Wow, so much catching up to do. I guess this will be a somewhat long post. I hope everybody had a GREAT holiday season. We did. Mackenzie went to her dad's Christmas Eve and actually stayed with him for Christmas morning. This was very hard for me to deal with. I have never broken down in front of Mackenzie until this came along. She was so sweet though. She climbed up into my lap and told me to take a deep breath and think about something else and it would be OK. So about 4:00 I met her daddy to drop her off and cried some more. That night was nice though I went to the candle light service at church and then rode around looking at lights. Christmas morning I awoke to the phone ringing. Hoping it was Mackenzie I jumped right up and answered the phone, it was only Tyler (her daddy). He called to let me know she was about to get up and to say Merry Christmas. Not quite 10 minutes later I got the call I originally wanted. It was my sweet girl telling me everything Santa had left for her at her daddy's house. Around 1:30 Tyler brought her back to my house and she got to see what Santa brought her there. I am very happy to say that she plays with the guitar she got at my house more than anything. Then we went to my mom's and opened presents and then back home to sort through the mess. Here are a couple pics from Christmas. I tried to do a slide show but could not get it to work.
Also while we were in Kingstree I decided to take Mackenzie out to the farm. It is no longer an operating farm but it is where I lived until I was 5 and visited quite frequently after that. Our grandparents left the land to us when they passed away and it really is beautiful. This is a pic of the barn, Mackenzie on a gas tank and then the horses.
Mackenzie has been talking about getting her ears pierced for quite a while so I took her to Claires the Saturday after Christmas and the lady told her it was like a finger prick. Well that was all it took. That is the worst thing you could have told my child. Needless to say we walked out of there with no ears pierced. So the next Saturday we went and had lunch with Tyler and she was pretty excited and told her daddy she was going to do it today. We walked in she jumped up in the chair and she now has pierced ears.
This was my year to have Mackenzie on New Year's but plans changed. I was invited to go out with a group of friends so I called Tyler and he said he would keep her. It was great. We went to Liberty and then went to Jillians. It was nice.
Now about Afghanistan. On Christmas day a very good friend of ours arrived in Columbia on his two week leave. This was a great Christmas present but he still has to go back. Well, he is on a plane as I am typing this on this way back. We went and had lunch with him and his family on Sunday and that made things even harder. I truly admire all military families. I am not sure who has the harder job the family or the soldier. Here is a picture of Mackenzie and Brandon from Sunday. She is really having a hard time understanding the situation.
Also while we were in Kingstree I decided to take Mackenzie out to the farm. It is no longer an operating farm but it is where I lived until I was 5 and visited quite frequently after that. Our grandparents left the land to us when they passed away and it really is beautiful. This is a pic of the barn, Mackenzie on a gas tank and then the horses. 
Ok after all this my goal is to try to post more often. I hope everybody is having and will have a GREAT 2008!
