You Can't get to Heaven in a Red Canoe...

'Cause God's favorite colors are orange and blue.

Kinda makes you wonder when you wake up to a sky like that. :)

Giving Thanks

It's very important to my mom that everyone in our family get together for Thanksgiving. The older I get the more I understand and appreciate this. I can only imagine Chris and I will want the same thing when our children are grown and have their own families. It was a bit early, but this past Saturday was the only day before Thanksgiving we could make it work. There's really nothing more to say than, as always, it was great. The food was fabulous and the company was even better. I laughed until my stomach hurt more times than I can count. Before my Uncle Kenneth (a/k/a Uncle Stinky) blessed the food my dad said a little something about how thankful and blessed we all are to have each other - which of course all made us tear up. ;) And he's so right. I feel extremely, sweetly blessed to have my family.

And now I'm going to overload you with pictures from our day. Had I known my mom was going to want to get a picture of the grands for her Christmas letter I would have dressed us better (except B - she's always dressed the part). When she first mentioned it I said, "NO WAY!" If you know Big D you know that flew over like a lead balloon. D got her picture. :)

Might RaRa be telling her baby love of a fun surprise??

Might Uncle Stinky be telling Grant a similar one?
Possibly having to do with a visit to The Loveliest Village on the Plains?

Sweet B

Me with half of my loves :)

Dawnie - such a daddy's girl!

Tory Burch keychain? Check! Now all she needs is keys.
EEEEEEEK!

The best sisters in the world!

Nana with her girls

M and M
Or as I like to call them:  T-R-O-U-B-L-E :)

Do you have any idea how hard it was to get this picture?
Darn kids.

Had to include this one - Kenneth is a HUGE Auburn fan.
He wore the U of A shirt in support of Dawnie for the big game.
Now that's love, people

While we're on the topic of giving thanks, I'm thankful Grant had a project due Monday. Why you ask? Because having Procrastination Polly for a mom meant we had to kick it in gear to get it done this weekend. RaRa was here this weekend.

SCORE!!

Many thanks, Martha, for an awesome project!
Still pissed you took all the creativity genes. Selfish a**! ;)

The best daughter in the world!

Me and my boys

How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony!

Psalm 133:1

Things like this are why I love Dawnie so much

Out of the blue the other day I received this message from Dawn:

I love how she cracks herself up while she's recording it. :)

Happy Friday!

StudentS of the Month

That's right, folks. I said studentS. As in plural, more than one.

I received a text from Mac's teacher yesterday morning that said, "Congrats! Both boys selected for Student of Month in October. Tell Chris the bribes worked."

I'm totally kidding about the bribe part. They both earned and deserve the recognition. Grant's classroom has some really fun centers, Snoopy's Corner being a favorite. Mac was allowed to accompany Grant to lunch as well as spend some time in Grant's classroom where they both enjoyed Snoopy's Corner together. :)

So proud of my two students of the month and so blessed to have our wonderful school!

Name Change and Doctor's Orders

Reid is under the weather and has been for a few days. :(

He has pretty much been on the couch since Sunday. He toughed it out for Halloween and has little bursts of energy here and there, but for the most part he just feels rotten. Monday when I took Mac to our pediatrician for his ears, I decided not to get Reid seen about. It was only day two of fever and some stomach issues, and I'm not one to rush to the pediatrician's office at the first sign of a sniffle or fever. Well, fast-foward to day 4 of the same symptoms and I thought it warranted at least a phone call. They called back and said it would be best to bring him in.

Thankfully my children are not intimidated by nor do they fear Dr. Trumbull's office. In fact, if it's possible, they look forward to going. They enjoy sitting in Dr. Trumbull's lap, answering his questions (while I hold my breath that all their answers are polite), then stop by the sticker/pencil buckets for a prize on our way out. Today's visit not only called for a game of ring the pee in the cup (which is so fun for the boys for some reason) but also for a finger stick (which isn't so fun).

Dr. Trumbull suspects what Turbo has is viral. There is a small chance it could be bacterial, but his blood count isn't indicative of that. So these were our orders for now:

Watch him over the next day or so to see if his symptoms start to subside. If he doesn't seem to be getting any better we have other orders, but they're not very pleasant so I'll spare you.

And...

You ready for this???

EAT LOTS OF FOODS HIGH IN FAT like chicken nuggets and french fries.

This is the same doctor who pushes and pushes "eat your fruits and veggies" like it's his job. Ok well it is his job. But you know what I mean. So for him to tell us some of Reid's favorite junk foods are what he needs, well we surely can handle that! So after a stop by Target - because all big boys who don't even flinch with a finger prick deserve a little "happy" - we're home having had a good "dose" of chicken nuggets.

One more thing because I thought it was funny and want to remember. On the way to Montgomery Reid said, "Momma, I need a new name. Because my name Reid is old."

Me:  "Really? Well what do you want your name to be?"

"Zach. Yeah. Zach Norton. [pause] Zach Norton. Zach Norton. Zach Norton. Yeah, I like that. It's cool."

I don't think we even know anyone named Zach. :)

Here's hoping and praying my little "Zach" is up and running again real soon.

All Things Halloween

Every year we carve pumpkins. I love everything about it. I love deciding what to carve, getting out the goo, carving, roasting the seeds.

Then of course there's the finished product:  When the carving is done and you light up the jack-o-lanterns at dark, put them on the front porch and step back to marvel at a job well done. And the smell once it's carved and lit... mmmmmm. Then and only THEN is it Halloween.

However, it seems every year I have four kiddos who are excited about carving for about 20 minutes (always while they're mid-goo) then leave this momma to finish the job. It was robbing me of my pumpkin-carving Halloween joy. So this year I opted for something a little different. I thought about painting pumpkins which is a cute idea and something I knew they would enjoy, but I still wanted something else. After coming across a similar idea on a blog as well as turning to the trusty google, I ultimately decided we would try pumpkin nailing.

All you need is pumpkins (really?), a few hammers, and a lot of nails.

Some templates that we printed, cut out and traced onto the pumpkins.

Three little boys eager with a hammer and nails .

And voila...

Our masterpieces.

They had the best time. What little boy wouldn't love banging some sharp things with a hammer into something like a pumpkin? Or anything for that matter.

Reid did the nose on his then grew tired of having to stay in the lines. He decided his needed what he called hair. In other words, he just wanted to hammer those nails wherever he pleased. :)

Mac and Grant were a little more precise.

They turned out even better than I imagined. They all three kept thanking me for it. Grant said he wanted to do it again the next day. Mac chimed in and said, "Yeah, momma, I want to do this every year forever." :) I think pumpkin nailing was a hit.

Of course, we still had to carve one.

Mac can pick up a frog and squish a roach like it's nothing, but the inside of a pumpkin makes him gag. Literally. I don't get it.

You can tell from his facial expression it has the same effect on Reid as well. Heelarious!

Grant didn't mind it as much, but he still wasn't into it. And yes, those are tears. :( He and his brothers raced to the table, and he took a spill on the tile. Tile isn't very forgiving. One touch of the slimy stuff and that frown turned upside down. :)

All lit up

Finally Monday rolled around. It was a bit of a crazy start to the week with Reid having what I think may be some type of flu and Mac with an ear infection. I had two class parties to get to, so after spending the morning in the doctor's office Chris came home to stay with Reid, and Mac and I (since he isn't contagious) headed for his class party first then on to Grant's to round out the school day.

A dose of Motrin and a couple of hours later...

The Norton's aren't about to let something like the flu or an ear infection keep Aubie and the skeletons from trick-or-treating. Are you kidding?!? NO WAY!

Halloween was one of my favorite "holidays" as a child. It still is and ranks almost up there with spending Thanksgiving with family, and my children on Christmas morning. The neighborhood I grew up in was the best, and I'm thankful our neighborhood was a bit reminiscent of Castlewood last night. I get such great joy out of watching my children go door to door, so excited about each and every door bell they ring.

It was awesome. By the time they had enough (I say THEY because secretly Chris and I think there can never be enough candy. The kids say, "We're tired," while Chris and I say, "No, one more. Just one more house." haha), their bags were overflowing.

When it's all said and done, this may just be the best part of it all:

They sift through all of their candy,

swapping this and that,

actually sharing things they may have gotten two of. All the while I'm sifting through Reid's making sure to get rid of anything with peanut butter so that he doesn't end up looking as if his "costume" was Sloth from The Goonies.

It was a great and wonderful night. It wasn't the same without Sissy here - we sure did miss having her trick-or-treat with us - but still a great night.

Yesterday also marked the three year anniversary of a very significant day in my life for which I will humbly be forever grateful.

God is good. All the time.

Happy Halloween!!

Ballgame

And with that word Wednesday night, our fall baseball season came to a close.

Wetumpka Braves

We finished the season 12-1 (and can I just say that the "1" sucked - ok, I feel better now). It's hilarious to me to hear people say, "It's just fall ball. Who cares about the score." I'll tell you who says that. Whoever just lost. That's who. It doesn't matter if it's fall, spring, or backyard ball. THE SCORE MATTERS.

All our boys did a great job, but of course I was especially proud of my two. Not that I'm partial or anything. Mac was 5 when the season started yet was playing with 7 and 8 year-olds. He held his own and was loving the challenge until the whole cast thing. 

Bueller decided a spectator he is NOT. The first game in which he had to sit out because of his cast was tough. He didn't like it one bit. Visits to the concession stand helped his feelings a little. :)

As soon as Grant found out a catcher was needed in this age group, he was determined. He wanted to catch. 

I am frequently amazed by this little boy. He's an old soul, very self-motivated. Not only did he catch every inning of every game, but he looked like a natural doing it. He came home with sore legs and sometimes sore shoulders, but he was right back at it come game time without complaint. We keep telling him catchers are in high demand and to keep it up. Scholarship one day, perhaps??? His parents can only hope. :)

And let's not forget baby Reid. 

Turbo has been to every. single. game since Grant started playing ball. He has sat through games in the sweltering heat and humidity of a southern summer as well as those cold-front fall games when temps dip into the 40s and we're sitting on cold bleachers, layered and bundled up drinking hot chocolate. Never once has he said he didn't want to go. He's a trooper... Trooper Turbo. HA!

It will be nice to have some of our nights back. Three games a week is a lot, especially for those late games. But it's always bittersweet. It's not likely we'll ever have that same exact team again. You spend so much time with the players and they're families that it's always a little sad when a season is over.

Coach Chris giving the after-game, end of season talk

Giving out medals

The team and our coaches
We had a great team and are so proud of our boys. Way to go, Wetumpka!