Happy 10th Anniversary Melody and Corey!!

Melody and Corey celebrated their 10 year anniversary yesterday, January 22nd. Ten years?!? Where has the time gone?? In honor of their anniversary we met at the fanciest restaurant in Paris (outside of McDonald's, right Katie?!?)...Prater's Taters...to celebrate. I got a cake because every good celebration deserves a cake, don't you think?!? I also wore purple since on this day ten years ago I was dressed all in purple. What a fun day it was! Melody and I reminisced over the day while we ate. I wanted to duplicate her wedding cake, but as we remembered it was six tiers with strawberry filling. I wasn't feeling that ambitious. Plus, who would eat all that cake?!?
May God's richest blessings rain down on your marriage, family and ministry as you continue to serve Him faithfully. What an honor it is to call you our friends. Happy Anniversary, Mel and Corey!

Monster Nation

Fred, Fred, Lee, Zach, Clayton and Jack headed to the DeSoto Civic Center right outside of Memphis for a night at Monster Nation. The boys had the best time. I wasn't there, but Fred said the night was full of, "Whoa, that was awesome!!". Aunt Janice started recording monster trucks for us off the Speed Network and we have been hooked ever since. She noticed that they were going to be near Memphis and asked if Clayton and Jack would like to go. Would they like to go??? You have never seen two little guys more excited! Clayton even made a sign for the event! It read, "Big Foot rules, everybody else drools!" Priceless!

Story Hour Update

Story Hour started back again and Jack is now participating!! He may not sing all the songs and do all the motions, but he is participating!! Mrs. Donna sings a song about the weather and now Jack gets so excited about singing it that we discuss the weather before we go. He grinned from ear to ear all morning! How grateful I am that we the opportunity to attend a program as good as story hour!

Yes we did!

There was snow on the ground, snow in the air and the wind chill was below zero, but we did it. To say it was cold would be an understatement, but we did it!!

Andrew Update

Hasn't he grown and changed?? We took Andrew for his two month check up last week and he was 14 pounds, 15 ounces and 25 inches long. He looks just like Clayton to me and Fred. Although he looks like Clayton we have been surprised to see that he is growing like Jack. Both the boys are crazy about him. He is so happy and content! He constantly is cooing and smiling. Mimi thinks he is going to talk before he sits up. We'll just have to wait and see on that one!!

Giving Tree 2009

Each year our church participates in the Giving Tree Project. Our entire church donates items to fill 50 boxes. The boxes are filled with milk, oil, cake mix, bread, ham, eggs, flour, dry beans, corn, green beans, etc. Once the boxes have all they need we meet and deliver them. Over the five years we have been here it has become such a meaningful experience for our family as we deliver boxes to families.
This is also our Christmas present to my brother and sister in law, Paige and Jeff. We donate a box in their honor each year.

Christmas Wrap Up

The Christmas season began about a week before Christmas. The Merwin side of the family all came to Paris for the celebration the weekend before Christmas. We opened presents at the gym at church. With four (Andrew doesn't count this year.) rowdy boys what could be better?!? As you can see from the above picture Andrew was exhausted before he even opened a single present!!
The Sunday before Christmas Clayton and Jack had their programs that morning and the adult choir had their program that evening. Clayton had a solo (with Shannon) in the cantata. Because we listened to the cantata in the car, Jack knew all the words to every song. I could hear him singing from the choir loft. He didn't make it through the entire program though. He was exhausted from all the singing.




Since Fred and I were dating we have gone to Cracker Barrel on Christmas Eve. We missed a couple of years in there, but not too many. We decided to head to Murray that morning and enjoy our tradition. As you can see Andrew was thrilled. I decided this year that I am going to start keeping the receipts from each year and see how they grow as these boys grow. We spent around $16 this year. Fred and I split the holiday sampler and Clayton and Jack split pancakes and sausage. As those precious boys were sitting beside me and eating I wondered how much longer they were going to share a plate!?!

Christmas morning we were up early. My parents joined us for the celebration. The boys both got scooters. Even though it was freezing out they still wanted to ride them outside. They were too precious. After a yummy breakfast we loaded up the front wheel drive sleigh and headed to Memphis to celebrate with the Shackelfords. Mr. Fred cooked a great steak dinner and we all had a wonderful time. Fred headed home and the boys and I went to Jackson to visit with the Thomason side of the family. We opened presents with them on Sunday.

The Shackelford Family 2009