Bass face

A short clip of Tony playing in one of the sanctuaries at church.

Tony got to play at church for the Christmas Eve services & also for the weekend services. (One bonus to having the week off.) It was fun to watch him play again as his work schedule hasn't allowed it for a little while now. On Saturday & Sunday he played with David Northrup, the drummer for Travis Tritt. David asked Tony where he played & Tony told him "Just here at church when I can." He was surprised & told Tony that he thought he was a good bassist. (He, David, actually brought it up more than once over the weekend.) It's nice to have someone who knows what they're talking about compliment you & I think it meant a lot to Tony. Plus Tony said it was fun to play with him. :)

Christmas Morning

Jingle, jingle, jingle. Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas!

Santa came to our house & dropped off a few things for the kids. When he left he woke up the kids with his jingle bells & his "Ho, ho, ho"-ing. They came downstairs cautiously & woke us up whispering, "Santa was here and there are things in our stockings!" Too cute. They got to open the Santa gifts right away. After breakfast we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and then opened up the rest of our gifts.

Opening gifts.

Now I can read in the tub!

Eli bought us all gifts with his own money by himself at school & had fun handing them out. He bought Adrienne a toy car in purple (because there were no pink ones), Tony got a tape measure & I got a very pretty necklace.

The kids with their loot.

Trying out their new skates. Makes me want to get some of my own!

Christmas Eve

The kids put together their plate for Santa & the reindeer.

Don't they look tired & ready to go to bed?

I'm too excited to sleep!!!

Cookies for Santa

Our neighbor Tracey had the kids come over to decorate cookies for Santa.




Adrienne enjoyed using every color of frosting & sprinkles.


Eli was very specific about what he wanted on his cookies & he placed each chocolate chip with care.

I had to post a photo of Gracie & her cookies.

As you can see, she loves sprinkles. I think she emptied at least three bottles on her cookies!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas

Love,

the Wards!

Over the river & through the woods to our house Grandma & Poompa go!

Grandma and Poompa came out for a visit and an early Christmas. We did a bit of sightseeing too.

We went to the Battle of Franklin to see what Dr. Dobson had been speaking about on Focus on the family. We also checked out the Carter House & met the David Fraley the historian and curator of the Carter House. You can check it out here:

Remembering the Battle of Franklin (Part 1 of 2)http://listen.family.org/daily/A000001657.cfm

Remembering the Battle of Franklin (Part 2 of 2)

http://listen.family.org/daily/A000001658.cfm

Adrienne decided to wear her reindeer antlers everywhere we went that day. She was a cute reindeer!

Poompa with the kids.

Grandma with the kids.

Grandma took Adrienne to go and see Miss Pattycake's Christmas. Miss Pattycake is geared for preschoolers so they had a blast and got to sit right up front!

For your listening pleasure! :P

We all got to open some early Christmas presents and even got to play with them! Notice the warm and fuzzy Pj's. :)

Academy Graduation!

The day finally arrived! We pulled Eli out of school so he could see his Daddy graduate from the Tennessee Law Enforcement Training Academy. It's been a long 10 weeks!!

Here he is during the processional.

Shaking hands with all the different heads of agencies. (Sheriff, TBI, Police...)

Actually receiving his certificate!


Most of the recruits rang the bell after graduation. Can you guess if Tony did or did not?

Adrienne and Grandma excited to be there.


Eli tested out his skills against the dummy.

Such proud kids!

Isn't he handsome in that uniform?

Our happy family.

Teacher Gifts

Here's Eli with his Christmas gift for his teacher. He picked out the pie plate & the 3-wick candle & what color the decorations should be from my stash of "gifties". Both he & his teacher were thrilled.

A closer look at my $4 teacher gift! I love it when you find really good deals on stuff. :)

Christmas Parade

The kids & I went to the Christmas Parade Sunday. There were a lot of different floats, fire engines, marching bands from the high schools, lots of candy for the kids and of course Santa at the end of it all. We brought a blanket and some hot cocoa and sat right on the corner to watch everything go by. It was loud, cold and fun!

Snowy day!

Last night it snowed big wet snowflakes that actually stuck to the ground. As tends to happen here in Tennessee, the minute it snows the schools close & there is a run on milk & bread. I already had my milk & bread so no worries there. School was canceled today which was fun for the kids but a bummer for me beacuse then Mops was canceled too. Here are a few images from our morning.

These are our neighbors. The girls love to play together & if one family is outside the other soon comes out to say hello.

The Christmas Program

Eli singing in the k-1st choir at church.


My handsome little man.



So sweet!



Adrienne in front of the display at church. She wanted to go inside the gingerbread house soooo badly!