Family and Friends Vaca at the Rhea Estate!

I love my tiny house. It's so small and it only takes a minute to clean it up and we can't hoard a bunch of things because there is no room for it! :) However, one of  my favorite thing about my parents house is that you can shove a million people in it for the weekend and no one feels cramped or put out! We went to Columbus a few weekends ago and added NINE extra folks to the mix… and everyone was happy as a lark! FANTASTIC! 

Our long time best friends, the Overstreets, were having an 1890's themed thanksgiving party at their farm, so we all headed home to be a part of the celebration. Mom and Dad's college best friends, the Fletcher's came too! What a total delight to see them again! That post is coming up next, but before we enjoy the festivities, I want to emotionally usher you into the #FreeTux movement. 

This is Tux. Do you see the sadness in his eyes?  His downtrodden gaze? Poor dog has his nose in the corner of the wall. At the back door because that's his 'rightful place' and tied up. (Okay, so Lizzy and my naked kid tied him up but we'll gloss over that.) So horribly mistreated. 

I coaxed him out into the comfortableness of the living quarters and look at this sweet pup. Almost asleep on my tummy! #FreeTux!!! 

(To be realistic, ever since I started this movement, Tux now roams around the whole house like a king, living his days in the lap of luxury! Sometimes all anyone needs is a spirited cheerleader! THE VICTORY IS OURS, TUX!!)

Then this happened and I almost died. Gah Lee. Andaddy reading Uncle Remus bedtime stories to my 3 favorite small people. I think I literally had heart shapes floating out of the top of my head because I  was so in love with this scene!

At dinner the first night, I said, "Say something funny Dad. Go!' and, oh boy, he did not disappoint! Charley Rhea and I were cracking up all weekend long! We revisited the time that he caught Charley sneaking ice cream in the kitchen and he chastised her with this…"That'll make your butt break outta your britches, Charley." SOLID GOLD. 

Charley's favorite past time is looking through mom and dad's old photo albums. We found this picture of Dad at his childhood kitchen table with the science experiment that won him first place in the state science fair. (Well done, Dad!)

Dad looked proudly at his picture and said, "I was on the road to greatness…." Hahaha!

The story gets EVEN BETTER at this point but it needs to stay in the fam.. forever! Dad is THE funniest when he wants to be! I love him so much!

Booper and Chuck loving life in the Grove during college. Check out mom!! HOT STUFF, LADY!!

I snuck away for a while to grab a non-jogging-stroller run and it was fabulous! Plus, Columbus greeted me with this view! Gorgeous! I was overwhelmingly thankful for this alone time and chance to see some new, beautiful scenery!

This is why I should blog more promptly. I have no clue what morning this is, but it doesn't really matter. The three kid-o's and i headed out for some early morning exploration. Check out THIS view! Even better than the running view!!

It was cold and the new horses were frisky! We caught them racing down the field! Look at lil mini in the back! The pony is the cutest thing ever! We are all so taken by him! :)

Oh this boy. I love this shot of him!

We explored through Mom and Dad's old barn. It's run down, but I love everything about it. It's funny how seeing something again can flood your memory with 20 years worth of events! I have so many memories from playing down here as kids! It's beautiful, right? 

Lunch at Profitt's with the Fletchers. Life long best friends! Isn't this great!

The time change happened during the weekend so normal lunch time was pushed back an hour. Then we waited FOREVER to go eat! If you've spent any time around me, you know that when I get hungry, we need to focus on the food sitch quick. I get ILL when I'm hungry! Charley tends to follow the same path so we were the two grumpiest girls you've ever been around! We were SO FOUL!! Our poor company was probably miserable with us! :)

Darling! I loved loved loved listening to all of Sally's stories and adventures! What an amazing life and amazing woman! 

Taking a spin with Dad! Sally seems like a vintage, red convertible, top down type of gal to me! 

I love my momma and daddy. Shaking my head at all the emotions behind that sentence! 

Doc never gets a break from doctoring! Giving Liz a little check up!

Part two of our weekend to come! Thank you so much, mom and dad for housing all of us hooligans! We are so grateful for the way you generously open your home to us all the time! It's great fun being home!

Baby Girl the Tennis Star

One Saturday, I fell ill to my usual 'let's-get-out-of-the-house-itis' disease, so we popped on over to Walmart and grabbed a few cans of tennis balls. We scouted out some unlocked courts and had our very first tennis lesson. I was not expecting.... well, anything really. We've never played before, but after a few fouled attempts, we started making some pretty consistent contact! I believe the first unsuccessful attempts were because the instructor was tossing balls, videoing, and playing 'goober encouraging mom' all at the same time! Once i put the camera down, she started smacking it! 

Not even close. Runners pose, hit the ball with her hand, and both eyes squeezed shut. I love this so much! 

Still a miss, but both eyes open, good form, and looking just like a mini version of her momma as a kid! :)

I was having so many emotions! I couldn't stop smiling over how cute my babe looked, but it also made me crazy happy remembering being her age and out on the court with mom and dad! It was a flood of memories of my folks and it made these few minutes RICH with goodness. 

Looking better! 

She had an absolute BLAST out there. Grinned like a monkey the whole time! 

CONTACT, FOLKS!!! Cue the complete freak out by Mom, sweet London coming over for a bear hug and thanking me for cheering her on (seriously? come on. sweetest kid alive), then me putting the camera down and home girl slamming it for the next 20 minutes. I was so crazy proud of her! 

A few days later, after school, peanut jumped in the car and immediately said, "Mom, can we please please pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease go play tennis right this second?" So off we went, in high heels no less, to satisfy the tennis monster I may have created. I'll take it. 

A quick 'before we head out' pic

London's teacher is the best ever. Here's a picture of Lu at school writing her favorite letter on the white board. She makes my heart want to bust wide open. Gah. Love her so, so much! Get ready for the next "Londonisms" post. She's dropped some serious word nuggets lately! Funny little dude!

Halloween 2013

London and I planned to go to a pumpkin patch with Jill, Kurt, and the boys, but the day before we were supposed to go, I had this overwhelming unsettled feeling over it. We cancelled, went to church, and ran into Barry's family before we headed home. Even though Barry was steadily shaking his head no, I solidified plans with myself to go buy pumpkins and show up at the Rhea's house, thereby forcing his hand at some good, old fashioned pumpkin carving. He ended up napping through the whole thing but Lala was spitting pumpkins out like it was her JOB! She was not messing around! The kids were interested for the first 10 minutes, then they were totally done with the whole pumpkin show. Kids. 

Luckily, I got some sweet hangs with the first born, which delighted me to no end! I'll always be a sucker for Charley Rhea. There's just something special about your first true love!

At some point, I went inside to grab something, came out to see the kids playing in the woods and had to have this convo: 

Me: 'London, is that your bare naked butt?'

Lu: 'Yes ma'am.' 

No clue. 

We, of course, tagged along for the Thomas family pumpkin carving also. Kurt was so incredibly patient with the kids this afternoon! The whole activity took forever, but Kurt was totally content to let Knox and Lu scoop out every single seed! He is a good, good man. 

They are all just too cute for words. I loved this picture! (Courtesy of Jillian.)

London had a blast at school on Halloween! They took a hay ride...

… dressed up in costumes….

… and had a 'trick-or-treating' party for lunch!

I loved having lunch with these two fun little nuggets!

The forecast called for rain on Halloween night, so we met up with friends and headed out early. I was glad we did because we were home and tucked in bed at a reasonable, school night hour! 

London was Princess Ariel and Knox and Lucas were Minions. Watching Lucas wobble around like a true minion with his gurgled little boy speech was too much. They were hilarious in their get ups!

I was pretty convinced that London dressed up as the most beautiful girl alive. My heavens. I couldn't stop looking at her. Just beautiful. 

I love it when the home owners dress up! This neighborhood is such a great place to go! All the people are as nice as they can be! 

This house had great decorations! Well done!!

Greatest. Family. Ever. 

Again, with all the adorable. 

Poor Lizzy and Caden were sick on Halloween but sweet Lauren was determined to let them have some fun! They went to the library earlier in the night and got to have a warm, inside version of trick-or-treating!  (Wait. Im not sure where this picture came from because their costume pictures are next! Oh well!)

This terrifying piece of man was on candy duty while the kids were away!

The rain ended up holding off until late that night so it was a perfect halloween this year! 

The Rocky Horror Masquerade Ball

The weekend after Emmaus, my two best friends in the world and I went out for a long overdue girls night! (Side note: my separate BFF's have now become mutual best friends so everything in my life is firing on all cylinders!!! Hooray!!) We went to watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the amazing Alabama Theater. It only seemed fitting to spend the weekend before getting all filled up with the Holy Spirit then 7 days later, go to watch a bunch of drunk boys dressed up like girls prance around a stage all night. Life has its twists and turns and I LOVE IT! 

The AL Theater is Ahhhhhh-mazing. Seriously. Drive to Bham and lets go. One of my very favorite places here! 

Happiness!

I had never seen Rocky Horror before so I was totally confused why the tickets said to bring rice, water guns, newspaper, toast, toilet paper, playing cards, and flashlights. Hannah explained that the show is all very interactive. People scream vulgar and ridiculous things during the movie and throw items around the theater that correspond with the scene playing. 

Hannah acted in this play in college and knew EVERY vulgar/silly line to scream! It was SO awesome and hilarious! Especially coming from a girl with the biggest heart you've ever met!  All the people around us were loving Hannah's depth of knowledge and spent the last quarter of the movie befriending her on Facebook! I was all 'BACK UP OFF MY BEST FRIEND!' cause seriously, I can't have anyone distract Hannah from time with me. RUDE. 

Things were a tad bit weird… but in a 'glad I know what all the hoopla is about now' kind of way! 

The post show floor! God bless the poor clean up team!

{I love you, you gaurenteed bringer of good times!}

This picture is only too realistic. Minus being all dressed up, this is just about every day for us.  Me assaulting Jill with some best friend loving, still hanging on tight to that french fry in my hand. :/

My friends are high class. They missed out on the goodness that is a 16 oz PBR. 

As fabulous, wonderful, and amazing as girls night out was, it was still a joy to get a 6 am wake up call from this little ray of sunshine. We decided to stay in our PJ's and pop on down the street to Waffle House for breakfast. Our waitresses name was Taylor and she and London were in love with each other by the end of our meal! Both of them had a special brand of joy and it was adorable to watch them make fast friends! 

I've been promised another night out for my birthday and there is no measure to gauge my excitement over it! LET'S DO THIS, LADY FRIENDS!