HeathWorks! Turns 4!

This weekend was HealthWorks! 4th birthday!  My first day of work was the 3rd birthday party so it was my celebration too!  Ha!  It was a long, busy day.  But always a good time to spend with my sweet work friends!

 HealthWorks! staff

 Abby, Me, Kiersten and Mike

 My sweet girls- Abby, Me and Kiersten

Mary Catherine, Kiersten, Abby and Me

Playdate With Friends

After what seemed like weeks of rain, we finally had a sunny day!  We had a rare weekend where it was just the three of us at home- no road trips, no visitors and no work.  We were thrilled!  These weekends are far and few between so we like to take advantage and just have fun in town.  Saturday, Morgan and I met the Schafer girls at the park.  Morgan loves Ballard Park, or the "duck park" as she calls it, so we all decided to go there.  Morgan and Carsyn are sweet friends and enjoy playing together.  I brought some bread to feed the ducks and boy were they hungry!  At one point, they were so excited to eat they were eating it out of Morgan's hand...and bit her finger!  That was the end of the ducks.  We passed along the rest of the bread and headed to lunch for ourselves.  It was a fun way to spend a lazy day!

 Brandi helping the girls

 Then it was my turn

 Morgan loves those ducks...

 ...except when they bite her!

Having Fun!

A Chi O Christmas

Last weekend my Chi O sisters and I finally got together for our Christmas celebration!  The more kids we add the harder it is to get it together.  But I'm so happy that we do!  This year Anna and Christina came to Tupelo since I had to work Saturday.  Sadly, Holly wasn't there.  But I would have chosen a trip to London over this too!  We always have so much fun catching up and just spending time together.  And our best Christmas gift was learning that Anna and Wayne are adding to our "family"!  Will this be our first boy?

 Christina and Meredith, Stacey and Ella Claire, Anna and Claudia, Me and Morgan

We missed you Holly!

 Precious girls posing on the "stage" in their jammers.  And looked how they lined up in height order!

 Claudia and Morgan making silly faces

Morgan and Meredith pretending to be asleep

Class Work

I don't think I have enough words to describe how much Morgan loves her school.  She loves it so much that I can use it as a privilege that can be taken away for bad behavior...and it works every time!  Ms. Melissa and Ms. Ramey have made such a warm and loving environment that I am truly thankful for.  Last week they made bird feeders in class and Morgan was so proud!  She wanted to hang it immediately when we got home.  Never mind that it was raining!  She even wanted a picture with her bird feeder.  After she hung it she said, "The birds are going to say, 'Thank you Morgan and Mommy for my food!'"  It was really sweet!

 Hanging the bird feeder

Proud girl!

A Murray Wedding in Nashville

With 1873 miles accumulated, our "Holiday Tour 2012" finally completed this weekend with a trip to Nashville for Sarah Doran's wedding!  We had a blast!  Sissy came and kept Morgan for us so we could meet everyone in Nashville for the festivities.  Sarah is a sweet girl from my church in Murray and we were thrilled to go.  And with all of us Radke's going, we knew it would be a great time!

 

The wedding was beautiful and Sarah and Michael were incredibly sweet.  My favorite part of the night was when Sarah's mom Kelly and all her friends surprised her by busting out a choreographed dance - complete with hats and boas!  It was the hit of the night!  I wrote Sarah's letter of rec for Chi Omega when she was a freshman at Miami of Ohio so I was happy to sing "Shades" at her wedding...until I was told that as the Old Alumni I should know all the words!  Ha!  After gathering myself from that I joined the girls in the circle to sing.

 

The weekend was great to have fun and visit with my family...even if it was short.  The past two weeks have been jammed pack with fun and love.  When Jeff and I left Morgan on Saturday morning, we told her we had to go but we would be back soon.  She said, "Again?"  Ha!  Maybe we should take that as a sign to stay home for awhile!

Jeff, Me, Carrie, Belinda, Ben, Mom and Dad

We missed Bobby since his skiing injury kept him from dancing on the town with us! 

 A rare shot of just us

 Mom and Dad

 Cutest couple on the dance floor! 

Me, Belinda, Sarah, Mom and Carrie

 A little Chi Omega song 

 My Murray Chi Omegas!  These beautiful girls make me so proud!

Mariel, Sarah, Me and Abby

Then the Murray Alpha Sigma Alpha girls wanted a pic too!

Charlsie, Belinda, Karen and Mom

 Just us girls

Look how cute they are!

It's official...Dad had fun!

A Coastal New Year

The next leg of our "Holiday Tour 2012" took us to Gulfport to celebrate New Year's with our friends!  Morgan stayed in Jackson with GaGa and Pop so we got to have some big kid fun.  The night we got down there the guys wanted to go to the casinos and so the girls decided to have some fun on our own.  We ended up at another casino to have some drinks and wouldn't you know it, the guys came too!  So much for their night out.  We had a great time catching up!

 

New Year's Eve the girls did a little shopping and the boys got out and played some tennis.  Then we finally got ready for our night out.  We went to a party at the Imperial Palace and had a great time!  They had a band and an open bar so we were set!  The crowd was a little random, but that just made for some great people watching!  We set up camp right beside the dance floor and watched everyone.  It was fantastic!  We got in there and joined them as well for sure.  Then back to the house for late night!

 

The next day we all had to get up and moving because the Dawgs played in the Gator Bowl and kicked off at 11:00.  Sadly, that's the last positive thing I can say about the game.  But we had great food and fun while we watched us lose!  Paige and Freddie hosted us all weekend in their home and we had so much fun.  We had a true Radke New Years and stayed in our pajamas, ate food all day long and just watched football.  The perfect way to begin a new year! 

Our girls night

Me and Jeff

Before and After pics

Happy New Year!

So much fun!

Me, Lauren and Kristen

Late night digging into the left over pizza

And Seth ate the last piece of Lauren's special pizza

Re-enacting scenes from New Year's past

What do you do at 2:00am after a night out?

Compare calf muscles of course!

New Year's Day- aren't we pretty?

A Jackson Christmas

We continued our "Holiday Tour 2012" down south to Jackson after a very short pit stop in Tupelo to unload and reload the car.  We made it just in time on Wednesday to open more presents!  We are so fortunate to have such wonderful families who love to spoil us.  We are truly thankful.  Morgan was thrilled to get a big girl bike from GaGa and Pop!  I think she rode it every day for the entire week!  She even rode it inside when the weather was bad.

 

We spent a few days there as well and I was able to get out and see some friends to make my trip extra special.  First I got to see Holly for a quick second when I met her at a gas station as they were leaving town.  Hey, I'll take what I can get!  The next day I went to Kathryn's new home to visit with her and her beautiful family and meet baby Parker!  He is precious and I got some serious cuddle time with him!  I loved getting to spend time with her whole family.  It makes me happy to see my friends so happy!  Next up was Stephanie where I just crawled right into bed with her!  When Brennan woke up from her nap she was confused to see a stranger in bed with her Mommy.  But I bribed her with a present and we were fast friends.  She is doing so well and I am incredibly proud of her and her patience!  I would be a mad woman by now but she has the best attitude and it is my goal to be more like her in the coming year.  We also got to have dinner with Jeff's high school friends and their wives.  I couldn't tell you the last time that entire group was together!  It was great to catch up with them since none of us live anywhere close to each other anymore.

 

One night Jeff and Sam went to the casino to have some fun.  So Morgan, Sissy and I had a girls night out too!  We went to Madison to have dinner and then took Morgan to see Monsters Inc at the movie theater.  We had a blast and I know Sissy enjoyed seeing Morgan as a big girl in the movies with her pop corn and sprite!

 

We had a wonderful time in Jackson!

 Opening presents with GaGa and Pop

Posing in front of the Christmas tree

Look at that big girl!

Kathryn, Parker, Me, James and Spencer

"Welcome to our family sweet Parker!"

Mommy and Morgan being silly

Christmas Day

Christmas morning we woke up in Murray and Santa had come!  When Morgan woke up it took it a little bit to register that what we have been talking about for an entire month had just come to pass.  I told her to look at what Santa had left in everyone's stockings and she said, "How did that happen?"  My little one, worried about logistics at age 3.  It was a perfect morning watching her and everyone else open their gifts.  We had yummy breakfast and just enjoyed our time together on that special day.  Even in the flurry of gifts, I always enjoy the peacful calm of Christmas morning.  It truly is my favorite time of the year.  One thing you will notice is that Morgan's stocking is not quite right.  I could have sworn I packed it and in fact remember taking hers down to bring with us.  But sneaky Morgan hung it back up in Tupelo and it never made the trip!  Thankfully, Santa must carry some extra stockings for just such an occassion and saved the day!  It didn't even faze her! 

Murray Christmas never looked so beautiful

So excited about her stocking!  Play doh!

"But what do I do with this piece of paper?  It's no fun."

"It's a lottery ticket dear.  Hopefully it will be really fun!"

"Hey look!  A candy cane!"  Morgan asked

Santa for candy canes and pink shoes!

May as well just dump it all out

And Santa brought pink shoes too!

Packe putting stuff together like a good little elf

Morgan got a crown from Santa and a pretty dress from RoRo and Packe.  When she opened her sparkle shoes from them as well (also a huge hit), she said they were glass slippers.  She insisted on putting it all on so she could be a princess!

Aunt Carrie also gave a favorite of the year- the Tickle Monster book!

Morgan was ready to go outside with Packe.  Thank you to the Jeffreys for her super cute hat!  We love it!