We're having Family Home Evening and Sadie just sang "Up came Frosty the snowman - up the water spout"!

Sadie wanted to take a selfie with me -

She has a little trouble keeping her thumb out of the way, but she's a lot better at taking pictures than I was when I was three!

Thanksgiving and Christmas Decorating

We made Thanksgiving easy this year and just got paper plates, etc.  The girls helped me so much and it was actually not a lot of work.  It was the worst Thanksgiving ever because I found out my mother died Wednesday and had to be resuscitated!  But it was the best news I've ever gotten that my mother was able to be resuscitated, so it was the best Thanksgiving ever!  Miracles exist.  Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.  It's been hard not to be there, but she is doing so much better now, and I plan to go and stay with her in January.

Skyler's Halloween

Skyler and Lizzy went with a Duck Dynasty theme this year.

Sibley's Halloween

Sibley went to Hannah's house and decorated pumpkins.  She also went to the trunk or treat with the Skibas.  They dressed up as zombies.

Fun with cousins -

We had so much fun with family in Wetumpka!  One day we got to babysit Bennett for a couple of hours.  Me, Mama, Sadie, and Bennett all shut ourselves in the playroom, since he is mobile now (and he's faster than me and Mama).  The only time Bennett cried was when Sadie left the room to go potty.  As soon as she opened the door and left the room, Bennett made the cutest saddest face I've ever seen.  His feelings were so hurt that Sadie left.  So we tried to occupy him for a minute or two until she got back, and then he was fine again.

Trunk or Treat at the Pavillion

Visiting Grandaddy at Work

One Sunday while we were in Wetumpka, Daddy went to church and brought the sacrament back to me, Sadie, and Grandmama.  The three of us sat by each other on the living room sofa.  This was the conversation as we passed the sacrament back and forth:
Sadie: (looking up at me and whispering) Mama, are you thinking about Jesus?
Me: (looking down at Sadie with a smile, proudly thinking about how much Sadie was learning in Nursery and what a sweet child she is) Yes...are you thinking about Jesus?
Sadie: (looking up at me with a completely expression-less face) No.

Me:  "Sadie, did you break the phone?"
Sadie:  "No, I never break phones, since I don't know how to break phones.  I only break DVDs."

Old School

I got to go to a Wetumpka game while I was home.  Lots of things have changed.  The stands have been renovated and we now sit on the visitors side.  Troy is a coach.  And we are now 6A.  When I was there, we were only 4A.  So we play completely different schools now.  But I loved the Alabama flag at the halftime show.  And the weather was cold that night so it was fun to snuggle under the blanket with Sadie...

Fun on the farm

One day Sadie got to play at the farmhouse.  It just happened to be the day their new rooster was being delivered!  Isn't it beautiful?  And it isn't full grown yet!  And there was a big black, fuzzy caterpillar on the garage brick wall.  And on another day she got to go over and drive the Jeep.  She had lots of fun but it was a little scary for the rest of us...

 

Georgia with Grandmama

Grandmama and Renna picked me and Sadie up from the airport and we stayed in Athens with Renna for a couple of days.  The weather was nice and cool and we just laid low and did a little shopping.  We found Sadie a Halloween costume.  Then Mama and I rented a car to take her to Newnan to the hospital, where we met up with Daddy.  The gentleman who rented the car to us held Mama's hand and said a beautiful prayer for her in his native Haitian Creole accent.  And he gave us the biggest, nicest car he had.  It was a Chrysler something and it was incredible!  I wish I would have taken a picture.  Mama wasn't feeling very well though, so we were just doing the best we could. 

Also, I wish I would have gotten a picture of Helen Brown's headstone in Renna's yard!  I wish I would have LOOKED at Helen Brown's headstone in Renna's yard!  (Helen Brown is Grandy's little sister that burned to death when she was a little girl when her nightgown caught on fire when she was sitting by the fireplace.  Renna was able to somehow get her headstone when the cemetery replaced it with a new one.)  It was nice to be in northeast Georgia again.  It's one of my favorite places in the world.  It feels like home.

Everything went well at the hospital.  We all got along together surprisingly well, for being together in such a small space.  I had way too much fun eating the delicious food and probably gained like 5 lbs.  I liken it to being on a cruise.  One afternoon we got out for a bit and Daddy took us to Ross.  Then we got a hamburger at Burger King.  Daddy really missed fried food when he stays at the hospital.  And Mama needs to gain weight anyway.

All week long Daddy proudly wore his Clemson shirts, hats, and even shorts.  He talked about Clemson to all of his friends there at the hospital.  (They have quite a few friends there now, as one can imagine.  They've been going there since June.)  Anyway, Daddy was just so excited because Clemson was having such a great year and they were set to play Florida State on Saturday.  Saturday came and it was game time and things started out really badly for Clemson and only went downhill from there.  Poor Daddy.  He had gotten "Clemsonized" again.  (See Sports Illustrated article.)  The saddest part was the next morning when it was time for Daddy to get in the shower and get ready for the day.  He looked down and said, "What will I wear?  I only brought Clemson clothes!  I don't have anything to wear now!".  He got in the shower and me and Mama looked in his duffel bag and he only had one non-Clemson shirt, so that's what he wore for the next two days!  Poor Daddy!

I had him take me and Sadie to meet Joe and Susan in Opelika on Sunday.  I appreciate Joe, Alex, and Susan coming to meet us and taking us back to Wetumpka.  That way I was able to clean up a little and go to the grocery store for Mama.  I had a soup menu planned.

 

Fun in Florida with Mary Jo, the Trimmers, and Brooke

We swam, went to the beach, played at the park, and went out for ice cream...

 

Fall Break In Utah

Since Skyler and Sibley both had delayed start dates for school this year (due to construction), they had Fall Break at the same time!  We really wanted to take advantage of it, because we knew it would probably never happen again.  We love going to Utah to see all our family there, so that seemed the logical thing to do.  (Jacob and Donna were gone to California pretty much the whole time we were in Utah.)

I didn't think I could make the drive up there by myself.  Skyler and Sibley had credit with Southwest, so I got them tickets into Salt Lake.  Sadie and I had used our Southwest credit to get to Alabama, but we found cheap tickets on Allegiant into Provo on the same morning the girls were flying into Utah, so we made it work!  I loved flying into Provo.  First of all, the Allegiant airport is 8 miles from my house.  Then the flight was short.  Then the Provo airport is so small that the luggage claim is literally a tin shed with a luggage cart parked under it...don't have to worry about traffic, etc.

McKenna was already up there with her ward, so she just stayed when the rest of her ward headed back down to Arizona.  McKenna and Skyler stayed at Amanda and Jeremy's house.  Thatcher took them dancing and they had a blast.  I need to have them upload their pictures on here later.  Amanda took Skyler and McKenna to a BYU game with her.  She and Jeremy are always so nice to let them stay.

Me and Sibley and Sadie all stayed with Josh and Melissa.  It was a relaxing, low key week.  The weather was nice and cool.  We went to Gardner Village one day and checked out the witches.  I got a picture of Sadie poking one of them to see if she was real.  Our budget was like $20 (for the whole week) so we bought some fudge at Gardner Village and that pretty much blew our money.  But who needs money?  We had fun with our cousins/sister in law!

Josh turned 40 while we were there.  Bryant was determined to celebrate with him.  The government shut down really put a damper on the situation, as they had been planning to camp at Zion, but they were able to find a spot to camp in Snow Canyon State Park at the last minute.