Boys, Birthdays and a cute Baby

Here are some random pics from the last week or so...just now able to get caught up on stuff. I love this one of me and "my boys".













Clay turned 38 last week and we went to Myiabi's with a small group of friends to celebrate. I think we each gained 10 lbs that night.















Abby is getting cuter everyday. Here are a couple of recent pics. The one of the toilet paper is what she did while Mommy was at church and she was home with Daddy. We ended up putting the big pile next to the toilet and ripping off what we needed instead of throwing it away or trying to re-roll it back onto the tube. (Plus, we are saving tubes for craft projects, so Abby was just helping out!)

Ohio Trip - East River Mountain Tunnel

I love this tunnel...here is the view as we were leaving West Virginia. I like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel (who doesn't?) and then we opened up to a beautiful Virginia mountain line.

Ohio Trip - goodbye pics

Before we left Ohio, we had to say good-bye to everybody. Here are a few good-byes and things we did on the way out of town:

• Posed for a picture with the beautiful foliage in the background
• Clay picked out a couple of pumpkins
• Visited with mom one last time - she got a little sad
• Clay wrangled an alligator at a bookstore
• went by Frostop with the giant rotating rootbeer on top - a Huntington landmark!
  

Trick or Treat!

Ohio Trip - Visit with Poppy

• Here is my dad's "spreadsheet" of the vegetables from his garden this year. I also took a picture of the huge sunflowers in the garden. (He didn't track those on his sheet.)
• Notice Cody has a shoestring tied around his waist to hold up his pants...true country style!
• Dad had a big bonfire and hayride one night. Once we were way out into the woods, some of the guys jumped out wearing white sheets tied over their heads. Most of the women screamed, but it didn't even phase the kids though!
• Abby loved picking up the walnuts and throwing them back down on the ground. We slept under that walnut tree and at night they would fall onto the tin roof...bang! bang! thump! thump! We thought we were back in North Charleston for a minute.
• Clay and Cody got to ride in one of my dad's Chevelles (while other people pushed it into the barn!) Cody also sat up on the lawnmower for a quick shot...he loves stuff like that.
  
• The kids loved hanging out with Poppy and Tanna. The cat was a hoot...one night dad went to check on the kids and the cat was in the crib sleeping with Abby! Most days, she brought random dead animals to the front door as a gift..oh, how sweet...a ground mole!
  

Ohio Trip - Favorite Food Stops

One of the best things about traveling is the food! We always make a point to hit these places when we go up home:
1. Stewart's Hotdogs (rootbeer and chili dogs)
2. Gino's Pizza (for pizza an gelato)
3. Jim's Spaghetti (spaghetti and chocolate pie)
4. Tudor's Biscuit World (WTCR biscuit)
5. Bob Evan's (chicken & dumplins)

Yum! Can you see why we always gain weight when we travel?

Ohio Trip - Fun at Grandmas

Things are always fun at Grandma's house.

Ohio Trip - Cousins

Before we even got out of Charleston to go to Ohio, Cody was talking about seeing his "cousins". He asked us a hundred times "where's my cousins?" or "go see cousins now?" the whole way up to Ohio. Well, he finally got a chance to see all of them and boy, did he have fun!

At one point, we went looking for some of the kids. I found them here with a stash of candy that they were devouring before anyone would find out. Cody was in on the secret candy hoarding with the big kids and fit in like a pro. I just had to catch a quick picture of it in action before it got broke up. Moments later they were chased out of there and the candy was confiscated by Jenny and Stacie.

Here are some pictures of me with my first cousins Jenny, Stacie and Taylor and pics of all the kids together on Grandma's porch. We went to see Taylor cheer at her Homecoming game. That was so much fun!