There's No Place Like Roam

Well, no one received an iPhone, but apparently its all I had available to take pictures, so they are pretty bad.

With Love Chartreuse Christmas Card Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards . View the entire collection of cards.

Here a some of my favorites from our Fall Photo Session with Stephanie Arnold Photography. Thanks to Stephanie for choosing our property to hold her Fall Mini-Session photo shoot (and giving us a free session).

I'm a little late getting started on this one, but I saw several people doing this on Facebook, and thought it was a wonderful idea for November. I'm not going to start a new post every day, but will try to log in and update this post daily. Day 1 - Our Health - Sure we all have minor issues, but Jason and I, and all three kiddos are SUPER blessed in the health department. For this I am very thankful. Day 2 - Our Salvation - Psalm 100:4 - Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. Day 3 - My job - I'm so thankful to have had a flexible job for the past 4 years that allows me to put my family first, while I contribute financially to help meet our financial obligations. Sometimes, I even enjoy it! ;-) Day 4 - My boys - All four of them. They are seriously the cause of my gray hair (age has NOTHING to do with it), but I love them to pieces. Day 5 - Road Trips - These have been few and far between, but on Friday we all ...

We had a busy Halloween weekend. Carter and Hunter once again wanted to be Mario and Luigi, but Graham didn't want anything to do with wearing a costume. He had the choice of Toad (from Mario Bros.), a dog, a bat, or a monkey. He didn't want to wear ANYTHING other than blue jeans! We went trick-or-treating on historic Glenwood Terrace in Anniston Saturday afternoon and then stopped by Grandma Jackie's and Grandpa Jim's house for some yummy supper. Sunday we went to the fall festival at our church. The kids had a great time and got WAY too much candy.

Graham's newest trick....TA DA!!!

The boys have been enjoying their first year at Word Alive Academy. They just received excellent grades on their report cards and absolutely love enrichment day every Monday. Here are their school pictures.

So over the past few months Graham has started talking. The boys love to try to get him to say random new words (ex. Buffalo) and hearing how it sounds when he tries to pronounce it. When Graham was around 16 months he could make a pretty good stab at Carter and Hunter. Then there were several months when he wouldn't say their names, he would just point. Well, about 3 months ago he started calling Carter "Chachi". At first Carter would say NOT CHACHI!! Carter! But after a week or so, his new nickname started growing on him. Then, just as soon as Carter started encouraging Graham to call him Chachi, Graham started calling both Carter AND Hunter Chachi....using it interchangably for brother. A few months have gone by now and Chachi is no more. Graham now calls them by Carter (Cahtuh) and Hunter (Untuh) and his vocabulary is growing day by day. A few more silly Graham-isms: Munger evolved to Minger (for Finger). He calls his friend Brody, Roby. Although he doesn't have ...

East Alabama Sickle Cell Walk to be held Anniston Star Oct 09, 2010 Pictured above: District 32 state Rep. Barbara Boyd, chair for the Sickle Cell Walk; Gilberto Nogueira, Solutia plant manager; Sharon Lewis, director Sickle Cell Chapter, Central Alabama; Kay McKinney, Solutia public outreach coordinator; and John N. Wilson, co-chair for the Sickle Cell Walk. This year’s walk provides the Central Alabama Chapter the funds to assist individuals with Sickle Cell when they need help. Medicines and equipment, dental and vision care is available and many other services are provided that families need to help them cope financially and emotionally with this disease. The walk is rotated between Talladega, Sylacauga and Anniston. Local businesses, community groups and volunteers continue to work to make this year’s walk a success. Solutia, the premier sponsor of the event and a major manufacturer providing specialty materials, makes products used by consumers around the world, providing valuabl...

Carter's class is participating in the Flat Stanley Project. (Flat Stanly is a children's literature character who is smooshed by a bulletin board. The cool thing about being flattened is that he can travel through the mail. The class made their own "Flat Stanley" and created a journal. They wrote things about their family and where they lived and were ask to take their Flat Stanley on an outing and take a picture. The Stanleys will be mailed to various points across the US and Canada and may even visit former President Jimmy Carter! Since it is a geography lesson of sorts, we decided to take Carter & Stanley to the highest point in Alabama. Here are some pictures...

Grandma Jackie: When you were born you were so round you looked like a bowling ball. Hunter: why don't we look that round now? G Jackie: well, because you sprouted! Carter: mommy is done sprouting....now she's blooming!

Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions. -Author Unknown Well, good or bad, decisions have finally been made! Jason turned in his three week notice to Honda Manufacturing of Alabama today because he has taken a position with an automotive supplier. He starts on August 23 as Quality Manager with Atlantic Tool and Die in Anniston, AL. He is looking forward to the opportunity! Since the position is located in Anniston, that means we won't have to sell the house and move, which makes things so much easier! Just one major decision to go... We have decided to put all the boys in Word Alive Academy this fall. Graham is still in daycare there and Hunter did very well in Pre-K there. All three of them have been there for "Summer Fun" this summer and are really enjoying it. They have an excellent program there for K-6 with lots of enrichment courses that aren't available in public schools. Thank you "No Child Left Behind"! The boys...

I started cross-stitching when I was younger, but when I wanted to go back to crafting a few years back, I couldn't find any designs that matched my decorating style (or lack thereof). About two years ago, I found a website that had primitive wool rug hooking instructions (NOT Latch Hooking) and a link to Ebay where they sold the kits with the pattern, instructions and all the wool you needed to complete the project. I thought they were quite spiffy and it looked as easy as cross-stitch. I've since completed three designs. Two are below....and a completed sunflower is MIA. I decided to drag out all my crafting goodies on Saturday since I had a little extra time over the holiday weekend. I'm currently working on saltbox house and I have ordered some additional woolen projects to complete for the craft bazaar at church in October. Hopefully I'll keep the momentum going. This fall I'm going to try to complete a felt wall hanging like this . One of my favorite website ...

We had a busy weekend for the 4th of July holiday. Our friends Doug and Shea and thier boys Peyton and Collin came for dinner and fireworks on Saturday. Jim & Jackie came for lunch on Sunday and then my cousin Christy came for a quick visit with her hubby Shannon and her 6 month old son Riley. We had a blast the entire weekend. And the weather was BEAUTIFUL!!!