THANKSGIVING!!!!!

We are having a great week with the Spells. Last night we made cute Thanksgiving turkey cupcakes:

And last night, I (Hank) made a pie.

Let me explain.

Sheri found this mix for shoofly pie. Add three eggs, 6 Tablespoons of melted butter, 1 Tablespoon of vanilla extract, and 3/4 cup of water to this mix. Dump it into a pie crust, and bake it for 45 minutes at 350. Sounds too good to be true?

Take a look:

Isn't shoofly pie supposed to be brown? This is definitely yellow-ish.

Tasted more like a custard pie. It tastes good, but it is NOT shoofly! :( What do you expect from someplace in Texas?

I think he knows....

As most of you know, we are expecting Baby Carter #2 in February. Lately, Jacob has been telling me stuff about his "little sister"...hmmmm...I tell him that it might be a little brother - but I don't think he's convinced. We find out for sure next Wednesday on the 23rd! Stay tuned to see if he's right :)

What we're up to

Well, it's been a while since the last blog. If you can't tell, it's a busy time of year for me. Concert festival is next week, which takes up most (if not all) of my brain cells. It also takes a lot of time with extra rehearsals, not to mention jazz band, band booster meetings, etc. And when I'm working a few extra hours at school, it means Tammy's working a few extra hours at home. Basically, when I get home, I spend as much time with Jacob as possible, and then it's time to (a) do home stuff like paying the bills, or (b) veg in front of the TV, usually watching American Idol.

Grandma and Papaw spent the week with us, which has been awesome.  Jacob really enjoyed playing with them.  

Jacob and I had fun this morning playing catch in the back yard.  We need to do it again and get some video - it's cute!

So, looking forward to a good but crazy week this week -- festival performances on Wednesday and Thursday, band golf tournament on Friday, and a jazz gig on Saturday.  It's going to be fun, but I'm looking forward to not being so busy!

Turkentacky Video

OK, so I'm way behind on this, but I hope you enjoy it anyway:

Savannah Fun

So here's a picture of me and Paula at her restaurant :) Just hanging out by the fireplace....If you are ever in Savannah - you MUST go visit The Lady & Sons. We had such a fun time visiting old friends. Until next year....

For Pete & Jen

you might want to read the comments on Laura's latest blog post. They have been updated :)

Gator Party

We had some friends and our neighbors over last week to watch the Gators win yet another championship (yes we could get used to this). As you can see, we dug out everything we had that was orange and blue and adorned our house. Looking forward to doing this again next January!

2009 - off to a great start

2009 is off to a great start!  Here's a short ramble....Hank is away for a few days up in Athens so me and Jacob will be hanging out by ourselves all weekend :(   We miss you Hank!  ...Tonight I decided that Jacob would take me on a date so we went to Cracker Barrell.  That boy sure can eat!  He enjoyed coloring his menu and then playing with the peg game.  He even paid!  Well - not really :)  We ran into a friend and he said he would tell Hank "I was out with another man".  Yep - he's short - but sooo cute :).....It finally got COLD.... After a very warm December - it finally feels like it should outside....Went to playgroup today;  I have some awsome mom friends - we always have a great time while our kids burn off their energy...Hank and I started our tv train wreck that is American Idol.  Yes we DVR every episode of every season.  We're nuts I know - but it always makes us laugh so here we are....Our friend Becca has moved here to student teach and eventually become a band director.  She is also playing in our church orchestra with Hank.... she's awsome and we like having her around :)......oh!  last week we had a blast with friends and neighbors watching the Gator's win another championship.  Pics to come......We got a new computer!!!  Yep - no more putting the old laptop on blue ice to keep it from shutting down.  YAY for a brand new Dell with a huge monitor and wireless keyboard.....Jacob got his first bike for Christmas.  We have "lessons" every now and then.  He really enjoys it - but doesn't quite get the whole pedaling thing yet....We are going to Savannah for our annual GMEA trip (Hank's music educators conference) at end of month.  It will be fun to see old friends, drive by our old house, eat out, stay in a hotel, see all our friend's new babies....always a fun trip......I think I will be visiting this store I love back in Rincon called Sweet Pea's - they have a huge Vera Bradley collection :)....I found out today when our church's VBS is - so I'm looking forward to helping this year...last year we were out of town......Christy - this is for you if you read our blog.....A friend of mine collects nativity sets and fell in love with the one you sent us.  I was able to send her their website and she has ordered one.  She is real involved with missions and loves that it supports the ladies in Poland... Thanks so much for giving it to us :).....Facebook - I am sooooo enjoying finding old friends and keeping up with everyone else who is just as addicted to it as I am... - but NOW Hank is on too - so I would ask all you Facebookers to throw snowballs at him, kidnap him, send him flair - etc. :)  His wall needs more junk like that :)  He is having fun finding his old HS band buddies and also kids he taught back in FL - and also all his grad school buddies......well its late and the bed is calling.  Until next time....

trip to the zoo

this week we took Jacbo to the zoo. It was the perfect day :) Here's more pictures