Will I ever get caught up the way I want to with my blogging?  No way!  I'm so disappointed that I have dropped the ball so badly in the last couple years.  I treasure these blog posts and love to print them out as keepsakes for my kids.  So I will try to do better.

I will try.

While I attempt to dive in, I will recap the last several months as best I can.  I really haven't updated life since the beginning of fall.

SEPTEMBER:  September was full of football!  Both kids tailgated and attended the games this year.  We had our hands full, but we are determined to make die hard State fans out of these two.  We had such a fun year watching "Missimissi State" (as Smith calls it) play football.  The season left lots to be desired, but the Egg Bowl at the end really left us pretty happy. Who saw that coming?!  I know Smith's birthmother is cringing reading this and seeing that precious boy in maroon. LOL!  She and her Ole Miss family were gracious enough to overlook our True Maroon family when they chose us!  

OCTOBER:  October was a big month!  We were still in the throws of football season, but we paused long enough to celebrate my favorite little boy!  Smith turned TWO!  We enjoyed an adorable train themed party.  Kay Kay went all out - as she tends to do - for our "small, mostly family party". LOL! I will have to write an entire post on the birthday because the occasion deserves it.

Then the end of the month brought lots of fun as we brought back our family Halloween costumes!  My Neverland crew was by far the cutest I've seen.  Of course I may be biased.  The kids and I enjoyed Halloween parties, the Halloween carnival at our country club, and Russ joined us for a fun night of trick or treating with some of our favorite neighbors and friends!  We live in the perfect neighborhood for us.  We really may never leave it.  Trick or treating was like a huge social event. And the kids loved every minute of it...Russ and I did too!

NOVEMBER: November is always exciting for me, because it is the start of "the holiday season."  And Thanksgiving is part of my holiday season.  I love being around family for the sole purpose of enjoying family.  We hosted Thanksgiving again this year, and my sister did most of the cooking.  I got the easy part.  Millie Janalee also had her annual Thanksgiving program at her preschool with her own traveling fan club.  And it was precious as always!  Oh, how I love this stage of parenting!  I should also add that Kristin worked her magic with my Christmas decor in November.  I felt like we had the most beautiful house in town!

DECEMBER: December is always packed full, and this year was certainly no exception!  We started off watching Millie Janalee in the Snowflake Classic at gymnastics.  She did a great job showing all her skills to us.  It was actually on my birthday, so we celebrated afterward with dinner with Susu.  A few days later, Pawpaw joined us for a night at Cottonplant.  That's what I wanted to do for my birthday.  It's one of my favorite things to do during the holidays!  We also rode the Polar Express again this year, and it was just as magical as the first time!  The kids had a ball and the adults loved watching it all through the kids' eyes too.  Such a fun time of year with children!  There was SO much more in December, but I can't list it all.  We had class parties, family parties, dinner parties, work parties, Millie Janalee and I went to see the Nutcracker together for the first time, and we ended with my absolute favorite - the Christmas Eve service.  We always spend Christmas Eve day at Russ's mom's house.  We attend the Christmas Eve service at our hometown church with my family and finish up with Christmas Eve night at my parents' house.  Santa came twice.  Once to our home Christmas Eve morning and again at Susu and Pawpaw's on Christmas Day!  These kids must've been really good this year.

JANUARY: We celebrated the New Year with my family at Kay Kay and Uncie Lee's house.  It was a low key, rainy night.  We watched the neighbors shoot fireworks and celebrated early.  Russ and I watched the ball drop at Times Square from the comfort of our bed.  Haha!

FEBRUARY: We had a fantastic month in February!  We took our family and Susu and Pawpaw to DISNEY WORLD!!  This deserves an entire post dedicated to the unforgettable moments.

MARCH:  Here we are!  March proved to be as exciting as any other month for our family.  My baby brother finally married our She She!!  Our entire little family was in the wedding.  The kids did great!  Our sweet babysitter, Jessica, was a lifesaver!  And the party was the best!  My mom, Sheila, and Kristin did a fabulous job planning the details.  It was perfect!  And we are all still talking about it and the fun times from the weekend!

Whew!  I think you've been updated on the most important events.  There is so much more I would love to share, and if I ever get around to it...I WILL!  I hope you have had a wonderful 2017 so far!  We are so thankful for this life God has given us.  What a gift to be Russ's wife and a mother to these two precious children.  Seriously.  I wouldn't trade this life for anything!

God is good!

Pumpkin Patch Fun

One of the many great things about moving so close to family is the last minute opportunity to do something fun together.  Kristin and I made last minute plans to take the little cousins to the pumpkin patch together.  Hughes had not been  yet, and I wanted to take Smith to this pumpkin patch anyway.  Millie Janalee's class always take a field trip to this one each year, and we have a great time!  Plus it was FINALLY a cool fall morning!

The kids were so excited to see each other!  It really cracked me up.  They were screaming and running and squealing over the fact they were together at the pumpkin patch.

This big bouncy pillow thing is probably one of Millie Janalee's two favorite things at this pumpkin patch.  I worried the boys would be too young.  But I was SO WRONG!  Smith got up there and bounced around like he's been doing it for years.  Y'all.  This boy is nonstop!  Non. Stop!

It wasn't long until the tractor was ready to take a load on a hayride over to the barn and the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins, so we loaded up!  The kids enjoyed seeing the animals, feeding the sheep, and riding the pony.

Millie Janalee meets Elsa the cow

Talking to the chickens

Petting the stray horse.  We didn't find out until later that he had escaped and no one knew where he was.  Ummm...right here with us acting like he owned the place.  Haha!

Millie Janalee LOVES riding a horse!

After all the families had time to enjoy the animals at the barn, we loaded back up and rode over to the pumpkin patch.  The funny part is that this is the reason we come, but I know it's gonna be the hardest part.  Everyone wanted me to hold their pumpkin while I was holding my camera, our bag, holding hands, and sweating.  Kids were crying because they kept dropping their pumpkins.

But aren't the pictures cute?!  Hahaha!  Looks like a walk in the park through my camera lens...

You can kinda see some of the pouty faces when they had to carry their own pumpkins.

I decided after that ordeal that we would take all the pumpkins to the car before we went another step.  But first...photo op for the cousins!

And, of course, more time on the bouncy pillow followed by lots of time on the playground sliding down the super slide.  Even I slid a time or two.

My babies are growing up so fast!  Some days I am grateful for a new phase of life and new phase of childhood.  More independence each day.  Then some days, I look back and pictures and long for those baby rolls and toothless grins.

The days are long, but the years are short!  Cherishing our pumpkin patch days while I can.

Family Pumpkin Patch Fun

Our schedule has been all over the place since school started, and it seems that October brought so much more.  Then November happened.  And I know December will be wild.  Russ and I looked at the calendar and found one day - 2 hours in one day that we had available to go as a family to the pumpkin patch.  We have a small pumpkin patch right by our house, so we took the kids one morning for a couple hours of fun and memories.

It really was perfect for the time we had and the ages of our kids.  We took a little hayride around the loop and around the corn maze.  There were several classes on field trips there, so we basically planned our order of activities around them.  First stop was to see the rows of pumpkins laid out for us to browse.  This is what you call a "man made pumpkin patch" I suppose.  Ha!

In another corner, there were a few animals to see and pet.  The kids enjoyed stopping by there occasionally to say "hello."

We found a few other fun things to do as well.  Riding the inflatable bouncing horses was pretty funny.  It never takes Smith long to catch on to much, but Millie Janalee took some coaching.  I have a picture of her and Russ on one of those things somewhere, but for now all I have are these two.

The rope spider web was fun to climb, but I'm not sure the kids loved it as much as I just knew they would. Still, it made for a great photo opp.

I always thing these swings are fun!  The kids agreed, and we spent some time swinging and enjoying the "wheee"s and giggles as they flew threw the air.  I'm really thinking it would be a fun swing to add to our own little swing set actually.

We can't go anywhere without Smith finding a ball.  And he must put his hands on them.  Every time.  The boy loves any kind of ball - baseball, football, soccer ball, tennis ball, plastic ball, rubber ball, bowling ball - any kind.  He's been known for getting in trouble for taking the balls from games at the Halloween carnival.  So we played with the footballs a while too.

Probably the highlight of Millie Janalee's day was this zip line.  Russ was a good sport and rode with both the kids before Millie Janalee decided she would ride alone.  I had my doubts.  She's never one to try new things without some sort of strategic encouragement.  But she did it!  And she was so proud!  If there weren't 30+ kids in line from the schools, she would have ridden it over and over again.

She's getting so big!

We finished up our morning at the "pumpkin patch" and all picked out our favorite pumpkin to take home.

It may have only been two hours squeezed into a busy schedule, but it was two hours making memories with our little family.  And our kids are still talking about the fun they had at our little dinky pumpkin patch day.

Football Season Lows…and a High!

We are here!  We are alive and well...well, actually we've had some sick little people most recently...but for the most part, we are well.  We are also very busy!  I can't even tell you exactly WHAT we are busy doing.  It kinda blurs together with lots of buckling car seats and lots of babysitters and holidays approaching quickly.

Add to that...college football season!  Smith joined the family this year for a most uneventful season. That is, until last weekend!

We began our weekend spending Friday afternoon and night in Starkville.  My brother lives in Starkville, and Russ had to work last weekend.  So the kids and I took advantage of an opportunity to spend the night Friday night.  My parents went too, and we took the kids to walk around campus without all the craziness of game day tailgating.  I have always thought MSU campus is so pretty.  Smith was most concerned with finding "buwwy!!"

So we found a Bully.

Russ worked in Starkville on Friday so we were able to meet up on campus with him for a little while also before going to eat dinner with Dustin, his fiancé, and my parents.

There are some things you need to know about Mississippi State fans.  Mississippi State football doesn't have the most exciting history.  We have, without a doubt, had some thrilling seasons.  But a true Mississippi State fan is a proud one.  Deeply rooted with tradition and lots of maroon.  Win or lose, we are true maroon.  Being a bulldog is never easy, so not everyone can handle it.  It's all about how you raise 'em.  So, I'm doing my best!

These pictures are from Homecoming, but the spirit is the same.  We did not tailgate before the game this past weekend.  It was an early game, and to be honest there wasn't a ton of excitement going into it.

But, OH, the surprise we enjoyed!!!  A thrilling game from start to finish.  Mississippi State dominated the game start to finish, and we looked like a brand new team.  Both my kids basically slept through the game - which blows my mind!  I was a crazy person.  I have no idea how they do that!  We finished strong with a win against #4 Texas A&M!

It was a fun day in Starkville made even more perfect with a WIN!  That, my children, is the thrill of SEC football.  You just never know!  I can't say I have huge visions of our upcoming game against Alabama, but I do know that we sure do LOVE wrapping it in maroon and white!

Go Dawgs!