MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Just one quick picture. We all had a great Christmas! Here is a pic of the kids before church last night. The kids are most excited about their i-pod nanos and have been uploading music and TV shows all day. It will be great for the car. We have relaxed today in anticipation of a busy week ahead! We're headed to Kentucky tomorrow morning. Jeff will stop at the outlet stores and work. What will the kids and I do while he does that? Shop, of course;-) Then we will have Christmas at my mom's tomorrow night. The next morning we head to Jeff's dad's for Christmas there. Christmas at his mom's that night-whew! Tired already! The next day is my birthday. Nagasaki, here I come! (My favorite Japanese restaurant). Then we have a day to recoup before we head to Nashville. We're going to the Opryland Hotel to spend 2 nights. There is a really cool ice exhibit there that we saw on TV. Then we're going to spend New Year's Eve there at a family party the hotel puts on. Oh, not to mention the huge indoor outlet mall next to the hotel. Should be fun and a nice little getaway. It's only a 3 hour drive from Lexington, so that's a plus.
Oh, check out Wyatt's blog. He started it all on his own. My little computer geek.
OMG-just realized I have to pack for a week! Better go! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

UPDATE-FINALLY

Lily singing with her "small ensemble" group in the church program.

Lily with her scout troop decorating cookies at the holiday party.

Lily and one of her best friends-Alissa.

The troop with the arrangments they made for the local nursing home-they turned out so great.

Singing--something she really loves.

Wow-can't believe it has been so long since I posted. I've been trying to limit my computer time to 15-30 minutes a day. It's amazing how much more I've gotten done around the house! Not to mention-Wyatt is on here a lot for school anymore.

Lily had her church holiday program today. She tried out and was chosen to sing in 2 small groups. She was so excited about that. They have practiced a lot and sounded really great. She loves to be on stage. The other pics are from her Girl Scout holiday party.

Wyatt has his holiday band concert Friday night, so hopefully I'll get some pics of him then.

Well, off to do some Christmas shopping!

My mom came a couple of weekends ago for Grandparents Day at Lily's school. It so happened that my dad was out of town and so was Jeff so she spent the whole weekend. We had such fun shopping, eating every meal out and just being together. The kids were overjoyed to have her here for the whole weekend. We'll be headed to Kentucky a week from tomorrow for Thanksgiving to see everyone else. It's been since our Myrtle Beach vacation in July since we have been there. Way too long. We are "homesick".

HALLOWEEN

Above are a couple more fall pics I liked.

Wyatt doing Singstar at his friend Michael's get together on Halloween (hence the afros)

Lily ready to trick-or treat with her friends Emma and Savannah

Cool daddy

AAArgh matey--love when those recital costumes get a second use!!

Lily and Wyatt carving pumpkins

They all did a great job carving their pumpkins.

I took this picture before we went out to dinner last night. I just think they look so grown up. I am so proud of the way they are growing up and maturing. It's so cool to get glimpses of the adults they will turn out to be. At ages 11 and 9, we are definitely starting to see some of those. We feel so blessed to have such great kids.

FALL PHOTO SHOOT

Tracee inspired me to get some Fall pictures of the kids. I haven't taken them to get professional pictures done in a long time and didn't have many of them together. So, yesterday, we went to Potter's Bridge and took some. I think I got some really good ones. I tried out some different settings on my camera and am still trying to figure out what works best. I was especially happy to get some good ones of Wyatt. He always seems to be the hardest. Lily is a ham and loves to pose. They both did really well, though.

2 main events this weekend. Lily did the show choir clinic at the high school and Wyatt had a football game. Lily had a great time. They learned songs from Camp Rock and each grade level performed a different song at the end for the parents. Over 200 kids participated so it was quite a large audience! She is all about performing, though, so she loved every minute of it. Several of her friends did it, too, so that was a plus. I love that they offer these kinds of things around here.

Wyatt's team won their second tournament game 21-0. If they win the next one then it's on to the championship! I hear our next 2 teams will be really tough.

Fall break is next week. We don't have any big plans. A couple of activities with friends and painting Lily's room. We finally decided what we want to do and I think it will be really cute. It's all going to be pink and green. She's excited. We have some fun projects we want to do. She's really into it this time, so it's fun. It will still be a busy week, with football and parent/teacher conferences thrown in!

WEEKEND UPDATE

It was a great weekend! Lily participated in a dance clinic put on by the high school. She had a blast! She is so happy when she's dancing. I was a little worried about her since she had a sleepover the night before and I knew it would be a long day of activity. She was fine, though. Although definitely tired that night! You can't beat the deal. For $20, they are there for 5 hours, learn 2 dances to perform for parents at the end, lunch from Chik-Fil-A, a t-shirt and a CD of all the music to take home with them! Oh, and they gave 2 awards for each age group at the end called "spirit sticks". Lily was so excited that she got one of them.
The last picture is above of her performance at her last acting class last week. She did a soliloquy as well as a scene with another girl. Here she is taking her final bow. Of course I told Jeff the wrong date and he was out of town. We gathered some friends so she had somebody to watch her besides me. She did a great job. She'll probably do another session since she really wants to start trying out for plays. We're going to take a little break, though.
Today Wyatt had his first tournament game in football. They played a tough team and won 19-0. It was great. They play again next Sunday. They played at a high school stadium so it was hard to get pictures.
Oh, we also spent 2 days cleaning Lily's room. I took everything out of the bottom of her closet and it filled her whole room! Rediculous! It looks so good now. She is wanting it redone and I told her no way til it was cleaned out. So we'll be doing that soon. We donated 85 stuffed animals to Goodwill!! I took a pic of her room with all of it out, but not sure if I'm brave enough to post yet. Maybe as a "before" when the room is done!

Well, we lost our first game today. The other team was HUGE! And really good. We still could have beat them and just never seemed to get our momentum. They have been so used to fairly easy wins, that I think this woke them up. I'm sure the coaches will use this to get them revved up for the tournament that starts next weekend. We ended the regular season with a 5-1 record, so that's not bad at all!

#63

Wyatt's football team in undefeated. 5 and o. They played a really tough team on Sunday and won 25-0. The coach sent out an e-mail that said it was one of the best efforts he has seen from an OLG team in the 6 years he has coached. I think he was so proud of them because the other team was playing dirty---pushing the players after the whistle, etc, and our boys kept playing with dignity---and came out winners. There is something to be said for that for sure.
It's amazing how much better shape Wyatt is in now. It makes me wish it was year round---not really. But it has been SO good for him physically. He is in the best shape he has ever been in.

School bus cupcakes
Kids enjoying the cupcakes

Not too much picture worthy around here lately, so here is a pic I never posted of some cupcakes I made for back to school.

FOOTBALL

Lily (in her fake glasses) and Emma at the game.

That's Wyatt on the end closest.

Some pics of Wyatt playing football. They have played 3 games and won them all. Sunday they won 27-0. He's number 63. I think you can find him in most of the pics. He also has a black stripe on his helmet.