John Henry Starr V

How cool is that? A fifth! You don't see that everyday and they are calling him John Henry. These are our friends Jay and Amanda who had their first baby on December 16. We went to go see them at Piedmont last week and I got to hold the peanut (he was 6lb 8 oz). Right now he looks like his daddy, but you never know what will shake out. I feel like mine change who they look like all the time.

Congrats you guys and what a great Christmas present!

Making Christmas cookies!

Chris and I decided to attempt to make Grandma's tea cake cookies, that are coveted by everyone that tries one. No one can quite make them like Susan, but thought we would give it a go. Mason and Buie were dying to help, so enjoy the pics below of them trying to "help".

Since Chris is the true judge, (i.e, picky one) I told him he could roll it out and cut cookies. We have learned that have of the difficulty in getting them to taste right has to do with how thick they are, so the rolling has to be perfect. And since I have no patience with that, Chris did all the rolling. Once that was done, he did let Mason and Buie press cookie cutters in the dough for the green batch. But while I was helping them put sprinkles on them, Chris in the corner(no lie) rolling out the red batch and cutting all the cookies himself. He did not want them "all" messed up!

So here is what Buie looked like in the process. He loved, loved playing in the flour.

Here is what Mason looked like when we told him we would do the red batch the next night. Little did he know that daddy was hiding in the corner doing them by himself. Such big tears!

The next morning......he was all smiles when he saw what Chris did while they were sleeping.....iced the cookies. So, the end result......not bad! Grandma's are still a little better, but for our first batch, we are a close second. The icing makes them anyway and ours was very tasty. Jay, I know how much you love these, so we will get some to you.

Finally we got our Christmas tree! The kids were so excited to help decorate it, mainly to put the candy canes on it....only to soon take them off one by one and eat them. Everything had to be put way up high, because Celie wanted to pull everything off, especially the candy canes.

So, last night we took the kids to go to my Dad and Pam's church, where they had a live nativity. I was the coldest night of the year so far and there even snow flurries. I don't think my kids are big fans of cold weather.

Grandpa was a shepherd and had 2 friends, a miniature cow and a miniature donkey.

Here we are freezing, but it was very cute.

Happy Birthday Frances and Olivia!

They had the coolest party ever.....science experiments by Big Thinkers.

Olivia taking a dry ice fog bath. He made bubbles out of dry ice, burp potion, melted cups, turned on light bulbs through forks, made slime, made cotton candy, vanished paper. All so cool and even the parents were entertained.

Frances eating her cotton candy

Celie missed most of the activities thank God, while taking a nap

Mason had his Christmas music program last week and it was so cute, it brought tears to my eyes. They were all so sweet up there doing exactly what the teacher told them to do and singing every word. Watch out Glee!

Mason is in the middle, second row from the top , nest to the girl in green. He did not miss a motion.

Here they are walking out!

Last weekend we made a trip up to Chattanooga to ride on the Polar Express! Our kids have never seen the movie, but were exited to ride on a real train and see Santa again... they wondered how Santa was everywhere and why he looked different??

With Davis, Drew, and Wade, the train ride was a blast! They got treats, saw lots of lights , sang songs, and gave high-five's to Santa.

All the kids wore pj's and got cookies and chocolate milk on the train.

Arriving at the North Pole to pick up Santa.....

Buie really reared back and gave him a BIG high five!

All tuckered out and sleeping their first night in a hotel, which they loved! They woke up and mommy and daddy were right there next to them and they got to run the halls and jump on beds!

Guilty! Busted running around the halls and look who is pushing them!

We stayed at the Chattanooga choo choo hotel, which was very cute with all the old trains all over the place. It even snowed the next day.

Our visit with SANTA....we took the kids to go see Santa at Cherokee (via my Dad and Pam)which was such a great way to do it. By appointment and Santa knows your name when you walk in the room and no one is standing in line watching your family melt down while trying to sit on Santa'a lap.

Celie obviously has no clue what is going on....

This picture captures really what went on.

.....but she knew she did not like this funny looking man. Even if he did want to give her a gift for coming to see him. She screamed and went limp like a wet noodle trying to slip out of Santa's hands. Mason and Buie on the other hand were very brave big boys and told Santa what they wanted for Christmas. (They were very proud of the fact they did not cry. To be honest, their sister did not give them a chance to cry, she was very overpowering)Unfortunately, they couldn't remember everything they wanted to ask for. Pressure got to them I guess.

We might as well get a family picture out of this while they were all dressed up.

It is very hard to get everyone looking with such a big group.

OK, just to update you in case you cared..........Monday night was NOT the end of puking and doing laundry. Buie got it Tuesday and I had to go pick him up early from school, because he threw up on his sweet teacher. When I went to get him, he was sitting in the office with a trash can in front of him. I am afraid this will not be the last time Buie will be in the office at school:) So, then we are on to Wednesday and we made through the whole day and I almost posted that we made it and only 2 out of 5 got sick, well, I should have known better. Mason woke up 4 times Wednesday night puking and ended up sleeping the rest of the night in our bed. It's tough for him to get to a bathroom once he feels it coming on, because he sleeps on the top bunk! Great idea I had for a bunk bed. I never considered him getting sick or having to change the sheets on it. Not fun!!! So today he laid around most of the day, while guess who didn't feel well? Chris! So now, all 4 of my babies have gotten sick and I am the last man standing..........when do you think it is going to hit me? I am waiting..........and petrified. I really don't want to get sick, but if I can put in my request I would like for it to be tomorrow. Not this weekend, we have too much going on. It would be just perfect to end my week from HELL though. So, I hope no one else has to go through this and I hope we did not pass it on to anyone. Sorry if we did and good luck. All I need now is for someone to come disinfect my whole house! YUCK!

Well, what a fun night it has been.....I am affraid I do not have a picture to go along with what went on, but I am not sure you want one. The kids played most of the afternoon at my dad's house and they all behaved ( I was told) and were in good spirits. Came home ate well, played, took a shower and when I went to put Celie to bed......well she threw up. I think it was the first time she has thrown up, well, it wasn't the last. We cleaned out her bed and remade it and put her back down, for her only to throw up again. Well, this went on for at least 6 times. By the last couple, she was back to her original bedding (it had been washed and was dry to be put back on). Thank God, because we were running out of sheet toppers and pj's for that matter. The last few times have not been full blown throw ups, just some dry heaving, but enough to wake her up and make her cry. For those, we just wipe her down, flip her over to the other end of the crib. How bad does that sound? It really isn't enough to change a whole crib out or change her pj's again. I feel so bad for her and I really hope none of the rest of us wake up in the morning with this funk. Wish us luck!

Happy Thanksgiving from Cottonham

Grandma got all the kiddos these bright orange vests so we could find them.

Uncle Parker taking the kids (minus Celie) for their first 4-weeler ride. He was our director of activites for the weekend.

Now, it's Chris's turn to take them for a ride on the golf cart. Do you think they are having fun?

Girls only! Aunt Kelly, Caddie and Celie helping to collect wood for a little later

Buie and Crawford helping gather wood for our bonfire....

Celie, gathering things to cook with.....

Mason, Buie and Crawford having egg on the spoon race...

.....and just a plain old foot race

Mason and Buie went hunting with Chris and Crawford went with Parker. Unfortunately, I don't they saw any animals and mostly played on iphones, but at least they went and dressed the part.

This was the best we could do....like I have said before, it's hard to get 5 people looking good and at the camera at the same time.

Cooking was one of the many activities the children love to do down at the farm.

Mason and Winton taking a break from all the festivities.

I mean.........please! How cute is this? On a hay ride in front of the house!

A brief moment of Celie and Caddie being friends....

.....no, wait.....it looks like Caddie might take her down....

No, they really got along for the most part, just not when Celie kept taking Caddie's dolls and learned a new word from her cousin..."MINE"!

Julie taking the boys on one of many rides on the 4 wheeler

Celie LOVES her Uncle Parker.....he is so much fun and took her for rides down the slide many times.

The Grow family: Parker, Kelly, Crawford and Caddie

Even Grandma went down the slide......

The Godfrey family: Elwyn, Julie, Tommy and Tom

Here I am trying to hold Celie back from running into the bonfire. She loved it.