bully love

Our sweet fur baby…

 

Local Chess Tournament

Spencer and Briggs have been attending a few chess tournaments lately.  These are a few pictures from a local tournament at Spencer’s school.  They had a great time and played very well.  Way to go guys!

33

Thirty three is here and I’m going to rock it!  3 is my favorite number and since I’m 33 it’s only right that I be excited for this year of my life.  I was thinking this morning that I remember turning 30 very clearly, and 32 last year is still vivid.  However, 31?  I don’t remember anything from my 31st birthday!!!  EEK!  Does this mean that time is going to start flying more and more and that pretty soon these thirties are going to be a blur with 40 knocking?  Let’s hope not.  Here’s to hoping I can slow down and enjoy this precious time with four amazing guys + a pretty fabulous extended family.

Spent the afternoon at the fields for the middle man’s practice.  This youngest guy is in a no picture phase right now.  Let’s hope it passes quickly.  However, I don’t mind since he’s feeling better after having another episode of RSV and pneumonia.  Counting blessings.

  

Science Project & Some Play

 

First attempt at a science project is more like it.  We started Spencer’s 6th grade science project and found that our plan needed some tweaking.  Back for round two this afternoon.

 

  

Reid is really loving his new slide from Santa!  He’s already trying to climb back up the slide as soon as he reaches the bottom. Silly boy!  They won’t let you do that at school!  We’ve got some work to do…

Love that boy peeking!

The Good Year blimp flew by while we were out.  Reid wasn’t too sure about all the noise it was making.  Even after it passed he was searching the sky for any signs of it. 

 

  

Christmas Day

Well…the big guy came and brought plenty of goodies with him. 

 
The next morning I got up pretty early to put the turkey in the oven and the oldest was already up.  Number 2 followed close behind and number 3 had to be woken up.  I don’t think that third Chmielewski boy quite gets it yet.  He didn’t really care for tearing into gifts and unwrapping.  However, he loved to see the goodies inside.  I think next year we will have a blast watching him unwrap his gifts.  This year, the brothers helped.

 

  


   

  

   

…not into tearing that paper.

 
 
Of course I have to have some black and white shots.

 

Everyone came to our house for Christmas dinner (which is a 1:30-2:00ish meal).  After making a batch of gingerbread that didn’t taste sweet enough and two attempts at cheese rings that were off…well, I was starting to think it was going to be an “off” year.  Thankfully, the meal was delicious and so were the desserts.  This year was my first attempt at caramel cake and it turned out great! So glad we got to spend this time with family.  Surely missed those that weren’t there.

I laughed at the first attempt at this shot…

The older boys have been trained to smile no matter what until we can get Reid to cooperate. Haha!

This is my dad and his siblings. 

(DadE, Connie, Miles, and Mark)

  (Mom, Syrene, Connie, and me)

(Mom, Syrene, Connie, and Darlene)

Open it up!

 

 



 
New Kitchen Aid mixer…and it’s pink! Whaaaaat!!  I was just teasing the hubby that with all the baking I’ve been doing lately I really need a nice mixer.  My sweet aunt heard this and ran out and snagged one!  I’m also sitting on brand new slipcovers!!  Thanks to my parents our living room is looking snazzy!


This guy got a new UGA jersey.  Go Dawgs!!!  Thanks Cinnamon (his cousin dog)!


All smiles on this face when he opened this Miami Hurricanes souvenir football from Jamie MacKay. Very cool! Mr. MacKay is a Miami alumni and very good friends with Aunt Connie and Uncle Jim.  He attended that national championship in 2002!  Spencer was born in 2002. We got to spend some time with him in Charleston three summers ago.  I’ve already framed that card for Spencer’s wall and his football is on the shelf right beside his bed.  Rico, the other huge Canes fan that lives in my house (hahaha), was thrilled to see such a thoughtful gift from a fellow Canes fan. 

My cute parents!

 

Ready for the karoke portion of the evening? Oh yeah!

And just because I know you want to see them…How about some black and white?


 

I hope you had a wonderful day as well!  Merry Christmas!