Snow Storm 2013

We had a nice big snow event in December, about 8 inches in all.  This kids missed a few days of school and had lots of fun playing.  At one point, the flakes were so big, they were about half the size of a playing card, no joke.  I have never seen flakes this big.  And the most wonderful thing about it is my kids are big enough they can go out without me now.  So I can enjoy these beautiful snowy days from the comfort of my couch knowing I don't have to go out expect to throw some wood in the stove.

Harvest 2013

Dad had a good harvest this year. He sold his combine and used my grandpa's 1 row picker to harvest. It picks it on the ear and dad stores it in the corn crib. He only kept some of it and sold the rest to a neighbor who raises buffalo.

The picker dumps it in a gravity wagon. We raise the gravity wagon to dump the ears in the elevator that shoots it into the corn crib.

Speech Finals

Millie placed in the finals for her school's speech contest. She did great!  She is so shy so I was super proud of her for getting up there and reading her story she wrote. 

Halloween

Football 2013

Reed played football at the YMCA in October. It wasn't the best league but it's all we could find. He loved it though so that's all that matters.

Rick helping him get his flags on

Water Break

Daddy Pep Talk

His Goofy Blocking Stance

October University of Evansville Visit

I am way behind on blogging. Back in October we made a trip to Evansville for a party and Millie wanted to see her college. She is set on going to UE so we showed her around. It's never too early for college visits...right?

Love

They may fight more than I'd like but it's moments like this that remind me how much they love each other. He is sound asleep and fell asleep on her just like he does on me while I read. 

Cross Country Championships

The Cross Country season is over. Millie had a great year. Her goal for this season was to finish in the top 10 every race. She met her goal. She finished 2nd, 1st, and 9th in the regular season races and then 2nd in the preliminary race and 2nd in the Championship race. I was so proud of her. Sher was her team's number 1 runner every race, her times were better every time and she knocked 6 seconds off her time in the championship race. I'm afraid next year she will not be happy with anything less than first, hopefully that's not the case.

In case you can't tell from these photos, it was FREEZING at the championship race. We had our first snow of the season earlier in the day and a sleet storm so severe that the back deck was covered. Millie did fantastic but her lungs and throat were hurting her very bad when she finished.

As a team, our boys got second place and our girls got third place. As a team, this was the worst our girls had done all season but it was still good. One of our boys did win the boy's race which was very exciting!

Bracelets, Reading, and Shells in Panama City

If you've never heard of a Rainbow Loom, then you don't have a little girl. I discovered this just before we left so I asked Rick to pick one up so Millie could work on it on our trip. She loves crafty things. I think I underestimated how much she would love this, though. Millie drove us so crazy when we first left (4am) about wanting to start making them that I hooked my book light to the back of my chair so she could see to make one. For 10 hours straight on the way down, she made bracelets. The really odd thing is, for 10 hours straight, Reed watched her make bracelets. I had so many activities for them to work on and do and they didn't even open their boxes I packed for the car ride. We had to search out a craft store in Huntsville so she could buy more supplies and again in Panama City because she needed more colors.

Reed even got in on the fun and can make them too.

Every afternoon we'd come in and Reed would take a nap and Millie would work in her journal and read. Reed usually worked in his journal a little bit every day as well.

In the mornings they loved to collect shells.

We all had a great time and the kids are already driving me nuts wanting to know when we are going back. I haven't told them yet that I'm going back to FL in January but not them. It won't go over well now that they know what they are missing out on.