Happy Birthday Cindy!

Look who is 40!  We all enjoyed celebrating Cindy's 40th birthday.  We started the evening with dinner and then went out for a little dancing just for fun.  I am so blessed to have such a great friend.  We have been friends since high school and still enjoy celebrating our birthdays together!  I am looking forward to celebrating many more together!

A Sweet Family

A dear friend of mine asked to take pictures of her family for their Christmas card.  Now believe me, I am not a professional photographer.  Just like to play around with it when I have time.  I met my friend Cheri six years ago when her son Spencer started Kindergarten.  He was in my class.  Since then we have remained friends and Ethan is friends with her other son Ben.  They are such a sweet family and I felt honored to be able to take their pictures.  Here a few of my favorites:

Way to Go Cowboys!

Ethan just finished up his first season of tackle football.  His team did a great job.  Mr. Darwin, their coach, did an excellent job teaching them about the sport.  They learned how to work as a team and how to be winners and losers, even though they preferred to win.  Ethan played offensive end and defensive end.  I was impressed at how hard those little fellows hit.  Ethan is definitely a tough young man. 

With his buddies Trace and Chance.

Ethan in action!

Ethan with Grandma and Granddaddy after he made his touchdown.

At one game, Ethan recovered a fumble and ran it in for a touchdown.  We were all so proud of him.  I look forward to watching him play again next year.  Way to go Cowboys!!

Curtis pulling the Chains.

Halloween Fun

We always look forward to this time of year.  We usually begin thinking about Halloween costumes at the very beginning of fall, but this year the kids decided on a costume the week before Halloween.  That is a sure sign that they are growing up.  This year Ethan really wanted to be a football player.  McKinley was undecided so we went to the Spirit Halloween store and she found this precious tiger costume.  So he was a Clemson football player and she was his tiger mascot. 

 

 

We went on a hayride with our church and went Trick-or-Treating.  My sister and Paxton and Peyton joined us.  It was a little chilly but the kids didn't mind.  They were trying to fill their Halloween buckets with candy.  Paxton was eating his candy as soon as he got it.  After the hayride we headed back to the church for some soup.  It didn't take us long to warm up with the yummy soup.  It's hard to believe that it will soon be Christmas time! My how time flies.

 

 

 

Pumpkin Carving

This weekend we had our annual pumpkin carving.  We have been doing this with our kids since they were very young.  This is one of the highlights of the Halloween season.  Once my sister had her kids,  she joined in on the carving fun. 

Of course McKinley, Ethan and Peyton couldn't wait to dig all the gooey pulp and seeds out the pumpkins.  Paxton thought the whole thing was yucky and wouldn't have any part of it.  He cried when McKinley tried to get him to stick his hand in the pumpkin.  When we were done Peyton said,"Te-Te, can we 'crave' a-nud-er one?"  I just love her accent. After about an hour we had our masterpeices.  So glad McKinley and Ethan can do more of the carving now!

Clemson Football

I have to say there is nothing like a college football game.  Especially one in Death Valley.  The band, the roar of the crowd, food from the consession, the music, the enthusiam, all the orange and purple...it's all just great and we LOVE it.  Every year the kids look forward to making the long trips to Clemson to watch the tigers play.  Last weekend we went to see Clemson play Georgia Tech.  What an exciting game!  We were on the edge of our seats during the entire game.  It was so close the whole time!

Ethan and McKinley touching "Howard's Rock"

 

Before heading over to the stadium we spent some time hanging out in "Tiger Town", where everything is CLEMSON!  Clemson has a beautiful campus and the kids enjoy walking around.

After the game we headed to the field.  While on the field, we bumped into my cousin Christy and her family.  This is not the first time we have bumped into them at a game.  We are so proud of our tigers!  C-L-E-M-S-O-N   T-I-G-E-R-S  Fight Tigers, Fight Tigers, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!


Me with my cousin Christy after the game!
 

The Song that Shakes the southland!!!

The Stinnett Family

I've always been amazed at how God leads certain people into our lives.  Almost ten years ago, God sent Todd and Charisma Stinnett to our church.  They had one son, Tanner, and Charisma was pregnant with her second child, Nicholas.  I was actually pregnant with McKinley at the time.  Nicholas and McKinley were only 4 short months apart.  Their stay at Buck Creek was a little over a year.  But in that short amount of time our love for them grew and we became great friends.  Charisma is a great mother and helped me so much with my new little one.  She was a great encouragement for me being a brand new mother.  She made motherhood look so easy.  Right after little Nicholas was born she became pregnant with Madison.  Madison was only a month old when God called Todd to move his ministry back home to Tennessee.  I remember being so sad when they left, but I know when God speaks we need to always listen.  After moving back to Tennessee, God blessed Todd and Charisma with three more beautiful children: Shelby, Benjamin, and little Elijah.


The Stinnett Family

This past week their whole family came to the beach for a fall vacation because Todd was preaching at our Homecoming service.  We were able to spend lots of time catching up with each other.  The kids had a blast together and they hated to see them leave today.  McKinley and Ethan are already talking about going to the mountains to visit them.  I thank God for allowing us to get to know this wonderful family and that He will continue to bless them and their ministry. 



Shelby, McKinley, and Madison



Ethan and Nicholas

McKinley with Baby Elijah