Yeah,

he is going to be so mad at me when he is older, but he is the cutest spider I have ever seen!

Orren the scary spider

OK so for the things we do to babies, we should be ashamed. I was laughing for 10 minutes when he started totting around in this costume! I had to share! I have a lot more video, I will add more on a day we need a laugh. Good night!

Happy Halloween!

WOW what a Halloween we have had! Whew, so tired!

We started the morning off with orange iced cinnamon rolls with black bat sprinkles. Green Milk, black grits and snakes (sliced strips of bacon).

Finally the time came to start decorating the outside!

When darkness fell it looked much spookier! The strobe lights were so cool and we got lots of compliments! That is a floating hand in the goldfish bowl!

Our children with our sweet friends, the Hayes boys!

Olivia the Gothic maiden and Orren the spider!

We have a ghost!

Hee Hee! Well, at least it is a friendly ghost. Orren has been running around all morning with a shirt over his face saying..... ooooooooooooo.......ooooooooooooooo.......ooooooooooo! Then he dies laughing! Guess this is what happens when you have an older sibling. She has been teaching him lots of funny things, but this was too cute. I called my Mother this morning just so she could hear him.

I called and got to talk to my little brother last night! (Joe says I can't call him my little brother b/c he is like 6' 3" and over 30 years old, I say he is my little brother until the day I leave this Earth b/c that is what we Bama Belles do!) Anyway, I was so excited to hear his voice and talk with him. He and Katy are so busy an I cherish any time at all! They are doing super. They just got home from a scuba diving trip to the Caribbean. I have mentioned before that they are just amazing, active, adventurous folks! We will get to see them for New Year's. (Something I will talk more about closer to time.) I love you Jarrod!

Tonight is our costume party. The children are so excited I think they might come out of their skin! I am baking some little "Ghosts" biscuits to serve with pumpkin butter as our dish of the evening. I cannot wait to see everyone and all the costumes!

Tomorrow night is SPOOKY Halloween! I am fixing spaghetti and meatballs, Caesar salad, and corn to fill everyone up with something hardy, before sending them on the candy binge!

Hope ya'll have fun!

Halloween is coming!

It is Wednesday! Halloween will soon be here! Do you have your little ghosts and goblins ready? We are so excited.

We will have a lot of trick or treaters, but this year I opted for quantity over quality. YEP, I am going to be one of "those" people. It is just that we easily have 200 trick or treaters on any given Halloween. I have bought bags and bags and bags(usually about 8 total) I always get chocolates the good stuff and give 2-3 pieces a child, I always run VERY close to running out. Not anymore!

I am not giving to anyone that comes without a costume this year and I am not giving to any one that is over 15 not T.O.T with a sibling!

I am giving twizzlers this year, I have about 400. See we have 853 homes in this neighborhood, (we are huge) so the children will get plenty. It makes me so angry to see unaccompanied children walking up and down my street with king size pillow cases so full they can't even carry them and NO costume! It just shows a lack of breeding and gratitude. Seems so greedy. Now that isn't the majority and I would venture to say that they DON'T live in this neighborhood. MANY people come and drop their children off here because we are so big. They come pick them up about 9:30-10:00 PM and that is just too late for T.O.T

Yes, I may be the Halloween Grinch, but I just can't take it! So in an effort to curb some of this behavior I am changing MY habits. After all, we should start within ourselves right? I may even start handing out Christian tracks instead of candy. As a servant to my God I am supposed to take every opportunity to witness for him. This is a time of year where people are coming to my home and I could spread THE WORD.

OK, so that is my rant for the day! Please forgive me, this just really irks me!

I am on my way to work at The Republican Headquarters for the night. Don't forget to wear RED on Friday and if your of the female persuasion RED lipstick on election day!

roaring 20's

I had to get these on here! They so looked the part.

Wanted to add some GREAT pictures of Salah and Michelle. Michelle is with Dance Trance here in Birmingham. They had a party Saturday night and boy did Michelle and Salah look the part. The theme was the roaring 20's and WOW did our friends look like they stepped right out of that era! Totally glamorous!

They had so much fun and we LOVED the pictures!

Joe and I are about to snuggle in (it is some kind of cold out there!) and watch The Strangers and the classic Sweeney Todd, I love that movie, even the new one! Halloween scary movie time!Have a GREAT NIGHT!

Boo At The Zoo

I will have pictures of everything up by the end of the week.

I PROMISE!

Wow, yesterday was so exhausting and yet lots of fun. Michelle, Salah and the boys joined us to start the day at the Hillsboro Fall Festival. Let me just say again this was an amazing little festival. The children all won stuffed animals that were bigger than they were! Olivia won a dinosaur and HUGE puppy dog. Orren won a Saber Tooth tiger and a puppy dog (OK so I won the tiger and Joe the dog, but HE won it lol) We stuffed ourselves on hot dogs, popcorn, snow cones and drinks. ALL of this food, games, jump thingies ALL of it is complimentary and that is so generous of the folks there! Here is the link to pictures of "our house". I just LOVE this house. If they had been built when we were in the market this would so be where we live. Do I really want to move now? ummmm no!


I saw Hewy and his family. They are such awesome people I love getting to visit with them whenever I can.





Then we were off to Boo at the Zoo I have done some research on Boo @ the Zoo at other major zoos across the country. Jackson, Baton Rouge, New Orleans (similar to ours), Montgomery. Ours is by far MUCH bigger and has MUCH more to offer. The only one in our area to rival it at all is the ZOO Atlanta it is a really good one as well. BUT the members of that zoo get free admission and we don't. For our family of four (paying for three) it was $51.00! That's not a typo folks. I was a little perturbed because as members, we should at least get a discount. NOPE!


The Planet of the Apes (in the primate house of course) Haunted House was a lot of fun. It was somewhat intense for the younger ones in our group and was the MAJOR contributor to the bedfellows we had last night. It was kind of funny to watch the little ones get "spooked" with out being terrified.

The children loved the ghastly carousel that went backwards. This is where things went downhill quickly for the Breland crew. After a brief visit to the car, things were back on track.

The Haunted hayride had been toned way down from previous years and Olivia was relieved as that has always been her fright!

You gotta love the fact that at the end of the roller coaster ride you go through the doors where is snows and Santa greets you holding a sign that says 63 days til Christmas! Thanks Santa.

On that note, we are looking forward to the zoolight safari which is in Dec. Here is the info:

"Zoolight Safari 2008December 12-14, 19-23 & 26-30 5-9 p.m. enjoy a fabulous night of lights, fun and holiday spirit as the Birmingham Zoo comes alive for 13 nights! It's the only place in Birmingham where it snows every night. Also, enjoy an expanded light show synchronized to all your favorite holiday tunes!
Be sure to stop at the Barn in the Children's Zoo for photo opportunities, animals and holiday crafts for all to enjoy. Ride the train (additional charge) to experience a winter wonderland. Enjoy half a million lights, holiday music and plenty of festive spirit. The Zoo will close at 4 pm every night of ZooLight Safari. "

well, at least members get to do that without extra admission.

If anyone wants to come and join us for the zoolight safari, come on we would LOVE to have you!