Christmas Bells

So another wonderful Christmas has come and gone. It is funny to think of where we were last year and the uncertainty that we faced with graduating school. Despite the new location and the change in circumstance one thing is still the same, the Christmas Spirit. Even in warm weather we still felt the holiday cheer in our home. Since we live all the way out here I know a lot of family members want to see what the kids got for Christmas. Well here goes. Madison got an American Girl Doll. For those of you that don't know...trust me, if you have little girls, you will find out all too soon.Preston got an oldie but a goodie. Simple hoop.Jackson got a slide. Now hopefully we can prevent him him from snapping his neck.Garrett didn't get much. We just gave him a bath.Amy got a 16 Gb I-pod touch.I got the Mac-Daddy AR15. Saaaweet. I actually got it before Christmas but Amy made me swear not to tell until after Christmas. She also got me tickets to Sean Hannity's Freedom Concert this summer. Uncle Curt must love us a lot of dollars worth because he got us Guitar Hero-World Tour with all the equipment.
Here a few more pictures of the hardware...for your viewing pleasure.

Garrett Mont Carter

Well we are now a family of 6. We have officially outgrown your typical 4 door sedan. Garrett Mont Carter was born this last Thursday @ 12:30 PM. Amy was induced @ 8:30 am and four hour later it was all over. He weighed in at 7 lbs 12 oz. He was the smallest of our babies. Maddy was 8.0, Preston was 8.8, and Jackson was 9.9. So little Garrett is the runt so far. He was 20 1/2 inches and so he was long and skinny. You can see from the pics that he has little chicken legs. Anyways, Amy came home on Saturday and everyone seems to be recovering normally. It is such a blessing to these little miracles in our home.

The past couple of weeks

Amy and I have been horrible about taking pictures this year and Thanksgiving was certainly no exception. We we able to snap a few over the past few weeks so here they are.

The week after Thanksgiving we had a family reunion with my mom's bros and sister. All we there except for two of my cousins. Lance and Caetie came out from Missouri and Drew flew in from CA. This was the first time in 2 years that we had all been together. It was a good time.

Here are some pics of Madison and Preston getting their yellow belts. We are proud of them and they really seem to love it.

Here are a few pics of the cousins.

Preston and Andersin were the best of buds.

Tae Kwon Do

So after being inspired by such box office titans as Kung Fu Panda and the original Karate Kid,the kids decided that they really wanted to learn how to kick some booty. Check this video out for a little trip down memory lane. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bs5CfDPsw0

We have decided to put the kids into a Tae Kwon Do. We looked at a few schools in the area and settled on the Major Tae Kwon Do Academy (http://www.majortkd.com/). This school was more expensive than the others but, we paid the year up front and it ended up being a lot cheaper than the other schools. There are only like 2 other schools in Atlanta that are accredited by the World Tae Kwon Do Federation. They teach Olympic style Tae Kwon Do so, if Madison or Preston ever wanted to go that far in it they would be accredited. We have been really impressed with it but, there is a slight language barrier b/c their instructor is Korean and his English isn't always clear. The kids love it though. On their first day they were taught how to break a board. They will be testing for their yellow belts this next Saturday so we are excited.

So I really think that if if Preston keeps with Tae Kwon Do he will look like Bruce Lee. He just has that skinny physique.

The OBAMAnation of desolation?...

“And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the [OBAMA]nation that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.” (Daniel 12:11)

I have heard it all. I have heard so many people say that Obama is going to usher in Armageddon, that we will have a communistic state, and that his rule will be akin to that of Adolph Hitler. I admit that I was severely disappointed at the election results (though not all that surprised) I am not, however, ready to admit that Obama is the anti-Christ. I know that many people reading this will violently disagree with me, but listen to my rationale.
While I think it is funny to read the scripture from Daniel in light of recent political developments (especially when you say Obamanation instead of abomination and when you consider that 1290 days is only 170 days short of 4 years), I don’t think this is the event to which Daniel was referring. I agree that on a large scale we will see the extinction of “daily sacrifice.” Under his administration, the expansion of welfare programs will further erode the will of people to make the “daily sacrifices” that are necessary for their own self sustenance. You will see more and more people becoming dependent on the government. Taxing the rich to give to the poor is not a new concept though. As you look back into the recent history of the United States you realized that it was only 27 years ago that the top earners paid a federal tax of 70%. Reagan dramatically slashed this rate as it was near and dear to his heart. During his career as an actor he only made four movies per year. This was his cut-off because any more would have catapulted him into a higher tax bracket. Is his refusal to work, not an erosion of desire for work? Where is the motivation for work when the fruits of your labors will be taken from you at the point of a gun or the threat of imprisonment? On the other side of the coin why would people get out and work (ie “daily sacrifice”), when doing so would cause them to lose their “government cheese?” Regardless of the side a person finds themselves on, Obama’s tax plan will take away the motivation for daily sacrifice.

Regarding Armageddon: Let’s look back in history a mere 35 years ago. The event I refer to is the Cuban missile crisis. At this time there was widespread fear and anxiety that the end was IMMINENT. Not that the end was near, but that the end was literally going to happen within the next month. It is easy for younger generations to forget what it was like because we weren’t born yet. I think that we need to keep things in perspective of history. We have been down similar roads before. The challenge is not to panic and think that our lot in life is greater than those who have gone before us. The strongest arguments that the end is not yet imminent are the words of the Brethren. We have been assured that the end is not yet. I trust that.

Regarding the communistic state: One of the pillars of communism is the complete control of industry by the state. I have no real arguments against this happening especially considering the government seizure of large shares of financial giants AIG, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and Lehman Brothers; I just don’t see it happening. Call me naïve but this economy is too large for a complete government take over. I just don’t see it. A stronger argument against the supposed communistic state emerging in this country is religion. In a communistic state religion is banned. There are too many people of religion in this country to allow this to happen. I understand that we see this happening on a small scale with “In God we Trust” and “One Nation Under God.” Let’s remember that these were only added to our currency and Pledge of Allegiance respectively in the 1950s. Before these articles were added our country still survived. This is a far cry from the imprisonment faced by pastors and ministers in the failed Soviet Union. Another thing to consider are the immigrants, most of which are Mexican and most of which are Catholic. As the population of this country increases so does the number of Christians. They may not be the most stalwart but they are the reason, in my opinion, that Prop 8 passed in California. The Catholic Church adamantly supported Prop 8 and I think the Latino vote helped sway it. I don’t see religion going away in this country in the next 4-8 years. I think we will take a large step toward socialism though.

Regarding Obama ruling like Hitler: Please. The extermination of 6 million individuals based on a religious and cultural difference. The only real argument for this happening is Obama’s alleged call for a national police force. I have found no evidence that he actually said this. No one in cyberspace can supply the source of this rumor. For anyone out there under the assumption that this is a new concept, open your eyes. We have had a national police force for 73 years. Hello the FBI. They are a police force that is not bound by the jurisdictional restrains of a city, county, or state.

After reading all this you probably think I voted for Obama. False. I oppose him on almost every level. I think this country is heading for a major financial downturn that will only be exacerbated by the policies of Barack Obama. My argument today is one of hope. Now is the time for people to prepare for an uncertain future not a time to panic. We have certainly seen our fair share of poor presidents in this country, but despite the odds America perseveres. I firmly believe that America is still a beacon of freedom to the world. I think we will survive the reign of Obama. I hope that people don’t over react to Obama and begin to despair. Obama is not likely one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. There is too much good left in this country to focus solely on the bad. Anyways, I am interested in hearing what people think of all this.

Halloween

Halloween was fun this year. Unfortunately I was in Atlanta at a continuing education course all day but I was able to make it home in time for trick or treating. I was learning about Invisalign braces. They are the clear braces. In the last week since the course I have sold two case and have five consults set up for this week. It is pretty exciting.

While I was sitting in a class the kids were getting ready for Halloween. They were absolutely adorable. Madison dressed up as a bride. Preston was an Army dude. He wanted to be Superman but we couldn't find an adequate costume for him, so I convinced him to be a real hero. An army guy. Jackson was a little doggy. It was awesome. They went trick-or-treating with Cailee and Kendall. They had a really good time. I thought this picture was funny. It is Granny Robin giving a poison apple to the fair maidens.

Cotton Fields and Fall Fest

Wow!!! It has been a while since my last post so here goes. I am actually just going to post a few pics of our recent adventures.
Amy took the kids to Washington Farms for their fall festival a couple weeks ago. I unfortunately had to work b/c they went during the week. All the kids were out of school for their fall break. Uncle Curt and Braelyn and Amie and her kids were there. Among the festivities was a lively pig race. Not exactly sure which one won but all the kids loved it. They were able to pick out pumpkins and as you can see Preston went for the biggest one. The only rule was they had to carry it out themselves (Amy being pregnant and all). It think Preston settled on a slightly smaller more manageable pumpkin.Jackson also ended up with a much smaller pumpkin. He is cute though. All the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Despite Madison's reaction to the smell in this picture she had a blast. Later on that day, Amy was driving past a cotton field and decided to take a couple pics. For those of you that have never seen a cotton field in full bloom it is quite impressive. This cotton field is odd b/c they usually harvest it in late September or early October. As of late October it still hadn't been harvested so the kids picked a little souvenir. Now I can tell the kids to keep their "cotton-picking" hands to themselves and mean it. Is that racist? Stay tuned for a couple blogs concerning racism and politics.

What We've Been Up To

Well I know that it has been a while since I last blogged. Amy had a couple in there but it has been a while for me. As I was scrolling back through our blog I realized that I haven’t blogged about very much of the cool stuff we have done since moving to Dixieland. I think part of it is b/c we are terrible about bringing our camera. If we don’t take pics we tend to forget about. I have decided to pull a few pics off the internet and update everyone on some of our happenings.

Atlanta’s Fabulous Fox Theatre Amy and I went on a date to see Les Miserables at the Fox in Atlanta. It was awesome b/c I have always been a fan of the music and ever since I read the unabridged novel (1120 Pages) I have wanted to see the Musical. It did not disappoint.

Turner Field I have started doing a thing that I call daddy-time with the kids. I take the kids out and spend special one-on-one time with them. With Preston I took him to a Braves game. We took advantage of a buy one get one sale and we got 2 tickets for $22. The seats were amazing. We were like 5 rows off the field in left field. We lost to the Phillies though ( big shocker).

SEC Football
Yesterday Amy and I went to our first SEC football game. My boss has season tix and they are on the front row of the upper deck at the 35 yardline right under the press box. They we actually freakin sweet seats. The Dawgs shellacked Tennessee. GO DAWGS!!! Now we are officially Dawg fans.

Oconee National Forest (couldn't find a decent picture of this one)

Last weekend we went camping with our friends the Vess family. Spencer Wade may recall going on a date with Shauna when they were in High School. Small world. Any ways, it was awesome and we topped it off with a 2-3 mile nature hike that the kids insisted we do. It was pretty awesome.

So that is just to update you on some of the things we have been doing. Now you know that we don’t really just sit around.

Did you have fun on your trip? Good, see you next fall!

This was a really fun idea from the Kato's blog. I've been on a memory lane trip lately and thought it would be fun to remember some of the best times (or worst) times I've had with all of you. So, here's how the game works:

1.As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Tag of 3's

So I was tagged twice for this same tag! Both my sister Abby and my sister-in-law, Caetie, thought I should fill this out so I guess it's a sign. Really, I think they did it because they know I never post blogs, I let Bryce do all that. I just read and enjoy. Anyway, I hope you don't mind, Caetie that I cut your tag down to just 3's, I'll have to think about 8's some more. So here goes:

3 Joys

1. Watching Bryce wrestle with the kids
2. Hearing "family sounds" (for example, imagination phone conversations, made up songs, laughter and squeals--I love it!)
3. Music, especially classical, specifically piano. It always lightens my soul and makes everything better!


3 Fears

1. I agree with Abby, it's gotta be those stupid spiders! They make me so nervous!
2. Kidnappers/robbers/rapists-especially when it comes to my kids. I spend hours thinking of what I would do should something happen.
3. This might make you laugh, but I still am afraid of the Cowardly Lion part of the Wizard of Oz. I just hate when he jumps out of the woods and acts all mean. His face haunts all of my bad dreams.


3 Obsessions/Collections

1. Good girly smells. I love them and have been know to spend a lot of money on a product simply because it smells good. Hopefully I'm not the only dumb woman that falls for stuff like that. However, I think it's worth it.
2. Buffy/Angel . . . I guess vampires in general. Call me and adventerous romantic, I guess. I love the sex appeal of Dracula and the thrill of the hunt! Anybody that hasn't watched them, don't you worry, I have them all! Of course Twilight also falls into this category since it is much the same.
3. Babies. Caring for and cuddling babies is one of my favorite pasttimes and I frequently steal Baby Lea (that's my niece) from her Mommy. She gives me my "baby fix". I'm pretty obsessed with observing and communicating with those little infants.


3 surprising facts

1. I can't whistle worth beans
2. I actually like to clean the bathroom (even more than the dishes, that's right I pick the toilet)
3. I can be a little racist (maybe I shouldn't admit that online since Jackson with be president one day and it will come back to haunt him . . . but I do tend to generalize groups of people and jump to conclusions sometimes. That's not to say I don't know and love a good amount of differently raced people than myself though.)


That's it! It's getting late and I could have been reading, scrapbooking, or sleeping this entire time . . . I'll have to weigh that a little better next time because sleep sure sounds good! Anyway, I tag Holly, because I know it'll be entertaining to read, Joelle, because I've been thinking about you lately, and my new found friend Shauna so that I can get to know you better.

A Post About Preston

So we LOVE our little gangly boy, Preston. He is a super cute boy. He is like 3.5 feet tall and like 34 pounds, yeah, tall and skinny. He just turned 4 and so I thought I would post a few pics. He wanted to have a baseball party but we were getting drilled by the remnants of Tropical storm Fay so we were rained out. Instead we watched a baseball movie at our office theater. He had a huge haul with the gifts. This is the cute cake and cupcakes that Amy made. She has a cupcake recipe book. So Preston started Pre-K also. Listen how ridiculous this is. Elementary school starts before all the other schools. Since Madison and Preston ride the bus they have to catch the bus at 6:30 am. Can you freakin beleive how early that is. We have to get them up at 5:45. That is insane for a new 4 year old. This wasn't even the half day Pre-K it was all day. We were debating whether or not to even start Preston this year but we figured we would try it. After about a week he came home in tears saying that he didn't want to go back. I think it was just too much. We pulled him out and are going to look for a Pre-K that is like 3 half-days per week. Bless his heart though, he gave it a try.
All ready for school.

Madison's First day of First Grade...and other summer stuff

So this is going to be a picturey blog. Madison started first grade this week. She said that she had fun but I think she is having a hard time making friends. She said that most of her class are brown kids and they don't want to play with her. Poor kid, we are excited for her though. We actually just found our camera which come to find out had a bunch of pictures from our other adventures this summer. I will post some of those also.

This is Maddy getting ready to head to the bus-stop

This is all the cousins piling on top of uncle Curt. Everybody loves uncle Curt.

Preston met some new friends at church and was invited to a pirate party. This is the kids getting ready for church. Poor Jackson always gets the bunny ears. He can't defend himself yet.Once again with the bunny ears.Grandpa Bennett was in town for business so he came and stayed with us for one night.This is the kids with my sister, Amie's new baby, Leah.Occassionally the kids steal the camera and take pictures. Of course it is always funny to look at the pictures later and see what goes on in their room when we aren't around. Apparently, they ganged up on Preston and tried to get a picture of Kendall kissing him. Funny kids.