Black Friday Extravaganza!

It's tradition that the Pridgen 5 head to Atlanta to my dad's for Thanksgiving. For two reasons...1. So that we can visit and have Thanksgiving with my Dad, Step Mom, sister, uncle and aunt. 2. Because it's so much more fun to be in Atlanta on Black Friday! :)

The men know that Black Friday is our day of shopping and their day of watching the kiddos!

This year my creative sister made us matching Black Friday shirts and shopping bags. We got the most compliments on our Black Friday gear! We could have made a killing selling them because everyone wanted our shirts and bags. And we can't forget our mooning Santa! Yes, we have reindeer antlers with rudolph's nose on the vehicle and a mooning Santa stuck on the window to give Black Friday shoppers an extra laugh! Some may think we are a little extreme, and well, maybe we are. But we have fun and that's all that matters!

Potty Training in Progress!

Will has been ready to potty train for a few months now but frankly I just wasn't ready. I wasn't ready to get in the back of Walmart for him to tell me that he had to potty, me leave the shopping cart rushing across the entire store with him (and probably the twins) in tow. Just really hasn't been on the "priority" list. But, Wednesday after his nap I put his first "big boy" underwear on and he was SO PROUD!

He has done so well! Has had an accident or two, but overall done great! His favorite place to go is outside in the yard! Shane says he's like a dog marking his territory because everytime we look around he's got his pants down to his ankles and tee teeing.

The main thing now is that he doesn't want to do #2 on the potty. I saw him straining and rushed him to the potty earlier. I sat him on the potty and he looked down between his legs and said "I SEE IT!!" LOL...can you say KODAK MOMENT??? So, here ya go!

Looking at his poop coming out. Gross I know, but it's all for the record, right?? :)

And this is usually what we see when we're outside.

So, very soon, it will be the first time in over 5 years that we will not be buying diapers! Woooohoooo!!!!! :)

My New Baby

When the twins were in the NNICU I went to the local sewing shop and looked at embroidery machines. Actually I drooled over them as I really wanted one but knew I'd have no time once the twins got home. Since then I have thought about getting on and just never have.

About 2 months ago, my mom decided she wanted an embroidery machine for when she makes quilts and so I jumped on board and went with her to this same store to help her pick one out. About $3000 later, we came home with a new toy! And oh what fun it has been!

Here are a few things I've done so far. :)

Happy Halloween!

Got to love Halloween. Here we have a Drama Queen (Lauren), Troy from HSM (Drew), a Rabbit (Hannah), Gabriella from HSM (Kaylea), a Cowboy (Chase), Superman (Ryan), and a Blue Devil football player (Will.)

Somehow, me, Michele and Amy were the lucky ones to take all 7 kids Trick or Treating. We loaded the kids in Shane's Hoopty (the suburban) and off we went. It was crazy and a lot of work getting all in and out and buckled at each house, but the kids had a blast! This was the first time the kids have ever actually gone trick or treating since our church didn't have a fall festival this year. We now have WAY TOO MUCH candy but I think that's par for the course.

When we got back, the men were holding down the fort. You know, listening/watching football, chit chatting, and building a fire for us to make smores when we got back.

Here are a few other pictures of the kids.

Out With the New and In With the Old!

The title of this post is "Out With the New and In With the Old" Isn't that backwards??

Earlier in the summer I heard about Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. First Baptist Church was offering it and I asked our church (Northside Baptist Church) if it was something they would consider offering. Kevin said that he would look into offering it in the fall and now here we are. There's about 80 people in the class and it has really been eye opening for Shane and me. We aren't in a lot of debt. When we began the class we only owed our house mortgage and Shane's truck payment. We are now on week 4 and we officially have no truck payment. Above is a picture of the truck Shane had when starting the class. It's the nicest truck that he has EVER had. After listening to Dave Ramsey's philosophy for a couple of weeks, Shane put his truck in our front yard with a for sale sign in it and sold it within a week or so. He has been without a vehicle for almost 2 weeks and has found a replacement vehicle! YES! He now is the proud owner of a Suburban and it is PAID IN FULL!! Woooohoooo! Here's a picture of the new addition to our family! The kids are really excited about having a "new" ride! :)

Milestones at the Pridgen House

We are in a stage of milestones at the Pridgen household. I will start from oldest to youngest.

We are getting to a stage where FINALLY bath time is getting so much easier. Drew (and Kaylea) is getting to where he is showering independantly!! WOOOHOOO!! A huge milestone around here as bath time for three gets a little hectic. Here's a picture of Drew washing his own hair in the shower.

As you saw in a previous post, the kids are beginning to read. Kaylea loves to write. She writes all the time. I saw her in her room writing on a post-it note and snapped a picture.

Later I went in to see what the note said and it read "I love Ms. Debbie. I love my sweet Will" Here's the actual note. Makes my heart melt to see how far we've come!

And last but certainly not least, our little Will. We just laugh at the things that he comes up with. Normally at this age, 2, kids are learning to pull chairs over to something to get what they want. We are definitely past that stage. Will does that, but he's doing it to get the scissors to open something that he's gotten out of the pantry. He no longer wants me to help him with anything. He wants to "open" everything himself. Here he is practicing that task.Milestones are always fun and are usually bittersweet. Milestones always put things in perspective for me. They always make me smile when I'm seeing them learn new things and at the same time make me a little sad that the kids are growing up so quickly.

Occupation Day at School

Drew and Kaylea had Occupation Day at school on Monday. Everyone kept asking Drew if he would go as a preacher since he loves his suit. But I knew that wasn't going to happen! For some reason he gets embarrassed when people call attention to him in his suit. He is so funny. He DEMANDS to wear it at church but will not wear it anywhere else (except in the playroom at our house.) haha...so, with that said, he went as a doctor. He initially wanted to go as a basketball player but we didn't have the outfit so his second choice was to be a doctor. And Kaylea, well no one will be surprised at what she wanted to be. She went as a princess...Princess Belle to be exact. :)

Also, last Saturday Michele and I took Kaylea and Hannah to get their ears pierced. It has been a long process. I found out that a doctor about 45 minutes away from us will put numbing cream on the kids ears before he pierces them so the child doesn't feel it. I told Kaylea about it but later found out that you had to be a patient of his in order for them to do it. Soooo...i've been trying to figure out how to get the cream. Finally I just asked our pediatrician if she would call some in for me. It was just that simple! So, we went on Saturday. Kaylea had already told Hannah that she wanted to go first to show her that it didn't hurt. However, when we got there her anxiety kicked in and she got a little scared. But she didn't feel a thing! The cream definitely worked and she is now sporting beautiful little diamond earings. Here are a few pictures from the day...

Just a little scared... :(

But now so proud! Best buddies!

Close up of the earrings. :)

A Fresh Start to Blogging!

I have been thinking for some time now that I really need to keep up our blog. To my surprise, I pulled our old one up and saw that the last entry was in 2005. How sad! So much time has gone by. When I read the last entry it seems like that instance was a lifetime ago, however, in other ways it seems like yesterday. This is a new beginning. :)

Because our blog was ancient and hadn't been updated in so long, I had to do all of the upgrades to even get access to it. Thanks Casey for being patient with me. I can tell you right now that the background, banner, etc. will not be changed that often!

Drew and Kaylea are now in Kindergarten and are beginning to learn site words. They are now up to knowing around 80 words. Out of those 80, I can only use one particular word about once a week because it is just too much! LOL Watch the video and you will see what I mean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyKOTk8fyCY


And then there's Will. Will is now 2 and thinks he's 5 like the twins. Unfortunately for him, he was never really a baby. Always along for what we had in store for the twins. But now he's his own little self. Smart, loving, independant, athletic, and adorable! What more could we ever ask for? Will loves to play sports. Anything that has a ball involved he is game on! Baseball, football, golf, basketball and even bowling and shooting pool! Of course, whatever Drew is doing is pretty much what he wants to do too.




I thought I'd add a few first day of school pictures as well. :)