It's Begining To Feel Alot Like Christmas!!

Well we have survived the Thanksgiving trip and we are all looking forward to Christmas. Our Thanksgiving adventure was good. We were rushed being that Charlie had to be at work on Friday morning at 7. So we went to see Carol on Tuesday night. The kids had fun and she had taken them to see the lights at Tanglewood. Then they went to Chuck E Cheese which is there favorite thing to do with Granny Carol. Then we were off to Mt Airy on Wednesday morning. We got to see Nana(Tina's Mom) and then off to Virginia that night to Papa and Granny's. We had lots of fun spending time with all the family there. Then we got to go see MELINDA!!! Well the kids were more excited to see Jaxon and Annamarie. We miss them a lot. If only we were nearer to each other. Well then we had dinner with Charlie's family. We had everyone there which was great since at Christmas Eddie's family will be in Canada with Melissa's family. We will miss them but we will share. Well when we get a picture from Charles I will add it here of all the grandkids. There is 14!! Well thanks for reading.

Yeah! Happy Thanksgiving

Well we would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. We will be traveling this week so I figured we would say this earlier in the week. The kids are out of school for the whole week and they are going to go to their Granny Carol's house tomorrow. Then we will pick them up on our way to Mt Airy. We will see all our family hopefully and have a great time. Now if we could get great traffic and no car problems we will be glad. So from our family to yours Happy Thanksgiving.

Shots and Baby

Well we want to start by saying CONGRATULATIONS to the Hodnett family. Little Alexander Lee Hodnett was born on Tuesday.
Now to the shots, well since it is flu season and Mason can not get the shot because of his age we had to all get shots. Well come to think of it Charlie has not got his (naught boy). Well I had to take them by myself which I was not looking forward to since I had a feeling it was not going to be good. Well I warned everyone like always that they were going to get shots about 2 weeks ago. Well Emily has been agonizing over it the whole time. I told them it would really not hurt and it would be quick. Well we get there and Nathan and Ian are first. Ian steps up and not a sound. He is all smiles and great. Well Nathan has to get his in his leg so he cries more from seeing the needle itself than the pain. Next is Amanda and Callah. Well Amanda goes and like Ian not a peep. Callah my normal drama queen is in drama land. She is crying and acting like she is in major pain and all that is going on is the alcohol wipe. So after the threat of not getting to go to an activity that night at school she is back in normalville. She takes her shot and is fine. Well I turn to get Emily and she is in the far corner behind a chair. She is already in tears and fights with everything to not have to go. Once I lift all 50+ pounds to the table she miraculously has to go to the bathroom. I am not about to let her go because I know she is going to run. So with the help of me and 2 nurses holding her down with all our power she gets her shot. Then she is out the door and in the bathroom to cry. She succeed that it did not hurt and that she waaaayyy over reacted. So next year her dad will take her to get her shot needless to say.

Questions and Answers

Well we decided to have a question and answer family home evening. So here are the questions and replies that we received. Some are funny (Amanda's) and some are normal.
Where would you go on vacation if we could go anywhere?
Callah-Myrtle Beach, Emily- Disney World, Amanda-Dollar Tree, Ian- Granny Laura's.
If you could 1 person a gift who would it be?
Callah-Granny Laura, Emily-Mary, Amanda-Santa Claus, Ian- Dad.
If you could have 1 gift for Christmas what would it be?
Callah-TV, Emily-Ipod, Amanda- A Flower, Ian- Diego Play Area

Then we asked what they liked about each other. We did not record all them but here are some I remember.
*Callah- She tries hard, She brushes her hair(Amanda), She plays with me
*Emily- She makes everyone her friend, she lets me play her Nintendo and she brushes her teeth(Amanda)
*Amanda- She is a great cleaner, she does what mom needs her to do, Nothing(Callah)
*Ian- He reminds me of me (Charlie), He reminds me of the Penley's (Tina's family), He plays with me
Nathan- He always smiles, He reminds me of his father
Charlie- He is my dad(Callah), He works hard, He plays with me(Ian)
Mom- she is sweet, she helps me, she cooks
Mason- He smiles at me (everyone)

Well this is our questions and answers

Vacation Experience

Well I have to start out by saying I wish I had edited me out of this pic. Well this is the start of our vacation. We spanned it out over a few weeks so this one is in the first of August. Which here in Georgia is fairly hot and on this day in particular it was around 98. I know that because after a wonderful day at Six Flags we came out to a car that would not start. Then once we finally got it to start we were only running on 1 battery(our car has to have 2). Well we make it oh let say 5 miles from Six Flags when our car dies on the side of the interstate. We were able to coast off the interstate to a very less desirable area. So needless to say 3 hours on the side of the road with 6 kids in 98 degree weather was not fun. Now I will go to the highlights. This is a picture of the Thomas area at Six Flags. It was new this year and did not have too much but the kids loved it. The boys are really into Thomas and the area had a really nice playground where we stayed for over 30 minutes. Then we decided to ride some rides. Poor Ian has been blessed with his mom's stomach so he chooses not to ride to many rides. This is the one he chose to ride. They are all on here but you can not see Nathan. I will attest that he had the biggest grin on his face however Ian had the most grim face on once the ride started. He can not stand to go up and down and that is what the ride did. So from here on he would only ride stable rides like the trucks. So that was our adventure to Six Flags were we all decided we would do each year. Then our kids started school on August 1st. Then we were out for a week in September. We had Donna(Tina's mom) to come down and she spent the whole week with us which was truly alot of fun. We were really glad to have her be with us on our vacation. Well we decided to stay near home to conserve money since gas was way expensive. We went to the Greenville zoo. The zoo was small but was so much fun. It felt as if we were the only ones there and pretty much we were only 1 out of probably 3 groups this day. The animals are really close as you can tell from this picture. We were with in 10 feet I would say. We say monkeys, reptiles, spiders, giraffes, huge turtles, tigers, lion, farm animals, and apes. The great apes were funny. They would holler when someone was there looking at them They do it to mark their territory. So whoever is the loudest gets the best spot. Well I think that we were able to give them a run for it but decided that we would roam free and let them have their cage. We then saw a baby gorilla which was awesome. Then we ate a little lunch where the squirrels gave us a run for our food which some of us freely shared. We then left the zoo and waled across the parking lot to one of the best playgrounds that I have seen in a while. They have lots of things to plan on and a playground of science things. The had motion items there where your body weight or movements controlled them. This is Nathan and dad swinging in the park. Well a few days later we went to the Georgia Aquarium which rocked. This was an awesome experience. We were able to see lots and lots of different fish, stingrays, whales and sharks. You could walk under the aquarium with the fish going over you which the kids loved. We were there for about 3-4 hours. The only down was they closed at 5 so we wanted to leave with enough time so that we would not have to be in too much Atlanta rush hour traffic (which can get really bad) especially that my mom had to drive because we would not all fit in the car. Then on the way there we came upon a wreck and traffic that was a a stop for miles. So we took the country route which added roughly an hour and a half to our time. So needless to say it did not start as we would of liked but it ended well. So this was our vacation for this summer. Now we have in 2 weeks another week out of school for Thanksgiving and I think that their granny may come get them or at least some of them and go to her house for a couple of days. Then we have Christmas break not long after that. Well thanks for reading. I hope we did not bore you. ;)

You Are a Yellow Crayon

Your world is colored with happy, warm, fun colors. You have a thoughtful and wise way about you. Some people might even consider you a genius. Charming and eloquent, you are able to get people to do things your way. While you seem spontaneous and free wheeling, you are calculating to the extreme. Your color wheel opposite is purple. You both are charismatic leaders, but purple people act like you have no depth.

What Color Crayon Are You?

Birthdays and Boys

Well I am doing this a little late but Happy Birthday to our Amanda Nicole. She turned 6 years old on the 8th. She did not really have a birthday party just us but she enjoyed all the gifts she received in the mail. She is still small for her age but hey she will enjoy that when she gets older just not maybe the short part. She and Ian are still the same size but she is finally in size 5's and she is happy about that. She is in Kindergarten and on next Firday she is getting the Compassion award. They have a program called the captains crew. They take different traits each month and highlight several children in each class in each grade. So this is her month. She is really a compassionate person most of the time. Emily got the Respect award last month. I am not sure about that one at times but I think that comes from being her mother.

Well this is Nathan's newest talent. He likes to take pictures. He likes to make funny faces and he likes to take pics of us doing the same. So I figured I would show case his talent with a funny face. The kids like to steal my camera and take pics. So now I have pictures that they will hate when they grow up. I luckily looked at the camera the other day and low and behold I have a picture of our queen (Callah) on her royal throne. Yep that is right she was on the toilet acting like she was reading a paper and posing. I will not embarrass her on her but it is priceless. Then she in turn took one of Ian with a full moon. So be careful when they take pic right.
Today while in the car I came to the realization that Ian is officially a boy now. He has become quite the character since turning 41/2. He likes to say who passed gas, it stinks in here someone farted and he does not mind doing it in stores. The other day at the local Dollar General he proudly proclaimed that someone stunk and it was not him. So to my horror I try to tell him that it is not polite but I think he did not care in his little mind. Then this morning his teacher told me that yesterday he and his friend Tyler were plotting. They were the last ones in their class waiting for their parents to come and she overheard them. The were plotting to lock their teachers in the room and not let them out. This is funny seeing that the teachers have the keys to their class but I guess in their minds it could be done. They asked them about it and they were laughing. Well much to Ian's dismay Tyler's mom shows up and he leaves. So they told him look who was left alone with the teachers. They could lock him up now and she said he got so quiet and still. Then his dad showed up and he was like so ready to go. He did not mention it to me but was laughing when she told me this morning. So maybe I should be on the look out for his plots against me because I would definitely be out numbered if he got them all on board.

Our Gang

Welcome to our blog. We are just starting at this so be patient. Well fall is here and we can feel a little of it here in Georgia. We are the Sechrist Family!! There is Charlie, Tina, Callah, Emily, Amanda, Ian, Nathan, and Mason. We currently reside in Georgia with no plans to leave anytime soon. We are a big family that stays busy. Charlie is currently working for Wendy's(again) and I stay at home. I take care of our everyday needs(well at least I try to). I do the book keeping for our companies and help out at L&J with theirs. Callah is in 3rd grade already. This pass May she was baptized. The time has flown. Then Emily is in 2nd grade and she loves school. Amanda just turned 6(yeah). She is a kindergartner this year and is finally growing some. She is going to be short like me but hey I survived. Ian is in preschool. He loves it and is making many friends (except Ms. Cecilia he says she is the mean teacher). Then there is Nathan Blue. He is the king of Reed Creek. He is Mr. Smiley himself. Then Mason my baby. He is growing so fast and is making the other kids when they were his age look small. He loves to smile just like Nathan and he is trying his hardest to figure things out. Well this is us The Sechrist. We will try to keep this up to date.