As many of you know my sweet Eli is in a play each year at Christmas time. I have listed some info below. If you would be interested in going you can contact me or you can call the theater. This is an excellent play for you to take your children too or go to as a date!

SILENT STAR Christmas at the Logos Theatre
Located in Taylors SC

It's almost a tradition! You don't want you to miss this delightful musical this year, so here is the information.You can make reservations beginning now for of one three performances of "Silent Star" --

Friday, December 19th and 20th at 7:30 pm and a afternoon matinee at 2:30 pm on Saturday, December 20th. Adult tickets are $15.00, Senior Adults and Student Tickets are $10.00 and group tickets of 10 or more are also $10.00 each.

Check out the website at http://www.theacademyofarts.org/

Crazy Christmas Times

Oh it has been fun, hectic, stressful, and such a wonderful blessing the past few days. I haven't blogged in several days. I am doing good to get sleep I have been so busy. As I stated in my earlier post my focus was Eli's bday party. So Thursday I got everything done here at home that needed to be done for the weekend and then Thursday afternoon we made Christmas cookies. The boys had a blast. They were so excited to use some of my cake decorating tools. They both thought they were grown. I will say that Eli was very good at it. You will notice there are several with just HUGE blogs on top....(those would be Bleeze) LOL!!!!



Friday morning Bleeze and I did a lot of errand running for Eli's birthday party while Eli

was at drama camp. After picking Eli up and doing a few more errands we came home and I put Bleeze down for his nap. I took advantage of that time and organized EVERYTHING for the party. I thought I was way ahead of the game......(more details to come)......Friday night we had dinner downtown with Tammy and Tony at Mellow Mushroom. It was yummy however, my boys were way to hyper. Eli talked WAY TOO much and Bleeze was just crazy! Sorry Nana and Papa! So we came home and I thought I would start Eli's cake. I was ahead of the game and I wanted to stay on top of things. WRONpG! OH MY LORD! It was the cake from you know where!!!! I was up until 3am trying to fix it! I thought the mission was accomplished.....I woke up Saturday morning to a nightmare.

Saturday morning 6am....uggh... I get up and start working on the cake again. I discover that the yellow in the icing on the bottom had faded and the top layer looked like a big ball of sunshine. The cake looked like a clown cake. It was horrible. My mom came over and we fooled around with that stupid cake until 3pm. I was ready to throw it in the garbage and head to Publix. LOL!

Saturday evening we enjoyed church with my parents at their church. It was a Christmas program and it was nice to see friends and enjoy dinner afterwards too! :0)

Sunday was the big day!!! My sweet boy Eli turned the big 10! It seems like yesterday he was born and I was holding him in my arms bawling my eyes out. Now he only lacks a few inches being taller than me. I would say this time next year he will be taller than me. We woke him up to our usual family singing (poor thing) Bleeze was so excited this year. He finally understands. He opened all his gifts in bed he loved his Webkinz from Bleeze! He also loved our gift. We got him some new shoes he had wanted, a digital camera, and a wonderful lightsaber! He really thinks he is a Jedi. LOL!

We enjoyed lunch with my parents. My mom made all his favorites I especially enjoyed the M & M dream bars for dessert. What is funny is one day when i was preggo with Eli I craved them all day long. My mom made me some and I ate an entire pan by myself. Now it is one of his favorite things.

We had his party last night. It was fun. He had it at Fuddrucker's. He was so happy to have all his friends and family there. I loved watching him. What was so funny is that he wanted to wear a tie to his party. He doesn't even dress up for church. LOL! He looked precious. He is such a big boy now. I love him bunches! I am very proud of the fine young man I know he is becoming. His energy, love, compassion, and passion for life inspire me everyday!

So this starts a new week, the week before Christmas. It should be fun! Eli has drama camp everyday and his play is all this weekend. We have lots of other things to look forward too also! I can't wait for Brandi's cookie swap tomorrow evening and I really can't wait for my brother, sisterinlaw and my sweet niece Makenzie to be home for Christmas. So for now....everyone have fun celebrating Jesus birthday these next few days!!!!

Notes for the day

I have been busy this week of course. We have been having to get up earlier than usual to have Eli at the theater for his drama camp. He is loving it! He can't wait until each day to get to go. Bleeze and I have been hanging out we have been running errands. Bleeze misses Eli something terrible while is there. He ask, "Can we go get Bub now?" So sweet!

Today was nice. Tommy was able to hang around this morning and so he rode with me to Gaffney to the outlets to take back some pants that my mom bought Eli for his Christmas outfit that were to big. Sadly, they had no more pants so we are having to have them altered. It was fun for us though. We had brunch at Cracker Barrel. I will admit it was very strange being three of us. We missed Eli!

The afternoons have been good. We have been homeschooling and Eli has had tennis. The weather has been yucky today. It is going to be raining more tomorrow.

The rest of this week my focus will be Eli's birthday party. Got cakes to make, party favors, errands to run, etc. He is really excited. I still can't believe he is going to be 10 years old! I do think we will make some Christmas cookies tomorrow and I have promised Tommy some fudge! So for now, I am going to show some gratitude and hit the sack! I am tired!

So grateful for....
* My boys and husband!

* Fun times with my hubby and Bleeze this morning.

* Eli's love for the theater and the people there.

* My BBQ I made for dinner that turned out! YAY!

* Our sweet dog Oreo that has decided that his perfect sleeping spot is right up under our Christmas tree. (I keep trying to sneak a picture but he always jumps up whenever he hears me LOL)

* God for giving me wisdom when I ask and sending just the right people and scripture into my life right when I need them. HE ROCKS ALWAYS!

showing some gratitude

I have so much to be grateful for, these little list do not do it justice. However, here are a few of my many blessings.

* Fun weekends like the past one.

* my wonderful family

* my wonderful friends.

* health

* seeing my sweet boys faces light up during this holiday season

* my hardworking man

* my home (and the fact that it smells nice and clean)

* spiritual revelations like the ones I have had the past few days.

* Christmas lights

* hand cream for my severely dry hands

* vitamins, supplements, and probiotics

* Most of all God- He is my everything!

Fun Weekend....

I am sitting here trying to warm up. It is so cold today. This weekend has been pretty good. We have been busy as usual. Friday night we went to the Ward's holiday cocktail party. So much fun! I had a blast! Everything was so nice. Brandi you rock a party girl!

Having Fun at the Ward's (Jon might be having too much fun....LOL! )
Saturday I woke up earlier than I would have liked. I picked the boys up from my parents. They were so sweet to keep them considering the last time when I had to pick Bleeze up at 1am. They did okay. Bleeze did not sleep well but they did good. Got them and we took a load of items to Goodwill. Then we met Candy and her kiddos for lunch. It was fun. The kids had fun! Candy I stole your picture! Eli was so happy to be with "his" Hannah as he told my Mom and Dad. LOL!

Last night we went to the Greenville Christmas Parade with the Wards. We had so much fun. We had dinner and fought the crowd. The kids enjoyed the parade from Jon, Tommy, and Brandi's shoulders. I did not see much of the parade but had fun talking with Brandi. It was cold and it made it all the more festive. After the parade we took the boys to Mast General Store for a candy run. They just love it. Then we headed home. My nose and feet were frozen.

This morning was church of course! I enjoyed the sermon so much. Bleeze made a potato baby in class this morning. (It is supposed to be the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes) They had a blanket for the baby potato and everything. The teacher informed me when I picked Bleeze up that Bleeze did not want to wrap his baby in swaddling clothes because it was too warm in the classroom. LOL!!!!!!!

After church we enjoyed lunch with my parents. Yummy as always! Now we are home, I am about to wrap some Christmas gifts, Tommy is adding some finishing touches to our outside decorations, Eli is playing in the freezing weather, and Bleeze is down for a nap. So I am having a simply awesome weekend. I think Papa and Nana may come over a bit later. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

This weeks starts the chaos for us. Eli starts drama camp in the morning for the next two weeks. So between that, the play, tennis, and planning his birthday party this weekend we are going to be swamped. I leave you with my sweet Bleeze...,,,,

hump day gratitude

Today I am so grateful for....

* My cleaned out pantry...fully stocked and clean.

* Date night with the boys. I had fun with Bleeze tonight. We went to McDonald's and then drove around and looked at Christmas lights.

* Snuggling in blankets and watching Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer with my boys

* My sweet hubby sitting up and watching Sister Hood of the Traveling Pants 2 with me tonight.

yesterday and today...LOL!

Yesterday I spent most of the day homeschooling and cleaning. I finished up cleaning just in time to cook dinner. After dinner I went to buy groceries ALONE! I love it when I get to do that. I just walked through Walmart and listened to the Christmas music. Who knew Walmart could be so relaxing. LOL! After I came home I added the finishing touches to our indoor decorations I still have to finish the outside. The wind and cold has been horrible. My poor porch decorations have fallen over a thousand times.

Today we homeschooled, went for a walk in the cold...burr...I have some cute pics to post. I will do that later. Our neighbor across the street had a tree fall a couple of weeks ago. The city came to clean it up today. The boys were AMAZED! We sat and watched the big truck pick up the branches. I also cleaned out a closet and organized all of our videos. I did not realize how many we had. I made a roast today. It was really good. After dinner I headed out to a funeral visitation. My long time youth camp friend Tricia Davis Weston's dad died yesterday. I went to pay my respects and then came home to get these wild boys in bed. They watched Santa Claus is coming to town. So that has been my past two days. We are going to have date night tomorrow night the boys are excited. Going to show my gratitude and get some sleep....my list is still a mile long of things that must be done around here.

So grateful for.....
* a clean house

*night shopping at Walmart ALONE.

* walks with my boys... so much fun...they make me smile

* crock pot cooking...(saves time)

* my cozy house, it is warm on this freezing cold night.