Away in the Manger

This picture made its debut on Facebook and I wanted to share. Penny's class has been talking about Baby Jesus, Mary and Joesph - they got to dress up in the costumes and pretend they were in the stable on that wonderful night when Baby Jesus was born.


Could this picture be any cutier!(Penny is the pink/white Sheep)

Visiting the Man Himself

Sam and Penny had dentist appointments this morning- both had great reports! Then we went to have breakfast at McDonald's before taking Sam back to school. Penny and I played hooky and went and visted Santa. She was talking so big about what she was going to tell him, but the minute we got close to him she change her tune really fast. All she could do was just laugh and be very shy around him. She would only stand beside him- so we quickly told him bye and went on our way. We walked through the mall and on our way out she got brave and decided to sit in his lap. At least I got a cute picture because she still did not have much to say to him. It was so funny watching her laugh and be so shy (which is something you don't see very often).

Marathon Weekend

This past Friday Shawn and I hopped in the car with David and Heather to head to Memphis for the weekend. (Sam and Penny were so excited about staying with Nana and Papa.) They were running in the St. Judes Marathon- this was going to be Shawn first full marathon. Our first stop was the expo that is where they all picked up there packets and tee shirts.



That night was just a relaxing time for everyone- we enjoyed a nice dinner and time with friends around the fire at our hotel.

Everyone went to bed early that night for the big day on Saturday.





Saturday started out bright and early (and VERY cold).

We all soon found out that at home (Decatur) that we had, had SNOW- (Nana and Papa posted pictures on Facebook for me to see Sam and Penny playing in the snow).

We meet up with all the Decatur runners at the Westin

and headed to the start line.


I had a great time with the other "cheerleader" spouses watching the race and cheering on all our Decatur runners. We saw everyone around mile 3, 13, and the finish-line. It was a beautiful, cold December day.


Shawn did a great job for his first marathon- he ran it in 4:27!!


This is what Shawn looked like after finishing 26.2 miles

This was the running group from Decatur- they all did a GREAT Job!!


That night we all hung out in our hotel room and watched AL vs. FL for the SEC champinship game. (AL won)


Sunday we headed home to get the kids and back to reality.

Guess who arrived at the Smith's

Yes it is true Larry has arrived again for the Christmas season. His job is to watch over our house all day and how Sam and Penny act so he can report back to Santa everynight while we are sleeping. So far Larry has been a little naughty- he has made a big mess in the kitchen and rolled our bathroom.

O' Christmas Tree

During Thanksgiving Break we got to work on making our house look "Christmassy".


Penny's face was so funny when daddy and Papa brought in the tree.(All she could say is OH MY Gosh- It's Beautiful)


On Tuesday the kids helped me decorate the tree or maybe when you look at the pictures you might say - it looks as if the kids had No help.

It is always so odd to me WHY they think they must put every ornament on top of each other????


It was fun looking at all of our ornaments of the past and showing them which ones are their "special" ornaments and how old they were when they got them. That is still on our to do list - to find ornaments for this year.

Thanksgiving in Mentone,AL

This week the kids have been out of school for the whole week to celebrate Thanksgiving. On Wednesday our family along with Papa, Nana, and the Puryear Family (the Coon Family was in NYC) went to Mentone, AL for a few days (thanks to one of Michelle's friends). The cabin was a real "log cabin" which meant COLD. Sure glad we had plenty of firewood (Shawn loves making fires).



Wednesday: We got settled in our home away from home-



Sam Loved his bed !!!

We roasted hot dogs and made Smores for supper.




Thursday: Nana was up early starting on Thanksgiving lunch. So was Sam he was watching for deer.

This was the beautiful view Sam saw from the porch of our cabin.


Daddy and Sam got busy on the turkey they gave him a "shot" of good stuff and then fried it.

We had a wonderful lunch!!




After lunch instead of all taking a nap we decided to go for a hike.




Friday: In the state of Alabama this day is a day that people look forward to for 365 days *IRON BOWL* Daddy stayed at the cabin while we all went to explore the small town.



After the game (AL 26 to AUB 21) we ate at Wildflower Cafe.



Saturday: This was clean up and go home day!!


What a wonderful Thanksgiving Week we have had.

Penny Packing???

Penny wanted to help me pack this morning- I let her pack her own bag of things to play with....


Enough said!!!