Zoe had a meeting for AHG (American Heritage Girls) at the roller rink during a homeschool skate day. So, naturally, we all went. It was an absolute blast. It was a bigger success than ice skating and the kids are begging to go back.
At the end of December we celebrated Christmas with Granddaddy and Ge and Aunt Yaya’s family.
Zoe celebrated her birthday.
Cousin Jacie met Tobin.
All the cousins!
Present time!
After over two months of waiting, McDonald’s finally got the buttermilk chicken tenders back in stock! It was a happy ride home for all of us.
Emmie performed at a local festivity with her Steps of Grace ballet group. As a reward, they gave the performers a ticket to come back. I had declined the tickets because the event is very expensive (and included ice skating among other activities). They surprised us by gifting us tickets for everyone! So, the day after Christmas, we headed out. We had some reluctant skaters but we told them that EVERYONE would at least try one time around.
Emmie was a trooper but one time was enough.
After a couple of rounds with the guard, several of our kids took off.
It was fun but we realized pretty quickly that we are very grateful we didn’t invest the money in tickets. Only a few actually skated for more than ten minutes. This is good to know for future ice skating trips.
We took Emmie to Shriner’s Hospital in December to get a second opinion on her scoliosis. He confirmed that we were doing everything we needed to do for her right now. He stated that she was not a candidate for casting because she was at the tail end of age and her spinal fusion in her neck. So, we’re not sure what we the next step will be if her back continues to worsen.
As an aside, Shriner’s is a great facility and treated Emmie extra special. We are so blessed to have two amazing hospitals within a day’s drive of us.
After her appointment, we went for some little play at the park in Greenville. It was cold but so beautiful.
A great place to run off some energy. 
Fun footbridge over the falls!
On the way home, we passed by the Promised Land!
We were blessed to be able to visit our family in Atlanta the weekend it snowed. The weekend it snowed, it happened to snow over 8 inches! Driving in the day after the snow was a bit worrisome but we made it fine for our Christmas celebrations with some of Abbie’s side of the family.
Going up the very snowed over driveway. We didn’t dare try to make it all the way around and stopped before it got really icy.
Emmie was beside herself. As soon as we saw the white stuff, she started making plans. “Somebody’s going to frow snow in my face. Aggghh Din we can build a snowman and knock it down and build it again. Maybe we can cwimb on da cars and get more snow.”
Tobin meeting his Aunt Yaya for the first time.
Cousin J loves to cuddle up with Emmie.
He and Abbie’s cousin-in-law were pretty smitten with Tobin too.
Enough with the indoors…time to head outside and get cold!
Emmie wanted to throw snow at Ace. Here she is “throwing” snow at Ace.
The main snowman.
Emmie and Malachi’s snowman.
An attempt at a really big snowman.
Cousin E and Aunt Yaya getting some loving.
When we left that evening…it was still very snow covered and beautiful!
November brought my fortieth birthday. I guess I shouldn’t say that…curl up in a ball…cry giant tears. Whatever! I have no shame in getting older. I think I’ve lived a good life. Not really one I was planning but way better.
Mark did an amazing job making sure the day was special.
Like conspiring with one of my besties who lives in Pennsylvania for her to drive all the way down here.
And then sending me out with both of my besties for breakfast. These two women are my nursing home conspirators. You know…the women who are going to put up with me until I’m old and gray and we’re rocking on the front porch reminding each other who we are. 
He had the kids prep and make cards for me.
And a giant spread of lunch goodies.
Friends stopped by to make goofy faces and eat with us.
And my parents came up. Sure, they came for me…but honestly, they came to love on the baby.
I got some Tobin loving too.
I even got a wished for bike shirt ordered from Children’s Tumor Foundation.
Tobin wasn’t too sure what to think about Granddaddy.
After a trip to Emmie’s ballet, we rushed the kids home for Mark and I to go out to eat at The Chophouse.
I got to celebrate my birthday throughout the week while Kristina visited with us.
And then we all went to see Wonder based on the book by R.J. Palacio. It was amazing and a wonderful end to celebrating another decade.
We enjoyed a trip to a local dairy farm which also happens to be a corn maze and a lot of other things like…
A cornbox (sandbox)…
Water trough play area…
A giant sand pile…
play areas…
And a corn maze!
The littles (with mom and dad) beat the bigs through the maze!
Also, the dairy had fun train rides and pony rides.
Some great archery experts gave us all excellent pointers.
Even I got a bullseye!
And Emmie had a blast.
With this pregnancy and just life happening all around, I haven’t posted much about our NF Walk. But, regardless, it happened and we all had a blast.
Emmie was so excited about the walk that she woke up at 2:30 the morning of, started to get dressed and cried that she was ready to go to the walk when Mark put her back to bed.
Ceili Rain continued working on her cake decorating badge by helping with the cake and cupcakes.
Ignore my big ol’ pregnancy belly and notice the cool bad/good guys in the background. These guys were part of the 501st Legion-Georgia Garrison and volunteered their time to dress up in this hot costumes and make all of our kiddos super happy! They were amazing and we were so excited to have them come…some of them drove up from three hours away to spend the day with us.
Emmie was shy at first and would have nothing to do with them. She’s more of a clone wars-Ahsoka fan. But after a while they were able to get her close enough to get a good picture. During the walk, Mark was holding her when they walked passed the storm troopers and she lifted her head up and shot a quiet “pew” at them and grinned.
Even though the walk is over, we will happily accept donations to our team. Any and all donations go to Children’s Tumor Foundation which funds research to end neurofibromatosis! Our team goal is $2500. We’re over a third of the way there and would love to meet our goal by the end of the year.
September meant that we got a little visit from Hurricane Irma’s aftermath. We live far enough inland that we really only saw rain and a lot of wind and were without water for less than twenty-four hours.
We did food prep.
Me: Hey Ceili Rain! Do you want to make some chocolate chip cookies for Irma?
Ceili Rain: Sure! Just let me quadruple the recipe!
When the chocolate chip cookies didn’t fill us up, we resorted to cooking on our camp stoves…in the garage.
And s’mores with neighbors on the porch.
We were so grateful that we didn’t have to deal with any big damage or days without power. So many people suffered through a lot this hurricane season and are continuing to rebuild and recover.
Family Camp 2017 was a little different this year. Who am I kidding? Each year we’ve gone to family camp it has been crazy different. The first year, I had just suffered a miscarriage and Emmie was fresh out of the hospital with her new headgear (halo brace). Second year included a jet lagged new son and daddy. And this year…I was 33 weeks pregnant. We knew we were in for a fun weekend when we met this little guy staring back at us.
Holding this girls hand as she gets to sleep never gets old.
Emmie had plenty of friends hanging out with her while Mark and I did a few races during our family olympics. Mr. J is a family favorite!
Zoe determined that our family olympics group would be Team Fun because, ya’ll let’s face it, I didn’t get to help much and we have a lot of littles. Zoe kept reminding me of that when she told me to get my life jacket on to do the mother/daughter kayak race. At 33 weeks pregnant.
I sat in our kayak. It had a hole unplugged and I started going down. The guys kept saying it would be fine…I think they were snickering behind me. Either way, I wasn’t going out on the water until they plugged it. Successfully done…we were off.
We tied for last but we finished. Honestly, it wasn’t my pregnancy that gave me issue..it’s turning around! I can never get the turns.
Pretending to paddleboat. The only way it’s really fun!
Family Olympics is always a big hit.
Team Fun!
Archery tag was a new and fun activity! Seriously, who doesn’t enjoy pelting their siblings with rubber arrows?!
Another fun feat…I hiked up the Little Stone Mountain Mill Trail.
We started way down where that little road is.
And Emmie?! She also hiked the whole way up. Mark and I were in tears. We didn’t go up the first year. Last year, Mark carried her the whole way. And this year…she walked all on her own.
Such a lesson to us to take our mountains step by step…knowing that sometimes God is carrying us through the years…other times we just need to hold His hand to remind us He is with us.
