Lately and Pre-Christmas

We've been busy over the last couple of months but I don't have a lot of pictures evidently.  

Enjoying a pretty fall day!

Rachel swam in her first non-competitive swim meet since she started the year-round swim.

Rachel had her first band concert earlier this month.  She plays percussion, so she's always at the back of the group.

He always looks so handsome when he gets a haircut!

And we have our house ready for Christmas.  Michael and Jackson worked hard at decorating the outside of our house and we all worked on the inside.

We went to see the new Grinch movie.

We finally found an evening to go see Santa at an outside event in Acworth - it was free and it wasn't raining for once.  Our weekends this month have been very limited because of all of the rain.

Christmas is in less than a week!   The kids are excited.  Tomorrow is their last day of school and they can't wait.  Looking forward to seeing family this weekend!

More Camping & Halloween

Jackson's Cub Scout group had another camping trip a couple of weekends ago.  This one was much larger than the last - with MANY more groups there.  Rachel went with them this time and loved it!  It was a cold weekend and started out wet but they pushed through and still enjoyed.

They got a new and bigger tent since the last time - they had lots of room inside.  Rachel took it upon herself to unpack and organize everything the first night after they arrived.

Cooking breakfast on the stove.

Jackson doing the climbing wall - he went all the way around all four sides without touching the ground. 

Bathroom, anyone?

Not too many pictures but they did enjoy it and can't wait until next time.  

A couple of other scouting events from lately - they had a clean-up day at the lake...

And this was a day at the Art Barn learning about different birds and such. 

And this week was Halloween.  Rachel went as Rosie the Riveter (she's wanted to be this since she learned about her in school last year)...and Jackson was Bumblebee (the transformer).

This next picture was taken the next day, after a haircut...doesn't he look so old here??

With Sherry, the Minion.  

And Michael even got in on the action this year...it was more of an inside joke between him and some of the other neighborhood dads...

Her friend, Lily, borrowed Rachel's rubix cube costume from last year...

Now we move into Thanksgiving and Christmas!  My favorite time of the year!!

Misc., Birthday and Tori Gets Married

A few random pictures from over the last month.  Rachel took this selfie with Jackson at dinner one night and I just love it!

Big babies... ha!!

We went out to dinner for my birthday last month... I had a huge surprise waiting on me at home when I got home from work... My mom and Jim drove down for the afternoon to spend the evening with us!  How sweet is that!  

 Celebrating mine and Kim's birthday's at the Cheesecake Factory the next day.

We saw Grandpa for a split second one weekend when he was down for a conference. 

Rachel got braces about a week ago.  So far, it's going okay!  

And just this week, Jackson got two braces put on his upper teeth and next week he will get a palette expander put in - all to help give him more room up top.  Then later on, he'll get a full set of braces as well.  So we've been to the orthodontist quite a bit this month!  

And just this past weekend, my sweet cousin, Tori, got married!  We are all so happy for her!!

We were one of the first people there...all ready up front!

Rachel with Anna Grace and Julia.

And all five cousins!

Bruce walking her down the aisle.

Mr. and Mrs. Danny Ollis!

We love this one!

A few of us in the family - not everyone though.

It was a great night!