I spy

Andrew and Granna are playing I Spy. 
So it's Andrew's turn. 
He says, "I spy something Gray....it's your Hair!"

We're still laughing!

HE DID IT!

Ok, so I have a ton of pictures to update, but not now....I have big news.

ADREW POOPED IN THE POTTY!!!  Normally this news wouldn't rate a special post, but if you know my child and his potty behavior you'd understand.  When I told my pediatrician at our 3 yr check up how things were going he said, "oh, so he's one of those kids." His only advice..."good luck!"  Andrew is very independent and this is something he's in total control of, so it's like he's using his refusal to potty as some display of that independence.  But, alas, by some miracle Mom and I coaxed him to sit on the potty, and with the distraction of a new game, he did it!  I teared up....yes, I was proud, but I was also relieved!  It has been a difficult journey! I'm tired of cleaning accidents out of the underwear!  

We pretty much had a party in the bathroom, with stickers and a new toy!  I was so proud.  Andrew said, "I'm proud too."  

Thank you Lord, for this small victory.  Now just pray that it wasn't a one time deal!

Dinner With Friends

One of the best things about coming home is getting to see friends that you hardly see anymore.  So one night, Drew and I met a bunch of old friends with their significant others and had dinner at Wintzells in Guntersville. (Best fried green tomatoes...EVER)  It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I got to see you girls!

Take 2:
Me, Rachael, Becca Ashley, Tina, and Erin

Christmas Tree Explosion!

Before we get any closer to Christmas 2010, I'd better do this post.  It's one that I wanted to do (obviously) BEFORE Christmas.....Alas I didn't, so you'll have to see it now.


My Mom loves Christmas.  And when I say that, I don't mean it's just her favorite holiday.  I mean she REALLY loves Christmas and she loves to decorate her house.  In fact, she has so many decorations that they fill my childhood playhouse!  Decorating for Christmas is an all day event; if you can finish in just one day.  All the decorations and pictures that adorn the shelves all year are swept away and replaced by beautiful Christmas displays.  We like to give Mom a hard time because she has 8....EIGHT...trees in her house.  I'd like to share those trees with you now:


Tree #1: The Family Tree
This is the tree that is the centerpiece of our living room, filled with all the special ornaments that we've collected over the years; baby's first Christmas, photo ornaments, crafts we made at church, the ornament that Becky Kennedy made for me the first year I made danceline, etc. There are even a few felt ornaments that Mom made her first year of marriage.   They're all special.  This tree has one rule that cannot be broken: IT MUST BE REAL!  We've NEVER had a fake "family tree."

Tree #2: "White Angel Tree"
This is a 10 foot pencil tree that goes in our foyer.  It has been around for many years, second to the family tree.  It started out as an all white angel tree, but has acquired a few other solid white and/or silver ornaments.  It's a very elegant tree. (Nevermind the GI-Normous glamour shot in the background) 

Tree #3-Picture Tree
This tree made it's first appearance this year, in place of Mom's Christmas villiage, in the dining room.  Mom and Annah get on these crafty kicks sometimes, and this tree is a result of one of those days.  They decorated picture frames and put pictures from all of our childhood Christmases in them.  It was really cute and I love the idea.  There are pictures with Santa Claus and my favorite: Mom and I praying over our Happy Birthday Jesus cake when I was 2.  

Tree #4 - Blue and Brown Tree
This tree made it's first appearance about 2 years ago, after Dad and I remodeled the master bedroom, which is where this tree resides.  It's a white tree with blue and brown ornaments.  It is probably my second favorite tree in the whole house.  It looks so good in her room and is also very elegant!

 Tree #5 - McDonalds Tree or "Andrew's Tree"
This tree has been around almost as long as the pencil tree in the foyer.  We added this little 3 ft. tree upstairs when we were kids.  We decorated it with all of our old Happy Meal toys and topped it with a beanie baby.  Now it's "Andrew's tree."

Tree #6- Auburn Tree
This tree is also a short one.  It first made it's appearance sometime while I was in college at Auburn.  It's in the upstairs hallway and is decorated with blue lights and all of our orange and blue Auburn ornaments; complete with a shaker tree skirt.  Normally a tiger beanie baby tops this tree, but Andrew ran off with it the other day..oops.  This tree is so cute (and popular) that we leave it up all year long!  War Eagle!

Tree #7 - Purple and Gold Tree
FYI: This tree used to be in my room, since purple is my favorite color, but it now resides in Annah's room since she stole borrowed the tree Mom put in her room to use in her house in Helena.  It first made it's appearance in 2004 after our wedding, and somehow got transferred across the hall to Annah in 2007.  This is my favorite tree!  I should have taken a picture with the flash so you could see the detail of the ornaments, but I like the "glow" with no flash.

Tree #8 - silver kitchen tree
This tree is a 2 1/2 footer that sits in the kitchen.  I don't have a picture of it...oops.  But it still counts. :)


I wonder how many trees we'll have next year?


All joking aside, Mom always does a great job decorating the house at Christmas time.  It's so beautiful!  From the moment you walk in the door, you're filled with the warmth and joy that Christmas brings and to steal from Karen Carpenter "there's no place like home for the holidays."

Happy New Year!

After our 7 hour car ride, we were weary travelers in need of rest, so there were no elaborate plans for New Year's Eve.  Instead we had a quiet, relaxing evening with a couple of friends and their kids.  We did, of course have to shoot a few fireworks.  (Don't worry...Andrew was under complete adult supervision!)

Helping Daddy with a bottle rocket.

This one was Andrew's favorite;probably because we nailed it to a tree and it spun around really fast.  And oh look...if you look in the window on the right, you can see the blue wallpaper that is no longer in Mom's dining room. (more on that in a later post)

Over the River and Through the Woods...

On New Year's Eve, we left Mississippi, headed back to Alabama.  It was a fun road trip.  And the adventure started as soon as we left my in-laws' house.  We had a little rain while on the coast so the driveway wasn't in the best shape.

We had been driving through the muddy slush for 10 days.

So we stopped at a car wash before returning the car to my Mom.

We carried on our 6 hour road trip and had a blast.  Living in Hawaii, you can only go so far.  You can only drive in circles, so it's really nice to be able to go on a "real live road trip."  Fun times.  After about 5 1/2 hours on the road, I was reading a book and Drew said "Did you see that?"  I thought see what?  He said, "that Bingo sign.  It was hilarious."   Since my nose was in a book, I had missed it, so guess what?  We turned around.  It was totally worth the u-turn.  I took a picture and plan on sending it to Ellen (and Jay Leno) :)

Only in Alabama right?

Our 6 hour road trip turned into 7 due to a certain 3 year old and his hungry mother.  Not to mention we needed gas once and a car wash.  But we finally made it back to Albertville in time to celebrate the New Year.

A Real Life Blogger Friend

The day after Christmas Drew we took Andrew to the bowling alley to meet up with a friend of Drew's from high school.  Try and stay with me here...  Drew and Melissa were friends in high school and went to church together.  She and I had never met.  I received an email from her while Drew was in Afghanistan.  She wanted to send him a care package.  So I gave it to her and we started emailing back and forth.   She started reading the blog and even started one of her own.  So we keep up with each other via blogger.  She's the proud owner of Lily & Patrick found in my blog roll.  (Go check it out!)  Anyway, she and I arranged this whole meeting so we could get to know each other in  person.  Drew thought it was funny that we had never met, yet we were the ones that wanted to get together.  I told him "it's a girl thing." :)  

So here's our day at the bowling alley:

Andrew waiting for his ball.

Patrick is too young to bowl, so he just sat there and looked cute!

Lily and Andrew turned the ball return into a slide.

His ball is so slow that he gives up and leaves before he ever knocks down the pins.

The kids got tired so we had to have an ice cream break.

Lily had fun with the blower.

Then they decided chase would be more fun than bowling.

Patrick is still all smiles!  He is the happiest baby!

We had so much fun that we decided to carry over our visit to TGI Friday's in Gulfport.  It was so nice getting to meet Melissa and her family.  Maybe we'll meet up again one day when our paths cross in Mississippi.  Until then, we'll see you in blogger land!

Actually...there were 7!

Ok, so I mis-counted.  We actually had 7, count them S-E-V-E-N Christmases.  On Christmas night, after stuffing ourselves at Grandma's house, we headed over to the Everheart's (Drew's best high school friend's parents' house), where we have the traditional Everheart Christmas dinner.  The first course is lasagna.  The second course: Gary's famous roast with mashed potatoes, English peas, and green beans.  (My mouth is watering just thinking about it)  Then there's dessert.  Tim makes this delicious cranberry, pear pie with Gouda cheese.  It is SO good.  There is also pumpkin pie a la mode and this year Tim's girlfriend, Amy, made a yummy red velvet cake, Paula Dean style....YUM-O!  The only bad thing about this dinner is that on Christmas, Gary doesn't make his famous Caesar salad.  :)


I was too busy eating to take any pictures.


After stuffing ourselves...AGAIN...we managed to hoist ourselves from the table to open presents.  Andrew loved his Saints football!  And we got some really neat stuff as well.  Thank you Everheart's for yet another wonderful Christmas dinner!

#6- Lunch At Grandma's

Our 6th Christmas took place at Drew's Grandma's house.  Drew has a HUGE family.  His dad is the oldest of 10 siblings.  That's not a typo....Grandma had TEN kids!  Bless her!  We counted and there are 23 grandchildren (not counting spouses) and 28 great-grandchildren.  Needless to say, there are lots of people running around.  Even after 5 years, I meet someone new at every family gathering.  


Besides hanging out with the family, my next favorite thing is the FOOD.  Grandma always has a nice spread: from gumbo to turkey and dressing with all the standard Christmas side dishes.  And you can't forget Grandma's famous biscuits...ooh or Aunt Veronica's fudge....mmm! 


We had a really fun day hanging out with all the cousins and playing outside.  The only pictures I managed to take were these cute ones of Andrew playing on the swing set.  

This is my favorite...something about those sweet eyes!

#5- Christmas Morning

Yes, I know....I'm a slacker!  (Sorry)  We've been a little lazy busy lately.  
Anyway, back to Christmas.  We left off on Christmas Eve.  Andrew finally went to bed around midnight.  Santa finally came.

Sometime in the night, well before the sun came up Andrew woke me up and said "Mama, it's Christmas.  Let's go see what Santa brought."  This is the moment where I knew how my parents felt every year when my sister and I woke up at 3:30 am!  Luckily I was able to convince him to lay back down and wait until it was daylight.  I wouldn't exactly call it daylight when he woke up again...more like dawn.  Again I heard "Mama, it's morning....Christmas morning."  So, we got up.  Andrew immediately ran for his baseball glove, which is what he wanted from Santa.  Next, he noticed some pots and pans.

Why pots and pans?  Because in this letter Andrew learned that Santa left a big surprise for him at his house in Hawaii.

A kitchen!  Andrew loves to cook and is always pretending with whatever he can find around the house.  He's also a big fan of helping me bake.

Having fun with a remote controlled motorcycle.

Then it was stocking time.

...more candy

This Christmas was really fun because it was the first time that Andrew actually grasped the concept of Santa.  Watching his face light up on Christmas morning makes my heart smile.  I also thought back to all the Christmases when I was a child.  Those are such happy memories and it's just really neat to be able to see that same joy and excitement that I had through Andrew's eyes.