Merry Merry Happy Happy

I have just a spare minute and wanted to wish you all a very merry Christmas. There is no better way to end a year than the celebration of the beginning of our Saviors life. No matter what is under any tree, the greatest gift has already been given. A child born unto us to save us all. And regardless of anything else, the blessings of the nativity never ever end.

Merry Christmas again my friends. See you next year.

"But you, O Bethlehem, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth;
then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace"
Micah 5:2-5

T minus 3 day and counting...

3 more days to go. lots of good stuff going on around here. and besides some of the traditions our family has prayerfully decided upon, one of the things i am most looking forward to this week is preparing the famous julia child's beef bourguignon recipe for our family christmas eve. i'll be sure to fill you in after it's all over.

and speaking of family...harold and i celebrated 6 years of marriage yesterday. we've had our share of 'growing pains' over those years, but we both can say with conviction that we love each other more today than yesterday. and that doesn't come easy all the time. but we've vowed to each other and before God that we would choose to love each other. for better or worse. and that is exactly what we do. we make that decision to honor and serve each other daily. and the lord has blessed that. no luck. no magic. no secrets. simple obedience to love and respect.


and now for some fun {i was beginning to get a little carried away up there so thought i needed to lighten up a bit. it's just harold and i see so many couples struggling un-necessarily when the answer is simple and biblical...lead your heart, don't follow it. the whole 'follow your heart' thing will get you into a world of trouble. just read jeremiah 17:9. okay okay i'll quit now}

back to the fun part...one of my other favorite things about this time of year is getting all the cards from friends and family. we tape them to our pantry door because i want to see them all the time....
georgia and i have started picking one and praying for those people that day. i'm amazed at how good her memory is. of course she knows this little booger, maggie...

and here is her teacher's {Mrs. Yee-sa....i.e. Lisa} kids, Lucas and Claire...

and these little kids she knows quite well ;) ....

do you love getting christmas cards that much? seriously, even if you're reading this and we are strangers, please let's be friends so i can get a card. the more the merrier. we'll pray for you too. can't turn that down right????

and before i leave you, here's a few pictures from georgia's class party on friday.

note to self: never ever send your child to school in a white shirt. no matter how festive or cute she may look. never.

i'm not sure if she had more on her face or plate...

and who in the world brings blackberries to toddlers??? sorry i just had to say it. but seriously, there is no match for a blackberry stain. none. if you know one, do tell. winn had stains too and when i told him that his outfit was getting dirty this is the response i got...

he really seemed to care can't you tell?? :)

so i hope you're enjoying your week. maybe i'll see you again before week's end......

shame on me...

i know i know...georgia's not happy about my lack of posting either.

see...


she was lettin' me have it. obviously december didn't get november's message because it's moving along even faster. it's been lots of fun thus far though i must say. maybe too much fun because i haven't had time to blog about it. it's just that i usually blog when she's taking a nap or at night and lately there has been way too many projects & parties keeping me away from you guys. so forgive me. and be warned that it will probably continue till the new year. we'll still be friends though right?

if not i'll send miss highwater pants above to get you. and can i add that she's only 18 months and those pants are a 2T and well you can see for yourself how short they are. poor girl. we better get her some basket/volleyball training and fast!

so as much as i'd love to spend the whole hour she's napping catching you up on the last days, i gotta make this quick. got a few more christmas cards to get out and it would be nice to brush my teeth today before suppertime.

winn came over the other day and they ate an obscene amount of cheese balls. as have i. why did i think it was okay to buy this container of cheese balls? does any body really need this many cheese balls? anyway, winn winn and jojo loved them. {and fought over them}

and we got to see max again this week. and georgia again felt the need to show max how to lay down...sit up...etc. i mean if you need a 'helper' around, she's your girl. just know that i use the word helper loosely. very loosely.


and we've colored. on our paper. on our toys. on my walls. and in our mouth. but it's all good because we've both lived to tell about it.



and this picture isn't staged. she wanted to watch her 'moosie' so i put her on the couch and ran to get her a change of clothes. my hat & blanket were laying there and when i walked back into the room she was under the blanket with my hat on. pretty good huh.

and she had a date night with her aunt kristie & aunt ginger. they went to build-a-bear and i'm not sure who had more fun??? i had my camera on the wrong settings and unfortunately all the pictures turned out blurry from that night but they had fun.


and sarah avery came to play and we had meltdowns and time-outs {from my child} about taking turns on the slide.

which is an outdoor slide turned indoor slide but if you had any idea the climber i had on my hands you'd do the same. better a huge slide in the middle of our den than my toddler on top of my buffet.


and this sweet girl spent the afternoon with us too. it's my niece walker.


she used paint pens to paint her nails and toes which i am sure her mother is super duper trilled about.

we tried to get as close to christmas colors as possible so we're good right?????

and if you are still reading lucky for you because i saved the best for last. lot of my time these last days was spent making this yummy stuff i saw here....

dozens and dozens i've made of this butter and it still is every bit as good as the first time i tried it. if you don't ever try anything i've ever suggested or shown here, try this. seriously, it is divine. on biscuits. toast. english muffins. be warned though. it's that good. here's the recipe:

2 sticks salted butter {room temp}
1 cup honey
1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

that's it. blend together and scoop into 4 oz. canning jars. i'll even email you the word document for the tags i made if you'd like.

okay i'm done. love you. be back soon but not saying how soon. you'll be back too right????

he's here...

max ryan mccorkle was born last night around 7. he is every bit as lovely as i imagined and i was lucky to get his first hours captured forever. and his momma is a trooper. like major trooper.

love him. love her. love love love.

oh boy!

the first day of 5th grade a girl walked into the class wearing a red gingham jumper dress and gray nike's. as soon as she sat down i walked over and asked why in the world she had on a dress with nike's. she told me her mom said she could pick her shoes OR her dress and she picked the shoes. her name was kirsten.

this is kirsten.

we've been best of friends since that very year 20 years ago. and today she is having her first child. a boy named max. i can hardly wait to get georgia dropped off at school so that i can be at the hospital. i am so excited about max being here so that i can fully enjoy holding a newborn that i love dearly. i couldn't fully enjoy my own at the time {thanks to hormones & morphine} so these next days i am going to take every chance i get to hold that sweet boy and whipser in his little ear how excited i am that he is here.

just last week i met kirsten to get some last minute pictures before max made his arrival and they turned out so great. but she has the whole pregnancy glow thing going so it was quite easy.


the only not-so-easy part was that my 'help' felt the need to pose like kirsten in all shots. she is pro at the whole photography thing so i guess she figured demonstration was needed at all times.


for every shot of kirsten herself, there is a picture of georgia too. boy she's a good helper i tell ya.

so i gotta run...i got a brand new baby on the way that i need to smell. although mine that smells like butter flavored syrup at the moment is pretty irresistable too :)

welcome to the world baby max......i love love love you {and your mama & daddy too}

our holiday weekend

we spent several days in Auburn this year for thanksgiving with my brother's family and other family from south cackalacky. the 4 days were packed with festivities and unfortunately i didn't have my camera around my neck the whole time. nevertheless here's some highlights from our thanksgiving break...

wednesday harold and i got to auburn and decided to go eat wings at touchdown's. we had been going to wing night there since we first started dating. we used to eat for 7 bucks when they were .25 a piece but now they've gone up to .35 so it wasn't as cheap a date. silly inflation. and it wasn't near as good...quite as clean...and a bit too loud as i remembered. or maybe it was just me. and my age. yeah probably that. but it was sure nice to have a date with my husband who is every bit as good looking as back then. maybe even a little more ;)

thursday {thanksgiving day} was great. we had around 25 people at dinner {kids included} and again i got not one picture. except a few of the kids playing on the porch. here's cissy {my mom} and the two crumb-snatchers she had attached to her hip at all times the whole 4 days...between them both we must have heard 'cissy, cissy' 3 million times. maybe 4.

and just so ya know, that is the only picture i took of my child on thanksgiving. hard to believe huh. the rest i took were of winn {her cousin, my nephew} who you will find just as irresistibly cute...

see. told you he was cute. plus he isn't annoyed by me following him around snapping away {unlike my child} so i enjoyed taking his pictures when i could...

maggie {his sister} was giving him a bite of her chocolate pie, which he loved and proceeded to get on his own when she wasn't looking. enjoy the next pictures. this is what happened when maggie set her pie down to run get something inside....


losers weepers maggie. and if you know cissy, you know that there was plenty more where that came from so no hard feelings here...

on to iron bowl friday. winn was ready to go early. he had on his arse-kicking boots and was ready to take on the tide.

we all were fired up and ready actually. me and maggie made these tiger paw shirts for all the kids that morning and before i could snap a picture, my dear child had a blow out diaper and had to spend the day in a kelly green corduroy shirt and mint green pantaloons. so much for showing school spirit. she {they} sure were cute though. and really...they cared nothing about that game. they wanted to eat and...

slide. so this is what cissy and i did the better part of the iron bowl. up and down. up and down. and can i just add that going up and down a hill in cowboy boots and jeans too tight from thanksgiving dinner the night before is not my favorite. okay thanks.


what a sweet cissy. her feet were killing her and she just kept taking them up and down that hill to slide just so she could see that smile on thier face. i mean nobody else was smiling at that point in the game so better off being down there with happy kids than up top with grumpy adults {present company included}.and saturday we took not one picture. so take my word that it was just as fun. we're all glad to be back home and on somewhat on a schedule.

i'm finally starting to think about christmas. this is a very special time for us as believers so more than anything else i am trying to figure out ways to show my 18-month old the real wonder and awe of this season. bit by bit she will come to understand just how much of a miracle the virgin birth was. and more importantly how that night changed history for ever and ever. and if i may let me encourage you to do the same. read the account of jesus' birth in the 4 gospels each day before christmas. read the prophecy from the old testament about his coming birth. think..really think...about what it must have been like for those around during this time. think about mary and what it must have been like for her. these stories are not fictional. they aren't made up, they aren't exaggerated. if you are believer these are the stories of your heritage and the unfolding of the plan to save your life. a gift was given to you that made no difference if you were naughty. it was given out of love. please don't be satisfied with santa when you have been given a savior. there is more miracle and wonder and joy in the birth of our savior than we'll know. and it goes wayyyyy past december 25th. in fact it goes on forever. thank god.

so here's to december. don't know about ya'll but around our house and heart it's beginning to look alot like christmas....

hey november...

you slid away much much too fast. please tell december to take it slow, k?

*updates and explanations to come as soon as i pick myself off the floor from the shock of december 1st*