how many times they disappear whenever you need them to help around the house, how many times they take your only can of hair spray, wear your only pair of comfy bedroom shoes, eat your last frozen Snicker bar, or leave half a drop of gas in the truck for you...they really why we get up every morning, hunt our bedroom shoes down, make a HUGE pot of coffee, trip over their shoes, search for our hair spray and run out the door to work. Then they leave home and we can't stand it and want them to come back home. As fast as possible!!! Weird.

Here is the link to all the photos taken today!

http://picasaweb.google.com/larry29662/Christmas2010WithTheMcCauleyS?authkey=Gv1sRgCKHzzO7P88XLpAE#

I'm going to bed. more soon!

I'm here!

A quick update to tell y'all I'm here just terribly busy!

I made TWO coconut cakes yesterday from scratch, shopped, washed and pet the dogs. Then, I forgot to cook supper last night! HAAAAAAA!!

Mike and Britt ate Fruity Pepples...hee!

Anyways, I'll make a big update tomorrow when I'm off work. Have a great day, everyone!

Whoop me!

OK...I apologize for not posting anything in a few days. TRUST me, I've been very busy as you can imagine!

The other day, one of Ashley's ship BFF's emailed me the sweeeeetest email! I was at work when I received it and it just made my day. Well, last night, she sent me another email with two pics in it!

Here is the first one...

That's Ash and her friend, Kori. I don't know where she's from, but my guess would be from the south since she's SOOO nice! hee

This next pic was titled, "Burial at Sea". NOT sure what that meant, but since they're all smiling, I'm assuming it wasn't what one would imagine!

GLAD to see Ash finally remember to put her little boat thingy pin on (the one above her ribbons). I see she's also earned more ribbons. I'll have to enlarge the photo and check them out! I know she received some kind of weaponry ribbon and recently she received one for something she did on the last patrol. Some sort of commendation ribbon, I believe. She was very proud and so are we!

I still haven't done one moments Christmas shopping yet, except for Ashley's, which I mailed out last week. Just an FYI, the US Postal Service is MUUUUCHHHH cheaper when mailing to an FPO/APO address rather than UPS, which is my preferred method of shipping. I'm talking like $50. cheaper per box.

Anyways, no Christmas shopping done yet, but Mike and I will hit the stores up on Saturday. WHY? Because in the 24 years we've been married, I have FINALLY learned to TAKE him with me only when Christmas shopping. That way, I don't get 1001 questions about what, where, whom, how, how many, and WHY's of gift questions. I'd rather have a week's peace and quiet at the cost of 8 hours of pure misery I'll endure while shopping.

Nuff said.

Britt had another Dr.s appt. last week and all is well. They did another ultrasound and here SHE/he is...

SHE/he is lying on HER/his side, facing the camera. The two white sticky things are the arms. She was 9 weeks. here.

Court is enduring well. She begins school on Jan. 10th and MAN is she ready and so are we!

That's about it for the moment. Hope everyone is nearly done with their Christmas shopping and can sit down and enjoy the moment. I've heard of such, but have so far never experienced that.

Love to all!

So much to say, so little words!

It's been over a week since my last post! That's mostly because I just have been weighed down with so much going on. You name it, we've dealt with it. BUT, we're all learning to come together as a family and stick together.

My first big family news is Brittany is pregnant. We found out in the Emergency room last week. I had Court at the Dr.s office with her broke foot when Britt called in tears saying she thought she had appendicitis. After fast driving, tests, adamant denial and more tests in the ER, we saw an ultrasound of the baby! She's 8 weeks along and I can't think of words to describe how each of us felt.. I will say that Mike took it the best out of all of us.

After every emotion you can think of, good and bad, at the end of the day (week) we have to remember we can't change anything, and as a family, we have to be there for each other, no matter how WE feel and the seemingly weakest among us could possibly be the strongest in ways we can't be. When we talk to and tell our kids 10 times a day that we love them no matter what, we have to walk the walk.

Second big family news, is Ashley's ship left out again for a few months, sniff sniff. She was actually very excited to go, especially to see sunshine again! Weather in the Pacific Northeast is dreary and she was SOOOOOOOO looking forward to some sunshine! She was in great spirits the last I talked to her!!!

Thirdly, mine and Dad's recital was yesterday and as last time, we drug Courtney up on the stage to sing so we could hide behind her vocals and play vewwwy quietly! HA

Mom took this picture, which explains the size of it...

Dad should be adding more photos on here today, so I'll post a couple more when he does.

yesterday was also the "Great Battle of Canebrake" Revolutionary War Memorial, which we participated in, once again. AND, as usual, it was FREAKING FREEZING.

YES, we even had a cute bagpiper! Britt said she was going to go tell him that her Mom said he had cute legs! BAH-HAAAA!

Court sang...

we listened, and shivered...

and Dad took pictures! Mike ran the sound.

That's about it for the moment. As I can definitely attest to, things are always, ALWAYS changing and I will get around to blogging about it!

have a great day!