Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Thanksgiving in Coffeeville

Every year for Thanksgiving we rotate whose family we spend the holiday with- this year the rotation fell in Coffeeville w/ the Griffins. We went home Wednesday after work and stayed at my parents house on Wed. and Thurs. nights before heading back home Friday around lunchtime. It was a little crazy at times with all 11 of us being under one roof (my parents, the 3 of us, and the 6 Englands), but the kids had a blast playing together! We enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving dinner and all enjoyed watching the Egg Bowl later on that evening. It was so nice not eating at lunch this year and eating an early dinner at 5 p.m. It gave us all the whole day to lounge around in our pj's, watch the parade, eat a light lunch, and take naps before gearing up for our big turkey day meal! We had our usual typical southern style menu of Turkey and Dressing, Ham, cranberry sauce, jib-let gravy, sweet potato casserole (one topped w/ pecans and brown sugar and one topped w/ marshmallows for my little "tree nut"), green beans, squash casserole, celery sticks stuffed w/ homemade pimento cheese, grape salad, stuffed eggs, & rolls. Dessert included Ms. Bessie's infamous caramel cake & Virginia's Homemade Italian Cream Cake - both were DELISH! Needless to say, no one went to bed hungry that night ;) 

Friday around lunch we were getting ready to head home to Collierville to relax and break out the Christmas decorations over the weekend & Tim noticed he had misplaced his wedding ring somewhere. We looked everywhere before we finally left mom and dad's with mom telling me "It's ok- we will find it. It is here somewhere. It will show up!" I was devastated. I know it is JUST a ring and it is insured (of course - rem I am married to an insurance agent & come from a long line of them ;) & completely replaceable, but I am so sentimental that it broke my heart that his actual wedding band from the day we were married might be forever gone. :( About 11:45 p.m. that night, my cell phone rang and it was Mama telling me she had in fact FOUND the ring. Where you might ask? Oh, in front of her bedside table, beside her bed, on the FLOOR! Now, that is definitely not somewhere Tim would've put his ring, so we started asking the "short people" in the house a/b Daddy/Bo's ring. Not a single one of them leaked any info until the night before last when Ella said out of nowhere - "Daddy, Bibby found your ring. It was by her bed." UNLESS she overheard me saying that, which she could of, we did not tell her where the ring was found. Matter of fact, I don't know if we had even told her Mama had found it b/c she was asleep when Mom called us w/ the news. Fast forward to the next day on our drive home from Olive Branch & I asked Ella "How did Daddy's ring get on the floor by Bibby's bed?" Ella responds with "Taylor put it there." UH OH. It appears Ella has no problem throwing her cousin under the bus. The truth? WHO KNOWS?! But, we do know that ONE of the little people relocated Tim's ring. Super praises to BIBBY (who I know was probably on her hands and knees from the moment we left until the time the ring was found) for finding it! 

The rest of our holiday weekend was spent shopping a few sales around town, grilling out at home and eating in, building a fire in the fireplace, watching football, & pulling out a little at a time of our Christmas decorations and getting them all set up around the house. It was a nice low key weekend at home before we headed into the work week. Enjoy some picts below that I managed to snap at Mom and Dad's over Thanksgiving. These 4 kiddo's are hard to catch all together anymore for a decent snapshot!



The boys frying some turkeys! YUM!


Checking in on Baby Thomas - Little does he know that he has 2 other mama's besides Aunt B!


Our baby girl - Ella Grommersch - 2 Years Old


w/ the 2 Blondie's....


Wild ones after dinner.....


Celebrating our 6th Thanksgiving together as Mr. & Mrs.


See what I mean? They never quit moving!


Best I could do w/ all the grands (minus Thomas who was snoozing) & Bibby....


The Girls and Bibby


In their matching attire :) (thanks to Bibby!)


3 Little PUNKINS!!!!!!!


This is what TROUBLE looks like in case you didn't know ;)


Winding down and watching Dora


Someone was pretty smitten by Baby T.....Holding him for the first time. He is a week old here.


Such a good little helper :)


Friday, November 8, 2013

A Weekend at Home....

This past weekend, we went to my parents house in Coffeeville, Mississippi to spend the weekend. We hadn't been "home" since August so we were due for a trip. We ate in Oxford on the way down Friday night, went to Bull Bottom Farms on Saturday & got to visit w/ Katie and meet Baby Jack Henry Robinson, & attended my hometown annual Homecoming on Sunday. It was a great weekend. I got to visit w/ my 2 best friends - Ginny & Randye- & got to see lots more people that I don't get to see very often. All in all, it was a great weekend. I love still being able to go home to my parents house. There's just "no place like home!"

Playing at Bull Bottom for our 3rd Year in a Row! 




Jumping on the GIANT air pillow :)




NO FEAR!


I finally got to meet Jack Henry! And, of course, Ella had to hold him :) 



Sweet baby boy...Loved getting to visit w/ he and his Mama!


Peace, Love, & BBF!


Homecoming @ FBC Cville- Chad & Baby Warner


Warner "chasing" Ella Boo



This pic makes me laugh. Ginny trying to maintain Warner who is as big as she is! LOL


Best Friends & our babies on the church sign out front :)
Such a special picture!


Ella w/ Mama!


Wearing this sweet dress made with love by Bibby :)


Loving on Daddy

Halloween 2013

On Halloween Eve, Ella & I put on our matching aprons and headed to the kitchen to make some Halloween treats for Ella's babysitter & friends & mine & Tim's offices. We made our annual Ghost Cookies, Witches Hats, & Broomsticks! Ella loved it. She was at the perfect age so she was totally interested and wanted to "help" me in any way that she could. The witches hats and broomsticks were perfect for her to do to as they just required taking off the wrappers of the candy and helping me stick the 2 pieces together. We had a blast. Love making memories like this w/ my baby girl :)



Her expressions make me laugh....





Putting together the broomstick...


& helping w/ the witches hats...



Ghost Cookies


Broomsticks
 

& Witches Hats!


Posing w/ our Creations :)


& licking the icing off of the witches hats -LOL


Sweet smiles from my little chef!

Thanks to our Cousin Robbye England, Ella had a hand-me-down (we love Roo-Roo's hand me downs!) Minnie Mouse costume complete w/ ears to dress up in for Halloween. Luckily, she has just recently gotten "into" Mickey Mouse Clubhouse/Disney so she was fine w/ being Minnie :) We had a fun neighborhood get together scheduled (smores, hot dogs, & a hayride for the kiddos) in our cove, but due to the weather, the neighborhood assc cancelled so we walked around "the loop" w/ 2 other neighbors and their families collecting candy. It turned out to be just fine as our one loop was plenty of trick or treating for Ella's short little 2 yr old legs! :)


My Prissy Mouse was ready to go!
(I actually got better pics on my cell phone!)
  


All smiles while waiting on Daddy to get home from work!