Christmas time already!

I can't believe it's Christmas time already!!! Hubby, PCH and I had Breakfast with Santa this past Saturday at our church. We invited some of our friends from my Mommy group along with a few other friends! I think everyone had a great time!!!

PCH dressed in her Christmas colors for the event.

Here is PCH and her best friend, Queen B, playing in the craft area. They always have such a good time together!!

PCH and Queen B checking out the reindeer food they made during crafts. We'll sprinkle it on our lawn on Christmas Eve so the reindeer will see the glitter and come eat the oats as they bring Santa to our house!!!

PCH chatting it up with Santa (a.k.a. The Big Guy). She had no problem telling him in PCH language what she wants for Christmas.....mostly has to do with baby dolls!!!

PCH and The Big Guy......not really best friends at this point!!!! Well, there's always next year!!!

Halloween.....a little late!

I know I'm running a tad bit behind on the blogging so I'll try to catch up!!! These are some pics from Halloween. PCH was a fairy and had a wonderful time at our church during the Harvest Hoedown. Hubby and I dressed as the prom king and queen (no pic of us....sorry we forgot!)

Here is PCH testing her throwing skills at a bean bag toss for the little kiddos. She really did quite well!

Yummy.....candy!!!!

History is Happening

PCH went to vote yesterday! She even got an "I Voted" sticker which I will affix to her baby book. The amazing part is that she is alive, while she will not remember, the day history was made!!! I'm not getting into any political debate here, no matter how you voted you were still a part of the most historical election EVER!!!! It's no secret that this county needs change because we are in very troubled times. I'm excited to see what is in store for our great country and our new president. I pray for our country and President-elect Obama. I know that all things that are happening are a part of God's great plan and that is the plan I trust. PCH is going to study about this day in school one day and ask me about it. I can't wait for the chance to explain to her why it was so exciting and what it meant!!!! God Bless America.....bring on the change!!!!

Pumpkin picking at the Patch

Last weekend while my parents were still in town for the wedding we decided to make a trip to the Pumpkin Patch for our annual pumpkin picking. PCH had a good time despite the lack of smiles in all the pictures!! She wanted to take all the pumpkins home and tried to pick up most of them!! Our house is now adorned with a trio of pumpkins fresh out of the patch! I'll post those pictures later.

Here we are on our covered wagon ride out to the patch.

PCH found one just her size that she could actually handle and this is "baby" pumpkin on the front steps at home now.

Do a lil' dance......in the pumpkin patch!!! My mom and I were trying to get her to smile and singing and dancing does the trick for PCH.

She has that look of "what in the heck are you guys making me do??"

Beware of the Pumpkin Sheriff.....she's a tough one!!!

I'll post later about the other "thing" we brought home from the Pumpkin Patch. It's pretty funny and just may be her best friend in the world right now. I'm still trying to catch some pics of them together......hmmmm, made you wonder didn't I!!!!

Here comes......the flower girl!!!

This past weekend Hubby's sister, Aunt G we'll call her, got married!! PCH was the prettiest flower girl to ever walk down an aisle. Well, she didn't actually make it all the way down on her own.....her Daddy had to go get her once she froze when she saw all the people!!! It was sweet to see him walk his little girl down the aisle. It made me cry!!! PCH was SO wonderful the entire wedding weekend. She never got upset and I think she had a really good time. She danced up a storm at the reception. I can't wait to see the formal pictures.....I don't think she smiled one time in any of them!!! We had a great weekend with family and friends and added a whole new family to the mix. Even if they are Yankees we still love 'em and are so happy to call them family!!

The picture below is us at the top of Vulcan in Birmingham where the rehearsal dinner was held. It is also where hubby proposed to me!!!

This is PCH taking a spin around the dance floor!! She loved dancing!!

PCH and I in our fancy dresses.

PCH and her Daddy having a dance together. Perfect picture to be brought back out at her own wedding.........in the year 2037!!!!
My girls and I partying it up after PCH went home with the grandparents!!!

Did you miss us??

I know...I know....I'm a little behind on the blog lately. I have been blessed with more work lately and have a little less free time. We've been pretty busy around here too. Football season means that most Saturdays are spent either at home with friends or at friends' homes!! We also have a wedding in the family this weekend where PCH will make an appearance as the flower girl. Stay tuned to see how that turns out.....the pics may just be a flash of pink down the aisle or the face of a screaming toddler!!! We'll see....maybe she'll surprise us all. We've been practicing with her flower girl basket and PCH thinks it is a purse. She tries to put it on her shoulder, then gets her play keys and cell phone as she tells me "Bye, see ya later"!!! Too funny!!!!

Auburn Girl

Here are a few pics from Saturday. PCH was decked out in her Auburn gear and will make the perfect cheerleader one day!!




Here's PCH and her best buddy, Queen B. They played for about four hours straight and had a great time!!! They love each other so much it is just adorable to see them together!
(PCH is minus her AU outfit by this point because she wiped cupcake icing all over the entire right side of it, but the cupcake was DELICIOUS!)

Where does it come from??

PCH has a terrible cold today. She would not go to sleep last night (she was up until 1 a.m.) and now I know why! She woke up this morning with most massive amount of snot in her nose, on her face and everywhere else possible. Where does all this snot come from??? She is tiny, but can produce some massive drainage!!! All day long constant dripping from the nose and constant wiping of the face/nose. This wouldn't be such a big deal if she still did not HATE having her face/nose wiped!!! She also managed to choke herself when she was sneezing or coughing which produced an expulsion of all the snot from her stomach......yep, thrown up snot!! Needless to say, our day has been just wonderful with all of this. She actually seems to be a bit better tonight, so I hope this goes away soon. These are the days when I am reminded that I really am a mother......the days I am covered in snot!!!

Dove day fun!

Saturday was the opening of dove hunting season and this is officially celebrated each year by hubby and all his friends gathering in a field to shoot at the poor little birds all day!! The women and children get to have a fun day of play together (along with lots of yummy food!). The little girls dressed as princesses, danced (PCH was gettin' down) and spent time playing outside on the back deck. We have such great friends and I'm so happy when we get to spend time with them. Football season provides lots of great opportunities for this!!! WAR EAGLE!!

My little princess......after not getting a long enough nap!

The other beautiful princesses!

PCH sporting the Auburn gear! Complete with beads!!

All the little girls looking in the field for their daddies!!! It was TOO cute!!

Just sittin' in the wagon......looking for something else to get into, fall out of, get stuck in or maybe actually play with!!

Soccer Star?

My cousin plays soccer for UT Chattanooga (Big shout out to the Mocs!!) and I finally got to see her play a game. She was AWESOME!! We found out that PCH may be a budding soccer star herself!! Take a look at those skills!

Here's how much fun she had at the game!

And we had to throw in the mean face for some fun!

Ruby Falls: Worth it or not?

We decided to take PCH to Ruby Falls. Anyone who has been here knows that it is about a half mile hike through underground caves basically to get to a waterfall. The question I have is this: Is it worth carrying a 23 pound, dead weight, sleeping child through all this? My answer after doing it is HECK NO!!! PCH fell asleep about five minutes into the hike and Hubby and I had to carry her the half mile there to see this:


Then we had to carry her the half mile back to get out of the place!! She missed it all!!! To be honest......she didn't miss much!! I'll make sure to show her pictures one day if she ever asks to go back!!

More vacation...penguins and baseball!

PCH and I loved the penguins at the aquarium. She brought home a penguin of her own (stuffed of course) and it is her new best friend. She shares her sippy cup with it, takes it to the window to show it the backyard and wants us to kiss it all the time. She loves "pengin" as we call him!!

PCH experienced her first baseball game seeing the Chattanooga Lookouts play one night. She thought this was pretty cool....couldn't figure out how to throw that ball!!

What a cutie!! My two faves!!! They had a really good time together on vacation. It's rare for us to get to spend that much time with Hubby!

PCH took it upon herself to be our tour guide through Rock City. She would point to things and just babble! I didn't know she knew so much about rocks and plants!!

Vacation days

Here's a pic of PCH playing in the grass at my parents' house at sunset. I really wish it would have turned out a little better, but it's still classic.

We took at trip up to Lynchburg, Tennessee which is home to Jack Daniel's Distillery! Here's Hubby and PCH checking out the race car after our tour of the distillery. Hubby was happy to find out you can buy a whole barrel of Jack Daniel's and they will bottle it for you AND you get to keep the huge barrel it was aged in. All you need is about $8000!!!! Keep dreaming Hubby!!

Once we made it to Chattanooga we took a trip through the aquarium. PCH loved it and said "Ohhh weee" at everything!! Here she is checking out the seahorses (there were really ones too!).
Great view of the river in Chattanooga, and oh, who's that adorable little family?

So I know you're wondering

Where have we been? We've been really busy the past few weeks. We went on vacation with my parents after spending a few days at their house. We travelled to Chattanooga to take in a few sights and see my cousin play soccer at UT Chattanooga. PCH had a blast with her grandparents and was completely spoiled!! Hey, that's what the grandparents are for!!! I am so thankful for the time we get to spend with family because those moments are precious and I know we will all cherish every memory we made.

Here's a recent pic of PCH in a diva moment, SO her!!

Crayola anyone?

Today, PCH treated herself to a little morning appetizer. She took a little nip off the end of her red crayon! I was in the kitchen and she was in the living room watching cartoons and coloring (I could see her, so don't get all upset with my parenting skills). Everything is going just fine as I'm cleaning and she is supposed to be entertaining herself.......well she was also feeding herself! Hubby walks in the room and immediately says "What's she eating?" and this is enough for me to drop what I am doing and make a run for her. I know for a fact she had no food, at least real food, in there with her. Hubby is on the floor asking her if she ate her crayon, but by no means is he about to put his finger in her mouth and swipe it out!! Why, he won't do this I have no clue!! I go into full Mommy mode and almost gage the child trying to get tiny bits of red crayon out of her mouth. She starts screaming by this time, I don't know if I scared her or she thought she was in big trouble!! Either way, I had to scrub her teeth with her toothbrush because she had ground the crayon up into little pieces. She already hates to get her teeth brushed, so I'm sure this didn't help that situation. I just kept telling her "We don't eat our crayons!", but I don't know if she got it or not.....I guess we'll see next time the crayons are given to her. She cried for about thirty minutes over this ordeal and I think it was because she had to have her teeth brushed an extra time today!!

I wonder if crayons leave a trail on the way "out"? I guess I can answer this sometime tomorrow. I'll let you know.....I know you'll all be waiting eagerly for the answer!!

Sunday School Lesson

Hubby and I started teaching kindergarten Sunday School at church today and this is what I learned: I'm so happy I have a girl and I don't know if I could ever handle a boy!! Here is the reasoning behind my lesson. We had seven little five year-old girls who sat quietly, did what they were asked to do and were sweet as sugar. Then we had four little boys who did the exact opposite of that!! They talked the ENTIRE time, wanted to do anything other than what I wanted them to do and basically took over my Sunday School class!! Well maybe I'm exaggerating a tiny bit, but there was a CLEAR difference between the boys and girls. I know this was our first day and it will get better (or worse) as they get to know us, but I was pulling out every discipline trick in my book and I have a pretty big book being a social worker!! All I have to say to all of you moms out there who have boys is God Bless Your Hearts and nerves........I don't know if I could do it.

Potty update

Yesterday PCH pee peed in the little pink potty!! As I heard the little tinkle sound I started to clap and say "Yea!" which in turn scared the pee back into her!!! She stopped mid stream and had a look of terror on her poor face. Hopefully, this will not have any adverse affects on future deposits in the potty. I was just SO excited!!! We gave high fives and did the happy potty dance (it's super....you only wish you could do it like us!)! Maybe this made up for the grave scare I gave PCH. I guess we'll have to wait and see.............

Oh, yeah......she peed in the floor right after all this and before I could get a diaper on her. I guess that pee pee had to come out again sometime!!

I'll take full sentences for $500

The answer speaking in full sentences. The question is "What is the newest thing PCH has been doing lately?"

Her vocabulary is sky rocketing lately!! A few minutes ago she walked out of the room, looked at me and said "Bye...I'll see ya later!" I was astonished!!! Last night at the O's house she said plain as day, "What is that?". I thought M.O. was going to come off the couch she was so caught off guard!! It really is amazing to see how she is learning. She can locate most parts on her face and name them appropriately, but a side effect of this is that she likes to plug her ears up as she locates her ears. I'm sure this looks pretty funny in public, but she thinks it's funny because I guess it is a new funny sound for her. She continues to say "No" to most every question you ask her and then she turns around and will make a complete sentence. I guess it's just fun to say "no" to everything. I hope this changes one day or we're going to have a problem!! Maybe someday with her genius I.Q. she'll make it all the way to the Jeopardy Champions game!!

Pink potty time

PCH got a present yesterday. A brand new pretty pink potty!!! She LOVES it.....doesn't want to get off of it when it's potty time. This morning we had our first official "deposit" in the potty and it wasn't pee pee!!! I can't believe she actually pooped before she peed in the potty....I've heard it's harder to get the little ones to poop in the potty, but she had no problem with it. She actually seemed quite proud of herself. I never thought I'd ever be proud of poop, but I am today!!! Maybe we can get #1 next time!!!

It is really amazing how she is growing up so quickly. Her vocabulary is blowing up at this point. She learned to say bubble the other day and Hubby was so amazed you would have thought she just said a 7 syllable word!!

Couple more....

Here are a couple more little fish pics!! She was really trying to swim on her own and would float for a little bit! Olympics 2024 here we come!!

Little Fish

Hubby took a few days off work and we decided to make a little "staycation" out of it since it's too expensive to go anywhere these days! We took a little drive up to Spring Valley Beach water park for the afternoon. PCH had so much fun!! She's a little fish....LOVES the water so much. We had a really great afternoon of fun family time!!

Here is PCH and Hubby by the kiddie area. PCH loved where all the water would spurt out of different things!!


Here's PCH going down the froggie slide. She looks like muscle baby in her vest!! She ended up going down headfirst on this try. Hubby is not so good at sending her down slides correctly!! She didn't seem to mind she went face down in the water!!

Here's me and PCH!

We decided she might be more comfortable in her water wings!! She actually did much better with these!

Here we are swimming!

Queen B's Happy Birthday!

My best friend's daughter (Queen B......well she has won a beauty pageant!) turned 3 and PCH had a blast at her birthday party on Saturday. There was a bounce house, a pool, cake and a new Barbie jeep to ride in!! Talk about some fun.....PCH cried when I pulled her out of the jeep to go home!! Thanks Queen B for a great party!!

Here's PCH and Queen B taking a break in the bounce house.

Take a look at the cool new Barbie jeep....it even has a real radio!! H. (I've got to come up with a blog name for her......hmmmm) is trying to catch a ride on the back....you can tell she's knows she could do it if the adults would let her!!

Just imagine about thirteen years from now when this is a real jeep and we're letting PCH go out with Queen B on a real ride......bring on the nerve pills!!!