"These are a few of my favorite things..."

Brown paper packages tied up with bows,

baby doll bed,

custard, yum!

books,

dinner for two,

old and new (furniture made by Lydia's great grandfather for her mommy 20+ years ago and her grandmommie 50+ years ago added with some new dishes, food, and pots and pan)

basketball goal,

one of many new babies- good thing Lydia has a doctor kit for all those runny noses and colds they will have this winter!

AND...also Pappi!!! We are so thankful to our friend Laurie W. for finding our beloved Pappi so that he could enjoy Christmas with us!



And to think, we still have 3 more Christmas events to go! What a blessed little girl we have! Merry Christmas!

Seven Years of Bliss

Happy 7th Anniversary to a wonderful husband and best friend! I love you Josh!!!

Kasey Chambers Lyrics

Today is also my parent's 39th wedding anniversary! Happy anniversary to them too! We got to celebrate with them tonight with dinner at Maggiano's Italian restaraunt in Nashville. It is so good- I totally recommend it, as it was highly recommended to me!

Merry Christmas to ALL!

We wish you a Merry Christmas,

We wish you a Merry Christmas,

We wish you a Merry Christmas!
AND a happy New Year!

One week to go until Santa makes his apperance!

It is surely the "MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF YEAR."

Enjoy this special time with family and friends!

Oh You Better Not Pout!

I am working on addressing my Christmas cards this week. I love sending Christmas cards every year. I keep all my cards from previous years and look at them when I unpack the decorations. It is so nice to see friends' families who are close and those who are far and see how their family changes each year.

This year I was excited to get some pictures of Lydia made for our Christmas card. Nana bought Lydia a beautiful dress with a red sash for Christmas. I had high hopes of getting a picture of ALL 3 of us to send out this year. Josh and I were coordinating so well with our baby girl and I just knew we could get atleast one decent one of us all together. Well here is a preview:

Needless to say, the card that will be mailed out will only have Lydia. She decided that we didn't need to be in the picture with her! I am sure that we will cherish this picture (as Melissa D. suggested we keep it) and there will be many more photo moments like this with her and future children.

If you have a fun Christmas photo, like the above, I would love for you to share it on your blog!

Halloween Happenings

Lydia enjoyed her 2nd Halloween. She got to trick-or-treat with her cousins to the homes of her Great-Grandparents and Grandparents on Thursday. Then on Friday we enjoyed Trunk-or-Treating with our church family!

Lydia seemed to get so tickled seeing her friends and cousins all dressed up. Her favorite thing was to give candy back to the givers in "their" bowls. She was a very sweet princess and enjoyed wearing her costume, which will be great for dress up throughout the year!

1 1/2 years old!!!

Today Lydia turns a YEAR and a HALF!!!! WOW!!! Where has the time gone? She is becoming so independent as she grows. She is talking a lot and into everything. She loves Elmo, Barney, books and puzzles. She loves being outside, going to the park, swinging, walking/running and playing. She continues to be our bundle of JOY! Check out the October '07 and October '08 pictures to see how she has changed and grown!

Oh and a bonus picture: I have to share a cute picture of Lydia with Audrey and Zoe- I see some pianists in our future!!

Jackson Orchard Fun with Friends and Family

There are so many wonderful things about Fall. This is my favorite season! I love visiting the pumpkin patches and orchards and being outside. Melissa planned a fun day for Lydia's buddies at Jackson's orchard this month. We had a fun time with our buddies and were very glad Lydia's cousins, Jameson and Ally could join us!

Chattanooga Trip

Nana and Papa took us to a Chattanooga for a couple of days during Josh's fall break. This was a great trip for Lydia (and us) because we got to go to the excellent Creative Discovery Museum and the cool Tennessee Aquarium. Check out the links to these places for a fun getaway idea for the family. There was so much to do and the museum had a whole area targeted for toddlers. We spent a long time at these places and Lydia was very engaged (as much as a toddler can be that is). There are several attractions in Chattanooga that I wasn't aware of and can see us going back in the future. If you haven't been there, try it out sometime! We had a great time! Enjoy the slide show:

Georgetown Visit

The last weekend of September, we traveled up to Georgetown to be with our good buddies and visit our favorite Orchard: Evans' Orchard. This was an orchard that Josh and I both had taken many school trips to, so it was extra special to take Lydia. There were many different slides of all sizes, playground areas, camel rides, horse rides, petting farm, tractor trike course, pumpkins, hay castle, corn maze, dirt mounds to climb with ropes, apple pies, apple slushies, and tractor rides through the orchard. Two of my best buddies who were on my first grade team (bottom row) Missie and Laura came with their little boys. Lydia loved seeing them- each of these three kiddos are exactly 6 months apart- talk about something in the water at our school- we were "maternity leave central." Also we were glad to see Anna Pryor and her new baby brother, Collin (top row). My best bud Courtney just had Collin a couple of weeks ago and I was so excited to meet him! We even got to go to the "Festival of the Horse" which is held in downtown Georgetown. Our old church had a booth set up and we got to see lots of our church friends. The sweet twins are Jason and Evan. My friend Erica (to the right of me) is doing a great job as a mommy of twins. Her sister Kristen (to the left of me) is getting married in July and Lydia is going to be her flower girl. We are so excited. It is going to a beautiful wedding. We had a great trip and always look forward to going back!