Hanging with the Hoffmans

Christmas - December 2009

2010-02-16T21:51:00.012-05:00

Christmas Eve....

We had a very busy day and the kids were getting very excited as the night went on.

As a tradition the kids get to open 1 present from us on Christmas Eve, their Christmas Pajamas.

Once we have gotten into our jammies we head off to church for the 11:30 church service.

It is a great service to get our heads focused on the real reason for Christmas.

Hannah and Sarah are ready and waiting to open their pajamas.

We made reindeer food to sprinkle on the front lawn so the reindeer could find the house.

Hannah did a great job!

Sarah opening her P.J's finally!!!

Poor Jonathan didn't even have a robe to put on while opening his P.J.'s

Hannah opening her jammies... she loved the plaid!!

I knew she would love them.

Abigail opening her jammies.... I was hoping she would like her pajamas... She did!

Whew!

All the kids posing in their pajamas before we headed off to church....

Abigail, Jonathan, Sarah and Hannah

Toby is excited about Christmas also.... can't you tell??

Posing in front of the tree.

The kids set cookies and milk out for Santa.... Santa loves cookies!!

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Santa came!

The kids waiting on the stairs to go see what Santa brought.

First things first.... Tyler read the Christmas story to the kids.

Abigail opening her stocking.

Toby posing again.....

Sarah with her horse she got for her American girl doll.

Jonathan got a ramp for his tech decks.

Sarah got a pin "thingy", not sure what it is called... but every time we are in Target she finds one and plays with it. Can you tell she was excited?

Hannah got this great hat and scarf set.

She got a sweat shirt that she has worn just about every day since Christmas... I think she likes it, what do you think?

Sarah got a digital camera also.

Abigail got a bunch of clothes.

Jonathan got some clothes too!

Tyler like the sweater and jeans that the kids bought him.

Tyler and the kids made me this great shirt... I am hoping to lose some weight so it fits me a little better.

I love it, didn't they do such a GREAT job?

Toby is ready for this to all be over...

Sarah got a riding outfit for her doll also.

We had a wonderful Christmas. All the kids got some great presents from us and Santa.

I took a lot more pictures, but I will save you from looking at them all.

All in all it was a great Christmas,

Till next time,

Barbara

November 2009

2010-02-13T15:14:00.015-05:00

November was a very busy month for us.... we had a lot of football games..... Here is one of Jonathan's games where he was the captain and got to do the coin toss at the beginning.

This is a group picture of his team.... what a good looking bunch of kids!!

We went to a Lion's club charity auction and won a silent auction for 4 tickets to a Clemson/FSU football game. We were very excited to go..... we sold 2 of the tickets since it would be too hard to pick which of our 4 kids to take and made back some of the money that we bid on the tickets. It was a great night....

Here is me posing in front of the stadium.

Here is a view when we first went into the stadium.... it was an awesome place!!

This is the view from our box seats.... we had a great view!

Outside the stadium.... "the paw print".

A picture of us after the game.

The middle of November was kind of crazy for us... we had a lot of things going on and we were working through a lot of stuff. We were looking forward to the end of the month to come to have a time of renewal and relaxation.
At the end of November we headed to the beach to celebrate Thanksgiving and family Christmas the day after.

We stayed at my Aunt's beach house on Oak Island with my sister for the long weekend.

Here are some shots of the cousins on our first night there.
Jonathan and his favorite cousin, Jakeeeee boy!

Sarah

Paige

Hannah and Abigail

Not sure why I didn't take any pictures of us during our Thanksgiving meal... but I didn't so if you want to see some pictures that my Aunt took you can go to my facebook page and look at them.

On the Friday after Thanksgiving we celebrated our family Christmas. Our theme this year was to think of the person you had chosen for the exchange and make them something by hand. It was a difficult task but we all did a great job.

Here are some shots of the kids getting and receiving their gifts.

Jonathan picked Uncle Dean. He made him a caddy for his desk. He put it together and painted it. I think it came out GREAT and Uncle Dean thought so too!

Uncle Dean picked Tyler and made him a Coca Cola lamp with sand from the beach at Oak Island. It was a cool gift!! We have yet to find a place in the house for it, maybe one day I will find the perfect place for it.... for now it looks great out on the workbench in the garage...LOL

I picked my sister Michelle. I decided to make her a necklace. I think it came out looking great!

She loved it! Yay.... it was worth all the stress.

Paige got Abigail and made her a great tye-dye shirt.

Hannah picked Sarah and made her a really cute bible bag that she embroidered.

Jake picked Hannah and made her a cool CD of mixed music.

My Dad picked Jonathan and made him a really cool model airplane .... he still needs to finish it for Jonathan... he is working on it to get it covered in paper and then he will give it back to Jonathan. Here it is in its almost done stage.

Abigail picked my Aunt Sue and knit her a beautiful blue scarf. I don't have a picture of her giving it to her. Sorry!

Here are some shots of the kids in front of the tree and with all the cousins.

Here is the whole gang at my Aunts house.

Here is a shot of us all in front of her fire place.

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to Airlie Gardens in Wilmington to see the Christmas light and displays with my parents and the rest of our family that was down for Thanksgiving.

The indoor train display.

The kids got to see Santa and get a picture.

I know they were excited!

Here are some shots around the gardens.

The kids with my parents.

If I didn't mention it... it was COLD outside...

The whole gang.

This is the bottle house.... it is made completely of glass bottles.... it was very cool..... it looked so much better than this picture shows.

On the Sunday that we were going to leave we spent the day at the beach while the laundry finished drying.... it was a beautiful day and the kids loved playing on the beach.

It was a great time for Tyler and I to spend together and just enjoy the beauty of God's creation.

Sarah and Abigail.

Jonathan and Hannah playing football.

Sarah in her "chair" that she built.

All the kids at the beach.

All in all it was an eventful and tiring month...

Till next time,

Barb

October 2009

2009-12-23T15:41:00.013-05:00

Well October started off with a bang! On October 8th I received a call and message from the district 6 transportation office and I was about to be really mad at one of my kids..... but when I called back they told me that the bus could not drop Jonathan or Sarah off at the house since there were fire trucks up there and a house was on fire. At this time, I wasn't thinking about being angry anymore, instead, I was just a bit worried that it was OUR house on fire. After speaking with the bus driver I found out it was not our house, but I was still very concerned. I arranged for the kids to get dropped off at a neighbors since I was on the east side of town taking care of getting an ad for Abigail's upcoming Academic Challenge at Dorman. It turns out that it was our neighbor's house that was on fire and I finally got home to see the kids and all the happenings on our cul-de-sac.

We were saddened for our dear friends Darla and Richard.... they had extensive damage to the left side of their house and will be out till after the new year.

On October 10th Tyler and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary. It was a very busy day for us, we started off at 6am at the Miracle Hill Mission making breakfast. We then went directly to Jonathan's football game. After a rainy victory, we headed to our church's annual Fall Festival to have some fun and hopefully sell some Chick-fil-a calendars. Tyler and Abigail were at Spartanburg High School for an Academic team tournament, so they met us at church later. It was a cold and rainy day, but the kids still had a ton of fun at the Fall Festival.

On October 16th we went with Jonathan to the Dorman game. It was little league night and they were all introduced to the crowd and got to run out of the helmet with the big players.... they were so excited all night!! It was an awesome night!!

The rest of October was spent running to football practices and games..... such is life in the fall.

On Friday October 30th the girls left for Wise, VA. for a youth retreat. They said they had a great time of fun and awesome preaching. They came home on Sunday Nov. 1st very tired but very inspired to live differently!

We decided this year to forgo our usual night passing out candy at Trunk-0r-Treat and go around our neighborhood. We have never done this since moving here so it was a nice change since we only had Jonathan and Sarah. After finishing up in our neighborhood and when the rain started we decided to go through the Trunk or Treat at church and get some candy and say hey to our friends. The kids enjoyed this also. Afterwards we went to Denny's to get some free kids meals since it was Saturday night.

Getting ready to head out....

Getting closer to heading out....

Gotta pose some more for mom.....

Getting a picture with mom.............

Posing with Ms. Jill at Trunk-or-treat

Having dinner at Denny's..... Yum!

Sarah tuckered out after a long night.....

she is always the first one asleep at our house!

All in all it was a great month

Till next time,

Barb

I hit 100

2009-12-23T15:38:00.003-05:00

In case you weren't keeping track I hit 100 posts....

wow...

when I started this I had no idea that I would keep it up for that long...

This post is 101 and more are on the way so watch out!

September at the Hoffman's

2009-12-19T17:19:00.012-05:00

Well we have been so busy around here that I hardly had time to update my blog... so here goes... September 2009. Well most of September was spent running Jonathan to football practice or to games. He is playing on the light blue little cavaliers team this year. He had the opportunity again this year to play with the Dorman Cavaliers football team for a practice session. He just loved getting to see the players up close. Here are some shots of him at the practice at Dorman. He had a great time!! Go cav's!!!

He had his first Scrimmage on September 8th... they did great, they won of course... they are a good team and have Great coaches! Notice in the picture the big kid Jonathan was blocking... He sure doesn't let his size hold him back. He has a heart of gold.

On September 12th we went to Amy and Billy's wedding. We had a great time and the kids did also. They love going to weddings!! We have realized that we have gotten to the stage of life were we are no longer really going to weddings of our friends, but to weddings of people who are mainly friends with our children... or that is how we know them. Gosh I feel so old. Oh well, we had a lot of fun and here are the pictures to prove it.

Abigail and Brittany

Hannah

Jonathan

Sarah

Marybeth Timmons

Jonathan dancing with Marybeth, he loves playing with little kids... he will be a GREAT dad one day!!

Brittany, Amy, Abigail and Hannah

Jonathan with the happy couple, he caught the garter belt!

All the kids by the dance floor.

After the wedding was over..... they were tired after a long day!

But still a great looking bunch!

Jonathan had his first real game on September 22nd. They had a great game. They won and didn't let the other team even get a first down. I forget at this point what the score was, but it was something to zero.

He had a great game and played well!

They had their next game on the 29th. This game they won also and again didn't allow the other team to get a first down at all!

Way to go little Cav's!

All in all September was a great month....

check back soon for October, November and soon to be All of December..

Till next time,

Barb

August at the Hoffmans

2009-10-29T21:06:00.008-04:00

Sorry for the Hiatus....

I have been so busy.... but also...Lazy... so for the few followers that I did have I hope you come back.

Well August was a busy month for us... I will give you a short history in pictures of the first half of the month.

August 3rd... We went to fanfest at Wofford for the Panthers. It was a lot of fun, and the we had a great time!

Captian Munnerlon (sp??) signing our ball....

so far he has done well so we are happy!

August 7th Panthers training camp at Wofford... getting autographs

Not sure who this is... but he signed our ball and posed for a picture! Yay...

That is our ball he is signing!

Fun times with Granddaddy!

August 8th in Charlotte for fanfest at the stadium

August 14th Meet the teacher

Sarah's teacher Ms. Campsen and Jonathan's teacher Mr. Smith.

While on our way to visit Jonathan's teacher, we found a piece of his artwork that was framed and hanging in the hall.

Way to go Jonathan!!

Till next time,

Barbara

July at the Hoffmans

2009-08-18T16:15:00.011-04:00

We have had a very busy July, so busy I apparently have not posted since then... so here you go a catch up...

Well, we did lots of fun things...

We went to several movies over the summer, here are the kids on July 15th when we went to see Nim's Island. It was a very cute movie.

You may notice the nice young man next to Hannah... it's her "boyfriend" Jacob,

this is another new development from the month of July.

He is a Godly young man and Hannah is enjoying spending a little time with him

With LOTS of supervision by both sets of parents.Here is Sarah at the movies

And Jonathan also!

Abigail was working at the church office and missed the movies.
We also made a trip to Union this summer to have lunch with Tyler.

We should have gone a lot more!!
Here are some shots of the kids at the park.
July 20th

Tyler and I on the bench.We also were able to catch another Greenville Drive game.... this time it was not so busy and we had good seats on the lawn. Because it was a Friday night they had fireworks at the end of the game.

If you want a fairly cheap, fun night you should go.... the tickets are 5.00 on the lawn and you see the game pretty well.
July 24th

My nephew Jake was playing in a Baseball Tournament at Clemson on Sat the 25th of July so we decided to make the drive and see him play.
He did pretty well..... he was the pitcher.
So I got some cute pictures of the kids and of all the cousins together.
The Hoffman and Drehoff kids

Sarah

Jonathan

Hannah
Abigail

As you can see we had a very busy July.

August and the first day of School will be coming soon!

Till next time,

Barbara

Abigail gets her Permit !!

2009-08-18T16:08:00.003-04:00

Today (July 20th) I took Abigail to the DMV to get her permit. Wow ... all I have to say is watch out Spartanburg!! and if you are behind us and she is driving waaaaay to slow, I am sorry!

Happy Birthday

2009-07-09T16:56:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday to the best Husband, Friend, Father, and Brother!!

Here are some shots of the wonderful man I married.

Here he is last year when he turned 41.

This year he is 42!

He loves us all very much!

He is a Godly husband and role model to our children.

He works VERY HARD to provide for us.

He loves making our yard the best it can be.

He takes care of us.

He is awesome!

He drives us on all our trips with the greatest of care.

He makes sure to spend time with me on special getaways.
........and of course he is sooooooooooooooo much FUN!

He is a great man and I am so thankful that God brought him into my life

and to his parents for raising him to the man he is!

I love you,

Happy Birthday

Till next year,

Barb

Fourth of July

2009-07-09T15:55:00.006-04:00

Fun on the Fourth

Greenville, SC.

2009

We decided very last minute to spend the evening in Greenville

at a Greenville Drive Game.

It was very hot and crowded, but it was a fun night.

We had dinner there and watched the game from several vantage points.

Once the game was over there were fireworks over the stadium.

We had great seats for the fireworks!

Here are the kids with the mascot.

We saw Jonathan's friends Ben and Lucas there.

I decided to get a few shots of them with the mascot.

Ben, Jonathan and Lucas...and yes they are all pretty much the same age.

Jonathan is down a step though.
Tyler and the kids down on the field after the game was over.

Waiting for the fireworks to start.

Watching the fireworks.

Some of the beautiful fireworks.

All in all it was a great night of fireworks.

Till next time,

Barb

Edisto Island 2009

2009-07-09T13:44:00.013-04:00

Edisto Island

June 27th - July 3rd

This year we planned to go to Edisto Island with my parents for a week. The girls were on choir tour till Saturday afternoon so we could not leave until Saturday night instead of Friday morning when the condo became available. Oh well, it made for a fun night at Red, White and Boom.
Here are some shots from the first day at the beach... notice the pale skin... the kids get darker as the week goes on.

Tyler basking in the sun.

Sarah showing off her pale skin.Jonathan enjoying the waves.Hannah playing in the sand... somewhere she spent a lot of time.Abigail ready to play. Our view off one of our 3 balconies.
Our view of the golf course, the 9th hole.

On Tuesday we headed to Hilton Head for the day.

We love Hilton Head and since we were "somewhat" close, we wanted to take the kids to see Gregg Russell under the old Oak Tree in Harbour town.

Here are some shots of the kids while waiting for the concert to start.

Sarah

Sarah loves the camera, can you tell.

Waiting on the stage for Gregg Russell to start.

What kind of smile is that Sarah??

Still waiting............

Me and Tyler waiting.... isn't he cute!!

The Harbour town lighthouse was our view from our seats.

Hannah and Abigail sat down on the benches with us instead of the stage with Jonathan and Sarah. I guess they are getting too old to sit up there. :-(

What a beautiful smile she has!!!

All the kids with Gregg Russell

Taking the opportunity to get some good shots of the kids.

Sarah and Jonathan.

Hannah, Sarah and Jonathan.

Hannah trying to get a good Facebook profile shot.

I think this one is great!

Another good one!!

A great shot of the kids!

Wednesday at the beach.

Great picture, too bad Jonathan wasn't looking.

I love this picture.... notice Sarah and Hannah running into the ocean while Abigail is content on the shore.

Jonathan in the waves.

Hannah and Jonathan.

Sarah

Hannah

Jonathan

All in all it was a great week,

It ended too quick!!

I want to go back!!!

Till next time,

Barb

Fireworks and Fun

2009-07-09T12:47:00.011-04:00

Red, White and Boom

June 26, 2009

Downtown Spartanburg

We really should have been packing for the beach, but we decided that we couldn't pass up a chance to take the kids out for a fun night.

Abigail and Hannah were out of town on a mission trip so we only had Jonathan and Sarah with us.

We decided to go downtown and watch the fireworks... it had been a while since we had been down to see them so we were due.

Here are some shots of the kids on the way.

The fireworks begin!

Sarah and Jonathan during the fireworks.... how cute are they!
Jonathan really loves the fireworks!

Sarah and her friend from school, Tristyn. Tyler and I after the fireworks were over. Sarah and Jonathan posing.

We parked our car at Morgan Square so we had to walk back to the car after the fireworks... so on the way we took the opportunity to take some cute pictures of the kids.

In front of the fountain.

On our way back we decided to have dessert at Justin's with the kids... what a treat for us too!

It was wonderful!!

Here are some shots of the kids enjoying their dessert.

All in all it was a GREAT night,

Till next time,

Barb

Driveway Art!!

2009-07-09T12:03:00.009-04:00

We had a lazy Saturday a few weekends ago.

The kids spent the day decorating our driveway.

Who knew that driveway chalk would still entertain them for 3 hours or so.

Here is Abigail with her name art.

Here is Hannah with her name art.

Jonathan working hard on his car and the finished product.

Sarah with her name art.
Sweet sunshine!

The toes have it!

Some more artwork.... Hannah's I think

Sarah's artwork.

And then the rain came and washed it all away!

All in all it was a good day,

Till next time,

Barb

A new haircut....

2009-07-06T20:41:00.003-04:00

This is for my family and friends who don't live in South Carolina.

In a very rash decision I decided while waiting to color my hair at the stylist that I would like to try a new "Short" hair do... so here you go.

I had about 8 inches cut off.

I donated it to locks of love, I hope they will use it since it was a little shorter than they like to get, but the woman at Gibbs seemed to think it would be okay.

Please excuse the mess in my bathroom,

but it was a good shot of the haircut.
All in all it is a good haircut!
Till next time,
Barbara

Jungle Party and Reading Celebration

2009-07-06T20:16:00.005-04:00

The first grade did their end of the year program on May 27th.

It was a great program, the kids did a great job,

Sarah was a zebra.
Here is a shot of her on stage.

After the program they had a reading celebration in their room.

All of the kids got a chance to read their work in the "Author's Chair".

They all did a great job!

Here is Sarah reading her work.

Sarah and her BEST friend Julia Kate

They have been in class together for 2 years now...

we are crossing our fingers for next year also!

Sarah and some of her classmates being silly.

Sarah and her good friend Victoria.

Another good picture of Sarah and Julia Kate!

All in all it was a great year of 1st grade for Sarah!

Till next time,

Barbara

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-07-06T19:21:00.004-04:00

Memorial Day Weekend

2009

Oak Island, NC

This year for Memorial Day we headed to the beach.

My Aunt owns a beach house on Oak Island in North Carolina that is wonderful.

If anyone reading this wants a great place to rent at the beach,

leave me a comment and I will send you information about it.

Well every trip to the beach has at least one fun project for us to do.

This year was not exception, our project this year was to make scrapbook pages for a book that my Aunt is working on. Each person had there own page to do with photos of them that my Aunt had.

It was a lot of fun... I am still putting the finishing touches on our pages... I had to do some things to my page that I didn't have access to at her house, so I brought them home to finish and I will send them to her.

Here are me, Abigail and Hannah working on our pages.

We found a new game that we are hooked on, it is called ladder ball. It was so much fun, the kids loved it and are hoping that we can get it for our house... Paul made their set so we will see...

We found one at Target that is not too much, so we may just buy it!

Here is Tyler, Jonathan and Sarah playing.

Jonathan waiting for his turn....

Pictures of the kids at the beach

Sarah

Jonathan

Hannah

Abigail

Till next time,

Barb

Backing up a bit...

2009-06-15T12:59:00.009-04:00

Easter

2009

This year we did the usual Easter picture in front of the house and by the Maple tree.

I am amazed when I look back at all the pictures how much the kids have grown.

We did add a few more this year.

The kids wanted to have one of them jumping on the trampoline, so we added that this year along with a few others.

On the bench by the River Birch tree.

Jumping for Joy!

By the Maple tree.

Toby enjoying Easter fun.

After taking our pictures we decided to go to the new park in downtown Duncan.

The kids loved it!

It was a great end to a great day!

Till next time,

Barb

Brian and Marybeth's wedding

2009-06-13T18:48:00.003-04:00

A wonderful evening!

May 16, 2009

We were invited to Brian and Marybeth's wedding at AMRBC and their reception at Summit Pointe.

It was a wonderful wedding. So sweet and special. They had a great reception at Summit Pointe next to Chandi's.

The food was great and it was a lot of fun for the kids.

This is the first wedding that the kids have been invited to that they actually were friends with the people getting married.

I think we have moved into a new era of our lives....

we are no longer going to our friends weddings, but to the weddings of our children's friends...

Wow we are old! :-(

Here is a shot of Sarah posing pretty for us... she was so excited to wear this dress... the last time it was worn was at my Aunt's wedding by Hannah when she was 6.

Sarah and Jonathan looking adorable.

I am not sure what Jonathan was doing here.... I think he was just sitting on the floor next to Sarah's chair.

Sarah caught the bouquet.

She was so excited to get to pose with Marybeth for a "real" picture.

Sarah just loves Marybeth.

It was very magical for Sarah to see the wedding.

She said Marybeth looked like a princess!

Sarah with the bouquet.

Abigail looking very pretty!

Hannah looking very pretty!

Jonathan and Sarah dancing at the reception

All in all a wonderful night of fun and fellowship.

Till next time,

Barb

Keep going....

2009-06-08T12:05:00.001-04:00

Please be sure to follow the post all the way till you see Disney... I have updated and added several posts this morning.

Till next time,

Barb

End of April Begining of May

2009-06-08T11:07:00.007-04:00

Terrific Kid

April 23, 2009

On April 23rd we went to Westview to see Jonathan being honored as Terrific Kid. He was chosen by his classmates and his Teacher.

When we walked out of the ceremony we noticed Sarah's writing had won the Principal's pick for her work. It was displayed on the bulletin board outside of the cafeteria.

Here is a picture of it with a picture of her reading it for the school.

End of year Chorus Concert

April 30, 2009

Every year Hannah is in an end of year chorus concert to show off all they have learned in Chorus class for the year. This year since she is in the 7th grade she got to wear the black formal dress.

Last year she had to wear a blue chorus shirt and black pants.

She looked beautiful in her dress!

They did a wonderful job singing.

Children's Choir Concert

May 3, 2009

Jonathan is in the children's choir at church. Every year they put on a musical for the church at Christmas and in the spring.

This year they decided to teach the children about true praise and worship. It was a wonderful show. Jonathan did a great job. He had a speaking part and did a wonderful job.

Jonathan during his speaking part.

They honored the kids that will no longer be in the children's choir next year. Jonathan will be moving up to the Shift preteen next year. They gave a little gift to all the kids.

Here is Jonathan getting his gift.

Sarah and Jonathan singing at Churtch

2009-06-08T10:50:00.003-04:00

Singing in Church

Sarah and Jonathan sang in church in March sometime... not so sure when it was but here are the pictures. They do such a wonderful job. They love singing and being in front of the church.

Here are some shots of them in action.

Sarah

Jonathan

Catch up time.... Abigail at USC Upstate

2009-06-08T10:27:00.002-04:00

Focus Gallery at USC Upstate

Abigail's artwork was chosen to be displayed in the USC Upstate Focus Gallery. It is a wonderful honor. They had a little reception and said a few words to each of the kids.

This is a self portrait that she painted with acrylic paint. She had one picture of herself and then she used Photoshop to put the picture in negative colors and then painted the pattern of several of the same pictures of herself.

Abigail with the director of art from USC Upstate.

Abigail and her artwork.

The REAL Disney Day 6

2009-05-22T07:09:00.013-04:00

Disney Day 6

Magic Kingdom

We woke up early on Saturday, since it was check out day. We hurried and packed up the toiletries bags and got the kids dressed. We then all had a quick breakfast.

Sarah said she wasn't feeling good so she went and laid down... next thing I know she is running into the bathroom throwing up, so after another quick shower she was still not feeling well. I snapped this picture of her to commemorate our eventful morning. We were not sure if we would make it to Disney for our last day of tickets. She really did not feel good.... after laying down for a while and making us late to check out, we finally got all our stuff out and loaded into our car.

We rode the resort bus over to Disney, so we wouldn't have to pay parking and started our day.

Thankfully, Sarah was feeling better by now.

We stopped by the front entrance to get a picture of all the kids since it was raining the other day, and the pictures didn't turn out that good.

Here is Abigail and Sarah riding the Magic Carpets.

We then climbed the Swiss family Robinson tree house. The kids really enjoyed looking at all the stuff in the tree house. Jonathan of course decided that he needs to read the book when we get home so he can learn more about it.

We also stopped in to see Ariel, Jonathan was blushing when she talked to him, and Sarah was beaming.

We then decided to ride the carousel. Its a favorite of all the kids, Mom and Dad even love it!

Sarah

Abigail

Jonathan

and Hannah

We then went into the Tinker Bell store and Sarah rang the "bell" to see if Tinkerbell would come out, well she did! You can see by the expression on Sarah's face that she was amazed!

It was too cute!

Ringing the bell.

Waiting in anticipation.

Tinkerbell arrived!

The kids decided to go on the barnstormer roller coaster, so Sarah and Abigail and I decided to go into the big top and wait in line to meet Tinkerbell and her friends. It was worth the wait!

Sarah has been infatuated with Tinkerbell this trip so she was very excited to meet her in person. Abigail came with us for some of the same reasons... but most of all I think she just wanted to see Tinkerbell herself.

Waiting in line.

Abigail and Sarah

Tinkerbell's friend

Tinkerbell signing her book and talking with Sarah. She is showing her all the Tinkerbell pins she has on her lanyard.

Posing with Tink.

Tinkerbell's other friend... not sure of their names.

We then went over to ride on the Indy speedway. Sarah loved this ride, it was her second time this week. She rode with Daddy this time.

Jonathan and I before the ride began. The nice ride attendant saw me taking a picture of Sarah and Tyler and offered to take a picture of us.

She did a great job!

Jonathan driving

Hannah and Abigail

Jonathan, Me and Sarah

Outside of one of the rides

Just outside of the Buzz lightyear ride.

We spent most all of our trip checking out cast members pins. They were very excited to pin trade this year. We bought them all a cheap set of 7 pins that they could trade with people for nicer pins. The Disney "cast members" have to trade with kids and they have to take whatever pin the kid gives them. This was exciting to the kids, they made sure to trade their cheap ones for much nicer pins, well most of the time. I had to be sure and include this picture since it is what we did in every park on every day. I will try to post pictures later the pins they got so you can see them all since I bought a cool shadow box for each kid to place their pins in to display them in their rooms.

Later in the evening, we went to the Starlight cafe. It was good food and a good atmosphere to eat our last meal of the week and day in Disney.

Sarah and Jonathan

Hannah and Abigail being nice to each other.

Getting off of the Peter Pan ride.

One of our favorites this year.

A picture that Abigail took of us during the fireworks show. It had been a long day at this point.

Hannah and Abigail enjoying the fireworks

Tyler holding Sarah and Jonathan

Hannah pointing at Tinkerbell flying across the sky.

Our favorite family ride of all time is It's a Small World. We always ride on it several times while at Disney. We also make sure that it is always the last ride we ride when we leave Disney at night or at the end of a fun week.

Our last picture in Disney in 2009!

What a great shot of all the kids and Cinderella's Castle in the far off background.

All in all this was an excellent day,

Now on to the hard stuff..... we had to ride the bus back to the resort, much later than we had planned and get into the car and drive up to Jacksonville to our hotel for the night. We ended up arriving at our hotel at around 1 am.

We were very tired.

It has been a wonderful trip!

Glad you were able to enjoy it vicariously through the blog.

Till next time,

Barb

Ps. I now can start on Easter and the rest of Spring that I have missed out on.

Stay tuned for more blogs coming.

Day 6 at Disney

2009-05-14T15:56:00.001-04:00

Day 6 at the Resort

2009-05-05T20:39:00.004-04:00

Bonnet Creek
Friday April 3, 2009

On Friday we decided that we needed a break... we were TIRED! It didn't hurt that it was supposed to rain for part of the morning and afternoon.

We slept in....Yeah!

Then we had a nice leisurely breakfast.

After getting ready we spent the afternoon at the pool.

Here are some shots of the kids at the pool.

Jonathan had so much fun, most of the day actually in several inner tubes like this...

What a handsome guy!

Hannah spent part of the day tanning next to me, when she wasn't in the pool.

We had a nice nap together....

Sarah spent all her time in the pool.... she was quite wrinkled when she came out.

Abigail had fun also, what a beauty!

Jonathan is just so cute we needed another picture.

Here is our view from our balcony on the 9th floor

You will notice in the very far background is the Epcot ball.

We were able to watch the fireworks over the ball on the nights that we were home... well the first night we were there and didn't go to Disney and today since we didn't spend the day at Disney

Well on Saturday we have to check out of the resort and then we will ride the shuttle over to Magic Kingdom.

But I will leave that story for tomorrows post.
All in all a restful and good day
Till next time,

Barb

Disney Day 5

2009-04-30T06:52:00.009-04:00

Epcot and Hollywood Studios

April 2, 2009

We started off the day heading to Epcot to visit all the stuff we couldn't get to yesterday. We rode the Monorail from Magic Kingdom to Epcot. There were not a lot of people getting on the Monorail so we were able to let 4 people (Barb, Hannah, Jonathan and Sarah) ride in the front car with the engineer. All the kids got an "official" Engineer license. It was awesome riding up to Epcot and being able to see everything as we came up on it. Here are some shots of the kids with the view behind them.

Jonathan and Sarah

Hannah

A good view of the "Ball"

The kids in front of the Ball

Our first order of business was to get a fast pass for Test Track.

We had to wait several hours before it was time to ride but we had plenty to see and do, so wait we would.

It was an awesome ride!!

We visited Pixie Hollow where Tinkerbell and her friends were.... well, floral sculptures of them.

Here are some flowers that I was able to take pictures of, they were gorgeous.

Sarah at Pixie Hollow

Abigail at Pixie Hollow

All the kids with Tinkerbell

Inside the Butterfly pavilion

Just outside the Butterfly pavilion

Beautiful flowers and beautiful children on our way to World Showcase for lunch.

We rode the Gran Fiesta boat ride.

Abigail, Sarah and Hannah

Barb, Jonathan and Tyler

Mi amor!!

My Mexican husband.....need I say more

The little Mexican

Inside the Mexico building

With Mexican Donald

In Norway

Once we had done everything we wanted in Epcot we left and went to the International Gateway. It is a boat ride that takes you around some of the Disney resorts that are on the water and then to Hollywood Studios.

We wanted to get back to Hollywood Studios to see the last American Idol show like we did the other night.

By the time we got there the line was very long and we did not get in. We did however watch the show on the jumbo tv for a little while. The show was not near as good as it was the other day.

We were able to visit some of the attractions that we missed the other day.

Jonathan, Hannah, Sarah and Abigail

Us with Frosty

Just outside Toy Story Midway Mania ride

We made reservations to eat at the Sci-Fi Dine In Theater to have dinner. It was a very cool restaurant were you sit in cars that are tables and watch a big drive in movie screen with old

sci-fi movies. It was a fun place to eat. Our waiter was a little obnoxious, but oh well.

At this point it was late and we were hungry so we dealt with it.

A neat experience, but I wouldn't eat there again.

Just outside the restaurant.

Tyler and the kids at the table

Me and Tyler.

Love Yah!

All and all a great day, very busy but a great day!

Till next time,

Barb

Disney Day 4

2009-04-27T06:54:00.009-04:00

Epcot

April 1, 2009

After being out very late last night, we decided take our time getting out of the house this morning. My parents were joining us today at Epcot, so we also were at the mercy of the transportation company of when they would be able to pick up my Mom in her wheelchair on the special bus.

We were very excited to spend the day with my parents since if it wasn't for the their generosity and great timeshare we would not have been in Disney.
We got into the park late so the fast passes for Soarin the ride I wanted to make sure they got on were going fast. So we decided to change our plan of getting the fast pass for Test Track first, and get the Soarin fast pass first.

We got our fast pass and then headed to The Seas with Nemo and friends.

It was a fun ride and my mom was able to get on with her wheelchair. We then went to the Turtle talk with Crush.

Once we finished we went to The Land building and rode Living with the Land ride. We had our picnic lunch inside since it was warm out.

We then went to Honey I shrunk the Audience. When it was time to leave it was pouring rain so we had to wait inside till it stopped. Once it stopped we walked along the paths to the World Showcase. It was the Festival of Flowers so there lots of floral decorations around the park. We stopped at this playground area for the kids to play and snap some pictures.

Sarah on the "spider web"

Jonathan on the "spider web"

Jonathan and Tyler with Captain Hook

Hannah and Tyler

Abigail posing

Hannah

The kids and Captain Hook

After stopping several times in all the countries we were ready to ride Soarin.

We all loved it when we rode it before, and both my Mom and my Dad loved it also.

So much fun.

We had a little time before we had to go to our 7 pm dinner reservations at Akershus Royal Dining Hall.

Unfortunately we did not have enough time to run over to Test Track for my Dad to ride, he was a little bummed.

We had a wonderful dinner at Akershus and got to meet a bunch of wonderful princesses.

Here are some shots from our dinner.

Belle

Sleeping Beauty

Snow White

Cinderella

Mulan

After a wonderful dinner we had to walk quickly to the viewing area for handicapped people so my Mom could see the fireworks at the best vantage point.

The fireworks were wonderful.

Dad and Mom and the kids in front of the Epcot ball.

All in all it was a great day and GREAT to share it with my parents!

Till next time,

Barb

Disney Day 3

2009-04-20T14:53:00.013-04:00

Disney Hollywood Studios
Tuesday March 31, 2009

The first thing we did once we arrived at Hollywood Studios is get a fast pass for Toy Story Midway Mania. The sad thing is that it was so busy that we had to wait till night time to ride the ride since all the earlier times were already gone... all I have to say is WOW!

We then walked over to the Journey Into Narnia: Prince Caspian show, it was okay but since Abigail is the only one who read it and saw the movie the rest of us were out of the loop. We then went into Walt Disney, One Man's Dream. It is a self guided tour of his life. The kids really enjoyed it. They really love history and museums. Afterwards we went to the Magic of Disney Animation show.... which is followed by an animation class..... It was very cool! The kids loved it. The animator showed us step by step how to draw Pluto. This was one of their favorites since they asked several times if we could go back and do another character. Here are the scanned in pictures.

Sarah's Pluto

Jonathan's Pluto

Hannah's Pluto

Abigail's Pluto

Barb's Pluto, I messed up on the ear.

Tyler's Pluto

They all came out really good, we all learned some cool lessons about being an animator.
We then headed to see Voyage of the Little Mermaid.

We also met some characters!

Rhino and Bolt

The Incredibles

Frozone

One of the cool Mickeys

Jonathan watching the Sparky street show.

The block party bash parade!

Jonathan yelling loud when they told him to.

Star Wars Photo Op

American Idol

Sarah met the High School Musical cast, they cancelled the show since it had rained, but we tried to go to the last show but missed it. :-(

Here is a picture of the kids near Honey I shrunk the kids movie set.

I have one of them from the last time we went (2004), also in the same spot. Now you can't climb on the truck anymore.

It is amazing how much they have grown!

We met some more characters.

Mike and Sully

The Streets of America

Tyler and the kids, Abigail, Hannah and Jonathan rode the Rockin Roller coaster while Sarah and I got in line for the American Idol 7:00 finale show. Tyler was able to get in before they closed the doors, we were not able to sit together, but close. It was an awesome show.... they had some wonderful talent there that night.
After a long day at Hollywood Studios we left when the park closed around 8:30 and took a shuttle bus to one of the Disney Resorts and then caught a bus to Downtown Disney.

Our resort only had one bus that picked up after 9:30 pm and it was at 12:00 am... so needless to say... the kids were VERY Tired by the time we got home.

Here are some shots of Sarah with the princesses,.,.. just think there was no line to get your picture with them and she was just as happy!

One last shot of the kids before they got really cranky.
This dragon is in the lake around downtown Disney and just outside the huge Lego store, but it is made out of Legos. It is very cool!

All in all it was another Great Day!

Till next time,

Barb

Disney Day 2 Animal Kingdom

2009-04-16T20:02:00.005-04:00

Animal Kingdom

Monday March 30, 2009

Our first stop once we arrived in Animal Kingdom was to Expedition Everest for 6 fast passes, that way Tyler, Abigail and Jonathan could ride 2 times. They had to wait several hours till it was their turn. We then got into line for the Kali River Rapids, the wait was only 15 minutes so we decided to go for it. It said some people may get wet, some people may get soaked.... Well me (Barb) and Jonathan got soaked and everyone else got wet. We spent the next 45 minutes or so in the bathroom wringing out and drying our clothes so they were not dripping.... It was a good thing it was warm! We then got in line for the Kilimanjaro Safari. The line was not too bad about an hour, but probably the slowest it would be all day and the fast passes were sold out early, so we decided to wait. Here are some shots from the Safari.

Here is a some pictures of the kids on the Pangani Forest Exploration trail.

Hannah being eaten by something!

Jonathan following her lead!

Hannah, Jonathan and Sarah playing the musical instruments with the African Warrior. They loved this and Sarah asked all day if we could go back so she could play them again.

Here are all the kids after Tyler, Abigail and Jonathan rode the Expedition Everest. We had to go back to this spot and the ride later in the day when Abigail realized she had lost her phone. Thankfully they found it on the seat of the ride after she got out and gave it to the ride attendants... she has only had it 3 months...!

After leaving this ride we walked over to Dinoland USA and rode the Primeval Whirl all together. It was a lot of fun but I am not a roller coaster person! We all rode it once then Tyler, Hannah, Jonathan and Sarah rode it again while Abigail and I went looking for her phone. Afterwards we went on Dinosaur. The wait was only 30 minutes, so very short. It was a great ride, my favorite all day besides the Safari!

We then walked over towards It's Tough to be a Bug. We took some pictures of the kids while waiting in line and once inside while waiting for the show to start. Sarah really did not like this show. She was afraid through most of it and kept taking the 3D glasses off.

She was ruined for most all of the shows after this... she was scared of them!

Waiting for the show to start.

Here is a shot of the kids just outside of the Tree of Life.

The last time we were in Disney we took a picture at the same place so it was neat to compare the two pictures, the last time we were in Disney was in 2004.

Another shot in front of the "Tree".

It was a fun day for all.

We left Animal Kingdom when they closed and went to Epcot to check it out. We rode Spaceship Earth, and walked around a little we ended the evening by riding Soarin. It was an awesome ride. I was looking forward to coming back to Epcot on Wednesday and going on it with my parents. My Dad would love it!

We got back to the resort around 10:30 or so.

The kids were passed out after taking showers.

A great day and night!

Till next time,

Barb

Disney Day 1

2009-04-11T22:54:00.011-04:00

Magic Kingdom

Sunday March 29th

This is always our first stop when we get to Disney. We have several shots of the kids at the front gate from over the years. This morning when we left the condo it was raining just slightly... well Tyler had watched the weather and thought it would be light and out of the area by 12 noon, so we decided that we would leave the ponchos in the car at the resort instead of carrying them around all day. Bad move on our part... it rained hard off and on till about 2 or 3.... so needless to say we were very wet..It down poured as we were getting off the bus at the Transportation center..,, it slowed while we were on the monorail and started raining hard again once we got off the monorail. At this point it had stopped for a while.

Our first stop inside was to see Pinocchio. Sarah wanted nothing to do with him. So we didn't push it. It gave us a chance to get in from the rain for a little.

We then went to get some fast passes and then we went to Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin since the line wasn't that long.

Here is Sarah on our all time favorite ride, It's a Small World.

Jonathan on It's a Small World

Tyler

Hannah

and Abigail, none of me I was behind the camera.

One of the parades we saw today.

The kids infront of Mickey and Minnie and "The Castle"

Sarah driving on the Indy speedway while Tyler, Abigail and Jonathan went on Space Mountain, this is one of my favorite pictures of Sarah

Hannah on the Indy speedway at the end of the ride.

Sarah once she was done. Her and Hannah loved the ride!
After meeting back up with Dad, Abigail and Jonathan they all went on the Astro Orbiter.

Jonathan, Sarah and Tyler

Hannah and Abigail

In front of the Walt Disney and Mickey statue

Watching the fireworks at the end of the night!

Jonathan enjoying the fireworks

All the kids and Tyler.

All in all it was a great day.

Till next time,

Barb

Vacation Day 1

2009-04-08T21:02:00.014-04:00

On Friday night March 27th we left Spartanburg after many distractions, to head south. Our first stop was in St. Augustine, Florida. We were planning on bunking up with the Cieluchs for the night. We rolled into St. Augustine around 2am... it was a long night of driving for Tyler... we all slept and he slept through Georgia... well he was sleep driving... WOW! Thankfully we made it safely. Here is a shot of the kids crashed on the floor in their sleeping bags.

Here is how Gerry makes coffee, wow... I guess everyone does it differently!

We left their condo around 10am and we all went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast/brunch. We had a great time of fellowship and fun. Once we were done we headed down the road. We decided to get off 95 and go towards Daytona to see the speedway. When we got there we noticed that something was going on so we stopped. There was a auto show and swap meet. The tickets were 10 for anyone 12 and over... so needless to say we were not going to go in... We decided to ask the security guys if we could just walk into the gate and show the kids the speedway and then come right back. He said he would do one better. He let Tyler and 3 kids go out with one of the other sets of security guards on their golf cart and they drove him and the kids around the speedway.

Before they went into the gates

In victory circle.

Sarah riding around in the infield.

Jonathan riding around the infield by the garages

Hannah checking it all out

This is around turn 1, how cool is that....

The start/finish line underneath the flag stand.

After a great tour around the speedway they thanked their tour guide and we went on our way!

What an awesome experience for them!

Abigail and I had a great time talking with the other security guard and working on our tans while we waited.

We left the speedway and headed towards the beach. Tyler wanted to show the kids how you could drive right on the beach, they didn't seem to be impressed! :-(

What's up with that...??

We then headed out of town toward I-4 we stopped at Checkers for lunch. It was good, we miss not having them near us. We headed over to Orlando after lunch.

We arrived in Orlando around 5 or so... here is a shot of the kids outside our condo.

Till next time,

Barb

Awana Grand Prix

2009-04-08T19:27:00.010-04:00

I will make this short so I can get on to the Disney posts.... Jonathan and Sarah competed in the Awana Grand Prix at church. Jonathan has done this several years now... but this is the first one Tyler was able to go to. He was very excited. You see... normally we are out of town for my birthday every year, and the Grand Prix always seemed to fall on the same weekend.. this year since I had the big party we did not go out of town. This was Sarah's first time competing... they both had a fun time and earned some trophies and medals. We think their cars were the best! Obviously not the fastest but surely the cutest!

Apparently this is what girls do at a Grand Prix...:-)

After the award ceremony

Jonathan's Baptism

2009-04-06T21:21:00.004-04:00

On Sunday March 8th, at the first service in our Church's new building our wonderful son Jonathan was baptized.

It was a GREAT day!

Here are some pictures.

Thanks Pastor D.J. for helping our young man grow into the Godly man he was meant to be!

Till next time,

Barb

Surprise

2009-03-19T19:18:00.012-04:00

SURPRISE

That is what I heard on Saturday March 7th.

Tyler hosted a wonderful surprise party for my 40th Birthday.

It was hosted at the Great Bay Oyster House. He did a wonderful job planning and organizing everything.

Lots of wonderful friends were able to make it. Lots of wonderful friends were not able to make it and sent well wishes. My parents were in town since they came up for Jonathan's baptism. My sister Michelle and her family came up from Georgia, so it was good to see them.

All in all it was a great night.

Thank you to all my wonderful friends that came and helped me celebrate!

I received many wonderful gifts.

I also received some fun Over the Hill gifts, thanks!

Tyler and several of my friends got me the Cricut that I have been wanting for a while. I have enjoyed getting to use it. I am currently on the hunt on Ebay for more cartridges to use on it. I found one on Sunday night and have already purchased it with some Birthday money. Yeah!

Here are some great pictures from the evening... if you were there and have some more pictures I would love to get them to add to my files.

Brad and Tracy and Randy and Chandis

Sophie and Luc

Leigh and Billy

Bama and Mark

Jed, Gerry and Matt

Casey and Doug

Michelle and Dean and Dad and Mom

My Beautiful cake

Blowing out ALL the candles!

Opening presents

The Cricut!

Great Friends

Forty and Fabulous!

Thanks again for a wonderful night!

Till next time,

Barb

Upwards Ceremony

2009-03-19T18:25:00.004-04:00

On Thursday March 5th Upwards had their award ceremony at Bethlehem Baptist. Sarah had to go for cheer leading. They had a magician and he did a wonderful show. Sarah got to join him onstage for one of his tricks. The cheerleaders did a cheer onstage also. It was a fun night. My parents had come into town, so they were able to come also.

Here is some video and pictures from the night.

Mega Postathon

2009-03-02T16:46:00.003-05:00

I just want to let you know that I have written several posts below. Be sure to read all of the current posts that were done in the last 3 days or so.

Thanks for sticking with me while I was on a blog hiatus.

Looking forward to being caught up and staying caught up.

Till next time,

Barb

The big snow in South Carolina!

2009-03-02T16:12:00.006-05:00

The first look at the snow, Sarah is catching snow flakes on her tongue.

Jonathan and Abigail are in amazement.

Toby doesn't know what to do in the snow... he had so much fun catching the snowballs in his mouth.

He was running around crazy.

All the girls in the snow.. Jonathan was still trying to get some shoes on.

Jonathan finally joined us for the picture.

They absolutely loved the snow and were looking forward to the morning time when they could go out again.

Sarah and Hannah having a snowball fight.

Sarah is cold and ready to come in.

Toby is ready to come in also.

Abigail peeking in on the picture.

Till next time,

Barb

Tiger Paw Invitational

2009-03-02T07:35:00.005-05:00

On Saturday afternoon we headed to Clemson to watch my niece who lives in Georgia compete in a gymnastics meet.

We had a great time....

We met them before the meet at Eddie Spaghetti's and had some food before the meet.

We then had a little bit of time before the event started so we were able to walk around in the downtown area. The kids loved going into ALL the Clemson stores... how many Clemson stores do you need... there were like 3 or 4 in a row.... and they all had the same stuff!

Here is Paige waiting for her turn on the bars and watching her teammate's routine.

Jonathan and Sarah called her name so she would look at us so I could get this picture.

She looks so much like my sister it is amazing!

My sister Michelle and Sarah from across the arena...

Paige won several medals in different events... I think she placed in every event but one, and she placed 2nd for her All around score.

Way to go Paige!!

Here is her team when they won 1st Place for the all around team score!

Way to go Ultimate!

Here are all the kids... Jake stayed home because he had baseball practice.

Sarah's 7th Birthday

2009-03-01T22:31:00.001-05:00

This year we decided that since we are taking the kids to Disney for Spring Break that all the kids would bypass big parties this year. We told them they could pick their favorite restaurant and take 2 - 3 of their best friends out to eat to celebrate.

For Sarah's birthday she chose to take her 3 friends to Olive Garden to celebrate with her.

Here are her three good friends.

Sarah, Kate Elizabeth, Julia Kate and Lauren.

This is Sarah's best friend, Julia Kate. They have been best friends since Kindergarten. This year they are in the same class again.

Sarah being silly!

All the girls together for a nice picture.

The silly picture!

She received some wonderful gifts and had a great time.

Till next time,

Barb

National Beta Club Induction ceremony

2009-03-01T22:02:00.002-05:00

We are so proud of Abigail, she was chosen to be apart of the National Beta club because of her good grades. She was in the Junior Beta Club in Middle school.

She has a 4.375 GPA, so needless to say, she is doing very well her first year in high school.

If you are reading this and you are a college scholarship organization, call us...

Here is Abigail getting her certificate.

Here is her racing by with her certificate.

Till next time,

Barb

Pure love now weekend..

2009-03-01T21:53:00.002-05:00

We hosted the 9th grade girls at our house for the pure love now weekend... I think they had a fun time.. but I am not sure.... I stayed in our bedroom most of the weekend to give them their privacy.

Here is a shot of them with the tiaras I got them all going into their afternoon session on Saturday.

Till next time,

Barb

Taking a tree down... a big job!

2009-03-01T20:43:00.003-05:00

We are officially the Griswold's... we took our Christmas tree... OH this is so embarrassing.. on Feb. 7th. The big rush was really because we were having Pure Love Now weekend at our house. We were hosting the 9th grade girls for the weekend.. so we had to take it down or embarrass our children in front of their friends...So we set off!

As you can see from the pictures our tree was still very nice looking.... oh I failed to mention it was a live tree....

Taking down our tree is a very long process... I have to take off all the ornaments and then line them all up by the year so they can be put away in their appropriate year bag. Mainly to make sure we don't lose any or leave them in the tree.. I also have a printed list were we check off each ornament as we take them off and put them in the appropriate year pile. We store all our special ornaments in one big box with lots of ziploc bags with each year labeled so that when we put the tree up we can start with our first year together "(1988) till the present... we get an ornament for Tyler and I and each child, each year... Here are all the special ornaments lined up from our living room to our front door.

Y'all are sworn to secrecy, not to tell our shameful story!

Till next time,

Barb

Cafe and Then Some

2009-02-27T07:05:00.005-05:00

We have some wonderful friends that we love to go out with and have fun! Heather and Gerry, Shane and Laurie, and Kelly and Rich you are the best! We look forward to our next outing!

So on January 23rd we went to Greenville to see The Real Housewives of Oconee County at Cafe and Then Some. We saw them in the fall and had a ball when they had their last show... I am not sure what it was called.

We had a great time at the show but it was not as good as the last one... I am looking forward to a new show coming and us going again.

Afterwards we went back to Shane and Laurie's house and the boys played video games and the girls chatted.

All and all a fun evening!

Here are some pictures to prove it!

Gerry, Rich and Tyler

Shane, Gerry and Rich

Kelly and Heather

Heather and Laurie

Heather and Me.

Can you tell who took over the camera with all the pictures of the girls.

My sweetie, doesn't he look good!

Be back soon with some more posts.

Till next time

Barb

Cheerleading..... Sarah

2009-02-12T16:48:00.005-05:00

Sarah started Upwards Cheer leading this year ands had her first game on January 9th.

She loves it... she is having so much fun... here are some shots from her first game.

Enjoy.

New Years Eve

2009-02-12T16:24:00.004-05:00

Well I figured, I waited so long to update you on Christmas that I would finally give you a very quick update on the rest of our life since then..

On New Years Eve, we went to the Biltmore house and to the farm on the Biltmore Estates.. Abigail's best friend Bethany came with us since she was going with Abigail to a party and then spending the night with us. We had a fun time, and all the kids enjoyed getting the audio tour to listen to while we walked through the house. It was absolutely freezing up by the house that day!!

Our Sunday school class is very active and every 8 weeks we buy, cook and serve breakfast at Miracle Hill Rescue Mission.

It is a wonderful time of fun and fellowship!

It is also a great reminder of how blessed we truly are!

Randy Digby, Mike Wofford and Tyler.

Carrie Keltner, Chandis Digby and half of Sarah

Gerry Cieluch, Johnathan Evatt and Troy Hudson.
I am not sure what Gerry is doing...??? it looks like supervising!!

Christmas Morning

2009-01-19T09:39:00.006-05:00

Welcome to our Carolina Christmas

Here are some shots from Christmas Morning

Abigail opening her stocking items

Hannah

Sarah, Jonathan and Abigail

Jonathan looking at his Star Wars fandex.

Jonathan got Madden 09, this will save us lots at Blockbuster, he always wants to rent it!

Tyler and Hannah, opening a much needed gift.

Hannah and Abigail acting silly.

Sarah's big gift this year an American Girl Doll, Ruthie.

Jonathan's big gift this year, a bike.

Hannah's big gift, an electric guitar.

Abigail's big gift, a cell phone.

I think she was the last of her friends to get one.

Me getting my new coat! Yeah!!!

The After look!

:-(

Jonathan playing with his roller coaster set.

Well that is a wrap up of our morning.... hope you enjoyed it!

Till next time

Barb

Oh, Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree!

2009-01-19T08:39:00.007-05:00

Our little Christmas tree in our dining room.

This was Tyler's Mom and Dad's tree.

The kids tree in the office.

This is the tree that all the kids homemade ornaments go on, and that they decorate all by themselves.

This is the family tree that Santa came to visit while we slept!

Another view of our tree!

The tree we forgot we bought last year.

We found this Christmas Eve, it was supposed to be the new kid's tree. We planned to put the 6ft tree (this years kids tree) in the dining room and this tree in the office for the kids since they are running out of room. This would also allow for some of our other ornaments to come off the main tree and give us more room for the ornaments we get every year. Maybe next year we will remember.

Christmas Eve

2009-01-19T08:08:00.006-05:00

Well here are a few shots of the family on Christmas Eve... I hope to get up to date one of these days... I am almost there!

One of our family's traditions is to open pajamas on Christmas Eve before we go to Christmas Eve service at church. Here are the kids opening their pj's.
Enjoy!

Pictures with Santa at the Mall

2009-01-16T10:11:00.011-05:00

We had our annual picture with Santa at the West Gate Mall. I have heard that the Santa at Haywood mall is really good, but as I have thought back to all of our Santa pictures I can truly say that the Santa at West Gate Mall is still better than the Santa's of our first visits in Connecticut.
So here is a walk through the years of the good, the bad and the ugly Santas, we have seen them all! (as you can tell it is not in this order)!

1994 - Abigail

Our first visit with Santa, wow at the time we thought he was good! This was supposed to be a "good" Santa, well for the area. We drove 30 minutes to see this Santa, this is at Meriden Square Mall in Meriden, Connecticut.

1995 - Abigail

This was also at Meriden Square Mall. Not so good, the next year we would pick another mall that was supposed to have a better (older looking) Santa.

1996 - Abigail and Hannah

This was done at West Farms Mall in West Hartford, CT.

Wow... these are bad

1997 - Abigail and Hannah

Can you tell we moved to the Atlanta Area. This was taken at the Gwinnett Place Mall in

Duluth, Georgia. He was a great Santa!

1998 - Abigail and Hannah

This was also taken at Gwinnett Place Mall. He was a good looking Santa also. Much more realistic than the Connecticut Santas.

1999 - Abigail ( in the pearls), Hannah and Jonathan

This was taken at the Mall of Georgia in Buford, Georgia.

On a side note, Jonathan and Hannah were getting over the chicken pox at this time.

They had a few scabs still on their faces.

2000 - Abigail, Hannah and Jonathan

This was taken at the Mall of Georgia also.

This is our picture, I am not sure what happened to the professional picture.

Not sure what Hannah was doing, or what Abigail was mad at, but Jonathan is happy go lucky as usual.

2001- Abigail, Hannah and Jonathan

This was taken at Discover Mills in Lawrenceville/Duluth, GA.

The story behind these outfits is that I won a $1,000.00 gift certificate to the mall on opening day, some time in October. We were so blessed since we had 3 small children and 1 (Sarah) on the way. We decided that we would buy all the presents for others and the kids from Discover Mills that year and that I would splurge on these outfits. I wanted to buy the kids outfits from the Strasburg Lace Children's store, since I would never normally pay this much for 4 outfits for the kids. I bought 4 outfits, one for the 3 kids and one for Sarah who was due in Feb. I bought all the outfits a little big so we could get 2 years out of them. I think we got many more since they were passed down each year.

2002 - Abigail, Hannah, Jonathan and Sarah

Here are the outfits again.

This was taken at Discover Mills in Duluth, Georgia.

2003 - Abigail, Hannah, Jonathan and Sarah

This was taken at Westgate Mall here in Spartanburg.

Our first Christmas in South Carolina.

Abigail still fits into the Strasburg dress.

2004 - Abigail, Hannah, Jonathan and Sarah

This was taken after we went on the Polar Express.

It is a wonderful train ride in North Carolina where the kids get to live out the book. They ride the train, sing songs, drink cocoa and have cookies on the way to the North Pole. I recommend it for anyone who has not done it. It is well worth it to go at least once. The kids loved it!

2005 - Abigail, Hannah, Jonathan and Sarah

This was taken at Westgate Mall in Spartanburg, SC.

2006 - Abigail, Hannah, Jonathan and Sarah

Westgate Mall

2007 - Abigail, Hannah, Jonathan and Sarah

This was taken at Westgate Mall in Spartanburg.

Tyler had been in China for most of December, so we went to visit Santa and sent him a picture on his phone. He came home on the 22nd of December I believe.

Finally to this year

2008 - Abigail, Hannah, Jonathan and Sarah

These are the professional shots.

I will also include my shots that I got this year.

Showing Santa their wish lists.

2009-01-14T23:03:00.005-05:00

All my blogging friends are doing this game of Photo Tag and it looked like fun!!

Here are the rules:

1. Go to your 4th picture folder

2. Use the 4th picture in the folder

3. Tell us about your picture!

4. Pass it on!

This is one of the many pictures that was taken during a trip to the Biltmore House to get the picture for our Christmas card.

Tag, your it!

Update to Sarah can fall asleep anywhere

2009-01-11T15:19:00.002-05:00

Sarah had a touch of pneumonia the last week of school in December and had to miss the last day, December 19th. We had to have her on breathing treatments every four hours to insure that it didn't get worse.

She was so tired obviously that she fell asleep while doing it!

Her poor little head kept falling to one side, but it never woke her.