Merry and Bright!

Merry Christmas to our family and friends. We have had an exciting couple of days here at our house. Gin & Papa came down from Huntsville on Friday to celebrate Christmas with us. We were sad that our cousins could not be with us due to illness. We had a great time hanging out and we had a big lunch. I was in charge of the ham...which turned out a little over done but we ate none the less. We will be eating ham for the next year! I even pulled out my good china which I had never used. Must use it more often! Of course the highlight was opening gifts...Walt is all set with a complete outfit for any rain we might have....the boots, rain coat and an umbrella! Ella received the Fisher Price Nativity Set and she loves the baby Jesus and the "neighs" (aka cow).


Santa made an early stop at our house on Saturday morning. The Fire Chief was able to put in a call to him for daddy since he is working on Christmas day. Walt seemed ok with this and we even got them down at a decent hour. I couldn't wait to see their faces on Christmas Eve morning!

Christmas Eve morning: all was quiet in the house until the sound of an alarm made Eric and I sit straight up in bed. Luckily, it was Walt with his new found boat firetruck that Santa had brought him. This is the one toy that Walt has been consistently asking for so I was pleased to see that Santa kept his promise. I hurried downstairs to turn on the lights and get into position for when Ella walked into the room. She is at such a fun age and really getting into opening gifts. She was so cute as she walked into the den and saw her new pink kitchen playset and her hippo pillow-pet. It was such a joy to see them so excited. By 9 a.m. the kids were on new toy overload and we enjoyed breakfast and being together. We made it to our Christmas Eve Service at Oak Mtn. It is always a packed out service and I almost feel like I'm in the stable in Bethlehem because there is a constant stream of crying and talking....it's really just all of the babies and kids. Walt and Ella did well except for when I think Walt was doing somersaults down the side aisle. Ella love the music and showed her appreciation at the end of each song with applause and a loud "YAY"! So sweet.






After church, we headed over to our good friends the Brown's house for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. Dawn's parents and Eric's mom and sister were also there so it was nice to be surrounded by family. We enjoyed taco soup and salad and for dessert the kids led us in a round of Happy Birthday Jesus. We even got to see Santa riding around Hoover on the big ladder fire truck. This made Walt extremely excited.

The Eric's sync their Iphones...



Christmas day we woke up to rain. Eric left early to get to the station so the other guys could get home to be with their families. The kids slept in until 8a.m. and for this I was grateful. We played all morning and then at noon we went to eat lunch with Daddy and his friends at the fire station. We enjoyed spending some time with daddy and I know it helped make his day go a little faster.

While we have enjoyed our gifts we are most thankful for the gift of Jesus!
"Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

And I'll close with this sweet video of Walt! It makes my heart smile!

From Away in a Manger

Thankful Hearts!

Again....I've slipped with my posts. I love the holidays but please could someone press pause and just let the days slow down a bit. I can't believe that Christmas is next Sunday. We have been wrapped up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday spirit. We have enjoyed the many parties and gatherings at work and with our friends and family. We had Christmas this past weekend at the Brick House with Maeme and Giggy! We got to spend all day Saturday with Uncle Ben, Aunt Ashley,& cousins Emma Grace and harris. The kids played well together. I so wish we lived closer so they could get to know each other better. We had an "untypical" Christmas feast of lasagna and chicken parmesan. Yay for home cooking! The big hit of the day was the new plasma cars that Maeme and Giggy gave the children. I just had to close my eyes when Ella was riding it down the driveway. Maybe we should put helmets on our "must-have" list for the man in the red suit! We drove down the street and visited the next best thing to the Griswald's festival of lights. The kids enjoyed all of the decorations and they even received candy canes from Santa. It was a great weekend.


Ella tries out the Big Wheel on the driveway!

Griswald's via Mableton Style

This might be the only picture I get of Ella with Santa (or HO HO as she likes to call him)

Walt flies down the driveway on his new plasma car.

The Cousins gather at the Brick House for Christmas with Maeme and Giggy!

Walt was a wiseman at his Cubbies Christmas program...

Ella enjoys decorating the Christmas Tree!

Preview of Ella's birthday invite!

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Fall Update

Wow...how busy we get during the fall. School started,Walt went on his first school field trip to the Fire Station, Eric and I celebrated our 7th Wedding anniversary with a trip to Blue Mountain Beach. Walt had his second set of ear tubes put in on October 27th and he was such a trooper. We are so thankful that the surgery was successful and that he is feeling better. We had a blast on Halloween Trick or Treating around our neighborhood with friends. Walt decided to be Ironman for the second year in a row and Ella was a darling little owl. Ella caught on quickly to the idea of collecting candy...I nicknamed her my candy thief. Can't believe my favorite time of the year is coming to an end; the leaves are falling, we stuffed our self full at Thanksgiving, we even had our first threat of snow. But we woke up this morning to just some cold, wet rain. Ella and I are putting up the big tree while Walt is at school. This afternoon, I will let him help me decorate the red fireman tree. I have my sugar cookie candle burning and my Christmas music playing. I love this time and I know I've said it before how easy it is for us to get caught up in the "busyness" of the season...I just want to slow down time and enjoy the reason we celebrate Christmas. We have been so blessed this year with so many things. I won't get mushy about it now...I'll save that for another post...here's a few pictures from the fall to catch ya'll up!

A is for: Autumn, Apples....and oh yes...Amoxicillin!

This has been a very busy week! Eric and the kids spent last weekend at the lake while I worked. I had Saturday all to myself and while I loved the quiet I missed the noise! I attended a double baby shower for some of my co-workers on Saturday evening. It might have been the most fun I've had at a baby shower. We played games and had lots of laughs! I made some of my burlap letters for the new babies. I love monogrammed things! My SIL Cathy did some cute burp cloths and onesies as well! Thanks Cathy!

Walt started his alphabet series at school of course starting with the letter "A". He has brought home some fun artwork and they have done many things dealing with apples this week. Today, they celebrated Johnny Appleseed's birthday!

One of the not so good things that is going on is that Walt has a double ear infection. Despite having tubes in almost 2 years ago I think they have bit the dust! Last night we got home from eating dinner at a friends house...Eric was getting Walt ready for bed when all of a sudden Walt comes flying into the bathroom talking about the blood on his finger. His poor little ear had blood oozing from it. So, after a 45 minute wait for the triage nurse to call me back Walt had fallen asleep. I went to check on him and there was blood on his pillow so Eric scooped him up and headed out into the stormy night to get to Children's South. Well, South closes at 10 p.m. so he headed downtown. Well, I guess it's a good thing that I work at the main hospital and have awesome co-workers to help me out in mommas time of worry. Eric sidetracked up to 6NW where my friend cleaned up his ear and took a look at it. Eric decided to skip the ER (and the $100 co-pay) and head for home. I took him to the pediatrician this morning and the left ear is definitely infected. He could not see the right ear drum due to the dried blood but it's either: infected, ruptured, or perforated. I will take him to the ENT next Tuesday. I hope this isn't the start of the need for Tubes Round #2. So, in the meantime 10 days of amoxicillin will hopefully get my boy feeling better! Hooray for free antibiotics from Publix!


Eric has a birthday tomorrow so we are looking forward to spending some time with him! I think a trip to GiGi's cupcakes is in order! Bring on the sugar....oh and welcome Autumn!



I just love these little hand print trees! Awesome!

Back to School!

Walt started 4K Preschool last Monday! He goes every day from 9am-1pm. He loves his new teacher Mrs. Baggett and there are several of his classmates from last year with him as well as some new friends! Walt was so excited to go back to school. He kept asking me if he was going to get to ride the yellow bus! Not this year buddy! I am thankful for the new school year too because it is helping me re-establish a routine for my day. I am very sad to see Walt growing up so fast though....next year it will be that "K" word! Wow! Where does the time go? I can't forget my sweet Ella....she started her MDO on Thursday. She will be going 1 day a week. Her teachers said she had a great first day once we got over the hurdle of actually getting into the classroom. Poor girl...once she figured out I was leaving her she just laid down in the floor and started screaming! It didn't last long! So, I chose not to work on Thursdays at the hospital so I can have 4 hours of "kidless" time. I have a bucket list of things I want to do around the house and I just never can seem to get them done with the two littles always attached to me! So, we will see how much of this I can accomplish!

A day at the zoo!

I took the kids to the zoo last week. We went with our neighbors Katherine and her daughter Lena who is Walt's BFF. It was such a hot day but luckily the zoo was not crowded so we were able to move quickly through the park. Supposedly, the Birmingham Zoo is home of 5 new lion cubs but they were keeping them cool somewhere inside so we didn't get to see them. The male lion lounged lazily on the big rock. Walt's favorite things to look at are the snakes. Luckily, they are enclosed in large glass tanks. That is close enough for me! Ella really enjoyed anything that looked like a cat (tiger, lion, meerkat,etc) or a horse (this includes zebras!)