Dewberry Farms

Jessica and I took some of the teenagers to Dewberry Farms last week to run through the corn maze and act like teenagers.

 We had a great time, but we did cheat in the corn maze!  Some of the boys figured it out, but the rest of us were just wondering around!

 Sweet girls!  We have a great group of girls!

 Madi is fun no matter what she's doing!  

 Had to snap this silly picture of Tabor and Ashley.  Tabor was making fun of the girls.  Now whose laughing? :)

 Jessica and I had fun rolling the kids around in this tube.  They were all over the place!

Happy Birthday, Honey!

We celebrated mama's birthday at Pappadeaux!  It is a fabulous New Orleans - style seafood restaurant!  It has been so much fun to celebrate with our family in person.  We are so bad about birthdays from a distance, but when everyone works together, it has been fun to get together and go out!  Papa went with us too, but every picture we took of the group was BAD!  We had a lot of lighting problems and bad photographers! :)

Jessica and Daddy ate frog legs.  The thought of slimy frogs was a little too disgusting for my taste buds, and then, to top it off, they brought these huge legs.  Where do they get frogs that big?  

Halloween 2012

Introducing 

Halloween 2012 

starring

Lego Batman Villains:

 Chase Hughes as The Riddler

 Thomas Hughes as Two Face

and Mary Frances as Catwoman

We had fun with costumes this year!  Mary Frances and Chase's costumes were pretty easy, but we couldn't find a Two-Face costume that Thomas liked.  So, this year, I made one!  We went to Goodwill and picked out 2 shirts and 2 pairs of pants, and I made his costume...even the tie!  It was a lot of fun to see the finished product!  My dad made Chase's riddler cane, too!

 We had candy for all the kids, but we also set out apple slices, peanuts, and sprinkles with caramel AND hot chocolate!  Ray C. cranked up some party music, and we had a really great night. 

 Honey, Grandaddy, Papa G. and Jessie all came over too!  Jessie even joined the Batman fun and dressed up as Poison Ivey!  She's such a great Aunt!  

And, before everyone left, Thomas wanted to give a little concert of the new things he has been learning!  He did a great job, but it was funny to watch with his outfit still on and half of his head shaved!

Sisters

I love my sister!!

Sprinkles anyone?

My sister loves her sprinkles!  I recently learned that she is even particular about which colored sprinkles she eats...they must be the soft ones!  It's just one more thing we love about her!

Merry Christmas to Jessica

Meet Bentley, my sister's new puppy! My parents got him for my sister as a Christmas surprise, and she was definitely surprised! She has been wanting her own puppy. He is 9 months old and absolutely adorable!!

Needless to say, she was thrilled! They even bought him a plane ticket so he could ride back home to Georgia with her!! Isn't he cute?

The girls

It has been so much fun to have my parents in Texas this fall, and I have loved all of the visits Jessica has made, as well! I sure wish she would hurry up and decide to move out here! I miss her!

Jessie Turns 30!!!

I flew out to Georgia to spend the week with my sister for her 30th birthday on Wednesday!! What a fun week it has been! We showered her with gifts all day long. We had cake & balloons, and we went out to three different restaurants all in one day!

We surprised her at work when I showed up wearing a sandwich board announcing her birthday and loaded with pictures of her as a child! We sang Happy Birthday to her in the lobby of the doctors office and even offered some of her cake to the patients!!

Then, we took her to lunch at a favorite Mexican restaurant where we gave her more gifts, of course!

When she returned home from work, we went out to eat at The Last Resort - a fabulous Athens restaurant - where her friends Beau and Angie joined us as a surprise to her!

Then, after dinner, we decided to walk over to Hiwire, a nice new bar downtown, and surprised her with 20 of her "closest" friends waiting for her in the back room! It was such a fun day and night!


Happy Birthday, Jessica!! We love you!

Happy Birthday, Mary Frances

So, she turned 7 in January, but I'm a little behind on posting! At least it's here, right?These two should have been twins! I don't think they could be any closer!
Jessie came for Mary Frances' birthday. Mary Frances requested that we go ice skating. So, we went up to The Woodlands for some fun on the ice!
As you can see, Mary Frances fell several times, but she really was a good ice skater! Thittle omas did pretty good, too! However, Chase tried for about 10 minutes, realized this was one sport he wasn't good at, and spent the rest of the evening crying out of frustration and embarrassment!

It was good for him, though! He needs to know that he isn't the best at everything! His ego needed a little deflating! It was a fun way to celebrate her birthday, and we followed it up with a trip to Olive Garden! MMMM....

Sisters

My sister, Jessica, came to Texas for Thomas' birthday and the Labor Day Weekend. We had so much fun hanging out. With the kids in school, we had the chance to spend some quality time together - shopping!! I am so thankful for my amazing sister! I just wish she lived closer - hint, hint!! :)

Thomas turns 8

Thomas asked for a baseball party this year! So, we reserved one of the fields we play on and had a pickup game with some cake and ice cream!

Chase enjoys some time up to bat!
Mary Frances was so excited to be included and have a chance to wear her softball gear!
Thomas & his school friend and teammate, Evan
Thomas with our neighbor, James
George is also a school friend and teammate
This was one of my easier cakes
We had such a fun time watching the dads play with the kids! I'm pretty sure they had fun, too!
I was thankful for Jessie coming for the weekend, too! She's going to start coming for all of the kids' birthdays! I'm so excited to know she'll be here!

Thank you, Jessie!!

Thomas let Jessie pull a tooth that had been loose for AT LEAST 2 months!! She numbed his gums with some type of Orajel and then tied a string around it and pulled! I couldn't believe he let her do it, but it didn't even hurt. He did complain about his tongue feeling funny, though! The medicine worked a little too good! :)

Christmas in Georgia

What a fun Christmas! We had to sing Jingle Bells every night for the Christmas lights to come on! That was amazing!

We were so excited that Unlce T and Aunt Jean came and brought Papa G. The kids had a great time playing with him. He taught Mary Frances how to use the crochet hook to make pot holders!
Santa even knew we were in Georgia! Check out the boot prints he left on the fireplace! Daddy reminds us what Christmas is really all about - Jesus!
Bailey was a little overwhelmed by all the craziness! He isn't used to having all the kids around!Jessie did a great job setting the table for Christmas Dinner!
The kids loved their keyboard from Papa G. They will have so much fun with it in their playroom!Mary Frances finally got a Chocolate Fountain! She has been wanting one for a year!
The boys had fun playing the card game "war" with Papa G.