Final Christmas Post! :)

This will be my last post on Christmas 2009-- I am going to be moving on to 2010! I wanted to get these last pictures of Christmas around our house on here for our book. I don't want to forget :)

Audrey loved this Santa ornament this year. Whenever we would ask her where "Ho!Ho!" was, she would run and point to him on the tree. We could also point to him and ask her who he was and she would say, "Ho!Ho!" in her precious little baby voice!

We put a hot pink tree in her room for her this year. Everytime we would walk in the room she would point at the tree and say, "lights!". I loved it!

Her favorite thing to do is still to play outside. While we are out there, she loves to collect acorns. I found this little acorn ornament and got it for her "2009" ornament. I hope to get one each year that represents something she likes or reminds us of her that year.

We gave her a Little People Nativity at the beginning of December and that was a hit! She was so cute running around the house with Baby Jesus. She loved for me to "hide" him and to ask her to find him. I would move him to the hearth, to the shelf on the island, to her doll bed, where ever. She loved looking for him. She actually loves to play any kind of hide-n-seek! If you want to here this baby girl squeal with delight- just hide from her and let her find you!

Last year I had an imprint of her hand made into an ornament. This year we went with my mom's group to a place that you can paint your own ceramics and they will fire it for you. Audrey and I made an ornament together!

And as she would say--- it's "toot" (cute).

Finally, here's a picture of that "squeal" I mentioned previously. We were playing a game where I hide these cards with red squares around the house. Then she and I "look" for them. She's pointing to the one she found on the door facing in this picture.....

Now, on to 2010!! Happy New Year!

Christmas with Granny and Paw Paw

The day after Christmas, we headed home to spend time with my family. We stayed from Saturday to Thursday-- can you wear out your welcome at your Mom's house? I don't think so! It did look like a "baby" bomb had gone off in my mom's house though. I'm sure she was glad to get that back to normal!

Here are random photos from when we opened presents.

Granny and Paw Paw gave Audrey a kitchen but it was already at home. It wouldn't have fit in our car so they bought it a few weeks before Christmas and gave it to us then. Lesa, Alan and the girls gave her some fruit and veggies to go with it and an apron. She's a cute little chef!

The girls both got American Girl dolls from Granny and Paw Paw. Audrey was very interested in Gracie's and REALLY wanted to brush her hair. Gracie was so patient and sweet!

While everyone unwrapped their gifts, Audrey played with her fruit and tried not to get lost in the wrapping paper! She got lots of other gifts and was spoiled rotten but she opened the fruit first so.... that was all she was interested in!

Momma got Daddy an automatic grease gun for his backhoe? I'm not really sure what it's for! He gave her an antique oak wash stand but I didn't get a picture of it! It's pretty!

I had a great time while I was visiting! I also saw lots of my old high school buddies in the restaurants, Wal-Mart, and the local boutiques. It was fun to run in to everyone!

Christmas Day

After we played with our loot from Santa, we drove about an hour and half to visit Clay's Grandmother. Clay's parents met us there and we were able to exchange gifts and visit with everyone.

Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

I got a new lens for my camera from Santa and I was anxious to try it out so we tried to get some family shots done. Hmmm....

Round 1: Audrey with her Great-Grandmother, Grandaddy and her Daddy

Round 2: Audrey with her Grandparents

I love my new lens! I am still practicing with it but I love not having to use a flash!

Ho! Ho! Came!!

This was the most fun Christmas EVER! I had a HARD time going to sleep Christmas Eve because I was so excited over Audrey's response to what Santa had brought for her! She didn't disappoint! She loved everything I thought she would love and we had the best time playing with her new toys!
She woke up right on time that morning and we normally sit down to eat right when she wakes up. She is a pretty structured little girl and Clay and I were worried that she would have to have breakfast before she dove into her presents. We shouldn't have worried! She got down to business as soon as she saw it all! We wanted to film her as she walked into the den to see her goodies but she new something was up and wouldn't walk by herself! HAHA! I had to carry her in but that was fine by me! I just took her right to her table and let her play!
She loved her new baby doll and sat her at the table to have "tea" pretty quickly. That Santa was a smart Santa! He didn't just bring all new toys-- he took some of Audrey's most favorite presents that she had already received and stuck them in with the others! The Lamkin's had given her the tea set earlier and he new it was perfect for Audrey's table! He also new that Raggedy Ann and Andy would love to have tea-- thank goodness Aunt Lesa gave us those early too!
She did have to take a break in the middle of playing to eat a tiny bit and drink a ton of milk but it didn't last long! Just long enough for us to sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus and to blow out his candle!
Then we were back at it! This time she focused on the kitchen (Granny and Paw Paw sent the kitchen as a surprise from them!)and her stocking!

I think her favorite part of her stocking was the chocolate Santa she found!

Clay and I had the best time with Audrey! We can't wait until next year!

The title of this post is a reference to what Audrey calls Santa. This year, everytime we'd point to a picture of him or to the ornaments on the tree and ask her what that was.. she'd say "HO!HO!". Who knows what she will be calling him next year!

Christmas Eve

This was the first year since we've been married that we've spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in our own home. We feel that it was important for Audrey to have Santa come see her at her own house. Because of that, we were able to spend Christmas Eve with my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, nephew and Clay's Aunt Kim. It was a very relaxing, fun night! Well, as relaxing as it can be with a 16 month old running around!

Merry Christmas!!

Audrey and I have been having some fun around our house these days! The cold weather makes it where I can't take my little yard youngin' outside as much so I have to come up with fun things for us to do inside!

We love to paint--




...and to color. Well, honestly, we just love to pull the crayons and paper out of the craft drawer!



She's also started boycotting her high chair. She wants to sit in a big chair like a big girl. So... we do a lot of practicing!

We always start out just right! Bottom in the chair,etc.

Then she gets a little bored so she turns around,pulls her legs up..


...eventually sits on her knees...


...until she finally gets to this point.



Unfortunately, Momma has to interfere with all her fun when she finally stands. The pictures aren't pretty of her reaction to that! :)

Audrey also loves our Christmas trees this year! One day I caught her walking slowly toward the tree with her arm outstretched, all the while shaking her head and saying, "No,no,no"! It is as if the trees are a beacon and she is drawn to them!

See those stuffed ornaments in the picture above? My momma made those for our tree when we were VERY little. I remember her sitting on the couch and working on those things for hours! I love them!


She's particularly good at rearranging the ornaments.

She has developed a love for the ornament she has in her hand in the picture below. A dear friend that I taught with a million years ago gave it to me. Audrey likes to move it all over the tree-- I never know where I will find it!


** Side note ** Those boxes that are behind Audrey are my presents from Clay. He did all his shopping this year online. He made me promise not to get any boxes off the porch which was extremely difficult for me to do because I LOVE to get a package!! He would come in from work each night and drag the boxes into the foyer where I was to pretend they weren't there. One day I decided to close my eyes and put them under the tree.I made sure not to look at the return labels or anywhere near them. Hee..Hee.. Aren't they wrapped pretty? Just kidding-- he says he is going to wrap them tomorrow but I honestly don't care because do you see what's on the side of that box?

It says JANOME and it has a picture of the contents on the OUTSIDE of the box!! I can't help it if they put a PICTURE of it on the outside of the box! Merry, Merry Christmas!!

P.S. It's a serger! WOO-HOO!! ***

That completely distracted me so I am going to wrap this post up (heh, heh). I will have to finish up about the fun we have another day!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Audrey attended her first birthday party for Jesus at her MDO program! I am the "Room Mother" for Audrey's class and I have so much fun planning their little parties and events. My favorite part of being a teacher was planning fun things for my students to do. I didn't get to do as many "fun" things with them as I would have liked because the actual teaching got in the way! I don't have to worry about standards, objectives, benchmarks, common assessments or any of that when I am planning for Audrey's class! It is all fun!

Since it was a Birthday party for Jesus, we had to have birthday hats. You can see what Audrey thought about the hat!


Because the children are only 15-20 months old, we can't really have an over the top sort of party. They lose interest fast! This time we just had a snack, listened to Christmas music, and made a craft. By that time, they were done partying and ready to go ride the "Bye, Bye, Buggy!"!



Our craft was a thumbprint baby Jesus in a manger.

My friend, Amy, had one of these that her youngest child did at our church. I used it as an example and just copied it! Because they do have such short attention spans, I made the manger, the star and the wording before we went to the party. All the children had to do was make baby Jesus. It was a fun and simple craft-- just my kind!! Easy!

I plan to frame it in a simple black frame, hot glue some ribbon on it and hang it as an ornament on our tree each year.

Merry Christmas!

Final Zoo Class...

... for this semester anyway! At this class, Audrey was much more adventurous than in the other classes. She wanted to touch everything and didn't mind going at it alone!

The first animal out this time was a screech owl. The babies are only allowed to "touch with our eyes"! Audrey didn't understand that! I had to literally hold her back from gouging the poor things eyes out.


Next, was "Cardboard" the box turtle. I am thinking that this is the same kind of turtle that my hubby used to paint the shells on when he was a little boy. He talks of catching them, painting symbols on them, letting them go and then finding them years later! Oh, if we ever have a boy!?!


Some of Audrey's sweet friends from our Mom's Group were there. Here's Elizabeth thinking that she'll wait until next time to touch the turtle.


We also got to see the snake again....

... Audrey wasn't the least bit concerned that this snake was much longer than she was!



Matthew was pretty anxious to get his hands on that snake!! So anxious that his momma had to help him be "gentle". Imagine that-- being "gentle" with a SNAKE! Ew.

The final "zoo animal" we got to see was an alligator from south Alabama. I've seen a gazillion of these in the Conecuh river but it was fun for Audrey to get to see and actually touch one! She would never get to touch one that we saw at the river!!


For Audrey and the other children in the class, the absolute best part of the class didn't come until the very end.

The chairs!! Oh, my!! They are so much fun to a 15 month old!! They are the perfect size and weight-- just right!