Jif Contest

One of Sophie's buddies from school entered a Jif peanut butter recipe contest and is now in the finals. The following is from an email from her mom. Hope you'll take a moment and vote. She's a cutie pie.

Elisabeth (and I) entered a Jif recipe contest and she's been selected as one of 10 semi-finalists! She needs your vote so she can become one of the 5 semi-finalists where we'd get to go to New York City in March and compete for the grand prize of a $25,000 college scholarship fund. No kidding! I don't know if I'm more excited about the chance at a scholarship or a FREE trip to NYC!Vote here or at http://www.jif.com/promos/pbsandwich09/jif_kabob.asp for Elisabeth's Peanut Butter Kabob. You can vote once a day, and it ends Feb. 27th. You enter your email address, but you don't have to sign up for any mailing lists, etc. I read about Jif's Seventh Annual Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich Contest on a blog last October. Elisabeth is basically made out of peanut butter sandwiches, and she loves to help me in the kitchen, (she's even done pretend Food Network shows), so this contest was perfect for her! Jif notified us in December about being a finalist, but we had to keep it under wraps until it went online today (I even had to sign an affidavit and get it notarized!). They sent a film crew to my kitchen and filmed us making the kabob and interviewed us. And now we can finally share this exciting news with you all! Online voting starts today and ends next Friday, Feb. 27th, so vote for her Peanut Butter Kabob now!

Thanks!

We'll keep you posted with the results after the contest as soon as we know.

Wendy and Justin

Visit from an old friend

This past weekend my dear friend, Tammy, and her beautiful family came for a visit. Tammy and I have been friends since elementary school. Ironically, we're kin as well. Her grandfather and my grandmother were brother and sister. She, Eric, and their precious girls, Maddie and Ella, came down Friday evening and stayed through Sunday with us. All our girls had been counting down the days to the visit. Over the years I have only shared my girls' clothes with Tammy's girls, so there has always been this sweet connection between them. It's been so fun to see them in the same pajamas or smocked dresses that my girls wore and to know that a particular outfit was a shared favorite or that they enjoyed the same play clothes. Our youngest girls are eerily alike, so those of you that know Sophie will know that we had one very FUN weekend. Maddie and Reagan have lots in common too. They are both very intelligent, deep thinkers who don't usually step outside the box. It was such a pleasure to see ALL four girls cut loose Saturday night at our "dance off". We turned to t.v. to swing tunes, cut the volume up, moved the living room furniture out, and boogied! Following that, we had a "scat session". Think Louis Armstrong. It was great fun. After the kiddos were totally exhausted and put to bed, Tammy and I relived some of the childhood memories we've shared together. Tammy was always teaching me her latest dance moves or piano lessons when we were kids, and we performed on a dance/flag line together for two years in high school, so we decided to show the guys some of our moves. Pretty funny!

Maddie, Sophie, and Reagan


Breakfast Saturday morning





What's with all the chocolate milk? ;)



The girls create their own kick line. Ella can't put her cookie down long enough to join. That kid loves her food!

I never said I was good at dancing, but Ella obviously loved it.

OK-I had to put this in to make fun of myself. Here is why I should never go clubbing. Look at that hysterical look on my face. Sophie has mastered this look as well.

What are they laughing at?

Oh-here's what they're laughing at. I can't believe we did this on a football field.

This would be us trying to recreate a tap move.

My all time favorite move that Tammy taught me! The heel click-IN HIGH HEELS!

You want me to play what??? Tammy worked for hours one day when we were little girls to teach me Fur Elise. When I FINALLY got it, I went flying off the back of the piano bench with excitement and landed in the floor. She was always the graceful one. To this day, I can still play it and have taught it to my girls.

We love you guys and thoroughly enjoyed our weekend. Thank you so much Tammy for your help with my bathroom (Venetian Plaster-hopefully I'll finish and post pics soon.)

Happy 8th Birthday Sophie!

I know I've gotten lazy with the posting, but these slide shows are so much easier and quicker. Sophie had a fabulous 8th birthday that she managed to drag out for four days! We love our precious, sweet Sophie Bug! Enjoy the pics.

Holiday Celebrations

Making Progress...

Finally, the dining room window treatments are complete! Only two years in the making... Thank you Mr. Phil for building my creation! What a beautiful way to hide my mistake. I bought this fabric about a year and a half ago. I quickly made use of about three yards to cover my dining room chairs before I really knew what I wanted to do with the windows. When I finally decided on drapes, I realized I'd used too much of the fabric to allow enough yardage to cover from the top of the window and reach the floor. Then, when I tried to find a companion fabric to create a topper, I just couldn't find anything that worked...not that I didn't try. Anyone want to buy about 6 yards of fabric? So, my solution to the problem? Make the drapes anyway and cover the shortage at the top with a wooden cornice. I'm really please with the final result.



Reagan's room isn't quite finished, but close enough. I've got some decorative painting to complete on her dresser, and she's getting a black writing desk for Christmas that will complete the new look.

I made this topper from the bag that the bedding came in.

The girlies have an advent calendar that they look forward to opening each day in December. Saturday, their goody was to create a gingerbread house. I assembled the walls for them and turned them loose. They did a great job and had loads of fun. I have to admit (for Heather's sake) that after a few starting photos, I left the room. For me, it wasn't to prevent myself from getting upset with them or yelling or what have you. It was so that I wouldn't take over the project or give too much input. We all have our faults. :)

Finally, our dear friends Scott, Wendy, and Tyler King came over Friday evening. Wendy emailed me last week saying that they had a bathroom leak in their shower and wanted advice on tile, fixtures, etc. How ironic that we are going through the exact same thing, so they came over to look at our changes and visit for a while. As anyone who has gone through any sort of renovation will know, we had more unforeseen problems. When the girls and I got home Friday afternoon, we arrived to find that the cabinet guy had accidentally busted a water pipe in the bathroom and had to turn off the main water line to the house. Mind you I had company coming at 6:00. Long story short, the plumber didn't arrive until 7:00. All's well that ends well though. We had pizza and a great time despite being unable to use the potties for a few hours.

The kids had a great time playing together.

December Fun Continued

The girls have spent the last two weekends with their Mimi and Poppy. Both times they've made homemade batches of gingerbread. My mom used to do this with with me and my brother during the holidays. Yummy! The girls get SO spoiled at their grandparents. This weekend they went with my mom to my Maw Maw Cauthen's and decorated her house for Christmas. It's neat that they get to know their great grandparents.


This Sunday we had our children's Christmas party after church. The kids had a great time. We had pizza, talked with Santa, made a craft, and decorated cookies.

These are pictures that go with the previous post.

Our evening at Atlantic Station.

Finally, one of my completed projects...

December Happenings

The last week has been so busy. It's like the first day December hits we never stop going and doing until the New Year. Last Saturday, we enjoyed an evening out with the Thompsons at Ashley Park despite the thirty minute downpour. The kids were excited to see Santa make his grand appearance and light the tree, and the live reindeer were pretty cool too. Wednesday, I had an appointment at Emory in the afternoon, so we made our way to Atlantic Station for dinner afterwards and a "magical surprise" for the girls. At seven o'clock every evening during the Christmas season, they simulate snow in what they call Central Park. It's really beautiful. The girls had so much fun running around for about 20 minutes in what will likely be the only glimpse of "snow" we'll get in Georgia this year. The house is finally decorated although I'm still finishing up my decorating projects. In addition, the guys started the demolition of our master bathroom this week. Many of you already know the story of our three year leak in our shower that we only recently discovered. If you haven't heard, long story short, we are now getting a new tile shower, subflooring and carpet in the master bedroom, and new cabinets and countertops (Those last two were a splurge.). I'm so ready for it to be completed, and they've only been at it for a week. I don't know how people live through a complete house renovation! Here are a few pictures of the latest with more to come as soon as I figure out how to get the photos off the new camera.