Gage's 3rd Birthday

My nephew Gage is 3! My sister's theme for him this year was a pizza party, where each child was able to make their own personal pan pizza. Gage's big present this year was a crickett 22 rifle from his daddy.

Thanksgiving 2015

This year we started a thankful pumpkin, and we're all adding what we are thankful for on our pumpkin!

This year year we also decided to raise our own turkeys. We had three, which we named Christmas, Thanksving, and Justin Case. Justin Case died one day while were were away from home. We're not sure what happened, but it looked as if he got his foot caught in the fence of the coop, and struggled to death trying to set himself free.

We butchered the turkeys ourselves the weekend before Thanksgiving with the help of Uncle Mike. The turkeys weighed only 10 lbs each before the slaughter. For Thanksgiving we sliced the breast meat, battered and fried them into turkey fingers, and they were delicious! 

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my parents house with my sister and her family, Grandma, who came in from SC, Granny Ann and Bobby, Uncle Mike and Debra, and Jody.

Photo Shoot

Wanting some keepsake photos of the kids, and loving the beauty of my dad's cotton field, I loaded the kids up in the car and we headed over to my dad's farm. My only chance for this photo shoot was this morning, because cotton picking day is tomorrow. I only had my iphone for a camera, but I still think that I was able to capture some lovely pictures of the kids. They truly are precious and beautiful!

Skylar age 11

Maddox age 9

Mason age 3

Josiah age 2

Below is a side by side photo from when Mitch was 5 and Maddox today who is 9. These 2 truly are twins!

Halloween 2015

Our church put on a Halloween fall festival inside the church's gym the weekend before Halloween. My sister was away on a cruise to Mexico with her husband for their 5 year wedding anniversary, so I was able to keep her kids that weekend. We dressed the 6 kids up in their costumes and the kids had a great time.

Dorothy (Skylar), Baby lion (Ashlynne), Woody (Mason), Marine (Gage), Buzz Lightyear (Jojo), Ghost Buster (Maddox).

Stage fright!

The morning before Halloween my mom was able to pick up my sister's kids, she would keep them until my sister returned from her trip. That night our SC friends came in to visit! They would spend Halloween with us! These friends were Skylar and Maddox's best friends from SC. Our friends are also foster parents, and they were able to bring their foster daughter along with them! I'm not however allowed to share her picture at this time.

Karen and Chris

Liam, Maddox, Gabe, Jojo, Mason, Gloria, Cadence, and Skylar

I had so much fun with our friends, and I was so glad that they were able to visit! Unfortunately I feel like the visit was cursed with back luck! The week before our friends arrived, our home was infested with fleas! We sprayed and bombed, but that wasn't enough. We even kicked the dogs out, making them outside dogs. We had hoped to get rid of the fleas before our friends arrived, but we weren't so lucky! I was humiliated that the kids complained of flea bites! Our friends were good sports about it all, and hopefully understanding, but that doesn't take away my embarrassment. To add insult to injury, I had decided to clean our coffee maker with vinegar before our friends arrived, and the vinegar was still inside the keurig. Our coffee was sour and ruined that weekend! I was humbled as a host this weekend.

**Update** January 11, 2016

After two months of bombing we have finally rid our house of fleas!! This was such a frustrating experience.