HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009

2009

is

Here

What will you make it?

Where are you headed?

Who are you becoming?

Running Shadow

I took my little guy to a near by park today so that he could run in freedom. This park has a great open field that is pretty flat so he could just GO! It was really fun. It was sunny, for a late December day, and he discovered his shadow today!!! It was so cute to watch him run and then look around to find it again. At times he would try to run toward it... like he was going to get it. But of course that little shadow boy kept running faster and farther away. Sometimes he looked around for it like he was just not sure about it and wanted to get away from it. It was very cool to watch him learning and investigating what this "shadow thing" was all about. I showed him Mama's shadow too and even waved my arms and danced a little bit so he could look back and forth from the shadow to Mama to see that we were both moving. Fun times and a neat memory. He loved being able to run freely, without me saying, "slow down" or "no touch". Oh, the freedom!!! We also took turns kicking a little basketball. He loved finding sticks and rocks too... such a BOY!

Happy Birthday Lil Sista

Today is my little sister's 19th Birthday! WOW!!!

It's hard to believe.... And yet, I'm so happy for her and where things are in her life right now. She is loving the tide at the University of Alabama and I've really seen her making decisions in a new way, now that she's sorta on her own. She's very smart and very beautiful and has a bright future and destiny ahead. She is great with my little guy and they both really have a connection. It could be the fact that they have the same nose?! Could be?!! She is a fantastic Aunt! My sister is wonderful and I miss her when she's away at school. Happy 19 years and many, many, many more!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2008

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2008

Our little drummer boy...

The book was the only thing he really looked at...
loved the balls

Merry Christmas Eve!

It's Christmas Eve!!!

We love Christmas Eve, because it's part of the whole Christmas tradition. When we were young, we got to open one of our "small" gifts on Christmas Eve and that was always fun. A foretaste of the next morning I guess. But my favorite memories of Christmas Eve are going to church, singing Christmas songs, being a part of the Christmas story being told at church (dressing up and sitting up in front), going to the Smith's big Christmas Eve party for years and years, and then our family time... we would sit or even lay down near the tree with all of the light off in the room except the tree... we would sit and talk about what we had done that year, what we were looking forward to in the next year, what we were grateful for, etc... It was very nice.

Now, as a Mom, I spend Christmas Eve at my in laws house which means we usually miss our church service. But it's great to get to see them and have our Christmas with one whole side of our large family. Family is Christmas tradition in the best way!

We celebrate Jesus birth, Family, and count our blessings tonight!
Merry Christmas Eve 2008!!!

2008 Top Baby Names

The Year in Baby Names
The top 100 names for 2008 are in! Big news this year: Aidan is at the top of the list for boys for the second year in a row, while Isabella skyrockets to #1 for the first time ever.

Top 10 Girl Names of 2008
1. Isabella
2. Ava
3. Emily
4. Elizabeth
5. Abigail
6. Madison
7. Emma
8. Addison
9. Madeline
10. Olivia

Top 10 Boy Names of 2008
1. Aidan
2. Jayden
3. Jacob
4. Michael
5. Ethan
6. Caden
7. James
8. Caleb
9. Andrew
10. Matthew

More from Parents.com

Happy 16 Month Birthday

Happy 16 Month Birthday

little guy

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH

Highlights from Month 15:
-learning to run
-falling and running into things
-a lot more of mom saying, "slow down" "sit down" "calm down" "don't run" "hold still"
-first nose bleed (the day before Thanksgiving - due to running into a table)
-family photos from the Christmas card
-first pair of brown dress shoes, size 7 (hard sole)
-speaking MORE and more ...over 40 words now
-loves ELMO and POOH ("ea-mo" or "mo-mo" and "pooh" & "tig")
-blows on hot food and feeds himself with a spoon
-new love for 'the dog movie' (Lady and the Tramp) LOVES IT
-ring around the legs game... this is when Mama or Dada are trying to cook dinner or wash their hands and the toddler grabs one leg and spins around and between your legs
-bending in half to "stand on his head" - we're not sure why?!
-working on counting but will only say "two"
-working on colors but will only say "blue" but can point to others
-working on letters but only have "S" "P" "O"and "G" right now
-stacking blocks instead of only knocking them down, ok not really instead of, but in addition to
-15 mo shots, wt. 28# 6& 1/2oz, ht. 34"
-18-24 mo clothes, still size 4 diapers
-when we say, "in Jesus name", he says "Amen"
-Saturday, Dec. 13: Got his first molar (his upper left side) and discovered the mall escalator and loved going up
-requests tea and often says "tea" when he sees his juice cup (that's Mom's fault, I love tea!)
-Dec. 17: Said, "I love you" while we were all driving and I started to cry
-started saying "Mama" and "Mommy"
For the longest time he's called me "Da" or "Nulk" (his word for milk) and now, at last, I am Mama!!! = )

OTHER THINGS WE WANT TO REMEMBER:
-waking up and kissing Daddy on your own w/o being told
-the 1,2,3 run across the room at Daddy game
-the new squirrel feeder
-saying bath and requesting to have a bath first thing when you wake up
-still nursing
-the 1st blue sucker from the bank and the mess you made enjoying it
-your 2nd Thanksgiving with your grandparents and three Great-Grandmothers and lots of family...you riding in the power wheels jeep with Chandler, you saw horses and cows and Nanny's big German Shepherd. You loved "playing" football with the guys around Gran Gran's pool. And you enjoyed seeing Taylor's new puppy and playing with Jarrett's basket ball goal and indoor slide.
-your love of finding a good stick continues
-constantly learning and talking and taking things in
-Mama & Dada are looking forward to new DVD's and new books for you next week... we only have about a dozen books and they are all memorized!!
You are very joyful and such a blessing to our lives!!!

My Sweet Love loves a stick

I love Christmas

Christmas is almost here...
And I love it!!

I love looking at random Christmas decorations that no one really needs but sometimes you just HAVE TO buy. I love little tiny ornaments. Every year I get out our ornament box with great anticipation. It's like a gift in and of itself, because nearly every single ornament has meaning to me. Each one reminds me of the year we got it, the person who gave it to us, or brings back a family memory that I have not thought about since the Christmas of the year prior. My mother collected an angel ornament for me every year of my life until I got married and then our first married Christmas, she gave me all of my angels to start my tree. I'm thinking of doing something like that for my son... only with Trains maybe?!! It was really neat and I love that she passed them down for me to enjoy in a new way. I love that time of decorating the tree and listening to Christmas music. I LOVE CHRISTMAS MUSIC! I listen to it any time of the year. I DO NOT have the "only after Thanksgiving" rule. I love it. It's joyful... cool harmony... warm... and many of the songs are about Jesus. What's not to love? Especially the oldies like Ella and Frank!! Mmmm. Back in the day I recorded my own Christmas CD (kind of an 'at home' deal) but it was fun. We still have the songs on our ipod and it's sorta flattering to hear myself in our random Christmas playlist just mixed in with all of the other singers. I love the element of surprise so the whole gift giving thing is FUN for me. I don't stress over what to buy like some of my extended family members do. I love looking and planning and finding out what will really make the recipient light up! I was never the "look for our gifts under Mom's bed" kind of kid. I wanted to wait until Christmas morning. It was always HUGE at our house. My parents went all out. And it was always worth the wait! I love the smell of hot cider in my aunts house. She always put a few slices of orange in the pot and a few sticks of Cinnamon. It's funny how smells are connected to memories. I love hot chocolate too, but there is just a deep warmth that comes from enjoying apple cider with family and friends. (For great apple cider, buy Simply Apple apple juice and heat it on the stove with some Cinnamon. It's excellent and there is no need to add any sugar. Try it!) And we used to do a live nativity scene in my aunts front yard with all of my cousins. I think I was usually an angel. We also went Christmas caroling and it was amazingly fun and very memorable. People don't do that as much. We've become more independent of our neighbors these days... more isolated, I guess. I love stockings too... My husband didn't really have a big tradition with stockings, but I did. It was usually just filled with "little" gifts, but it was more of fact that it was tradition. My stocking at home had a puppy dog on it, and at my Grandmothers house my stocking was hand made and adorned with a blonde angel. We did stockings at my other Grandmothers house until my Great-Grand Mother passed and then we sorta just stopped doing that part. I love to watch the parade! I love getting and sending Christmas cards with a picture every year!!! This year I hung a red rope over the top of our bay window where the tree stands and I clip the cards to the rope with clothes pins. When I was little, our church choir did a live concert with an orchestra called the Singing Christmas Tree. They would literally make a giant Christmas tree of risers and the choir would fill in every row and sing a wonderful show. There were also narrations of the Biblical Christmas Story. And the huge tree light up in sink with the movement of the music. We saw that every year until I was about 7 or 8 and then they started allowing our children's choir to sing on the sides. It was exciting. I have also performed for the tree lighting on the Marietta Square, down town Powder Springs, and the televised tree lighting show which I believe was on Thanksgiving day at Lenex Mall. My Dad does not always enjoy decorating for Christmas, but he is the BEST as surprises... he calls it the "fake and go". He would buy jewelry for my mother and wrap it in a huge box with towels so that she would never guess what was really in the box. One year he huge a diamond necklace on the tree (it mixed in with all of the ornaments and lights) and when she opened her gift it lead her on the hunt all over the house and then eventually back to the tree. She gazed at the tree for a while before she spotted it and then she completely FREAKED OUT. I love those memories. I want to make great family traditions with my family of three. It's hard to in a way because we travel so much over almost all holidays. We are blessed with 3 grandmothers who are alive and well and still host BIG family get together. I guess attending big meals and parties IS our tradition ever since we got married. Christmas should be even more fun for our son this year... he was only 4 & 1/2 months old last year and really enjoyed the tissue paper then the gifts. He'll be 16 months old and lovin' it all!!! He's getting an ELMO and a slide and all kinds of things that will truly make him light up!
How we love to give good gifts to our children. How much more will our heavenly Father give us the Holy Spirit, as a gift, if we ask Him.

Merry Christmas to come... Many Blessings!

Update in Pictures