Their first "kid table" experience

Isn't this the cutest thing ever? :)
We celebrated my sister's birthday (a month late) at my mom and dad's two weekends ago. Mom got this little table and they were all excited about eating there without being strapped in!

There really wasn't a lot of eating. . . a lot of drinking . . . and then they realized they were free. :)

Gracie girl loved horsing around with Dandy

and then Lawton wanted in on the fun, too!

Tiger was allowed inside for a minute to get some lovin'

and then Noni and Carolina had an elegant tea party!

I love this picture . . .

Sweet Luke - this captures his obsession with toting around six or seven objects (usually animals) all the time! He ran out of hands so he used his teeth. Smart boy! ha! :)

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree

Sister has a major sweet tooth . . . just like her momma!! :)

Morning of Madness

The 20th annual Breakfast with Santa was last weekend. There are always a lot of people there, a lot of children, (both happy and sad to see Santa), yummy food and fun crafts. Sadly, this is the only family photo we were able to get. Nice balloon strings, huh?
Lawton and big buddy Brown

Ellie and Carolina check each other out. Sister looks like she just woke up, eh? (She did)

"Ummm. . . WHAT are we doing here Mom??"

Surprisingly, Sis was not too fond of Santa. She loved all the characters at DW this summer, so we were a bit surprised. We haven't made our mall visit yet . . .

Big buddy Brody

Sweet Harris and Carolina had a fun time scooting along this wall together. . . it doesn't take much!

And the winner is . . .

#2 Sally!!

Congrats, Sally! You can e-mail me your address and your final choice since you were undecided! :) Thanks for commenting everyone! I will do other giveaways in the future . . . thanks for checking in!

Stocking Stuffer Giveaway!!

Who wants to win a cute little stocking stuffer book for Santa??

I am giving away ONE of these books - choice made by the winner!! And who knows . . . I might do something crazy in a few days . . . or not. I can't decide.

Choice ONE: Tweet Tweet!! This is an adorable little stroller book that can be linked to baby's stroller or car seat and they can chew and slobber to their little gums' content without you having to worry about it going overboard!

Choice TWO: Children's Cookbook!! This is my all time favorite children's cookbook - in mini edition!! This will fit perfectly in the stocking of the little cook in your life!!

Choice THREE: Dot to Dot Animals - great fun, all while practicing math and those fine motor skills, too!

Choice FOUR: Little Book of Dogs and Puppies!! This book is an adorable little book for the elementary aged child - it tells all you need to know about . . . Dogs and Puppies, of course!!

Leave me a comment on which book you would choose - and please say you still have a ton of Christmas shopping left to do like me! I will announce the winner Monday night and ship it out Tuesday!

And if you want one of these books, or something like them, you can visit my website, or call or e-mail me at chadandlaurabeth@yahoo.com. For my local peeps, I have quite a bit of cash and carry inventory, too . . .

Good luck!!

No one told me I would have to wear waterproof mascara

Last weekend Chad and I were able to sneak away for 24 hours while he ran the St. Jude half marathon in Memphis. We headed out early afternoon on Friday to insure that we would arrive in plenty of time to pick up his race packet and have a nice dinner. We were lucky enough to crash at my friend Karie's house for oh, say, eight hours. :)

We left out Saturday morning by 6:00 (WAY to early for me . . . ) and headed downtown. Race time was 25 degrees!! Brrr. . . this has been our first real cold snap which is always harder than if you have gotten used to the cold for a while.

Here is Chad before the race at the downtown Auto Zone Park. Pretty cool that their minor league stadium is right in the middle of downtown. Too bad Nashvegas couldn't jump on that bandwagon . . .
We thought we would need to get there early . . . but no need. See? AFTER the race started I realized that everyone was staying warm in the FedEx Forum several blocks away while we froze our hinies off. That would have been a nice tidbit to know . . .

Nobody. This was an hour before race time. At all the other races we have done, there were tons of people out at this time. But all the other races weren't in 25 degree weather. Aren't I the good, supportive wife? :)

They ran down Beale Street. . .

He finished!! In a time of 1:47 - nine minutes faster than in April at his first half marathon. I'm proud of you!!

Okay. This race was a tear jerker. No one told me that I would need waterproof mascara. Not because of the bitter cold wind (which does make my left eye involuntarily water - every day after recess when I taught I would come back in with one eye with mascara, one eye without. Nice visual, huh?) but because of what the race was for.

A five year old patient of St. Jude sang the national anthem before the race. I bawled.

All the runners ran through St. Jude's Campus. I didn't see it, but Chad said that about twenty or thirty patients were all out cheering on the runners in their wheelchairs, hooked up to their chemo and machines, thunder sticks in hands. He bawled. . . and ran with more determination.

There were countless parents and family members that I saw with children's names and pictures on their shirts. Some were happy that their child had overcome, some were mournful. I wept with them.

This summer was the closest that I hope we ever have to personally be to needing St. Jude for my family, and I pray that no one close to me does. I am grateful that St. Jude exists for the sweet children and pray that God will never have to hold us through that storm.

What a moving, meaningful morning. . . but not in the way I had originally thought.

PW in the flesh!!

Let me just say . . . I have never been a huge "famous person" gawker or follower. Thank goodness because I don't know how to act when I see a movie star. . . I didn't have those teeny bop magazines with the posters of Kirk Cameron that you could hang on your wall like my best friend, Karie did. I don't follow the Inside Edition television show or the TMZ (?) blog. However, I have made it known before that I love Pioneer Woman, blogger queen, who just released her first cookbook ever (recently on the NY Times best seller list). She had a book signing tonight at a local bookstore and, for the first time ever, I went to a book signing and, for the first time ever sought out a "famous" down-to-earth-real-life-person-like-me to meet. :)

I convinced Emily to go along with me and get her cookbook signed even though she needed to be making a cake for 80 people. oops. . .

This shirt does nothing for me. And WHY does PW not put more pictures of herself on her blog? Marlboro Man needs to be shooting pictures of her with the kids instead of just behind his horse's ears . . . :) And oh, WOW. Does she have a smokin' huge fancy schmancy camera. I've never seen one like it! (and I won't be making the blog since she didn't take a picture of us . . . )
Here is a glimpse of the people at the signing. They gave out tickets for you to be in certain groups. We were in group ten and each group had twenty five people in it. We know for sure there were at least twenty three groups, so approximately 600 people were there and who knows how many books she signed . . . We had to wait two and a half hours so who knows how long the rest of the people had to wait!!

Ree has her sassy boots on . . .

This girl and her little boy had matching shirts on. They will for sure be on her blog with those!!

Here's me and P-Dub

She looks genuinely interested in who knows whatever I'm blubbering about. Again, shirt (tent)is not attractive. . .

And PW brought along her sister Betsy and good friend, Hyacinth. They each signed their spot in the cookbook where they are featured. And guess what? Hyacinth is just what Ree calls her - that's not her real name!! Julie, maybe? She told me but I can't remember now from the moment. . . I wonder if Ree isn't her real name? Hmmm. . .

Thanks for a fun night, Em!
And if you have been under a rock and still don't know what I'm talking about and who Pioneer Woman is, check her out here!

O Christmas Tree. . .

One of our favorite family traditions, both now with our little family and mine and Chad's growing up, is going to a Christmas tree farm and selecting and cutting down the perfect tree. Thankfully we went last weekend on an absolutely gorgeous day, vs. this weekend which has been bitterly cold!! Here's last year's trip. . .

Don't adjust the color on your monitor . . . Santa is orange! We went to a place called Volunteer Tree Farm - we overlooked this for the sake of a great tree. Go Bama!!

We had to wake up sis when we got there - so she couldn't happily let her paci and lovey go for our excursion . . .

This is it! Our perfect Christmas tree! (It is beautiful, especially since we had a true Charlie Brown tree two years ago . . . )

Miss Priss thought this one would be the perfect tree . . . just her size!!

Daddy had some great "helpers" including me. . . ha!!

See how thick the trunk was? This was a tough one!!

Bring out the big guns

For Thanksgiving, we spent the day in Kentucky on the farm. Even though it was COLD, we still were able to spend a little bit of time out and about.

Lawton loves to make silly faces!
Lawton-so-proud-to-be-Hunter's-cousin-and-pal. ; )

This was their attempt at being tough. They all miserably failed.

High boys . . . there are LOTS of High boys. Have I ever mentioned that? Here's Brent, Cousin McKale and Cousin Trevor, Chad and Hunter, Lawton and Houston.

Here is Lawton shooting a gun for the first time ever. What was not recorded was my one shot - in which I hit a clay pigeon. I was slightly excited and proud of myself. And I decided to stop while I was ahead. :)