Disney Bound!

Its official! We are going to Disney! Nina and Big Daddy have been busy planning a trip to Disney World - for the entire family!! (29 people!!) They took the opportunity to tell all of the kids who were present while in the mountains.

graham, kale, avery, addie, saeran, griff

here they are - awaiting special news from Nina and Big Daddy. Each of the kids got a Disney toy camera as a treat...

nina made each family a "count down" book so the kids could have a visual of "when are we going?"

griff, checking out our countdown book


and of course, we have family vacation tshirts!! The kids have bright orange and lime green so we can spot them easily...they say " Peace, Love, Nina and Big Daddy" on them.

and the back have Big Daddy's phone number in case they get lost!

Our trip will be full of chaos and noise and craziness - but we are soooo excited to have such a special time with all of our family!

Mountains 2011

This past weekend was the annual McBrayer trip to Nantahala Village in the Great Smoky Mountains. We had a great weekend - it was cold; the kids loved their time with cousins; we made our way into Cherokee to find some great deals; lots of sweets were consumed by all...

avery and mommy riding "appache"

griffy and daddy on "shirley"

the girls and griffin LOVED playing with all their older cousins...and the parents enjoyed having someone else entertain them!

on the playground

enjoying the view

whooping big daddy in some UNO

griff is really concentrating

attempting to get a good family picture

showing off his cherokee loot - a gun and big sucker

graham worked on his sucker for a LONG time...and it was disgusting to see him have green and blue drool!

the girls! (avery and addie)

Fall Dance Party

Avery's dance class had a parent's observation week and fall party today. The girls got to wear a costume - Avery dressed like Rapunzel. Thankfully, Brent was able to come to watch the boys so that I could sit and watch Avery instead of chasing 2 wild boys around! I forgot my camera so I only have a few "not-so-good" pictures from my phone...better than nothing, right?!

holding the bar (avery is the 2nd from the right)


enjoying a cupcake

Emma is one of Avery's good friends from her school class

More Kackleberry Farm

Brent took the big kids into the corn maize while Gammy and I entertained Graham in the shade! He was really into this piece of corn!

The big kids got to ride ponies...

and all of us rode a "cow train" pulled by a gator.

The kids jumped off of the hay bales onto a trampoline covered in hay.

We enjoyed the beautiful day outside and all that we got to do at the farm!

Kackleberry Farm

We took the kids to what we thought was a pumpkin patch on Saturday...they had a ton of stuff to do but didn't actually grown any pumpkins! Instead, they had a grassy filled where they had scattered pumpkins out!

Despite not getting a pumpkin, the kids had a blast. We stayed for about 3 1/2 hours - well into Graham's nap time - but the kids never slowed down.

It was a little bright so no one actually looked at me!

Graham is very insistent these days that he wants to eat/drink/do whatever the big kids are doing. Here are Graham and Mommy going down the huge slide...

Avery's turn

Daddy got a workout driving this boy around!

Go Sissy Go!

Watch out!

Gammy's Visit

Gammy spent the last week visiting us and playing with the kids. And as always, she came bearing gifts! She brought the kids some art paper and water colors...so they spent several afternoons out in the backyard creating masterpieces!

We kept Gammy busy while she was here...trips to the mall, going to get frozen yogurt, out for Mexican food, a visit to the pumpkin patch, playing UNO, and lots of playing in the yard! We enjoyed getting to share our new home and surroundings with her!

Alphabet Parade

Avery's class has spent the past month or so going over a different letter each day. They are working to "perfect" their handwriting - and writing their uppercase and lower cases letters correctly.

To celebrate the end of this unit, the 2 kindergarten classes had an Alphabet Parade today. Every child was assigned a letter and had to come up with a costume. And then each child said, "A for Angel, etc."

Avery got assigned the letter U and was very unhappy about it! We had several meltdowns and lots of tears during the past week! We came up with "U is for Umbrella." And then this morning she was crying saying that she "doesn't like being in front of crowds!" WHAT??? So I wasn't sure if she was really going to participate today, but she did great!

some of the kids

parading out

Ceba's Corn Bread

As the weather is beginning to cool off and soups start to become a frequent dinner, I thought I'd pass on my cornbread recipe. This is from my Aunt Kay. It isn't a traditional southern cornbread - it has sugar in it so its slightly sweet. This is one of my favorites!


Ceba's Corn Bread

1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal mix (buttermilk; white)
1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar (I do 1/2)
6 tablespoons melted butter
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk with 1 tsp baking soda dissolved in it
2 eggs, beaten

Mix dry ingredients first. Then add the others.

Bake in an 8x8 (i use a 8-9 inch cast iron skillet) at 400 for 25 minutes.

Training Them Young

Griffin is really into helping Brent with the yard...well, every since he was a little dude, he followed directly behind Brent as he mowed the yard. Since moving to our new house and our big yard, he not only "lawn mowers" but he also picks up stick and pine cones and helps rake! Too cute!

yes, he's wearing a bike helmet. He tends to hop from activity to activity rather quickly!

proud of his pile of pine straw

and our littlest dude wanted in on the action as well!

you lookin' at me?