Merry Christmas!!! (a few days late)

An Alabama White Christmas!! It's about as close to snow as we usually get.
We have had a wonderful year, we have been so blessed. We are still in Alabama and enjoying the things that comes with it (warmer weather, rain, the history here, etc).

I was trying to take pictures of the kids for Christmas, and a friend told me about this old building downtown. It was just what I wanted, I had wanted a rustic background, and then I tried to dilute the color in the picture to make it look more rustic. I am posting both the pictures so enjoy, tell me what you think. We had a hard time getting Ryan to sit on the step, he found some kind of bug way under the porch and he didn't want to sit there. I told him the quicker you sit the quicker we are done. After some coaxing he finally did it and the pictures look great. He does not like bugs!


Sorry this is so late in the month, I had good intentions of getting it done sooner, so bear with me as I recap the month of December.
Warning: picture overload!

Our latest family picture. Clark's parents and sister were here for Thanksgiving and to meet their newest grandson, so one of the days we took off for Old Cawhaba. We wanted to take them there and show them a little bit of Alabama history and I thought it would be a great place for a family picture so that's what we did (We even got a good one of them for our wall). Notice the Spanish Moss hanging off the trees in the back ground I think that looks so cool.







Where the Cahaba River meets the Alabama River.


Clark in front of one of the slaves quarters still standing. They were one the the wealthier families that lived there.

On the way to Old Cawhaba we passed a plant where they bale the cotton. It was so cool, this picture dosen't do justice because the bales are huge!!!

Emma's second grade Christmas program. She was so funny she loved walking around to house singing her songs, she did a great job!!

Ryan joined his schools choir program again this year. Here he is singing at the mall and doing a wonderful job. Way to go Ryan. I think it's funny, I can't get him to sing at church but he school he volunteers.


It's Basketball time again and the boys are so excited. Ryan is on a team with his friend Zack, and Dad is coaching Clark's team. The teams are off to a great start. Ryan's team is 2-0, and Clark's is 1-1. It is so fun to watch them progress from year to year. They have had two weeks off for Christmas Vacation so they are getting ancy to get going again this next week.






Getting ready to watch the game.


Daddy's had a Birthday shout Hooray!! Yes, it had to happen sometime!




Putting up the Christmas tree. The kids think this is great, they did a great job.

It's Christmas Day in the morning!!
I

Andrew's first Christmas!

Attack baby: "give me that paper and let me eat it!"




Christmas Day 2009!! I even got Andrew smiling!

All dressed up for church! What a handsome guy...good thing he looks like his dad!!


Over Christmas Vacation we took another trip out to Old Cawhaba. I really enjoy going out there. It is a really great place to visit. There isn't a lot of buildings there but there is a great history that is told as you walk around. I just get the feeling that it would have been awesome to see life then.



Reading on of the markers


The group we went with (or the kids at least).




Rockets!! The boys got some rockets for Christmas and they had a blast puting them together and launching them. I think Dad and Emma needs one too. It was fun to watch!

Ha Stephanie is away from the computer...now I get to type in some commentary! :) This is a great shot Stephanie got of Ryan's rocket launch. Ryan and Clark got rockets for Christmas and it was fun to go out and blast them off in the field near our house.

I think this is a the final launch of the morning. Clark let Emma push the button.

"Ummm...Dad, it's starting to drift." The wind caught Clark's launch and carried it about 200 yards to the East into the backyard of one of the homes in our neighborhood. Clark was nervous about knocking on the door, but as expected they were nice and let him retrieve it!


I hope that you enjoyed looking back on this last month with me. I know there was a lot going on with the Christmas season. I also hope that you were able to reflect on the reason for the season and enjoy the blessings that it brings.


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

The Drapers:-)

Giggles and a Stellar Speller

This was so funny, Emma was playing with him and spinning the toy and he just started to giggle. It is the most that I have ever heard him giggle, it made me laugh and I had to get it on video for our Grandma's and Grandpa's.

Andrew has recently found his thumb. He will pull the pacifier out and stick his thumb in there. Great, I thought I was going to get away without having one of my kids sucking their thumb.

Over the last couple of weeks the intermediate school was having their class spelling bees. Last week, Ryan came home so excited, he had won in his class. On Friday they had the School spelling bee, he did great he made it through three rounds and misspelled his fourth word.
Great Job Ryan!! I am so proud of you.

Already!!

Can you believe that Santa is already here and meeting with the children? At the Bass Pro Shop they have a "Winter Wonderland", where kids can write a letter to and meet with Santa, test out BB guns, remote control trucks and cars, etc, and they even have a craft for them to make on the weekends. We stopped by to do the craft with a friend and of course Emma wanted to sit on Santa's lap.It was quite nice, Andrew slept through the whole thing so I wasn't about to wake him for a picture with Santa, we will just have to do it later.





It just seems like this year has flown by, Thanksgiving next week and then Christmas four weeks later. I can't believe how fast this year has flown by, where does the time go?

A Big Change!!

For the last month Emma has asked me to cut her hair to her shoulders. We decided that we weren't going to do anything till Halloween because she wanted a Cinderella bun for her costume, and then we would see if she still wanted it cut. Through the month she kept asking and we decided that maybe she really did want it, so we cut it. I ended up cutting about eleven inches off. She says that she loves it and she is happy with it. That's good because we can't do anything about it now. Also notice the holes in her mouth, she has lost six teeth in the last two months. Crazy!!

Happy Halloween!!

I am going to apologize before I get going, I have so many pictures to get caught up on for the month, so bear with me and enjoy!!

Soccer is finally over for the fall, Yea!! But basketball is right around the corner. The boys have a clinic to go to tonight, and then there evaluation next Monday and Tuesday. They are looking forward to playing. Clark tried out for the Jr. High team and didn't make it, It was sad but we have decided that playing for the YMCA will be better because he is guaranteed to play. So it's bye to soccer and hello to basketball.


Ryan and his soccer trophy. They ended up 4-3 for the season. We found out their last game they played was against the 2nd place team, and they won. With that it put them finishing the season in 2nd place. Way to go Rhinos!! Ryan only gave up about 5 or 6 goals as goalie(for the season). Way to go Ryan!!!

Emma and her Trophy. She did so good for it only being her second season. She is an awesome soccer player!!

I had to add this. Little Miss Aggie had her first birthday in October. When we got her from the Humane Society we were told that she had been spade. Well about a month ago she started to spot and we couldn't figure out why. We finally figured out where it was coming from and took her to the vet, like I said we thought she had been spade. Short story she hadn't and she was in heat. She had to wear the cone for a week and everything is great.


Pumpkin Patch

The kids were out of school for "Weather Day" so we took off north to Clanton for the Pumpkin Patch. They were so excited, we got to go on a hayride to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin, and then they played on the inflatables (no pictures). It was fun, Memories!!













Clark's "Crazy Hair" for Red Ribbon Week. I was hoping to get some of these posted last week, but I spent most of my time sewing Emma's and Ryan's costumes, and ran out of time.




Carving Pumpkins

Gutting them!

Tracing the patterns and cutting them out.

Voila! The finished product.

Emma dressed her's up for her classes contest. She won for the "Prettiest Pumpkin". Congrats Emma!!


Finally Halloween Night!!!



Tigger

Cinderella

a Jedi

a Nerd!


The group we went trick or treating with. The kids had a blast. When we finished with our friends neighborhood they wanted to do part of our neighborhood. We are set on candy for awhile!!


I have to toot my own horn for a minute. We had a trunk or treat, with a chili cook-off and cake contest for our ward party this last week, and I took a crock pot of chili and a cake. I wasn't expecting to win, I just wanted a cake and we can't eat it all before it goes bad. When my name was called for the winner of the chili for the "Meat Of It" (most meat) I was shocked, and then it was called for the "Best Tasting Cake Adult Category". I never win. Maybe my luck has changed.