Snowy Sunday

I am excited to say that Friday evening we had the biggest snow in my children's lives. Five and a quarter inches!:)  We went out yesterday, bought plastic snow discs and they sledded today!  They have went sledding before.  We were in Illinois with friends.  It was in sub-zero weather, so not exactly enjoyable.  We had a great time, sledding, wrecking, hanging out and drinking hot chocolate!

Reaching New Heights!

Since birth, each of my children have had the opportunity to climb, crawl, walk, prance, dance, peruse, and whatever else they choose on my Mother-in-Law's cabinets. She is disabled and has always used each of her grandkids as her "getters!" As a result, the grandkids are no respecter of counter tops!:)

Jump Rope for Heart

Caden is so excited to participating in Jump Rope for Heart at school this year. Last May, his grandpa, Joe's dad, passed away unexpectedly due to a fatal heart attack. We had no idea his heart was sick. You can go here to support Caden's plight in raising money for The American Heart/ Stroke Foundation.

Holy Moly!

It has been almost five months since I have blogged! Yikes! I won't try to recap too much, but one of my resolutions is to be a better blogger! I'm magnificent at stalking, just stink at keeping my own blog current!

The boys are both doing great in school. So very proud of them. Caden is blossoming in to a reader before our eyes. He is spelling out every word he sees and I mean *every* word! Coy has done so much better than expected in public school. He is in band playing the trumpet and is doing very well considering most of the kids in the seventh grade band had a year advantage on him! Chase is still thinking about joining the military. They are all growing up on me and it makes me sad! I don't think when Chase and Coy were growing and changing and even still, it has affected me so much! I was looking at Caden the other day. He was standing in the living room, in his underwear, playing the Wii! So cute, so little, but so big. *sad* I told him to never grow up. He informed he must, but he will still live me!*grin*

Joe and I talked a couple of months ago, well, we talk a little more frequently than that, but about the possibility of me going back to work. All of the kids are in school and don't need me during the day and we could really use the extra money. However, the fact still remains that during the summer and . . .I won't bore with all the dirty details, but if I can save say $400 a month, I couldn't clear that at a part time job. So, I have entered the world of couponing. I mean *really* couponing, like crazy coupon lady couponing. In the month of January, I have saved already a ton of money! We have more food, health and beauty aids, over-the-counter medicine and paper towels than we know what to do with. I am at the point in my "stock-piling" than I now can just buy, milk, eggs and bread and only things that are free - super cheap! If you are interested, you can check out Time 2 $ave, Southern Savers or Deal Seeking Mom are the blogs I follow the most. I am telling you, who know you could get paid to buy Band Aid brand bandages? I have! About $12! I have lots of band aids to show for it too!

I also have been following several baking blogs. A couple of my favorites are I Am Baker, Sweetopia and Pioneer Woman. Pioneer Woman actually covers two of my passions, baking and photography. I have been dabbling around in . You can check out my photo blog at Photography by Andie My last was a wedding, so not happy with it, but the bride and groom were pleased so I guess thats all that counts.

I'll end here with a promise to keep up from now on! Hopefully. . .

Summer's Gone

The boys have officially started school for the '09-'10 school year. We decided to send them to conventional school this year. Coy is in 7th grade and Caden is in Kindergarten.

This summer was a crazy one! We were so busy traveling, hanging out with family and our friends school really snuck up on us! Coy is having a tough time adjusting to Middle School life. Everyone has assured him that it will get better, but he isn't so sure! Caden is currently at his first day!:) He was stung by a bee last night just below his right eye. You can see in the picture, both eyes are swollen!*groan* What a great way to start the year! It can only go up from here for both of the boys!

Joe's Boot Camp

My Sister in Law, Kelli and I were talking one day. We were both feeling fat, old and ugly. She mentioned that a "Boot Camp" was starting at the YMCA where she is a member. It is a four week, twice a week, an hour at a time kick start or restart to great cardiovascular health. We discussed it, tried to find a reason we shouldn't take the class, put on our runnin' shoes and away we went! Boot Camp Joe kicked our butts! *grin* We ran, sat up, pushed up, scissor kicked, flutter kicked, bear, crab and every other critter crawl you can think of. We have crawled under make believe barbed wire fences and performed pushups with our legs over our partners back who is stratigically placed on all fours! We wanted a work out, we are getting one! All classes are outside, rain or shine. Boot Camp Joe says he doesn't even care if it is raining out! We have lived through 3 hours of Boot Camp by Joe, only 5 classes to go!

4 Friends + 2 Husbands + 9 Kids x 3 Nights = Tons of Fun, Laughter and Exhaustion!

I am a member of Mommies Minute. I joined in October of 2007. I have made some lifelong friendships through Mommies Minute and am eternally greatful to my friend Angel for telling me about it.

This past weekend, four of us got together with our kids at Gayla's parent's cabin in Erwin, TN. Gayla is from South Carolina, Kelli and I from Chattanooga and Liz drove with her four kids from New Jersey along with Joe and Kelli's husband and Joe's brother, Ron. Liz and Gayla own Mommies Minute. We celebrated Liz's 50th birthday while there. Erwin is a beautiful, quaint little town nestled in the Appalacian Mountains of Northeast Tennessee. The cabin was amazing and my family will definitely be using it again. It is located on 19 acres with a pond and a "barn" the kids practically stayed in the entire time. There was a pingpong table and other things for them to do!

All the girls and kids drove in on Thursday. Joe and Ron drove up on Friday after work. On Friday, we got up, fed and dressed kids. Liz and Kelli took everybody to Gayla's mom's pool. Gayla and I went to the grocery to get food for everybody. We took food back to the cabin and then went to the pool. We grilled steaks and hamburgers there. The boys got to the cabin about 10pm.

Saturday, Joe and Ron got up and took a couple of kids fishing. The moms stayed at the cabin, got everybody else ready and packed a picnic lunch. We headed off to a park located just outside of Erwin. It was beautiful. The kids loved playing in the creek catching crawdads. They got to swim in an honest to goodness cement pond there. It wasn't quite as nice as the Clampets, but our city kids had a blast! We went back to the cabin. Joe grilled corn and chicken for us, started a fire in the pit and the kids fixed S'mores.

Sunday brought more fishing for Joe, Ron, Kain and Caden and packing for the rest of us. We got everybody packed and the cabin cleaned up and headed home.

I love my friends and miss them already!:(

By the way, I don't know what has happened to Blogspot or how you are supposed to move pictures around, so sorry the post seems so disjointed and wierd. I can't move pictures anymore!