Tis the Season

The season began with the picking of the trees :)
The Cowgirl showed up today to lasso our picks for the season! 

Chesney's Santa hat goes on the minute the
decorations come down from the attic. The hat
remains on her head pretty much til Christmas
is over :) I love her!

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is decorating my Momma's tree. The ornaments on her tree are more like toys!  My kids sit around the table transfixed in awe and delight as I pull each one out to hang on the tree. Cade collects all the cars, trains and planes.  Chesney, the Barbies. Britton, all the baseball and football stars. Each of her ornaments are a beautiful memory of who she was and what she loved most. Jesus, kids, shopping, reading, sewing and baking.  Its the perfect way to keep her memory alive and teach my kids all about their Gram.



This year, Chesney and Britton played piano for one of  Daddy's hospice patient's.She was a 103 year old piano teacher. This was such a neat family moment and wonderful Christmas memory for us all.

On this day a dear friend took these adorable pics of the kids and helped me create a very memorable family Christmas card! (Thank you precious friend!!!) Then we turned the dough into ornaments and painted together with several sweet friends. Such a fun day!

We spent lots of time baking, ornament creating, gift making and ginger bread house building.

Of course we had to see Santa!!

And celebrate the reason for the season, King Jesus! 

Santa's cookies and milk complete with a love letter from Chesney!

Christmas PJ's and pillow pets :)

He loved every moment, every present, everything!
His joy was so very precious.

Christmas day with our family.
We spent the morning worshiping Jesus together, then pigging
out on lunch and enjoying one another.
A perfect day celebrating our savior!

Our last Christmas shebang landed us at the zoo light safari. We captured a few
animals to add to our collection :)



It was another beautiful Christmas complete with our most cherished traditions and a few new ones. Our absolute    
"must do" traditions include picking out live christmas trees, Mommy-Daughter date to see the Nutcracker, and new ornaments from the Hallmark store for each child. We picked out our tree and ornaments on the same night.
 Cade picked out a Lionel train. Chesney chose Tom and Jerry and Britton a cool Tron Legacy ornament. Our family ornament, picked out by Chesney, created a new tradition for us. The ornament was a beautiful silver ball that opens up with a special key to reveal a surprise for whomever the key was given. We each took turns placing special gifts to one another inside the ornament. You knew you had a gift awaiting you on the tree when the silver key was placed where you would find it. We had so much fun surprising one another. Our second new tradition was a trip to the $1 store. Each child was given $4. They were to walk around and pick out a gift for their siblings and parents. We then went home and let each child wrap their presents. On Christmas Eve we opened each others gifts. The kids loved giving their gifts to each other. Though the gifts were cheap and likely want last, the moment was worth way more than the $12 that was spent. It was so enjoyable to watch the children learn the joy of giving. Here's a run down of what each child picked out for the rest of us:
Cade bought:
Green tea for Daddy :D
A cool "to go" coffee mug for Mommy
Stickers and pencils for Chesney
A sticky hand for Britton

Chesney bought:
A tire pressure checker for Daddy
Baskin Robbins Chocolate mint candy for Mommy
Ear buds for Britton
Monster truck for Cade

Britton bought:
An air horn for Daddy
A coffee cup for Mommy
Silly string for Chesney
Ninja men for Cade

That wraps up another Best family Christmas! One full of wonderful memories
 and much joy celebrating the birth of Jesus.

1st trip to the ER

After 10 years of avoiding major injury, we have made our first trip to the ER.  Britt and his best buddy were playing football in the house! Britt's face and a table met head on as he was tackling his friend.  He ended up with 2 stitches. Keith and Britt were out of the ER in about an hour. An amazingly short visit, for which we were quite thankful!  Britt walked around proudly showing off his stitches to everyone he passed by. Cade called them "itches".  Overall, a very good first trip to the ER. I pray we will remain accident free another 10 years :)

My Baby Turns 4 !!

Cade playing with his new lego men Nana bought him! I love how happy
Nana and Aunt Lizzy are helping him put them together!

My little guy is officially 4!! He has grown so much this year.  While he enjoys a few typical toddler toys such as Thomas the Train and cars, he plays a lot with LEGOS. He loves to build! He loves to sit with a bin of random legos and put them together into ships, planes, and megazords! This has also been the year of superhero phenomenon. Power rangers, Batman, Spiderman, Captain America. Another phase ushered in much earlier because he wants to be "BIG like Britt-in!" Cade, you keep us all happy all the time. You are so filled with joy and life. You keep us all smiling and laughing. I thank our sweet Jesus for giving us you! You truly are a wonderful gift to us all! I love you my precious little man!!


He awoke to find his 1st bicycle
and a Krispy Kreme "cake".

Then we caught a movie and had IHOP funny faces for our birthday boy. We ran into our dear friend Caroline at the movies, so she celebrated with us for dinner :) 

This is the kids inside a wind tunnel :)

This is our last stop for the day, Wally World! 

He got to pick out a present with Walmart giftcards sent from family!

 He was pretty excited about his purchases!! 

This little guy doesn't nap in his bed much anymore. He uses nap time
to play by himself. Then he
often passes out wherever and whenever he chooses.



This is his best sleeping moment of the year :





And then last night, he fell asleep eating a sucker :)

Fall 2011

I've failed to document all of the fun activities we did this fall! So, here goes the pics to prove we stayed busy and had fun doing so!!!

Our Classical Conversations Trussville group :)

A little fun math competition in our Essentials class

Chesney learning to paint a Picasso self-portrait
in art class with CC friends.

The class self-portraits :) 

Britton got to shoot the water hose!

Field trips, co-op classes, drama, family
time and football kept us busy this fall!

Our Community Helpers
CO-OP 

This is a project that we started in September! It has blessed us all far more than I realized it would! It has been so beautiful to watch a child's anger melt away in an instant when we find something to be thankful for in the hard moment.

Our 1000 gifts Thanksgiving Family Project
(based on the book 1000 gifts by Ann Voloskamp)

Daily each kid finds 7 things to be thankful for.
We share them aloud at dinner time.

A day at the Great Pumpkin Patch with our dear friends! 

A zoo day with friends :)

Our first family BAMA game! 

Chesney began taking pics half way through the game.
She wanted "silly" pics. 

Halloween at Tannihill State Park
Britton the Ninja
Chesney the Cowgirl
Cade the Red Power Ranger

Our first time to camp at Tannihill State Park. This will
now be a Best family Halloween Tradition.
Camping, fall festival, and trick or treating all in one trip!! 

This was an RV transformed into The Pirates of the Caribbean Ship
complete with Jack Sparrow!

She's really not sure what to think about these two....

Breakfast silliness at the campsite

Our CC field trip to Alabama Frontier Days
A very loud musket was fired the moment this pic was snapped!

Britton with Davy Crockett

Chesney with the Indians

She was playing the tin whistle!!
We've been learning the tin whistle at CC. After listening to her play,
we all realized that we have a-lot-a practicing to do!

My sweet Cade man!

Our first Drama: Go West
Britton was a railroad man

Chesney was a Cowpoke
This pic was after the little guy behind her kept hitting her hat purposefully.
We were really shocked she didn't turn around and deck him!


That wraps up our favorite fall activities. We had a blast at them all! Im so very thankful that the Lord has
called us to homeschool. Its far better than I ever could've imagined!!

The Sheep is Sheared!

Before 

After

We decided to start our double digit years off with a little change :) How I loved his unruly, wild hair! Yet, I find the ease of the new locks have won my heart over quickly!!  My little guy isn't look so little anymore, sigh.....

She Paints

Her first Picasso, a self portrait.

Chesney Best

6 years old

DOUBLE DIGITS!!

My wild-haired, freckled, happy boy!

Where has the time gone? My baby is double digits!!! We now officially have less time with him than we've already had. He could move out of my house in 7 or 8 years. That really blows my mind!!! Although this is terribly depressing, it also gives me great joy to see him mature! Some of my proudest moments of Britton came in his ninth year of life.
At 9:
We discovered  his greatest schooling strength, memorizing!
Diligence and motivations in school have sky-rocketed!
He began doing yard work, woohoo!!

He really grew closer to the Lord this year, reading and study his bible on his own!
He always looks at the positive side in any situation!
Lastly, we received this incredible letter from his baseball coach:

Keith and Brook,

I just wanted to say how great an experience it has been to coach Britton this season.  He is a great little ball player and an even better kid.  He always gave 100% in practices and games and had a positive attitude to boot.  If I could create my own team, it would be full of little Brittons.  His infectious smile and fun spirit made it easy to keep things in perspective and maintain a positive attitude about coaching.  I have no doubt he'll do well in All-Stars and will be an awesome asset for his coaches.  I know you're proud of him as parents.  He has a love for life and a love for Christ that shines through.  What more could you ask for in a young boy?

I know this season didn't turn out that great from a W-L standpoint, but I hope the boys had fun and grew as ballplayers and as young men through the process.  After all, it should be for the kids, not us.

Again, thanks for allowing me to be a part of his life for this short time.  I look forward to seeing you at the party Saturday.

Coach David

I have to say that this was certainly a highlight of my year. Britton, if you never become the best writer, mathematician, scientist, artist, musician or athlete, yet you love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul, then I will be one proud Momma! I love you my son! I couldn't be more proud of you! 

Here are a few pics that capture your first spend the night party!!! 

Britt and his life-long "best-buddy".

football cards and beyblades!