2014 Harvest Celebration

Justin and I attended our 3rd Harvest Celebration last weekend. This is a great event to raise money for the Georgia Agribusiness Council and we always have a great time.

We didn’t win any of the silent auction items but they had a lot of great stuff offered.

The highlight of our night was seeing Diamond Rio perform. I had forgotten that they were so popular in the 90s and early 2000s. I knew all of their songs! They did a relaxed set with great music. I was very impressed with the guys that night.

Justin and I were excited to have a backstage experience! The guys were so cordial and even gave us a signed program.

Randoms

This month has been a bunch of bits and pieces. It seems like we have been going non-stop the whole time. I did have the time to take on a little fun crafty project recently. My nephew Ben has been saving turkey feathers for me when their birds molted and I was finally able to put together this feather wreath. I think I might go back and fill in the gaps with more feathers but it’s pretty cool if I do say so myself!

We had a cold snap last week and the cabbage in the garden was so pretty covered in frost. We had so much rain this week, but I think it might warm up soon.

Wyatt spent the night with Suzi, David, Liam, and Pax last weekend and these two boys are a hoot together! Poor Suzi and David had all three boys!

The next day we went to the Mistletoe Market in Perry. It was chock full of wonderful gifts but Wyatt was way past nap time and Suzi was getting sick so we cut our time short. Suzi ended up stopping at the quick clinic on the way home and found out she had strep throat. Thankfully she wasn’t contagious and the boys are in the clear.

 

Sunday, we celebrated Liam’s 5th birthday. He was just 2 years old when he came into our lives and I’m so thankful to have him around! He and Wyatt are buddies for life.

Now this last one is a big deal for me. I hate, hate, HATE frogs and we were outside one night when Justin tried to get Wy to catch one. It turns out that Wyatt doesn’t like them either and Justin tried to get him to hold it and get over his fear. I touched it reluctantly which gave Wy the confidence he needed to hold it. Gross! I would be okay if I never had to do it again, but as a boy mama I am sure that isn’t my last experience with frogs!

 

AWC Scavenger Hunt

Last weekend Justin, Wyatt, and I participated in the Ashburn Women’s Club scavenger hunt. It was so fun! We got double points for posting our pictures to Facebook so the AWC could share the pictures, but I think some of my out-of-town friends might have thought I was nuts! We raised money to feed four families for Thanksgiving and some of the items we had to find were food items to be added to the baskets. I love that we can have fun as a family and help others out at the same time.

Pic of two team members with same birthday month

Pic of two team members in same shirt at an exit sign

 

Pic with a Waffle House server

Pic with a police officer

Pic of team member with grandparent

 

Pic of team with dessert complete with lit birthday candle

Pic of team spelling out AWC

Pic of team with cow (That’s the big cow statue at Dairy Queen at Exit 84 on I-75!)

 

This one was my favorite! The street where we turned in our items is not very traveled so we let Wy ride his bike in the middle of the road. I forgot his helmet so we couldn’t let him ride; I have an irrational (or completely rational?) fear of head injuries.

Busy but uneventful

November has been very busy for our little family with no major events. We are overwhelmed with work activity but it’s a good thing to be busy.

  

One of my favorite things we did this month is get Mastrario grandboys photos of Liam, Wyatt, and Pax. I love taking pictures of Sami taking pictures. It tells the back story of the hard work she does to capture these awesome images for us. It might be hard to see, but check out how she works the camera with one hand and wiggles Pax’s baby toy in the other to get his attention. I love it!

Justin dug up a really cool old bottle out of our woods the other day. I cleaned it up and did a little photo session. It was made in Tifton, Georgia! I really hope to get my hands on a Coca-Cola bottle from right here in Ashburn someday.

  

I broke down and bought the Waterlogue app. I think it’s really neat! I want to make a gallery wall featuring all things Georgia and my home town. I think I might incorporate a small collage frame of our houses and some famous local spots for my gallery wall.

 

I found this cute little wreath on Pinterest courtesy of Women’s Day magazine. I did mine a little different but overall I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I am a 30 minute or less crafter and these only took about 20. It’s not perfect but it was a fun distraction.

 

It’s pecan season in South Georgia. Mama, Wyatt, and I picked up this entire bucket full in about 15 minutes the other day at Mama’s house. I will have to go back out there to get some more, but I’m thinking they are sure going to be tasty in my pecan pie at Thanksgiving!

Halloween 2014

Halloween 2014 was looking kinda bleak for a while there. We moved out to the country last November and before that, our house in town was home base for our families on Halloween night. We would cook some food and everyone would come into town to trick or treat and pass out candy. Thankfully Suzi and David moved last month to Ashburn, so we were all able to once again have a gathering place.

Wyatt started the festivities off in grand fashion consuming crazy amounts of junk at his school party.

My little cutie was a shark this year. As much as I love Halloween, I never seem to get on the ball and order him a great and wonderful costume online. We were at Walmart a few weeks ago and literally the only costume in the store that would fit him was a shark. Thankfully, he was very excited about it! The only problem was that he had to keep pulling on it to keep his vision clear.

Justin was a rock star and made our wagon look very nice by hanging pumpkins and gourds on the railings he added last week. He filled the wagon up with hay bales and loaded up our radio for a spooky soundtrack.

We started out the night at First Baptist for Trunks of Treats. This is so neat. Uncle Jonathan had Gael’s t-rex set up munching on treats.

Here is our crew (minus Michael). Both sets of our parents were out of town. They missed out on a wagon load of fun (literally!).

Our last stop of the night was at Uncle Glynn and Aunt Faye’s house. They had a goody bag full of candy and pencils and an Atlanta Braves bobble head doll for Wyatt. Poor Wy was so worn out he promptly sacked out as soon as we got in the door.

Fall Family Pictures

I am one thousand times grateful that my sister, Sami, is a photographer! She manages to capture the best images of us! I had an idea while visiting a client last fall. I wanted to take our family pictures in their olive orchards. The Shaws in Lakeland have been friends for five years now. Did you know olives grow in Georgia? They do and the Shaws had the first commercial crop of olives for oil east of the Mississippi since the 1800s. Georgia Olive Farms olive oil is some of the best you will ever put in your mouth and I’m not even saying that because I like the family. It’s just that good!

They have a beautiful olive orchard and there is the prettiest cotton field with two huge live oaks dripping in Spanish moss out behind it. They were so gracious to let us take our pictures out there.

I am glad Sami, Justin, and Wyatt had the patience for driving almost an hour and a half to take the photos but they were SO worth it!

Wyatt was so good, smiling every time we asked when he was promised Smarties in return. He even made a few silly faces for the camera! Justin said he looks like a little thrown away child from the Great Depression in this picture.

Wyatt was amazed to see the olives on the trees. He wasn’t very impressed when he realized these olives were for oil, not to be eaten!