The Lee Family Christmas Tree

We put an artificial tree in our den every year--much to Hugh's dislike.  It's the old-fashioned kind that requires you putting on each individual limb with no prelit lights.  I love it.  We decided to use old faithful in the den this year, but to also get a real tree that could be seen from the road.  The situation with our outdoor decorating is a unique one.  Our neighbor has one of the most elaborately decorated yards you can imagine so it's almost like we shouldn't bother.

We decided to make an event of getting our "family" tree this year.

Houston really wanted to go Griswold on us, but we talked him out of this one.

We decided on a perfectly shaped, not too tall or round tree.

This is it!

Dad liked the fact it was easy to transport--with a little help of course!  It was a lovely day complete with tree searching, a horse drawn wagon ride and apple cider!

I'll try to get some other festive photos out including the neighbors' decor.  They aren't quite finished yet!

Thanksgiving

It's so sad that we rush through Thanksgiving to get to Christmas.  I must admit that I was in Wal-Mart today buying new Christmas lights because the kids (and myself) are so anxious to put up a Christmas tree. We have so much to be thankful for and I'm glad we can take at least one day out of our busy lives to slow down and be thankful.

Hugh is the king of games at our house and made up a game where we throw a ball to someone and they have to say something they are thankful for before throwing it to the next person.  We all love the game and it is really great to hear some of the things the kids come up with.  In the never ending quest for "stuff" that our society has everyone working toward I'm glad to take time to Thank God for what is really important.  (It's His "stuff" anyway--not ours!)

I'm so thankful for a wonderful husband who loves me in spite of my many imperfections.  He is a wonderful father who isn't afraid to.......

rock out on a little pink guitar when.....

the rest of the band is jammin', and who

brings home things like this to his girls because he's just nice like that. 

I'm also thankful for my band and the noise and chaos they create.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween 2010

Princesses with a pet elephant!

Wouldn't you love to have a pet elephant like this one?

Our sweet girls wanted to share a message with our pumpkin carving this year.

A couple of weeks prior to Halloween we went to a Fall Festival at Leeds Methodist and had a wonderful time.  Here are some pics from that evening.....

Fall Fun

I really didn't realize how long it had been since posting......We've had so much fun taking advantage of Fall activities.  Here's a brief summary of what we've been up to....

We went to the Oktoberfest in Alexander City.  I always look forward to this but we hardly ever get to go. Houston looks as if he is just loving some Hollyn here but actually......

He saw this coming.  Poor Houston.  That dog was behind us everywhere we went.  He was not loving the Oktoberfest.

The girls had fun.  Bouncies, playgrounds, ice cream etc.....

Over Columbus Day we took the kids on a business trip with Hugh to Hattiesburg.  They have the cutest little zoo and it only cost the family $6 admission.  It was a steal!

Their train was great because you got to see several animals on the loop around the zoo.  Houston has started loving trains.

The girls have discovered that they can climb the Japanese Maple beside our front porch.  I had to grab the camera and take a pic the first time they climbed a tree.  They have really gotten into nature lately.  Not sure what has brought it on, but they are wanting to take walks in the woods behind our house and just enjoy everything around them.  I'm so thankful they are easy to please.  They planted some of our pumpkin seeds in our garden even though I told them it wasn't the right time of year to plant.  They were so excited.  Little farmers at heart!

Yummy, yummy dinner

The girls get new readers sent home every week.  This week one of Aidyn's books was title "yummy yummy" and since we read it about 100 times it has been the catch phrase for the week.  I tried a new recipe for dinner this week and guess what...it was yummy yummy! (and easy!)
Mini deep dish pizzas:

I bought pizza dough from the Publix bakery.  You'll need your desired toppings--we used garlic & oregano seasoned tomatoes, black olives, mushrooms & salt and pepper.  Of course you'll need your mozzarella too!

Coat your muffin pan with olive oil, fill with a  piece of dough, add salt & pepper to taste, then add your favorite ingredients.

Give babies dough to play with.  (not sure why he isn't wearing any clothes!)

These little girls are good pizza makers!

Bake on 450 degrees for 11 minutes and viola! You've got yummy yummy pizzas!  The kids enjoyed making their own and have given me new ideas on the toppings they want next time we make them.

Roll Tide Roll!

We took the kids to Tuscaloosa for Alabama's homecoming this year.  We had no intention of going to the game since it started at 8:00pm.  Seriously, isn't that too late for a game to start?  The day was wonderful.  We got an early start and beat a lot of the crowd getting into  T town.

We hung out on the quad and enjoyed the festivities for a while.

The girls sported some A's on their cheeks.  

Houston shared some of his sweet love with Hollyn.

The girls hung out with Big Al.

We were able to meet up with several friends.  We watched the parade with these lucky girls!

We're hoping the girls don't become Heisman Trophy winners!

We all had a great and exhausting day.

Birthday Fun!

We decided to combine all of the kid's birthdays this year into one party.  We had a big friend party last year for the girls so we decided to scale back a little this year so we had family and the girls invited their best friend.  We had a fun day celebrating at Old Baker Farm.

We had a princess & Elmo party.

Houston loved his new Elmo.

We picked some pumpkins.

Some of us just played in the dirt.  Please help us pray that the dirt washes out of the clothes!

We visited a few animals.

Note to self--take advantage of photo ops before jumping off of hay stacks, riding dusty wagons & crawling in pumpkin patches.  The kids had a wonderful time--they were absolutely filthy too.  It's so hard to believe our sweet girls will soon be six and baby Houston is almost two!  We're so thankful and blessed to have these precious children.

Projects projects projects

Here is a little update of some of the things that have been keeping posts few and far between...

Chalk up about 30 hours of work on this little project.  Who knew signing up to be room mom for a kindergarten class would get you working on projects like this!  The girls' class had to make a scarecrow for a fundraiser for the school.  Their class is the "Sea Friends" so we I made an octopus scarecrow.  Looks harmless, but pulling this out of air was not too easy!  The kids loved it.  

The girls are modeling their new Fall outfits I made.  Houston's outfit was bought not made--He did not want to be left out. Aidyn's favorite animal for the day was Big Al who had to be included in the pic as well.  Gotta love those girls--never know what to expect.