School and Fun With Friends

Faith having a ball on the slide
of the indoor playground with her
classmates....Hannah, Brooke,
Molly and Joseph

Milla's School "Family Dance"
with her buddies Boston, Sarah
and Faith

Faith, Marley and Milla walking
arm in arm out of church

FUN at Ethan and Emily's "Catch Air"
Birthday Party.  It was on a Friday night...
snow was in the forecast--so they cancelled
school that day....but the party went on...
everyone had cabin fever and got to
bounce out some energy!

Ethan and Cole

Faith, Emily and Milla
with their cute socks as a party favor
(Faith was the most excited with her
donut socks!)

Cole looking up to Grayson

Grandpa...aka "Coach Dunnington"
had a basketball tournament close
to us...so of course we went to
cheer on Woodland!!

Sweet Sisters!

Milla dressed up like a 100 year
old for the 100th day of school....
glasses, a sweater, a bun, pearls

Faith at her "Teddy Bear Parade"
-her teddy bear rode in a butterfly float

Faith and her preschool class

Ethan and Emily came over
to play!

Cole has a stuffed animal Golden
Retriever (that he of course calls HANK)
that he loves to cuddle with...this is how
I find him most days!! So Sweet!

Milla stretching...
determined to get the splits soon!

We had to get this picture the other day
at the store!  We were walking through
the isle and Cole saw it and said "Hank!"...
then when we starting walking away
he was yelling "Hank! Hank! Hank!"
...and I really wanted it too...so, we
got it for our furry buddy!

Faithy Girl

Lil' Mil'

Brandon and I got to have a
night on the town!! My mom
came up and let us go out!
Brandon's boss gave him a gift
card for Christmas to a really neat
restaurant called Cooks & Soldiers
www.cooksandsoldiers.com
and then we got to go to the
Wilco Concert at the
Tabernacle.  We laughed because
we had a CD of theirs that
we loved-- we knew the CD
backwards and forwards and loved
every song...(Brandon's favorite was
probably "Walken" and mine
was "I Hate it Here")...but, that
was one of about 10 albums they
have and apparently that wasn't
the most popular one...so, they
only played 1 song we knew!! :)
But, we still loved it and
heard lots of new songs to
love! It was nice to get the
chance to do something
out of the ordinary with
Brandon!

Carrol with 2 R's

Cole LOVES cars, trucks,trains
and planes....so, for Gran Mum to
let us use 2 of her "buddy passes"
to get to actually fly in a plane was
such a treat!  We hopped on
and headed to Indiana to visit
my Grandma Rhodes (and my
mom who was already there)

A walk in the clouds

Having Fun!!

Gran Mum helped Cole build a snowman
after we had only been there about 5
minutes! They had to hurry before the
snow melted!

Grandma had a smile from ear to ear...
she adored Cole and loved to
just sit and him! He had fun playing
with the toy cars and loved showing
her each one! Not everyone gets to
play cars with their GREAT GRANDMA!

Grandma Rhodes was BORN at
Westcott Place Farm and that is where
she was raised....and then raised her
children....and now (thanks to
Aunt Connie and Uncle Bob) she
 recently return there to live with
them.  She is so at home there with
a multitude of memories.  The farmhouse
is always so pretty at night...a light in
every window.

There are some things that you just
HAVE to do when you visit the farm...
you have to take a bath in the claw
foot tub.  All the babies all these years
have been bathed in this tub!

You have to slide down the
stair rail

You have to play the piano

Me*Grandma*Mom
Grandma always says
"Good Morning Sunshine"
She identifies herself as
"Carrol with 2 R's"
she loves to say
"keep your courage high and your
lipstick handy"
when she says goodbye on the phone she says
"over and out" or "signing off"
from her radio days

Grandma has A LOT of things to go through...
she always encourages you to keep a
journal...which she has done her whole
life....so, she has all of those and lots of
pictures.  I love this one of her
and Grandpa!

LOVE THIS PICTURE
of her 3 girls (Uncle Joel
wasn't born yet)
Crisann (my mom) in yellow.
Aunt Cathe in blue and
Aunt Connie in pink.

Oh, Atlanta!

Downtown Atlanta on New Year's Day
with The Peppers to ride
the Sky View Ferris Wheel

Faith and Lily glad to see
each other!

Cole staying warm

Wow!

Milla and Samuel always
livening things up!

A run down Peachtree Street after
a ride on the new street car

*A day with friends to kick off the new year*
Samuel, Brandon, Cole, me, Faith, Milla,
Lana, Jordan, Lily, Andrew, Ben,
Jackson and Brooke

very long escalator ride
at the Peachtree Center Station

Headed home

a ride on Marta to check out
this neat city we get to live in!

CHEERS!
***happy new year***
In the first sermon of the
New Year Jeff Henderson
talked the idea of picking
one fruit of the spirit to
focus on for the year...
and another the next year...and
so on..for 9 years.
He chose peace..
still trying to decide
which one to pick...
*LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE,
KINDNESS, GOODNESS,
FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS
SELF-CONTROL*

New Year's hugs for everyone's
sweetheart....Hank!!

(Becky and me in back
Allison, Brittany and Blakeley in front)
Got to get together and talk for
hours with my high school friends!
Love to catch up! We met at CRU
at the Avalon....we shared a delicious
appetizer...goat cheese beignets with honey!

(Michelle, Kelly, me, Chanler, & Anne)
,,,and then I got the treat of seeing my
College friends too while everyone was in
town for the holidays! What a treat! I got
to be roommates with each of these girls!
Michelle was in town from Charlotte, Kelly
from Peachtree City, Chanler also from
Charlotte, and Anne back
in town from Birmingham!
Anne always picks good food--who knew
Nordstrom cafe was so great?
I followed Anne's lead and got half of
an Asian chicken salad and a cup
of Crab Bisque! YUM!

ChristmasTime

colorful table at the
Christmas Eve Feast at
Gran Mum and Cappies...
my favorite things on the menu
were brussel sprouts with bacon
and the sweet potato casserole!

Gran Mum and Cappie's tree

little Christmas angels

Cole got his very own stuffed
golden retriever...of course he calls
it Hank

Gran Mum and Cappie

Candlelight service at Church of
the Apostles

lots of excited giggles Christmas morning

Milla was crossing her fingers for
high top converse and new clothes
for her doll!

Faith was hoping for a curling
iron and legos!

Cole's wish came true....."ball"

Milla, Faith and Cole were
just as excited for Brandon
and me to open the gifts
they got us as they were to open
their own!

We got to spend Christmas
morning with Grandpa!!
We had breakfast casserole and
played with the new toys!

Where Milla and Faith sit to wait for
guest to arrive

Christmas dinner with Mimi, Papa Ray,
Brian, Kelli, Lydia and Granddaddy
*Brian and Kelli got Brandon a selfie stick
for Christmas! :)

Kelli made this delicious spicy dip that
kept us all coming back for more...
Hot Jezebel Dip:
1 cup pineapple preserves
1 cup apricot preserves
1/4 cup horseradish, drained (not sauce)
3 TBSP dry mustard
1tsp pepper
mix all together and pour over 8 oz. of
softened cream chesse. serve with crackers
(makes enough to serve twice)

Cousins opening presents....the girls got
pretty, musical, ballerina jewelry boxes
and Cole got a neat tool/hammering set
that was Brandon's when he was
his age!

Granddaddy Rogers

Papa Ray & Mimi

Brian & Kelli

Brandon & Megan
(the weather was crazy!
unseasonably warm! we
had short sleeves on!)



Cole Growing Up

Gingerbread Houses

We tried to get a lot of projects
done around the house on the
holiday break....Brandon was
a dare devil painting the foyer!