Aaron turns 7

Wow - I can not believe that Aaron is seven. To celebrate we spent the day with family and friends. This year's party had a Star Wars theme. The kids dressed in costumes, played games and ate Wookiee Cookies, Padawan Pizza, Death Star Balls, Jedi Fuel with a Yoda Soda chaser. Everyone seemed to have fun. I know that Aaron did. Thank you to everyone that could make it.

So much to be Thankful for

This was a wonderful day spent with family. Mom did a terrific job making sure each of us had our favorites to fill our plates and bellies. We have spent recent days troubled by our struggling economy and our dwindling finances. Today we focused on what we did have. We are in good health, our children are happy and growing each day. We have each other and lots of food on our plates. We are blessed.

Tomorrow we visit Santa. Maybe he will have something in his toy bag to share with the little ones.

LEAVES - It's a Love-Hate Thing!

Fall is a wonderful time of year. Cooler weather, football games and sweaters are all favorite things this time of year. This morning I grabbed my camera and took off into the woods to snap a few pictures of the glorious colors. As my Mother has said many times, it was a beautiful scene painted by God. A golden canopy covered the woods. Falling leaves seem to dance on the way to the ground. The trail was still visible but just barely. The dogs followed me around, full of energy from the crisp morning air. Rey seemed to enjoy losing his tennis ball in the leaves so that he could search for it. Cliff stayed close, not really understanding what I was doing. I love the colors.
What I don't love are leaves that have to be raked. Acorns that cover the ground so thick that we actually used a snow shovel to gather them up. Tonight I am trying not to move, because it hurts. All afternoon we raked, and mowed and blew piles of leaves. We drug tarp after tarp full of leaves back to the woods where they seemed to belong.
So I sit here, on the corner of the sofa, aching and enjoying the pictures I took this morning.

Its a Love-Hate Thing.

Treats no Tricks

This year we were escorted around the neighborhood by Luke Skywalker. We ran up against Darth Vader, but good prevailed. Only four kids trick-or-treated in the neighborhood this year, so their buckets were loaded with goodies. Good Times and Sugar Highs!!

The BIG kids came home as well. We enjoyed our traditional chili dinner, old scarey movies and of course candy stolen from Aaron's pumpkin.

This was our first year without our black kitty Jinx. In the past, Dallas was always concerned that we kept Jinx inside to make sure she was safe. We missed her this year.

Who would have thought......

......in the Pumpkin Patch you would be forced to face your fears. It is really all Carl's fault. He decided that we should wait for the next wagon. On that wagon ride, the driver stopped to pick up this straw-filled hitchhicker.......who happened to sit RIGHT BESIDE MEGAN! It did seem wrong to enjoy this so much. Carl is smiling here but inside he is hoping that Sissy does not throw him off (good thing there were sides to this wagon and that Megan is pretty much frozen from fear) - Not funny....really not funny...oh my gosh it was really soooo funny.

Anyway, we had a great time today at the Pumpkin Patch. We got lost in the corn maze, took wagon rides, enjoyed the different animals at the farm and went through some scary haunted houses. Thanks to my fellow Mommies ( Ruby & Cindy) we had a wonderful picnic lunch. Just an all around fun time.

I love spending the day with friends and family. Check out more pictures from our fun day uploaded to our Family Pictures link. ------>

Go Raiders!!!!

The Amelia Flag Football Team will call the Homecoming Parade a success. It did not matter that we were the last float or that we ran out of candy halfway down the parade route. Just like the saturday games, we had a blast!!! Thanks to our decorating team for transforming a little lawnmower trailer into a float with a harvest theme. The team thought that we had the best looking ride there.
We are the RAIDERS and we ROCK!

A Birthday Celebration for Grandma!

Nothing makes a Grandmother happier than to have her family surrounding her. We all came together to wish Nana a very Happy Birthday. As a Septuagenarian (sep·tu·a·ge·nar·i·an) she is like a no other - honestly - she can work circles around all of us. What other Grandmother do you know that gets a new tennis bag for her 70th birthday? Go Granny - Go! We hoped you had a great time. We sure did. Click on the play button to join in the celebration or view FAMILY PICTURES http://picasaweb.google.com/DALLASNTRACY/BettySBirthday08 to see more.

First Day of First Grade

School is open and Aaron is ready for First Grade. The only thing better than a new favorite shirt and new school supplies is getting to see all your buddies after summer break. He's off to a great start - we are sure that it will be a great year.

August Means Birthdays

Dallas turns 23 and Megan is finally 22. Aaron is just happy to have them both home for dinner. He helped make Dee's birthday cake which was fully equiped with a DS made out of cake. Cool!!! Megan settled for her traditional Choc-Choc layer cake. Yummo! It was nice to have all of them together if only for one evening. Happy Birthday kids!

White Oak Pond - Stage II

Another weekend spent collecting rocks around the neighborhood. Dallas said that it was getting a little embarrassing having his wife comb the neighborhood pushing her wheelbarrow, begging for rocks. By Sunday, our neighbors were bringing them to us. We added a few plants around the edges to dress things up and some more fish to watch. It is certainly a work in progress. Check back in soon for more pictures or just come for a visit.

On White Oak Pond

So Momma wanted a pond - something new in the yard. These days we can all use a little tranquility, a little stress relief. With a little encouragement from a neighbor and a whole lot of her help. Momma now has her pond. It will be an ongoing project for months to get it looking just right. We are looking forward to adding fish and plants to make it a part of our home. What fun!. Come visit, bring your pole.

A Blackberry Weekend

As a family, we come together to enjoy many special occasions. This past weekend it was all about Blackberries. Sharing funny stories remembering how Mom would send Jason and I into the berry patch dressed up in layers of long sleeves and long pants with our gallon buckets to be filled with wild blackberries. It certainly did not take us long to learn that chiggers were bad and blackberry cobblers were really good!

This visit to see the NOVA Wade's was just to play and that is exactly what we did. Great Country Farm in Bluemont, VA was our first stop. We thought it would be a great day to let the kids run and play and buy some blackberries....that quickly turned into picking our own. Everybody grabbed a bucket and claimed their row. After we (Dallas) ate as many as we (he) picked, we cleaned up and enjoyed the rest of our fun farm day. Petting zoo, picnic lunch, big pumpkin pillow and fun with Nana (Gamaw) and Pop.

Second stop was the vineyard up the hill. The grownups must have looked thirsty, because within minutes we were being treated to tasting 6 different wines and admiring the lovely view. Blackberries make good wine too! Make that 3 bottles to go!


Sunday started out with lots of testosterone! Football training camp for our favorite football team the REDSKINS! The guys were living the dream until their bellies brought them home for lunch.


Thanks Jason and Robyn for having us up for the weekend. Love you all!
Check out more pictures from our trip ........>click Family pictures in the link to the right...........> or http://picasaweb.google.com/DALLASNTRACY/NOVATrip708

Butterflies in July

Butterflies just love this butterfly bush in our backyard. Its not hard to find a dozen of them enjoying a sweet lunch mid-afternoon. This is about the only one that would stay put long enough for it's picture to be taken. Thank you Aunt Jenny for these lovely plants. They certainly brighten up our backyard.

INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION!

CHICKS BEACH KNOWS HOW TO CELEBRATE 4TH OF JULY!

Thanks to Jacki and Mike for having us down for a few days of fun in the sun! It is always great to spend time with wonderful friends. We love you! Be sure to check out the new pics that have been added to our family album.

Not at all what these two had planned for their weekend.

First a trip to the Vet and then a bath. Cliff and Rey really want us to go back to work. Better luck next week boys.

.

TWO DOWN - ONE TO GO!

Today is Aaron's Big Day - Kindergarten Graduation! First Grade here he comes. This has been a crazy few weeks for the proud parents of these three. It also seems a bit odd to be celebrating your kids college and kindergarten graduation both in the same week. They keep us going. We feel very blessed to have three kids that are bright and full of life. Now the ball is in Dallas, Jr's court - come on December...2008 will be known as The Year of the Graduation!!

Another First for Aaron

First lost tooth for Aaron. That tooth wiggled for weeks and finally fell out. The Tooth Fairy came and Boo was happy with the exchange rate. He hopes that the Tooth Fairy gives his tooth to his cousin Lauryn because she needs some more teeth.

Go Megan Go!

Well she did it!!! Megan graduated from VCU with a degree in Biomedical Engineering. Dallas and I are so very proud. We had a wonderful weekend with family and friends.