Hats off (or on) to Fall!

I took a few pictures of Hollace the other morning before school on "Hat day". I think it was actually "Hats off to a drug- free life" day or something like that. She picked her outfit out and I thought she looked pretty cute.

I wanted to get a pic with our fall porch decorations too. I don't do much seasonal decorating (except Christmas), but I LOVE FALL!!!

I love fall time and it is FINALLY starting to feel like it's fall. Many of my favorite things come along in this season. Yummy soups and chili for dinner, running in the crisp air, hot cocoa and spiced tea (coffee is good all year, but these only really taste good when it's cool outside), football games, fires in the fireplace (maybe we'll get to enjoy that someday when we don't have two boys who would be throwing toys into the fire), the beautiful trees as they change colors, leggings and boots, UGGS, pumpkin anything, family get togethers for the holidays, I could go on and on.....so much to be thankful for!

Here is a close up of the fall wreath I made. I thought it turned out pretty well considering most of it was recycled stuff I already had. The wreath was even one I had made before and didn't like so I ripped everything off and reused it.

Happy FALL y'all!!!

Happy (LATE) number EIGHT to someone GREAT!!

Hollace turned 8 on the 14th! I Can't believe she is 8!! We decided to have her party at a little salon this year. I am so glad we did because our family had the stomach bug the week before her birthday and I had it the day before her party. It would not have been pretty if we were planning to have the party here and I had to do all the preparations. I was also really afraid that Hollace was going to get sick for the day of he party. 3 of the 5 of us had had it and I was just waiting for her to get it. I prayed she would be ok on Saturday and she was. I had it on Friday, the party was Saturday and then Hollace finally got it on Sunday. Thankful for little answered prayers. We were all fine on Saturday!

When the girls arrived they got to pick out an outfit to wear. They had so many fancy things to choose from.

BEFORE: The girls changed into their outfits then had their hair fixed, makeup done and their fingernails painted.

...and AFTER: of course Hollace wanted her hair straightened.

The girls dancing on the stage and playing "freeze". They were so silly.

More dancing and silliness...

Then they had a little fashion show. Each girl took a turn dancing a little and taking a walk on the runway. Hollace sure isn't shy or lacking in self esteem.

Ha! Rhett even took a stroll on the catwalk! He's got the serious model look down!

Time for cake and presents.

We got her Just Dance. I think she was a little excited about it.

I think the party was a success. They all had a great time!

of course we had to take a "silly picture".

Happy LATE birthday Hollace! You are such a smart, sweet, independent, loving girl. We love you so much and are so proud of you and blessed to call you our daughter!!

Meet Maggie Marie

My pictures are finally showing up in blogger so maybe I can attempt to catch up now.

One of the important things that has happened since I've been having blogging/picture issues is the birth of my niece Maggie Marie on Oct. 1st. Hollace and I left about midnight on Friday night and drove to OKC and made about 2 hours before she arrived. It was great that we are closer now and able to make it to her birth. She is precious............don't you think?

Margot, Maggie and both of their grandmas

Hollace and her new cousin

I think Nana is proud. (Marie is her middle name.)

and proud Papa

Nana and her grand daughters

Maggie and her favorite aunt!

Posting this I realized I didn't take any pictures of Maggie and her Mom and Dad! The last two are ones my Dad had e-mailed me....still none of Sydnie. Guess that just shows how you sort of take the back seat when the kids come along.

July Visit to Oklahoma and Technical Difficulties

Like I said in my last post, I am SOOOO behind on posting and I was determined to do some catching up today, BUT.............somehow on my new computer it takes some random undetermined amount of time for pictures uploaded to the computer to be available for blogger. I uploaded lots of new pics today and they are on my computer, but NOT there when you go from blogger to the location where they are suppose to be. Does that even make sense? Does anyone have any tips?

Anyway, I decided to try to post a few old things that I never did until I figure this out.

These pics are from our trip to Oklahoma in July after Brent and I got back from Jamaice.

Here are the Hubbard cousins. Lovely picture, huh? At least one of them is smiling and looking at the camera. (I'm not sure what Rhett's problem was.)

Gunnar and Thad. They are only about 3 months apart. Too bad they don't get to see each other more often. I'm sure they could have all kinds of fun.

We seem to always forget to take a picture of the kids with the grandparents when we see them, so I was determined to do it this time.

Here they are with Grammy and Papa Hubbard

......and Nana and Papa Brown.

Did you notice that Thad was his usual cooperative self in both pictures? It's obviously nothing personal Grammy or Papa Brown. He just didn't want to ruin his image and appear to be compliant or anything.

Hendersonville Farewells

I am so behind in posting that I'm not sure where to start.....so I'll just start here. These are some pictures of our farewells or final get togethers with some friends from Hendersonville. I had a different leaving there than I had when we moved from Oklahoma 2 1/2 years earlier. I knew we would be back to Woodward. Our parents and other family is there and I just knew we would always be back. When we left H'ville it was different. I knew there was a good chance we would never see some of these people again. There are a few people I think we will keep in contact with and with some great effort we will hopefully see again, but there are many friends we met that I'm fairly sure we will never see again. It was sad!- and just different than last time we moved.

Here are just a few of our special friends. The very first friend Hollace met in pre-k when we moved to H'ville was Samuel. His mom, Ellen, and I bacame great friends too. We both have three kids that are each within 2 weeks of being the same age. Crazy. Ellen and I took Samuel and Hollace out to dinner one night before we left. They were so cute.

(I CAN NOT figure out why this pic is uploading side ways. It's not like that on my computer. Oh well....but turn your head and look because it's a cute picture.)

I am VERY sad that Ellen and I didn't take a picture. I don't think I have a pic of us together :( She is such a great friend! Now I'm getting sad!!!

One of our last days in Hendersonville, we met up with our wonderful friends, the Carters, for lunch. Our kids loved to spend time with Riley and Cole. They are a great family! We will miss them!!.......Sad again!!

My great friend Heather and I. I already miss her :( (She really isn't THAT tall. She had on heels and I didn't)

Hollace and a last picture of her best friends from the neighborhood: Savannah, Samantha, and Sydney.

Rhett and his great buddy, Dillon, who lived just down the street.

A final family shot in front of our home in Hendersonville, TN. This is just before we headed west for our new home in Texas.