Happy Holidays!

This year for Christmas, my whole family got together, and it was so much fun!! It was great seeing the kids play / fight together (I must admit that my child was the instigator in most cases). It was also great getting to spend time with my brother and his wife Julian. They live in NC, so I don't get to see them nearly as much as I'd like too. After being in Tuscaloosa for a couple days, we headed to Montevallo to spend Christmas with the Lawler's. We had a shrimp boil and oyster fry, and it was YUMMY!!! The only down side to my entire Christmas was that I lost my camera. I bummed these pictures off of my sister in laws blog (thanks Juls!). I'm seriously hoping I find it soon, but so far- no luck! :( Anyways, I hope everyone had a great holiday and I wish you all a very happy New Year!!

Pretty Lights!!

Tonight, Will and I took Catelyn to ZooLight Safari at the Birmingham Zoo. We had such a good time. Suprisingly, it was perfect weather too. Yes...it's been a little warm for my taste to be so far along in December, but there was a nice breeze and made for very enjoyable weather to walk around in. I don't think we would have had nearly as good of a time had it been super cold- especially considering I'm one of the coldest natured people. Anyways, the lights were everywhere, and it was so pretty. It was a perfect family thing to do and I'm so glad we went. :)

Will and I taking a "lovely" self photo.

Catelyn and I taking a picture by the glacier.

Will and Catelyn overlooking the pond of swans.

I've Been Tagged!!

I've been tagged to do the following:

1. Choose the 4th picture folder on my computer
2. Choose the 4th picture
3. Explain the picture
4. Tag 4 people to do the same.

My picture is :



How fitting that my picture is from last Chrismas. Catelyn was about 7 1/2 months old. She was in her p.j.'s about to go to bed, and I was snapping pictures of her as always. Man...how the time flies.

Ok...now I tag Sarah and Julian and I'll have to think of two others. Have fun!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Tonight we took Catelyn to see Santa for the very first time. She was doing fine as we walked her up to see him, but just as soon as she was set on his lap she flipped!! Oh well...it's somewhat of a right of passage to have the crying with Santa Christmas picture.




**Be sure to keep scrolling down. There are about 5 other new posts. I've been playing catch up. :)

Christmas Dress & Crazy Hair

I put Catelyn in her little dress I made her the other day, to try and get some cute Christmas shots. She looked super sweet and heavens knows I took enough pictures. :) Come that afternoon, I put Catelyn down for her nap. That had to have been one heck of a nap to get the bedhead she woke up with. The pictures just don't do it justice.

Our Tree

I wished I had gotten some pictures while decorating our tree, because Catelyn was so cute and so helpful. I got out the box that held our ornaments, and one by one, Catelyn would bring them to me to put on the tree. We added a couple of new ornaments this year. One for the family, one that is specifically for Catelyn, and then a few that I made. Nothing gets you in to the Christmas spirit in September like making Christmas ornaments. Ha!! Anyways, the ornament I got for Catelyn this year is a cow, because she is SOOO in to cows. Even when she sees people, she usually ends with a greeting of "bye, bye cow!" She got so excited when I hung her cow up on the tree.


Our family ornament

Catelyn's cow

Salt dough ornament I made to commemerate all the sewing stuff I've learned this year. :)

Our pretty tree all decorated.

New Trick

Unfortunately, Catelyn has learned how to take off her diaper by herself. The other day, I went in to get her from her nap and the picture below is what I found. Needless to say, a little mopping needed to be done, along with washing her sheet, blanket, and bumper pad. It's these moments as a mommy where you just can't help but laugh! How much I love that little girl! :)

Mommy's Shoes

Catelyn loves to put on shoes. Any shoe that is left hanging around, is going to make it's way on her cute little feet. Sometimes, I'm even impressed that she manages to get her own shoes on. She's a genious!! hehe! The other day, my shoes were left in the kitchen and here is what I found.

Christmas Parade

Will and I are always talking about how much we love the location of our house. Not only do we have two grocery stores, a couple of coffee shops, resteraunts, movie theater, post office, etc... all within about a 500 yards, but we could actually walk to the Christmas parade. Anyways, it was super cold out, so we bundled up good and headed out to watch the parade. We saw some of our neighbors while out there, and got free hot chocolate to drink while watching the parade. We didn't end up staying too long, but it was a very fun way to start a Christmas weekend. The next night we got our Christmas tree, and Catelyn was so excited about checking it all out. Here are a couple of pictures.

18 Months Old

Our little girl is 18 months old! The time has gone so fast. I took her in for her check up the other day, and her stats are as follows:

Height: 32 1/2 inches (75%)
Weight: 20.11 lbs (yea!! We finally broke 20 lbs) (10%)

She is so much fun right now, but she is also IN TO EVERYTHING!!! You take your eyes off of her for two seconds, and she'll come running around the corner with the toothbrush you use to clean toilets and shower mildew- in her mouth. Yes...this happened last week and I screamed and ran to try and disinfect her mouth. Gross!! There are so many more of these stories I could share.

Anyways, I've been doing some sewing for the holidays, and thought I would post some of my projects. I just love the holidays!!!

Thanksgiving Dress

Christmas Tree Outfit- I still have to finish the pants. I better get on it! :)

Smocked Candy Cane Christmas Dress

I made stockings for my mom. Instead of having 11 stocking on her mantel, I made a stocking for each family instead. She was happy about them, and that of course made it worthwhile to make them.

Leaves

Catelyn on the Treadmill

My parents have a treadmill at their house, and Catelyn loves to walk on it. I captured it on video the other night, and as you can hear by my cackling in the footage, I thought it was quite funny.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Halloween & Homecoming

This year for Halloween, I made Catelyn a little 50's girl outift. She looked so precious prancing around in her little skirt. We stopped by the neighborhood block party and then headed to Tuscaloosa for UA's Homecoming. When we got to t-town, we met up with my parents and went over to the quad for the bonfire. The next morning, we went to the strip and Catelyn watched her first parade. I think it was a little overwhelming for her with the band, the siren's and all the big mac trucks blowing their horns. We had a fun time. That night, Will and I went to a belated Halloween party. We couldn't really come up with anything creative, so we dressed as 70's people. It was fun getting to dress up and especially seeing the creativity of the others that came. Thanks Kristen, Noelle and Les for getting everything together! :)

Weekend with Mamaw & Papaw

This post is a little late, but needed posting about non-the-less. Last weekend, my awesome parents took Catelyn for the whole weekend!!! It was such a nice break and made it so great knowing how much Catelyn enjoys her Mamaw and Papaw. Will and I had such a great time! We went out to dinner, went to the bookstore, slept in until 9:00, went on walks, and just all in all had a great weekend. On Sunday afternoon, we headed to Tuscaloosa and met my parents at Cypress Inn for lunch then packed up our sweet little girl to head back home. It was a sweet time that Will and I had to spend together, but we were both ready to have our baby back. Thanks mom and dad for such a sweet gift to us. We love you very much!!!

*Papaw, Catelyn and Abby

*Mamaw & Catelyn

*"Helping" Mamaw push the stroller at the mall. :)

*At dinner time, Mamaw had made Catelyn some mashed potatoes. Some how or another, Catelyn had grabbed this huge spoon off the counter top and used it to feed herself! Hilarious!