My 40th Birthday

I had an amazing and wonderful birthday! But now I am so upset, because our camera has ruined our card and I have lost all the pictures. Waaaaaa! It started off with Will, Baylee and Cody making me breakfast, and then Baylee and I were off to get pedicures and out for Sushi. We had really celebrated all weekend and had dinner at Cracker Barrel already the night before. In the afternoon I rested and then Will, Baylee and Cody made Baylee's famous pizza for me. I talked with my dad, my mom and had messages and emails from my siblings. I also had many messages from friends on FB. After dinner they asked me to take Sadie for a walk and when I came back, all the lights were turned off and they yelled "Surprise". There were balloons galore and "40" twisty decorations hanging from the light fixtures. They gave me the new David Crowder, Mercy Me and Cold Play Cd's and a gift certificate toward a new camera (funny now)! It was a wonderful, wonderful day!!

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Family Portraits

These are the first professional portraits we've had as a family since Baylee was a baby. The kids and I did some when Will was deployed and my dad has taken some great ones of us. Those are my favorites. But these are family portraits, school portraits and Christmas presents all wrapped in one.

Disco Wynns

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Oooooh, Cody! He always makes me laugh.

We have been trying to put Cody in his bed to go to sleep after almost six years of him falling asleep in our bed. I know it's crazy, but he had so many bigger issues that we had to deal with that we saved this one for almost last. Tonight, while he was pleading to "just fall asleep in your room", I found myself repeating something that I heard growing up. I started singing the "Santa Claus is coming to Town" song and I told him that Santa was watching to make sure that he didn't cry or pout, and just did as we asked. Then Cody said to me, "What is he like God's son or something?". He always makes me laugh.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and we had such a nice one. As usual I missed my family, but I did get to talk with some of them on the phone and with others by email. Baylee, Cody, Sadie and I went for a walk on the trail and found some leaves. The kids finished painting our Thanksgiving tablecloth that we started two years ago. If you look closely you can see the turkeys that Cody painted. Gotta love 'em. Baylee is really helping out a lot in the kitchen now and it's nice to have a buddy instead of doing most of it on my own. This year everybody was in charge of something. We had a nice quiet dinner and a very relaxing night, and then time to play on the weekend for the first time in a very long time. I am so grateful!

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The Rock Ranch Field Trip

Just before thanksgiving we went on a field trip to The Rock Ranch. It is a cattle ranch owned by Truett Cathy (the owner of Chick-Fil-A). This was the best field trip we have ever been on. The people were so incredibly friendly and informative about pioneer life and the origin of Thanksgiving. There was a hayride, pioneer wagon, furs and pioneer cooking supplies, grinding our own corn, animals, a corn house, and a huge bouncing pillow. We were only supposed to be there 2 and a half hours, but ended up staying almost all day. We met some new friends and just had the best time ever.

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The Fabulous Chocolate Fountain

My mom gave us this chocolate fountain a couple of years ago for Christmas. We were going to use it for the first time at Baylee's gymnastics Christmas party last year, but I left an important piece at home. So the kids kept asking when we were going to use the chocolate fountain and we finally did! It was really fun and Cody ate his first strawberry because of it. It was fabulous!!!

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Fall at Nama's--so pretty

One day Baylee and I drove to Cartersville (northwest of Atlanta) for a gymnastics meet and Will and Cody went to Nama's house in North Georgia. The colors on the trees were amazingly vivid!! I just love Fall! The pictures don't really show just how beautiful it was.

We voted!!

This was such an important election that I was determined to vote, and it was really important to me that the kids come along, so that they could begin to understand the process. We waited in line outside for an hour and a half. Luckily it was a beautiful day, just a little bit chilly, unlike the last time we voted for President. Amy reminded me that it was pouring down rain in 2004 when she, Allen and I voted together. Will was in Afghanistan and Cody was still waking up every hour and a half during the night and I guess I forgot a lot about that time.

I remember going to vote with my mom when I was young and it was way cooler with the curtains that you pulled around you. Now it's all computerized and there is no privacy.

I also remember vividly having our own voting booths in Kindergarten and voting for either Snoopy or Woodstock. I wished for that for Cody and Baylee surprised me with a homemade voting booth made out of our refrigerator box. She even made up ballots for us all to fill out. It was very cool.

Happy Halloween!

We had such a fun Halloween. Will helped the kids carve pumpkins the night before.

Cody was Scooby Doo and Baylee was Carly from I-Carly.

Will and I took turns manning the door and taking the kids around our super-fun neighborhood. Everyone was out! And most people just camped out in their front yard to pass out candy. We had a ball.

The kids ate a few pieces of candy (well, maybe more than a few) and then left the rest for the Grat Pumpkin. In the morning they woke up to see that he had brought them Mario Cart!

4th

A friend gave me this idea. Find the fourth picture in the fourth album on your computer. This album actually had only one picture, but I was so excited to see it. It's a picture of Will bringing in some helicopters in Afghanistan. It's hard to describe the feelings that go along with this picture and not tear up. At a time when every day that I heard from him was a blessing, and every email or picture was like getting a Christmas present, this picture was a huge reassurance that he was okay and doing something he loved, and at the same time, a little scary because he was out there where he could get shot at. Will used to play football in high school and since I couldn't always read his number, I kind of learned what he looked like from behind on the sidelines. And since a lot of times, it's hard to tell in a uniform if it's really him, it was nice to really know that it was him.

This photo was later published in Soldiers Magazine and a few other military publications. Pretty cool!

We found a house!!

We had been looking online and Will with a real estate agent for a permanent place to live. We had thought about buying a house, but finally decided that renting would be better, since we still have our house in Washington and are renting it out. We prayed a lot about it, hoping that God would show us the house that was meant to be and this one fell into our laps through college friends of ours. We were so happy. It has a fenced in yard, which was very important to us for Sadie's sake, three bedrooms and a bonus room and a finished basement. Will found it and we talked over the phone and decided to take it without the kids and I seeing it.

The neighborhood is amazing and all of the neighbors are so friendly. There is also a beautiful pool and a lazy river just a short walk away. Up the hill is a great playground for the kids. I think we are really going to enjoy it.