December to remember

I hope when my kids are older, they'll remember all the fun things we did and tried to do for them. I don't have a lot of pictures of me WITH the kids and that's my fault but thankfully I have a lot of pictures of the kids so hopefully that'll count for something! 

This past December went by just as fast and furiously fun as time could. The kids and I and BB and Kylia started the Christmas season off at Dorothy  B. Oven Park in Tallahassee. We went to see all the Christmas lights and had a blast. Pictures from there are kind of blurry because the girls are finally getting to an age where they'll sit still for a quick pic but Huntington just isn't there yet (at least he wasn't back in December!) 

Later we loaded up with Kylia and took a ride to Jacksonville, FL to spend some time with aunt Diana's mother, Billie Tharpe. We like to call her Granny T. We spent the day with Granny T, aunt Diana and uncle Johnny, as they had flown in from Texas. It was great to see them.

This past year we also had a new friend show up at our house. Yep, one random morning, out of the blue clear sky, we found an ELF in our house! And, the longer he stayed there, we realized he didn't always stay on a shelf! We let him stay, we gave him a name (Yukon Cornelious) and the kids had so much fun waking up and discovering what Yukon had gotten into the night before! 

We were finally able to get pics with Santa the week of Christmas, we found him at Bass pro Shop and the kids wasted no time in telling him what they wanted! Well, Hunt didn't too much care for giving Santa a list but when he figures out what Santa does, I'm sure he'll make up for some lost time. We spent Christmas Eve in Hosford and are a lot and watched Rhett, Joe, Brian, Duncan, Garet and other manly men light up the sky (and parts of the field) with fireworks. It was a great night with family and friends. I love the Christmas season and all the rush and hurry it brings and even though so many of us get swept up in buying gifts, I hope we can always remember the greatest gift the was given to us on Christmas, our saviour Jesus Christ. 

Non-stop November

Just because it's at the end of the year doesn't mean the month of November is any less crowded with deadlines and packed with stuff to do. In truth, it seems like the closer we get to the end of the year, the more "stuff" places, things we try to cram in our days so we can tell our children and our family how awesome we are about much we got done. I don't know how my parents did all they did with SEVEN children, I can barely do the minimum with my three wild turkeys!!! 

Anyway, November was full of things for Ryan at her school and things for all the kids at home and with family. I took the kids to watch Ryan in her class' Thanksgiving program. She was a turkey and her class sang a song about a turkey hiding from the farmer. She was so cute! Then, I had Thanksgiving lunch with her on another day and she and her class wore their Native American smocks and headbands that they had made in class. Well, I knew when Britt saw that, she'd want one of her own and I knew I'd had Bellamy one day that week so I hunted and gathered stuff so the girls couldake their own smocks and headbands. I didn't bother to make Hunt one (sorry buddy) because he wouldn't even sit still long enough for me to measure him so I knew it'd be mostly worthless. But the smocks turned out cute the girls had a good time, I hope! 

The closer we got to Thanksgiving, I had the kids help me pick out and make a treat to serve on Thanksgiving day. They chose golden Oreo turkeys and helped me feather them with candy corn and sugar eyes. We had fun but they did use more "feathers" for eating than for fluffing the turkeys! 

Finally we had Joe's birthday and enjoyed a Semiinole cake followed all too quickly by Thanksgiving day, first with my family and then with the Longfellow's. I got a couple shots of my wild turkeys and a picture of all the attending family members in Hosford. For such a big bunch, we seem to be dwindling in numbers. We gotta do better, Shuler family!!! November was definitely nonstop but I wouldn't know what to do if it were any different!!!

Christmas pictures 2013

I'm always thinking about taking pictures of my kids. Lots of times I think I have really good ideas. However, I have neither the equipment or the skill to take all these awesome pictures that I think about taking all the time! So, thankfully I know A few good people, ok a few good women, who can do all of the picture taking and photo shop editing for me, and all I have to do is supply the cute kids! So, for our Christmas card pictures this year, I did just that!!! I was talking to my coworker Jessica and trying to come up with a picture scheme and she showed me the cutest beach picture. It looked like the sand on the beach was actually snow, it was so cool and the child models were barefoot and in pj's and they were surrounded by Christmas trees and gifts and I loved it so much I had to get a picture like that of my children. I had already purchased Christmas pj's from Laura Wahlquist so I had done half of the work without even knowing! I know, how efficient of me!!! I then had to find someone to go to the beach with me and take the pictures for me. Naturally, I called up Kylia and she loved my idea but we couldn't come up with anyone anywhere close to us to take the pictures. Oh, and y'all all know that Christmas pictures or any other holiday pictures aren't actually taken in the month the holiday occurs so we had to do the pictures in the month of November. 

So, it was a bit of a trip (all day to be exact) but I asked my cousin Katheryn to take the pictures for us since she lived in Jacksonville and knows how to get to the beaches in that area. Kylia and I packed up props and snacks and took the kids over to Hannah Park and took pictures with "TK". We had a good time, the kids loved playing in the sand and the water after we finished shooting and "opened" the presents. We had a full, fun day and our pictures turned great. I'm already thinking of pictures for the next Christmas!

















The inspiration and the outcome...love them both!

Lost in chronologicalization

Is chronologicalization even a word? I must have found it from Joe's "fantasilical" dictionary. Yeah, because he's an attorney, and he uses big words in court and in legal documents/mumbo jumbo, I guess that makes it legal for him to come up with his own crazy words! So yeah, if anyone asks, that un-word came from him.

So, I had a point with all that but unfortunately, I deleted the photos that went along with it but the photos were of Brittyn getting a haircut. The pictures were on my phone in the order they were taken and it was after the FGL concert and Ryan still had crazy long hair. This tells me that I was wrong when I said she got her hair cut before school started because it was clearly later on in the fall because Brittyn wouldn't have gotten a cut unless Ryan had done so as well. I do remember that they both got hair cuts on the same day at the same time and I know I have already posted those pics but sadly they are totally out of chronological order. So, my apologies for any and all of my children/family members who pass by my blog, you might not catch some of my out of order posts but trust me, they're there. Ok, now onto the next post, glad to get that off my chest. 

**MSL**

Thanksgiving Play 2013

After the super awesome FGL show, Ryan got to put on her own show at school! Enter the Roberts elementary Kindergarten Thanksgiving Play!!! The kids in Ryan's class sand a song about farmers and turkeys and Ryan played a turkey. I only got a couple of pics but she was a fantastic turkey, if I do say so myself!!!








**MSL**

Girls just wanna have FUN!!!

Ryan and Brittyn are some fun loving little girls! And, by this, I mean they L❤️VE to have fun! Anything and everything, from dressing alike to be my candy corn cuties to being my hard core party girls at a Florida Georgia Line (FGL) concert, and believe me, they were, these girls know how to have some fun!!!

I mentioned FGL for a reason, most specifically for this blog post. FGL came to Tallahassee last year as part of FSU's Homecoming festivities. Ryan and Brittyn have loved them since their first song "Cruise", so when I heard they were coming to town, I got tickets for the three of us!!! It was so hard keeping a secret from them, I wanted to tell them we were going every time I heard the commercial on the radio!!! Finally the night of the concert came and they were so excited!!! We, mercifully, were able to bump into some of my girlfriends and were able to follow them to great seats right by the stage!!! The band was so close, the girls needed earplugs! They looked so cute, and all throughout the show they were getting all kinds of cool SWAG! They got several sets of earplugs from the crew, they each got a guitar pick the had the FGL logo on it and at the end of the show, one of the FGL guys gave my friend Stephenie Ford a broken drumstick for the girls. We stayed the whole show but after it was over, the girls wanted to get home. I hate we missed that part, but I'm so glad that I was able to take the girls with me to the show. They loved it, they talked about how loud it was, how they loved to watch the videos behind the guys singing and all about the FGL guys took their shirts off and mostly about their stamps (tattoos)!!! I still laugh about that, probably because they now talk about stamps anytime they see someone with a tattoo. I'm so glad they had a good time, I know I sure did! So glad we went and I that could take my hard partying best friend girls with me, it wouldn't have been the same without them!!!























































































































**MSL**