Thankful

I am very thankful for my family!

We had a great thankgiving luncheon at Hannah and Samantha's school. We made cute little turkeys and pilgrilm hats. The kids made place mats for Thankgiving dinner and each of their classes did a little skit.

Thanksgiving dinner was had at my parents house in NC. We had a fantastic time and left very full.

After dinner, Tom and my dad took Hannah to try out Tom's 22 and she really enjoyed it.

Charlene and I had a fantastic time shopping on black friday. We started out Thanksgiving night around 9pm and got home around 6:30am Friday morning. We got some great deals, Santa would be proud!

This would usually be the weekend where we would get out all our Christmas decorations, but luckily my nephew came over last weekend and helped us put up our tree and then helped us put up the outside lights yesterday....so it's all done.

Hope you had a fantastic Thankgiving and black friday weekend.

Anniversary Dinner

I had to work late on Friday night....our anniversary. I didn't get home until after 7pm.

The girls had everything worked out for our dinner knowing that we didn't have the $ to go out to eat. Tom wasn't allowed out of the bedroom and they had been hard at work since about 5pm. They had swept the kitchen floor, prepared menus, set up a dance floor, set up a band, set the table and had everything all prepared for a nice in-home-family-restaurant.

So when I walked into the house, they took my purse and bag and had me close my eyes and led me to the bedroom. From there, they led Tom and I into the living room and onto the couch. Then the band proceeded to entertain us.

Once the band was done playing - quite well I might add, we proceeded into the very clean dining room and were presented with our own menus. Here is a tidbit of mine:

We had our choice of drinks - notice the beer selections - too funny....they must have gone into the garage refrigerator and looked at Tom's beer choices to write these down. Precious!

Here are the sides that we got to choose from.

And lastly, our dessert selections.

I must say, our waitresses were very well mannered and got a very LARGE tip from us. They did a great job and we will certainly be frequenting this restaurant again in the very near future.

The only complaint I have is that I had to do the dishes....but considering the dinner was free....I guess I can't complain too much!

I thank God every day for my precious girls!

Think we wore them out?

16 years ago today

I married my best friend!

We met through a mutual friend. Becky and I had gone to church together and she was telling me about a neighbor that she wanted me to meet. She brought him to church the next week to meet me. I had just broken up with a guy and wanted only friendship. He courted me for a while and we instantly became best friends and then developed the relationship. I remember when he proposed to me.....it was at the Virginia Beach boardwalk. He had already gotten permission from my father and everyone knew about it but me. He got on one knee and recited a poem he had written for the occasion. It was so romantic, I was brought to tears. I only had eyes for him. When he was done and I had accepted and we broke apart our kiss and applause broke out. We were oblivious to the crowd we had drawn.

We had a beautiful ceremony with about 150 people present. I borrowed my dress, he rented his tux. My sister (8 months pregnant with her son) was my maid of honor and his best friend Sam Gates was his Best Man. My attendants were Tom's sister, Kristin and Becky. Tom's groomsmen were Jim Stewart and Rolf Cuerrvou. Tom's brother, Corey was our ring bearer and Jim's daughter Lauren was our flower girl. Our family did the reception we had in the church fellowship hall. We got married at Lindale Church of Christ in Chesapeake, VA.

Today we have 2 beautiful daughters and are living our dream. Of course, we have had many bumps in the road: financial issues, surgeries and retirement; but also some joys along the way: our daughters, our home, our vacations in our camper and retirement.

Here's to 50 more years of happiness...

Happy Anniversary Baby!

Fall has arrived!

It may have looked like fall this morning, but it still doesn't FEEL like it. Yesterday it was 74 degrees...how is that fall weather? Craziness! At least I woke up this morning to the beautiful site of colorful leaves scattered over my front lawn.

Welcome Fall, it's about time!

Our 2010 Christmas Cards from Shutterfly

Here is our 2010 Christmas cards that I just finished from Shutterfly! How beautiful they turned out!

We had a family reunion a few months ago on the Eastern Shore with a private beach and I captured some beautiful shots of the girls on the beach and wanted them for our Christmas cards....I'm overjoyed with how well they turned out! I hope you enjoy it too!

Christ Wishes Religious Christmas Card

Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Shutterfly Holiday Cards

I have my Christmas card pics all ready to go, just need to order cards. Shutterfly does a beautiful job of capturing your pictures in various holiday cards and in beautiful print and color. I love to look back at our cards and see how our girls have grown, since we use them as the theme of each of our holiday cards. We've done silly ones to serious ones.


We are planning to order from Shutterfly again this year, because of their reputation for making beautiful cards. They have a variety of spectacular Holiday creative designs to choose from. There are even birthday themed cards so you could do birthday invitations or even regular photo cards. I've also done a few photo books that will take your breath away. I've done them for summers and for Disney vacations. What a wonderful way to remember a special time in your children's lives and have them show off where they've been.


Here's one of my favorite cards - very hard to choose just one:



















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Which one is a "must have" for your family?