uga/auburn...and the makings of a good story ;)

When the UGA/Auburn game time was changed to 7:15pm and the temps were projected to be very low, I think both B and I were okay to curl up by the Links' fire and enjoy watching from home. However, Gehrig wouldn't hear of it, so we layered up and headed to Athens.  Meanwhile, the girls stayed with the Links (so thankful!), because it would have been miserable for them and us! :)

Met up with the Watsons to sell programs for FCA!  It is the first time we've seen them there this year and honestly the reason I chose to go along :)

From the stands...it was pretty cold, but not as bad as we thought because of so many people packed in...

Loved having time with the Clantons too!  We are getting spoiled with good visits with them the past few months :))

And Lyle joined us all too for the 4th quarter!  What a sweet group of buddies...so thankful.  And the game was a fun one to watch too!

Afterwards, the 3 of us walked back to the intermural fields to head home.  It was pretty late at night and we fumbled around looking for the keys, only to realize they were locked inside.  We felt pretty helpless and climbed a nearby hill to ask a policeman for his recommendations.  Looking back down to our poor Tahoe...it would soon be left all alone on that field!

This was our view for the next hour or more, as we tried to contact locksmiths and stay warm.  There were so many things that we were grateful for throughout...and a few of them came to light at this point already.  #1-the girls weren't with us.  They would've been miserable!  #2-cell coverage has been greatly improved this year around the stadium, so we still had enough charge to google lots of numbers and make several calls.  We've rarely left a game before this year with charged phones! And #3-we had a backpack full of snacks, water, blankets and handwarmers.  Gehr had promised us that he wouldn't be cold when he initially begged us to keep our plans of going to the game.  This pushed him to the brink, but he did great ;)

The policeman ended his traffic-directing there and headed out as we waited for a bit longer.  Because all traffic is being sent out of Athens after games, no one could get to us until about 12:45am.  This precious, sweet, wonderful man pulled up then and it was all I could do not to hug him!  We never carry much cash on us, but had just been handed some from selling tix and our sweet Clanton friends were texting with us throughout and even offered to come and sit with us...just so so grateful for it all.

I wouldn't have told you that I was all that cold until we got in the car and turned on the heat.  I started shivering pretty hard and realized we had been a little bit in survival mode.  So so thankful for a warm home to sleep in every night.  We talked much that night about so many that don't have shelter and must be so cold.  :(  We stopped for some coffee and headed home to arrive about 3am.  All in all, the Lord took such care of us and kept our spirits high throughout...we kept telling each other that we were just making memories :))

Oh, and I really have to mention one more thing.  These socks probably saved me that night!  Matt was kind enough to let me use his fancy alpaca socks and I cannot tell you how amazing they are.  Even when I was so cold after finally getting back into the car, my feet were warm and cozy.  They are totally worth whatever they cost!  I should've asked for some for Christmas! :)

garner birthday celebratin'

Garner had a couple of fun celebrations for her 4th.  First we took treats to her co-op class :)

Then, on the actual day, we went to a local dairy farm with the Links.  It was a beautiful day and so fun!

So thankful for sweet friends to share these days with!  Happy birthday sweet Bug!

babies don't keep :(

It's only appropriate that our baby, the last Massey babe that we know of ;), has taken the longest to grow out of her baby looks.  Her hair has taken longer to grow in, her frame longer to stretch out and her cheeks longer to shrink from that sweet round cherub form.  It has certainly helped this mama's transition from being a mommy of babes to mama of kids.  Kids that seem bigger with.every.moment.  Don't get me wrong...it has brought much ease to daily life.  There's definitely a sweetness about sleeping all night, having good helpers, not having to pack so much just to run errands and having more flexibility in our schedule.  BUT it's still sad.  I love love love that precious baby time and I have such a hard time believing that we are not in the stage of newlyweds/new parents anymore. We don't look a day older than we did in college, right? ;)

SO, Garner and I sat down on November 11th and pulled out my phone for our annual mama/kid birthday-eve pics.  Her last pics being 3 and my last ones with a true "little".  :(  I found out quickly that her plans were not to just grab one smiley pic, so we have a little gallery for you to enjoy...

We changed into pjs before trying one more time :))

In many ways, that series is a great way to show her at this age.  She is so hilarious and silly and fun and happy and incredibly cute.  But... all of that just at home.  She changes a great deal when we leave the house or when others come around.  And although we know that this can be a common phase for kids and saw it some in our other two for a short while, this has been going on with Garner for a looooooonnnnnngg time.  She will laugh and sing and dance and talk and talk and talk at home, but she is silent and even rude so much of the time to others...especially guys.  So, we are working hard on being friendly and at least saying one word, even if it's just "Hi."  And also working on thinking of others and not ourselves all the time.  We haven't always done a great job of expecting that from the baby that we've admittedly enjoyed spoiling!

She continues to LOVE her books.  She sits and "reads" aloud a good part of every day.  It is even more fun to listen in now as she gets older and has so much more going on in her stories. ;)  She is still in that stage of saying words and expressions just wrong enough to be so super cute and we don't correct her often.  She knows all of her letters and numbers and many of the sounds to start real reading, but we are not pushing it too hard yet.  She LOVES doing her work while the kids are doing schoolwork.  She flies through the prepared "trays" in no-time flat and begs for more.  Sometimes I'm able to give her more and other times, I tell her that that is it for the day and the rest of the bigs' school time is playtime for her.  They keep trying to convince her that she has the better end of the deal, but she doesn't seem to agree so far ;).

She loves to eat, especially treats.  And she's still on the more petite size, but growing well and very healthy.  So so thankful for that.  Her long eyelashes, giant brown eyes and deep double dimple are to die-for and may have something to do with her getting what she wants a good bit of the time.  She continues to love being held and told me today that she wants to be a baby again when she goes to heaven because she loved when I rocked her every night.  Such a sweet mama's girl and I love it so much.  She loves to kiss and hug and snuggle and constantly tells me how much she loves me, usually sounding something like: "sixteen thousand one twenty-nine thirty-two five three seven one million eight."  She is quick to say "sorry" and "please" and "thank you," mostly with no prompting...but she very much enjoys her way and switches easily to whining often too.

She absolutely loves dressing up and all things "pretty."  She wants to make sure what she is wearing is pretty, asks to see my face every time I'm putting makeup on so that she can say it's pretty and is a good bit stubborn about how her hair is fixed (or not ;)) based on her opinion of it looking pretty to her.  Unless we specifically dress her, she wears a tutu, leggings and pink cowgirl boots almost every day.  And will change into them the moment we get home if she wasn't allowed to wear them out.  (It's similar to the way I am with comfy/lounge clothes haha ;))  She adores Greer and loves to follow her around and dance with her and play dolls with her...anything to be a part of what her big sis has going on.  She and Gehr are buds too, but it's different...she has him wrapped around her finger instead of following him around/copying him like she does Greer.  She still naps every day (in her room), but has moved to Greer's room with her for nighttime.  I can see us making a full transition to them sharing over the next year :))

And, oh Sam.  She adores him like no other.  Randomly through the day, she wants to know what he is doing and can't wait to tell him about any and everything from her day.  Before we leave any current playdate with him, she is asking when she will be seeing him the next time.  It is an intense love that can be peppered with arguing for sure...but really really sweet most of the time.  :)  Her other great love is gum ;) and she can bribed to do most anything for a piece of it.  She is an animal and baby lover like the bigs, loves to color like they do and loves to play with hair...our sweet girlfriends with long hair are so sweet to always acquiesce :)

Her nature is a little more timid than our other two, being afraid more of heights, being alone, the possibility of a scratch even bleeding a little etc.  She also tends to talk about things like dying and heaven earlier than they did, maybe because our conversations are a little more mature having older siblings around.  I love hearing her "reading" her books, talking about the big way that God cares for all of us and how Jesus came to save us...and how God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are so nice.  Recently, she has been asking a lot of questions about how old she has to be to ask Jesus in her heart like Gehr and Greer have...and I'm reminded of what a blessing it is to have them speak truth into her life and help us prepare her heart for the gospel.  It still kind of blows my mind that she is getting even close to the age of understanding...

Which brings me back to the beginning of the post.  I am truly thankful for four amazing years with this little one and love watching her big girl personality develop, but I do pause for sure when I realize that we've now moved past the last of the baby things.  It makes me so so glad that I was able to be home full-time this last go-round to cherish all the little things and not feel like it went by too terribly fast.  Happy 4th birthday to our sweet and crazy big girl, Garner!  We love you like crazy :)

november book clubs

I only got pics of our leaf book club week last month, but seriously, how much fun...

After book club sweetness...

And the book club song :).  The girls love singing it and making up their own versions too ;))

Such a fun, fun part of our week...thank you again and again, Jenn!