Andrew's 12th B-Day

One more year, or so I have been told. That's how long I have let with my sweet, innocent, respectful son; then it's all down hill from there...lol I sure hope that's not the case with my Drewpy, as I like to call him. I know that I have said this time and time again, but I just can't believe how fast 12 years have gone by. With all that said, on with the birthday pics. Below you see him sporting his favorite college football team with Taylor on his right and Spencer on his left. He says that one day him and Riley will go to school at LSU and play on the football team. I'm not going to be a dream squashier by telling him that I really don't want him so far away, so I just tell him to work hard and maybe one day it will happen. Kalan gave him a John Deere Hat, so sweet, at times. Okay, Okay...I know that my horse shoe is lopsided, but I had to improvise. You don't find Colts wrapping paper around here. I did give it my all, and Andrew thought it was the best thing ever.
It's hard to buy for a 12 year old boy, especially two weeks after Christmas. He did get a lot of great gifts. He likes to invite a few of his buddies over to spend the night and stay up all night getting jacked up on sugar and playing video games. This year he only had 3 spend the night. I learned my lesson the hard way. More doesn't not mean more fun, it only means more drama. So Taylor, Riley and Spencer stayed and we had no drama.
I did supply an adequate amount of sugar for all 6 kids at my house that night. I made Andrew's birthday cake to his specifications, well almost. He wanted the fish to jump up out of the middle of the cake, but that didn't happen. It was chocolate cake with chocolate butter cream icing. All I've got to say is they make it look a lot easier on Cake Boss than it really is. I made up my rice crispy treats and tried to shape them around a bent wooden stick. I guess the weight of the crispy treats and the fondant was just too much and the day before the party, it fell apart. No worries, I just improvised. If you use your imagination you will see the large mouth bass jumping up out of the dirty lake water. You don't see it you say, well that stuff at the end of it's body are ripples or splashes of dirty water...lol
OOOH, how could I forget the worm coming out of the fish's mouth, just in case you were wondering why it had a brown hunk of something coming from its mouth. See the picture above for a closer look.

Happy 12th Birthday Andrew Jose Garay, I love you!

Christmas 09

The Children were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of sugarplums danced in their heads.

These are the goods, which were far to many. Our children are the only children I know of that sleep until 8 on Christmas morning. I guess it's best not to complain.

Nathan got the wheels this year! He was sooooo excited! His very own four wheeler, no more cruising around in Kalan's pink Barbie Jeep...lol
Kalan got her pink boots, pink coat, and K necklace, so she was a very happy girl. She also got some church dresses with matching tights, a glow station (which is soo neat), DS games, and much more. I can't remember what else she got.
Andrew doesn't ask for much, lol. Sometimes he asks for the strangest things. This year he wanted a football, work boots, work pants, and flannel shirts...crazy I know, but that's what he wanted. So he got all of that and a LUS/Colts flannel reversible blanket.
Okay, this is Sir Nathan in his armor...lol He is too cute in it. He has worn it to church, to Kalan's cheer practice, to Wal-mart let's just say if I would let him sleep in it he would. It has now been incorporated in our bedtime story every night.
They are super excited. These lovey moments are few and far between!
We have a family tradition that I have been doing since I was a little girl. My sisters and I would have to call my Mamaw, who lived next door, and let her know that Santa had come. She would make homemade biscuits and we wait patiently for her to get to the house before we could open any of our gifts. We now do that with my children. They call my Mom, Dad and sister (Mindy), and they call Mi-Mi and Jason, and Uncle Mike, and Gi-Gi too. My husband thinks it's cruel to make them wait to open their gifts, but it's so much fun watching them pace at the front door. After we have opened all the gifts from Santa, we eat a huge Christmas Breakfast. I love that day!

My Baby turns 4

There are no words for my disbelief that my baby, Nathan, is 4 years old, already! It only seems like yesterday when he was born, and what a birthday that was. He scared us all to death! I never ever really believed my parents and grandmother when telling that time flies by the older you get, but it really does.

This is his Lighting McQueen cake that I made for him. This was my first do-it-yourself cake. I think that I did a very good job. Everyone loved it and it made the birthday boy happy, and that was all that mattered.

I do have to say that I did not realize how much work was involved in making one of these cakes. I had someone ask me how much I would charge to make them one and I said their wasn't enough money for me to make one for someone else...lol I would truly stress myself if I had to please someone else. This cake was far from perfect, but I was satisfied. It was French Vanilla cake with chocolate gnash filling and butter cream icing. The checkered flag design on the side looked easy on paper, but once you start making each one of the thousands of stars that make it up it was more to it then I thought. My grass turned out cute! I searched the web and found an idea to make the road out of ground up oreos and it worked perfectly.

Of course he got way more than he needed, but you only have one birthday a year... :) I only wish his birthday was during warmer months, not November, so they could have played outside more. The pinata was a hit. We did opt for the pull string type, so we wouldn't send someone from our party to the ER. When they are this age having a child blind-folded with a stick can be very dangerous.

He will always be by baby! I just can not imagine, no, I don't want to imagine him being a teenager... I'm sure those days will hold some fun times in them too. For now, I'm satisfied with him yelling MOMMY every time I come home and preferring me over Daddy to tell him his bedtime story at night. How can I forget his sweet little kisses! I love you Nathan Owen Meredith.

WOW!

I can't believe that it has been so long since my last post. The above picture is from Easter. To be honest it won't be long before the Meredith Clan make the trip to Shiloh again. Of course a lot of things have happened in a years time. I guess the first thing that I think of is my job promotion. I am now the Director of Food Service for Tate County School District. I have 6 cafeteria, 28 employees and we serve 3100 students a day. It has definitely been a challenge. I do truly enjoy my job!

After I did some training this summer for my new position and once school got started we took a family vacation to St. Louis. It was sooo much fun! The kids enjoyed Six Flags and the SL Zoo. I would love to go back one day. I don't have pictures of that on this computer, but I will post some soon.

All and all I was soooooo glad to see 2009 come to an end. I am going to do some back peddling on here. When you see pictures of birthdays and holidays they will all be from 09.

Shiloh Trip

Last Sunday was our annual trip to Shiloh National Military Park. It was the 147th anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh. They do reenactments every year. Josh, the kids and I enjoy going to see it. This is one of my favorite statues in the park, it's fairly new. The Daughters of the Revolution provided this in remembrance of the state of Tennessee and the Soldiers that fought for her. This was the Confederate Calvary reenactment. The kids like the horses and the guns.

I thought this was a very cool pile of rifles. I thought it made for a very interesting picture.



This flag was on a covered wagon in the camp.

This is the visitor's center, besides the tee pee and other tents it looked like Scarlet O'Hara's house in Gone with the Wind.

This was the fist stop we made when we got there, the restrooms. The little kids liked scaling the wall.

Aren't we a group of lookers?

My father-in-law loves all things Civil War. It might seem strange to some, but this is how the Meredith Crew spends a little quality family time. The last time that we went it snowed on us, this time it was quite nice, not too cold and not too hot. The kids really enjoy going. The camp they have is set up in period and the people are really into their roles. Very fun to see and the kids get a kick out of it. Nothing says walking through wooded areas to see giant stone monuments like microscopic ticks!!!!!!!!!! Oh yeah, we were all pulling up and down clothes in the middle of the road pulling a hep of teny tiny ticks off of us. We all had at least 3 each. GROSSSSSSSS!!!!!! But it was still fun and we all agreed we would have gone anyway to see the Indian Mounds, ticks or no ticks. If you have never been then I strongly recommend you go.

Destin

Destin had his Senior night last Tuesday. It hard to believe this is his last year playing high school baseball. The time passes by so quickly these days. Pictured below are the seniors on his team. We wish them all the best as they set out on the new journey of their lives. We wish Destin all the best. I hope that he gets everything that he has worked so hard for. We love him and couldn't be prouder of him. :)

It's Been a While

Sorry, we have been soooo busy since my last blog entry. So, I guess I'll do a quick run through. Josh had a birthday January 31. The kids and I made him a cake, which they had a lot of fun decorating it with me. We had two snow falls. The first one was in January. I guess you should call it a dusting, not a snow fall. What do you expect in Mississippi? The other snow was in February. I didn't get any pictures of the "heavier" snow because we were too busy playing in it. Josh, Destin and I had bruises for a week after!!!!

Which brings me to the next event. Destin, our 18 year old nephew moved in with us.

Our Young Adult class and Youth Group, from church, did a dinner for all the other members of your congregation. It was a great success and we had a blast. Thanks to all that helped!

Spring Break has come and gone! We took the kids on a "backyard camp out". The camper was parked 6 feet from the back door! That's my kind of camping. We had a blast doing that. We had a campfire every night where we did tell a few ghost stories. We went fishing, riding bikes, and "hiking" in our pasture.

We ended our week with a trip to the park in Olive Branch. The kids played on the playground and feed the crazed ducks and geese, we also walked the nature trail. And what's a trip to the park without ice cream? Everyone got a treat from Baskin Robins.

We have started ball practice with Kalan's softball team. Destin's ball season is quickly coming to an end! Then graduation!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know he's excited and we are proud of him. Andrew is ready for the school to come to an end. He has enjoyed his first year in middle school. I will try to do better. Some days I wonder if i will have time to stop and breathe! Until next time.