Painting pumpkins!

We painted pumpkins on Sunday.  It's a little different than carving them, though equally as messy! 

They took their job very seriously!

With a beautiful outcome!

Today is my birthday so I'm planning a relaxing day!!

A beautiful wedding!

Our friend Betty's granddaughter got married late Saturday afternoon.  My friend Marie and I went to the wedding and what a beautiful wedding it was!  The bride is Betty's son's daughter.

The church is in the country in Dorsey, MS which isn't even incorporated.  I expected this small country church, but what a surprise when we drove up to a big beautiful church which was just beautiful inside.

Guests signs in at the table on the right.

The mother of the bride is super talented.  She did all the decorating.   Can you see all the tree stumps with candles sitting on them?  And the trees are crepe myrtles.  Many trees sacrificed their lives for this wedding!

There were 11 bridesmaids and groomsmen, two flower girls, and four junior groomsmen.  The groom's father is the youth minister at this church and he performed the ceremony as well as served as the best man.  It was a very touching and personal ceremony. 

I took several pictures at the reception which was held at the church, also decorated so pretty using mums, pumpkins and things from nature.

The groom's table and area was decorated with a Mississippi State theme/hunting theme.  They added pallets to the wall and hung cowbells and antlers.

The groom's cakes were caramel cake and served off stumps.

The reception was in the church gym and they glammed it up!  There was lots of delicious food supplied by the women of the church.

This popcorn station was cute.

Marie and I had a nice lunch and visit with Betty on Monday.  She was a bit exhausted from the wedding and a very relieved that it was over. 

Betty's husband Jim died in April so this has been a difficult time for her.  Betty has two new granddaughters, one 3 weeks old and one about 2 months old that was born just days before Jim's death.  Betty's daughter made each of the babies smocked dresses for the wedding and she used two of Jim's old white shirts.  The dresses buttoned down the front where the shirt would have buttoned.  She had them monogrammed at the bottom in gray, the color of the wedding.  They were just adorable and I know it meant a lot to Betty and I'm sure Jim was there in spirit. 

Finally the rain let up yesterday and even though it was cloudy most of the day, it was good to see the sun peek out every now and then!

Saturday morning football

It was a rainy morning on Saturday but Cam's football game wasn't cancelled...so there we were sitting in the rain!

It drizzled off and on but wasn't unbearable.  It didn't keep the boys from playing well and winning another game.  Playoffs start this weekend!

Cameron had a birthday party Saturday evening for McKenna who is in his class.  He asked her if it was a costume party and she said it was, going on to tell him what her costume was.

Cameron had requested a Dracula costume this year complete with makeup.  Ben ordered it for him and it came just in time for the party.  Ben did a great job on his makeup and Cam could hardly wait to get to the party.  He thought he looked pretty cool!

Ben took him to the party which was at 7:00 Saturday evening.  He drove up and not one other kid was wearing a costume!  It didn't seem to bother Cameron and everybody thought it was actually pretty cool!  He's not the kind of kid who cares if he's different than everyone else.  We laughed and laughed when Ben came home telling us about it!

At least it wasn't as bad as another kid who came to the party.  His dad dropped him off at the wrong house where there appeared to be a party going on.  Problem was it was the wrong house and nobody knew him.  He had to call his dad back and have him pick him up and take him to the correct house!  Yikes, that's pretty scary!

*****

Yesterday was actually a day of celebration for us.  Heather's divorce was final that morning!!  I know divorce is nothing to celebrate, but we've been in limbo for almost 5 months waiting for this to be finalized so we could all move forward.  Heather was relieved to put it behind her.  All 7 of us celebrated with dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant last night!  We are viewing it as a new beginning and looking forward to seeing what God has in store for Heather and the kids in the future.  She could still use your prayers and I appreciate all of you who have prayed for her/us!!  Thank you all so much!

Friday night...

The boys spent the night with us on Friday night.  They love to play video games together.

Thankfully they spend most of their time outside.

After dinner, we had the first fire in the fire pit this fall and roasted marshmallows.

Emma Taylor was at her Guntown Middle School formal dance on Friday night.  I didn't see her but Heather sent me pictures and she looked beautiful!

She went over to a friend's house with a couple of other friends and they ate Chick-Fil-A together before going to the dance.  Friends K.K., Rachel and Lee Ellen.

They all looked adorable!  Tennis shoes with a formal dress is not my style but it is here with middle school girls anyway! 

Emma Taylor had a wonderful time.  It's so hard to believe she's old enough to be going to dances!

We've had rain, rain and more rain here lately.  I guess it's related to hurricane Patricia.  It is much needed but makes for very dreary days!

Football!

Cam had a game last Saturday morning.  His games are usually at 9:00 or 10:00 and it's been great football weather lately...not hot and not too cool.

Cameron is #3.

The team suffered their first loss but it went into overtime so it was a really close game.  Guess you gotta learn to lose too!

The team, and I'm sure all the Mooreville teams, wore stickers on their helmets in memory of a 7th grade classmate who was killed in a 4-wheeler accident earlier in the week. 

Such a heartbreaking loss for that family. 

I've been seeing gorgeous pictures of fall trees on the internet.  So far we haven't seen much color.  I miss beautiful falls!

Race for the Cure

Emma Taylor ran in the Race for the Cure at her school last week.  Emma Taylor is not a runner and when she left for school that morning hadn't even decided if she'd run in the race.  She did decide to run and did a great job...she came in 4th in her class.

Okay, so there were only 5 girls that ran, but 5 girls in the whole 7th grade ran the race.  I was very proud of her for doing it and she really seemed to enjoy it and was proud of herself!

 

I think she could have a future in cross country!

Football!

Cameron scored another touchdown at last night's game.  They won 16-0!

He was so proud!

Here's his new school picture...third grade!

He's really growing up!

I'm behind!

I've gotten a little behind on my posting, not that there's that much going on!

Ben and Doug got back from the coast on Sunday.  They had a great time and said the weather could not have been better. 

Cameron kept me company though so never fear that I'll get lonely!  Actually he went home with a friend on Friday after school, spent the night with him, then they took him to his game Saturday morning.  Their son Kade is on Cameron's team. 

Kade has the cutest dimples!

I met them at the game and brought Kade home with me and took them to see Hotel Transylvania 2 in the afternoon.

They loved it.  Definitely a movie only a kid would love! 

They spent the rest of the afternoon outside building a fort.

Sticks, a sheet, and a LOT of imagination!  It was pretty creative!

We left it up so Ben and Papa D could see it.  This morning it had blown down but Papa D reinforced it with nails so it's back up again.  Today was a school holiday, Columbus Day, and a beautiful day for playing outside in a fort!

Cameron has a make-up football game this evening.  So far they are undefeated and at the game on Saturday he scored a touchdown and ran in the extra point...woohoo!  He was very proud of himself.

Courtney's Shower

A bridal shower for Courtney was held Sunday afternoon at Karen's church in Red Bay.  The morning started off with a wonderful worship service at the church with all of Karen's sisters there, a niece, all four of her girls, and her precious grandson.  Pat's husband Dave and Courtney's fiancée Matt were also there.  Karen's husband Ronald lead the music.  Ronald had asked what Mother's favorite songs were and we sang them during the service.  Mother would have loved it!  One of her favorites was What a Friend We Have in Jesus and another was When We All Get to Heaven which we sang.  It really brought back a lot of memories of our mother. 

Karen had prepared a "Thanksgiving" dinner for us with chicken and dressing and all the fixings which we enjoyed after church.  Pat and Dave won't be able to be here for Thanksgiving so we celebrated it a little early.  Everything was delicious!

Karen's church is pretty new.  The old one was bought by the State due to highway construction.  It's a beautiful church and a wonderful fellowship hall where the shower was held.

Isn't that a great kitchen?

Such a beautiful cake!  The "C" stands for Channel which will be her new last name...like Coco Channel.  Unfortunately no relation!

Everything was beautiful!  I loved the table decorations.

The food was delicious and plentiful!  Too bad we'd eaten such a big lunch!!

The beautiful bride-to-be!

Courtney and Karen.

And with her sisters.

With the hostesses.

She got lots of beautiful and very useful gifts.  There were four tables full!

Luke really enjoyed the shower and was such an angel!

Carolyn and Kathy.

Karen and her family.

The entire family that was in attendance. 

It was a very special family day!