Our Halloween Weekend

The Halloween weekend started on Thursday when I went to Sam's and bought 800 hot dogs and buns.  Yes, 800!  That's a lot of hot dogs.  You should have seen my car, unfortunately I don't have pictures of that aspect of the weekend. 
Friday Jack had his Halloween parade.  It was a lot of fun to watch him with all his friends.  He was really excited as they "paraded" around the parking lot.  On a funny note...we have some friends that ride with us.  The little girl told her mother that Jack dressed as a "Presbyterian".  Beth called me for clarification and I quickly assured her that while we totally love Jesus we would not dress our children as clergy for Halloween.  

 Jack took a nap after his parade and I picked up Clayton (and a friend) and we headed to Walmart.  We bought 600 drinks to go with the 300 drinks already at church...and the 800 hot dogs and buns. We got those loaded up and headed out to eat pizza at a new restaurant in Paris called Pi Pizza Kitchen...yummie!!

 Saturday morning around 6:00 Christy and I headed out for our half-marathon.  We started by ourselves, but Christy's husband, Randall, met us at the finish line.  After a delicious lunch in Clarksville we headed back to Paris. 

 Once home I grabbed a shower and headed to church to met a wonderful group of people to load up all the drinks, hot dogs and candy bags.  Yes, that's what all that stuff was for...Operation Pumpkin Outreach a.k.a.-OPO.

 Trick or Treating is really big in Paris.  Over the span of about three hours we passed out around 800 bags of candy and 650 hot dogs.  It was a great night of food, candy and smiles.  Outstanding night, but it certainly did not take me long to fall asleep!!

 Sunday morning we were getting ready for church.  The big boys were in the shower and guess who dove in?!?!  Oh yes, the little boy with his clothes on and the smile on his face.  Thankfully, he was not dressed for church yet!!  He sure is cute, though. 

 Sunday night we went to church and had Trunk or Treat.  I thought we would have four or five cars participate.  Wrong!  We had 20 cars with close to 30 kiddos!  We were just tickled at all the participation!  We even had a clown!

 No (Baptist) party is complete without eating.  

Whew!  I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted!  As I reflect over this weekend I can't help but smile.  It was packed full of events.  It took lots of preparation, but as long as I'm given breath I'll serve Him and his church.  I'm so grateful for my health, my family and friends, my church, but most of all my Savior!

Muskateers make TV!

Here's the footage Jennifer referenced in this morning's "Five on Friday."

To see the other entries, along with our cuties, click here.

Five on Friday

1. Thanks to your overwhelming generosity Fred has raised over $1000 for St. Jude. Thank you so much for your support.
2. I sent the picture below (thanks Liz!) in to the Nashville news station, WKRN. They were having a Halloween costume contest. If you were up at 6:00 a.m. you saw them on t.v.! I know...three of the cutest musketeers you've ever seen. Thanks to Liz for the pictures and to mom for the costumes!
3. Clayton has been wanting to run with Fred for forever. Fred took him Tuesday. They ran three miles together...three miles!! They also ran a 10 minute a mile pace. Pretty impressive, huh?!?
4. When it's your birthday in the Shackelford house you get to pick where you would like to eat. When Jack realized it was Andrew's birthday he wanted to know where Andrew would pick to eat. I told him I didn't know. He quickly replied, "I fink he'll want Mexican, right mom!?!"
5. We are not sure, but Andrew appears to be "talking". With two other highly verbal kiddos in the house the thought of having one talking this early is a little mind boggling. Some of his words are: no, juice (anything in a cup), thank you, Jack, mama, dada and stinky.

Still LOVES a bath

Andrew still loves a bath. For a birthday treat Fred let him stay in the bath a LONG time. This is what happened...




Did he really just shake his head and tell me "no"?!?

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Where has this year gone?!? It seems like yesterday we were at the hospital welcoming him into the world and now he is a year old. He is such a fun little fella and a joy to be around.
We celebrated his birthday in Jackson at my parents house with a little party. We had a great time. His future wife was even in attendance ;-) Enjoy the pictures from the evening...

Five on Friday

1. Fred has 18 miles today. He is running it at Shelby Farms. Memphis has a new program here called green lines. They take abandoned railroad lines and turn them into running/biking trails. He is really excited.
2. We are taking family pictures this weekend with Liz. We met yesterday to get started. You can view a sneak peak here. I'm really excited!!
3. We went to see Secretariat last night. (I highly recommend it!) When Clayton saw the horse running he leaned over to Renee and whispered, "He runs like me and dad."
4. When Jack heard we were going to the movies he said, "The movies?!? I love gummy worms! They have gummy worms at the movies, you know!"
5. Andrew says a few words...never on command. Occassionally when I'm on the phone and say bye I'll hear him in the background saying quietly, "bye." It is really sweet.

Oops! How 'bout Six on Saturday?

Ok, faithful readers...so, we forgot to post the Five on Friday this week. To make up for it, how about Six on Saturday? Here goes...

1. Fred's making progress in his marathon training and fund raising. Friday he ran 15 miles and so far, he's raised $675 for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. It'd be awesome if he could get to $1000, so if you haven't donated, yet, click here!

2. My birthday was Sunday. My brother had my parents, both grandmothers, both aunts, Fred's parents and my family out to his lake house. He and Paige treated me to a birthday lunch! It was so much fun. My mom brought a few goodies as well. No the least of which was a cake from Shirley's...yum!!

3. Clayton got sick last year at school on tacos. He still does not like them at school. Due to time restraints in the morning before school we were not able to get his lunch made. He had to eat tacos. I felt really bad. I was afraid he would not eat. When I asked him how it went at lunch he told me he just made his taco into a taco salad. Ahhh, now that's taking lemons and making lemonade, isn't it?!?

4. It might surprise you, but Jack is actually our pickiest eater. Some days he'll go without eating anything at a meal, just because, in his words, "That's not my favorite." What he likes, though, he REALLY likes. Sunday, I got to pick where I wanted to go eat for my birthday after church. The whole time I was deciding, Jack was in the back seat chanting, "Rice and beans, rice and beans..." Lucky for him, I was in a Mexican mood.

5. It's hard to believe that in a couple of weeks, Mr. Andrew will be ONE YEAR OLD! He is a super-sweet "almost one," though. Lately, when he wants to give you a kiss, he'll lean his head in and say, "mmmm-ah!" Ladies, look out!

6. We've been on the garage sale trail. It seems like here in Paris everybody is having a garage sale, and we've been reaping the benefits. Yesterday, my friend, Lori, and I found a food processor for $5, some Christmas tins, and small bottles for something the Shacks are cooking up for Christmas!

St. Jude

Yes, it's true. Jennifer does the vast majority of the blogging in the Shackelford house. There are a number of reasons for that. First and foremost is the fact that she's just better at it. She's extremely disciplined, while I'm only moderately so. Were I to start a blog with the best of intentions, I'd have about three posts and then you'd all still be looking at pictures of January snow the following August (love you, Tori :)). So, it goes without saying, we're all thankful for Jennifer!

Having said that, I have been known to, on occasion, post on certain topics that I'm passionate about. One of those topics is St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. St. Jude is an amazing organization that literally saves lives every day--hundreds of young lives ravaged by the evil that is cancer.

Jennifer's mentioned in a few recent blogs that I'm training for a marathon--my first. This isn't just any 26.2 mile race, though. One of the primary reasons I'm running is to raise money and awareness for St. Jude. I want people to know what a powerful service this institution is, and I'd love to raise a lot of money for families whose lives have been turned upside down by childhood cancer.

Will you help me with that? Here's what you can do: First, donate. Click here or on my St. Jude link in the top right corner of this page to do so. It's easy. In 2 minutes, you can literally change a life. Second, if you're a blogger, help me out by posting a link to my fundraising site. The address is www.mystjudeheroes.org/fred.

Thanks, friends. And, if the pattern holds true, I'll see you next summer!

Andrew and his brothers

Fred and I were eating breakfast when we heard what we thought was Andrew crying. We quickly went into the living room to find the scene below. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Five on Friday

1. Fred is looking forward to seeing his parents this weekend. We've been on "lock-down" in Paris because of ball season, school and this time of year in general. We're actually looking forward to both sides of the family coming up to visit and celebrate Jennifer's birthday Sunday. Because we are on lock-down, it's really great to have family come to us.

2. We've started stopping at yard sales. It is so much fun! Some of my favorite finds so far are a $5 bread machine and a $1 crock pot. Good times!

3. Clayton had a project at school due Friday. He brought it home Wednesday night and immediately wanted to begin working. He was so proud of the final outcome and so am I!

4. Jack has had a rough week. His behavior has not been up to par. Wednesday he had to apologize to someone at church and he refused to do it...four times. I went to him the fifth time and this was our conversation:
Me: Jack please come apologize. You can eat supper once you apologize.
Jack: (Making fists, crossing his arm and sticking his lip out as far as it'll go) I'm not gonna apolo...Supper?? Did you say eat supper?? Okay, I'll go...
5. I gave Andrew a pumpkin cookie (pumpkin outweighs cookie, right?!?). He loved it! I loved watching his chubby little fingers shoveling into his mouth. It was gone in 3.2 seconds flat!

Jack's pretend birthday

At Jack's preschool if you have a birthday in the summer you get to celebrate your pretend birthday. He got presents from his teachers and brought snacks to all of his friends. When I asked him what he wanted to take for his friends he picked peanut butter and crackers, fruit snacks, donuts, cookies, cheese and crackers and juice. I explained to him that not everyone liked a snack as much as he did and that all of those snacks would be pretty pricey for 40 kiddos. He finally decided on cheese and crackers, fruit snacks and juice. He did not smile at all, but I could tell he really enjoyed his special day!

Up from nap

Andrew woke up from his nap Sunday afternoon and drank a little milk. He couldn't find the boys because they were outside. Andrew loves to go outside. He crawled to the window and started "calling" them. He grinned so big when he realized he would get to go outside and swing.

Five on Friday

1. A precious man from our church passed away this week. Fred did his funeral Thursday. A lady from the same family passed away the same day. Fred did her funeral Thursday as well. It was a hard day for that family and for Fred.
2. My mom came into town Tuesday just to hang out. We had a lot of fun together! Then Thursday I stayed in Jackson for a while after I taught and we shopped together. It has been a week of fun getting to spend time with just my mom. Special thanks goes out to Mun and Janice for keeping the other boys!!
3. Clayton pulled his own tooth this week! Rejoice with me, won't you?!? Did I say "pulled"? No, it just fell out. It was so loose. It literally FELL out! He jumped up and down...so did I!!
4. Jack likes sleeping in the guest bedroom with Clayton. He says he doesn't have bad dreams when Clayton sleeps with him. Sometimes Clayton just wants to sleep by himself. This makes Jack sad. Jack told Clayton this week that he wasn't going to be his brother any more if he didn't sleep with him. Clayton was very upset and I assured him this was not true.
5. When I teach on Thursdays in Jackson Andrew stays with my mom, Mun and Aunt Janice. Yes, all three of them keep him. He loves it! Who wouldn't?!?