Wordless Wednesday

Aubrey's first trip to the famous hot dog truck
She loved it just as much as Luke does

Cousins, Parker & Kellen, enjoying some swing time
Aubrey's becoming more and more independent,
demanding that she be able to feed herself

Cheering on the Tigers in the SEC championship game

Apparel of Christmases Past

Growing up with 3 sisters, my mom never missed
a chance to get us all dressed up in
matching and/or coordinating outfits.

Christmas, of course, was the holiday to go all out
with our matching attire.

Since I was an only child my first couple of Christmases, I had to have a prop to coordinate with.

The green phone adds so much to the picture,
don't you think?
For my sister, Anna's first Christmas, she was apparently too little to get all dressed up, so my mom chose nightgowns & caps for our Christmas photo.

Kind of 1980's Little House on the Prairie

The next year we moved from pajamas to
smocked dresses...I had the privilege of wearing
a full length smocked bib (forgive me I'm not up
on my smocking terminology).

Skip ahead a few years and there's 3 of us in our matching red and black plaid...not sure what happened to Anna's black bow tie.
You probably won't believe this, but my mom actually had a dressed that matched too, but I don't have
a copy of that picture :)

We didn't just match in our Sunday Best, we also had matching Christmas casual outfits.

By the time #4 came along I had outgrown all the matching clothes, so they stuck me in the back
to hide my semi-coordinating navy dress.

If we are ever blessed with another girl, you better believe she and Aubrey will be dressed in
matching and coordinating outfits!

I'd hate to end such a rich tradition.

First Gifts of the Season

Sunday night we celebrated Christmas
with my grandparents.

Luke was so excited to see the presents
and couldn't wait to open them.

Papa tried to help Aubrey open one,

but she was much more interested in
chewing on the measuring spoon she had,

and playing with the bows that were on the present.

Luke showing Granddaddy his present

Aubrey showing Nana her new dvd
Us with Granddaddy and Meme

November Pictures

I'm way behind on blogging, so here's a catch up post from our end of November happenings.

I've forgotten my camera to just about every important event over the last month, so the few pictures I have were stolen from my sister's blog.

This year we were here in Birmingham for Thanksgiving and enjoyed some yummy Lasagna (we're Italian) as well as a "normal" Thanksgiving feast.

My sisters and I at Thanksgiving

Every year after lunch, my cousins and uncles compete
in an Old guys vs. Young guys game of touch football;
and for the first time in almost a decade
the young guys came out on top.

Luke & Aubrey sharing a sucker
during the touch football game

The day after Thanksgiving was Black Friday
shopping madness as well as the Iron Bowl.

I got up bright and early to go to the mall & a few other stores; I was able to get most of my shopping done and saved a ton with some awesome deals.

Even though it was absolutely freezing that day, we decided to bundle up the kids and take them to Tuscaloosa to tailgate for the Iron Bowl.

We got there just before kickoff, set up right next to the heater and stayed fairly warm until half time when we had to take shelter in the student center.

Enjoying some snacks with Papa at the tailgate
Aunt Kathleen got her camera out to take pictures for me, but Luke was being camera shy

Aubrey found a chair that was just her size,
and kept herself busy for quite some time,
climbing in and out of it.

No naps and all the cold got the best of Aubrey, and she had a major meltdown with about 6 minutes to go in the game, so we had to pack up and head to the car.

We made it back to the car just in time to hear
the last play of the game,
WAR EAGLE!

Christmas Picture Outtakes

I knew that getting a good Christmas picture this year was going to be quite challenging.

I did manage to get a decent one, here are all the rejects.




This one would have been great
if Luke wasn't blocking my face

And my favorite outtake

Mr. Chatterbox

Conversations with Luke this week:

I was sitting in the den, while Luke was in the kitchen doing something...all of the sudden I hear a big crash and followed by a thousand little crashes. (I was sure he'd gotten into his Daddy's Nerds stash and spilled them all over the floor.)

As soon as the crashes cease, he comes running into the den, jumps into the chair and grins from ear to ear.

I turn to him and say, "Luke Sparks, WHAT was that?!?"

He looks around for a second and replies, "A dream".

Trying desperately to hold back the giggles, I reply,
"that huge crash was just a dream?".

Luke simply responds, "yes".

Well, what do you say to that?

After inspecting the kitchen, I find that he'd tried to sneak a few skittles and spilled the whole container full of them on the floor.


Sunday morning Ryan was dressing Luke for church, and I hear Ryan telling Luke that he's going to be wearing a "wife beater" undershirt.

Luke then comes into our room with a big smile on his face, opens part of his button down shirt to reveal the undershirt and exclaims, "Look Mommy, I have a beef...
a beef whiter on today!"

I think I much prefer the term "beef whiter" to "wife beater", who came up with such a name anyways?


One of the local radio stations starting playing Christmas music today!

On the way to lunch, the Grinch song came on the radio and as he often does, Luke asks me,
"What's this song about?".

I told him it was a song about the Grinch
that's from the Grinch movie.

He asks, "Is he the green man?".

I tell him yes, the Grinch is the green man.

To which he responds, "he looks just like a lobster...
and a frog".

Veteran's Day

We spent Veteran's Day in downtown Birmingham
visiting the new Railroad Park and
watching the Veteran's Day Parade.

Aubrey in her red, white, & blue

Cousin Parker passed down to us these
very patriotic shoes, but apparently they are a narrow
& Aubrey has double wide feet right now :)
So, I tried my best to stuff her feet in them for a few pictures, but after a few minutes she'd had enough of them squishing her feet and she took them off herself.

Luke & the big kids entertained themselves
by picking up pebbles,
tossing them in the pond,
and watching the ripples.
Aubrey loved the slide
She went down it at least 50 times.

While we waited for the parade to start,
Luke enjoyed some cotton candy


Luke loved the parade!

He saw soldiers, boy scouts, all kinds of cars, trucks, motorcycles, trains and even fire trucks.

Clapping for the soldiers
We were so glad Aunt Kathleen was able
to join us for the day!

Aubrey kept herself entertained during the parade by playing with a bottle of hand sanitizer for an hour!
Right as this train was passing us, it shot off some sort of cannon thing and scared us and the kids to death! After several minutes of crying, we assured the kids
that it was friendly fire :)
Happy Veteran's Day!

We want to thank all of our troops for the many
sacrifices they make for our country.

We are forever grateful for all they have
and will do to keep America safe.

A special thank you to our friends, the Carters;
Brent is currently trying to make his way home
from his second tour of duty in Iraq.

It takes a very brave and courageous man to be a soldier and an even braver woman to be an army wife.
Brent, Kerri, Mason & Sadie, we pray that your family is reunited very soon!