1st Grade Musical

We spent Matthew's birthday watching our sweet 1st grader in the Wonderful World of Disney musical. It was precious as always, and we were proud of our little princess! She was one of about 8 kids in the entire 1st grade class to have multiple speaking parts as well as a Zipadee Doo Dah solo, and she did a perfect job. It would not surprise us one bit if Mary Beth ended up in musical theatre, she loves it so!

We were so happy that Nana, Deedah, Aunt Lauren, and James were able to come as well!

Alabama weekend

We just got home from a wonderful weekend in Alabama! All fall, we tried to find a good weekend to get away for a Bama game. We missed going to a game last year due to sports and we were determined not to do that again!

We left straight from Matthew's scrimmage on Thursday night and made it halfway. Then, Friday morning, we jumped in the car and made it to Birmingham by early afternoon. My dad grew up in Birmingham, and we have such sweet memories of going there several times a year to visit our grandmother. It is such a special place for our family, and we enjoyed driving around this beautiful city, taking in the scenery and enjoying a picture perfect day. The trees were in their height of color, and I will remember this day for a very long time!

We also made it to the statue of Vulcan. This was made for the World's Fair in 1904 to showcase Birmingham. When I was a little girl, Vulcan held a torch that lit red if there was a traffic fatality, and green if there wasn't. I remember having nightmares as a little girl with Vulcan and his red torch. Apparently, this bothered many people, so he now holds a spear rather than a torch!

On top of Red Mountain by Vulcan.

And of course, we had to stop at Legion Field where many of the Crimson Tide's victories occurred.

After a fun day in Birmingham, we headed back to Tuscaloosa to hang out with my friends, Karen and Tesney and their boys. We ate at the best barbeque/ribs joint in the world and loved watching all of our children enjoy each other. Here is a picture of them right after dinner playing tackle. We are so proud! ;)

We were so blessed to get to stay with our dear friend, Karen, and her two sweet boys. Our kids got along so well, despite different alliances. Philip and Evan are die hard Auburn fans and kept calling Thomas "Thomas Tubberville!" (Auburn's old coach) Here are some pictures from our tailgating on the Quad.
Mary Beth was very impressed with the food!

Love these girls!

Clayton is getting so big! He is the same age as cousin James, and the boys loved playing with him.

Evan and Mary Beth, two adorable 1st graders!

Sweet Karen volunteered to take Mary Beth home before the game. Somehow, buying an expensive ticket to the Bama game seemed like a waste on our dear Mary Beth. She had a ball doing what she does best...hanging out with two older boys! Here they are torturing her by putting her in full Auburn gear. Doesn't she look devastated?

They also made homemade hot chocolate that we are still enjoying this week!

Now, back to the game! There is nothing in the world quite like walking into a stadium full of 101,000 cheering fans! It is an awe inspiring experience!

Thomas felt very at home with so many Bama fans around. He kept yelling, "Roll Tide!" to nearly everyone he could!
Two very excited boys!

Bama played well. We got to see touchdowns from Julio Jones and Mark Ingram, two of our favorite players, and won the game 30-10. We had such a great weekend and look forward to doing it again next fall!

October in pictures

I love October! Fall is my favorite time of year. This year, most of our October has been spent playing ball, enjoying Halloween, and doing fun school projects.

Our annual Trunk or Treat at church. Always a blast!

Thomas is Persius from Clash of the Titans. Mary Beth is a witch. Matthew is Napolean Dynamite, his favorite movie character of all time! ;)





Bryon and I also got to join in the dressing up fun. We had a Halloween party with our friends and decided to be 80s punk rockers.

Mary Beth is loving chapter books this year. She has gotten in the habit of making a pallet on the floor and reading until she falls asleep.
We have played several tournaments this month. Matthew's biggest news this month is that he hit his first home run! I was busy working on a project with Thomas and almost didn't go to the game. Then I decided that is was too pretty a day to be stuck inside, so Thomas and I jumped in the car and headed to the ballfields. On Matthew's final at bat, he smacked the ball so hard that it cleared the 30-40 foot safety net designed to make sure no one behind the fence got hit by a ball! The entire team dogpiled him at home base. What a wonderful memory!

Here, Matthew is stealing home. You can see that the catcher has just thrown the ball the the pitcher to tag Matthew out at home. He ended up sliding into home and being called safe. This was the game ending run. As I say, I have a love/hate relationship with baseball. It takes up so much time, but it is always fun to see Matthew play well! He also had his first pitching win this month. His coach put him in as pitcher when we were down 6-0 with two boys on base. He got out of that inning with no additional runs scored, and they won the game 10-9!



And here is our little athlete, Mary Beth. ;) The next Mia Hamm, she is not. However, it is always fun getting to see her run around and complain about having to hustle. ;)