Christmas Part 2 - Atlanta

This weekend we went to Atlanta to do Christmas with my family. We always go either the weekend before or the weekend after Christmas. It was fun as always - and I think we left my mom and dad pooped:)

We went to a nearby playground and S thought it was great! She particularly enjoyed the little house and the slide. She was such a daredevil going down the slide all by herself!


On Friday night after we got there, a good friend from high school was throwing a surprise party for her dad. We were able to go for only a bit before the band got too loud and we were worried about S's ears! She loved it though and wanted to be right up in front of them!

The 3 of us have been friends since early elementary school (sorry about the finger in the picture, I was too lazy to edit it out!).

We were able to visit 2 of my cousins and their children. One of my cousins had just had her second baby girl (only 12 days old here!). I missed getting pictures with my other cousin and her son. Hopefully I'll do better next time!

S and her older cousin had fun with all of the new gifts!

M and I were able to get a date night in while we were there. We went to Cheesecake Factory (one of my favorites!!). It was SO NICE to get out by ourselves!!!! It had been way too long. Thank you mom and dad!

S loved the baby doll that use to be mine. It was cute watching her put the baby "night night"! She also warmed up to Grandpa and Uncle Bobby a lot more than she normally does. She had fun with them and kept them busy!

S loves eating everybody else's food! She is not a big eater when she is sitting at her high chair, but she sure can put it away if it isn't hers:)

Uncle Bobby showing S how to get the blocks in the correct hole. He wouldn't let her get away with taking the easy way out by putting them through the top.

S wouldn't let Gigi out of her sight. If Gigi left the room, she'd wander around the house calling "Gigi"! It was too cute - and I was glad it was not me she was following around for once!

Gigi taught her to do a ballerina dance and I was able to catch it on camera!

We were all spoiled rotten and enjoyed out time in Atlanta!!!!

Christmas 2008

Christmas Eve Eve

This year we did things a bit different. Instead of having our annual dinner on Christmas Eve, we did it Christmas Eve Eve. It worked out really well and we were able to go to church service on Christmas Eve for the first time in years! Dinner was wonderful as always and so was the company! S and her cousin had a GREAT time playing with blocks and exploring around Aunt Brenda's house! These 2 kids are going to have many memories together.

Can you tell who is going to be the instigator?!?!

Christmas Eve

Before we went to church on Christmas Eve, S had her headband on and actually really liked it, but it looked a bit ridiculous and we opted for a bow instead.

Christmas Morning

Santa found his way to our house! S had lots of good stuff under the tree - she must have been a good girl this year:)

A Barney CD - mommy's favorite (uggg...).

This was Daddy's favorite b/c it moved by itself.

LOVES her chair from Gigi and Grandpa.

Blocks from Uncle Dale.

Christmas Lunch

S has always loved her cousin Elliott from the time she was born. He'll be a great daddy one day!

M opening his gifts.

S really got into helping me open my gifts. She also would not let anyone throw the wrapping paper on the floor. It had to go in the garbage bag. She gets her neatness from me:)

Merry Christmas!

My Little Bookworm

S LOVES to read! She likes us to read to her and she is now starting to "read" by herself. It is so cute:)

Santa Take 2

So, the first time S saw Santa this year it was not a happy time. I don't know what I thought would be different about this time, but I was hoping for a different response from her. Nope - still screamed! Oh well, we'll see how it goes next year!


We went to our SS Christmas party on Friday night and Santa came to bring all the little kids there a gift. It was so much fun and Santa was so good to the kids! Our SS teachers are awesome and did a great job, along with J3's parents, to get this organized. We had a great time and enjoyed being with our friends and all their children!!!


The older kids loved being on Santa's lap.
The way they were sitting together was so cute I just had to get a picture.
Santa brought S this cool ball!I thought S was just being cute and squatting to see the camera, but she was actually squatting for another reason as I found out a few seconds later;)
This drum was the HIT toy for the kids S's age there!! Good thing that little girl is such a good sharer!


Me and my baby girl. Obviously there was too much going on to stop and smile for a pic with mommy!

S got her exercise that night as she walked/ran around the room. I think we definitely had one of the loudest children there!

Santa making his grand entrance! He was Great!!!

Checking out what the big boys were up to...
And also what the big girls were up to! HA, she LOVES, LOVES, LOVES the big kids but as you can see they had other things to do that night!

Merry Christmas:)

Egg Head

S got in a fight with a chair and the chair won! My poor baby girl's head now has an egg on it!

I Wanna be Like Daddy

S really likes to "clean"! After she is finished eating and I am wiping down her highchair tray, she insists on having a towel and doing it herself. She is so independent and LOVES being praised for what a good job she does.

The other day, M was cleaning the floors and you could tell that S was wanting to help too. So, I gave her a wipe and she went to town. She followed him around the entire house helping him clean! It was too cute:)

She has also developed a liking of M's hat. He'll come in and she'll want to put it on her head and then take it off and put it on his head. Then, put it on her head, take it off and put it on his head. The game could go on and on forever!!!

Lights, Camera and a Bit of Animal Action!

Last night we went to a local lights display at a zoo and it was great!!! I took pictures but when you are in a moving car and it is dark outside, the pictures don't turn out. Oh well!

We waited an hour to get in (but you should have seen the line to get in when we were leaving - definitely glad we went when we did!). There were lights set up everywhere around the zoo, a deer park where thousands (I'm not kidding) of deer were roaming around and you could feed them from the car and they'd come right to your window and also a "petting zoo" but really they offered so much more. There were longhorns, cows, goats, lamas, bulls, ponies and many more. S was facinated by the animals and I don't think blinked they entire time we were walking through. They also had a huge bondfire which was really wonderful b/c it was COLD.

While we were driving, S sat up front with us (she thought she was so cool) and we had the windows open so she could really get a good look at the animals and lights. She hung her head out the window the entire ride and about jumped out to see the deer. However, somewhere along the way, I have no idea how it happened, but while she was hanging out the window she lost her pants!!! It was so funny, I went to hand her to Michael so she could see a zebra that was closer to his side of the car and when I did, there were her pants, in my lap. NO CLUE!!!!

All in all, it was a very fun time and we'll definitely do it again!!


This was the line we waited in before we could get into the zoo.

The deer and zebra.

Christmas Tree

Today we went to NC to a Christmas tree farm and chopped down our tree for this year. This is something neither me nor M has done before. Growing up my family always went to a tree lot and bought one and M's family always went to their property and chopped one down there. Well, for the last several years, M and I have gone to my in-laws' property and chopped a tree down but the pickings are getting slim and I was tired of having a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. So, we decided to do it this way. It actually ended up being a bit more expensive than going to a tree lot so we had to opt for a shorter tree. It is only about 5ft but it made it easier to decorate at the house!!