Thanksgiving, The Iron Bowl and such....

I have been so bad about blogging lately. I realize this and still have not sat down to do anything about it.

This week went by so fast. The boys were off of school and we had a lot going on. So much that I actually had my camera with me most of the week and forgot to take any pictures. I think part of that is when I realized I did not have any pictures of the things going on my camera did not work correctly. I need a new one and its on my Christmas list but I am not crossing my fingers on it. However, Chris did promise me that by the time Conner graduated from high school I will have the camera I want. So.... only 3 years to wait (at the most).

Lets see, Thanksgiving.... hmm... holidays are not what they used to be I guess. I still love them but Chris worked on Thanksgiving so it was just Kennedi and I hanging out at the house all day. I have to admit that it felt like just another day to us. We picked the boys up at 3 and then headed up to the north side of Atlanta to my brother's house. They had a good portion of my family for dinner. We hit it at dessert (what better time!). We got there, ate some dessert and then I ate some of the leftover turkey. It was sooo good. Of course we had to head home right about the time the turkey was kicking in so I was a little tired on the ride home.

Poor Chris sent me a message from work that day telling me that the cafeteria at the hospital was not even open so he was stuck with a peanut butter sandwich and then golden grahams for dessert. What a way to spend a holiday! I think its horrible that people are stuck working on a holiday and they do not even get to eat. Thankfully he is off on Christmas so at least then we will have a good meal on the actual holiday as a family!

Chris did get his Thanksgiving dinner, just a day late. Last Christmas, Santa brought Chris a turkey fryer and Friday we decided to take it out and use it... FOR THE FIRST TIME! I had never had fried turkey before and when I looked at it after it was cooked I was not sure about it. When I bit into a piece he cut, it was great!! We will be frying our turkey for our Christmas dinner this year! Again, part of my family came over to have some food and enjoy a football game.

Kennedi and her cousin Bryan cheering on Auburn! (and that is all of the pictures from the week)

After we got the turkey done and we ate it was game time!! The game we wait all year for... THE IRON BOWL (Auburn vs Alabama). Ok maybe not all year since Chris is a Georgia fan and I am an Auburn fan, that maybe the game we wait all year for.... but I digress. I have to admit going into the game I figured that we were going to get stomped. I mean really, a high school team could have beaten Auburn this year and now we had to play the #2 team in the nation... like we have a chance. Oh it was good!!! I wont go into all the details (mainly because my memory for detail is not good) but we were extremely close to the upset! But... we did not get it and that is OK. We played a closer game than anyone thought and now... there is always next year!!!

So, now it is Sunday, a day of getting ready to head back to school in the morning. Conner has spent a good portion of the day reading a book he was supposed to read over break (and started last night). And Avery and I went on the hunt for guitar strings to replace the one his teacher broke the last week of school. Wow I already miss break!! I guess it is time to sit and relax and get ready for another typical week with kids!!

I Got to Meet STELLAN!!!!

How cool is that?!?!

Small Fry, PC, and Stellan!

I happen to think it is pretty darn cool! The MckFamily is in Atlanta for the week celebrating Thanksgiving with some of their family. She decided to have a get together with all those southern followers. The weather was horrible today but I am so glad Kennedi and I decided to still go. After Kennedi's nap we headed up to Grant Park for a get together under a pavilion. It is amazing to see Stellan after what he recently went through. Well, I guess not recently since he has been going through it on and off since before he was born. This baby is incredible!! He is so laid back. There were so many people around and nothing phased him.

Me, Kennedi and MckMama (Jennifer)

I could go on and on about him and the miracle that he is. When talking to MckMama I had asked her about when Stellan gets older and the sports thing. I was amazed (and had chills) when she said that his heart is now no different that yours or mine. He can play sports or do whatever he wants. Here is a baby who's heart stopped, who's heart never worked correctly and now, as MckMama put it, "his heart has no memory at all of anything before the surgery". Wow... modern medicine is amazing!!

Actually all four of MckMama's kids are pretty darn cute! Small Fry (on left) and Kennedi seemed to hit it off for a little while. Small fry had her hat on (of course) and would pull it over her eyes and then Kennedi tried to take it off her. They was just so sweet (yes both small fry and Kennedi).

Small Fry and Kennedi (they would not stay still-of course) for me to get a picture

I got a few pictures but Chris had to work so he was not able to go. That left me chasing a 15 month old around and trying to keep her out of the rain (yeah that didn't happen). I did find that rain does not phase Kennedi at all! She loved to walk around in it. I also felt bad snapping a lot of pictures. There were many people there with cameras and I did not want to take too many....
Kennedi was getting mad since I made her come out of the rain!!

ahh the weekend!!

This is the 1st weekend in a very long time where we have no sports we need to attend! I have to say it is so nice. Auburn is off (but who wants to see them right now anyway, Conner is done with baseball for the season and Avery's lacrosse ended last weekend).

I guess now my weekends will be filled with Christmas shopping.

Chris and I had two court cases coming up for us. One was with the kids that broke into my old house (that we have on the market) and then one with his ex wife. Earlier this week we had gotten notice from our attorney that we would be heading back to court again for something that Chris' ex-wife took us to court over a year and a half ago. She went to a judge, lied and then got Chris' visitation with his now 6 year old taken away. Hmmm funny thing is that this week we got notice that she dropped the whole thing. So, now we will not be going back to court with her. I guess she pretty much admitted there that she lied about the whole thing. Well that is all done (for now at least). So from here on out his divorce papers and the way they were written are back into place.

With my case on the kids that broke into the house. They had their arraignment this week. I did not have to be there but I got an email later that day saying they had awarded me with the money I wanted back (for repairs that I did and still have to make). So I will have a check coming to me in the very near future!

What a wonderful week in and out of court!!

Now on to the family pictures I wrote about earlier this week. They were a disaster!! There were a few good ones like I thought (the one of Kennedi and Chris was great) but most of them were really, really bad! They gave us a free package because they turned out so bad and we picked a post of the 4 kids. It would be a decent picture if it was not so dark (they had the lights set on the wrong setting, knew it and continued to shoot the pictures). I still have not done anything about getting new ones taken. We wont be able to get them done of everyone since scheduling is impossible so I am going to take Conner, Avery and Kennedi to a park or something this week and try to get some good shots for a Christmas card.

Well time to go do some Christmas shopping since Chris is working all day and the boys are at the dads house. It's girls day at the stores!!!

Who said pictures were fun?

Now that the weekend is over and things have calmed down I am going to attempt to finish the weekend tales.....

Like I mentioned in the last post, Chris went down to get Dakota for the day on Saturday. We planned on having some family pictures taken for Christmas card (and one for the wall). I guess the idea of a NICE and SERIOUS family picture is out of the question.

Before we went I threatened the life talked to my boys on how to smile properly. You would think that at 15 and 12 years old they would know how to do this. Most of the time they are great about it but they do still have their moments. Chris also had a talk with Dakota and explained that his goofy smile is cute, but not in a serious family picture.

It was a stressful day from the time we got home from the lacrosse game until the pictures were over. We had about 40 minutes from when we got home from the game until we have to leave the house. That is not enough time to get 6 people ready (but we did it). We had a few snags at the house. Conner had a pair of pants he had picked out to wear but when he put them on he found they were REALLY short on him... and.. they would not button. I guess he had grown a little since the last time he wore them. Thankfully, Conner did have another pair of pants that worked just fine. Problem #1 solved, move on to #2!

When we went to get Dakota's clothes out of the suitcase that his mom sent with him, we pulled out outfit number one (we had planned on two sets of clothing for the pictures).... of course, the jeans had grass stains ALL OVER THE KNEES! Ugh! We do not have any extra clothes here for him since we rarely get to see him (if we did he would have outgrown them anyway). Well, thankfully Avery had a old pair of jeans that Dakota was able to get into. They were a little big but they worked A LOT better than dirty, grass stained jeans would have. Whew, problem #2 solved. I had hoped this would be it for the problems.

NOT A CHANCE! We get to the picture place for our 1:40 appointment time to find the place PACKED. I asked how backed up they were (we had people coming over to the house at 4 to watch some football), we were then told about 30 minutes. Not great but we decided to wait and see if we could get it in. Finally, about an hour and 20 minutes later they took us back to get our pictures done. We started getting the pictures taken and then while the kids were having theirs done together one of the photographers said, "you will have to retake all your pictures, your lighting was set at 15". I have no clue what that meant but there was no time to retake! The photographer looked at the pictures on her camera and said she had enough light in them. Wonderful!

As we are taking pictures, I am looking at the boys to make sure they are following the instructions we gave them. Like that would happen! Not a chance... picture after picture... the youngest one of the 3 boys had that goofy smile. UGH! Stress level increased!

A few minutes later, Kennedi decided she was done taking pictures (it was way past nap time). Since we had about 30 minutes to get home we asked if we could come back to look at the pictures. They told us we could so we will head back there sometime this week.

I honestly do not think we will get any of those pictures. Between bad lighting and a smile that is not fitting for family pictures, I am not holding my breath that many will be good of the group. We did get a few done with Chris and Kennedi and a few with Conner, Avery and Me that I think will be OK. There may even been one of Chris, Kennedi and Dakota that maybe OK.

Needless to say, I am making an appointment for early next week when the kids are out of school for fall break (at a different picture place) to have some more pictures taken of them for the Christmas card this year. I really hope this time it is a lot less stressful!

He shoots.... he scores!!

Yesterday we all has such a full day. It was actually almost too full!

Avery had his last lacrosse game of the season. I was really bummed because I love watching him play. This is like his 4th year playing and he has improved so much. He has ALWAYS played defense and for some reason last week his coach put him in attack for a few minutes. I really had no idea what the coach was thinking when he did this but Avery was AMAZING! For someone that had never played attack he was on! He had his first assist and had a few shots but he also had a few incredible catches and plays. When he came out apparently the coach asked him where all that came from. Funny thing was that it was the same thing I was thinking on the sidelines.

As I said, this week was his last game and he got a lot more time in the front. In fact he played attack, middie, and defense in the game. For being my very ADD child, he did an amazing job switching gears between all three positions. At one point he was put in as a long stick middie. He did have a little trouble with this but I think if he played it a little more it would become natural to him. The best part of the game was when Avery SCORED HIS FIRST GOAL EVER!!!!!!! Of course I did not get him shooting on camera (I was too excited) but I did get the ball in the net after the shot. Hey I was not used to having to take a picture while Avery actually shot the ball!!

Here are some pictures from the game.

Avery getting ready to start the game as a middie and take the face off

There is Avery's goal (well the ball in the net). That is not Avery in the picture (he is #3 on white)

Avery almost scored on this play also. He rolled around the defense and shot but it went just to the right.

Avery with his D pole.

Chris was able to get Dakota for the day yesterday also. We were getting a family picture taken (more on the fiasco later). Here is Kennedi and Dakota running around at the game. This was the 1st time that Dakota met his little sister, Kennedi (isn't that horrible?)!

Avery's team won, YAY! It was a great game and a great way to end the season. We cant wait until spring. He is already talking about how he hopes he gets more chances to play attack!!

I will update on the rest of the weekend later.