2 weeks away...

...and I am finally home to stay! 

Don't get me wrong - I love seeing my family but I also love coming home.  I do not do well with excessive travel and time away from home/my husband and September - December consisted of excessive travel and too much time away. 

Needless to say, I am thankful for the month of January and the committment of NO traveling and an even greater committment to NOT over commit and take time to evaluate travel time, etc in 2013 (help me Lord)!

Let's rewind and recap the 2 weeks away!

CHRIST-mas at my parent's house is always super special.  My mom goes out of her way to cook, clean up behind everyone, cook some more, and just be a servant.  We enjoy lots of time together and Rance hunts every creature known to man with my brother.  Literally.every.creature.

On CHRIST-mas Eve, my mom's 2 brothers, my 2 cousins, and my Granny (dad's side) come over to our house.  The Lord has blessed me with 2 amazing cousins who LOVE HIM.  I'm always excited to see them, catch up on life and especially their walk with Jesus.  Not to mention, they are CRAZY fun so Rance and I eat up time with them.



Meet my CRAZY, Jesus lovin' cousins!
Abigail, Travis, me, Olivia




Brother, me, Husband



My sweet Granny!

My Uncle Craig with his 2 baby girls!

The cousins!

Brothers & Sisters

Crazy Brothers

CHRIST-mas morning is a treat in the Pittman Home too.  We all get up together and open presents together ONE BY ONE taking turns going from oldest to youngest which means Rance goes first! :)  We love taking our time and just enjoying the time with just the 5 of us.

My daddy was tickled over this CLASSIC, old timey corn grinder!  Perfect for Nahunta Feed Supply

Rance got a whole case of Dr. Enuf's! 

Thank you JESUS that You were BORN of a virgin, You lived a perfect life in the flesh on this earth, You died a painstaking death on a cross out of submission to Father for the sins of the entire world, You arose from the grave, You ascended in the heaven where You are seated at the right hand of the Father, and one day You are coming back!!!

me and mommy CHRISTmas morning!

Our traditional "cousins' photo EVERY single CHRIST-mas morning!

love him.

My mommy & I

Family photo in our new Nahunta Community Farm shirts!
Rance and I designed farm shirts and Mrs. Linea Cable from Robbinsville made them :)

My cousin Stephanie and her sweet lil girl Emma (looks/acts just like her)!

Stephen - Stephanie/Chris baby #2
We had LOTS of babies in my family this year!

Laura May's sweet baby girl HARPER with her daddy!

Since we were in Nahunta a week and a half almost - we enjoyed lots of bonding time, time on the farm, birthday celebrations, etc.

Expanding/Digging a pond at the Dixon Farm

Brothers bonding!

Brother/Sister Bonding

Very fun watching!

I got to catch up with friends and play around with them too!  Thank you for all of you that came to my house!  It's so hard when I'm home to GO and visit others so this time I just decided that I can't do it all and anyone is more than welcome to come to my parents to visit! 

Cortney & Mackenzie on her new scooter and YES, I got to drive it too!!! 

Brooke, me, Mandy
Rudy Too's eating THE BEST CHICKEN SALAD
in Wayne County!

As I mentioned earlier, Rance and Travis bonded over LOTS of hunting this time around.  They deer hunted, duck hunted, crow hunted and fox hunted!  Crazy huh? 

Fox hunting was a first for Rance and he LOVED it.

Fox down - this one wasn't caught with dogs though!  My brother got a new call system for Christmas that makes different animal noises where you can literally call them in and yep, shoot em!

Very rarely am I home to celebrate birthdays but this year we were present for my cousin CJ's birthday!  When you have a birthday party in my family - WE ALL GET TOGETHER!

Family Picture before the party!

My hot husband!

Celebrating CJ's birthday!

The newlyweds!!! :)

Brooke, CJ, and Uncle Gary!

We are family!!!!!!!!!!

The THREE musketeers!
me, cousin Lauren, cousin Brooke

Brandon and Mama Gale!
For those of you who do not know, Brandon is the first child my mom kept (she had a home daycare) that gave her the name MAMA GALE!

This year was the FIRST year in the past 3 years that Rance and I have not been in Gatlinburg, TN with my cousins Abigail & Oliva & my Uncle Craig for New Year's Eve.  This year we were still in Nahunta and got to celebrate my brother's birthday with him and the rest of New Year's Eve was pretty low key (I actually didn't make it until midnight!). 

hanging out for brother's birthday!

like brother & sister

Celebrate good times COME ON!

Stay tuned for the remainder of our time away from home...