Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a Merry Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

WISH LIST

Christmas is only 4 days away and I seem to be so behind this year with presents still left to buy.  But it will all get done somehow someway.  This is one of those years I have to write about to remember what it was like when my kids really didn't want a whole lot for Christmas.  Because one of these days, the lists will be a mile long.

Joshua's List: "real" football pads

Marah: play make-up and an Easy-bake oven

Macy: probably her very own baby if she could tell us

For a parent, those lists are not too bad.  Maybe Santa can handle it!

Nashville Trip

I am finally blogging about our trip to Nashville and cheating a little bit by using some of Brooke's pictures and trying to use some of Amy's (but for some reason I couldn't figure out how to enlarge Amy's - you will be able to tell, because they are the small ones you can barely see). 

We had such a wonderful time!  Thank you mom and dad for such a memorable trip!  We will remember it always.

So these 2 girls loved getting their pictures made!  The boys - not so much.

Grampy and Marah

Nana, Abbie and Carter

Myself and my kiddos

Cortney and Trey

Macy napping! She has never been the child that would stay in her stroller, but she did wonderfully in Nashville.  I suppose it was because she had so many beautiful things to keep her attention, besides all the pushing she got from all of the other kids.

Rodney and Joshua

Rodney and myself

Ready for ice!

Macy with her new light up necklace...

Anna and Bailey  - what a beautiful picture

Ben and Noah

Busby Kids

The boys headed to the Titans game

Love this one of my boys!

READY SET HUT...

This right here seems to be all that Joshua is consumed with these days!  Football!  He always has one in his hands and he is constantly wanting someone to throw with him.  For Christmas this year, all he wants is the "real" football pads.  For mommy, I am loving this because football is my absolute favorite, but for daddy - he was kind of hoping Joshua would get interested a little later on.  Rodney said before we even had kids, his son would wait until Jr. High to play football.  Simply for the reason of not wanting him to get burnt out, but I cannot say that we will be waiting until Jr. High.  Who knows.  Rodney should have been a coach because he is so GOOD at teaching the kids how to play something.  This is where all of his patience comes in.  I love watching him teach the kids!  He is just a big kid himself.

Down and ready

I had to snap a quick one in the middle of their practice!

Rodney even has Marah running the plays...

Learning the correct position...

Love these guys!  War Eagle and Go Lions!

MACY - POO

My little Macy-poo!  She is growing up!  Almost 15 months old now.  Where has the time gone.  It sure does seem to fly.  Before we know it, she will be potty-trained and riding bikes.  Can't she stay little forever?  Can't all of them.  I joke with Joshua and Marah all the time, how I want them to stay little forever.  But God has other plans for them.  Rodney and I have been so blessed to have 3 children and to raise these little munchkins like God would want us to.  We both were blessed with amazing families! 

With Thanksgiving being right around the corner, my blessings seem to be on my mind a lot lately. 

Rodney gave me a new little handheld digital camera for my birthday and I was so proud of the pictures I took with it.  Not as good as Brooke, but it will do fine for now.

I was finally able to post about Joshua and Marah's trip to the Pumpkin Patch too.  They are in the October folder.

All 9 of them!

I love these kiddos!  Are they not adorable?  It is still hard to get all 9 looking at the same time, but every few months helps.  This one in particular turned out really well I thought.  It was taken on the front porch of my grandmother's home.

We have some fun times a coming.

My mom has hit a huge milestone in her life.  She has been working so hard for months losing pound after pound and she has now lost 100 pounds!!!!!  Amazing!  She looks amazing.  I am so very very proud of her.  My dad told her a couple of months ago that she deserved to do almost anything she wanted to do for losing all the weight.  So she decided to take us all to Nashville during Christmas time (our most favorite time of the year).  We are staying at the Opryland Hotel for 2 nights and each family gets their own room.  Let's just say we have all bunked up in the past and to have our own rooms is a "big" deal.  Not that we don't like bunking up (at least the girls that is), but our family has grown a lot over the past few years.  This trip is more of a prize for us we feel like than for mom, but if you know her, she wouldn't have it any other way.  She is always looking for ways to make memories and for ways to get us all together.  We leave in 33 days and we are on the countdown.  Several things are on the itinerary already: the Rockettes, Ice-the Charlie Brown Special, Louise Mandrell's Christmas Dinner & Show, the Holiday Kids Train, the Gingerbread Corner and more to come I'm sure.  My mom is a planner.  She loves to have our day filled with all kinds of fun things to do.  The best part of all of this is that we will all be together as a family!

I had to throw in this picture of Macy that I cropped from the top picture!  She is almost 15 months and getting bigger and older by the second.  Always wanting to do what her big bro and big sis are doing.