Trick-or-Treat (2009)

Or as Mac was yelling this evening "Sugar Sweet".

Jason, for the 6th (maybe?) year in a row, was dressed up as a Daddy with a flashlight.

Mollee was a Flamenco Dancer

Tavis was a Power Ranger

Daegan was a Frog (yes, he picked this out - why? because he is Daegan)

Capps was The Original Spiderman (the newer Spiderman has no blue - the things you learn as a mom of boys)

Mac was Hulk aka Hulk SMASH!

I had Mac try on his costume yesterday and he kept getting upset with the muscles 'in his face', but today (thankfully - this costume has a sentimental place in mommy's heart and this will probably be the last year it can be used by a Brown) he was excited about wearing his muscles. When he found out candy was involved he was pumped and he would yell "thank you" and try to take off to the next house ASAP.

Here is Mac ready for bed after a long night of walking (and running)(and eating too much candy).

And (just for fun) my Cappers in 2006 wearing Hulk and sporting green hair (we couldn't find my green hair paint for Mac, but Jason said I was pushing my luck anyway trying to use it on a pistol like Mac)

Mollee Moo Moo Memories

Mollee turns 9 today.

It was nine years ago today that Jason was getting ready for work and I said, "I think my water is leaking". He didn't like the "I think" part, why didn't I know! (of course, I'd never done this before). We waited around a little and finally decided to go get checked at the hospital. We got to the hospital around 8:30, my water was definitely leaking by then and I was having contractions. Then she showed up around 10:45 - I couldn't have asked for a better first labor experience. She actually freaked out the nurses a little, because she never cried. She just looked around with her big saucer eyes, like she was taking it all in. She got the name Mollee Moo Moo on day 1 and has been called that by family members ever since.

Here is a quick look at her life (birthday party pictures coming soon).

Three Months Old

2 years old 3 years old (with her birthday buddy, Uncle JR - my mom and I both had our first babies on October 31st)4 years old
5 years old6 years old7 years old 8 years old I can't believe my little girl is 9, Happy Birthday, Moo Moo!!!

Trick-or-Treat Memories

A trip down memory lane

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2008

Mollee's Reading Area

About three years ago, someone gave us a bunk bed for Mollee. Jason painted the bottom bed white to match her other furniture, but it wasn't until a few months ago that he finally painted the top bunk.

I'm trying to encourage Mollee's reading by making it "fun". I got a canopy for a daybed from a friend and thought I'd try it out and see what I could do with it.

Here is Mollee's top bunk (Daddy calls it a mosquito net).

And here she is on the first night using it to read.

Ahhh...the little things make them so happy!

13 years ago today we said "I do"

Today is Jason and I's 13th wedding anniversary. You always know our anniversary is close when the Tennessee/Alabama game is on - we had some groomsmen not happy with us. I don't have those "I don't remember anything" thoughts towards our day. I remember most about the day and I cherish those memories.

I wasn't one of those girls that dreamed about her wedding all her life. Don't get me wrong, all I wanted to do was to get married, but I didn't plan out the dress and flowers from age 6 like many girls do. Therefore, planning the wedding was quite easy and very inexpensive.

As we were planning the wedding, we initially chose August for the month, but I'm so glad we ended up with October (Fall is my favorite season). My brother was getting married in May and mom requested a little more time between weddings.

If we had been married in August I would have been 19 when I got married, but I was a young 20 instead. Here we are at our rehearsal dinner (this is one of those pictures you look back on as an adult and wonder why your dress was so short - I just wore this "dress" Sunday to church as a shirt).

Since I didn't have any major expectations for our wedding, I didn't mind taking all our pictures before the wedding. Jason and I had a moment in the sanctuary by ourselves before pictures began, so the "first time he saw me" moment was still a special time.

Our wedding party consisted of two best men (Pops and John Eldridge), a maid of honor (Connie Hildebrand) and a matron of honor (Kristy Hadley), plus six other groomsmen (Charlie Brown, Philip Caines, Daniel Brown, David Caines, Jon Dutton and JR Caines) and six other bridesmaids (Ruth Caines, Sarah Caines, Alice Tucker, Heather Harris, Julie Kesler and Shonda Caines). Plus, two flower girls (Ginny Henry and Madeleine Smith) and a ring bearer (Daniel Smith). We also had three extra ushers that were very special to me. They were my little brother, David's, friends that we hung out with all the time (Josh Cook, Phil Jacobs and Andrew Kaufman).I was Daniel and Madeleine Smith's nanny for about 4-5 months when Jason and I were first dating.Ginny Henry and I had a special bond from my babysitting days - she even wore this fancy dress (which was hard for a tomboy) just for me.Jason and his groomsmen had to dress in the nursery - I love this picture of Jason waiting for the ceremony to begin.A few pictures from the wedding photo shoot.This is one of my favorites from the entire day (except that Jason isn't in it). It was very important to me to have picture with my brothers. In typical form, they thought it would be funny to hold flowers. It makes me smile every time I see it! Here I am being walked in by my Daddy. I'm sure the door should have been closed for this picture, but I like that you can see all the umbrellas in the foyer. It was pouring the day of our wedding. The wedding was supposed to be at 2:00 but we didn't start until 2:30 because there was a terrible wreck on the interstate - even starting late, some people only made it to the reception. I think 'they' say flowers and food are the two biggest expenses of the wedding. Well, we didn't have many flowers - just what the girls held (which I did have an opinion to request gerberia daises) and then the candles in the front.

The reception was also very low key. The only thing I cared about was the cake. It had to be white cake with white icing (the only kind of cake I like) and I wanted it to be basket weave. Plus, I wanted Mary Flatt's spinach dip. My Aunt Carol and my Grandmother made a lot of different breads (pumpkin, nut, banana, etc.) and we had crackers with Mary's dip and some fruit. And the cake! Our honeymoon was a little tricky because of our age. We wanted to go up in the mountains. We tried to go to Colorado, Vermont and Maine, but all three of those states require you to be 25 to rent a car. So we went to Highlands, NC instead and couldn't have asked for anything better - it even snowed our last day.

Now, 13 years later, we can say it was the best day of our lives. We had four years together before kids, five kids now, in our third (and Jason would say last) home and we are more in love now than on our wedding day.

Life is good!

Anniversary Weekend!

The last 22 hours (but who is counting?), Jason and I have enjoyed life sans kiddos.

Monday will be our 13th anniversary. We've never really done anything for our anniversary, except our first anniversary (which seemed like an accomplishment at the time) we took a weekend trip away. Other anniversary's we may have exchanged a card or maybe even gone out to eat. We had "big plans" for a 10th anniversary weekend, but I was 7 months pregnant and that just didn't happen.

I'm embarrassed to say, I've never even spent a night away from my kids except to be in the hospital having a baby. Is that sad?

This anniversary will be one that I will remember. Why #13? - because we could. I've been saving my 'extra' babysitting pennies to have a special evening away without thinking about the credit card bill in regret a week later. I took my camera, but didn't take any pictures. Jason (who doesn't understand all the pictures I take) said he wants to remember the weekend through his mental memories. I still would have liked to get some pics, but, oh, well....

We dropped the kids off at my parents house a little before 5:00. We checked in to a very nice hotel downtown and then we had a reservation at a new Italian-ish restaurant downtown. I, honestly, was a little nervous about going to a fancy restaurant. Will we pay too much to eat food we don't really like? Everything was wonderful. The atmosphere was wonderful, the service was magnificent and the food was...... I can't think of a word, but I have nothing negative to say about it. It was more of a treat than I anticipated. Jason and I shared the bruschetta, and we each had a caesar salad (lettuce picked that morning). Jason got mushroom lasagna with a white sauce and I got pork shoulder (I know, real Italian!) with cooked apples. Of course, we had to get gelato for dessert - I wanted to try the pistachio, but we played it safe and stuck with the vanilla.

If I 'sleep in' at home it usually means 7:30. I'm not necessarily a morning person (meaning, I'm not all happy and smiles), but I can't sleep in (I've got things to do). With no responsibilities, I slept in until 9:45. Unfortunately, we missed breakfast, but that was probably better because we checked out at 11:30 and headed to the other side of the river for a few more hours together. Meaning more food. We went to our favorite (when we were in our first four years of marriage without kids) pizza pub. Jason got his sausage and mushroom pizza and I got a veggie pizza. It was just as delicious as I remember, we had to top it off with our favorite ice cream shop down the street. I got pumpkin ice cream (just because!) and Jason, of course, got the vanilla.

We, reluctantly, went and picked up the kids. Of course, they didn't want to go. They wanted to spend one more night (why not?). But we needed to get home....

I needed a nap!

Foot/Ankle news, again!

I don't think I blogged when my physical therapy was over. Each session was harder and harder and by the end of it my ankle strength was up to 117%, which was awesome. Since I still had pain the PT was worried about something else being wrong - as he had predicted in the beginning. I had to wait (the waiting game for specialists is a bit frustrating) three weeks to see the orthopedic again and today was the day.

And I feel like I'm still not sure of anything, except that my ankle still hurts and I need to lose weight (big surprise!).

I assumed, as did the PT, that the Dr would schedule an MRI just to see what is going on, but he didn't. He suggested that I stop running (don't worry, I have never gotten back to it after PT), keep up my home physical therapy exercises (which I do about 50% of the time) and make it my goal to lose weight (hasn't that been my goal, forever?) - aerobics, walking and dieting is what he suggested. If the pain gets worse, call him back and he would "scope it" - not sure what that meant.

Why did I not ask more detailed questions? Jason would say it is because I never ask enough questions, but I was relieved not to have to pay for an MRI, plus I had the two younger boys with me. They did great, but still were a distraction. Now I think about it, I've met my deductible (but we'd still have to pay 20%) and would be relieved to know for sure that there was nothing else wrong. Jason says sometimes my high pain tolerance gives doctors the wrong impression that things 'aren't that bad'.

So, can you call a doctor back and ask for a test anyway? Or do you wait and see if he is right?

It is no secret I need to lose weight. I will give my aerobics a full force try, I will walk in the evenings when I can, I will cut back my calories, that is a blogging promise! It is how I lost so much weight before. I can do it again! Right?

Baby steps - first step: start aerobics in the morning and cut back.....coke, we'll start with eliminating coke. I have to eliminate one thing at a time or else it only lasts 48 hours.

Here's to hoping my ankle will just get better because I lose weight and get stronger!!!!!!!! (can you feel the sarcasm?)

Oh, and because of a few of my foot complaints he said it sounded like I also had plantar faciitis. Are you kidding me? The doc said if you have it, it is really tender right here - even with my high pain tolerance I did not approve of this. Shoe inserts will help, and fortunately, they should help the ankle also.

Oh, boy! *hmpf*

A divided family!

It is no secret I am a sports nut. I can't even link you to a specific blog entry that implies this because I think there are too many to choose from.

I love sports! I love football most of all, but I love hockey, NASCAR, tennis, golf, soccer, etc. In the football world I love the NFL, but I also enjoy college football. In high school, I had a big Lone Star (Dallas Cowboys for those that don't know) in the back window of my car. I'm still a big Cowboys fan!

In college football, I'm a Bama Girl!!!

I have quickly learned you can't pick who your children cheer for. Tavis has been brained-washed since birth by Jason's brother to be a Tennessee fan. Tavis' favorite color is orange and that helps him cheer for Tennessee, or because he cheers for Tennessee his favorite color is orange? Daegan and Capps like red and cheer for Georgia, that is who my family cheers for.

This is what we looked like this morning!


Roll Tide!!!

My little buddy!

Most of you know that I keep a baby for a friend 2 or 3 days a week. David is my little buddy and is going to have a unique relationship with my kids as he grows up. I like that my younger kids are experiencing a baby in the house without a baby in the house, if you know what I mean. I think he is a cutie, but you can see for yourself.
He looks a lot like his grandpa who was a good family friend. Unfortunately, David won't get to know him because he passed away from a heart attack a few years ago, but I have a feeling he will know a lot about him through all that knew him.

My Mom

My mom is one of my best friends!

I don't know how our relationship compared to others when I was growing up, but I really believe parents shouldn't be friends (with their teenagers) - they should be the parent! We had our differences. Our biggest point of stress was clothing. I liked the hippie/bohemian look that was a little too messy for my mother, who was born at age 30 (always an adult).

October 18 was her birthday. We honored her by fixing Sunday lunch, which she does for us every other Sunday (I know, we're spoiled). She has a hard time not doing anything, but I think she enjoyed herself.
If she was born at age 30, maybe the cake should have said 92?

Mom is always "behind the scenes". The chances of getting a picture of her are slim, so sometimes you have to force her to sit and get a picture. My last picture of her with my kids was when Daegan was a baby (obviously, missing two other children). It was my goal to get a new picture. Since I was busy helping my sister, Heather, getting lunch ready, I asked Jason to take charge of the picture taking for me. I think he did a great job.I was glad he snapped this one also - my mother and my daughter have a special bond.Funny enough, Mom's birthday is also Jon's (Heather's husband) birthday, they are exactly 20 years apart.Sorry Jon, same cake, one candle different!

Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you!

Failed Attempt

I decided (actually Jason decided for me) I'm going to do it! I'm going to get into this major coupon thing. Saving on the grocery bill is greatly needed around here. This website is supposed to make it so easy.

I had trouble with the website, not because of the website, but because of my own connection. UGH!

To get ready I was going to do two things. First, Jason and I were going to clean out a junk closet in our kitchen today. We were going to get it ready to be our stocked pantry. That didn't happen, with so many past busy weekends we had too many other home projects to tend to today.

Second, I was going to prepare for the coupon organizing. I was going to cut out all the coupons I've collected and get the baseball card organizers to store them in. I went to five stores and didn't find them. Therefore, why cut the coupons out yet, they'll just get lost?

I haven't given up hope, just too tired to deal with it this week. We needed groceries so I went to the old standby, Wal-Mart, and spent way too much money.

.....maybe next week?

Thrift store!

After my meetings today I picked up the kids from Aunt Heather's house and we headed to the thrift store. We haven't spent any money on Halloween costumes in a couple years. There are enough dress up clothes around here that we always make something work. I decided we would check out what we could get "new" for cheap. The thrift store did us right today. We got all we needed for $12. Everyone is happy with their new costume and mommy is happy with the small amount of money spent.

Coming soon (in 15 days) blog about what the costumes look like!

I haven't started on the coupon savings yet, but I do like a good bargain.

And the boys each got a new weapon (swords and guns) for 59 cents each!

Parent/Teacher Conference

Today I had Parent/Teacher Conferences at school. I always look forward to these meetings. It is very intriguing to me how others view my children and it is very important to me to find out how they are behaving. I am so pleased this year with the teachers the kids have.

Daegan is in kindergarten with Mrs. Wieldraayer. We love Mrs. Wieldraayer! Tavis had her also. She said Daegan was doing great. Surprisingly, she said he isn't the talker that Tavis was (at home Daegan is our #1 talker). He is so enthralled with learning that he seems too busy soaking in information to be disruptive and talky. She said she can definitely tell he is older (since we held him back), but it is to his advantage (whew!) in the learning process.

Tavis is in 2nd grade with Mrs. Bates. I didn't know Mrs. Bates prior to this year, but she is great! On Tavis' report card last week he got an S- in self control. He is very "grade oriented" and couldn't believe he was graded on that, hopefully, that knowledge will help. Mrs. Bates said he is very energetic and blurts out answers, but if his name goes on the board he has great behavior the rest of the day. She said he seems to soak up information and always has a 'different' perspective on what they are learning. We are still working on his scattered-brainedness (is that a word?). As I've shared before he looses library books, jackets and lunch boxes often. He was missing an assignment this past week and she made him go through his desk to find it and they found seven books. He is only allowed two from the library and one from Mrs. Bates at a time. Oh, Boy!

Mollee is also having a good year. Third grade with Mrs. Wilson has been a blessing. Of course, everybody that I passed in the hall today that comes into contact with Mollee said, "I always get a hug from Mollee!" So true, I'm trying to teach her that sometimes it can be too much. :) She has struggled with math facts a little, but she is getting better. She is reading really well and seems to enjoy it. She does great at grammar and has gotten good grades on her geology, geography and bible tests. I went and ate lunch with the kids Tuesday and she chose one of the boys in her class to eat with us - so that hasn't changed, still hanging out with the guys!

I feel so blessed to have our kids in a Christian school.

CZ Studs!

Mollee's birthday isn't until the end of the month, but she got her gift today.

About a year ago she asked to get her ears pierced and I told her she had to prove to me she was responsible enough by keeping her room picked up and her hair brushed. This didn't happen.

Six months ago she asked again. I told her I was serious about my previous stipulations. She has done great. She has come to breakfast each morning with her hair brushed and her room, well, lets just say it has been ok (ok in mommy standards, but great for messy-Mollee standards).

I wanted to take her to get her ears pierced when we had some down time at home. First of all, so that we can stay on top of the cleaning. Mostly, so that if it bothers her we can deal with the drama at home (I can remember it being hard to sleep because my ears were sore?).

Fall Break begins today so Grandma kept the boys and we went to get them done. She did great, no tears, no complaints.

Before..... (when did she start looking so grown up?)

After! Of course, she wanted the CZ studs instead of the (cheaper) silver balls. No big deal, they look beautiful!

Now, we just have to keep them clean and steer clear of infection.

Fall Parties

Today was the Fall Party for each class at school. It was a struggle last year to bounce between two parties, but today I had to bounce between three parties. I did my best.

It is always fun to see what activities different moms (I was a 2nd grade Room Mom last year) come up with.

Daegan's class played "bob for the doughnut" - it was hanging from a fishing pole. It was quite entertaining for the kids. Tavis' class played "hot pumpkin" - instead of hot potato.

Mollee's class did turkey crafts that she enjoyed - she loves all crafts!!

I always enjoy the class parties. The kids have fun and you get to know their friends and the other moms.

Now.....

Fall Break Begins!