Kelsey turns 14!!!!!

January 10th Kelsey turned 14 years old. It seems impossible that she is already 14 but I guess because that also means that Austin turning 14 is only around the corner. Well, anytime there is a birthday....there is a party to be had. And for Kelsey it was no exception indeed. She had an entire weekend of birthday events. Saturday night Austin, Bryson and I met the gang at the Desoto Civic Center to watch the Riverkings play Ice Hockey....and you ALL know how much I LOVE my hockey. It was so much fun to be back in the hockey arena...my only disappointment was that there wasn't any really good fights. Now I know you are thinking, way to go Jo, you are with the kids and you wanted fights. But hey, it's HOCKEY!

Then Sunday afternoon, we headed to StrikeZone bowling lanes to bowl the afternoon away. The kids (and a few "older kids") bowled for about 1 1/2 hours and then we enjoyed pizza, a High School Musical Cake (as IF) and then Kelsey opened her gifts! It was a great day for all and a wonderful day to celebrate the life of such a wonderful young lady and such a blessing in all of our lives.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELSEY GIRL!!!!

Love to you all and til next time-

The Princess and the Pea

It always baffles me how you can leave for a trip and perfectly execute packing and maneuvering the placement of every piece of luggage and each item that you have to take with you. We headed TO Kentucky, bringing Sis in her HUGE dog kennel in the back of the truck (with HER in it, much to my dismay...) with all of our luggage,Christmas packages in plastic totes and all of the rest of the items we were toting along with us to Kentucky packed in around her in the back of the truck. You may remember in one of my previous post I mentioned that I felt we were bringing all of our possessions BUT the kitchen sink. Well, when Chad came home between Christmases he even brought HOME some of the Christmas gifts so when we came home for the final time we should even be traveling a little lighter. Shouldn't we???

Well somehow, it seems to have worked out that we didn't have room for everything AND we really needed to use the covered shelter of Sis' kennel for some of the luggage so she had the luxury of making the 6+ hour drive back to Collierville, Tennessee in the front seat with Chad and I. The funny thing is that she insisted on sitting with her rear end facing me and lying her head on Chad's lap the entire trip! And I do mean the ENTIRE TRIP, unless we stopped for potty breaks and then it was right back to that position. It was an interesting trip but the princess made sure that she was comfortable and when anything poked her or made her uncomfortable she managed to manuever her 120 pound frame until she found a more suitable position. Never mind she was in the middle of two adult people in the front seat of a moving vehicle. As long as the princess was happy......

All's well that end's well though. We made it home safe and sound although it must have been a hard road for her. She came in the door and after walking around the house a little bit she hit the floor and slept all night. Such a hard life for this princess pooch.

Love to you all and til next time-

Cade's Code

While vacationing in Gatlinburg on the tail end of our holiday trip, Chad decided to take the boys up into Cade's Cove to get a look at the deer that inhabit the land there. There are also bear and other wild life around there but we were told earlier in the week that most of the bear were in hibernation so we probably would not see any. Now....those of you who know me well, know that I don't do well with road that are less than straight. And those of you who have traveled the road to Cade's Cove before know that those road don't even KNOW the word straight therefore I elected to stay back at the cabin with Mom and Dad Hudnall and Sis and lie around watching movies on television while the boys had a day out together.

They really had a great day together and Chad took the camera with them and captured some really great pictures of the wildlfe. My favorite creatures are the two in the last photo!!! :0)

Love to you all and til next time-

Music City or Bust

Chad the opportunity to buy us tickets to attend the UK versus FSU Music City Bowl football game in Nashville, Tennesse on New Years Eve this year so we decided that it would be fun to take the boys since we may not get the chance to ever do this again. He made the purchase and the deal was made!!!! After all our Christmas celebrations were over we packed up Monday morning and heading South toward home (but not quite yet...) and arrived in Nashvile around 12:30pm. We left Sis with Jennifer, Tim and the children (have I mention how appreciative that we are????) and Chad's mom and dad would pick her up later in the week and be meeting up in Gatlinburg.

We pulled into the parking lot of LP Stadium and knew that we arrived at the right place when we were overwhelmed at the SWARM or UK blue that we saw. It was an amazing site. Now mind you, there were FSU fans, but they were definately out numbered by the amount of UK fans probably 10:1, and that is being counted probably on the very low end. We walked around for a while just to take in the site and then decided to locate the Cat Walk so that they boys could experience seeing the players arrive. They were able to see them all arrive and got to even "high five" most of the players. We then decided to head on into the stadium to our seats and get something to eat but as we did, we found a station when they were doing face painting and each of the boys wanted to get it done. Bryson decided to opt for a "UK" on his cheek but AUSTIN, knowing that his mother is afraid of the BLUE MAN GROUP, gets his entire face painted half blue/half white and too closely resembles a member of that group and I have to all too often remind myself that he is my son and NOT a member of the band. Whew...I think my heart started racing just typing that bit! Anyhow, we found our seats and for the next hour and a half just enjoyed all the sites and sounds around us until..................GAME TIME!!!!

And then we enjoyed watching UK play 60 minutes of football and end up with a 35-28 bowl championship win over Florida State. It was Awesome!!!!!!!

C-A-T-S; CATS, CATS, CAT!!!!!!

Love to you all and til next time!

A Schumacher Sunday

"The merry family gatherings-- The old, the very young; The strangely lovely way they harmonize in carols sung. For Christmas is tradition time-- Traditions that recall. The precious memories down the years, the sameness of them all."

We concluded our Kentucky Christmas' with our celebration with Daddy, Frances, Kelsey and Alex at Jennifer and Tim's house. We all met over there for a brunch because Daddy, Frances and gang were going to be heading back to Mississippi later in the afternoon to be able to attend a New Years Eve party the following day. We had a wonderful day of, yes, once again EATING....and just being able to visit and catch up with everyone even more. We always love to watch the kids open their gifts and seeing Kelsey get all of her High School Musical gifts was so much fun. She is so enamoured with Troy Bolton and still waiting for him to wisk through the door to take her away at any given moment. She is a hoot over him. Jennifer and Tim gave her a HSM hat and pair of gloves and I think that she kept them on IN THE HOUSE for at least an hour or more. I was sweating just watching her run around in them.

It was a wonderful day and a wonderful conclusion to our Christmas holiday celebrations with our families. We loved each and every moment of the time that we spent with everyone. We were blessed beyond measure and we are so thankful that it worked out that we were able to come up to be able to spend the time with everyone as we did. We love you all and wish you each a wonderful and prosperous New Year-

Love to you all and til next time-

A Hudnall Holiday

Being together with the Hudnall clan always brings back memories of being with the James Gang.....I guess because of there being the four boys and the wives and then all the kids (and then all the chaos, noise, etc...that goes along with it-and I mean all this is a good way mind you!!!). We all got together on Saturday the 29th after Chad arrived back in town late Friday night from having to go back home after Christmas to work for a few days. Everyone was going to arrive at Rick and Pam's around 1pm. Bryson and I were already there as Dad Hudnall picked me up from Chuck and Jamie's the night before and we stayed there that night. It is always a good time whenever some of us get together so you can imagine the fun when everyone was able to be there. We had SO MUCH FUN this year at Christmas. I think that this is the best Christmas that we have ever had....and I think that I heard more than one person mention that....and I think that most were disappointed when the day was coming to an end. We really enjoyed getting to see everyone again AND getting to meet our newest niece and nephew, Halle and Jack, for the first time. They are both absolutely gorgeous and precious. We anxiously await the arrival of another new niece to be born to Jeremy and Christie the beginning of the year and she is just absolutely cute as a button pregnant.

The was so much food we ate ALL DAY LONG, and it was delicious. We opened gifts, we played games, we laughed, we talked, we remembered old times, we passed around babies, we just did everything that we could cram into the day and we just loved every minute of being together. It was just great....but the best part was that we were together....the whole family....the whole day, and everyone wanted to be there, loved being there and just enjoyed each others company. Merry Christmas Hudnall family. We love each and every one of you and can't wait to do it again!!!!

Love to you all and til next time-

Celebration Day.....

"....do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet. "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" - which means, "God with us." When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.....

WOW...all that, all those years ago. And all for us. So that we could be saved from our sins even before we were born to commit them. It has all been planned out for us and our roads paved yet we still find things to gripe and complain about all the time. Small things that we find each day to find fault with when our Heavenly Father went to the cross and died, an innocent man, so that each of us could have eternal life one day in Heaven. Makes you just have one of those WOW moments doesn't it? This Christmas season as we were rushing around trying to pack up and load things up and seemingly pack everything we own but the kitchen sink to bring with us I was thinking, WHY? Why has it become so important to materialize and commercialize this holiday so much when the real reason for it isn't the presents that are waiting on that morning, or the amount of snow that is on the ground or making sure that you are off of work on that one specific day of the year, but really shouldn't we be celebrating the birth of Christ every single day of the year and not just around the Christmas season? And shouldn't we really be finding other ways to honor him than beating people to get the last of that one particular "hot item" of the Christmas season only to sell it on Ebay for a much higher price just to make a few dollars? It seems that we have all so easily lost sight of the real meaning of the holiday season when he is right there in front of us everyday yet he never loses sight of us. Another reason that he is such an amazing and great God.
I had an amazing holiday season getting to spend it in Kentucky with all of my family. I was able to see everyone. Even Jean, Chris and Tabitha were in from Arizona and that was awesome. We divided our time between Mom and Dad's, Jennifer and Tim's and Rick and Pam's and it worked out just great for us. We appreciated everyone's hospitality to us and especially appreciated Jennifer, Tim and the kids for keeping Sis at the house during our stay in. I know that was a rather "large" house guest but we appreciated it very much! We truly loved Christmas day. We spent the day at the club house so that there was plenty of space to spread out and we just had time to open gifts, eat, play, visit and just relax. After, as everyone prepared to head home, we went back over to Mom's and unfortunately Chad had to head back home to Tennessee to work for a couple days. I stayed back with Mom and the boys and he left around 7pm to get on the road. He made it home safe and sound and we all got to bed with visions of sugarplums still dancing in our heads....

It was a wonderful day with a wonderful family and as usual many more beautiful memories were made.....

Love to you all and til next time-

Our First Christmas Stop-

Once we got settled in, our first Kentucky "Christmas" visit was with Rob Nickerson. Dana was still working (seeing as it was Christmas eve and she works at the mall) so we didn't get to see her. We met at Chili's for a late lunch and then headed over to Rob's apartment to visit. Of course anytime we get together it seems to always involve a little FRIENDLY game of Guitar Hero and thankfully there wasn't too much bad-mouthing of any one persons' ability or inability to complete a song successfully!!!!

Anyhow, we really had a great time visiting and we really enjoyed the time that we were able to spend with Rob. We were able to exchange gifts with him. He is such a HUGE Red Sox fans that he LOVED the New York Yankees ornament that we attached to his present. You can see the excitement in his photo AND he was so overcome with joy that he jumped right up and had to rush right over and hang it on a prime spot on his tree. Just look at how gorgeous that it looks hanging there. Much better than a jersey with a stinky ole pair of socks on it!!!!

Anyhow....Merry Christmas ROB....we love ya, we loved seeing you and we wish that we could have seen Dana. We hope that you can come and see us in ole Collierville soon! After all, it is your turn now and the weather will be turning warm soon and you know what that means! It will be time to get beat up on the tennis courts!!!!!!

Love to you all and until next time-