Catching Up

Hello friends,
It's been awhile since I've signed into this old blog of mine. I've been working a lot outside the home and inside the home and even though I continually think about things to blog about I just don't have the energy when it comes time to actually write. So what have you been up to?
I will share in pictures what we've been doing...

I changed my hair color and got a "new" haircut. I went with dk brown almost black underneath and red/auburn highlights on top layers. I think next time I'm going to go with red/blonde highlights.
Thanksgiving we all loaded up and drove to GA to eat dinner at Tina & Bryant's house. This was the first time she has cooked for everyone and it was fabulous!My mom (Mimi to Tina) helped by bringing some of our favorite casseroles and Greg (since he's an early riser) cooked the turkey for Tina.

Greg, Dakota and I had gotten in about 9:00 pm the evening before and since that was Tina (and Felicia's 22nd birthday) Tina and I went and saw New Moon...the 2nd Twilight movie and didn't get home until after midnight. We were a little tired the next day. Thank goodness Greg's an early riser!Tina & I took our picture together and texted it to Felicia...we missed our sissy so much!
Tina cooked Thanksgiving for us, her grandparents, her in-laws and a friend & her husband. The only ones we were really really missing was Felicia's crew in Hawaii...praying this time next year they will also be living in GA and we will all celebrate together!
Dakota and Bops (my stepdad) watching TV while waiting for food.
As usual little Miss Bailee was there to entertain us all...
We had to leave on Thanksgiving to come back home because Greg had to work the next day. As we were packing, Bailee decided she wanted to come home with us. I brought her back to Pensacola and played with her until Sunday when we drove back and met Tina & Bryant in Marianna to give her back to mommy.

She's playing with all my clips in my bathroom...
We spent a lot of time outside while she was here. It had turned very cold for most of her visit, but on Saturday afternoon it was actually a beautiful sunshiney day. I let her play with her favorite toys (her Little Ponies) outside but the pieces are so small I made her play with them in the dog's pool. She loved it!
This is only 1/3 of her collection...this girl LOVES Little Ponies!
Last week was my birthday week - yep, you read correctly - birthday week.
I feel abundantly blessed at all the family and friends who wanted to share time with me for my birthday. I actually turned 42 on Monday. My dear Greggie purchased a cake from Publix (per my request) - it was to die for!! OMG, so delicious!

My dad and stepmom took me to lunch on Monday afternoon. We had a very nice lunch playing catch-up since we haven't been able to see each other as often lately.
Monday night I asked Greg if we could go to Logan's Restaurant and eat. He & Dakota took me there and we had just a nice family meal together.
Once we got home we gathered in front of our Christmas tree and took our family picture...the best thing about this was there was NO griping from the guys! I guess every year I'll have to ask for this picture on my birthday...since it's MY birthday they don't complain! haha
My mom took me to see Precious on Tuesday. The movie was okay, but not what I expected. Not really sure what I expected to be honest...but it was just okay. Thursday evening my dearest friend, CJ took me out to eat again. We have not had much time together for the last year because of her illness, and both of our work schedules. We spent 3 hours sitting in the restaurant catching up. Please continue to pray for her...after two bouts with cancer/chemo, her body's having a hard time of recovering.

We made the decision a couple weeks ago not to go to Hawaii for Christmas. Tough decision but finances helped dictate this. Because we are not going to Hawaii we ARE going to Gatlinburg for the week of Christmas. We are so excited since this is our favorite place to go! I hope it snows...would be nice to have a white Christmas.