Survey

OK...Nick and I have been trying to decide if the video of the week is a hit or not. Please let us know what you think...and be honest:) If you don't want to comment then you can rate it with 1 being annoying and 5 being hilarious. For example, in our house I am a strong 1 and Nick is a 5. We need you to decide whether it goes or stays!!!! So cast your votes now and don't sign on as anonymous please.

After he opended it, he and his dad went out in their back yard with their matching chainsaws and cut down a tree and we brought it home for firewood:) As quick as Nick could get home from church today, eat lunch and change clothes he went into our back yard and has been cutting down trees. He is cutting them down right now as a type this. Everytime I hear a tree fall I run to the window and looks at me with a huge smile and gives me two thumbs up. I am not exactly sure what his plan is going to be after he cuts them all down. I guess we will just have firewood for the rest of our life.  

Nick was quite surprised and EXTREMELY excited to find a chainsaw wrapped up with his name on it. His parents made his day!!!!! 

Saturday night, we went Nick's parents for a "Big Brannen Birthday Bash." There are 5 birthdays in their family in January so they have one big party together. One of the uncles did not come so we ate the peice of cake that his name on it. Mrs. Brannen had made some delicious Mexican food and it was yummy!  

Friday was Gloria's last day at school:( She has been my parapro since I began teaching and has been wonderful. It was such a blessing to teach with someone who is a strong Christian and loves the children with the same mindset that I do. She will be greatly missed by me and all of our students. My new parapro will begin on Monday so I look forward to seeing how the transition is.

One of my good friends, Jill who teaches with me, had a precious little baby boy last week (well he was actually a pretty big boy-9lbs). Nick and I went to visit Jill and Chuck and little Andrew at the hospital.  

Hey, everyone check out the new "video of the week".

Happy Birthday to you....Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday dear Nick...Happy Birthday to you!!!!! I woke Nick up way before the sun came up this morning with his favorite chicken buscuit from Chick-Fil-A and let him open one of his gifts (mom and dad he said to tell you he loved the shirts and ties!). As you can see it took him a few minutes to wake up but we sure did have a fun little party at 6 am. He also had a surprise birthday party last Saturday morning. Everyone came for breakfast and he and Matt Wood blew out their birthday candles in the monkey bread. We waited until 10:30 to have that party so at least the sun had come up by that time. Everyone was so sweet to come and celebrate his and Matt Wood's birthdays and we are glad that our Athens friends got to meet the Langstons and Baileys. HAPPY 25 BIRTHDAY NICK!!!!!  

We had a such a wonderful weekend with the Langstons and the Bailys in Athens. Since it was Anna and Ethans first time in Athens we wanted to give them a real Athens experience so we took them to eat at Transmetropolitan, Little Italy, The Grill and Depalmas (I promise we did not eat the whole time they were here). We shopped downtown and tried to show them the other high points of the big metropolis of Athens:) We had two late nights by the fire in our PJ's drinking hot chocolate and talking about...well just about everything. Even though the main reason the Langston's came from Memphis was to go to a friends wedding in Macon, we talked them out of it! But hey, I know we had more fun!  

Happy 2006! We rang in the New Year at the last stop at the Jacksons with our sparkling grape juice! As you can see, there were about 7 cameras all trying to take our pictures at the same time and nobody knew exactly where to look. It seems like this year has flown by. Nick and I have had many conversations lately about how richly the Lord has blessed us this year. He has given us so much that we are so undeserving of and alot of the times we are so ungrateful for. We are so blessed by our merciful God to have such wonderful friends, jobs, family and each other!  

This group got a little bit louder and louder as the night went on. Lee and Russ kept us entertained and gave us many good laughs. 

I do not think that Shannon moved away from the fire all night. She got the Auburn quilt and found her perfect seat in the house! After all she has to keep "Jr" warm too:) 

Here are all the guys keeping Nick company as he grilled the meat. (L to R) Matt, Chris, Lee, Matt, Justin, Russ and Nick 

Here is the other table that was set up between the dinning room and the living room. As you can see we left up our Christmas decorations as long as we could! The menu was pork tenderloin, cheese grits, cranberry chutney, green been casserole and a tossed salad. Since we had so many wonderful cooks it made the meal scrumptious:) 

We had our second annual New Year's Eve Progressive Dinner. We started at the Siple's for appetizers and then came to our house for the entree and then headed over to the Jacksons's for dessert and to ring in the New Year. It was so much fun getting to visit and eat lots of yummy food. We had 14 people so it was a little challenge finding room to seat everyone but I had a blast setting the tables and decorating.