Hayden's 12th Birthday

It seems like only yesterday that this baby boy was placed into our arms for the first time.

He just celebrated his 12th birthday.  In one year he will be a teenager.  How did this happen?

As always, our traditional birthday breakfast - Krispy Kremes.

Mom and Allie had lunch with the birthday boy at school.  I am so glad that he is still okay with us coming to eat with him.  I know my time that I am welcome to join him in front of his buddies is winding down.

In lieu of birthday parties this year, we took the family on a trip (more to come on that at a later date).  Both Hayden and Kyle got to invite friends for a sleepover on each of their birthdays.  Cakes were low-key this year, too.  I am not a baker, so this was about as good as it gets when mom makes your birthday cake.  He loved it, though, and that is all that matters.  This is one of Hayden's endearing qualities - he is so thankful for everything you do for him and doesn't ask for too much.  I just love this child.

His buds.  They basically had a game-fest all night long...Xbox, Wii and iPads were going until the wee hours of the morning.  

Happy Birthday, Hayden!  We love you!

Angela

MTSU Basketball Game

For the boys' birthdays, Granny (Ty's mom) usually gives the boys some type of experience or outing for their gifts.  I love this idea, and we are definitely trying to incorporate more of this into our gift giving as well.  I would bet that they couldn't name one thing that they got for their birthdays last year, but they sure remember going to the Preds game with Granny last year as their outing.

This year they decided that they would like to go to an MTSU (Middle Tennessee State University) basketball game.  Both Ty and I are MTSU alumni, but we are ashamed to admit that we had never been to a basketball game there before!  We had a great time!  The crowd was really into the game as they took on rival Western Kentucky.  Our Blue Raiders won, which made the afternoon even better.

The birthday boys with Granny.

It was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon together as a family.  We'll definitely be doing that again!

Have a great day!

Angela

Kyle's 10th Birthday

It is hard to believe that our Kyle is a decade old!  He has his own unique personality, and we wouldn't change it for anything.  We are blessed to have him in our lives.

Our traditional birthday breakfast

Lunch with the Birthday Boy

His dinner choice: Burger Up

Ice skating with buddies to celebrate.

Little sis got to join the skating fun, too.

Kyle, we hope this is your best year yet!  We love you!

Angela

Little Things

Today I am sharing random Little Things that have been going on...

It's official.  I have the BEST husband in the world!  Last week he gave me this little blue box (my first!) on the 21st anniversary of the day we met.  He's a keeper.

Someone had to wear a garbage bag to school one rainy day this week to keep his cast from getting soaked.  He was thrilled, can't you tell?

This has been our drink of choice during these cool fall mornings.

Basketball practice has begun.  Practice isn't always right after school, so sometimes we have a few hours to kill.  We live too far away to go home and then come back in a timely manner.  Enter study hall at the local hangout.

All 3 kiddos got great reports from the dentist!  Al is always ready for a pic.  The boys, not so much.

We watched the CMA's.  Two of Hayden's band directors played on the show.  It was fun watching for them.  Allie took lots of pictures with my phone.  This was my favorite of the bunch.  I do love me some Keith Urban!

And those are some of the little things going on with us this past week.

Have a great day!
Angela

Election Day

In honor of yesterday being Election Day, I wanted to share this sweet video of Allie.  She busted out with this over the weekend.  We had no idea that she even knew the Pledge of Allegiance!  To say we were all shocked, would be an understatement.  So proud of her!  So thankful for the great teachers at her preschool who taught her this.  

We hope you did, too!

Have a great day!

Angela

 

Halloween Fun

We had a fun, but COLD, Halloween.

This one started out with her first costume of the day.  She went to a Halloween party at her babysitter's house while I went to class parties at the boys' school.

There were some very crafty moms bringing in treats for class parties.  I went the easy route and brought Chick-Fil-A nugget platter!  

Back at home, we had our not-so-healthy, but super-easy traditional Halloween meal: Mummy dogs, pumpkin poop and oranges.

Ready for trick-or-treating.  We had Clayton Kershaw, Elsa and a Blue Morph Man.

Granny joined us for a bit, too.

Meeting up with the neighborhood crew.

All the Cove Kids were ready to go, except for Elsa.  She thought it was too cold.  Go figure.

Another fun Halloween is in the books.

Have a great day!

Angela

Halloween Decor

Right behind Christmas, Halloween is one of my very favorite holidays.  While we don't go too crazy decorating, I do like to add a few creepy touches to the house to keep it fun.

Here is my little assistant, ready to give you the tour.

Posing with her Minnie pumpkin.

  

We have just a few things inside the house, too.  My very favorite decoration to get out each year is my collection of Halloween pictures.  We all love to look back and see how much these kiddos have changed over the years.  Love this!

This pumpkin cracks me up.  Kyle painted it in 3rd grade as a class project.  That was 1 year ago.  It's a real pumpkin! How has it not rotted yet???  Creepy!

Allie is so very afraid of skeletons this year.  Every time we see one in a store or while walking around our neighborhood she'll close her eyes and say, "tell me when it's over."  She did give me permission, though, to buy this skeleton head because it was sparkly and pretty!

Happy Haunting!

Angela