Tis the season

About 10 seconds after the Thanksgiving dinner dishes were done I was itchin to get the Christmas decorations out. I managed to wait a couple of days. I filled the house with our Christmas treasure, set up the tree, put the lights on it...and this morning the girls loaded it with decorations. It was neat to be able to sit back and watch them bring the tree to life.

UNO!

The first time I had the pleasure of watching a game of UNO it was a bunch of Army pilots. Inside of fifteen minutes I learned it wasn't a game for me! I have a hard time with the entire concept of a game being to make the other persons game as miserable as possible. But I admit I do love to watch the wheels turn in the heads of the players. This afternoon GranMom and Abigail sat down to a nice long game....

GranMom and Abigail have a little debate over the rules.

GranMom was right.

Elizabeth doesn't mind when GranMom is right.

Wordless Wednesday

Lay to rest

Our sweet Olivia, or "O" as we called her, disappeared 10 days ago just as her brother Edwin did last March. We never found Edwin but this morning we did find our Olivia. We will miss her deeply and lay her to rest here with her family who loved her.

Enterprising Hair

GranMom had her hair done in town today. She asked the stylist to back-comb the crown a bit. Well GranMom said she started at the hairline and went all the way back....talking the whole time. Before I go any further, let me tell you that my mother-in-law knows I'm doing this post...she even named it. I am NOT mother-in-law hating.

This first picture is one of my favorites of GranMom. Her hair looks fantastic. It's a copy of a picture she sent us so I apologise for the quality...



This is her "new do"

Big hair. Really big hair.


She had taken a nap and according to her it's flattened a bit.


I guess southern women like big hair....

Just leave it alone!

When Megan and I first met we spent some time getting her yard set up to be bird friendly. I showed her our feeding set up and what we put in the different feeders. Megan has a TON of blue birds in her yard so I thought I should show her our blue bird boxes. We took the long walk to the back 40 to one of the boxes. I opened it, I don't know why...I just did. Suddenly I was face to face with a sugar glider. Cute, yes, until it lunges at your face. Oh yes, that's what it did...then it glided away. I was really sad when I heard little peeping sounds coming from inside the box. Great, she was a mom. I was sure she would abandon the nest now that I had opened the box. I would sneak back there every few days...just to listen, but I never did hear anything coming from inside the box. Several weeks passed and I decided to empty the nest. Maybe, just maybe, if the box were empty she would come back. This morning I took the dogs out to the back 40 for a little playtime. I'm sure you can see where this is going. I opened the box. There we were, face to face, she's baaaaack. It was just her this time. No nest and no babies (thank goodness). Did she lunge and me and glide away? Yes, yes she did. This time I watched which tree she went up, ran inside and got the camera. She was a darling and waited for me to come back. Here she is....my sugar glider.



I will keep my mitts off her blue bird box from this day forward....I promise.

A little playtime

The girls are really enjoying having GranMom and PaPaw around to play with.

GranMom and Elizabeth have spent hours drawing.


Cheese....or is it cheesy?


PaPaw and Abigail play checkers....when they aren't working on multiplication tables.





PaPaw helped Elizabeth and Layla make "duck lips" out of mini pringles.

First with Layla...


Then with Elizabeth...


Quack Quack


This one is completely unrelated. I just thought she was really cute blowing on her oatmeal.

A Quick "Hello"

I'm sorry for the delay between posts. Bill and Caroline (my mother and father-in-law) arrived yesterday for their first visit since we finished the apartment. We have all been busy getting ready for their arrival. The girls are thrilled to have GranMom and PaPaw "living in the backyard". The only picture I have to share is one of Abigail and PaPaw doing a multiplication table. She is here by choice...she asked him to do this with her! Brian tells me he would run away screaming when he was a child at the mention of multiplication. I love it.

Wordless Wednesday

The Party

With soccer season over and weekends open, we were finally able to celebrate Abigail's 9th birthday with some of her close friends. We baked some cupcakes and headed to Rucker Lanes for an afternoon of bowling.

From left to right Michaela, Kaylee, Cassie, Ashley and Anna

Layla came too.

And of course Elizabeth was in on the action.

Between Elizabeth and his own bowling game Brian was all over the place. This was the best shot I could get.

Mr. Thomas.



Mrs. Megan (with one talking Abigail)



And Earl too!



This is Rainey, Michaela's little sister. She didn't bowl but I had to post this picture of her beautiful smile.



OOOOHHH the Excitement.



Michaela won. She had the highest score out of everyone, including the adults. Broken arm and all!

Abigail was stunned.

So we moved on to cupcakes.

I love this shot of Kaylee.

And then the gifts.

Ick

Brian and Earl spent some time wiring plugs and such in the shop this weekend. I was out visiting them and found this...



I just thought it was a strange spider egg so I snapped a couple pictures of it. Then I googled it. It's a brown widow egg. Nice. I learned that the brown widow venom is twice as potent as black widow venom for those of you who were wondering. Time to call the Orkin man...

Welcome Jr.

Congratulations to Andre and family on the arrival of "little" Andre Jr. born November 5, 2008 at 12:36pm weighing in at 7lbs 5oz and a whopping 20.5"! I wish I were there to see him in person. Enjoy him, he is a gift!

For Aunt Kathy

The smile on her face was darling when she opened the box and saw the jammies...she really liked the little hanger they came with. She swapped the bow in her hair to the matching bow that came with them. She has been sleeping with Nellie every night since she got her so you really did get her the perfect gift. THANK YOU AUNT KATHY! We love you.

Thank you Mrs. Megan's Mom

My girls are begging to make these. Thank you...you are sweet to think of me.

My New Favorite Place

During our online search for the ingredients to make Abigail's birthday Pho Brian and I found The Butcher's Block. http://www.freshcutmeat.com/ What a place! We have been asking ourselves "Where's the beef" since we moved here. Well we found it! And fresh seafood(really...not the frozen stuff), fantastic cheese, wine, a variety of sauces and lots, lots more. They are very friendly and professional. If you are local, you HAVE to visit this place. If you're not local, you're stuck with my pictures...

Dry aged over 20 days before it hits the display case.


I took home a bottle of Oregon Pinot Noir.




Tons to explore.




Another happy discovery...


Waterberry Farm grew the beautiful butterhead lettuce we found at the Butcher's Block. They will also be sending tomatoes and strawberries at a later date. Waterberry Farm is a hydrophonic farm located in Slocomb, Alabama, which isn't too far from here. http://waterberryfarm.blogspot.com/ Another place to play at a later date...