Happy Birthday Dad!

In the midst of the Christmas chaos at the lake, we celebrated Dad's birthday.  It was slightly scaled down from last year's big bash when he turned 60...but it was a celebration none the less.

Gluten free cupcakes on Saturday night

and birthday presents on Sunday morning (his actual birthday).

Christmas at the Lake

We celebrated Christmas with my mom's side of the family last weekend at the lake with our cousins from South Carolina.  Fulton and Caleb had a fun time playing with each other.  They're looking forward to Samuel joining in on the fun soon as well as Caleb's baby brother that will be here in a few months.

Fulton has finally mastered walking!  He has been able to walk for months, just didn't really want to.  Now he is everywhere...not that he wasn't already :)

after a round of Dirty Santa/White Elephant, it was time for the real gifts

Matt and Mark modeling some of the gag gifts in the top left picture above

Caleb loved his drill and "gobbles" and Fulton mowed his little lawnmower over everyone's feet

Us girls swapped ornaments after all the other gifts were opened

The middle picture is hilarious!  We're trying to get a picture of all the girls holding up their ornament and about the time Steven was snapping the camera, Fulton took off up the stairs.  So Pops went after him and then everyone turned around to look...well almost everyone...Kristen and Katie were ready for the picture!

the whole gang

Surprisingly this only took a few tries before we got a decent one.  Hard to believe since there were quite a few on the edge of a breakdown

The rest of Thanksgiving

After my last post, blogger said that I was out of room.  So I've been procrastinating the past few weeks about what to do...start a new blog, or just starting paying for this one.  So I sat back down today to finish Thanksgiving, and what do you know, it let me post more pictures (without paying), so I'm just going to keep trying until it won't let me again.

I know it's kind of silly to pay, even though there are only two people that read this anymore, but I do enjoy it when I make time for it.  I'll never be as faithful of a blogger like sister.

Back to Thanksgiving...

after we got home from FL, we had a few hours at home to catch our breath and then it was time to head over to Mom and Dad's to eat with my mom's side of the family.

Fulton is so fun and he sure does love his Pops!  They had a fun time playing in the floor after we ate.

Can't believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve! 

Thanksgiving in Ft Lauderdale

The weekend before Thanksgiving we headed to Ft Lauderdale to visit Steven's family and celebrate Thanksgiving with them.

As always, we had a great time...playing volleyball (which I am not good at by the way...no surprise), playing ping pong, and just hanging out

We spent one day by the pool and what was left of the beach (due to the weather taking most of the beach away), and then dinner at Jerry's hotel by the pool.

We picked strawberries one day, which made for delicious strawberry pie for Thanksgiving dessert

We also went down to Pompano Beach one afternoon

Steven, Keri, Abi, Bailee, Nik, Carson

(missing Jen)

it is safe to say that we did plenty of eating while we were there :)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Steven's parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and extended family and friends on Wednesday night

Ready for dinner...

Sadly, we left bright and early the next morning for Alabama.

I can't believe there are only a few more games until football season is over.  It has been a fun season of tailgating with our family and friends.

Fulton and his Mommy and Daddy have joined us for the last two tailgates and we've had so much fun!

Alabama/Mississippi State game...it was freezing!

By the time we got into the stadium, I had on 5 layers of clothes and was still cold.  

Then just a few weeks later...at the Alabama/Texas A&M tailgate, we were close to sweating!  It was a perfect day for tailgating!

Wendi and Shaun were tailgating just down the road from us, so it was great running into them.  Fulton, Kristen and I went back home before the game started and the rest of the group headed into the stadium.  

The game ended a little differently than we had hoped...but you can't win them all.

Happy Halloween

We all opted out of the traditional trick-or-treating this year and went to Trunk or Treat at Hunter Street.

They had some very cute trunks and tailgates set up so cute with lots of candy!

Fulton didn't quite know what to think of everything, but he loved watching all of the other kids run around.

Isn't that the cutest giraffe you've ever seen?

Next year, I'm sure it will be interesting, because he'll understand a little more as to what is going on...and maybe his mommy will let him eat more of his candy :)

Alabama Tennessee Game

We headed out of town last Thursday afternoon with the Barton's for Gatlinburg.  We hit up a Mexican place in downtown Gatlinburg before we ever made it to the house.

Friday was a day of fun at Dollywood and shopping!

I highly recommend the cinnamon bread at Dollywood...it is to die for!  The "double doozie" cookie sandwich that Eric got was pretty good too!

We actually went to two places we've never been to before...the Mexican place on Thursday night and then to Cherokee Grill on Friday night.  Both were great!

The guys were thrilled with taking pictures before we left for dinner...

Early tailgating on Saturday morning in Knoxville... a full 8 hours of tailgating that is!

It was a parking lot full of Bama fans!

We were on the very top row of Neyland Stadium...right under the jumbotron!  It was nice not having anyone's knees in our backs.  I can't say enough how desperately that stadium is in need of some renovations.

We came away with a win, so that made for a perfect ending to the day!

Football, Friends & Fulton

The last few weeks our weekends have consist of the three F's...football, friends and Fulton.

Alabama/Ole Miss game...8:15 pm kickoff makes for a long, fun day of tailgating

at the Cox's last weekend helping them test out their new jambalaya pot

spending time with my little buddy, Fulton...he is so fun!

Happy Birthday Fulton!

Wow, I am incredibly behind!  Even though Fulton's birthday was several weeks ago, we can't let that go by without a post dedicated to his first birthday.

My sweet little Fulton turned a year old on Sept 15th!  WOW is all I can say!  Cannot believe my precious nephew has been here an entire year...it doesn't seem possible.  This past year has been tons of fun watching him grow and I am so proud to be his aunt.

So, on to the festivities...

We (well I can't really speak for Kristen and Mom, but I know I did) had a fun time planning his party!  Once Kristen decided on the Hungry Caterpillar theme for his party, he hit the ground running for ideas.  Thank goodness for pinterest!

The caterpillar pom poms turned out so cute in front of the window...last time I checked, they were still hanging it the dining room at Kristen's :)

Fulton's wonderful babysitter made the oh so cute cake.

I took a stab at some cake pops...I believe it is safe to say that I need a little more practice

the spread

the sign in and favor table

12 months of Fulton

Is there any doubt what birthday we were celebrating?  :)

cute birthday hat made by a sweet friend

me and the birthday boy

the birthday boy with Aunt Keri & Uncle Pete

with KK & Pops

smash cake

not a big fan of the birthday hat

why is everyone singing to me??

hmm, not too bad

 I LOVE cake!

lovin' my new chair

Fulton trying to help his daddy and Pops put together his new car

Cousin Scottie giving Fulton a little push

What a fun day we had celebrating Fulton's birthday!  Looking forward to see what's in store for the next year!