Courtney is Pregnant!!!!

Just a quick update on my family...

My sister Courtney is pregnant!! I am so happy for her and Anthony, but it's sooooo weird to me that someone will be calling her Mom! You might think, "Michelle, you already have two sisters that are Mom's, why is it so weird?" And, my answer is, it was weird when Jennifer got pregnant the first time, weird when Kiki got pregnant, and it's now still weird that Courtney is pregnant! I just know that her life will be so different now (in a fantastic way) and so thinking of her in such a different role is just hard to picture!!!

But anyway, I'm very happy for Courtney and Anthony! Congrats to them! Love you guys and your baby kumquat!

Happy New Year!!!

Tacky Christmas Sweater Party (Thanks for the sweater Mom :) )

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year break! Mine was absolutely awesome! I got to spend a ton of time with my family and see lots of friends that I haven't seen in a long time.

I went to a Tacky Christmas sweater party and saw friends, made Christmas cookies with the little boys and sisters (minus Courtney who we missed a lot!!), opened presents and read books on Christmas Eve, opened Santa presents Christmas morning with Owen, then later on in the day saw Jake, Josh and Jill's presents from Santa, opened the rest of our presents, and helped cook/ate Christmas dinner.

And that's only part of the trip!!! I'll write about the rest as soon as I get more pics :)

Here are some Christmas pics from this year:

This was for the tacky Christmas sweater party that my friends have every year. Thank you Mom for supplying the sweater :)

My mom and I at the movie premiere for our neighbors movie!

Making Christmas cookies! Yea!

Grandeb made a "scavenger hunt" Christmas Eve game. This was team Peaches (that's the word the little boys yelled during ghost stories in Alabama)

Team "You just got poned by the cauliflower Spartans" - Everybody contributed to the name which is why it was so long. And, poned is something Jake and his friends say, kind of like you got owned.

The boys and Jill in their Christmas PJ's... the girls got some too but not everyone was there to take pictures (Courtney was snowed in in Iowa, yikes!)

Reading T'was the Night Before Christmas

My Christmas Eve sleeping buddy and me ready to go down and get our presents Santa left!

My sweet dog Sunny with her pink nose and white face! Apparently, the pink nose makes her "less desirable" but I think it's super cute! Plus, she's the sweetest dog ever!!!

Aaron and Owen opening presents Christmas morning

Owen and me saying Thank You to Santa for all of our presents! Haha

Grandebb trying to wrap while Courtney and Anthony's sweet dog Tex "helps".

Jake and PawPaw hard at work with a new Xmas present

Jill and me in her new playhouse!

Just a really cute picture of Jill

My awesome MeeMaw opening a present!

I know it's hard to see but I'm wearing oven mits because it's FREEZING and I had no gloves!

Jake with his karate Christmas bow headband

Owen showing off his karate moves

Josh showing off his karate moves

Jill is 100% convinced she's playing the Wii

Kiki and Jennifer doing their Wii fit karate moves, haha. Jennifer is really just moral support for Kiki who's on the board.

Family Christmas card pic. Finally we have a pic with everyone in it!!

Alabama Thanksgiving

So, I know this post is out of order, but I wanted to share about my fun Thanksgiving that I spent in Alabama!

My whole family ended up making to Alabama and even Scott got to join us! We spent 5 days with MeeMaw's brother, Uncle Jimmy, and his wife, Betty. Scott and I flew in from New York where we had been visiting my friend Anna, and before that we were in Philly because Scott was a coach at the Cole Hamels' pitching camp! That's a story for another day though :) So, Scott and I drove to Demopolis/Linden (two small towns and they live right in between two) from the Jackson airport. By the time we got there everyone had already fed the cows for the first time and were busy fishing, shooting BB guns, and taking 4-wheeler rides! For the next few days we ate some of the best food ever made (Betty is the greatest cook! She worked so hard for us all week) and got to do all kinds of fun outdoors-ey stuff. We all ended up catching fish in Uncle Jimmy's two ponds, we had a great Thanksgiving dinner, rode 4-wheelers, shot BB guns and skeet with shotguns, rode horses, fed the cows, and had bonfires every night, s'mores included! Anyway, it was a wonderful trip and we are all so thankful to Jimmy and Betty for letting us come stay and take over their house for a few days!!!

Here are a ton of pics from the week:

Courtney and Jill getting ready to feed the cows.

Aaron 4-wheeling with the little boys

The cousins

Dad carving the turkey

How cute is Jill in her cold weather clothes???? (I just woke up in this pic)

Courtney and most of the little girls... they LOVED Courtney!

By the food as always! :)

Jake's 1st fish!

Anthony and Josh- Josh's first fish!

Scott feeding the cows, haha

My hand is in the cows tongue!!! This is Bully, she loved being hand-fed

Big family pic!

Uncle Jimmy by the fire with the boys

Fire's up and ready! Time to roast marshmellows!

Hangin' out by the fire- Dad, Scott, me, Jake, Owen

(This was our time for "ghost stories". The little boys used the code word "peaches" while telling stories to signal to each other to jump out and scare everyone. So cute!)

D-mop water tower (our hotel is in the back ground)

Owen and Paw Paw with Owen's fish!

JJ's HRUGE fish!!! She caught the biggest by far!

Their 3 beautiful horses!

Scott and me- just wanted to show the pretty scenery

Kiki was a good s'mores lady

Me and sweet Jakey

Mom with Josh, he's such a snuggler

My Mom, Dad, Courtney, Anthony, Scott and I made a trip to the University of Alabama to see the campus. It was BEAUTIFUL! This is in front of the football stadium.

Dreamland- they had AMAZING ribs and food in general! This was Scott's one request while in Alabama.

At the Bama baseball field

Scott gave Jake a pitching lesson... so cute!

Hahaha... we had all been trying to pet the cows but they got skittish when we'd get close! Scott finally got it!

Hahaha Kiki's fish was outta control

Church with Jimmy and Betty!

Annie Oakley- oh wait, that's me! Not gonna lie, I was pretty darn good.

My Mom was too short to climb up so we loaded her on from the back of the truck, haha

Aaron and Owen, so cute

Jill playing with MeeMaw :)

Somehow the trip home from the airport was overlooked- my family squeezed in to get to the airport which meant Scott and I had no ride, haha. This was the town car guy with a sign that had our names!