Bluff City Christmas '09

We had a WONDERFUL time at the farm for Christmas. There was still some snow on the ground when we got there. The kids really enjoyed that. It was so great seeing everyone again, and having the whole family together. Great memories!

East Brainerd Christmas Program

East Brainerd Elementary held their Christmas program at Ridgedale Baptist Church. Each grade got up on stage and sang a Christmas song. Chase's class sang "Christmas Don't be Late" (Chipmunk style) and Bailey's class sang "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." It was a lot of fun to watch.



Chase is in the front with the red sweater vest on.

Bailey is in the very top row with a Santa hat on.

♪ ♫ All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth...♫ ♪

Let it snow!

We had our first (and only) snow this year. And it was beautiful! It came on a Saturday morning and was gone by about 11 am. It's a good thing the kids got out and played in it before it was gone!

Are we CRAZY?????

When we went to mom and dad's house for Thanksgiving, we got to see mom's new puppies. Her Yorkie had a litter of puppies that just turned 6 weeks old. The kids LOVED playing with them. They kept begging to take one home. And Grammy kept offering for us to take one. So guess what? Randy and I finally gave in. We had recently decided that Mocha was not a good fit for us. We realized we would rather have an indoor dog. So this fit just perfectly, I thought.

We picked the last female of the litter and named her Dixie. She is SOOOO adorable. She barely weighs 2 pounds and is unbelievably tiny.

After a few nights at home though, I felt like I had just had a newborn. She cried all night long. I had no idea what to do with her. I have never had a puppy before. We tried to get advice from the internet and from friends and family, but I was exhausted. This was just a bad time for me to be losing sleep - since I'm a working girl now.

That next weekend Phillip and Trussie came to town. I had a great idea. I called mom and asked her if she would be willing to take Dixie back for a few months and train her for me. That way, we could get her when she was a little older and she hopefully wouldn't cry as much. And since I don't know the first thing about training a puppy, I figured this would be the best thing possible.

So that's exactly what happened. And the funny thing is, we had made an appointment with Mckamey Animal Shelter to come pick up Mocha that next Tuesday. But when Phillip saw her, he fell in love with her and asked if he could take her home. Yahoo! We were so excited that she would be able to be on all those acres with other dogs. She would be so much happier. And we would still be able to see her and keep in touch with how she's doing. A win-win situation for sure!

Anyway, we miss our little Dixie, but we know she's in good hands. We can't wait to see her again!

Thanksgiving '09

We were so excited to spend Thanksgiving in Baxley, GA with Mom and Dad Keeter, and Phillip and his family. We hadn't seen Mom and Dad in a long time, and hadn't seen Phillip since he got back from Iraq. Trisha and Amy and their families also got to come down as well. Only Betsy couldn't make it. We really missed them!

But we had a great time eating, playing games, going hunting and riding the mule. It's so crazy how well the cousins get along.

Phillip had told me that he had a surprise for the whole family. Right before the Thanksgiving meal, he informed us that he had requested a special ceremony in Iraq honoring Papaw Keeter for his years in the Navy. So the officer in charge took 6 American flags (one for each of our families) and flew it at their base in Iraq. Then the officer signed an official document stating that the flag had been flown in honor of Papaw, and then it was folded - like you would see at a funeral. Phillip presented each of our families with the flag. We all got choked up when we saw it. We still miss him so much. I don't think we have gotten used to the fact that he's not with us any longer. I was so proud of Phillip that he went through the effort to have this done for us! I can't wait to get it framed and hang it up.

Phillip and Trussie were amazingly patient having so many people in their house. It's such a beautiful and comfortable house. It definitely was a weekend to remember!

Bailey is 9!

Bailey's birthday fell on a Tuesday this year. So she had to go to school, even though she thought that was totally not fair. :) I got her a little ribbon that read "Birthday Girl." She got to wear that to school.

When we got home, she opened her gifts and then we took her out to eat. She decided she wanted Mexican food, so we went to Cancun. It was quite a fun day!

By the way, I'm trying out a new way to post pictures on the blog, so let me know what you think. If you just click on the picture below it will start a slide show of all the birthday pictures.

The reason for this post...because Chase is so funny!

My Baby Turns 7!!!

Chase had his 7th birthday yesterday. How lucky is he that it fell on a Saturday?? So far we've just had family get-togethers for his b-day, but this year I decided to let him ask over some friends. He invited Stephen and Chandler. (Ben couldn't come.) So they came over around 4 pm and we grilled hot dogs and ate Star Wars cake!

Since Bailey's birthday is 3 days away, we decided to combine parties. So she invited some friends over as well. Only Simone was able to come, but we had a great time! She wanted a cookie cake with flowers, which was very easy to make!

We started out the morning by having a birthday breakfast - complete with candles!

The kids loved having cinnamon bites for their special breakfast.

Chase & his "loot."

GI Joe and Star Wars were the order of the day!

Ohhhh - Leggos!

Daddy picked out this football. Fun!

Here's his cake. I ended up using some of his gift wrapping paper for the picture (and just backed it with plastic wrap). The only thing I had trouble with was the icing. It didn't write very well!!

This picture just cracks me up because you can see his little face at the very top. I was trying to get a closeup of the cake and he wasn't about to miss a chance to get in a picture!

Here's Bailey and her cookie cake.

Sydney, Simone and Bailey

Stephen, Chase and Chandler

I'm so glad Betsy and Eli got to come!

Aunt Trisha helping serve.

Bailey and Chase ready to open gifts!

Another picture to totally crack me up!

Eli had only had a 1 hour nap and was SOOOOO tired.

We didn't plan to match today!

Towards the end of the day, they were getting crazier and crazier!

Settling down with the action figures. Ahhhh!

Bailey and Sydney playing Battleship.

Funny Quotes of the Day...

Chase: Mommy, when Chandler gets here I'm not going to go crazy and be wild. Wanna know why?

Mommy: Yes!

Chase: Because I'm 7 now and I'm going to obey.

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Chase: Mommy, when I turn 8 I'm going to start calling you "Mom", but not until then.

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One of Chase's gifts was a skateboard. Randy and I took him out to the driveway to practice and it was hard! After several minutes we decided to take a break and come inside. Chase was looking pretty dejected and said, "Well, at least I'm 7!"