Wasn't the weather delightful?

Such wonderful weather outside today - a great day for a visit to the park.

Momversation.com - what do you think?

Christmas Fun!

Cookie Baking at its best!

Meet Jake

My parents just got a new puppy. His name is Jake. He is incredibly cute and lively! He instantly fell in love with Allison. He followed her everywhere. After a few hours of fun - Allison remembered her original love - Ozzy!

Greg's drawing

While coloring with Allison the other night, Greg created this:

Feast of St. Nicholas

Tomorrow, December 6th is the feast of St. Nicholas. We will have a wonderful meal tonight by candlelight to celebrate. Also, tonight we will read the story of St Nicholas to help us remember his kindness and generosity. We are going to place our shoes near our fireplace and in the morning there may be treats inside!

Next year, as a family, I would like to do some sort of service in our community - well see!!
Here is a picture of our first Jesse Tree ornament!

I am in love with this season. Everything about this time of year is wonderful. Who can resist decorating a Christmas tree or looking at Christmas lights? Wrapping presents, delicious comfort foods all around, and being with family. Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent.
I have done my homework and have lots of things for Allison to do to celebrate - not to mention things for us to do together as a family. One thing that we will be making is ornaments for our Jesse Tree.

Here is my picture update:

PARK FUN:




More pictures to come!

Halloween

Originally, our plans for Halloween called for a short trip to visit grandparents. At the last moment - our plans were thwarted. We decided to stay close to home. After a great family nap - we decided to check out the fall feast - I must say we had a blast. It was so much fun doing the activities - such as ring toss, bean bag toss, needle in a haystack and even a hay ride! Allison loved it! Afterwards, because the night was still young, we made a short stroll through sorority row - it was a lot of fun too!

Climbing the Volcano:


Ahh... fun after the rain:

First Salon Haircut

Before:


During:


The fun begins:




After:

A Picture Update

Being cowgirls:



Allison painting a picture of her uncle Dan.



Allison playing dress-up:

A couple of Recent Pics

We were in a wedding recently - here are a couple of really cute pictures:

Ozzy's Arch Enemies

This is our dog Ozzy. He is more than a dog to us. He was our first child. (No we never dressed him up or carried him in a purse.) Ozzy has been in our family for eight years. He is the best dog in the whole world, he truly is. Part of the reason why he is the best dog is because he has the kindest most playful heart I've ever known in a dog.

Well, when you know someone as long as eight years - you begin to notice little quirks that they may have. Ozzy has quite a few of these. I am reminded daily of two of his little quirks. He has two arch-enemies in this world - two - and they are the ice cream man and the squirrel.

Our neighborhood ice cream man is actually a man pushing a cart ringing a tiny bell. The thing that I find funny about the ice cream man - is he starts at the opposite end of our street and Ozzy instantly hears him and barks the entire time it takes for this man to walk down our street. I cannot hear him until he gets closer to our house, but I know he is on his way because of Ozzy's bark.


We had a squirrel who would visit us everyday - he liked to eat out of our bird feeder. Ozzy did not like this squirrel and would attempt to jump out of the closed window whenever he saw him. I'm not sure if this squirrel still comes around, but we now have other squirrels who come to visit and to eat out of our bird feeder. Ozzy's reaction is the same.

Month Thirty Update

Dear Allison,
Yesterday was your half birthday - Happy Half Birthday!! For the past month or more we have been traveling to see family for different occassions such as bridal showers, birthdays or for Easter. Over the past month you have picked up a few quirky characteristics that I am not sure if it is from spending so much time with your grandparents or just you growing older.




A sign of either grandparent overload or just growing older:

The other day while at a playground - a little boy tugged at your shirt. You made your way over to me and after the little boy released you, I comforted you for only a moment, before you were off to stand beside the little boy with your arms folded accross your chest and your "mad" face on. You didn't say a word or make a motion, you just stood beside this little boy for a short time until you became distracted with something. It is funny to see you acting that way - so bold, so independent. Ahh, everything these days is " No, let me do it by MYSELF!" I understand you want more control in your life - I get it. I do appreciate that when it is tough to do it on your own, you do come to me and ask for help.



I love you my sweet,
Mommy

Kerpluee

My trusty camera that I purchased two years ago for $299 dollars has recently went kerpluee on me, well actually it continued to flash "focusing error" out of nowhere. And after much online research and contacting the help desk - I found out the fujifilm cameras have a history of this sort of trouble after two years!! I hate finding this out now, but I will say that I loved this camera - it was a great camera for the two years I had it and I was heartbroken that it broke!

I then ventured out into the digital camera market once again. Does anyone remember the digital camera market two years ago - it was horrible. There were only two classes of cameras then (as I remember it) lousy cameras or really expensive cameras. Now, the market is much nicer - there are lots to choose from. Greg actually wanted me to pick a camera that was $200 more than the one I wanted - it was a lot fancier, but for what I use my camera for - I really needed one I could swing around my neck at a playground or the children's museum. I needed one I could stash in my purse - not one that had accessories or one in which I had to learn to use first! So, here is what I went with:


I love it! More optical zoom and megapixals that I had before and I went with my "old trusty" brand - Canon. I am thankful for my patient husband who worked to fix my fujufilm and when it couldn't be done - helped me pick my next camera!

Great Reads

I've read (or am currently reading) a few books lately, that I have become to think are quite awesome. Here are my Great Reads as of late:

1. Becoming a parent places so many concerns fore front that you may have not had in the past. I never worried so much about food when it was Greg and I. Over the past year, I have become more educated on the purchases I make at the grocery store. I see it as a journey where I am very much at the beginning and am still a novice. I highly recommend this book for those of you who wander what the big deal is about all the food craze that has developed lately.


2. I read this book for a book club. This books is an awesome read. I can't say too much for fear of giving too much away. I would highly recommend this book (Nicole) to those who love to read fiction.


3. This book was recommended to me by a friend. It is a lengthy book, but I am reading it because I've realized Allison will soon become "school age." I'm not sure of the path we will take with her education, but I recently realized that I need to become more educated to better serve Allison's needs.

Can you guess what she is saying?

" This one for Memaw, this one for me, and this one for Grandma." She then looks at me, her Mom and says, "Oh, Momma - these are for you!" Honestly - word for word.

Our Camping Trip

Last week we went on an impromptu camping trip to Huntsville State Park. I have to say that it was beautiful. There were very few other campers - so it was quite and nice and so much open space! I love camping and the scenery at this park is just so beautiful. Here are a few pictures of our trip.

Greg and Allison on the pier.


Allison holding the boat she made with Daddy:


Me, wearing about 3 or four layers of clothes - seriously!


Allison on our way home:


Ozzy on our way home:


We had such an awesome time camping. I can't wait until our next trip!