It has been a very long time since I've posted and I apologize. I've been really busy with my new job but loving every second of it. God is so good.

Anyway, here is an update. Asia turned five! We had a really fun time at Chucke cheese, chucke cheezits according to Asia. Johnny, Laura and Nana came up, and celebrated with us. We had a nice family time eating pizza and play video games.

I do think that her favorite gift besides the Wii was a doctor suit and equipment. We're all mysteriously "sick" now or "hurting" and Dr. Asia has to make us better.
Well that was on the 27th of April.

Scott had a big birthday. He turned 40 this year. Whoa! But at least he doesn't look it. He's been doing a fitness regiment called Crossfit. A bunch of coaches and men from our church have been getting together and working out. It's pretty intense and the benefits of their labor are evident. Scott is getting in shape. He's been running too. I'm there with him in thought.

Then Sean had his ninth birthday. We were going to go bowling but he ended up getting sick on his b-day and we had to postpone the celebration. Needless to say, we still haven't gone yet. But technicall we're still in baseball season and football is this next week too. But we still had cake and presents of coure and had a quiet celebration for him to bring in his ninth year.

Then, aside from all the other birthdays in the family, Johnny, Laura, Christy, and also Mother's Day and Father's day, Scott and I had our anniversary. The past two months have been nothing but celebrations!

So yup 10 years was celebrated on the 20th! I left work early and the two of us met adn went to eat at a Brazilian style restaurant called Fogo De Chao. It was amazing. Kim had eaten there before so she gave me advice on how to "eat". The food was great. And since Scott and I are both carnivores we really enjoyed ourselves. There was every cut of meat imaginable and they were all fantastic.

Aterwards, we went home and took a nap since we stuffed ourselves silly. Darren and Kim Tucker, friends of ours, watched the kids for us. We got up, went to see the tail end of Sean's baseball game that he had that night. They lost. And after the good nights, Scott and I went and saw a late movie, Get Smart, very funny. We both enjoyed it. It's a must buy in my opinion. But in a nutshell that's the latest with us.

This week I'll be super busy at work since we're working on video footage for procedures for the units. So I'll be putting in some long hours this week. Scott is prepared and has been helping me at home stay organized with housework and the kids. Actually, since I started at Chick-fil-A he's done a good portion of the house stuff. You can call him Mister Mom.

And then at the end of the week we'll head off to Myrtle Beach for the Queen family reunion. That's going to be a lot of fun. I can hardly wait since it'll be one full week of vacation. We haven't done that in a long time.

We also went to Panama City for a few days a few weeks ago and had a good time. And the pictures of the kids are their year portraits I did of them on the beach.

Anyway, long one I know but that's it for now. I'll update and post some pics of our beach trip to SC.

School is about to start again, tomorrow actually. So we, my friends and I got together with the kids and went to Scoops. It's a beautiful little ice cream shop down the road and it's the place where you could just stay all day and be happy.

They have all the wonder old fashioned candies in the big glass bowls, tons of neat gift ideas and lot's of yummy chocolates. You walk in and your hit with the aromas of candies and delicious baked goods. The cinnamon rolls they bake are about the size of a man's fist and smothered in cream cheese icing! Yum!

We had a really nice time hanging out and spending time with one another. We all had been so busy over the holidays that we hadn't really had a chance to see eachother. The kids had fun too tasting the different flavors of ice creams and sorbets. Can't wait to do it again.

The last picture was actually of Sean and Asia at a roller rink for a party for one of their friends. Too cute so I had to add it.

I know Christmas is over but I had to write one thing about the elves!

Sean had been coming home all excited about the elves that had been visiting his friends at thier homes. The "elves" would come all the way from the North Pole and do mischievious things to the kids while they're asleep.

So Sean starting writing letters to Santa hoping that he would send an elf his way. Well, needless to say, an elf did visit Sean and more than one I should say.

The first night the elves tp'd Sean's room making a huge mess. And Sean never even woke up. The next night they ate crackers and scattered them around his room. Asia wanting in on the action started sleeping down in Sean's room too hoping to be able to see one.

Well, the third night, they scattered marshmallows and crackers around the room plus toilet paper. But the last night before Christmas Eve, the elves not only made a mess but they left little footprints all over Sean's bed!

Early the next morning we heard a bunch of voices coming from downstairs before church. Sean had gotten our neighbor boys over to show them the footprints. The whole neighborhood was just buzzing. :)

This past week has been really busy with work, typing and cakes. But in the last few weeks I've been elbow deep in flour, sugars and eggs oh my! But it's so much fun. Even though I put in some really long hours when I'm working on a cake I really do enjoy every minute of it. I'm really enjoying learning my mew craft and figuring out how to do new tricks and methods of decorating. I love edible art!

So here are a few pictures of the latest that I've done. The pink and brown cake was for a wedding just before Christmas. I had the wedding cake, grooms cake, FSU, and a bazillion cupcakes for it. The navy and silver cake was for a small private wedding this past Sunday for a military couple. Less is more I always say. I thought it looked really elegant. And the last two were for Asia's little friend Ella for her birthday. She wanted a purse cake so a drawstring satchel was made with all kinds of fun goodies a little girl would love.

Anyway, it's been fun. But I am thankful that I don't have any cakes this week so I can get some rest.

The present that Grandma gave was full of pictures of us when we were younger. It's so much fun going down memory lane.

Here are some pictures of the food we ate. And Dad didn't even take pictures of the cookies, sweets and pies! And then Typically, afterwards people disappeared and ended up like JJ and Asia on the couch technically speaking. :)

Here are some more pictures of Christmas fun.

Christmas has come and gone. And everyone has gone home now. Yes I'm sad. I love having my family around me. We did have a great time but Josh was really missed. We did get to spend some time with him on skype which was really cool and see him and Aloka too! I love technology. Being able to see Josh's face made him seem a little bit closer since he couldn't physically be here.

But as with any holiday, we stayed up too late, laughed a lot, of course we had to play at least one game of conasta, and ate way too much food. I'm still full. And then it all ended all too soon.

The kids really had fun with Grammie and papa. They painted coin banks and made a huge gingerbread house. Kim and JJ came up on Sunday just in time for a big lasagna dinner. I stayed in the kitchen according to the rest of the family but I don't think I was in there all that much. But for some reason, I am just a bit tired tonight. :) But I would spend all day and all night in my kitchen just to have my family with me again. Sigh with a smile. :)

The presents were great fun. But all in all I think the very best present was the one Grandma gave. She made albums that had pictures of us when we were younger.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas! I can't wait for the next family gathering.

Christmas is coming. The goose is getting fat. Please put a penny, well, maybe a little bit more in MY old hat. :) But it's just around the corner. And so far I've done pretty good about being organized. I only have a couple more people to shop for and then I'm done.

At the school, they have a Christmas Shop for the kids to get presents for their family members. It's a neat idea. The kids get to go in and browse with their teachers and the items they pick out is then charged to the parents school account. The parents preset the dollar amount so the kids can't go crazy. And there's some fun stuff in the shop too for the kids to choose from to give as gifts.

So I got Sean out just a bit early and he and I browsed in the shop with Asia in tow. He picked out a really cute gift for his sister and paid with his own money. He was so proud of his choice.

Here is a picture of all of us from Thanksgiving. Kim has this picture on her camera and I took a picture of the picture. Not the best way to get it but hey, it works for now.

In this picture, I think Asia looks more like Scott and is looking more like the Queen side of the family.

Today was the first day back to school from Thanksgiving break and boy am I tired. I need a vacation, ha ha. But now that all has quieted down a bit, I was surprised to see how tired I was. I was running off adrenaline I guess doing all that baking. So much fun!

But I got off my tail today and got some things done around the house. I'm about to do some more organizing trying to get the house ready for Christmas and a slew of family hopefully.

So my first project today was re-covering my dining room chairs. It was time too. Some of the seats were really showing wear and and the seat that Asia sits on, had holes in the fabric. Her little feet can do some damage. So I went with Asia and got some great fabric from Walmart.

Anyway, thank goodness for growing up on the job site and loving power tools. I took those chairs apart being mindful to remember where all those little screws and bolts were to go and had at it. I think they turned out really well. Scott was surprised when he got home by a huge mess in the house. But he likes the chairs so that's all that counts. Now for cleanup. Takers anyone?

Yeah! I tried to get back on the blog and I was able to! For some reason I couldn't update it for the longest time so I gave up trying for a while. But on a whim I tried and I got on. So I'm gong to try to update weekly.

Love you all and I'll be keeping in touch.

Anna

Sean stays pretty busy with his schedule. Between sports and school his plate is pretty full. But the school does ocassionally do fun stuff like the Parade of Nations. Each class has a nation and the kids dress up like that culture for the day. And in the weeks prior to the parade, they learn all about the nation, the culture, food and atire. Sean really gets into it. This year his class had Australia. Mom and Dad had given him the cutest aviator coat last year and he chose to wear it as part of his outfit. So cute!

Halloween was fun. This year Sean was a football player, surprise surprise and Asia was a princess. I was a fairy queen and had a lot of fun dressed up with Asia. Beth, my friend dressed up as Hannah Montana but Christie didn't dress up as the the wicked stepmother, (old lady with the apples) because she thought she might scare some kids. But the kids had fun all the same. But I never saw Sean until the night was all over. Go figure.

Sean is all done with football season. Actually so is Scott. They had a really good season this year and won a lot of games. It's amazing how much they grow from each year in skill and development, knowledge of the game. It was really fun to watch.

Auntie Kim was able to come down to several ball games and was one of Sean's biggest fans. One time she even drove all the way to the school for his game. Unfortunately we were in McDonough. But she was able to make it just in time for the rest of the game.

He played quaterback and really enjoyed his season. He had great coaches and had fun with his teammates. But with all good things, they must come to an end. But he's looking forward to the next year. Now for wrestling.

We had a surprise birthday party for one of Asia's girlfriends, Reece. She's about to turn 5 and is the oldest in the group of girls. Really the girls act like sisters. The love eachother and fight all the time but can't stand to be apart from one another. They're super cute together.

But we all got together, Christie, Beth and I and had a great time with the girls. Luckily, it was the first day of break so we didn't have to rush the day since we didn't have to get the kids from school. We ate, ate and ate, chatted, painted with the girls and enjoyed being mommies. So blessed to have such good friends.

Thanksgiving was so much fun. J.J was able to come up for a couple days and Kim came down for the better part of the day. We ate way too much food or should I say that J.J did. And then he and Scott slept it off. The kids and I had fun in the kitchen painting Christmas decorations, dough ornaments, while the guys snoozed.

But all in all, I was totatlly in my element baking up a storm and getting ready for the big dinner. But I do have to admit that we almost didn't have a turkey. Here's what happened.

Wednesday morning I was feeling really good about myself being so organized for Thursday's dinner. As I was getting ready for the day, I was going over in my mind the things I had to do, my last minute preparations. So as I was going down my list in my head I told myslef to bring up the Showtime for the turkey when all of a sudden I realized I hadn't taken the bird out of the freezer!

I let out a blood curdling scream to which Scott ran in to find me in a panic. But once my heart had returned from the pit of my stomach, I was able to find online how to safely quick thaw a turkey. Phew! As always, pride comes before a fall. Thank goodness for google and helpful strangers to post much needed information in times of near crisis. :)

But the meal turned out well. The company was great. I just wish the whole family could've been together. But I'm thankful for the family I have near me that I can see on a pretty regular basis. And I'm hopeing we'll get together soon.

Thanksgiving is over and now for Christmas! Wow, only three weeks away.