Memories In Quilts!!!

One of my most cherished times during Christmas was spending the afternoon at my cousin Perry's house for a "Quilt" drawing! :)  My sweet Aunt Janet lives in Maryland and while cleaning and organizing she came across 7 quilts that were HAND stitched by my great Grandma Furr.  I never knew Ma Furr, she was the mother of one of the finest ladies that ever walked this earth, my Granny!!!  That is not just my opionion either, that is the opinion of everyone that knew her, especially the ones that lived with her and those are the people that truly see the real "you". I believe I am telling the story correctly that when Aunt Janet and Uncle Frank lived in Japan, she would mail home scraps of fabric to Ma Furr and that is how these quilts came to be, which the story in itself makes these quilts EVEN MORE special!  As luck would have it, Aunt Janet has 7 nieces and she was kind enough to give each of us a quilt to cherish!!!  Not all of us were able to be there :-( but all were there in spirit.  I believe that I speak for all of us (Paula, Marty, Judy, Sophia, Jennifer, Joy and Julie) when I say how very much these quilts mean to us as well as the fact that they came from Aunt Janet whom we all love dearly!!  It was hard to choose and the general opinion was that we were so happy to be getting one that we did not care which one we got.  From the very bottom of my heart, Thank you Aunt Janet, I love you very much!!

~Cash the Comedian~

This is just a random post about some funny things that Cash has done recently that have made me double over laughing.....

~the other night Patrick and Cash went to Firehouse subs to get something to eat.  The kids meals there come with a plastic fireman hat.  While we were all at the table eating (Cash with his fireman hat on) our dog River found something more interesting and began to walk away from Cash's chair.  Cash looked at River and said "River get back over here, you're my firedog"! :)

~Sometimes Cash gets scared if it is dark down the hall and he does not want to walk in his room by himself.  I have been telling him how Jesus is always with us where ever we are and that he does not have to be afraid and that Jesus is even in his bedroom.  He seemed okay with that for a while but one night last week.  He came up to me and said "I need my bat from my room. I need you to come with me Mommy cause Jesus went bye bye"!!! :)

~I cut my finger cooking supper one evening and Cash said "Bless your heart mommy, you want me to kiss it?"

~February 12, 2010  Cash came in my room this morning trying to tell me something.  He got all tongue tied adn kept saying "what you what you what you what you...."  Finally I said "spit it out Cash".  He crinkled up his eyebrow and looked at me like I had 3 heads and said very sternly "I don't got nothing in my mouth Mama!" hahahaha.  What a good laugh to start the day off on!!!

~Ard Family Christmas~

One thing that we can all agree on is that for some reason, Christmas at the farm is WILD!!!  Maybe it is because there are 7 kids but lots of families have that many or more so my vote is going with Gigi! She makes it wild because she loves Christmas so much and there are so many gifts to be passed around and all the kids are so much fun to watch.  We start snacking about mid afternoon but the real festivites don't start until 5pm.  That's when we get the kiddo's seated and we hand them all 1 gift at a time, that way we know who is getting what and everyone can see!!!  Me and mama played Santa this year and the "boys" helped the kids get into their presents.  Of course Cash (aka Papa's shadow) would only allow Papa to help him.  WOW!!! That is all I can say, it was so much fun seeing all the sweet expressions on their faces.  Me and mama laughed the entire time at  something that one of them was saying or doing.  Malaine got a puppy this year from Papa and Gigi, the gift that keeps on giving. LOL.... Everyone was real excited about the new addition to the family and Cinda has warmed up to everyone quite well.  Papa even lets her in the house. :)  After all the loot was handed out we all ate a delicious Christmas supper that Mama and I had got together during the week so we would not be cooking that day.  Once the kids were settled with all their goodies the "grown ups" got to open gifts.  Santa still brings me presents to the farm so I know I am a good girl. :)  I got a lot of nice things but I was most excited about my sewing machine! Not because I know how to sew but because I am learning how to sew and now that I have told all of you that, I can't back down!!!! 

Another Christmas tradition that mama has done with me for years is hide money in an ornament.  This is something we always do later Christmas night and sometimes if the party goes on to late we even do it the day after Christmas.  Mama hides money on or in an ornament and I have to hunt on the tree for it.  It took me a little longer this year to find it but I finally did! It was taped to the back of the Brookhaven Academy ornament!!!  Mama thought I would never find it but it was because she was being tricky this year!! 

I have to say this was the best Christmas in a long time!!!!  I guess because I see the pure joy in the faces of these precious children.  My wish is that every year I will teach them more and more about the real reason for Christmas.  Cash already will tell you that Santa comes on Jesus' birthday but I want him to truly understand what Jesus' birth means for us!!!  I look forward to sharing this with them over the years. 

~James Family Christmas~

We did Christmas a little different with Patrick's family this year and it turned out quite nice. Sherri and Aaron (my brother in law and sister in law) planned everything for us and the kids really had a blast. We rented cabins and tried to focus on an "Old fashion family" that focuses on family time rather than gifts. We started Friday night with a bonfire roasting hot dogs and making smores! I actually brought all the stuff for the smores and it was my idea and I did not eat the first one. This means that as soon as it warms up enough I am having a camp out in the back yard with the kiddo's! Uncle Chris and Aunt Jeani showed up Friday night with Chrismtas pajamas for everyone which was such a sweet suprise. There was a late night game of something going on around the table but I missed out because my babies would only go to sleep in a strange place if mommy is laying with them. And also because I am extremely stingy with my sleep :). Ha ha. I joked and told my mother in law that at one point I thought someone was going to kill somebody, they would be very quite and then very hostile!!! LOL The kids were so much fun to watch opening gifts and we came home with lots of new loot(and Christmas really had not even come yet).

 

~James Family Portraits~

I am sharing some of our portraits we had made for our Christmas cards!!! We were very pleased with them and had a fabulous time at the shoot!!! Cash is at the age of FULL personality!!! Enjoy!

And so Christmas begins.....

Wow!! What a fantastic Christmas this year.  As the kids get older it gets more and more fun, I must admit I had as much fun watching them in all their excitement as they did.  I am going to break Christmas down into a few blogs since there is so much to write about and so many pictures to share.  I am going to start with our "Birthday Supper" for mama and daddy at Stogner's on Decenber 11th.  I love Stogner's and always compare any catfish house I to them.  It is the fish house I "grew up in".  I have so many memories of being there with family, especially Pappy who once would not talk to me and Jason for a while because we ordered chicken at the fish house! ha! Who'd a thought that would upset him so but he just could not understand it.  Now that I am grown and have a deep love for fried catfish, I completely understand! :)  I was very excited that everyone in the immediate family made it to grub out.  Alese was the only one missing so I will have to plan it better next time.  They put us in the back room and I can only assume that when they saw all the wild kids with us, they thought that may be the only safe place, they were right.  My only complaint was that it was so loud in that back room that you could barely talk to each other but we had fun just the same watching the kids compete to see who could be the loudest.  I am happy to report that me nor Jason ordered chicken this time, Pappy would be proud.  I am going to include so picutres to share with you all.  Peace, Love and Fried Fish!

John, Madi, Arden and Gigi

Papa and his shadow Cash

A moment of silence that didn't last long!

Ella is telling Arden a secret

The Ard's