Video Catch-Up

Okay, so there's been a lot to video since our last picture/video post. I guess it's time we catch up. These are for you, fans. You may want to take it slowly. I've never heard of anyone ODing on cuteness, but better safe than sorry... Don't forget to scroll down so you don't miss anything.

Clayton's mad skills on the court...

Clayton's Sunday School class's Christmas program. Have you seen a cuter wise man? Burger King crown and all!

Christmas morning. Think they were excited?

Back to normal...

The boys returned home this afternoon to find their rooms (and the entire house) back to normal and in order...YEAH!! They have both enjoyed playing with all their new toys, but especially the play dough that Uncle Dan and Aunt Tami sent them. (On a side note...when I mentioned to Melody that my boys were playing with play dough she asked where her friend was...hehehe!!) Boy, do we love play dough! Thanks Dan and Tami! Thanks also to everyone else for everything! We love our blocks, pack pack, Wii games, Legos, pajamas, books, and on and on and on!! (Katie, one would think our last name was Kenworthy instead of Shackelford!) Tonight we sat down for dinner and Jack started to say, "I want some bread with my jel-wee! I want some bread with my jel-wee!" After asking about 20 times Fred finally figured out that he wanted jelly on his cornbread. He loves it! Jelly with bread is really more accurate for Jack. Here he is thoroughly enjoying his jel-wee with bread!!

Christmas 2008

Well, you haven't heard from us in a while, but that's because we've been moving like CRAZY! Christmas with the Shacks is like that. Jennifer and I both come from big families, and that means lots of places to go for the holidays. We kicked off the parade on Christmas Eve with my grandparents, Elzie and Dottie Danley, in Jackson. We then made it back to Paris so Mr. C could make his annual visit. Mimi and T spent the night before Christmas and Christmas morning at our house, where we all enjoyed a BIG breakfast together after we opened presents. After we cleaned up everything, we all loaded into the Shackelford sleigh and headed to Memphis, where we celebrated with MawMaw, PawPaw, Grandma Beulah, Aunt Elizabeth, Uncle Zach, Aunt Tori, and Uncle Lee (for pictures, check out Elizabeth's blog). We had a great time in Memphis, but before we knew it, it was the day after Christmas and time to head to Jackson for Christmas with Jennifer's family.

We celebrated with Mimi, T, Uncle Jeffrey, Aunt Paige, Blake, Adam, Aunt Christie and Grammy on Friday evening and had fun there as well. Finally, we finished everything off on Saturday afternoon at Mun and Janice's with all of Mimi's brothers and sisters and their families. It was pretty exhausting, but fun! Jennifer and I came on back to Paris Saturday night for church on Sunday, but the boys stayed in Jackson with cousins and Mun and Janice until today. When they got home, it was like Christmas all over again. Keep checking back. We'll load a video from Christmas morning soon.

The Giving Tree Project

Here's a little video documenting this year's "Giving Tree Project," a Springhill Christmas tradition. This year we collected, prepared, and delivered (a lot of ) food and gifts to 52 needy families in our community. Each pair of boxes we delivered also had information about our church and the God we serve. Thanks to all of our church family who worked so hard to make this year's project possible.

On a side note, this year for Christmas, Jennifer, Jennifer's brother Jeff, her sister-in-law Paige, and I all decided to donate the money we'd ordinarily spend on gifts for one another to the charity of our choice. This year, we chose to go over and above our normal donation to the GTP by that amount in honor of Jeff and Paige. Thanks, guys, for being apart of what God's doing here in Paris. We love you!

Santa came to Story Hour!!!

Unfortunately, shortly after Santa came in the room Mrs. Donna announced that there were cookies to decorate. As you can see from the pictures we did not visit with Santa. We headed straight to the cookie decorating station. Mrs. Donna also told us that there were two cookies, one for the child and one for the mother. Jack heard Mrs. Donna say there were two cookies, one for the child and the other for the child...as evidenced in the below pictures. Thankfully, Mrs. Katie shared her cookie with me or I would have been left out of the Christmas cookie party!!

We did it!!

Fred, Christy (my running partner) and I headed to Memphis this weekend to run the St. Jude Half Marathon. We do not have many pictures from the race, but luckily Fred's sister caught up with us shortly after mile 7. We were smiling at the beginning and still smiling at the end!! Plans are already being made for next year! It was very emotional as we passed people holding pictures of their children and shouting thank you. One sign we passed read, "Keep running, Brandon needs a cure." Another one said, "Keep smiling, Jake always did", and it had a picture of their little boy on the sign.

Perhaps my favorite sign of the day...
I would like to encourage anyone who wants to run next year to join us. (I ran my first mile just five years ago...no excuses!!) Also, if you would like to give to St. Jude you can visit their website by clicking here.

Thanks to everyone for their encouraging words, cards and phone calls. We couldn't have done it without you!!

We would like to send out a thank you to Aiden, Lee, Zach and Pawpaw

Clayton spent an afternoon at his friend Aiden's house. He came home with this lovely skill. Over Thanksgiving Lee, Zach and Pawpaw really helped him perfect it! They have even named this skill, but I'll spare you. All I can say is hurry home Zeke we have a LOT to teach you!!