October 2012

It has been a very busy past 2 months!  Madison is finally done with football cheer-leading and we are going to rest until the next season.  She has some camps to do this summer, but now we are enjoying coming home right after school. 
Grant is playing Guitar and getting ready for his first Guitar recital in December!  He is a little nervous, but I know he will do great.  He is used to playing the piano, but the guitar he said is just a lot tougher.  He is doing a great job playing Christmas songs on the guitar!  We are so ready for Christmas!!
I have their school pictures to share with you along with their Halloween costume pictures too!

Grant's Fall School Picture 

Madison's Fall School Picture

 Madison dressed up like 

"Dorthy"  for Halloween!

 Grant dressed up like "Emmett Kelley" for Halloween!

Grant is so tall next to Madison!  

They are ready for some treats!

Grandparent's Day & Homecoming at CA!

Friday was Grandparent's Day at CA.  The students (K-6) always put on a program for all the grandparents to see.  It was a cute program with a "Down by the Creek" theme.  I have a few pictures from the day to share.

  This picture was made at CA for the Grandparent

gifts.  They took the pictures and mounted

them on a wooden plaque.

 This is me and Madison at Graymere waiting

for the program to start for the Grandparents!

She is super excited to sing her cute songs!

 She was on front row ready to sing!

 Grant enjoyed most of his songs too!

 Grant at CA posing for a picture with Danny and Carolyn.

 Grant & Mrs. Cross

 These are some pictures that were on the board at CA

of Grandparent memories!  Look how adorable!

Funny!

 Madison and Miss Pullen!  

Madison loves her teacher!

 Madison Posing with Danny and Carolyn!

 After the program we went home for a 

few hours and then had to get

ready for the BIG NIGHT!

HOMECOMING!

Madison had to cheer on the Bulldogs and

get ready for the halftime show with

the varsity cheerleaders!

 Grant was ready in his Cub Scout shirt to help 

with the Chili Supper at CA and I was ready to

cheer Madison on through the night!

 Before each home game the "Preppy B's" ride around the 

football field getting ready for the game!

 This is Madison and her Varsity Cheerleader "Danielle".

They got announced before the game!

 Madison Cheering on the Bulldogs!

 Madison during the halftime show and one of her

stunting routines!  She was smiling and waving her pom poms!

The night was great and their routine was Awesome!  

They did a super job and everyone looked great!

Madison's Birthday!

Wednesday was officially Madison's birthday even though we celebrated all Weekend!  We started her celebration on Saturday.  She has Cheer Practice on most Saturdays to get ready for their Homecoming routine next weekend!  So she had practice last Saturday until around 2 and then we went home and freshened up and headed to Steak and Shake with Danny & Carolyn included!  We had quite an experience at Steak & Shake... the wait was L O N G and the service was not great....  The food was Great and the manager came by and knew we weren't thrilled with our trip and paid for the whole meal  so all 6 of us got a free meal.  They had been slammed all day and was understaffed...  so we told the manager we would be back. 

After Steak and Shake we headed to Chuck E. Cheese to just go and play games!  Madison, Grant and Eric love to play games!  The deal was all the tickets we got we were giving to Madison since it was her Birthday celebration!  So we had fun and Madison has learned to be smart with her tickets and got one big item and we paid a couple of bucks and didn't go home with JUNKY stuff!  Works for us!

Wednesday I sent cupcakes to school for her class to enjoy during her snack time!  She loved the cupcakes and so did all of her classmates!  Madison walked around school on Wednesday and announced to everyone it was HER BIRTHDAY!  I had to fix her hair special and she wanted to have a cute outfit on!  She is too funny....

After her Cheer/Tumble class on Wednesday after school and Grant's guitar lesson we headed to
O'Charley's to eat supper before church with Eric.  Eric met us there and Madison picked O'Charley's because that is her favorite place!  Here is some pictures of her at O'Charley's!

 She loves to fill in the Mad-lib and then 

read it back to us!  She thinks it is so funny!

 Madison eating her favorite food...

side Salad and Noodles with Alfredo sauce!

 She loved every bite!

Happy 7th Birthday Madison!!

Beech Bend

Since Madison has started cheering this year, our days have been filled to the rim!  She practices most days and between her "Cheer Tumble Class" and Grant's Guitar lessons we are barely home by 5:00 each night!  The Crock pot is the best invention to supper plans!  Put food in and forget about! 

The second best thing in the world is my new washer and dryer!  Eric broke down about 3 weeks ago and bought me a new Maytag Bravos XL Washer/Dryer and it has changed my life!  I can literally throw in a weeks worth of towels in one load!  AMAZING!  My  dryer is wonderful too, I have cut my ironing time in half!  With my new steam feature on my dryer, WOW!  I don't know how I ever made it without it! 
Less time ironing = more family time and enjoying this wonderful fall weather!

Back to Madison's birthday..... Well last week was Madison's birthday. She turned 7 years old on Wednesday!  She has been counting her birthday down like Christmas!  She made a paper chain and has counted down for the last month or so...  It was like a national holiday in our house!  :-)

We decided to take the kids to Beechbend after church on Sunday, we went to an 8:00 service in Nashville and then headed over to Beechbend and got there right when it opened!  We had never been there, we always go to Holiday World, well it has nothing on Holiday World...  It was a great park, just made me feel like I was at the fair with carnival rides.  They did have a great wooden roller coaster that I rode, but just not the same as Holiday World.  Grant and Madison had a ball and that was all that mattered because that is the reason we went!  They did have a Magic/Illusion show that we went to and watched and they got Madison and Eric from the audience to participate in the Illusion!  It was a great experience for them both!  :-) 
Here are some pictures from our day!  It started out dreary and misting rain, but ended up being an awesome day with no lines and Grant and Madison had a ball!  They rode rides like they owned the park!

 This is when we first arrived!  

They jumped out ready to start the day!

 This was the first ride they rode and 

Madison wanted me to ride it with her.

 The Buzzy Bee ride Grant and Madison enjoyed it!

 This was inside the arcade area and indoor food court.

 Grant and Madison enjoyed riding all the rides together!

 They loved it!

 Riding the train!  Madison in front...

 Grant in the back!  

 This was at the water park side, Madison had fun 

playing in the pool.

 This was the kid's roller coaster!

 Madison had to ride it two times in 

a row it was so much fun!

 This was the Kentucky Rumbler wooden roller coaster!  

It was the last ride I rode.  It was fun!

This was Grant and Madison last ride of the day!  

They loved it too!

We had a great time and enjoyed the family time 

and the not waiting in line to ride anything!

Madison and Sarah Grace

Madison and Sarah Grace

Ready to Cheer on the Bulldogs tonight!!

GO DAWGS!!

Tim Hawkins and CheeBurger CheeBurger!

Yesterday we went to see Tim Hawkins in concert in Huntsville.  There was 30 of us from our church that left right after church and caravan-ed to Huntsville.  Grant and Madison couldn't wait to see him.  I was really excited too, and couldn't wait to see him in person instead of You Tube or on a DVD.  The place was sold out and we got their early to get in line to pick our seats so we could be close!  I laughed so hard I cried numerous times.  When I left the 2 hour show my sides were literally hurting from laughing so much!  His jokes hit so close to home....   Here are a couple of clips I got from youtube that are funny.  There are tons out there and if you have hours to kill look him up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwWDilQHlg&feature=colike
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OwZGmYV-1I&feature=colike
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XZn0Jz_D2k&feature=colike

After our show we left and we were all starving!!  We headed to Cheeburger Cheeburger!  Wow they have great burgers, Eric said it is really close to Five Guys (which I have never been to).  We got there and it is just on a strip mall little diner and we walk in and the guy says do you need a table for four.....  I said actually we have around 25-30 more coming!  He looked around and needless to say we kind of took over the place and rearranged tables all over the place.    The next thing was ordering!  Well on the menu they have a ONE POUND hamburger and if you eat it all you get your picture made to hang on the Wall of Fame!  Well Eric wanted to do it and he ate the whole thing!!!  It was great!
This is Cheeburger Cheeburger's website if you are not familiar with the restaurant.

http://cheeburger.com/home2/index.asp

I got some pictures to share with you from Cheeburger Cheeburger.

 This was the ONE POUNDER before Eric tackled it!

This is the picture that will be on the Wall of Fame!

Madison wanted to take the picture with her daddy!

She was proud of her daddy!

We had a great trip!  Can't wait to see Tim again sometime in Concert!

He needs to come to Tennessee!!

Preppy B's

Madison has come into a new adventure this year!  She has become a CA Cheerleader.  She will be cheering at all the "Varsity" games.  She is loving being a cheerleader!  I think since she had started Gymnastics last year, that has really helped her in her decision to become a cheerleader.  This is the first year of the "Preppy B's" with the varsity girls.  They have always had the cheerleaders that cheer all the Saturday football games with the younger football players, but this is a separate division with the varsity girls.  The Varsity cheerleaders picked a younger one to be their "Mini me Cheerleader".  They will be in the Homecoming parade with them and lots of fun extra things!  Danielle Chase picked Madison as her Mini cheerleader, I had Danielle in 4th grade and they live down the road from us.  She made a connection with Madison immediately!  They all get to work with all cheerleaders learning cheers, it is like one big family!

They had their First Game last night against Ezell Harding Christian School and WE WON! They really cheered their Football team on!   The Cheerleaders did Awesome and Madison had so much fun. I have a few pictures from the Game lastnight and Cheer camp today.

 Madison getting ready to cheer her team on!!

Go Dawgs!!

 Had to get a few shots before she got started!!

What a cute cheerleader!

 Danielle showing Madison one of the moves for a cheer!

Madison and Danielle watching the game!

They are getting ready to cheer them on!

 Madison and Danielle!

Go Dawgs!

Way to go Madison!

 Madison at cheer camp today practicing stunting for 

a cheer-leading routine coming up soon!

 She saw me up in the balcony and they told her to look

at me and smile for a picture!  You look great Madison!

 She went up part way with her 3 spotters!

 Another shot with spotters and going up 1/2 way.

She went the full way up and LOVED every minute of it!  

I think I was a nervous wreck up in the balcony watching!

She would get down and say "lets do this again!"  She 

can not wait to go back and practice stunting again!