Going to the chapel...it is wedding time!

JM drove the kids down to Eastland today for the wedding. He checked into the new Eastland hotel and got the kids dressed for the event while I was already at the wedding getting the food going for the evening. I have been crafting and cooking down the appetizer list that my mom left me in charge of since Wednesday morning. This worked out really good. I got to stay at home (in my pjs) and cook while she ran errands and picked up everything for the wedding. We all know that I would prefer to stay at home!!! Here is a pic of the flower girl basket I decorated and the toasting glasses.

This is the only pic I have of the many appetizers I prepared.

Anyway, didn't JM do a great job!

Ok. give me a little credit here! I laid all the clothes out for them, and I fixed their hair once they arrived at the wedding. Do you see that georgous tree and topiary behind them? Mr. James' theory...you can not have too many ornaments on your tree. I like that tree!!! JM better grab hold of the purse strings before next Christmas!!!!!

Actually, the wedding was at The Connelle in Eastland. The Connelle is an old hotel built back in the 20s that is slowly being remodeled (into office space). The top floor is an open ballroom decorated with a beautiful upside down Christmas tree designed by a local shop owner, James. Jacqline (the bride) picked the colors white, cream and gold to match the tree. It was absolutely elegant!!!!!!

Michael and Jacqline had a small wedding with no attendants. I think my brother wanted to keep it small for many reasons, but here are a few that I think played a HUGE role.

1. He does not like to be the center of attention. He is a HARD worker bee but does not like the spot light. Hmmm...sounds like his sister. My parents can take the credit for that...where else would we have learned that from.

2. He has been in MANY, MANY weddings over the last 10 years. All of which, set him back financially. He did not want to ask his friends to spend any $. Very reasonable in today's economy.

Well, the "not having attendants or flower girls" part did not ride well with our 6 year old! I was telling my mom about Lauren's fascination with being a flower girl at Jacqline's shower last month. I think the obsession has come from hearing her friends at school talk about being flower girls in weddings over the last 1 year. Anyway, Jacqline agreed to let Lauren walk down the aisle with her "bucket of flowers" as Lauren referred to it. Corynne ended up being a flower girl also. They did a great job. Thank you Jacqline for fulfilling a little girls' dream!!!!!

Mr. & Mrs. Michael Keith. Wow! I cannot believe my little brother is married!! He did pick a beautiful, sweet wife! We love her!!

The "I dos" were short and sweet. Now, on to the food and dancing!!! It was a FUN night!

Lyndsey loved the dance floor. She loved the how the disc ball made lights on the floor to jump over. At one point, she raised her dress above to expose her panties to make it easier to jump! What a character!!

My uncle Gayle loves to dance. He and Lauren enjoyed dancing together throughout the night!

This is my Dad who has lost a TON of weight over the last year on his special diet that includes 2-3 bowls of cereal each morning, a reasonable lunch and dinner, and a HUGE bowl (probably 3-4 scoops) of ice cream with chocolate syrup at night. WHAT?????? I want to be on that diet!

Jacqline retired her shoes towards the end of the evening. Lyndsey saw them on the table and decided to take her shoes off and put them beside them. It was a cute moment. Lyndsey made it the entire night. She even helped keep us going during clean-up by singing the Barney clean-up song at 11pm!!!

She even has a beautiful smile while she is climbing the walls at 11:30pm!!!!

Daddy Time

I did it again. I left town without the kids. JM has known for a while that this week was coming. I have planned to go to Texas the week before my brother's wedding for months--ever since my mom decided to do the catering herself! I was scheduled to leave on a Tuesday afternoon flight to Texas. JM took off work Wednesday through Christmas. I think he purposefully decided to work on Tuesday because it is a tough-run-the-kids-around day!?! Thankfully, our sweet all-purpose housekeeping sisters, Ms. Roberta and Ms. Dot, were there to save the day! they picked up the kids from school, ran all Tuesday dance and dance runs, fed the kids, and got them ready for bed.

On Wednesday, JM kicked into "mommy gear"! It started with a bang as always. A real bang that resulted in Lauren loosing another tooth. Does this sound familiar? (Last month I went to Texas for a funeral and my brother's wedding shower. JM took off a few days to watch the kids, and the kids ended up breaking a TV screen and knocking one of Lauren's teeth out.) This time Corynne flipped the 2nd row seat down in the Suburban to climb in the back and the seat hit Lauren's mouth just right. It truly was an accident, but tell me how this always happens on JM's watch?!?!

JM got the privilege to take all the kids to the dentist today. This appointment was scheduled 6 months ago, so I just left it. It is an easy job...you just have to get the kids to the office and sit and wait. JM seemed to have no problem, no cavities, and only 1 tooth pulled. He did notice that the waiting room was designed to be loud with a waterfall and echoing ceilings and floors. He decided it was so you could not hear the kids crying and screaming in the back.

On Thursday, JM got a taste of kids of all ages in 2 schools during finals week! Drop of 3 older kids at 7:30. Drop off Lyndsey at 9am. Pick up Tyler at 9:30. Get Ty to haircut at 10 am while taking care of banking business next door. Drop off check to contractor at new/old house under construction and answer a list of questions about a/c, plumbing, gas and windows. Pick up Lyndsey at 12:15. Pick up the other girls at 12:30. How does Misty possibly do all this and keep her sanity???

Friday morning was much like Thursday morning. Big kids all went to school at 7:30. JM finished up packing the car and picked Ty up by 9:30. Then the girls had Christmas parties at their school at 11. Did I forget to mention that I am the room mom for both the girls' classrooms.? Thankfully, the co-room mom for Lauren's class is Kelly Treadwell. She took over the party organization and execution for that class. I enlisted plenty of volunteers for Corynne's class, and JM was just in charge of bringing the entertainment for each class. Actually, he had to sent Corynne to school with the bingo game and bag of prizes and bring a bag of Christmas books to Lauren's class where he was to read some of them when Kelly told him to do so!

Again, he did a great job!

After the parties, it was off to the airport to catch the 1 pm flight to TX.

Well, before they got through security they found out the flight had been delayed 2 hours. They ate a Subway lunch and danced to the music provided by a DJ in the Montgomery airport for a while. Then JM decided to take them back to the car to watch a movie. Thank goodness for technology!!!!

They did finally board a flight. Lyndsey declared, "Dad, we are flying now. I want my snack."

After a 2 hour flight to DFW, they landed and began their journey to the Gaylord Texan where they were spending the night. JM had purchased tickets for the ICE show for them tonight and they went!

After a 10 pm snack/supper, JM got the kids to the room and in bed by 11:15pm. What a day!

The Nutcracker

Corynne performed in the annual Children's Nutcracker in Pratteville. It is a performance pulled together by 2 local dance companies. It is unique for our area in that it is the only show that does not use professional dancers for the lead parts. Corynne was an angel this year. For the brief time the sweet angels were on stage, they did a HEAVENLY job!

Tyler goes to his sisters' dance performances willingly to watch this girl perform! She is a sweet girl from his class at school! We like to give him a hard time!!!! hehe!!

Lauren made it till the last few numbers! She hits a wall at 8pm, and there is nothing quiet and slow moving that is going to keep her awake!

Band Concert

Tonight was Tyler's first Band concert. They had a family Christmas Dinner and Concert at the school this evening. It is Tuesday night, and the girls all have dance at different times starting at 4pm and ending at 730pm. So JM decided to attended this concert on our behalf with the video camera, and I promised Tyler that I would be at the end-of-year concert. He was a little disappointed, but he took it in stride. I watched the video (days later), and his little 6th grade band did a good job for the less than 5 minutes that they played! ( I don't feel to guilty now!)

Jesus, Santa & Gingerbread Houses

Lyndsey woke up this morning and ran into our room. She was so excited because today, "we go to church. then we go see Santa. then we make Gingerbread Houses." JM described her excitement to be off the charts just like the 1st day at Disney World. She could not contain herself, and she wanted to get the day started!!!

First we got a few pics before church. Opps, I guess these are from last Sunday! Good pic though so I will add it here!

Then a few shots before we went into Wynlakes for lunch.

The kids love to eat at the Country Club buffet, but I really have a problem with the cost. It seems that the bad economy has encouraged them to make a few changes. It is now a little more reasonable since we do not have to pay for kids under 7! Good thing...because Lyndsey was so excited to see Santa that I think she only ate 5 or 6 bites.

Next we went over to the Santa party. The girls made Gingerbread Men while we waited for Tyler to join us. He thought if he wasted enough time chit-chatting with other tables that he would miss the Santa visit, but Mom was smarter than the average Momma Bear! I entertained the girls at the crafts table until Tyler decided to join us!!! Ha! Ha! Ha! I mean HO! HO! HO!

This was Lyndsey's first chat with Santa. All prior years, she has been afraid of Santa. This year she ran up to Santa and jumped into his lap. She knew exactly what she wanted to ask Santa to bring her. "I want a Dora bouncing ball and a Diego backpack because my Mom will not buy them for me!" She is straight to the point.

After Lyndsey talked to Santa, she went to JM and told him she was ready to go home to make Gingerbread houses!

We had a great family afternoon of decorating our gingerbread houses. I think I am going to get my own house to decorate next year, because the kids are old enough now to do their own house their own way. I really do not get to express my creative side during this family project anymore :( The kids had a blast, and I enjoyed watching them have fun. Yes, it is possible to get sugar sick from watching your kids eat all that candy. I only ate a few M&Ms and I was "sick" all afternoon!!!

The final results in age order...Tyler, Corynne, Lauren, and Lyndsey.

Th BIG Game

John Mark got 2 tickets to the SEC Championship game between Alabama and Florida at the Georgia Dome. He and Tyler were so excited to head up to Atlanta today. JM adored his Alabama gear. In his closet, he has an broad range of college gear from Alabama, Auburn, Texas and Baylor. We have not really chosen sides (as required to be a true Alabama resident) so we just go to which ever sporting event we want to and root for that team! Well, Tyler has chosen sides. He roots for AUBURN. Therefore, he wore his TEXAS gear to the Alabama game!

Hmmmm...the national championship game in a few weeks should spark a rivalry in our house! Or will the Texan in JM return to support his team?!?!

Dancing at the Zoo

Each year the girls' dance studio performs at the Zoo. Each year it is on one of the coldest nights in December. This year was no exception!!! Granddad and Noni were able to stop by Montgomery to watch the girls dance. They were so excited to have someone "special" there to watch them perform! Lauren was the first of our girls to perform. She is growing up so fast. She is a leader in her group, and she is enjoying being back with her friend Trinity.

After a LONG wait for a 3 year old, Lyndsey performed next to last for the evening. She was a bit of a handful until she was back stage with her sidekicks. She refused to leave the mittens, halo and scarf on even though they were helping keep her warm! Once she was back with her "my friends from my class", she settled down and was ready to dance!

The picture below was sooo funny at the time! Our poor little white girl just has not learned how to shake her stuff quite as good as the other girls in the class. I think the other girls have the "ethnic advantage"!

The final performance of the night was the Angels from the Nutcracker! Corynne danced beautifully as always!