It's true, I'm the worst blogger mom ever!

Once again, it has been forever since my last post. We've been busy with Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping and other random excuses : ) But I have finally gotten around to posting some pics...so enjoy! Over Thanksgiving we attempted to get a shot of the entire family. Here's one for the scrapper, but I thought it was a good example of John and Brent being goofballs. : )

This is a pic of Jacob showing off his new hair cut. It's already time to get him a trim!

Here's Maggie showing off a pretty dress from Nana.

Ahhh, Maggie sitting on her potty. She has done a few "things" in the potty, but nothing on a regular basis...mostly because I'm not focused on training her right now so it's still sort of fun and new to her. I'm sure as soon as I get serious about training her she will completely rebel and not step foot near the potty.

Jacob loving on Nana.

Here is the kids' Christmas present from my mom and dad....JUNGLE GYM! Sa-weet!! Shout out to the guys who broke their backs to get it in our back yard!

Jacob's inagural climb up the jungle gym.

My grandparents got to visit on their way back from a wedding. In this picture Jacob was educating Pawpaw on volcanoes...a topic he (Jacob) is quite knowledgable about.

Granny holding Maggie...Maggie won't let anyone read to her. She insists on holding the book completely by herself. She opens the book up, turns one page and says, "the end!"

Wonderful news! Lauren and Clint got engaged on Thanksgiving morning. This is a pic of them right after the engagement as they came to my parents to show off her ring. Yea for them!!! Wedding to be in May of 2010!

I couldn't resist posting this adorable picture of Maggie and my dad. On a side note, most everyone thinks my kids are true Sheltons...which they are for the most part. But, check out Maggie's cheeks compared to my dad's...I've always thought that both our kids have our cheeks. Don't laugh, I'm being serious!

Here's a shot of Jacob coloring on our chalk board...we're supposed to count down the days to Christmas, but I just let him add his own touch. On another note, he wrote his name for the first time this week at Mrs. Lisa's. ALL BY HIMSELF! He's a genius.

Mom bought the kids some sticky ornaments that are supposed to be placed on windows. Well, mom, they stayed on the windows for about five minutes before the kids got them back down. Maggie proceeded to shred them to pieces over the next several days. Sorry!

What's taken so long???

Well, in answer to the above question, I'm just plain lazy. No, my camera isn't broken (for those of you who have wondered). I have been taking shots of the kiddos, I just haven't been downloading them. So, prepare yourselves for a feast of random shots of my children. I won't take the time to narrate for each one, so you can make your own crazy assumptions about what was happening with each photo. Love to all!

Jacob's first day of school...

It's official...our baby boy is growing up. For those of you who don't know, Jacob will be attending a Kindergarten Readiness program with a friend of ours from church named Lisa. Lisa is a licensed kindergarten teacher who now stays home with her little girl and has started a program out of her home. Today was Jacob's first day and he will attend on Friday's from 9:30 to 11:30. Here are a few shots of him before we left this morning.

And here he is with Mrs. Lisa. They had been working on colors when I came to pick him up and she was having him pick out a certain color of crayon that matched an item (in this case a black plastic spoon).

Jacob had a great time and was excited to tell me what he learned/did. He drew a picture of himself, made a paper with his name on it that was spelled out with cereal, colored in shapes, etc. I was so happy that he had a wonderful first day...with no tears from either one of us!

August Memories

Here are just a few shots from August...I can't believe it is over already. Time is flying by! Jacob has really become interested in our hibiscus (sp?) plant. He loves to look at the blooms.

Here's a shot of the kids playing. They love to get in the bed and pretend to be sleeping, at least that's what Jacob likes to do, and little Maggie just follows him around and does what he does. : )

We took a trip to Alabama recently for my dad's birthday. Maggie was quite the Grandaddy's girl. I think he read Llama Llama Red Pajama about 20 times (and so did aunt Lauren).

Mom and Maggie on the front porch...

Here's my Granny Murphree (dad's mom) with the kids.

Maggie's first banjo lesson.

Grandaddy with all the grandkids on his birthday.

Here's a shot of the family (almost all of us) getting ready to chomp on some coconut cake.

The kids are also enjoying our large bathtub. They put their toys in there and play and play!

Kitchen transformation

These pictures show the before and after of our recent kitchen improvements. The most recent home improvement involved tiling the backsplash in the kitchen this past weekend. What a difference it made in the look and feel of the kitchen. I should brag on Brent more often...he is becoming quite the home improver.