Jacob's the one in the light blue shirt (he was moving, so we didn't get a good shot).

Tired (and dirty) men after a hard day's work

Of Sleeves and School Work

I sewed most of the day today. I had a hard time with the sleeves I was trying to put on my War-Between-the-States dress (I can't say Civil War), but I finally (on the third try) got them finished. Jacob has been doing a lot of academics in an attempt to complete all his work for this year. He has really been working hard and diligently.

I haven't been taking many pictures lately, so I'll post some from a few weeks ago. Hope y'all enjoy 'em!

Tricia Ann

Moving Party

We helped some dear friends move at the beginning of January. Moving is quite fun when you have the privilege of working with such wonderful company.

Lovely Miss Kaliste

Miss Laura and her mom helping box up the kitchen stuff.

Anna, Caroline, and Abigail take a lunch break.

Claire and Elijah took a piano lesson from Anna during a break :)

Fixing Shingles

"Not another picture!" and "Who, me?"

After a long day of packing, we worshipped the Lord together.

Preparing to depart

"Gardening on the fly" :)

Monopoly and Spoons

After unloading the moving truck at the new house, the young men decided to play Monopoly and asked me to join them. I , of course, accepted, and we had a jolly time. When Chris went bankrupt, we ended the game. Daniel was the winner. Then the girls and the parents joined us for a game of Spoons. It was a lot of fun, though it was the most violent Spoons game I ever played.



Whistling (probably Dixie)

The "business partners"
(next time I play with y'all I'm going to bring my own rulebook)

The winner
Miss Caroline...our cutest spectator

Chris was the winner!

NCAA Championship Game

We were at the home of some of our friends the night of the NCAA Championship game. The dads (one of whom is a Florida State fan), decided to see if they could watch it. In order to get a fairly good picture on the TV, they did some pretty fancy maneuvers.

"Maybe it will be clearer if we hold the wire in the air."

"That didn't work. Maybe close to the floor would be better."

Me and my buddy Jonathan

Jacob and Chris don't like Florida, so they and Daniel were cheering for Ohio.

I'm not sure exactly what we're doing here...we all look kinda goofy.

Got Gum?

Top 8 redneck jokes for the week:

You might be a redneck if...

1. You're in route, taking dinner to your pastor's house, when you see a dead 'possum in the road it reminds you that you left the food at home in the fridge.
2. You play Carrom 'til you need a 'fangernail' transplant.
3. You want your wife to go into labor so you can watch the NCAA championship game on the hospital's 72 in. plasma.
4. 20 children and 4 adults are in the hospital, after visiting hours, sitting around waiting on a baby, in a cafeteria that is closed, drinking Sprite out of Styrofoam bowls.
5. When the head nurse attempts to kick you out of the hospital because you have too many children, you reply, "It's a good thang we didn't brang 'em all!"
6. When the doctor refers to your newborn "Little Princess" as "BigFoot". [Please don't get me wrong. LP is BEAUTIFUL. She's just got some Texas-sized feet.]
7. You have mysterious wet spots on the front of your favorite SEC team sweatshirt.
8. Someone(?) in your party picks the a.b.c. gum off the bottom of a cafeteria table and chews it. Hmm...

JL

Beautiful Covenant Blessing Born Tonight!

The Welcoming Committee

Proud (and hungry) Daddy

Smiles abounded!

Chesley and the Little Princess!

Finally...

I have finally found the time to post again. It's been forever, hasn't it? We've been doing a lot of school work lately, trying to catch up on the time we missed when we moved. Then there was Jacob's birthday and Christmas. I spent a lot of time on this, so I'll expect some good comments : )

Enjoy!

Tricia Ann

The Search for the Perfect Tree

This year, instead of buying a Christmas tree, we decided to be agrarian and cut our own. Accordingly, about two weeks before Christmas, on a sunshiny day, we hiked down the hill to the woods to look for a tree. We looked at several promising cedars, and selected the one that was the best shape. Daddy and Jacob dug it up and hauled it up the hill. They put it in a pot, then took it inside. We commenced decorating it. It was fun for a change to have a tree from our woods, though the needles on it were rather sharp. It turned out to be quite pretty. Yesterday, we took all the ornaments off of it, and Daddy re-planted it.

The whole family participated in this novel activity.

It was difficult trying to find a pot large enough for the tree.

Daddy and Jacob put the lights on the tree for us.

Christmas Eve

We went to Granddaddy and Grammie's house on Friday night and stayed until the Lord's Day evening. Grammie, Mom, and I cooked and baked ALL day Saturday. We made all sorts of things...chocolate cake, holiday salad, chocolate covered fruit, cheese trays, pepper jelly tarts, etc. As you can see from the photos, Jacob decided to help with the reindeer cookies. On the Lord's Day, we went to my Uncle's church. When we came home, my Uncle and Aunt, and their children and grandchildren joined us for lunch. Granddaddy had grilled a Sinclair Duck (that is, a standing rib roast for those of you who don't speak Granddaddy Language), our traditional Christmas Eve dish, and it was delicious! After that, we read the Luke 2. Then, we opened our presents.



Can you guess which ones Jacob decorated?
Before church

Christmas Day

Pop pop and Maw maw came to our house on Monday. We had potato soup for lunch. We then opened presents. After that, we took a bunch of family pictures. Banjo was allowed to come inside to have his picture made. Gimli would not sit still. When the photo shoot was over, we played Carrom all afternoon (read about it in the following post).

Carrom

If you've never played it, you need to come over, and we'll show you how. It takes daring and skill. You must be alert at all times, in case an ill-shot ring flies off the board (especially if you're playing with me). Ever since last Wednesday, when the UPS man brought our Carrom set to the door, we have played it every chance we get. Jacob and I called Granddaddy to thank him for the game, but he insisted that Bubba Clause (Santa's North Georgia colleague) sent it. Thanks, Bubba (not you, Chris)!

Daddy, Pop pop, and Jacob getting ready for another round.

Paintball

A couple of weeks ago, the young men from our church had a paintball war. It lasted the whole afternoon, and they all had a great time. I could only get one picture, so here it is.

Happy Birthday, Jacob!

Tomorrow is my brother's 16th birthday! I can't believe he is that old! I had to post this today because we are going to be gone all day tomorrow. Anyway, Jacob is a wonderful brother. He has grown into a strong, godly young man. He keeps our yard looking nice (11 acres is a lot to keep up). He turns the compost pile so I don't have to do it (I admit it. I'm afraid of the hundreds of yellow jackets that are constantly swarming around the pile. Thankfully, the cold has killed most of them.). He faithfully takes out the trash. He has been very diligent in his Algebra. He takes care of Gimli when I'm busy or gone. When I can't reach something he will get it for me (NO comments from the peanut gallery). Those are just a few of the many things he does. Our family would not function without him.

I went through some old photos and found some good ones of Jacob. I scanned them and posted them here. I hope you enjoy them!

Happy Birthday, Jacob!

Love,
Tricia Ann

This picture is one of my favorites.

This is Jacob looking out of the window of the space ship Daddy helped us build. We spent many hours in space that summer :)

Ready to ski (he's always been better than I am at it)