Christmas Eve

Madi and Maci at home
Daddy and his Princess'

My girls

My hubby, best friend and partner in life

Opening gifts at Grandma Frances

My Best Buddy-Cristy

Madi and Maci at Grace Bible

Ryan and I at our Candelight service

The whole group

My great friend-Cristy Goolsby

Maci and Madi opening their Christmas Eve Gift!

Look its Christmas PJ's (Daddy picked them out, he did so good)

Maci not feeling well-look at those red cheeks...

Ready for Santa-crashed on the couch

We have a few Christmas Eve Traditions that we started with our family. Enjoy the pictures below:

1. Ryan's Grandmas Delicious Christmas Dinner with all the trimmings.

2. After dinner, we always take the girls on a stroll around town to look at Christmas lights. We turn Christmas music on in the car and enjoy the lights. One house, had their lights coordinated to Christmas music. It was neat.

3. We then attend Candlelight service, songs at our Church-Grace Bible (so blessed for a wonderful church).

3. Once we get home, the girls get to open one gift. Since Madi Kate was a newborn, we started this tradition. They both get Christmas PJ's to wear for Santa on Christmas Eve. It is so cute!

We always take a picture in front of the tree in their PJ's. (I am going to work on pulling out the pictures from the last several years to post).

4. Then, we sprinkle Reindeer food on the lawn because we wouldn't want them to fly by and miss our house.

5. Last, we read the "Christmas Story".

Promise Kept

Hello Everyone, it seems forever! I promised myself and kids that I would not blog or use the computer over Christmas Break and I did it! I am so happy for myself. Because as most of you know bloggin' and the internet can be addicting and take up time. It really does take up time away from your family so I try and make an effort to blog and internet search when the kidos are in bed. When I began blogging, my main goal was to capture all our memories and experiences down and then print the pages as I go and keep them for the girls in a binder. It has worked great. They love looking back at the pictures and reading about all the fun times! Scrapbooking days for me are slim so this is a way to document and get it done as we live through the memories.
Enjoy our Christmas Break! Some days are out of order because I am still looking for a camera I misplaced around the house.

Bunco Babes

The Bunco Babes from Memorial Elementary. We started a Bunco group a few months ago. It has been a blast. Especially getting to know new friends. Most of the group are K-2 teachers with 2 office staff. I hosted December Bunco at my house. We had tons of food, snacks and drinks. Then, off we played 3 rounds of Bunco. Crazy Cohen won all of our money and took home most of the cash. She is so much fun! Looking forward to Bunco next month at Courtney's house. "The Bunco Babes"

Me and Ms. Holland (Maci's teacher). She is so much fun!

Vicky Payne, Cara Holland and Bethany Harkey

Crazy Jewish Cohen trying to teach me the Horah (spelling?) dance for the Jewish Holiday!

Courtney, Katherine and Alicia

Kayla and me

Nice Surprise

I arrived home after work to find a very thoughtful surprise from Ryan. He took my memory card from my camera and took it to make enlargements of our pictures from our recent North Carolina trip. He spent time looking through over 160 pictures to find the ones he liked best. He had an 8X10 made of the family and 3-5X7 photos made. He not only enlarged them he went and purchased frames. He loved our trip so much and thought the pictures of the waterfalls during fall with all the nature beauty turned out so nice he even framed them. On top of that he went and got flowers with the once of month flower card he purchased for me and had flowers arranged behind the pictures! Thanks Ryan, I now have updated family pictures to put on my desk at work. I appreciate his thoughtful surprise

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Lunch at Ryan's Aunt Becky's house
Madi Culverhouse and Maci enjoying their Thanksgiving Feast at school

Singing a few songs, they are so cute!


Maci with her placemat she made at school...she remembered to take it to on Thanksgiving Day!



Madi and Maci with their Gramma Becky

My family! Love you guys!

I have many things to be thankful for:
1. My God who is always there for us
2. My Husband, Best Friend, Partner for Life
3. My Girls-Madison and Maci are a joy everyday
4. My family-Everyone of them is unique and special to me!
5. My Friends-Wow, how special they are in all times up and down.
6. My Church-What a church full of grace, authentic christians
7. My House-Love our home that we spend many memories and are grateful to be a first time owner.
8. My Job-Love teaching and always have been a teacher even when I was little playing at home with my sister and cousins.
9. Little things in life such as: coffee, books, naps, chocolate, eating out, Bible studies, losing 8 pounds since Oct. 1st, YEAH! etc.
10. Blessed with many memories on vacations with my husband, children and friends. We have been very lucky to travel and spend time together that you can't replace.

Day 4 in North Carolina-Dupont National Forest

It was our last day to explore in North Carolina. So, we woke up early and made a picnic lunch to take for the day. It was a beautiful 20 minute ride with trees full of fall colors covering the road. It was amazing. We decided to have lunch next to this pond in the forest. We arrived and a very funny and long story short- "The mushroom club" that meets there every Sunday took over the picnic area. Literally, these people meet every Sunday and pick mushrooms and lay them out on the tables and label them. OK, I have now seen everything. Wow, what an exciting club! Anyway, we were still able to have a nice picnic near the pond on a bench.

After our hearty lunch, we headed to our first trail. It was the trail to "Hooker Falls" (yes, lovely name). It was only 1/2 mile and we enjoyed stopping along the way to walk on the rocks and enjoy the stream. We arrived and it was just gorgeous. After a nice relaxing rest, we headed back. On, the way back Maci and Madi wanted to stop and visit the stream again. Well, Maci managed to fall in (I am sure on purpose??) and get so wet but she had a blast (until the walk back to the car soak and wet).

Our next trail took us to Triple High Falls. This was my favorite part of the trip. The walk was about 1 mile and amazing. We reached the top and couldn't beleive the waterfall. Man God is sure AWESOME~ It was three waterfalls all flowing down into a stream. After observing and taking it all in, we decided to rock climb up to the 2nd waterfall. Daddy was a little nervous but we all made it. It was the best scenery, noise and fun I have every had. Enjoy our slide show from this final day. Also, the girls sang a song when we reached the top of the mountain but I am not sure if I will get it loaded or not, I will try. Thanks for visting!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Day 3 in North Carolina-Chimney Rock Visit

The first day we woke up in North Carolina, we decided to go to Chimney Rock Village. It was so much fun. We climbed the mountain to the tallest point and walked the trail to a 700 ft. waterfall. It was a beautiful day and NO HUMIDITY, YES! After the visit at Chimney Rock. We visited the village. We enjoyed lunch, shopping at general stores and homemade ice cream.

Daddy at the General Store

Taking pictures along the trail...


Daddy ventured with the girls to reach the waterfall


At the top



So peaceful and relaxing...

At the top of Chimney Rock...


Love the view!



One of my favorite pics (Lake Lure is in the background-this is the lake that Dirty Dancing was made at)


The Leaphart Crew!!

Taking in the views



At the streams along the roadside...

Fall Trip 08' Arriving at the Cabin House

Beautiful red leaves and kidos

On the trails behind the house

Our Fall Collection we made on the table...

We had to take a picture of this sign...very funny!

After all our pit stops, we finally arrived at the house. It was so cozy and had beautiful windows that overlooked mountains and trees changing colors. It was an amazing sight. Here are some pictures of when we first arrived and took a hike by the cabin.