We're Moving!

Kirsten here! Today was a great day and great things happened!
We have been looking at buying or building a house for a while, and now we've finally reached a conclusion: we are building a house and made the plans final today! Within the year, we should be done with the new house and moved in.
Yeah, it's that time again. My birthday party has come around, and we are having the party this weekend! I can't wait to have it!
Well, until next time!

                                                    -----Kirsten

New Year's Resolutions

Well, Kirsten here, again. Just the weekly update of our lives.
 We've started some new exercise and diet programs. Mom's cut out bread, sugar, fats and oils out of her diet, while the rest of us are eating less sugar and more healthy things. We've also decided to run or cross-train every day except Sunday. It's only been a couple days, but I am really tired and sore! We all are. We've also started school again, and that's not much fun, but it has to get done.

                                                                          ----Kirsten

Happy New Year!

Hey, everyone! Kirsten here. It seems that I'm taking over "The McAfee Family" for the time being. From now on, I'll be doing a new post every week as a recap of the things we've done. Just a quick recap of last year, and hopefully, I'll do a more detailed one next week.
We've been running still. We did the St. Jude Half Marathon in December, and, although it was hot, we had fun doing it. Alec ran a 2:31, beating Mom and me. Mom ran a 2:34, barely missing her under 2:30 goal, and I ran a 2:47, just two minutes faster than my previous time.
Since I can't really think of anything else, I'll sign off for now. Until next week!
                                                                                                                                  ---Kirsten

Alec's Birthday

In March, Alec turned 12!! He wanted his friend Steven to come stay for a few days and do some "fun stuff" while he was here. Steven came over on a Sunday night and stayed until Thursday around lunch time. Alec's birthday was on Tuesday and he was so excited that he woke up early for his presents.

He really liked his Star Wars birthday card. His favorite thing is to open presents.

His reaction to his requested Lego set.

BEST BUDS!!

Alec had requested to visit the Tupelo Automobile Museum, so we went!

Photo op!

The kids really enjoyed looking at all the neat cars. This was one that Richard Petty drove for his 200th victory in NASCAR.

All the kids were really excited to see a Delorean car (like the one in Back to the Future). They were looking in the back for the flux capacitor -- HAHA!!

Alec really liked this one!

The Model T Ford was a favorite for all of them.

We went to Olive Garden for lunch.

Alec was born on our anniversary 12 years ago, so this was our anniversary dinner too!! Happy 19th, Honey!!

We went to Gigi's cupcakes to pick up some cupcakes. We got there and decided we had to eat some there. This is mine -- a Samoa, which has my favorite Girl Scout cookie on top!! Yummy!!

Some of the ones we brought home!! They are so good, but not good for your waistline!

The kids wanted to go to Healthworks!

It was a lot of fun, but I think they realized that it was not quite as fun as they remembered. They are growing up and not as easily amused as they used to be.

Alec had requested this kind of cake at Nonie's -- it is a DIVINE chocolate cake, complete with four different kinds of candy and ganache in between the layers.

We ate too much, but you only turn 12 once -- right?

The boys played NERF that afternoon.

They had lots of fun and always are ready to play some more.

The Amanda Price 5K Memorial Run

In March, we drove to New Albany for the kids first race of the year. This was a very emotional one for us. A young teacher was shot and killed in her house in December, her husband was also shot and their 3 year old daughter was watching everything happen. This race was run in her memory and to raise money for a local charity that helped her family after this tragedy. This is one of the biggest 5K races we have participated in. The kids were very excited for this race to get started.

Amanda's husband spoke to the crowd before the race began.

The children all got to release a purple balloon in her memory.

This is the start of the race.

My pictures got out of order -- Alec and Chandler were racing together at the end (see picture at the top). They raced all the way across the finish line, with Alec just barely finishing ahead of him.

This is Kirsten finishing her race. It wasn't one of her best, but we are working toward getting her faster and stronger.

Amanda's husband and daughter run across the finish line. She had such a big smile on her face, and everyone couldn't help but tear up watching them finish.

Alec and Macain are on the RIGHT side of this, while Brandon is on the WRONG side. HAHA!! That's a little Mississippi rivalry going on there.

Kirsten's 14th Birthday Party

In January, we invited several of Kirsten's friends to have a spend the night pool party at my boss's pool house. These girls have such a special friendship and a couple of hours at a party are no where near long enough. They could spend a whole week together and not get tired of each other.

These girls had all gone an entire year without any carbonated beverage and this was their first drink of any. They all picked their favorites and downed them together. It was fun to watch their faces when they tasted that fizziness. The birthday girl!!

Making a wish seemed like overkill, cause she already had her best friends surrounding her and a party on top of that.

Gathering to open presents. These girls are all talented and most hand made gifts that mean much more to Kirsten than any store bought item. Their creativity is always mind blowing.

Catherine and Olivia are rarely separated.

This collage of pictures was a gift from Hannah and included some of the best Spartan pictures.

Claire and Claire -- so cute, I had to get a picture.

This picture depicts several different carbonated beverages and celebrates Kirsten's accomplishment.

We had lots of fun at the party, ate too much food, candy and cake, stayed up way too late, but we look forward to next year.

Kirsten's Birthday Cake

This AWESOME cake was lovingly crafted by Ms. Sherrie Thomas, for Kirsten's party. She always makes magnificent creations and this cake was no exception.

For Kirsten's birthday morning, I got up early to make these birthday cake pancakes. It had cake mix in the batter and sprinkles, and icing and sprinkles for the top. They looked cute, but lacked a little in the taste department. Both Kirsten and Alec enjoyed the special treat.

A picture of the birthday girl with her pancakes. We went to Tupelo to eat out and stop at Gigi's for a birthday cupcake. Her party wasn't until later that week, so we didn't do anything else for her birthday.

Our New Ride and a Wished For Ride

We decided in January, that it was past time to get a new-to-us vehicle. We had three vehicles that had very high mileage (together they totaled almost a million miles). Mitch faithfully watched car lots and online for a GMC Acadia, as we both liked this vehicle. He found this one at a lot in our home town. He test drove it, I test drove it, and then we told the kids about it and had them ride in it. We all fell in love with it and decided to purchase it. We have very much enjoyed driving it.

While inside the dealership filling out the paperwork, Alec fell in love with this Camaro convertible. We told the kids that if we didn't have kids, that we would probably purchase this car instead. It is so pretty and I love the body style.