December

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and as much fun as we had. As usual, we stayed plenty busy in the weeks leading up to Christmas with parties and other activities.

One of the best things to happen was the spelling bee at Cameron's school. Cameron was in it and was competing against 2 kids from each of the 3rd and 4th grade classes. Guess who won? We were (are) so proud of that little dude! When the second to last student missed her word, Cameron realized he could win it if he spelled his word right and that look was written all over his face. When they asked him to spell "unify", he actually paused and thought about it (unlike when we were practicing) before spelling it correctly. Now he has a big ol' honkin' trophy and gets to compete against the kids from the other schools in town. All of them. From 3rd grade through 10th grade! Isn't that nuts?

Here's the Cowart Elementary Spelling Bee Champion and the runner-up (which we suspect Cameron has a crush on). She doesn't look too happy.

Speaking of Cameron, any of you that have spent much time around him know he's the most curious of the 3 boys. If there's a button, he'll push it. If it comes apart, he'll disassemble it (and never put it together). I think this next photo is a great example of his curiosity.

We recently got a new front-load washer and dryer. Dana took this picture of Cameron watching the washer to see how it works.

As we got closer to Christmas, the boys and I started our vacations and had plenty of time to hang out around the house with Dana. We filled our time with play and a lot of fun activities.

Making Janet's famous orange ball cookies is one of our favorite Christmas traditions (and yummiest!)



We also made gingerbread houses. The kit contained 5 houses but we really couldn't figure out which pieces went where so we pretty much decided to wing it. One of the very cool buildings I made was accused of looking like an outhouse.

Not the outhouse but a fine example of my handiwork. Hey, we started to get desperate when the icing started drying so quickly and just grabbed whatever piece was closest to make the house.


Cameron and I built a music box that plays "Here Comes Santa Claus" from scratch. OK, maybe not completely from scratch but we did assemble it from the completely disassembled kit. That's pretty much the same as building it from scratch, right?

Christmas time also means Christmas pictures of the family. When I look at other people's pictures, the family always looks so nice and everyone looks so happy. When I look at ours, I remember the arguing and griping and effort it took to produce one or two half-way acceptable shots. We probably took 500 pictures and after deleting those with tears, mad faces, sad faces, weird faces, and closed eyes, we didn't have any left. So the following shots are the best we could do.

This wasn't actually planned but Cameron really wanted to take a picture of us. He did alright.

I realized later, I didn't get a nice picture of Dana with the boys. They all wanted to make funny faces in all the shots she's in. That's OK because this represents our family better than the fake poses.


Dana took a nice picture of the boys and me.



I had a special request to get a picture of the boys with the sled this year. Mom and Dad had a picture of all the grandkids in the sleigh except for Cade. We almost waited too long. Little dude isn't so little anymore.

We also drug out our Twister game for the first time in years. The boys had a blast playing it and of course roped Dana and me into several games with them. I'm not sure about Dana, but it sure made me realize just how little flexibility I have anymore.

Cade's struggling to stay up in this solo game. Notice his tongue!

Kevin's friends Hunter and Nic even got into it. This game appears to have broken down into some alternate version.

We also spent a lot of playing time outside. Cade, more than the other two, loves being outdoors. He drags his scooter and bike and anything else he can get his hands on out every day if we let him. Even in the cold. Recently, he came up with a new way to keep his face, and nose, warm.

Ever since Cade was little, he has loved wearing gloves (and weird outfits). Of course, we can never keep a pair of gloves together so when he finds one he'll wear it Michael Jackson style for a few days until he either loses it or finds another one. Here, he found one black glove and one Spiderman glove. I think they pair nicely with the desperado look he has going. Just the other day he went into the store with me to return a movie dressed just like this except with two Spiderman gloves. If it didn't bother him, I guess it doesn't bother me. (

I'll post our Christmas pictures soon.

Busy Time of Year

A lot has happened over the last month. We finally, officially, completely and no jokely, sold our house in NM. Then we turned around a couple of days later and bought a house here. We were supposed to have closed on this house the weekend before Thanksgiving which would have worked out nicely since Dana was off from work. However, it didn't quite work out that way. Instead, the closing was pushed back a week so, with the owner's permission, we started moving in the day before Thanksgiving. One pickup and Expedition load at a time. We took most of the day off on Thursday to spend quality time getting on each other's nerves and eating the wonderful meal Dana prepared. Then we jumped back into it on Friday with the help of a couple of our friends. Good ol' U-haul apparently lost my reservation for a trailer because I was never able to get one. That would have saved at least a lot of trips back and forth if not a fair amount of time. And, living in football country, our help was only good until about 1:00 because the Auburn vs. Alabama game was coming on. But with their help, we managed to get all the heavy stuff moved. All that was left was the little stuff. And that took another 2 days. Dana slept all day so I worked Kevin and Cameron to the bone.

Having moved in and no longer owning a washing machine or dryer (our rental house had one and we sold our old stuff when we left NM), we decided to head to Sears in the wee hours of the morning on Black Friday to snag the good deal on a new washer and dryer. Actually, Dana decided that I would head to Sears in the wee hours of the morning. So I talked Kevin into heading out with me at 2:00 in the morning. As one would expect, we were the 5th person in line for the 4 sets available. To make matters worse, it was cold and rainy. I waited anyway to get a different set while Kevin wimped out after about 1/2 an hour and sat in the pickup with the heater on.

Now we're into the part of the year where it seems like hardly a day goes by without some sort of activity to keep us busy.

I really like this picture. It was a windy day and Cameron and Cade were picking up piles of leaves and throwing them in the air. Can you be any more carefree than that?

Cade had a little Thanksgiving skit with his pre-school class. He looks like a man among boys (and girls) in his class. And yes, that tiny little girl is 4 and in his class.

A couple of weeks later, they had their Christmas performance. Cade is lip-synching his heart out...


While we watch and entertain ourselves from the pews.

We forgot to take the camera with us when we went to the tree farm to get our tree so I'll describe the scene. Picture freezing weather and wind. Now imagine us shivering while we wander among all these trees trying to find one with a fairly straight trunk that isn't too tall or short or wide or butchered. Out of desperation, someone says, "How about this one," and without even looking everyone readily agrees just so we can get the heck out of there and back into the pickup with the heater on full blast. Oh yeah, and Dana had been up all night and was really tired. That's the stuff memories are made of right there.

Kevin had his 7th grade band concert a few days ago. He looked mighty handsome in his tux (which is missing the jacket in this photo but he wore it later). The band sounded pretty darn good, especially after listening to the 5th and 6th graders right before them. Kevin even said he wondered if they sounded that bad last year. Yes.

The majority of the houses on our street have made at least a minimal effort to decorate for Christmas so we couldn't go without either. This is the extent of our decorations for this year, except I'll add two little trees that we'd forgotten about to the display this weekend. It doesn't look like much here but it is voice activated. I say, "Cameron, plug in the lights," and Cameron does it.

MSFC didn't decorate their usual Christmas tree this year. Instead they created a megatree using the Saturn I. How cool is that?

We had some freezing rain yesterday. These little birds, and several others, were all over the ice that formed on the patio table. We still get a kick out of seeing the cardinals and other birds that actually have some color.

That's all for now. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Halloween/Fall

Trying to catch up on the last month's worth of pictures...

In the Spring, when everything is blooming, we say Spring has sprung. So now that all the colors are changing do we say Fall fell or Fall has fallen? These are the things that keep me up at night.

Speaking of Fall, it sure has been purty around here lately.

This is the entrance to our neighborhood. The colors never come out right, especially with a cheapo cameral ike ours. You'll have to take my word for it. It's even more pretty in person.

We don't know what these bright red bushes are but we sure like 'em.

I took Cameron and Cade to the pumpkin farm one day in October to play for a few hours while Dana slept. We had a great time there but it wasn't the same w/o the whole family. I think Kevin was a birthday party at the local paintball place.

Cameron's getting up there.

And so is Cade. The dude barely turned 5 and he's over 4 feet tall!

The pumpkin patch had a petting zoo and the best part for my boys (and a lot of other kids) were these tiny little kittens. Cameron would have been happy to have just stayed there and played with them all day. They were pretty darn cute.

Photo op before when we got there.

For once, we didn't wait until the last minute to carve our pumpkins so it was actually enjoyable this year. Notice Batman on the left side of the picture. Cade wore his costume every day, all day for what seemed like weeks.

Dana collected the seeds for roasting. She had two recipes to try this year. Sweet and salty.

Kevin working on his masterpiece.

Cameron designed and carved his own pumpkin but was pretty ticked with the way it came out. I really liked it. Kevin used a pattern for his and I used one for mine and Cade's as well.

Cade had a Halloween party in his pre-school class. I just realized that I don't think the poor kid has ever had a new costume of his own. He always uses hand-me-downs from his brothers. Oh well. He doesn't know and doesn't seem to care. He was pretty excited to have a choice of costumes to choose from when we got them out this year.

Why doesn't anyone want to be a vampire anymore?

Cade also got to go to Cameron's school for another party. The kids couldn't wear a mask so a lady that was there to paint the kids' faces took care of Cam.

Halloween 2010

Kevin took off with his friends so I took the boys around our neighborhood. Surprisingly, Cameron only made it to the end of our street before wanting to go home so he could hand out candy. Cade and I covered another couple of streets before it got too late. I enjoyed following Batman down the sidewalk. He looked as cute as a bees knees! (I think that's the proper Suthern term)

Speaking of cute. Now that it's getting colder, Cade's been wearing his dog feet slippers around the house.

Hopefully our next update will be coming from our new house - as in our own house not a rental house. We're supposed to be closing on our NM house next week (after a little over 2 years on the market!!!) and we've made an offer on a house here. Despite looking all over town and around the area, we picked a house that's only a stone's throw from where we live now. Go figure. But we already know, and like, both neighbors and the house just seemed to fit us. So we're obviously very excited to finally get feel settled down and we're looking forward to finally putting some pictures on the walls. Now if I can just hold onto my job... But that's another story.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Disney Part II

Still catching up on pictures. You've probably seen some, or most, of these on Dana's Facebook page. She just can't wait to post all the good shots. Darn her. Oh well, I consider this blog to be a family diary of sorts anyway.

These are mostly in random order.

Day 1. The Reynolds ready to tear it up at Magic Kingdom!

At this point in our vacation, Cade was still freaked out by the characters. That changed later in the week but by then we had trouble finding any of them. Nice face, Cameron!

As much as Cade loves Lightning McQueen and Mater, I thought he'd love to have his picture with them. Nope. Lightning McQueen was loud and his moving eyes creeped Cade out a little. Kevin and Cameron had no such issues.

Waiting for our lunch reservation at a 50's style diner.

There are a couple of good stories here. The waiters weren't afraid to remind people to use their manners. Apparently, Kevin has lousy table manners. When our waiter came to pick up our plates, he asked Kevin why he hadn't eaten his corn. Kevin made some excuse so the waiter picked up a fork, scooped up some corn and "flew" it into Kevin's mouth - complete with airplane noises. He then told Kevin to eat his corn, picked up all the other plates and walked off. Kevin ate his corn! A few minutes later, the waiter told Kevin to get his elbows off the table. He walked into the next room behind Kevin, stuck his head back through the window between the two rooms (and right behind Kevin) and said, "I told you to get your elbows off the table!" If I hadn't been so afraid of being rude I would have laughed pretty hard at the whole thing. Unfortunately, he didn't say anything to the old dude sitting next to us. He was constantly picking his teeth with a credit card, scratching facial parts, etc. Dana and I had to consciously make an effort not to look that direction.

The boys and some beautiful woman.

Kevin, Cade, Dana and Tootie on yet another roller coaster.

Almost every day, the cleaning ladies did something neat in our room. Towels arranged like Mickey Mouse, our stuffed animals propped up on the bed, and this day, neatly arranged in the window with the blinds drawn just enough to see them. Nice little touches.

A great shot of us on the GM test track ride. This ride was a blast! At least Cameron and I thought so. Judging by everyone else's reaction (I'm looking at you, Dana!) it had some scary moments. I think we were about to crash into a wall right here. Mom and Dad were in a car behind us.

This was taken when we traveled back in time to catch a dinosaur. Apparently, riding in the front seat was more scary than in the back because all 3 of them look like scaredy cats. Pa is the only one of us in the back seat showing any signs of life.

We took a brief trip to San Francisco while we were on vacation in Florida.

Cameron spent almost all of his time at Blizzard Beach in this area. He especially enjoyed the zip line. He just let go of the handle in this shot.

We didn't buy any hats like this but we had to get at least one picture of someone with Mickey Mouse ears.

My first ride with Cameron at the wheel. I tried not to show my panic but I don't think I did a very good job of it.

Cade looking cute on the slide.

Waiting for the bus to take us to a park. We did a lot of this. Seems like we always got to the bus stop right after they left.

We got our picture with Sue the famous T-Rex!

And last,but not least, here's the Summit Plummet. Kevin, Dana and I all rode this. Before we got there, Cameron talked about "manning up" and riding it but once he saw it in person he changed his mind. I wish I had. That thing is so darn steep it feels like you're in a free fall for a moment. When I dropped over the edge, it just kept getting steeper and steeper. I'm not too proud to admit it scared me! Dad pointed out that no one screams on that ride. I don't think you can because the fear of impending death causes you to clench every muscle so tight a scream becomes impossible. From start to finish, you drop 120 feet (feels like 720), reach speeds of 55 mph (feels like 255!), do 47 hail marys, say 78 prayers, see your life flash before your eyes twice, drink 14 gallons of water and wonder if your heart will ever get back down below 300 bpm. All in 7 seconds!