8 is Great! Let's help Anna Celebrate!

The title is a take off of Jid's (Anna's g-pa) sign he made for Anna's bday dinner/game night at their house. This is the kind of party the Halloran/Goodloe/McLure/Elias' have...kids + Beer = GOOD TIMES! What do you expect when you give your child the initials KEG? Seriously!

Anna wishes with all her might and blows out the candles on her scrumptious cake from Brewsters. Please, keep the oreo's away from the boy twins!!


And, lastly, this is somewhat of a "ruckus room". A completely empty room in Muma and Jid's basement devoted solely to dodgeball and running around without worrying about knocking down something ridiculously expensive! Thanks for the room to run, M & J!

I wish.....

...three toddlers would stand still for 6 seconds! Yay! It came true, thanks to stinky recycled fountain water to spash in!!

What are they, twins?!?

Seriously, guys? This is the first glimpse I get of the boys after "big boy" school in my rearview mirror. I call this black-mail-photos-for-high-school!!!

Picture pages, picture pages, lots of fun with picture pages!

Reed : Noey, you color cowboy?
Nolan: Yep
Reed: Wow! I color ash-fro-not.
Nolan: !!!!WOW!!!!!

Hillcrest Orchards, Ellijay, Ga

Today we loaded up the McLure family truckster and headed north to Ellijay, Georgia. We had heard there were some good apple pickin' orchards in the area and decided to check them out for ourselves.

We ended up at Hillcrest Orchard about an hour away. The boys had a great time! They picked apples, milked a cow, took a covered wagon ride, rode tractor trikes, climbed all over a few real tractors, and just had a blast at the farm.

Here's Reed checking out our loot bag...

as Nolan picked and picked until he could pick no more!

On the way home, we ate apple cider donuts and, of course, APPLES!! Reed completely annihilated his apple, and Nolan took to his like a beaver to a fresh log!

I scream, you scream, can Mommie scream...for a napkin?!?

Golie Gurl!

Today, we went to watch Braden and Anna play in their soccer games. Braden was too fast and I couldn't get a good picture of him, so I'll have to get one next time. From what we could tell, I think he scored somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 goals. The other team had to be given the advantage of adding one more player to the field because they were getting beaten so badly! Way to go Bray!! Show no mercy!
Anna had a great game and scored atleast one goal that we saw! Then, she was put in goal and kept her teams opponents from scoring the rest of the game. Hooray, Anna!

Shhh, mommie! The Dr is talking!

I took Reed to his urologist on Friday for a quick peek to make sure everything was still working properly from his surgery 2.5 years ago. The Dr seems to think everything is fine, but he does have a small cyst that he'll have to have removed in 6 months to a year. When I told Reed where we were going and what the Dr was going to look at, he said "no, mommie! my pee-pee not broken, the dr has to look at my foot!" Then, when the doc had him on the table examining his 'junk', he was telling me what he was looking for and seeing and I was interjecting with 'oks' and 'uh-huhs' and Reed put his index finger to his mouth and softly said "shhh, mommie! The doctor is talking!" This kid if FULL of himself!!

The man...the Legend...Jackson

Jackson...aka: Brown, brownpants, sugars, sugar smacks, jackers, jackie, boogers, buddy, bo-bo ski autin naughtin na-na na-na boom boom boom; of all the names we called him, my favorite was "mine". He was there for just about everything that was a "first" for us. From graduation from college, to my and Todd's first "real" jobs, moving 3 times in Asheville, twice in Charlotte, getting married, buying a house, and having the twins, I can't remember my life without him. We all have some great stories about him and I'll cherish those memories for as long as I live. I knew he'd be an outstanding dog when we lived in our first apartment in Asheville and he had some sort of stomach ache, but instead of messing on the carpets, he hopped into the bathtub to do his business. His bellowing bark would frighten even the most dangerous of people, yet he was the most gentle and tender loving of all creatures. His eyes could speak volumes and I was waiting for the day when he would open his mouth and speak human. I know he's in a better place being painfree and I'm sure he'll be the first to greet me when it's my time. So, cheers to a dear friend and beloved family memeber...we'll always remember you!

Thank you, Pete, for making this collage of my favorite pictures of Jack.

St. Augustine 2010

The week of Labor Day, Jammy, Grandy, and the Ros-Stock McLure's hitched up their wagons and headed south to the beach! St. Augustine was a wonderful beach vacation and we couldn't have asked for better weather, restaurants, and fun stuff to do. We spent as much time on the beach as we could...without turning as red as lobsters!

We only had one rainy morning, but it gave us a chance to explore Ripley's Believe It or Not museum in the downtown area. There was plenty of cool stuff for the boys to look at and touch, and a lot of disturbing things that turned my stomach! A full face mask made completely out of human hair!! Yuck!

Isn't this the ceremonial picture everyone should take at the beach to make their family and friends jealous that they weren't there? HA! Here it is!!

We also visited the Alligator Farm. Pew, this place was stinky! The boys had a great time running around chasing each other and checking out all of the big ugly gators. Todd got a hilarious scare that I wish I had seen. Apparently, a gator wanted him to know that he had his eye on a tasty relic from Georgia and charged the glass about 2 feet from where Todd was walking by! I wish I could get the video footage of that one :o)

Daddie is good at making up games. Give him a towel, wood floors, and 20 feet of running space and you'll get some of the best laughs from two little men!

We built...and destroyed...plenty of sand castles.

A sunrise breakfast by the pier was definitly in order, until the bugs decided to munch on us instead of the food!

This one speaks for itself. Gotta love little boys.

In the air again, just can't wait to get in the air AGAIN!!

Ok, so I'm not the best "flight booker", if you will. When I booked my 2 one-way flights for PapaDon's funeral, I'm guessing I wasn't paying close attention to what I was doing. That being said, I tracked some HUGE miles on several different airplanes in the month of September!! Dawn and my layover in Milly-wall-kay wasn't so bad...when you factor in a good book, massaging chair, and a beer (ok, we all know it's a margharita in Dawn's case). It was the flight to Jacksonville, FL that took the cake. Who else can say they started their day off in Omaha, had breakfast in Chicago, lunch in Indianapolis, a snack in Charlotte, stopped to buy a postcard in Jacksonville only to have dinner in St. Augustine...ALL IN THE SAME DAY!! The last time I took a flight of that magnitude, I ended up in a remote little town in SWITZERLAND!!! Call me crazy, but I loved every minute of it!

Rest in Peace, PapaDon!

The whole Schimenti crew gathered for PapaDon's funeral on September 2, 2010. After which, we went to his gravesite and smoked cigars and drank shots of CC (Canadian Club) which were 2 of Papa's favorite pasttimes. Even Nonnie got in on the action!


Cheers to a wonderful man! What? Isn't this what everyone else does after a funeral?

Then, the "out-of-towners" took Nonnie out to dinner...there was still over 20 of us! She hadn't had pasta in several years because PapaDon didn't like it, so we went to Biagi, an awesome Italian joint.

Loooooove my Nonnie!

Happy (late) bday, Keekers!

Keely celebrated her 8th bday on August 29th. She did so by going to the American Girl doll store in the mall and spent all sorts of money the way we all wish we could. Hope your bday was great and we love you, Keeks!

The Georgia Firefighter Burn Foundation

Thank you to all who donated to the Georgia Firefighter Burn Foundation in lieu of gifts for Reed and Nolan's birthday. We collected $275 and, from what I understand , it will go straight to the folks who put on the camp at Twin Lakes for children who are burn victims. Twin Lakes is near and dear to my heart as that's where I volunteered for Camp Wannaklot (kids with hemophilia). Thank you family and friends for making such a generous contribution!!