The Cummings Chronicles

Happy Birthday/ Our Weekend

2012-02-14T22:29:00.000-06:00

We would like to wish (better late than never) two of our very faithful blog readers a very happy birthday today! I think its so neat that Nana and Betty Ward celebrate birthdays on Valentine's Day. So we hope you had a very special one today!

The kids and I had a great day today. They had the day off due to a teacher's meeting so its been nice to hang out today on Valentine's Day. I really wish David would have had the day off, too. They woke up to their Valentine's baskets at the foot of their beds.

I decided this year just to do candy because we went on a special weekend trip so that was their gift this year. Back a few months ago David was able to get us tickets to see Tim Hawkins. For those of you who aren't familiar with him he is a christian comedian and he is hilarious! We have been fans for two years now. The kids think he is funny, too. He is funny, goofy and crazy all rolled into one. Matt can quote Tim word for word. We have two of his dvd's and we enjoy them so much. Tim just so happened to be doing a show at Hope Church in Memphis the weekend before Valentine's. David got us seats in the front row! Now that made me and the kids very nervous because Tim is known for going out in the crowd and being crazy so we did not want him to come near us. He didn't thank goodness. I hate I didn't get many pics with my phone this weekend, but I did snap this one of Matt.

He had been sooo excited all day about Tim Hawkins and by the time it was 7:25 he was counting down the time until Tim took the stage. It was so good to hear McKenzie laughing the entire time. You just can relate to everything Tim jokes about because its either what you are thinking and too afraid to say it or something you have been through yourself. He just relates it to everyday life and jokes alot about his wife and kids.
We got to Memphis Saturday afternoon and did a little shopping before checking into our hotel. David and I chose our favorite Side Porch for our "Valentine's dinner with kids". After great food, it was time to head to the show. On Sunday, we went to our usual Miss Polly's downtown for breakfast and then Starbucks for hot chocolate for me and McKenzie. We hung out at the hotel until check out time, then headed to a couple of stores. David took us to Five Guys for a late lunch. Here is a picture of McKenzie and Matt before checking out of the hotel.

I hated to see the weekend come to an end. We are definitely going back if he comes to Hope next year! Enjoy this clip of Tim Hawkins!!

Pizzazz!

2012-02-08T22:19:00.000-06:00

Today was a fun day for McKenzie and the other members of Pizzazz! Today the showchoir sang all day out in the community. One day each month, Mrs. Shute their director, takes the group out to sing. They go to the Courthouse, Cancer center, hospital, nursing homes, banks, businesses who support GUES and GSD Central Office. Mrs. Shute also takes them out to eat lunch. Carmella's was the choice this month. Today the kids performed their new 50's show. It was so good! This is a hard working little group. They meet every Tuesday from 2:30-4:30. This is actually their 4th show that they have learned this school year. Pizzazz will do a Pops concert at the end of the school year that will include favorites from all of their shows.McKenzie has loved every minute! Being a part of this group has given her so many neat opportunties. David and I caught up with them at Providence, an assisted living center. Marty joined us, too. I was able to video most of the show until my battery died. Hope you enjoy the show!

The Little Grizzlies

2012-02-03T23:34:00.000-06:00

This year is Matt's first year to play Upward Basketball. Our team is the Little Grizzlies and we have a fun little team of seven five-year-olds. Matt is loving it and doing pretty well even though he's one of the littlest ones on the court! Here's a little video of him playing from this Friday night.

Congrats Jordan!

2012-01-21T21:32:00.000-06:00

Congrats to our niece, Jordan for winning GMS eighth grade Most Beautiful tonight! We are so proud of you. You are beautiful inside and out. Here are some pictures from the evening...

XOXO

2012-01-16T22:12:00.000-06:00

I couldn't wait to put up our Valentine's decorations. After taking down all our Christmas stuff it's bland and boring around here. Its nice to have a little color during winter. I like adding to my collection, too. After Christmas I got on Etsy and found this cute handmade owl.

Its looks great hanging by the back door. The owl came with the red ribbon and I added the other ribbon to it. Love ribbon!! It is burlap and stuffed and different from anything I've seen lately.

I also found the cute blocks at Target to go on the coffee table and the kids like changing the words on them.

McKenzie and I love to drink hot chocolate, so had to have these cute mugs when I saw them. Everything is else is the same from last year. Happy Valentine's day! It will be here in a few weeks...

Happy Birthday, Granny!

2012-01-16T00:16:00.000-06:00

We would like to wish my Granny a very happy birthday today! She is 89. We had a little party Sunday afternoon at her apartment. We had alot of fun laughing, talking and eating cake and ice cream. (no pictures...I forgot our camera!)
Granny, thanks for always being such a wonderful grandmother and great grand to our kids. You are very special to us. We hope you have a great day!!

Upward Basketball

2012-01-13T21:20:00.001-06:00

Matt made his Upward Basketball debut tonight for the Little Grizzlies. Matt did great and had a lot of fun! I'll try to put a video on here at some point this season. Here are a few pics.

Last Hurrah of 2011

2012-01-07T23:18:00.004-06:00

The last two days of 2011, we went to Memphis for a final outing of the year. We stayed at The Hilton on Poplar, which happens to be across the street from a Target. What are the odds? We went to a Memphis Grizzlies basketball game that night and had a good time watching them win. We ate breakfast at Miss Polly's the next morning and did a little shopping and came home. It was a fun way to send out the old year! Here are a few pictures.

The view from Heaven. We were almost at the top, but really, in person it's not a bad view.

These two pictures were in front of the FedEx Forum. Betty took these with her phone while I was taking pics for McKenzie with her iPod Touch. I backed up so I could get the Forum in the shot better and almost got run over by a taxi!

This was in the lobby of the hotel. We've enjoyed our two stays there and it's our favorite hotel in Memphis right now.

This was the view outside our room's window. We were on the ground floor and the wrap around pond was right outside our window. Of course, the ducks were there outside the window when we woke up looking for our Dr. Dolittle!

The kids loved the revolving door! Matt called it "The Spininator"!

Blast From The Past

2011-12-27T23:59:00.003-06:00

One of my Christmas gifts was software to convert VHS videos to DVD. It has given us a fun opportunity to watch some old videos we haven't seen in years. I plan on posting some of the more entertaining videos here as I go through them. We watched one from 1994 that featured some unfortunate fashion choices by us and our relatives. Here's a brief clip of a commercial for Lickfold Jewelry that Betty and I did in 1993. It's a wonder we didn't get a call from Hollywood!

Christmas With The Families

2011-12-25T21:51:00.001-06:00

Another great Christmas has passed. We did all the traditions - awesome supper at Marty and Kenny's and opening gifts with Betty's family on Christmas Eve, Santa on Christmas morning, and another great meal (with Nana's amazing apple pie) and opening presents with my family Christmas night. We had fun with everybody! We even had fun waking up at 4:30 Christmas morning! Here are several pictures from all three events.

Can you tell Matt was excited about opening presents?

"People Are Strange"

Santa was very nice to McKenzie and Matt. He even remembered Nick!

Matt's main request this year was for 12 arrows and "stuff". Santa came through!

Nick was very curious about all the presents. He has had a great time playing with Matt's toys!

I think she's excited!

Matt woke up at 4:30 Christmas morning and wore us down until we agreed to get up at 5:00. It caught up with all of us at different times during the day. Here, Matt and Nick finally got still and passed out. I love how they mirrored each other!

The Cummings family being served by Santa Matt.

I don't think any explanation is necessary for the next few pictures. You should know by now that my family is crazy.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T23:31:00.000-06:00

McKenzie and Matt enjoyed tracking Santa on the Internet!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Christmas Card Sessions

2011-12-22T22:05:00.000-06:00

I wanted to share a few shots from some of my fall photo sessions this year. It's always fun to take the pictures and then see what Christmas cards are created using them. A couple of these that are included weren't really Christmas card sessions but I wanted to include them here anyway.

First up is the Fly girls. Lynn was one of my first customers and I've done pictures for her every year for the last 7 years! This year Katelyn told her mother that she hoped that I was still alive when she has kids so I can take pictures of them! Ha! Me too!

I took Lacy Hall's kids' pictures at the depot. The last one I took ended up being my favorite. It's the one of Logan by himself below. We were actually finished and he had taken his shoes off and was sitting on that pallet putting them back on and I thought it was a good setting.

Marty's kids are always fun to work with as you can see from this shot...

Jordan was like a model on a fashion shoot. Every time I'd turn around she was saying, "Ooo, David, take my picture here!".

Justin was a hoot with his pensive poses looking off into the distance contemplating life........or pie.

I took Cassie and Caleb's in Eupora while having Thanksgiving with Mom and Dad. There's a neat tin building and brick building down by the railroad tracks. Caleb was having trouble mustering up a smile so luckily I had Matt with me and he did a dance beside me to get him smiling.

Betty says this little dude is one of the cutest babies she has ever seen. He was so happy the entire time - through three locations and three outfit changes and 50 degree weather.

This is BettyWard's house. Love the decorations. These were taken right at sunset. This first picture required me to stand sideways as I took the picture so you couldn't see my reflection. Hopefully I sucked my gut in enough!

Finally, our Christmas shoot. Betty's vision was a card that said, "Santa, we've been good!", so sibling love and smiles were the goal.

So far, so good......

A little break for Matt to tell McKenzie what he wanted Santa to bring.

Break time for silliness!

Back to smiles and hugs!

And the clock strikes midnight! A kid can only stand so much peace, joy, and happiness!

The Halls Are Decked!

2011-12-15T22:11:00.003-06:00

I am linking up with Kelly's Korner for Christmas Open House. It's so much fun to look at everyone's decorations. I'm also getting some ideas for next year. I love decorating for Christmas and I think I have passed that down to our kids because they enjoy decorating their rooms, too. Everything is pretty much the same as last year's tour except for a few new things. I hung new lighted garlands around the front door and made a new wreath for the front door using an extra wreath I had and a Christmas ball garland I found at TJ Maxx. It snowed one Monday, so after I dropped the kids off at school, I grabbed the camera and got the outdoor shots. I thought it would be fun to hang the kids' artwork they have been making on a pom pom garland in the kitchen window. I hate that I couldn't put out my big nativity scene but with our new little kitty who likes to climb and get into tight spaces, I didn't want to take a chance of him breaking it. So hopefully next year I will be able to use it. I did use a small one, though that is not breakable. Hope you enjoy the tour! Merry Christmas!

Fun Times...Catching Up

2011-12-14T12:37:00.000-06:00

I can't believe how fast this Christmas season is going by! I want it to slow down. We have been having some fun times. We decided to kick off the Christmas season the day after Thanksgiving with a trip to Memphis.We had a great lunch at the Arcade.

We always like to take McKenzie and Matt to see a Christmas movie. We went to see Arthur Christmas in 3D. It was such a great movie and I highly recommend taking your kids to see it. We all enjoyed it.

Before the movie we did a little shopping at Target. Now I will say that we were not there at 12:00 am like those crazy Target lady commercials. Those commercials where the crazy lady is in training for her black Friday shopping...we love those. My family always says that is me but I know I'm not that nuts about Target! Well, maybe a little! Barnes and Noble was our next stop where we did our usual playing trains, looking at books and magazines. Our day ended at the Side Porch with a delicious supper.

The next weekend, David and I went to Memphis to celebrate our Birthaversary. Remember, we got married on David's birthday and a few years ago he started calling December 18th this goofy name. Our sweet niece, Cassie agreed to keep our kids for the weekend for us. McKenzie and Matt loved having her here and want her to keep them again soon. She did a great job! Thank you Cassie!! David and I had the best time. We usually stay downtown, but decided to stay somewhere different on Poplar Avenue. It was close to all my stores and some favorite local eating spots. Here is the view from our room.

Later that night some idiots were in the hot tub and then would jump into the pool and it was freezing that night! We decided not to stress ourselves with Christmas shopping so I had fun finding some cute things for our house. Poor David, he is so sweet to take me to my favorite places and wait patiently while I shop. Guess this was the celebrating our anniversary part for me. I did find some great buys at TJ Maxx. Everyone that knows me knows that this is my store! I have been seeing these great looking Mercury lamps out in blog land and also in Pottery Barn for too much. Well, found this great lamp for our den for MUCH less.

I also wanted a cute rug to go in front of my kitchen sink. This one really warms up the kitchen and goes great with my walls. Now if my sweet kitty will stop using it as his scratching pad. Ugh!

We did a lot of eating during our stay in Memphis. We ate lunch Friday at Gus's World Famous Chicken. David took a picture of the Gus mobile that says on the side of a white hearse Chicken To Die For.

Probably won't go back there but was fun to eat somewhere that was famous. Later that night went to the SidePorch for our annual anniversary dinner. We then ended up at Hobby Lobby and Barnes and Noble. The next morning we drove down the street to the Blue Plate Cafe for a great breakfast. David got pancakes and an omlet and I ordered eggs benedict. Later that day we did more shopping and ended up eating a late lunch at Old Venice Pizza Co. We were sad to see our weekend come to end but happy to have had time to get away from it all. Thanks for a great weekend, David! You are the best!!

Our elf Henry has been hard at work around the house, too. Here he is after his "snowball fight" with the cotton balls. Matt will come to our bed and say I wonder where Henry is hiding today and then he just giggles when he finally finds him.

Children's Christmas Program

2011-12-12T00:04:00.000-06:00

Sunday night was our church's Children's Choir Christmas program. Singing is not really something Matt enjoys but he really did a good job singing out! In the older choir, the 5th and 6th graders get to do to bigger speaking parts and solos and McKenzie got to do her first big solo in choir this year. She did a great job on her speaking part and her solo. Here are some pictures of Matt and McKenzie and a video of McKenzie's solo.

Christmas Show

2011-12-08T23:33:00.000-06:00

Tonight McKenzie performed with her show choir, Pizzazz, in the Visions Christmas Show. Visions is the high school show choir and they are awesome. Pizzazz sang a couple of songs and also sang with Visions on a couple of songs. They have one more show Friday night at 7:00. Here are some pictures of the Thursday night show.

Christmas Play

2011-12-05T21:44:00.000-06:00

Tonight was the Christmas Play at McKenzie's school. They did Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and did a great job. McKenzie's show choir, Pizzazz, performed before the play. They sang five Christmas songs that they've been working hard on. They did great and you can see from the pictures below that McKenzie had a great time performing.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T20:13:00.001-06:00

Thanksgiving week got started off Sunday night with McKenzie's school show choir, Pizzazz, singing at the Community Thanksgiving Service at the Methodist Church. They did a great job! Here she is in her Pizzazz dress.

We have all been excited to be out of school and off work this week. I worked Monday and I've been off the rest of the week. Nick has enjoyed having everyone home all day, too. He wakes Betty and me up early every morning and then waits impatiently for his playmates to get up and play with him. He spends the rest of his time on the computer....

Wednesday we went to Eupora to have Thanksgiving with my family. Everyone did a better job staying awake than last year. Well, everyone except Andy...

Nana cooked a wonderful meal and we had a great time stuffing ourselves and visiting and laughing.

Thursday we went to BettyWard's to have Thanksgiving with Betty's family. Once again we stuffed ourselves with wonderful food and enjoyed visiting with everyone.

Kitty Update

2011-11-17T23:18:00.000-06:00

We are loving our new, sweet kitty! I am so glad we decided to get another one. Nick is just what we needed to help us get over losing Max. It also helps that he looks just like Max. Nick is seven months old and we can't get over how calm and sweet he is. He is definitely a lap kitty because whenever you sit down, he likes to sit and snuggle. He loves computers, too. If you are on the computer he is going to sit in your lap and look at whatever you are doing on it. Here are a few pictures of Nick. As you can see he loves to sit on pillows. Well, he is at the right house then because we have plenty of those.

On November 1st I packed up all of our Halloween stuff and put out a few Thanksgiving things. Here are a few pictures...

The kids are officially out for Thanksgiving break. McKenzie has an eye dr. appointment in Jackson on Friday, so we are looking forward to kicking off the break with lunch at Hamil's and a little Target shopping after we get through at Dr. Mungan's office. Happy Thanksgiving!!

New Cat

2011-11-13T22:00:00.000-06:00

We decided we wanted to go ahead and get another cat and started looking Wednesday night. We wanted to get another orange tabby cat and we found one on the Grenada animal shelter Facebook page. We also found one on PetFinder.com at the Greenwood animal shelter. The one in Greenwood was a male and that's what we really wanted so Betty called them on Thursday morning. They said we could have him but we had to wait a few days since he had just been "fixed". They said we could come get him Sunday afternoon so we decided to make a day of it and go to church at my old church in Itta Bena, go eat lunch at the Crystal Grill, and then go get our new cat. First, we went to Wal-Mart on Friday night and bought some stuff for the cat. Here's Matt trying out the cat's new bed.

We had a great time at church and after church getting to see several old friends from Itta Bena. It's always enjoyable to go to Itta Bena. Time just seems to slow down when you enter the city limits and everyone is always so loving and sweet. We got our faithful blog-reader, Sandra Joiner, to take a picture of us in front of the church before we left...

My best friend, Wayne, and his family (Michelle and Karle) went to lunch with us at the Crystal and we had a great time visiting and laughing with them.

After lunch we headed to the animal shelter to get our new cat. We debated for days about what we would name him. We had several suggestions including, Bubba, Bo, Chester, Max II, Sam, and Silent E. That last one was Matt's suggestion. We decided to go with one of McKenzie's suggestions, Nick. Nick was the name of Max's best friend from years ago. They hung out together all the time until Nick got sick and died. We thought that was a good choice and a even a tie to Max, so, Nick it is!

We brought Nick home and let him explore the house and start getting used to his new surroundings. He is a loving cat and he's also quite active. He's about 7 months and spent the first couple of hours running around the house checking everything out. Here are a few pictures of our newest addition, Nick....

For some reason he likes to get up around our heads!

He also likes to sit in my lap. In fact, he's sitting in my lap right now as I type this!

Max

2011-11-05T22:31:00.001-05:00

Saturday was a very sad day for the Cummings family. Our fourteen year old cat, Max, died. Max had been sick for the last several months and had to spend a few days at the vet on a couple of different occasions. He was a great cat and a great protector for the kids. You don't think of a cat as a protector, but Max felt like it was his responsibility to look after the kids especially when they were outside. He would always go outside with them when they went out to play and he'd just sit and watch them. One time, Matt was about 3 and we were in the front yard. Max kept getting between Matt and a bush and wouldn't let Matt get near the bush. Betty went to see what he was doing and saw a snake under that bush!

We miss him a lot but we're thankful for the time we had with him. Here are some pictures of Max through the years.

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T21:38:00.000-05:00

The kids have been looking forward to trick-or-treating for several weeks now. Matt woke up this morning and laid out his costumes......yes that's plural, you'll see in a minute. Our neighborhood always gets lots of traffic and the kids have as much fun handing out candy as they do going around getting candy.

Here's the official 2011 Halloween photo....

Matt was Iron Man and McKenzie was, like, a totally awesome 80's girl.

Matt came up with the idea of being every super hero that he has a costume for. That totaled five. As you can see, he made the most of his Halloween! Betty carried a bag full of costumes and he changed every half street or so. He was a hoot!

We had to go by and see our old neighbors, the Byrds. They were so happy to see the kids and let them get all the candy they wanted!

Like I said, they loved handing out candy. Whenever the door bell would ring they would both take off running for the door. We had a wonderful time and the kids are already making plans for their costumes for next year!

Halloween Through the Years

2011-10-28T23:11:00.001-05:00

A few weeks ago I read a post on a blog that I love, Clover Lane, on how she made a cute Halloween photo garland for her large kitchen window. It was made using old pictures through the years of her kids in their Halloween costumes. I plan on making one myself, so I got David to find our old pictures of McKenzie and Matt in their costumes. They brought back a lot of great memories. We celebrate big at Halloween at our house. It has been so much fun planning their costumes through the years.I believe my favorite costumes would have to be their "first" Halloween. McKenzie was a Hershey Kiss. I'll never forget how much fun my granny and I had with that one. She made it out of silver fabric and we stuffed it with tissue paper. I then painted a Hershey Kiss tag for it. Matt for his first was a little cowboy. I can remember his head was so big that his little cowboy hat wouldn't stay on but he was so cute! Hope you enjoy the pictures...

2001 - McKenzie - Hershey's Kiss

2002 - McKenzie - 50's Girl

2003 - McKenzie - Snow White

2004 - McKenzie - Minnie Mouse

2005 - McKenzie - Diva

2006 - McKenzie - American Idol

2006 - Matt - Cowboy

2007 - McKenzie - Hannah Montana

2007 - Matt - Dog

2008 - McKenzie - Dr. McKenzie

2008 - Matt - Thomas the Train

2009 - McKenzie - Witch

2009 - Matt - Skeleton

2010 - McKenzie - 60's Girl

2010 - Matt - Batman

Showchoir Spectacular

2011-10-22T21:29:00.000-05:00

McKenzie and her school showchoir, Pizzazz, participated in the MDCC Showchoir Spectacular at MDCC in Moorhead Friday and Saturday. They learned four songs and choreography during practice all day Friday and half a day Saturday and then had their performance Saturday afternoon. McKenzie did a great job and had a lot of fun, even though it was a lot of long, hard work crammed into those two days. After the performance we went to eat at The Lost Pizza Company in Indianola. It was great! The kids each got an individual pizza and Betty and I tried to split a large.......or as they call it - a massive pizza. We weren't up to the challenge and brought a few pieces home. Here are a few pictures of McKenzie performing.

Bull Bottom Farms

2011-10-21T23:21:00.000-05:00

Friday, Matt's class went on a field trip to Bull Bottom Farms. I took off Friday and Betty and I went with the class and had a lot of fun. McKenzie went to a Showchoir Spectacular workshop at Mississippi Delta Community College and we'll have some pics and a post about that later.

The first thing we did was go on a hay ride to the pumpkin patch. The boy to Matt's left told him, "If you stay out in the sun too long you'll be black!".

After the hay ride we went to slide on the giant Magic Carpet Slide. Matt was a little hesitant but he went anyway.

It looked like so much fun that I had to take a turn. I was very pleased that I made it to the bottom of the hill in one piece without any major injuries!

We went back to the slide and Matt said he didn't want to go by himself, so I agreed to go down with him. As you can see......it wasn't pretty.

I promise, no kids were harmed in the taking of this picture. The boy in the blue shirt escaped unharmed. Matt emerged without a scratch also. Amazingly, I was able to walk away as well.

They finished the trip playing on the hay bale maze. This was Matt's favorite part of the farm. He was so worn out after playing that he called it the "hell bays" instead of "hay bales".

Pumpkin Patch 2011

2011-10-11T22:58:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, David and I took the kids to Cedar Hill Farms in Hernando. We love it there and it has become a tradition every fall to visit the farm. McKenzie and I have decided we might like to go back at Christmas where they have holiday activities. It was really a beautiful day and fun was had by all! We visited the animals first then went on a train ride. Next it was off to the pumpkin patch. This was Matt's favorite part riding on the hayride. We decided not to carry big heavy pumpkins back on the hayride, but to buy them at the pumpkin barn where we came in. The kids picked out their very own, McKenzie a white one, Matt, an orange pumpkin, and me, I picked out a blue, bumpy one. McKenzie and Matt also enjoyed doing the corn maze where they had to answer questions about the farm to lead you to the next stop. I sat this one out under a big shade tree, but they all made it out and had fun.
Next, it was time to eat lunch and after years of spending too much at the farm's snack bar, we decided to go to Southaven to eat at Logan's. We all were starving by the time we got there and ate too many peanuts and huge yeast rolls. After lunch, David took the kids to Books A Million, while I tried to find a few necessities for the kids. Our last stop was Target. They had the cutest things in there and we didn't have a lot of time left so I see another visit in the near future.

As soon as October arrived, I had fun decorating the house. I think we have a pumpkin of some sort in every room. Matt told me one day that he thought we needed more stuff! Oh I don't think so, we probably have too much. He has fun showing everyone that comes by the house all of his pumpkins. I will share a few pictures. One is of the mailbox that I talked about a few weeks ago. I really love how it turned out. You can't see it in the picture, but in the flower bed around it, I planted purple and yellow mums to go with the purple ribbon. I also added more mums to the front porch. I have a slight obsession with mums. I bought all different colors this year for the front sidewalk. I found the nicest lady here in town that bought them from a grower in Germantown, so they are really healthy and starting to show some color.

We already have our costumes lined up. McKenzie is now saying she wants to be an 80's valley girl. Well, I can help with that! Matt says he is going to be a different super hero for each street. We have six streets in our neighborhood, so lucky for Matt he has plenty of costumes. I plan on taking my big bag to hold all his stuff and just let him put them on over his clothes on each street. This should be very interesting, but it's what he wants to do.
Happy Halloween!!

Billy Aldridge

2011-10-09T20:25:00.000-05:00

Thursday evening we were saddened by the news of the passing of my sister-in-law Jan's father, Billy Aldridge. Billy was such a sweet and loving man. Jan's brother Wayne and I were best friends growing up in Itta Bena and Billy and Frances always considered me one of their own. When Andy and Jan got married it just solidified the connections between the Cummings and Aldridge families. Billy and Frances have always loved Matt and McKenzie right under their own grandchildren. Billy funeral was Sunday and the service and the graveside service were very nice and a very fitting tribute to him. The ladies of the church in Itta Bena fed the family at the church after the graveside service and we all had time to visit and reminisce about good times together. We'll miss Billy and we're praying for Frances and the rest of the family as they adjust to life without him.

Wedding

2011-10-01T22:06:00.000-05:00

Saturday was my cousin, Beth's, wedding in Eupora. The weather was perfect and everything couldn't have gone any better. The wedding was at a little country church where Beth's parents are buried and the reception was at their family farm. Beth had many friends and family helping make everything run smoothly and make the day special for everyone. She asked me to take pictures for them and here are a few. I'll have the rest on my web site in a few days.

The shoes say "I do" in case you can't read them.

This is at the house at the family farm.

Her flowers had a picture attached of her parents on their wedding day.

Andy sang "What a Friend We Have In Jesus" and "The Lord's Prayer"

I have never been to a wedding where the bride and groom faced the crowd during the ceremony. It was neat.

Betty was my assistant and also in charge of keeping the dog out of the church. This dog showed up at the rehearsal Friday night and then came back for the wedding! Dr. Doolittle did a great job of keeping him outside.

Instead of rice or birdseed, they passed out these cowbells for everyone to ring as Beth and Robert left.

The man who played the piano works at American Family Radio and he also made this cool birdhouse for Beth and Robert as a wedding gift.

Mr. Glen was there and it wasn't long before Matt found him and they started talking trains.

They had quite a long conversation about everything from trains to school.

Beth changed into this dress that her mother (my mother's sister) wore on her wedding day.

McKenzie and another girl passed out the cowbells.

We had to get a shot of the kids since we had them all together and dressed up.

Fall Mantel Party

2011-09-27T22:21:00.001-05:00

Today I found a neat Autumn link party over at The Lettered Cottage. Today Layla is having a fall mantel party where you show yours all decked out for the season. Thursday they are having a fall door decor link up so I know I will be back to check those out. Here is my mantel all dressed for fall. Everything is the same as last year's except for the cute metallic pumpkins I added this year. I found these at Wal-Mart last week for $1 each. I bought a few more crows this year and I love how they look with the pumpkins and fall garland.

I plan on catching up on my new fall magazines and getting some new ideas for our home. I love this time of year!!!

New Restaurant!

2011-09-27T20:59:00.000-05:00

We're always excited to try a new restaurant and we have three new ones opening in town right now. We visited one tonight called Eat At Joe's. It's in a new building that houses McKenzie's new dance studio which is behind No Way Jose and O'Reilly Auto Parts. Here's the menu. The pics aren't that great so I hope you can read it.

Betty got the grilled chicken with baked beans and potato salad. Her favorite was the homemade potato salad.

McKenzie got the BBQ Nachos. She wasn't a big fan of their BBQ sauce but she said it was good. She still likes Tacky Shack's BBQ Nachos better.

Matt went with his old stand-by - chicken strips and fries. I got a bite of his strips and they were pretty good. I may get that next time.

My choice was the "Big Joe Burger" and seasoned fries. It was a little greasy but it all tasted good. I got a little taste of everybody's and I think I'd have to grade them: Grilled Chicken- A, Chicken Strips- B, Burger- B, BBQ Nachos- C.

The food was good and the service was good for an opening night. Everyone there was very nice. Even the owner's son, who looked to be about 10, greeted us and asked us if we were doing alright and then wished us a good evening when we left. I think he was a little sweet on McKenzie, too.

Pizzazz!

2011-09-18T16:13:00.000-05:00

Saturday at the Downtown Jubilee was McKenzie's first public performance with her school's show choir, Pizzazz. They did a great job! McKenzie loves doing stuff like this and you could tell she was having a great time! Here are a few pictures of the performance.

Decorating with Fall Family Photos/Mums

2011-09-16T21:57:00.000-05:00

I am linking up with The Inspired Room's Fall Nesting Party 2011. She is encouraging us to put out a few things that remind us of fall. Since it is not actually fall yet, I think this is good to do in that gets us excited about what the season holds. I usually don't decorate for fall until end of September but I did put out a few things that I really love. I love family photos especially holiday ones. Since its time to say goodbye to summer, I took a few of the frames in my kitchen and replaced the current pictures with ones from our trip to the pumpkin patch in Hernando last October. This is my cute find from Big Lots a few weekends ago. It is a chalkboard frame and I got it for $6! Love it! I plan on changing out the pictures often and even letting the kids write the caption they want on it.

One of my favorite pumpkins on the entry hall chest...

Mums are my favorite this time of year and I always can't wait to get those summer flowers out and replace with the mums. It already makes the porch look better and ready for the new season. I kept the accent plants like the ivy and potato vine because they look great for fall. On into October the mums will quit blooming and I will replace with pansies and kale for the winter. This is the view from my front door. The mums look nice with my sunflower door decoration. I also spruced up the deck a little because this is the first thing you see as you come up to our back door.

Can't wait till October to decorate for halloween. Check out these cute things I found at Michaels. I plan on making something for the mailbox with these so I will show pictures soon of how it turns out.

So hope all of this gets you in the mood for fall. Be sure and check out all the other links to the party...really cute ideas.

Birthday Wishes From Minnesota!

2011-09-13T23:42:00.000-05:00

Wednesday is Betty's birthday! Unfortunately, I am spending her birthday in Bloomington, Minnesota. What kind of present is that - leaving your wife at home during her birthday week to take care of the house, the kids, and the cat by herself? I know I will have a lot of make-up work to do when I get home! I flew out Sunday to go to Bloomington for a training class for work. Betty's first full day on solo duty included dealing with a sick cat, discovering Matt cut a gap out of the front of his hair (two days before school pictures!), and helping McKenzie through the heaviest homework night of the school year so far. We've been using video chat to keep in touch, but you just can't use video chat to tag team stuff like that! Betty, I hope you have a great birthday anyway! You deserve it!

Before I left on my trip, we went to Batesville looking for stuff the kids needed. One thing they didn't need but I couldn't resist since it was on sale for $5, was a Spiderman costume for Matt.

He loves Spiderman right now and I knew he'd love this. He had to put it on immediately and slept in it that night, too!

This has nothing to do with anything, but I had to share......

This is Andy in a Beatles wig Sunday morning! He sang with some other Beatles impersonators Saturday night at a thing at our church and was showing off his wig before church Sunday.

Now for a few pics from my trip so far. This first picture is of my rental car. A young lady from National Car Rental led me and another man to the midsize row for us to pick out a car. The other man was ahead of me and when we got to our row, he practically sprinted to a nice, generic red car. I looked around and realized why he was in such a hurry. All of the rest of the vehicles were different color variations of this.....

That's right......I'm driving a Cube. I've gotten the strangest looks this week in parking lots and riding down the road. I think I saw a man laugh at me tonight as I left the hotel to go eat. Let's move on.....

Monday night I went to the Mall of America, which is the largest mall in the country. It's amazing and I only got through about half of it. I plan on going back a time or two before I leave. Here are a few pics.

This is an autographed picture of the Boston Red Sox after their 2007 World Series Championship. Only $3,000!!!

This is the three story American Doll store. McKenzie would love this store.

This is a Dora the Explorer Ferris Wheel in the Nickelodeon Universe amusement park which is in the middle of the mall. They have this, a roller coaster, a log ride, and several other games and stuff in there.

This is a Super Target. Not only am I missing Betty's birthday this week, but I'm spending the week in the birthplace of Betty's favorite store - Target. The first Target store opened in this area in 1962. I did make a trip to this Super Target for Betty. I called her while I was in there so she could tell me what to get. I was amazed how she could tell me where to go and where stuff would be. It was like she could see inside the store and she'd never been to that one! I guess if I couldn't spend Betty's birthday with her, spending it with Target is the next best thing.

Happy Birthday Betty!!!!!!!!

Kindergarten Open House

2011-09-08T22:05:00.000-05:00

Tonight was open house for the lower elementary. Matt was very excited about showing us his class and his school. As soon as we got there Matt took out leading the way. He was ten feet ahead of us walking down the hall like he owned the place! We enjoyed seeing Matt's class and hearing him tell us about what he does every day.

Here Matt was showing us the behavior chart.

This is Chip Charger, the class mascot. He does a little dance and makes horse sounds!

Here's Matt with his teacher, Mrs. Granholm. We thought Chip Charger was turned off, but right before I snapped this picture he moved his head toward Matt. Freaky........

Matt doing what he'd love to be able to do during class!

This is outside the "Li-berry". He was quite disappointed that it was locked and he couldn't show it to us.

Matt is loving Kindergarten and we had a blast getting the grand tour from him!

My First Pizzazz Performance!!!

2011-09-07T21:15:00.000-05:00

Today was the best day ever!!! My Pizzazz group performed all day out in the community. It was so much fun! It was also fun to miss my classes all day, too! We left on the bus at 8:30 and got back to the school around 2:00. We started out at the Courthouse and City Hall and that is where my mom and my Mimi came to see me and took these pictures. We also went to several nursing homes, All Saints House, hospital, the cancer clinic, Dr. Braswell's office and Central Office. We took our lunch break at Subway, then it was off to sing and dance again. Can't wait to do it again next month!!!!!

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-05T21:21:00.001-05:00

Well, Nana said she was tired of reading about the wedding, so I thought I would update about our fun weekend! We decided a few weeks ago that we would take the kids on a fun Labor Day weekend to Memphis. We thought that after a very long month of starting school and getting used to new routine that a little fun was in order. We have been counting the days to our long weekend. It's always nice to have something to look forward to. On a sad note though, I was in one of my favorite stores and just happened to look down at my rings and my diamond in my engagement ring was gone! Ugh! We are hoping our insurance will help out with this one. I really believe it is in the hotel pool. We were swimming and a string off of Matt's shirt got hung on it because I remember pulling the string off the ring. I am thinking it loosened a couple of the brackets causing it to fall out. Oh well, that is my luck!
We left Saturday morning and arrived just in time to go downtown to The Arcade to eat lunch.

After lunch I went to TJMaxx and David took the kids to Toys-R-Us or as Matt called it Toys-and-Us. So cute! We just kept letting him say it. David was Mr. Softy in there and bought them each a toy. But after the past few weeks they deserve it! After checking in, we went straight to the pool and it was nice to be the only people in it! Next it was time for an early supper. We were starving so we headed to Side Porch. After we stuffed ourselves, I enjoyed a little time in Hobby Lobby by myself! I am really thankful for David when we go shopping because he always takes the kids so I can have fun! He is computer shopping so we went to Best Buy to check out the laptops. I had to take this one of McKenzie and Matt. They are so serious. They probably know more about it than me! Ha!

Barnes and Noble was our next stop. We all love this place! Matt got to play trains, McKenzie read books, and I got to check out some new fall magazines and I think David almost fell asleep over by the trains.
The next morning we decided to go to IHOP for breakfast.

The boys went back to hang out at the hotel while McKenzie and I went to Home Depot to check out the mums. I ended up buying two, so can't wait to get those planted this week. Lastly, we decided to go to the mall before heading home.

The weather started getting bad because of the tropical storm moving in so we were glad to get home especially after seeing an 18 wheeler overturned on the side of the road. It really was a great, relaxing weekend and this note that McKenzie wrote summed it up best. I had to get a picture of it. Sweet!

On a different note its time to get our house ready for fall. Sunflowers are perfect for this time of year. I bought one big sunflower and picked out three different ribbons and had the Flower Co. here in town put it together for me. Dollar Tree got in another shipment of black birds, so I thought one would be cute hot glued on a branch. This will be great for September, then I will put all of my Halloween stuff out in October. Can't wait to show you the cute jack-o-lantern and black cat that I found at Michael's. I plan on putting it on our mailbox.

I hate our Labor Day is over and the kids go back to school and David back to work. It's back to normal tomorrow. It is homecoming week, so we look forward to going to the game Friday night. McKenzie also starts dance at her new school, Charisma Dance Co this week and she is looking forward to singing with Pizzazz! all day Wednesday out in the community. Hope to have some pictures up soon from the week.

Paul and Leslie

2011-08-27T22:11:00.000-05:00

David had the opportunity to take pictures of Paul and Leslie Black's wedding tonight. It was a really sweet wedding blending two families. The wedding took place at the home of Leslie's mom. It was outside around the pool with a pretty lake in the background. It was a really nice family affair. Here are a few of my favorites...

Grenada Pageant

2011-08-27T18:08:00.000-05:00

McKenzie won her age division in the Little Miss Magnolia preliminary pageant, the Miss Grenada Pageant! By winning this pageant she gets to go to the Little Miss Magnolia State Pageant again next July! Way to go McKenzie!!!

The two young ladies in the back with the big crowns were two of the judges.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-08-16T22:33:00.000-05:00

Trip to Cleveland

2011-08-13T21:59:00.000-05:00

Saturday Betty and I decided to take the kids to Cleveland to go to the railroad museum, eat, shop, and show them where we went to college.

Matt loves trains and I think Max is starting to like them, too. Almost every time Matt plays trains now, Max sits right in the middle of the tracks.

We got to Cleveland for lunch and ate at Hey Joe's in The Warehouse District. It's a remodeled warehouse area that now houses a restaurant (Hey Joe's) and bakery (The Sweetery) and a beauty shop.

This was in front of The Sweetery. It was a neat looking place.

This is inside Hey Joe's. The number on the wall is the number of burgers sold this year. It's now at least 11,235 after my big cheeseburger!

We went to The Sweetery after lunch for dessert. I got a strawberry cupcake, McKenzie got an M&M cupcake, Matt got a cinnamon roll, and Betty got a whoopie pie which is the cream stuffed things in the picture above.

After lunch the girls dropped Matt and me off at the railroad museum. Matt really enjoyed watching the model trains. It was really neat how they had all of the stuff set up.

If you look in the top right-hand corner of this picture you'll see Miss Mississippi being interviewed by someone from WABG. I texted Betty and told her that she and WABG were there if they wanted to come in for a minute and they did.

McKenzie got an autographed picture from Miss Mississippi and we got this picture of them together.

Here you can see Matt's true love. Miss Mississippi is sitting five feet behind him and he couldn't care less! He was all about the trains!

At Hey Joe's

Hey Joe's

After the museum and the girls' shopping we showed the kids the Delta State campus and showed them where Nana and Grand used to live and where Andy and Jan used to live. We had a really good time!

Friends

2011-08-08T21:21:00.000-05:00

Saturday we were so excited to have our friends the Bewleys come and visit us. Becky and I have been friends for years. They moved 1000 miles away eight years ago and live in Baltimore now. Every summer she and her girls visit her parents in Ridgeland and always make a side trip to Grenada to see old friends. I am so glad we are on the list! Although we talk on the phone and email, its always good to see each other in person. Becky is the type of friend that you just pick up where you left off and that's exactly what we did! The kids got along great so we really had a wonderful visit! They were sweet to bring McKenzie and Matt gifts...books that I know they will enjoy so much. So, Becky I know you read our blog, thanks for making a special effort to come see us. Can't wait to see all of you again! Each year we take a group picture. Here are a few David took for us...

Tonight we found out some good news for McKenzie. She tried out for the 5th grade show choir, Pizzazz, today after school. Seventy-four students tried out and they picked 7 girls and 7 boys for the group. They posted the list of students who made it on the school web site tonight and we were so excited to see McKenzie's name on that list! Congratulations McKenzie! We're proud of you! Here's a link to the Pizzazz page.

First Day

2011-08-04T13:46:00.000-05:00

Today has been McKenzie's first day of 5th grade and Matt started kindergarten. It's hard to believe that summer is over and school is here and it is soooo hot! The kids were ready to go this morning especially Matt. Thank goodness after going Tuesday and meeting Matt's teacher he started getting excited about going to school. Matt's teacher is Cecelia Granholm. We are thrilled to get her. He is in a multiage class and we know that Mrs. Granholm is going to give him a great start to school.
I dropped McKenzie off first and we are not allowed to walk her in but we said our goodbyes in the car and she was off to her class. She was excited about seeing her friends. McKenzie is in a looping class where you have the same teacher for two years. We are so blessed to have Mrs. Christa King again. They are adding a third teacher to her group. She will go to Mrs. Montgomery (our new teacher) for Science and Mrs. Armstrong again this year for Math. McKenzie seemed more relaxed and confident this year, so we are thankful for that. I also think it helped her feelings to know that her brother was now in school all day and not half day then home for the rest of the day. I can't blame her!
After dropping McKenzie off at GUES, I found a parking spot near the Lower Elementary. Matt and I began our long walk to his class. I had a knot the size of Texas in my throat and I was praying I wouldn't see anyone that might make the water works start. I saw a few people but was able to keep it together. Matt was happy so that really helped make it a good drop off. We found his class and I sat him down at a table with one of his t-ball friends. Matt was content and settled so I told him bye. I wouldn't look back at him one last time because I knew I would lose it for sure! So I got out of there fast and actually made it home before I lost it. I am doing better now and can't wait to go get them and find out all about their day. Lots of people have been prayng for us and we have all felt it today! We appreciate it so much! Now for a few pictures. The first is one of Matt that I took with my phone. Ugh! Heartbreaking....what a little sweetie.

The next is one taken by a teacher friend at his school. She snapped it at lunch then texted it to us. He looks like he is doing great!

The next few pictures are taken right before we left for school. McKenzie and Matt were excited about their new backpacks and lunch boxes. McKenzie loves everything peace signs and Matt chose superheroes for his new backpack. Enjoy the pictures!!

And The Winner Is.......

2011-07-24T15:44:00.000-05:00

Well, it wasn't McKenzie but she did great! We're in Jackson right now eating a late lunch/early supper. (Would that be "lupper"?) It's a neat little pizza place and ice cream place called Sal and Mookie's New York Pizza and Ice Cream Joint. Before crowning the pageant director and four of the Miss Magnolia queens performed "Beauty School Dropout". I've got some pictures of that below. Then they brought up all 31 girls and called out the ones who didn't make the Top 12. McKenzie made the cut! Then they counted down the girls until the Top 5. McKenzie was the last one to get called who didn't make the Top 5! She did a wonderful job and had a lot of fun! We all enjoyed it - even me and Matt! We're so proud of you, McKenzie!!!!!

CompetitionSaturday

2011-07-23T21:59:00.000-05:00

Today has been a full and exciting day of competition. McKenzie had her Sunday dress beauty competition at 1:30. She was a little nervous but she did great. Here are some pictures of that competition.

We came back to the hotel for a few hours then headed back to the auditorium for casual wear. Hear are some pictures of that competition.

Crowning is Sunday at noon. We hate to see this fun weekend come to an end. Matt has been a real trooper but I am sure he has had his fill of pageants for a while! Don't worry Matt, I'm sure you'll get your turn when McKenzie follows you to all of your baseball tournaments.

Pageant Weekend

2011-07-22T20:38:00.000-05:00

We are in Vicksburg this weekend at the Little Miss Magnolia State Pageant. We are having a lot of fun so far! We registered this afternoon and found out that McKenzie is number 14 out of 30 girls in her division - Pre-Teen 9-11. For those interested, she does Sunday dress beauty at 1:30 tomorrow (Saturday) and her casual wear will be at 6:00 tomorrow evening. I'll get David to take some pictures and we'll post them later.

Here are some pictures David took last year that we submitted for the pageant program and the Miss Photogenic contest.

McKenzie the Ant

2011-07-18T21:40:00.001-05:00

McKenzie had the part of the Queen Ant in the Children's Choir spring musical back in May. She had a speaking part and a solo in the song L-A-Z-Y. Here's a link to a video of her solo.

Christmas Card Reveal

2011-07-16T23:10:00.002-05:00

This weekend I am linking up with Kelly's Korner and Show Us Your Life...How you shared you were pregnant with family/friends.
With our second baby, our ultrasound to find out if we were having a boy or girl fell in November and a friend told me I ought to reveal the sex of our baby in our Christmas card. So with that idea, we got busy getting creative. Of course our family and friends were dying to know what we were having but we told them they would have to wait for the news to come a few weeks later in the mail! We have an older daughter, McKenzie, who at the time was four. I dressed her up and we headed down to our old train depot (hint hint-boy) to take a picture of McKenzie holding a newspaper that we had painted It's A Boy! on it. We didn't tell her what it said for fear of her spilling the beans. I then made our Christmas cards out of card stock, had Our Big News of 2005...printed at the top and taped McKenzie's picture revealing the gender in the center. We had so much fun with this and our family and friends did too. I think this will always be my favorite Christmas Card ever!!

SuperMatt

2011-07-16T15:52:00.000-05:00

Saturday afternoon Matt and I watched the Superman movie from 1978. I remember going to watch it with my Dad and Andy when it came out. As you can see in these pictures, Matt enjoyed it so much he had to put his cape on and "fly" around like Superman. So....faster than an angry Mom, more powerful than a toy train, able to leap living room furniture in a single bound.....Look! Up in sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's SuperMatt!!!

Happy Birthday, McKenzie!

2011-07-09T22:10:00.000-05:00

Today (Sunday) is McKenzie's 10th birthday! We can't believe she is already in double digits. We've had a good birthday weekend so far. McKenzie picked The Tacky Shack for her family birthday supper Friday night. After supper we had her birthday cake and she blew out her 10 candles. Saturday, she got up with Betty about 5 a.m. and helped her and Mimi with a garage sale. Then we went to Nana and Grand's after lunch and visited with them and ate supper with them. Here are some pictures from Friday night.

This is the official family birthday picture. It came after the first attempt below...

This was our first attempt. Matt sat there perfectly until just before the timer went off when he did his Spider-Man pose.

Below is McKenzie's birthday video. The song is Taylor Swift's "Never Grow Up", which is our wish for both of our kids. We wish we could just stay like we are for a long time. But......time moves on, so enjoy......

Pray For Me

2011-07-07T11:59:00.000-05:00

During our adult choir spring musical I got the special opportunity to sing a song with McKenzie. I had the solo on the verses and some of the girls from the Children's Choir sang the chorus. At the end, McKenzie walked over and I gave her my mic as she sang her solo. McKenzie did a great job! It's a tear-jerker of a song, so be warned. You can also go to the First Baptist Facebook page to see some more videos from the Children's Choir spring musical and the Adult Choir spring musical.

Happy Fourth of July!

2011-07-04T11:22:00.000-05:00

Happy Fourth! We are having a fun, relaxing weekend. So glad David has the day off today, too! He will be grilling hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch. This is sort of a random post just to update what we have been doing lately. Saturday morning we celebrated Elizabeth's baby's first birthday! Kendall was such a little doll and seemed to enjoy every part of her cute little party. The theme was owls. The food was soooo good! I enjoyed all of it especially the homemade BLT dip. I am making that very soon. We also had fresh fruit and dip, blueberry muffins, sausage balls and cheese. After eating then it was time for Kendall to dive into her cake. She had an owl cake just for her and we all enjoyed owl cupcakes and ice cream. Kendall got an assortment of neat gifts. All the cousins enjoyed playing and visiting with each other. At the end of the party the kids got to take turns with the owl pinata. Here are some pictures from the party.

Later that afternoon, we took the kids to Oxford to see the movie Mr. Poppers' Penguins. It was so cute! We had really been wanting to see that movie this summer and it did not disappoint. It's such a treat to take the kids to the movie especially when its out of town. After the movie we stopped by Belk and Hibbits, then on our way out of town, enjoyed supper at Abner's. We got home just in time to see Miss Mississippi! That was fun and got us excited about McKenzie's pageant coming up toward the end of July. It is the Little Miss Magnolia State. You can check it out at this website. It is a natural, Sunday dress pageant. She won her preliminary back last August and will go as Miss Preteen Grenada. We have her sportswear and dress ready to go. It should be a neat weekend and we plan on celebrating her 10th birthday while we are in Vicksburg!

One last thing I wanted to share was my decorating project using a $4 can of red spray paint. I have been wanting a bedside table for Matt's room and knew I wanted something old. So, on our last visit to the Cummings, I found this very cute table that belonged to Liz's grandmother. I painted it red and now it is perfect for Matt's room. David loves the fact that it was free!

Hope everyone has a great week and we will be back soon with McKenzie's birthday video that David is working on. Can't believe she will be double digits! Wow!! Lot's of celebrating coming soon.

Father's Day Fun!

2011-06-21T13:02:00.000-05:00

Hi, this is McKenzie and I will be doing our blog post today instead of Daddy. I am going to recap our great Father's Day weekend. We started out going to Eupora and we ate chicken salad, fruit salad and spinich dip with Nana and Grand. Nana's cookin was soooo good. After our visit we were off to Starkville. It was Daddy's idea for us to go see a movie, so Daddy and Matt went to see Green Lantern and me and Mama went to see Judy Moody and the Not So Bummer Summer. We loved our movies! After the movies we went to a few stores. It was soooooo hot in Starkville. I loved going to The Lodge. It is the store where they sell tons of Mississippi State stuff. Next, we went to supper at Harvey's. The food was great!
Sunday we went to church as usual. Daddy and I got to sing our song together from the musical back in May. It's called Pray for Me. Andy and Cassie also sang a song together. So it was special to sing with our daddies. Sunday afternoon, Daddy took me and Matt to a Redbirds game in Memphis. After the game, they let all the daddies and kids go onto the field and play catch. That was fun!! It was a wonderful Father's Day. Happy Father's Day to a great daddy. We love you, McKenzie and Matt!

More Beach Pictures...

2011-06-12T22:00:00.000-05:00

We had a great time in Gulf Shores last weekend and we hated for it to come to an end. I don't know who was more sad to leave the beach, me and David or the kids! Well, probably David because he had to go back to work. Besides doing the beach/pool routine everyday, our favorite thing is going out to eat. We had some great seafood while down there and also made a new tradition of going to eat ice cream every night at Bruster's. We all enjoyed playing at our favorite putt putt golf place. I'm sad to say that we don't have any pictures of all of our activity because carrying that big camera everywhere is a hassle plus we stayed exhausted just keeping up with McKenzie and Matt. We did capture a moment here and there with our phones so at least we have those to look back on.
In our last blog post David shared his favorite beach pictures and now I am going to share mine. Matt was really into taking pictures this year for the first time! He took it quite seriously. We took a ton of pictures, so I will have lots to choose from for framing all through the house. I love decorating our house with beach pictures from each year and displaying all the beautiful shells that we collect each trip... Great memories of happy times!

Gulf Shores 2011

2011-06-04T12:16:00.000-05:00

We are at the beach! We've all been looking forward to this for a while. The kids started screaming when they saw the condos! We walked out on the beach as soon as we got to the condo and took a couple of pictures of the kids with my phone.

Then we went to supper at Tacky Jacks and came back to the condo to take our annual beach pictures of the kids. They were very cooperative this year and we had a lot of fun. They even went down to the water and waded a little bit. Matt has never wanted to go too close to the water before, but this year he's really enjoying it. Here are some of the beach pictures we took.

We went for some ice cream after pictures and Matt ended up with a chocolate goatee.

Friday night we had a little bit of lightning and thunder out on the water. Matt was very concerned for the people who were out on the beach while the lightning was going on. He kept saying, “They are not being very safe.” and hollered from our 11^th floor balcony at them to go inside!

Saturday morning McKenzie and Betty went for a walk on the beach while Matt and I stayed in the room and watched Thomas. Then we went down to swim in the pool and play on the beach. We had a lot of fun playing in the water on the beach. Matt and McKenzie are being much more adventurous this year and we had a ball playing in the waves. After getting out of the water Matt kept saying, “That's just pool water, Daddy.”, making sure I knew that he wasn't wetting himself!

Right now we're sitting at Sweetie Pies enjoying a wonderful lunch. There's a Target just across the road so you know where we're going to end up next.......

Cowboys and Dancers

2011-05-29T13:42:00.000-05:00

Saturday was a busy day for the Cummings family. Saturday morning Matt went to a cowboy birthday party for his friend Robby. Matt loves going to birthday parties and had been looking forward to this one since he got the invitation two weeks ago. The party was at Diamond J Bar Ranch in Duck Hill. They gave all the kids cowboy hats, a bandana, and a badge when they got there. Matt brought his own gun! Here are some pictures.

This was a boot race where the kids ran down to a pile of boots and grabbed one and ran back to the start line. On this race, there was one boot left and Matt and his friend Noah were the only ones without a boot. There was just one little problem........the boot was pink and neither boy wanted anything to do with it! They just left it laying there and went back to the start line empty-handed!

Saturday night was McKenzie's dance recital. She did a great job on her ballet and hip-hop dances. She also received the award for Best Leap. Way to go, McKenzie! We're proud of you! Here are several pictures of her dancing.

Summer Is Here

2011-05-21T00:11:00.000-05:00

Today marked the first day of summer vacation for McKenzie and Matt. This morning was tough. We took gifts to Matt's teachers and said goodbye to them. That was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Michelle and Ann are such special teachers. God really blessed us. Matt has had an awesome year in preschool 4 at Miss Mary's. They have prepared him for kindergarten in every way. It has been a joy each day to take him to school. I have been savoring his last week but at the same time dreading the final goodbye. I managed to keep it together until I got to the car, but then I lost it. We promised to come back before school starts and visit, so I can't wait. Now McKenzie is a part of a looping class so we will have Mrs. King again, thank goodness. She is a huge blessing to us, too. Here are pictures of Matt at graduation with his teachers.

Graduation was so cute. The kids and teachers' hard work paid off with a wonderful program. After the program, Miss Mary treated us to a graduation party with pizza, cake and a fun jump. That was Matt's favorite part.

We did enjoy the rest of day and making plans for our summer. I know it will pass quickly but we are going to enjoy every minute. Here are a few pics I took with my phone so the quality is not that great. I also included a few of my container gardens. I have been feeding them miracle grow and it is really helping them.

Tonight McKenzie and I went to Parker's graduation at Grenada High School. David and Matt had a game and David is the coach so they weren't able to attend. But we did hitch a ride with Marty and her kids. It was a really nice graduation with 263 graduates! Congrats to Parker and his parents. We are proud of you!! Here are a couple of bad pictures taken with my phone. I didn't have my photographer with me.

Happy Birthday, Grand!

2011-05-19T08:15:00.000-05:00

Today is Grand's 80th birthday!!!! I can't even believe that is true. Dad doesn't look or act like an 80 year old. He and Mom still go all the time and he is always there ready and willing to do whatever he can for anybody. Andy and I are wearing him out this week, though. Matt and I took Nana and Grand to a Memphis Redbirds game Tuesday, and then Andy's crew and I are taking them to see the Gaither Vocal Band in Jackson tonight. Betty and the kids have to stay behind for Matt's t-ball game. So have a great birthday, Grand! You deserve it! We love you!!!

Hats Off To The Grad!

2011-05-14T21:57:00.000-05:00

Matt is an official Pre-School Graduate! Miss Mary's held its pre-school graduation ceremony Saturday afternoon at Emmanuel Baptist Church. We were really looking forward to the program to see what Matt would be doing. He hadn't told us a lot about the program, but he had shared a few brief previews of a few of the songs. The program was wonderful! The kids sang several songs and each child recited a Bible verse he or she had learned. Matt had a great year in Miss Michelle's class and we hate to leave her but she and Miss Ann did a great job getting Matt and the other kids ready for kindergarten next year. Here are some pictures from the program.

Matt saying his Bible verse. "Look unto me, and be ye saved." - Isaiah 45:22

Pop came up and stood with Matt during the song honoring the military. Pop is an Army veteran.

Matt getting his diploma!

The class of 2011 (and 2024) throwing their diplomas in the air!

Matt and Miss Michelle

Matt and Miss Ann

Kids' Musical

2011-05-11T15:28:00.000-05:00

Sunday night Matt and McKenzie had their spring music programs at church. Matt's group sang a few songs and he did really well with the motions and even sang a little bit! McKenzie's choir did "King of the Jungle" for their program. McKenzie was the Queen Ant! She did a great job on her lines and her solo. The ant song was a take-off on YMCA, called L-A-Z-Y. Here are some pictures of their programs.

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-07T23:35:00.001-05:00

We'd like to wish a very happy Mother's Day to our mothers, Liz, Gail, and Frances! McKenzie, Matt, and I would like to also wish a very happy Mother's Day to Betty/Mommy! Enjoy your video. We hope it doesn't make you cry too much! We love you!

Thriller!

2011-05-06T23:01:00.000-05:00

Thursday and Friday night McKenzie got to dance in the Grenada High School Visions concert. The Visions Show Choir asked some 3rd and 4th graders to be dancing zombies during "Thriller". Visions put on an awesome concert! Those kids are amazingly talented. McKenzie and the rest of the zombie dancers did a great job, too. Here are several pictures of them dancing.

Groundbreaking

2011-05-03T21:26:00.000-05:00

This past Sunday, our church had a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of our new sanctuary. We had our worship service in the Family Life Center and then went outside for the groundbreaking and then finished up back inside for a pot luck dinner. The service went really well and it was a really enjoyable day. I put some pictures on the First Baptist Facebook page that you can see by clicking here.

Kicking Off Dad's Birthday Month

2011-04-30T22:09:00.000-05:00

Saturday we went to Eupora to visit with the Cummings side of the family and to start the celebrations of Dad's 80th birthday. May is a month of memorials in Webster County and Dad's family gets together and goes around to the cemeteries to place flowers on family graves. This year Mom decided to add a little birthday celebration to the gathering since Dad will be turning 80 on May 19th. We had a good time visiting and eating! Here are some pictures.....

Dad's sisters brought some old pictures for everyone to look at and reminisce.

Matt and Caleb found a way to get some ball playing in.

The Cummings men. Aren't we handsome!!!

McKenzie and my aunt, Sallie.

Andy and Matt, or Abomination vs. Iron Man.

Happy Birthday to you! Matt had to help!

The ladies facing the camera on the left are Dad's sisters, Sallie and Louise.

Home Run Hitter and Home Improvements

2011-04-26T22:09:00.000-05:00

Tonight Matt had his first t-ball game of the season. We are the Bulldogs and David is coaching his team again. We were glad that the storms held off, so that we could play our game in the Frankie Bailey tournament that raises money for St. Jude. Matt had a lot of fun. He hit one to the fence and got a home run. He got a few people out on defense, too. During the month of May he will play 15 games! David and Matt love every minute of it, though. It is entertaining to watch these little kids, so McKenzie and I have fun, too.

In other news...more home improvements. We are slowly but surely making this house our own. I love putting my touch on it and making it more "us". It's fun to cross projects of my list! I have found a great contractor thanks to Betty and Ward. He doesn't mind coming and doing small projects. He is also the guy who built my mantle and added moldings to improve the large bookcase.

I know this may sound weird, but I wanted a new back door for Christmas. The one I had was ugly,broken and looked a little shabby. So David gave me the door and we are just now getting around to having it installed. I decided on another steel french door because of rain blowing in on it and thought that might be more practical. We had it painted a neutral color called milk paint. I also found some pretty door handles at Lowes that match my light fixture. I have wanted this project done since the day we moved in so I am happy that it is completed!

The next project our contractor completed today was our foyer. I am very pleased with how it turned out. It looks completely different. It use to be a cranberry red and I had it painted a color called morning fog. We also had crown molding put up and that was the finishing touch it needed. The color is a shade lighter than what we had painted behind our bookshelves back in the fall. I like the way the color wraps around from the bookcase into the foyer. Here are a few pics...

Easter Snapshots

2011-04-24T22:43:00.000-05:00

We have had a great laid back Easter weekend. We started our weekend off Thursday night going to see the movie Hop. It was a really cute movie and we all enjoyed it. David and the kids were home on Friday. Friday night we met all the Cummings clan to celebrate Cassie's 19th birthday. I can't believe she is 19! She was only 7 months old when David and I started dating. Cassie's request was Woody's in Winona. We had a great time. Jan brought a cute cake for us to eat for dessert.

Sunday we enjoyed Sunday school and a great service at church. David, Andy and Lauren sang It Is Finished and it was awesome! After church we went to Mexicana for our "non-traditional " Easter meal. It was delicious. After lunch we decided to take some pictures of the kids in their Easter outfits. Here are a few and also a few pics of Matt at our church's Easter egg hunt last weekend.

Yard Stuff and Easter Decorating

2011-04-15T22:36:00.000-05:00

I have been taking advantage of the pretty weather and getting some things done in the yard. My plants made it through that terrible summer drought. Thank goodness, I didn't want to have to replace any this year. However my azaleas to the left of the driveway that have been here for years are not blooming well. I didn't feed them last year so maybe a little Miracle Gro will help them bloom next year. Here are a couple of pictures that I took after putting out pine straw a few weekends ago.

Last year

This year

Last year

This year

Easter will be here soon, so it is time to do a little spring decorating. I am so pleased with McKenzie and Matt's eggs this year. Matt's has a school house on it to represent his year in 4 yr. old preschool and McKenzie's has a pageant bunny on it to represent the two pageants she won last year. They are so cute...

I did something different for the front door this year. I used this cute bunny that was in McKenzie's nursery. I had a big bow made for it to make it look like he is sitting on it. Then I hot glued a few Easter eggs to the bow. Around by the back door, I used my Easter egg wreath.

April and May are turning out to be very busy months for the Cummings household. School is almost out so that means t-ball, preschool graduation, church musicals and dance recital. My head is spinning just thinking about it all but we will enjoy this season of life that we are in right now. McKenzie and Matt are growing up fast!

School News

2011-04-13T22:17:00.001-05:00

Last Saturday Matt's school, Miss Mary's, had a 20th year celebration open house. Matt was so excited about it and talked about it all week leading up to it. We got to see Matt's room and some of the work that he's done and he showed us what he does and what he plays with every day. They had a fun jump, snow cones, and popcorn.

In other school news, McKenzie will be going to the Superintendent's Breakfast Thursday morning. All students who have all A's for the year up to this point are invited to join the Superintendent for breakfast at the high school cafeteria. McKenzie will get to ride the bus from her school to the high school. She is very excited and we are very proud of her!

Matt-isms

2011-04-08T21:53:00.000-05:00

No pictures in this post. Just a couple of quotes from Matt so Nana can't complain that we haven't posted anything in April yet!

After lunch at Spencer's Friday, I took the rest of my Dr. Pepper with me in the car. As I drank from it on the way home, Matt noticed and with indignation said, "Daddy! You're not supposed to drink and drive!". I laughed and he responded, "You know I'm right!". Busted!

Matt likes to play "super hero" and run around the house fighting super villains. Sometimes the villains disguise themselves as couch pillows and Matt has to punch them and jump on them. This brings out the most feared super villain of them all........... Mommy! Friday, Matt was playing super hero and would stand on the arm of the couch and try to jump over the pillows. As a faithful minion of Mommy, I told him that he needed to stop jumping on the pillows.
He said, "I wasn't jumping on the pillows, I was jumping OVER the pillows."
Me: "Well, you didn't quite make it did you?".
Matt: "So I need to try again?"

First Visit To Kindergarten

2011-03-29T21:23:00.000-05:00

Tuesday, Matt's class took a field trip to the Grenada Elementary School to check out the Kindergarten. The parents were encouraged to meet them there so Betty and I took advantage of the opportunity to tour the school.

Matt was so excited about riding the school bus. He told me it was "awesome"!

Here's the big boy getting off the bus.

Matt and his best friend, Carter, waiting in line to start the tour. They ended up splitting the class in two groups and split them right between Matt and Carter. They weren't too happy about that!

P.E. was Matt's favorite part of the tour. They let Matt's class each have a turn kicking the ball.

This was the music class. Matt actually sang a little bit and did the motions the teacher was showing them.

This class was studying bugs and had some displayed on a table. Matt was upset that he didn't get to look at them through the "microscope" - also known as a magnifying glass.

They ended the tour in the cafeteria where Matt looked like he had been through a full day of school! He was pretty reserved and quiet most of the time, just taking it all in. In one class we visited, though, he decided he needed to "break dance" and hopped down on the floor and did some moves for a few seconds and then got up and got back in line! I asked him what he was doing and he said, "I just wanted to do some break out moves!". In the cafeteria the Guidance Counselor told the kids that they would get a number assigned to them that they would use for lunch and computer time so they would have to memorize it. Then a little girls asked, "What does rememberize mean?". Gotta love little kids!

Matt and Carter back on the bus and headed back to Miss Mary's.

Happy Birthday Matt!!!

2011-03-26T00:05:00.000-05:00

Matt has been so excited about his birthday this year. He's been talking about it all month! We started celebrating Sunday with cake and goodies at Granny's....

...then we met Nana and Grand for supper Tuesday night.

Friday, Matt had a party at his school (see Betty's post below) and then we went to supper at No Way Jose where they sang to him and put a big sombrero on his head!

And now for the annual birthday video. I hope you like it! Happy Birthday Matt!

Birthday Fun!

2011-03-25T21:02:00.001-05:00

Matt's 5th birthday is tomorrow. His teacher, Mrs. Michelle told me that I could bring a cake on Friday to celebrate with his class. We went to their playground and set up the food on the picnic table. It was a beautiful morning for it. We had so much fun!

I had Walmart bakery make this cute baseball cupcake cake. Matt is really into baseball right now with his t-ball practices starting up this week, so I thought he would like it and he did!

On each child's birthday, they get to wear this cute birthday hat. All of his friends sang Happy Birthday to him and he blew out his no. 5 candle. We ate cupcakes, cheese nips and capri suns. After eating the kids ran off to play on the playground. I snapped a few pictures of Matt playing with his friends.

Here is Matt and his best bud, Carter. I really hope these two get in the same kindergarten class next year.
Looks like a few of the boys have a baseball game going...

Tomorrow we are off to Incredible Pizza in Memphis to celebrate his actual birthday. He is so excited and has told anyone and everyone that would listen about his special trip. For those who aren't familiar with Incredible Pizza, it is a neat place with a food bar, go carts, glow in the dark golf, bowling and many other games. It will be a fun day for sure! David will post Matt's video he has been working on late tonight or tomorrow. Can't wait to see it.

Spring Break!

2011-03-17T22:25:00.001-05:00

We kicked off Spring Break week with a trip to Memphis to spend the night and go to a Memphis Grizzlies game. We had a great time and had our camera phones clicking......

Happy kids on the way to Memphis! Matt had his "ears" on watching his DVD.

Our first stop was Kohl's in Southaven. Matt bought an Iron Man figure with some of his saved Christmas money.

The next stop after lunch was Target. As you can see, Matt is a big super hero fan. Here he is trying on a Captain America helmet.

His next purchase with his money was this super hero DS game.

The kids were so cute carrying their luggage through the hotel. They loved punching the elevator buttons and looking out over the lobby as we rode the elevator.

McKenzie loves hotels! We noticed this note she wrote before we left. Bless her heart!

Monday night we went to the FedEx Forum to watch the Memphis Grizzlies play the Los Angeles Clippers.

Matt was a complete nut at the game. He danced to the music and had a great time. I told him before the game about Blake Griffin, who is the best player on the Clippers and makes amazing dunks almost every game. During the pre-game warm-ups, Matt asked me, "Which one is the Amazing Dunker?". He kept calling Griffin "The Amazing Dunker" the rest of the night.

Matt loves waffles! Tuesday morning we went to our favorite breakfast place in Memphis - Miss Polly's on Beale St.

McKenzie looks excited about her breakfast, too!

Tuesday included another trip to Target and Matt spending the last of his Christmas money on a Buzz Lightyear car.

At lunch we met Betty's Aunt Melba and cousin Elizabeth and her daughter, Kendall. Kendall was a hoot, going nuts for her food and laughing at everybody! We had a great time visiting with them!

After lunch we went to Barnes & Noble where McKenzie used some of her own saved money to buy a few books........

......meanwhile, Matt was break dancing and teaching a new friend some moves in the children's section.

We had a great time and I can't believe the week is almost over already. I hate that the kids have to go back to school already.

Matt the Rebel

2011-03-05T06:34:00.000-06:00

At the beginning of the week, Matt told us that he and some boys had gotten in trouble during outside play time at pre-school. They were playing and tackling each other and the teacher told them to stop and not to let her see them tackling again. Matt learned his lesson.........only it wasn't the lesson the teacher meant to teach.

Last night at supper, Matt was telling us about playing with a couple of friends on Friday. I asked him what they played and he said they were tackling each other. I said, "I thought the teacher said she didn't want to see y'all tackling each other again.". Matt said, "We were playing behind the slides so she wouldn't see us.". Matt, we need to talk.

Matt is a literalist. He takes you at your word and does exactly what you say, so you better say it right! One Sunday morning at church he was pretending he was Iron Man when we got there. I told him not to be Iron Man when he went to Sunday School. He didn't. He was Wolverine! Now I tell him not to be any super hero.

Best Buds

2011-02-23T23:06:00.000-06:00

Matt is the type of kid who takes a while to.....well, do anything. He took forever to start walking. He'd stand up and hold on to things but he wouldn't let go even though he was able to take a few steps. He just waited until he was ready to walk well before he unveiled his new talent to the world. He was the same way with talking. We were starting to get worried because he just didn't talk much. When he finally started talking, he talked our heads off!

He's just a very cautious little fellow who likes to observe and study a situation or a task before he dives into it. He started pre-school this year and didn't seem to care anything about any of the kids in his class. He couldn't (or wouldn't) call any of the names of the kids after being in school a month! I think he was just observing and getting to know his new classmates.......from afar.

Well, now he's gotten to know them and he's really coming out. He and Betty had the following conversation the other day.
Matt: "Mommy, all the girls like me."
Betty (not sure where this was going): "Oh really?"
Matt: "Yeah, they think I'm funny."
Betty: "Do you mean girls like Miss Lauren?" Lauren is a young lady in her 20's who Matt has a crush on. He says he likes her, but he doesn't like to look at her because it makes him nervous!
Matt: "No, I'm not talking about old women, I'm talking about the little girls in my class!"

So, not only is he becoming a little ladies' man, he also has a best buddy -- Carter. Carter had a birthday party last Saturday and Matt was so excited about it he could hardly stand it. Here are a few pictures of the buddies at the party.

Valentines, Birthdays, and Bieber Fever

2011-02-13T21:48:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone, especially my Valentine! Our Valentine's celebration was a trip to Memphis Saturday. Betty requested a trip to a couple of our favorite restaurants and just a day with the family. Our first stop was The Olive Garden.

Betty and McKenzie really love The Olive Garden and Matt loves it because he gets to help Mommy with her salad.

After a little shopping and a stop at the cupcake shop, we went to the Paradiso movie theater. McKenzie has the Bieber Fever and she and Betty were going to see the Justin Bieber movie. Matt and I had intended to just go to a few stores and kill time until the movie was over, but he decided he wanted to go see Gnomeo & Juliet. Betty and McKenzie really enjoyed their movie, Matt thought his movie was funny, and I enjoyed my $7.50 nap. Yes, I followed in my mother's footsteps and fell asleep during the movie. I didn't make it much past the opening credits but I woke up in time to get us some popcorn and still see the main part of the movie. Back in 1977, my mother took Andy and me to see Star Wars and slept through the whole thing!

This is the line Betty and McKenzie had to stand in to get into the movie. The place was crawling with little girls suffering from Bieber Fever!

We finished the day by eating at the Side Porch Steakhouse to cap off a wonderful day!

Valentine's Day is also the birthday of two lovely women in our family. We'd like to wish a very Happy Birthday to Nana.....

...... and BettyWard.

Snow Day

2011-02-10T13:13:00.001-06:00

The kids are home today enjoying a snow day. McKenzie suckered me into giving her and Matt their Valentine baskets early since they would be home today to enjoy them. She did have a point and I am glad we gave in. Here are a few pictures of their goodies.

McKenzie loved her new thermos for school and new charms for her charm bracelet and necklace that she received for Christmas. Matt loved his new Iron Man costume and dinosaurs.

I am loving these Valentine ring pops I found for them...so cute! They are made to look like a diamond ring in a case.

Speaking of Iron Man, Matt is very into super heroes these days. I hear that his daddy was the same way at his age.

It's so fun to watch Matt pretending to be someone different everyday. David and I loved this commercial that was aired during the Super Bowl. It was a commercial for Passat but had a little boy in it that pretended to be Darth Vader. It reminded us of our life these days with our little super hero! If you haven't seen it check it out...It is so cute!!!!!!

The Stain Fighter

2011-02-03T21:15:00.000-06:00

Thursday McKenzie participated in her first science fair. Her project was "Which Laundry Detergent Works Best?". She tested five different detergents and included water as a baseline. It was a good experience for her and they weren't required to do one, so I'm proud of her for wanting to do it.

Her findings were that All with Oxi-Action Stainlifters worked the best at getting out mustard and jelly stains. Clorox II was the worst.

Good job, McKenzie!!!

Be Mine

2011-01-21T23:30:00.001-06:00

Last week I started decorating for Valentine's Day and wanted to share some pictures. I look forward to putting a few things out because after Christmas our home seems sparse so a few touches here and there brings life back to our house.

This is the banner I use on the front door. I added the zebra ribbon and red. It seemed like it needed a little extra something.

Rosebud heart wreath by the back door...

Here are a few pictures taken in the den. These Valentine pieces either came from Target or TJMaxx. I found the little hearts at Wal-Mart a few years ago. The baskets are what I put their Valentine's goodies in and place outside their bedroom doors on Valentine's morning.

Here is a cute new frame I found at Dollar General. It sits in our kitchen window.

Found this appliqued hearts table runner at Target right after Christmas...

My favorite new find...a LOVE banner.

I found this on Jessica's blog, Thesearethedays.blogspot.com. She has an etsy shop and is making and selling these right now. It has the cutest details on it. I hung it on our mantle. And yes, that is still my garland left from Christmas. I took all the Christmas decor off of it but left the white lights. McKenzie and Matt begged me to keep it up. They really hated to see the tree go so I compromised and left the garland, but it will go when I take the Valentine stuff down. It does bring a little life to the den, though.

And just for fun, this picture cracks me up...

McKenzie made this sign for her door. She is really growing up!

100th Day of School and Upward Basketball

2011-01-15T14:41:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, Matt celebrated his 100th day of school! Wow, time is flying! They celebrated with a "Beary" special party. The kids were able to bring their favorite teddy bear and have "beary" snacks. Matt took Puppy since that is his favorite stuffed animal. Matt had a great time. He was so cute telling me all the things he got to do with Puppy. They played games with their stuffed animal. One game sounded so cute. It was the limbo and both he and puppy got to go under the stick. One of the moms baked a chocolate cake for them to eat at snack time. They also ate gummy bears and Teddy Grahams. When I picked Matt up at lunch time he told me that Puppy was very tired and needed a nap.

Last night we began our 5th Upward basketball season. David is coaching McKenzie's team again. We lost our first game (the score was 28-30) but we have a good little team and they played really well last night. We were very proud of them. Here are a few pictures...