Christmas comes to Columbus...

We went to the Christmas Musical Fireworks tonight here in town and got to see Santa when he arrived at the mall! Jonathan and Parker froze their tails off sitting outside watching the fireworks, but the twins and I sat inside the car and froze! We had the sunroof and windows open so Jonathan and Parker could hear the Christmas music on the radio!

When the fireworks were over, Santa arrived in a wagon with two horses pulling him. We were standing on the sidewalk and he stopped right in front of us, jumped out of the back of his wagon, shook hands with the kids and went into the mall. He touched all of our kids hands and Paige was trying to be so brave, but couldn't help herself. She started to tear up...

We decided not to fight the mall crowd this year. Last year Jonathan won a $100.00 shopping spree! We figured he wouldn't be so lucky this year so we just came home!

Miss Rudolph...

I've been slowly getting out some of our Christmas decorations the past two days and this morning I was hanging their stockings by the chimney with care... (Actually on our mantel, we don't have a chimney!) The kids were all excited to see which one was theirs and began pulling on them! I have the Boyds Bear stocking hangers which are extremely heavy. It took all of a minute for Paige to pull hers completely down, break the stocking hanger and cut her nose!!! (It hadn't been 10 minutes either since I had emailed our photographer to give her some dates to set up for Christmas pictures!!!) :(

Now it has a nice red streak across it and looks just lovely! Last year she had scratches all over her face in the pictures from her little twin brother. I see a pattern here!!! :(

Collingsworth concert, chicken & noodles, coconut pie and CRASH!

I was so looking forward to our girls night out on Friday night. Mom kept my kids, Jonathan was off singing at the ICHA indoor camp, and I was going to Jonathan Byrd's with a friend to hear the Collingsworth family!

My friend, Amy Shearer, arrived at my house shortly after 6pm. (She had been waiting on her husband to get home from out of town so he could keep their girls!) She said she would drive, but NO, I insisted that it was my turn!!!! :)

We took off up the interstate and it was a dark and rainy Friday evening. We chatted the entire way and quickly made it to our exit. We had stopped at the stoplight just in front of Jonathan Byrd's and had about 20 minutes to spare before the meal was to begin. I was turned looking at Amy, running my mouth as usual, when all of a sudden.....WHAM!!!!! Someone rear-ended us! It sounded like a bomb went off in the car. I could just imagine the entire back end being caved in and having to call and explain it to Jonathan! I was very fortunate and did not hit the car in front of me. Instead, I mashed down even harder on my brakes! My purse went sailing to the floor, was not zipped up and the entire contents spilled!

The light turned green, we signaled and pulled over to survey the damage and the lady followed us. She was very apologetic and wanted to make sure Amy and I were okay! There was minimal damage to my vehicle, but hers was another story! (She also said she had just hit a deer last week!) I didn't know if there was really enough damage to call the cops.

I tried calling Jonathan to see if we should call the police, he was on the platform getting ready to sing so luckily, he didn't get the message! (That might have caused him to lose his concentration and mess up a tad!) :) I ended up getting ahold of dear ole dad and he said, "Yes, call the police!" We did....and 40 long minutes later, they arrived!

After all that waiting, the man said there wasn't enough damage to even fill out an accident report!!! Can you believe that?! It took him forever to fill out the information exchange form!

I forgot to mention that during all of this, Amy tried to phone several people from our church, that were already at the Collingsworth concert. She wanted to make sure they knew we were okay, and let them know why we were running late and to please save us some food! Well, none of them had their cell phones where they could hear it!

We finally arrived at the concert, just in time to get in line and fill our plates with yummy food! Even though we were a bit shaken up, it didn't stop us from filling our tummies!

The concert was great and we enjoyed an entire evening of hearing just the Collingsworth family!

(Jonathan left the camp as soon as he was done singing, showed up at Jonathan Byrd's, got in for free, AND had a much better seat than we did!) What a weasel... He must have buttered up Bro. Hood good because he gave him a seat at his table! So, I tossed him the camera during intermission! (I took Mom's new camera along and fell in love!) Now I know what to put on my Christmas list!!!!

Gold City comes to town...

Parker loved their bass singer and had to get his picture with him!

Our local gospel radio station, WYGS, sponsored a concert last night in our town and we got to enjoy hearing the Gold City Quartet once again! It wasn't scheduled until about a week ago, but word got out and the church was packed!

I had worked yesterday and it was an extremely busy day, thanks to a full moon, so I arrived quite late! A man walked up to me and wanted to know if I was looking for a man with three small kids! He must've looked pretty pathetic! I sat down, and Gold City was singing one of their hit songs. As soon as they were done, they said, "Have you all enjoyed Gold City tonight?" (I thought, you have GOT to be kidding!) One song and they were done?! They had an extremely loooooong intermission, and an hour later, Gold City came back out to sing a few more songs. I enjoyed them, but they had sang all of my favorites before I got there!

None of us had eaten supper, so I mentioned Steak and Shake, which was on our way home! I meant for us to grab drive-thru, but NO, Jonathan wanted to eat inside! It was 9pm and time for Parker to be in bed! As usual, they were extremely slow, and they messed up half of our order. I was about ready to walk out and Jonathan had actually gotten up to go ask them to make it "to go" and of course, there came our food! (Well, part of it, the waitress didn't even write Jonathan's order down so he didn't even get his!) He did finally get his food, but the whole experience just left us aggravated! We got home at 10:20pm, WAY past Parker's bedtime!

(We knew we had been in the restaurant a really long time when I looked out the window and saw Gold City's bus pulling out of town!!!) They had sold product afterwards, torn down all their sound equipment, and loaded the bus, and here we still sat! Lucky for Steak and Shake, their burgers are the only ones I like, or I might not ever go back!!

Tonight I am going with a friend to hear the Collingworth's at Jonathan Byrd's in Greenwood! Jonathan is singing with Convention Quartet at an indoor camp so he can't go! I had to decide if I would rather go hear him or go hear the Collingsworth's and it was a pretty easy decision!! :)

Our church Thanksgiving dinner is this weekend too so it's going to be another loony weekend around here!

Out of the mouths of babes...

We hadn't been home from church too long this evening when I noticed the twins were walking around the house singing one of our choruses. Paige was belting out the words to "God said you're gonna make it..." She and Peyton were singing "God said you're going under!!!" HA!! Amazing how much they even get out of a service. They are so bad in church that I hardly get anything out of the service. I can't believe they can pick up the words of a song!

One day last week, Grandma and Grandpa Don were helping babysit the kids. Grandpa Don told Peyton to pick up his toys. He said, Peyton stood there straight as a soldier and with his left hand saluted him and said, "Yes Sir!" :)

Last Saturday, we were going down the road and Parker and Paige were in the back seat playing with their toys. Parker had a small batman and Paige had a small Cinderella in her wedding gown. Parker said, "Paige, let's have them get married!" She agreed, so Parker started the ceremony...he said, "Batman, do you take Cinderella to be your awful wedded wife??? :)

We attended two funerals last weekend of some close friends. The kids didn't quite understand and we had tried to explain things on their level. Jonathan had to give the eulogy on Saturday afternoon and I decided it would be best if I didn't try to fight the kids alone during the service! We went to Steak and Shake for lunch (which was a disaster in itself) and then just waited on Daddy to get finished. Parker kept asking what was taking him so long and I explained to him that Daddy went to the cemetery to help bury him! He said "they are going to bury that man in his good clothes???" I then had to explain that they would bury him in that pretty casket and put dirt on top of him. He seemed satisfied with that and we went on to talk about different things. I thought that would be the end of that conversation for the day! As soon as Jonathan arrived, Parker could hardly wait until he got in the car to ask, "So Dad...was it really cool burying that man?"

Kids....they keep you on your toes!

Quiet time...

Grandma Walden reading to the twins...

Daddy has quite a lapful... Listening to Daddy read Parker's book from school.

(Pay no attention to the mismatched jammies!!!)

Today's the day!!!

Uncle Sam wants YOU to do your American duty... and get out to the polls and...cast your ballot...
for the BEST choice...
You know who we're voting for!!!!!!!!!!

Of all the nerve.......

I just looked out my front door a few minutes ago and was shocked to see that my McCain/Palin yard sign is GONE!!! I quickly called Jonathan and of course, he didn't move it! So, there are thieves among us and I would imagine they are Obama fans! Jonathan said he would run to the Republican headquarters at lunch. I told him to grab several and we will put them all over our yard!!! (Someone told me that they wanted to run over an Obama sign when they saw them, and I would have to agree!!!)

Don't forget to cast your votes tomorrow America!!!!!!!!!

Halloween Photos!

Sampson!!!Tony Stewart!!!
Curious George & Fancy Nancy!!!

We are in revival this week and so the kids were a bit disappointed that they weren't going to get to go out Trick or Treating! We told them we could not miss church for Halloween! Right at 5pm, I took the kids out around our neighborhood and they loved it. Parker was so excited and they loved ringing doorbells and having people give them free candy!

It was fairly warm here yesterday and Peyton got quite hot! We hadn't been gone from the house too long when he started complaining that he was hot and needed a drink! We were too far to turn around so I made him continue around the entire block! Parker decided to tell the neighbors that he was hot but he couldn't take off his monkey suit because he didn't have on any clothes underneath! He was having a ball telling everyone that Peyton only had his diaper on under his monkey suit! The neighbors were amused and I was quite embarrassed!

Parker got a kick out of the neighbor across the street. As he was approaching the house, the guy came "running" out to the sidewalk with a pen and paper and said "Hey Tony, can I get your autograph?" Parker got so embarrassed but went along with it and pretended to sign his name. Later he said, "Mom, I can't believe that man wanted my autograph!"

We went to McDonald's after church with several of the young married couples and Jonathan donned his wig and we could hardly take him serious! He stopped by to see the McCrary's, who are holding our revival, but they were gone to the Waffle House! They have no idea what they missed!!!

I am enjoying the huge bowl of candy that our kids collected last evening. Just what I need for my figure! I keep telling myself, the more I eat, the less of a sugar buzz my kids will get!