Cookies Cookies Cookies!!!

My friend from work has started a side business of gourmet cookies. She made Maddie and Alex some Alabama football helmets to help start the season off with. Her website is under my links.

Girly Girl!!

I love my baby girl sooo much. I am so thankful that God gave her to me. We have so much fun together we did facial tonight together and had a ball.

Double Trouble!!!

We went camping during Labor Day weekend and we had a ball....we knew so many people down there which even made it more fun. The only downer was my camera died and I only got like three pictures. The pictures that I snagged were of Alex and his friend Gage...alex plus gage equals double trouble at all times. Look at these two stud muffins strutting their stuff and getting into trouble by jumping in bubbling springs. When they got out of the water they had red muddy bottoms and nasty nasty feet. We learned ont this trip how to cook on a dutch oven which was very cool we made apple cobbler and served it with Blue Bell Vanilla ice cream...oh so yummy to my tummy. It was very easy to make.

Maddie's Master Piece

The G.A.'s all got together in the gym at church and had a praise and paint session. Maddie's art work came out like a Master Piece. She just had a ball doing this.

Fun with our Best Friends

We went to Lori, Dale, and Owens to have a picnic and let the kiddos play on the waterslide and trampoline.

Tree limbs are no Fun to cut down in 100 degree weather

This is the second tree limb that fell in two weeks. The first one fell and took out two large limbs of our neighbors tree while Luke was in Mexico and now a bigger limb was struck by lightening and fell from our pecan tree. It is giving our chain saws heck too. I think at one time we had three chainsaws stuck in on cut. We ended up having to say forget it after getting the majority of the leafy part up and off our neighbors shed. It was way to HOTTT to finish. So, needless to say our backyard looks like crap right now and our fence is still down waiting on a nice fall day to hurry and come so we can finish. But let me tell you we have a TON already of good smoking wood. Doesn't some smoked ribs sound delicious about right now? As Pat, Amy and Luke will tell you from their childhood days...Dad was in firewood heaven when he say all the wood we were cutting up. He was just beside himself. All I can say is that our frog togs saved us from getting heat exhaustion.

Alex's first day of K3

I was excited for my baby boy...he was ready to be a big boy and start school. (He couldn't wait to have to do his homework that night....Ha Ha!) I will have to remind him of this I am sure in about a week, after the new wears off. Isn't he cute??? His backpack is as big as he is, this is too funny. When I picked him up from school he was....sooo proud of himself, that he had gotten a smiley face and didn't cry. He actually met some friends a little boy named John David and a little blonde girl that sits next to him named Kaylee. He said that he met his "boy" friends by going up to them and saying "What's up dog"...now where in the world did he get this I am so not sure. Then he proceed to tell me that he had a bunch of cute girls in his class room. He is already checking the girls out, this really isn't good. However, I must say the ones he thinks are cute they are really pretty, so at least I know he has good taste. Aunt Amy, said in chapel he had two girls one on each side of him and they had their heads on his shoulders and their arms around him and Alex was just looking around like what in the heck are they doing? When Luke and I asked him about it he said well, Daddy I just wanted them to go to sleep on me like Mama lets me on Sunday nights do to her. He is going to be a mess. I do have to say that he knew that the bible story in chapel was about Adam and Eve being tempted by the what he called the "silly sneaky snake". Please go ahead and start praying for us. He was excited that Laren Grace, Matt, Owen, Anna Lee, and Kelsey were all going to his school with him. From my pictures...Laren Grace looks excited about school starting, Matt has the look of mmmm not sure if I am ready for this but I guess I have to go with it anyway and then Owen was like I am so not for this but will make it work.

Alex getting ready for his Big day in K3

Okay! We are praying this works, if we rewind a couple of years back...we all will remember this is the school that treaten to kick him out (which would have made him the first one to be kicked out at this school) for biting, so we went on and pulled him out. Anyway, we have opted to put him back in school to get him ready for big boy school and to get him around kids his own age . He has Ms. Nancy and Ms. Mickey as his teachers which are the same teachers Maddie had for k3, so this is good for Luke and I since they already know our family. Alex was ready to go for the most part. We had to take his school supplies to school prior to it starting, so we had to go through it all to make sure that we had everything on his mile long list. Which thank goodness we did. Anyway, look at him in the middle of all this mess. Also, he wanted me to take a picture like I did of Maddie in our tree before she me her teachers in k3 for the first time so both of them climbed the tree like Maddie did at age 3 and I took their picture.

Maddie's Fashion Show

This was a little crazy and unorganized but Maddie had fun, so it was worth it. She picked out an outfit and got to model it at Belk's in the Galleria. She was absolutely hip to be square. I couldn't get a good picture of her from where I was standing. Plus afterwards she got really sick and we had to take her home. We found out the next day she had strep (only three days after school had started) So this one picture is all I have.

Angel's Birthday!

Our sweet baby girl that is in the arms of Jesus had her 9th birthday, Thank you Jesus for giving us this precious gift. Our lives would not be the same with out having gone through losing her. I am so honored to have been hand picked by my Heavenly Father to be a mother. She made a difference in so many peoples lives just the short period of time she was hear, so I know that was her purpose in life and she furfilled God's will and that is why God called her on home. I miss her with my whole heart and can't wait to get to spend enteral life with her but I know she is exactly where she is suppose to be. Happy Birthday my sweet Angel, Mama, Daddy, Sissy and Brother love you.

Maddie's first day of Second Grade

Maddie loves school and being with her friends so she was soooo excited to get up and get going. We found out that she was going to be in Ms. Paris' room early the week before. She was ready to go see who all was going to be in her room with her that she knew. When she arrived and got settled in she realized that she had about 4 friends from previous years or church in class with her, which was good. Her best friend and cousin are both in the two rooms across the hall from her, so she gets to see them in the morning while they wait before school starts and are lined up sitting against the wall. I got to take and pick her up from school today and it was so fun being with her. Her first words to me as she opened the car door were "Mama, this is going to be a freakin awesome year, My teacher is fun, a Bama fan and a Christian." My heart smiled immediately and I thanked God for protecting my sweet baby girl and givng her a great mind set and teacher to start second grade off with. (by the way her desk is the first one next to the teachers desk...which is perfect for my little girl that thinks she needs to be the teachers pet and always ends up being the teachers pet...which is a good thing).

Back to School Church Party

Oh Yeah! Loads of Fun. We all met at church Friday night and had a yummy to my tummy pizza supper then we played lots of games, had two Bible /worship sessions and then we all got in our sleeping bags for a HUGE sleep over. Alex of course thought he was suppose to stay too, so Brother Steven approved for him to stay with Daddy. Mama was the whimp and went home to sleep. I don't think I was the whimp I think I was the smart one. I bet I felt the best the next morning and my bed sure was comfortable and nice and roomy without all my sleeping buddies being there. I sure did get cold and lonely being there by myself, so I was up before sunrise and got to church before the day got started. We had a wonderful southern breakfast and then off to Bible study we went. Our music rocked the the sancutary. Then we all went and got our bathing suites on and went outside for some water fun. After we all dried off we eat lunch and went home. It was outstanding weekend.

Daddy's Home

We were so excited to go to the airport to get Daddy. Alex and Maddie couldn't wait to see him walking up the ramp. His trip was awesome. We enjoyed hearing all of his stories and seeing all of his pictures.

Tuesday

My babies and I had a wonderful night together. We had one of Alex's favorite meals, nacho and cheese. It was easy, fast and good. After, dinner we cleaned up real fast and Mom, Dad, Maddie, Alex and I got busy peeling and pitting peaches that we had purchased from the peach park on Saturday. We made our first batch of homemade peach jelly.....OH MY!!!! It is sooooooo Delicious. We also, frozen some peaches for a peach cobbler that is in our near future... we are going to be sweet and wait on Luke to get home so he can enjoy it too. He loves peach cobbler. We ended our night with a little shopping trip to Target to finish up Brittnee's school supply list. All of the above was great fun but the coolest part of our night was the moon...it was smiling at us. My sweet precious big hearted Mae said "Mama, it is Jesus smiling at us". Isn't that a warming thought.

As for Luke and the Mexico team, they had a great day again. The boys dorm/extension is almost ready for the roof to go on, so they were excited about that. The kids in the orphanage seemed to be more comfortable with them today so the team was encouraged by that...the men wrestled with some of the kids. Luke, said it is just really sad seeing such sweet kids in the situation they are in. He is just overwhelmed that parents give their kids up all the time there and here in America. However, most of the kids in this orphanage have been taken from their parents due to abuse...it still is really disturbing to him. How can people hurt the precious gift given to them from Our Lord? Steve and Amber the parents of this orphanage has done a wonderful job bringing the children up to know their Lord and Savior. Only one out of 32 orphans is not saved and she asked a lot of questions about becoming Christian lastnight. So we need to pray for her heart to be won by Jesus. Anyway, tonight at VBS they doubled their number of kids attending and they all had a great time. He is doing the recreation part, they played kick ball with them tonight. Gene is cooking them breakfast for dinner, Luke said it was smelling quit good.

Update from Mexico

Today they woke up ready to work and excited that the first day of VBS had arrived. The agenda today was work at the orphanage doing cedar block or paint then hold VBS at night. They are adding a boys dorm to the orphanage. Steve, the pastor that runs the center told them that they had done more work than two other Churches did in a whole week. Way to go VCBC. Luke, said the funny of the day was when they went to crank the van that they are using to travel back and forth from where they are staying and the orphanage wouldn't crank and the only way they had to get help with was an old little mini mopad...so him and Mike got on it and went to get Steve to let him know they needed a ride. Anyway, Luke was driving and he said it was hysterical seeing two American men riding a mopad down the road together. He said they looked soooo gay, with Mike all cuddled up to his back. He was excited that vacation bible was a success and he looks forward to seeing the results of God's work at the end of the week. He let me go to go finish cooking spaghetti for the team...which is a very scary thought, he doesn't know how to cook. We all need to pray for the rest of the teams well being after dinner. The picture of McDonald's is for Alex...he is very particular to which McDonald's he eats at...they have to be "a plain McDonald's" which means a square one in yellow and red the other McDonald's are not McDonald's to him and he refuses to eat there....it is the craziest thing. God broke the mold when he created him. He is very unique.

Luke update from Mexico

Saturday he said was long due to getting there so late but over all still good. They got up and walked around to get familiar with where they were, went and meet the orphans (which he said made his heart sad), the men and him repaired some roofing issues on a shed, went and ate some crazy chicken at Happy Chicken and then ended the night with the team's daily devotion. A funny that happen was a rat ran out and across the room during the devotion. Luke said it scared them all, now all the ladies were nervous about going to sleep but all the men had gas from the food and were loaded with ammunition to fum agate the rat out of there room so they were perfectly content going to dream land. You can also see more from there journey at www.themexicomission.blogspot.com.

The Peach Park

We got a wild hair Saturday afternoon to go to the peach park to get some yummy tomatoes and peaches....we are going to make Peach jam this week doesn't that sound like fun and devouring. I will post pics of the jam after we get it made but look how pretty the peaches and tomatoes were.

Luke leaving for Mexico

This journey has of course started off with the McLaughlin trait of having to turn around about 500 times and we were already going to be a few minutes late arriving to the airport....because Luke wanted his hair cut before leaving. Why he didn't get this done on Thursday I am not sure. Anyway, we made it only 30 minutes late. Check in was fine he made it through the security check points. We stayed and watched the play take off, the kids love watching that part. As we were getting off the exit by US Pipe in Hueytown, Luke was already calling saying they were off the plane in Atlanta...WOW, I was amazed at this. He called about 6:30 and said they were fixing to board the plane for Mexico. Lori and Harriet and their families came to Mama and Daddy's to swim and also we got Jesslyn lovin. Maddie and Griffy cooked up a sleep over too. So, they were up late dancing to Boogie on the Wii. Around 11:30 I talked to Luke and he said they had made it to Mexico, but was still in customs. So, I went on to bed with the kiddos. The drive from the airport to the place where they were staying was only about 3-4 hours and Luke was suppose to call as soon as he got there but when I woke at 3:30 and he still hadn't call, so I couldn't go back to sleep, at 4:30 since he didn't answer my text I called him and he didn't answer this either so I was thinking oh my I am fixing to have to get a search party out for the team. Anyway, I thought well I will try to go on to sleep and then call in the morning, Luke sleeps really hard and he might be sleeping, they are on our time zone. Well about 6:50 I woke back up and still no call from them so I called back and no answer again...at this point I was going into a panic. But he called me right back and said they were still driving. So, I was relieved but they were all sleepy because the drive was about 3-4 hours longer then expected. They final arrived at the house where they are staying around 7:30. He said it was nice thank goodness and everyone had done excellent on the flights and drive. It was just long.

Brittnee got braces

The last day at the beach and our trip home

We all slept in this morning, it was sooo nice. Once our stomachs were full to the beach we went to enjoy our last day there. It was perfect the breeze was blowing because a storm was on it is way it but hey...it felt good so it was not hindering our beach time. We built our last sand castle and buried Britt and Sarah one last time before going in to get dressed to take some family beach pics. We didn't all get to the beach in time before it started raining so we all didn't get pics and the pics weren't all real good but he you can only do what you can do. Did I mention when the sand blows in a storm it hurts when it hits you and gets in your eyes....Wow! Anyway, off to dinner we went and it was soooo yummy. We ate at Keengan's. (Drive-in Dinners the show had visited this place before). After dinner we went home and packed up for our trip back home. We got up at was gone by 9:30 but all wanted to go across the street to this cool store that you can buy items that changes colors in the sun. It reminded me of the hypo color shirts when I was little. The shopping trip was fun but it was time to head home. The GPS took us through Atlanta it by the time we got there we were soooo sleepy and decided to stay there overnight. We stopped by Stone Mountain and saw the laser light show and then woke up the next morning and went to The World of Coke. It SOOO fun but yet so nasty. Daddy got sick to his stomach, Britt loved the pineapple drink from Brazil, Maddie hated the Beverly, Sarah loved the North American drinks (That would be what we drink on a normal bases....so I agreed with Sarah these were the drinks) It was so refreshing to drink regular Coke Classic after tasting all the other nasty drinks from the other country's. We ended our trip shopping in The World Coke's shop...Alex was upset because he didn't bring his wallet to buy his girlfriend Kelsey a coke can purse...he said he couldn't buy her the diet coke can purse because it would make her think she was fat (isn't it amazing how they learn stuff so early, at least I know he will be sensitive to his girlfriend's feelings when he gets of age 30 and can't start dating). After our taste testing at The World of Coke we completed our Atlanta trip with a delicious dinner at The Varsity. Yes I said The Varsity, this was my parents, Britt Britt and Sarah's first experience here."what cha have" gotta love to here those words because you know you tummy is fixing to be filled with some good food . The Varisty once again did not fell us and the frosted orange was still the bomb. However, it was nice too see the Welcome to Hueytown sign...we new it was time for a good nights sleep in our own beds. Vacation 2010 was loaded with fun.