let the birthday celebrations begin...

At our house, bithdays can go on for weeks!

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Molly's birthday celebrating started last weekend with Muvie, Aunt Boo and Sydney. We met at Applebee's in Greenwood for an early dinner and presents (and to deliver a few Girl Scout cookies, as well). When Muvie asked Molly what her favorite Christmas present in Greenville was, Molly replied " The $20 dollars from Mrs. Donna." So Muvie decided to buy a couple of small presents and stuff them with the money she was planning to spend. As you can see by Molly's face, this present went over pretty well.

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$$$ money, money, money $$$

more money from Mrs. Donna!

sydeny & molly being silly

krispie kreme donuts at school...

...to celebrate Molly's 8th birthday!!!!

Friday - Feb 26th

family celebration

Granna & Gramps came to town on Friday

afternoon to help us celebrate!

lots of presents from mom & dad, Carson, and Granna & Gramps

"Happy Birthday to you...."

Roller Skating Birthday Party

family pic before the party

the birthday girl!!

skating with some of the girls

blowing out her candles

the party crew --

Carson, Nick, Molly, Caroline, Laura, Kelsey, Katherine

Katie, MeLena, Abby, Margaret Ann

SNOW!!!

It's SNOWING!!!

Jeff and the kids

Amy & the kids

playing soccer in the snow

pretty girl

building (another) snowman

a little snowman help from dad

molly & the snowman

throwing snowballs...

...catching snowballs

molly & laura

hot chocolate break : )

Valentine parties at school

Both of their classes decorated cookies and cupcakes to celebrate Valentine's Day!

And as an added bonus - they got out an hour early because of snow in the forecast : )

spring soccer has started!!!

Here are a couple of pictures from his first games of the season. They played 2 games against teams from Savannah. As usual, they played older teams - U10 girls and U9 boys - and did really well. They lost the 1st game (against the girls) 0 - 2 and the 2nd game (against the boys) 1-2. That might not sounds so great but they lost their first games in the fall 0 - 12!

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Carson played goalie for a game and a half and stopped a lot of shots. He just "knows" how to dive into a crowd of players and not get stepped on, how to close off the opponents shots on goal, and to use his whole body to stop the ball -- he must have been born with some kind of goalie gene (on his dad's side, of course).

snowy wedding

Jeff's cousin - Van - married a beautiful girl - Nicole - at the end of January. Our plans were to head up on Friday so we could go to the rehearsal dinner and then to the wedding on Saturday morning. But that all changed with the SNOW that was forecasted for the weekend. So...the rehearsal turned into the wedding and the rehearsal dinner turned into the reception.

While others were changing their travel plans and cancelling hotel reservations...Jeff firmly said we were going no matter what the weather was going to be. We had not seen his cousin since our wedding (many, many years ago) or his aunts and uncles since the kids were little.

So, we picked the kids up from school (a little earlier than originally planned) and hit the road. We got to the hotel in Wilson, NC in time to visit with family and get ready for the wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and a lovely reception!

It started snowing while we were at the reception and we woke up to a couple of inches on the ground. It was a "white-knuckle" drive for the first couple of hours but, with Jeff at the helm, we had no problems whatsoever on the snow covered roads. And it only took us about 45 extra minutes on the return trip.

We had a whirl-wind of a great time but wish there had been more time to visit with family.