Candy Anyone????

It's gingerbread house time! We have a family tradition of making a gingerbread house together every Christmas. I will enjoy seeing the photos over the years of each gingerbread house as they get more and more detailed as the girls get older.

We had so much fun this year decorating the gingerbread house. I know Hannah ate more candy than she actually placed on the house. She was hoarding all of the candy bowls and was eating handfuls at a time. The rule for this activity: Eat one, place one, eat one, place one, eat one and so on.....
Having some fun with icing!
Daddy was the architect and construction project manager for the activity. He, of course, did an amazing job! Sarah and I were in charge of decorating and details. Hannah was in charge of - well - eating!

There's the finished gingerbread house with Hannah on a sugar high!!!!

This - And - That

We had a little play-date scheduled with some friends from church to paint pottery at a cute little store called Mudpatch Creations in Winder - of all places. The girls had a fun time with their girlfriends, and Mommy did too, of course!
I cannot believe I am posting this horrible picture of myself, but oh well! It is the only one I had from this day. Mark and I ran the Atlanta Thanksgiving Day Half-Marathon together. Yes, he slowed down to my "turtle" pace and ran the whole 13.1 miles alongside me or a little in front. We ran the 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 24 minutes. My goal was 2:30; however, Mark pulled me along, motivated me, and helped me get my PR 6 minutes under my goal. I can't say the whole thing was enjoyable; however, most of it was enjoyable, especially having my man alongside me. After seeing an older senior citizen woman in front of me about mile 12, I tapped Mark's arm, pointed to the lady, and said to Mark, "Come on! I'm not letting her beat me!" That was the fuel I needed. We crossed over the finish line, and the announcer called my name on the speaker twice. We had a fabulous morning together! I am thrilled to say my first half-marathon was completed alongside my hubby.
The day after Thanksgiving Baba and Papa came to visit us for a belated "Turkey-Day" celebration. The girls had fun playing in the leaf pile.
Sarah and Hannah had a great time showing off their tree-house to their Baba and Papa! We were thrilled to have them come for a visit over the holidays.

We Rake, We Pile, and We Jump!

The girls were invited to a friend's joint birthday party on Saturday. They both dressed up like Princess Tangled, Rapunzel. They are adorably cute! Sarah was doing a great job being a BIG sister and taking care of Hannah.
These were all of the girls at the birthday party, oh and one knight.
When we arrived home from church, Mark raked up the leaves for the girls to jump in. I think it's hilarious with Hannah wearing her bike helmet. She was "riding" her bike while Mark raked up the leaves.
Posing for Mommy to take a pic!
I love fall pics! We scored some free pumpkins - post Halloween - from Sarah's school's pumpkin patch, so we decorated the front yard with some fall colors.

There they are - all in polka-dots! We are enjoying this beautiful fall weather before the winter cold arrives!

On The Road Again

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This was Hannah's second wedding to attend, and I must say, she behaved like a little princess during the ceremony. It was Sarah's 3rd wedding to attend, and she was a sweet angel. Daddy behaved himself as well, too! ;)

The girls had a blast dancing the night away after the wedding! It's sad when the Mommy is pulling the kids away from the dance floor, because it is past her bedtime. Haha! It was only like 8:30 at this point. The pictures are little out of focus, since they were dancing.

So, we left the game and headed to Augusta -again - for the weekend. We had another family wedding to attend.
Grandpa and his girls - well 2 of them at least!

Grandpa and Grammy were faithful fans for our little Sarah! Grammy was a spectator from a far staying warm in the car as opposed to being outside in the cold windy air. Good idea - Grammy!
Sarah playing goalie for a while!

Hannah having fun during the game.
Mark was her assistant coach for the season, which they both LOVED!!!
It's Sarah's last soccer game of the season. She had a blast running around all season chasing the little black and white ball. She became more and more aggressive during the season. She was ecstatic about getting her first trophy!

Weekend of Drama

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Start from the bottom of the post and read up!
More to the vehicle drama! After much deliberation, thought, prayer, and analysis we decided to abandon our van and invest in something that will - hopefully - not leave us stranded. It was really a hard decision to make - one of those adult/parenting decisions that I would prefer to let adults handle - oh wait a minute - I am an adult! The girls and I went to our family mechanic to clean out our belongings and say "good-bye" to our second home. She sure is pretty and shiny! She will make a great vehicle again one day, after much repair, to someone else - hopefully, they will be compassionate to her! ;)
Finally, it's time to go trick-or-treating in our "neck-of-the-woods". We waited until it was just becoming a little dark. Mrs. Marcia gave the girls cute little goodie bags with non-candy treats - thumbs up Mrs. Marcia! The girls had fun while we were out snagging free loot! We only stayed out about an hour, then they were tired and ready to head for home.

The girls were so funny! They re-entered the house at least 3 times to "practice" trick-or-treating.
Trick-or-Treat Grammy!!!
We ended up driving to Grammy and Grandpa's house to borrow Grammy's 1997 Buick Skylark with only 47,000 miles on it -yes, you read that correctly. She was so gracious to allow me to drive it for a week until we figured out our next step. Since, we were heading to the grandparents anyway on Halloween, we let the girls dress-up for a little trick-or-treating with Grands.
After meeting the "tow-man" in Madison to get our van, I made it back just in time for Sarah's Halloween Party at school. She dressed up as Princess Tangled - Rapunzel!
The girls and I had quite an experience on our way home on Sunday-man I missed my hubby ALL weekend, but especially on our way home. Our cute little van broke down on us just outside of Madison. Praise the Lord, we were passing by a BP gas station, when I noticed something wrong. Long story - short, we spent 2 1/2 hours at the gas station. The Lord sent, Cody, a country boy who stayed around and tried to help us. The van cooled down, so he added some coolant to the van. Then, we waited to see if it would heat up again - it did! So, a sweet friend came to pick us up. My phone was almost dead, so I couldn't talk to anyone for very long. The Lord completely protected and provided for us during this whole ordeal. It could have turned all kind of ways bad, but the Lord held us in His hands the whole time. The girls were fabulous the whole time - patient and calm. I don't think I have ever missed Mark more than I did during this whole episode. The next day, Mark arrived home at 2 a.m. - Praise the Lord - we are all back in the "nest"! We had our van towed to our family mechanic, then we received news that the van was essentially - dead! Unless, of course, we wanted to spend $$$$ to rebuild the engine - so sad! More on this later!
The girls and I attended my home church, Trinity-on-the-Hill- UMC on Sunday. It has been years since I have been back at Trinity. They had a guest speaker there preaching - Max Lucado. It was wonderful hearing him speak and listening to him read one of his children's books to the kids. I wish I had taken my children's books for him to sign.
Daddy left the girls for the entire weekend, so we loaded up the van and headed to Baba and Papa's house for the weekend. Baba, Heather, and I attended the "Lady Antebellum" concert in Evans in the outdoor amphitheater that was named for the group. We had a fabulous time just being outside listening to music and eating! Even though it was misting - we had a great time!
Mark left with 3 of his running buddies for a 3 day trip to Washington D.C. Marine Corp Marathon. They met at our house on Friday morning at 8:00 and pulled out at 8:45 for a "Real Men's" Weekend.

Ooey-Gooey Pumpkin Fun

We had some fun carving our family pumpkin. The girls decorated their small pumpkins with stickers.
Sarah - finally - touched the ooey-gooey guts of the pumpkin this year, and Hannah just jumped right in without any hesitations.
It's really a sweet teachable moment while carving the pumpkin to use this Pumpkin Carving Poem to explain the hope we have in Jesus.
The girls absolutely love their Daddy with all of their hearts, and it is 100% reciprocated by their Daddy! The girls are posing on their tree-house! We printed this photo out for Daddy to keep in his wallet. We made him a "We love you" box for him to take on his Washington D.C. Marine Corp Marathon trip and put this photo inside the box along with some goodies and snacks!

Freda Frog

This whole weekend was all about "Freda Frog"! Sarah's class has a class "pet" that goes home with one child each weekend for fun and adventure. So, we "had" to show "Freda" a fabulous weekend.
Once Sarah arrived home from school, she began to interact with "Freda". It was so cute watching her excitement about this stuffed animal. She taught "Freda" how to color.
She made "Freda" a snack.
They had a tea party together.

Of course, "Freda" had to visit Chick-fil-a for some ice cream and fun in the play area.

While Sarah went to a soccer game with Daddy, she allowed Hannah to take "Freda" to the doctor's office to get her stitches out, so she wouldn't be afraid.
Then, Hannah and I went to the end of the soccer game.
We had fun with Grammy and Grandpa coming to most, if not all of the soccer games. Tonight was Stevi B's night so "Freda" could play some fun games.
Yummy Pizza - the girls' favorite meal - of course!
Grandpa helping Hannah spend her tokens. That night Sarah used all of her tokens to "buy" Hannah a teeny-tiny baby Care Bear. It was precious to see Sarah being selfless and generous to her sister.
The next day we went to Bethlehem First United Methodist Church's (which is where Sarah attends kindergarten) pumpkin patch.
Of course, the girls are posing for a pic.
I don't think Hannah could read the sign that said, "No Sitting On Pumpkins"!!!

There we are for our fall photo op.
Here we go making a trip to Daddy's favorite store - Home Depot - to buy more supplies to finish the girls' tree-house.
Last but certainly not least, "Freda" attended church with us! It was a fabulous - fantastic weekend with "Freda Frog"!