Water Logged

When I say we're water logged, I mean it! I believe the only time we weren't in the water this long Memorial Day weekend was when we were sleeping. It was a great weekend with family and friends and we are excited to get this summer started. Can't wait to post some of the CUTEST pics of the boys enjoying the water! More to come...

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Easter 2012

Easter this year was one of the best Easter's we've had as a family in a long time. I credit that to our return to our old church, Dawson Memorial Baptist Church. Ray and I went to Dawson when we were dating and we attended pre-marital classes there before we got married. After we were married, we attended the young marrieds class and met some really great couples. Then, life sort of took over and we decided we lived a bit too far to drive to Dawson every Sunday so we opted to have "church on the couch" for some time. Some Sunday's we'd even have "church at the gym" and watch Dr. Fenton's message on television while working the elliptical.

After moving to our current house, we visited several churches in our community to grow our faith and to get better connected with our neighbors. Although each of those churches were great churches and unique in their own way, they just weren't home for us. So, a few weeks ago we decided to return to Dawson and we couldn't be happier. This decision comes at a time in our life and marriage where we need faith and a church family more than ever! Let's face it, raising children and having careers can be time consuming and stressful. We feel like we've let our faith suffer and we have made a decision to mend ourselves with our Dawson church family. And, we know our decision was the right one because Jackson & Macklin couldn't be happier! They LOVE Sunday school and have adjusted better than we expected.

Once we got home from church, we had Easter lunch together and enjoyed hiding (and finding) Easter eggs and our Easter baskets. It was a great Easter Sunday! Pin It

Irresistible

Isn't he? Happy V-Day!

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Merry Christmas

This is the best we could do for a family Christmas picture as it was just the 4 of us.

We hope you and your families have a very Merry Christmas!

Love, Ray, Amye, Jackson (4) and Macklin (2)

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School Christmas Parties

The boys have been pretty excited about their room Christmas parties, mostly because there are cupcakes and candy of some sort involved they get to ingest quickly and multiple times! I was THRILLED this year that we donated money to a party fund and the teachers handled the rest--THANK YOU PRECIOUS TEACHERS! Here are a few pictures of all the fun!

Jackson's Class enjoying "The Night Before Christmas" during story time

Macklin's class singing "Jingle Bells" during Christmas carols

 Macklin entranced by his train stickers from Santa; Jackson's classroom wish list to Santa

Macklin full of sugar and ready to head home!

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Christmas Card Sneak Peak

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Twelve days and counting; are you finished with your cards, done shopping, have your Christmas meal planned? I have a few items checked off my list, but need to get a move on a few more. Merry Christmas! Pin It

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

The past few years (since Jackson & Macklin were born) we've had two Christmas Tree's. One was our traditional red & silver ornament tree with clear lights and the other had fun ornaments for the boys with color lights. This year, we decided to have one larger tree and combine the decorations. Jackson has been very concerned about Santa Claus being able to find the tree when he comes down the chimney, so we were sure to place it right next to it so he would have no worries on Christmas Eve!

We use a lot of glass ornaments--dinosaurs, travel ornaments, elephants, trains--you name it! Next, we add lots of silver, red & striped Christmas balls and metal "C' ornaments.

Normally, we top it off with red and silver sparkle picks and ribbon, but this year I left it bare--not sure why I just opted for a bit of simplicity.

We did add a train underneath that has smoke & a whistle--the boys are MOST EXCITED!

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Christmas LOVE

Our house is covered over with bins of Christmas decorations--both exciting and overwhelming! As we fill our rooms with Christmas LOVE, I wanted to share with you some of my Christmas inspiration courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens...Happy Christmas Decorating!

 Beautiful Christmas Mantel

 Great Holly Berry & Pine decoration for the staircase!

 I LOVE this idea of using everyday containers with a seasonal message!

Wreath collection--very simple and elegant!

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Happy Thanksgiving

We've made it a family tradition to ALWAYS cook a full Thanksgiving meal at our house, even if we were attending Thanksgiving festivities elsewhere. We love all the hustle and bustle of chopping, mixing and creating yummy dishes we miss throughout the year. We had a great time (and the boys helped along the way) and we ate ourselves into a coma (almost)! Happy Thanksgiving!

Macklin makes hot chocolate while Jackson enjoys bacon & pancakes!

Enjoying a little Edgar's pumpkin cookie for an after breakfast snack!

Table set for a Thanksgiving feast, Carle style! 

 Jackson surprising us as he tears into a turkey leg!

 Macklin staying true-to-form while refusing to eat anything except vanilla yogurt!

 Macklin down for the count (that yogurt must have been good)!

Daddy throws in the towel, too! Everything was DELISH!!

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Thanksgiving LOVE

Thanksgiving deserves it's due! After all, it is one of the most enjoyable days of the year as you get to overload your plate with some of the best dishes you don't make all year (why, I do not know b/c they are SO GOOD) and watch football (at least, that's how WE do it at our house)! We never decorate for Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving and when I decorate for Halloween, I try to use items that lend themselves to Thanksgiving too! So, in my inspiration searching for Thanksgiving, I came across these photographs which reminded me of Thanksgiving. The use of natural elements, fall hues like orange and chocolate, candles, pumpkins and of course, cornucopias, help us share the Thanksgiving LOVE--Gobble, Gobble!!

 

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Happy July 4th

Happy 4th of July! We spent the day at the lake with some great friends.

Hope you had a wonderful, sunny day!

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Happy Valentine's Day

Tonight we'll be celebrating at home making a yummy dinner with the boys--exactly how I like spending my Valentine's Day! We probably won't take any of these quizzes or use the love song playlist but I wanted to share links to all these in case you need something oohy-gooey to do with your Valentine!

Quiz: Famous Couples Trivia Quiz: Romantic Movie Trivia Quiz: What's Your Chocolate IQ? Valentine's Day Playlist

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Our Family Christmas

Hello--miss us? Our entire house has been sick with the flu so we've been more than behind on a few things the past week or so. Fortunately, things are slowly beginning to get back to normal and our health is on the up-swing! We had a wonderful snow-filled Christmas and hope to relax for what is left of 2010. I wanted to share a few holiday pictures with you of our Christmas festivities--hope you enjoy and we'll see y'all in 2011!!

Watching the Polar Express and having popcorn

Decorating the gingerbread house

Sprinkling reindeer food for Santa's reindeer!

Cookies & milk for Santa

Unwrapping presents Many, many train rides Enjoying the Christmas Day snow!

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