Parking.

. . . and just look what ended up next to my nice, new van at Target.  Would he dare put his Truck in this "predicament"?  To borrow a line from John Pinette, "I say, Nay, Nay".

Chocolate milk.

How does a 4 year old fix himself a cup of chocolate milk?

Puts chocolate in the gallon of milk and then pours himself some. 

I'm sitting with the kids next time.

 Adult Table = BORING!!

Kid's Table = FUN!!!

Ben's old stomping ground

We had a swim meet in Scottsboro today.  This is Ben's old stomping ground.  He still holds a couple of records at the pool.  Must be something about the water because Ally had a great meet.  Maybe because it was inside and there were no butterflies???

John's Birthday

As I have said before, you never know what you are going to get when you have us all together.

So, Happy Birthday John and here goes:

 . . . it doesn't help that he has several grandchildren that like to encourage him!

Tubin' in January

This free picture slideshow made with Smilebox

I'm swaggerin'.

I'm just that cool.  I have a swagger wagon.  Really thought I'd be leaving the soccer mom image in the dust and be styling in a crossover of some sort.  But, the idea of kids climbing over and back a million times a day didn't really excite me.  Plus, this is a really cool van.  Rides nice, smells nice, doesn't have unidentifiable goo on the ceiling and crusty stuff in the cup holders in the back.

Has bluetooth so I can drive like "test track" and talk on the phone.

Has a DVD player, but I'm holding off on whether or not it is a positive or negative.   Will there ever be a time when my kids can agree on the same movie?

Has XMRadio so I can listen to all the Radio Disney I can stand.  Nothing like picking up Hayden in car rider line with the windows all down and the radio BLARING "I whip My Hair".

And it makes me feel a little sporty . . . in a mommy with a bunch of kids sort of way.

Thank you Honey for buying me my van.  I hope the swagger lifestyle is all you thought it would be.

All nice and shiny.

Best Wife EVER!!!

Be warned - this is not Michelle blogging...  For those of you expecting her witty remarks and funny stories, well - lower your standards for this one.

Michelle spends most of her time writing about everyone else in the family, but she never brags on herself.  I think it's time for someone to brag on her a little - I have the best wife ever!

I know all husbands are supposed to say that about their wives, but in this case, the rest of them are wrong.  Michelle knows how much I love the traditional holiday foods I grew up on - cornbread dressing, cranberry relish, coconut cake...  I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.  Over the years, she got the recipes from my mom and grandmother or she researched recipes on her own so that she could make all of those dishes I love.  Now don't misunderstand, Michelle is a great cook on her own, and she's created a lot of wonderful dishes that I consider "hers" (apple pie, carrot souffle... mmmm good!) However, there are just certain foods that we all grow up with that mean "holiday" to us.  At Thanksgiving this year, I thought she reached the peak of "good-wifeness" when she nailed the cornbread dressing.  For a girl that grew up eating stuffing, she can cook a mean dressing.

Well, I was wrong.  Michelle was far from her peak of culinary greatness.  Yesterday, she got there.  My favorite dessert of all time is French Silk Pie.  Not one of those store bought or restaurant bought embarrassments of a dessert, but the real, homemade thing with the meringue crust, rich chocolate filling, and real whipped cream.  This was my special dessert that my mom made for my birthdays and holidays.  I'm not sure where the recipe came from, but as good as that pie is, I'm certain that it has been passed down from generation to generation through some secret mother/daughter ritual and written in a code that requires a secret decoder ring of some type.  It appears that Michelle passed the test to inherit the recipe and decoder ring, and on New Year's Ever, 2010, she reached the peak of the culinary Mt. Everest...  She made her first French Silk Pie.  All I can say is WOW.  It was great.  The crust was perfectly fluffy and sweet.  The filling was smooth and rich and firmed up just right.  What a great end to 2010.

Of course, the point of this post is to brag on Michelle's cooking, but I would be remiss if I didn't take a minute to say how much I love this woman.  God has truly blessed me with a "wife of noble character" (Proverbs 31:10) and I love her dearly.  Thank you Michelle, for being my wife and loving me.

Everyone else can look at the pictures below and drool over my pie.  By the time you read this, the pictures will be all that is left - and yes, I did share - a little.