Wrapping up 2010

wow! I am really behind! We have had a wonderful fall and Christmas! It has been a healthy past couple of months and I am so thankful for being able to enjoy life and my family!! Life is busy so here are a few pictures of the past couple of months. The pictures are scattered around, there is no order, sorry but enjoy.

Sittre Paige's 4k class at the Pumpkin Patch

hanging out with her class at the pumpkin patch

Roasting marshmellows for the yummy smores

Rock climbing at the Pumpkin Patch

This is not a great picture at all but it was her dance class Halloween party, she was a cheerleader this year......all her idea by the way. She told me that at school on the playground the boys are football players and the girls are cheerleaders so thats how she came up with that one.

Eating Chik-fil-a with her friend Emma

How cute are these two friends???

Okay, are you laughing your head off right now??? Stella was Dora the Explorer for Halloween. I couldn't think of anything cute this year so thats what she became. We watch Dora probably once a day and Stella loves her. Plus Dora taught Stella how to count to ten so we will give Dora credit. I made her wig by the way, out of brown yarn. I am sure Stella will possibly hate me for this costume one day.

My friend Caris and I took the SP and Stella to see Disney Princess on Ice and while we were there we ran ino SP's friend Bentley from school. We had lots of fun that day!

Stella, SP, Bentley and Bentley's sister Addison before the show.

Stella and I before the princess show started.

Caris and I relaxing back at home after Disney on Ice. Caris was such a trooper. I am sure she never wants kids now after experiencing my diva's at the show.

SP's 4k class had favorite Team day, so of course Roll Tide.

SP turned 5 in November so we made her class some cupcakes for her big day.

We had her a Hello Kitty Makeup birthday party setup in our garage.

She had Hello Kitty cakepops. Easy, easy cleanup and no cutting cake, it was great!

My mom with the girls before the party started.

SP getting her hair done at her party.

Opening her presents

With some of her precious friends, Savannah and Elly

Showing her daddy some love after the party

We took the girls to see Tangled in the theater on Thanksgiving Day. Was absolutely the cutest movie ever!! I am more excited than the girls to get the DVD when it comes out! We are pretty much a movie family, we are all movie lovers.

Stella and I in the theater

Sittre Paige's 4k Christmas/ Happy Birthday Jesus Party

cupcakes. yum.

Waiting in line to "shop". They had a goody bag store set up where the kids could go shop and put items in their goody bags. Apparently my kid was the most excited.

This was her 4k Christmas Program. She is on the 3rd row with a green bow, this is the best picture I could get because my camera doesn't take good pictures from far away.

Pops and SP after the program.

Okay wrong season right? Nope this isn't Halloween. We went shopping one night at the new Leeds outlet mall and my kids find these clearance kitty ears that they just had to have! So a week before Christmas my kids are walking around Christmas trees with kitty ears on. nice.

Jared and I took the girls to a LIVE nativity scene this year. It was really cool, SP really enjoyed chatting with the wisemen. This nativity scene had a camel, a donkey, and some goats! It was awesome.

The girls with Santa

At Bass Pro after seeing the fish. This is actually a very deceiving picture, SP looks cute but actually she is not sharing the popcorn with her sister.

Okay see these pictures are out of order, the was the pumpkin patch on the hayride

Having fun on the hayride

We took some Christmas pictures and I just loved this one of the girls

Our family, Merry Christmas

The sisters, we are all obsessed with boots this season :) I mean girls and shoes just go together.

Hopefully I can get some more Christmas pictures up on here soon.

Stella turns 2 in less than a month so I am currently working on her birthday party. With SP's birthday in November, then Christmas and then Stella's birthday in January makes for a very tired mommy. Stay tuned, our life keeps going.

Weekend in Ohio

We went and spent this past weekend with Jared's sister who lives in Ohio. We had such a great time! We left Thursday afternoon and stopped in Knoxville for dinner and to stay at our hotel, then we woke up very early on Friday to hit the road and made it to the house by noon. The girls did a great job riding in the car, and were really excited to spend time with their cousins.

Friday afternoon the kids played and then we went to eat at a place called the Pizza Cottage for dinner, we had an awesome BLT pizza!

Saturday we woke up to go to Brady's soccer game, went to a cool general store called Anderson's to shop, went and ate lunch at Culver's (best burgers ever), then Brady had another soccer game, and then we made our way to the Apple Farm to pick us some apples. Had a spectacular and busy day! We made our way home on Sunday. The girls are already missing their cousins.

Just to give you a heads up, you will see a bear in almost every picture and that's because in Sittre Paige's 4K class they have a class bear who is called "Button Bear". Each week a different child gets to bring button bear home for the weekend to take care off and then we record in a notebook what we did with button bear. We just so happened to get the bear this busy weekend, so we took button bear everywhere and he even had to have his own highchair at every restuarant we went too!! It was fun to keep up with my children AND the bear.

When we got there Friday, Abby came home from school and the girls were wearing the exact same outfit! Sittre Paige adores Abby so much, they are 2 years apart and play so good together!

Stella playing peek a boo at Pizza Cottage


The kids at Pizza Cottage

Stella and Button Bear riding in the cart at Anderson's

Eating lunch on Saturday

The girls at Brady's soccer game

Stella eating an apple at the Apple Farm. It was so cool, you just pick your apples off the trees and taste test them!!

The whole gang at the apple farm

Our family picture. I am so glad the girls decided to be cooperative. Don't you just love their big smiles??? (sarcasm)

The cousins minus Stella

He's not finished with me yet

yay!!! I'm alive!! this is my post-surgery blog by the way. Just a recap, I had my large intestine (colon) removed on August 18th due to Crohns/ Colitis. Doctors still haven't been able to pin-point exactly which one I had. But I am feeling great! I can't believe the life I am living now compared to the one I have been living this past year. I regret I didn't do it sooner.

The surgery was a success and I only had to stay in the hospital for 6 days. The pain however, was a different story. I was extremely sore to say the least. Apparently when you remove something as large as the colon from your body, your other organs have to shift and find a new place to settle, which was weird feeling that. I couldn't stand up straight for about 2 solid weeks. I was really scared that I would never stand up straight again. But I am, thank you Jesus. I was seriously eye-level with my 4 year old. For the first couple of weeks, I couldn't really stand up for longer than 20 minutes without starting to hurt. Therefore, I sat....alot. My actual first trip to Target post-surgery I had to use the motorized cart thing. I almost killed about 3 people, so I am pretty thankful for the gift of walking.

I am so appreciative of the prayers and support. I seriously would have never made it without my family and friends. I am enjoying my life so much now. I still get tired about the middle of the day, but I get to nap with my girls (advantage of a stay-at-home mom). I am gaining weight because food is all of a sudden really good!!! I feel like I missed out on so much this past year and am really ready to enjoy the holidays!!! Fall is such a busy time for us and I am excited to have the energy to do things! Sittre Paige turns 5 in November and my baby Stella turns 2 in January! Then we have a Disneyworld trip planned for February. So we should have some fun the next few months! yay!

Health is so precious. I feel I know what it is like to have it taken away. I have had the opportunity to realize the important moments that truly matter in life. I have never loved my husband more than I do right now because he has shown me how to truly love. I have never wanted to squeeze my kids more than I do right now because I didn't have the energy to a year ago. I am so thankful that God chose to heal me through surgery. He's not finished with me yet.

Here are some picture of things we have been doing since I feel good.

This was our family trip to Homestead Hollow. And this is how my children take pictures now. Look how sweet and loving they are being to each other (kidding)

Sittre Paige's 1st spend the night company. They had such a great time, started the night of at Pump It Up for a birthday party, shopped at Publix for some cereal and then ended the night with a movie.

We took a short beach trip for our 6 year anniversary with the girls. This is our seashell sandcastle.

Stella and Jared. The water was beautiful, probably the most clear I have ever seen it. And look at my stinkin' cute baby!

Daddy and girls.

My first lunch out about 4 weeks after surgery at Jim N Nicks. Yum. My oldest took this picture.

This is what happens when your camera-obsessed child asks you to take a picture of her.

Sittre Paige's 1st day of 4K.

Stella giving my brother Jacob some love.

On our way to "Meet the Teacher" Day. Obviously from this silly pose we started the day off with a cereal full of sugar :)

Sittre Paige's 4K teacher, Mrs. Newberry. Love, love her.

Had to do some posing.