Hunting Ducks, part 874

 Well, maybe they haven't gone THAT many times yet - but EVERY weekend (and some weekdays taken off work even!) these two are up hours before dawn (yes, Eric!) out in the freezing cold weather, braving the elements - for Duck.

 

You might have remembered earlier this year Eric painting his *new* boat camoflauged to prepare for this event...

 

   

The boat turned out great (so I'm told) and works well for where they are hunting.  There were also a slew of decoys purchased to further their pursuit...

There are stories of duck chasing, duck calling, and boats getting stuck.  There are all day Saturday naps to make up for the 4am wake up calls, there are sacrifices made to the "honey-do" list and freezing rain endured.  But there were still no ducks...just two guys in waders....

Arguabley looking ridiculous - but very surely having a good time :)

Thank you February for coming!  I've had about enough of duck season!

Baby Houston

In addition to Josie's birthday on Saturday, it was also the official debut of this little guy

Charles Houston Billingsley - or just Houston

(And really, it was just his first family debut - he was born on Monday 1/18).  He is sooo adorable!  I would have held him the WHOLE time if there weren't 30 other family members clamoring to get their hands on him too. 

(see?!? that's me holding him!)

His mama is doing great too (and looking amazing five days later!  Tired, maybe...but still amazing!)

Welcome to the World little Houston! 

I couldn't be prouder to be your pseudo-aunt.  :)

Three

This little princess turned three on Saturday!  I was there hours after she was born three years ago (see - I knit her that blanket too!)



and I was very glad to get to be with them again on Saturday to celebrate her THIRD birthday!

The three year old princess wanted an all pink party - so first things first, everyone had to wear pink.  Easy for me...not so easy for Eric.  After two trips to Goodwill we did end up with something...

Not to be outdone - we had to get a pink shirt AND a pink(ish) sport coat.  This cherry jacket set us back $10 - but stole the show!  LOL - the funniest part was that he totally matched the la-z-boy and I am pretty sure my Pappap had the same color blazer at one point.

Other pink things?!  ALL the decorations... 

 

The presents...

and the cake was pink

and the flying paper was pink

and the lip gloss was pink

and the pillow I made the pretty pretty princess was pink

We had a great time celebrating Josie's bday! 

Happy Birthday JoJuice!  We love you!

Lenny's Birthday, and a baby!

no.....not our baby!!  lol - don't get any ideas - MOM!
We finally got to go see our good friends Matt and Kelli and their new baby, Will last night.

Matt and Kelli

 It was also the very important "27th Anniversary of Lenny's 6th Birthday!" as he and Eric were referring to it all night!

Lenny - aka the birthday boy!

He murdered his cake...

So we got some pizzas, a cake, and had a very fantastic time!  We chatted - we laughed ALOT  (um...can you see why?!?)

and we passed around a new baby.  What good times!!  :)

 

These fearless boys!  Holding new babies!  We are growing up!

Avetts

After our Christmas trip, we stopped in Knoxville for "Another round of The Avett Brothers!"  There isn't too much to show you b/c, well, they took my camera at the front door of the theatre - something about the lens can come off so its considered professional - bull honkey!
I did manage to get a picture of the Tennessee Theater sign on our way in - and also Ned (my cousin whom we took to the show to see the Avetts for the first time and LOVED them might I mention...) took a random shot of us waiting for dinner - but its all I got....so enjoy!

 

doesn't Eric look happy?!?  hmm...8 days with my family and another Avett show in the rain - well sleet... I dunno what his problem was!

But just because I love them and I wouldn't want a post about them to be without a picture - here is an old one for you to enjoy...

(this was from their Augusta show - and the best show I saw of them in 2009)

Us

Eric and I DID spend time together over the break - but you couldn't tell from my pictures.  I finally got some from my mom and my brother to post here too.

Our happy little family!

This is us making Shrimp-n-Grits for my family - Yum!

They always think they aren't going to like it - but let me cook it anyway - then they remember how much they like it and how good it really is.  So funny!

This was Christmas Day at my Aunt and Uncles house

 This was Christmas Eve after church

And this last one is just funny - and Eric took it of me...and well, I wouldn't share it anywhere that EVERYONE could see it (aka facebook) - but here in the comfort of my family and (close) friends I present...

My crazy face...

riiiight....

Erica's Shower

While we were home I had ANOTHER baby shower on Sunday (Eric spent alot of time with my Dad and brothers - I think this day they went snow skiing...anyhow - he didn't have a camera and I did - so about the shower....)
If you remember a couple of months ago (May actually), I was home again for a baby shower - but there were LOTS of babies coming...

This time around all those babies were out and moving around - it was sooo great to meet all of them.

L-R  Lauren had Kohler, Kim had Lowen, Beth had Tommy, and Lindsey had Layne.

Layne was sick so we didn't get to meet her - but all these boys made their debuts withing DAYS of each other about 6 months ago -and I got to meet them all for the first time at Erica's shower. 

Meet...

Kohler

Lowen (a fart in a skillet - this kid WILL NOT sit still!  lol)

and Tommy.

Aren't they just TOO cute?!?  I could eat them up - they each were so adorable and even at 6 months are so different have their own expressions and personalities.  It was soo much fun to get to see everyone and spend time together - oh yeah...and there WAS a baby shower part too.  Erica is having twins (she has one older daughter - but not stuff for two new boys!) so we showered her a bit and had an excuse to all get together.

Doesn't she look great?!  She was 6 weeks from "full term" for twins in this pic and she had a belly for sure - but that's about all - she looks amazing!

She's on bedrest now and we are praying for her to make February - which is her 36 weeks.  THEN we'll meet these two little boys.  She said opening the gifts (we all got two of whatever we gave her) really made it more "real" that there were going to be two!  Very exciting!

So our crew grew alot with all these babies...

This was May

And this was December

So much fun to stay good friends with people as their lives change and their families grow - and you find you just have more fun and more love to show.  Amazing how God plants these people in your life isn't it?

Thank you God for good friends, Good memories and always enough love for it to keep growing.  Amen.