Daddy, do you need a tissue??

Catching Up … A Recap In Pictures

Since it’s been almost two months since my last post, I’ll attempt a recap in photos …

Let’s see, there was Christmas …

Emmy Cate’s Christmas Program at MPCS ….

{“Away in the Manger” – “…little boy Jesus lay down his sweet head …”}

{Entertaining the crowd}

{And showing them our wonderful manners!!}

We’ve stayed in a read books in the cold … stomped in rain puddles when it rains …. and played in the park on warm, sunny days!!

We’ve also been bored at Benihana’s ….

We have been introduced to Aladdin, Tangled, Beauty and the Beast, Nemo, and Toy Story.  The winter is a good time to catch up on all of our Disney favorites!!

Daddy took trips to LA, San Fran, and Scottsdale.  Mommy was in London and Orlando ….

{Windsor Castle}

{Harrod’s Food Halls}

What else have we been keeping busy with?  Painting the outside of our house … remodeling our basement … refinancing our mortgage …. planning another trip back to London and also Barcelona …. decorating the master bedroom with new curtains and a new bed ….  tacking EC to see the Ringling Brothers circus this weekend …. getting elected to CCOS Homeowner’s board of trustees (Nathan) …. and oh yeah, our day jobs too!!  Wonder why I haven’t gotten around to updating the blog?!

Until next time …..

Visit with Santa

We were very close this year to getting a decent picture … but I didn’t have the heart to shove my baby off into that scary man’s lap and run behind the camera.   So I sat with her and here is the best we got …

Before she knew what she was getting herself into …

After we told her who she was going to visit …

She did great but we are counting on smiles next year!!  After we left, she has talked and talked about going to see Santa and sitting with him and getting her picture made.  She was so proud!!

Christmas Party 2011

This past weekend, we hosted our 2nd annual Christmas Party at our house.  We were lucky enough to have DeDe and Pro come this year to help with everything and we sure needed it!!  We did all of the food ourselves but decided to hire a bartender this year to ensure the most important part of the party was taken care of!  Actually, last year, everyone mobbed the kitchen since that was where the drink station was set up, so we decided to put the bar in the living room this year so that wouldn’t happen.  Having a bartender was a great success, although I think he contributed way too much with his attentiveness and heavy pours!

We also had a round of crabby beers (Club 43 liqueur with half and half on top), and those were a big hit!!

I love having the house decorated for Christmas, so I took a few pictures that I can look back at after we take down the decorations and everything is bare again. 

Bon Bini!

The week before Thanksgiving, we (and by we, I mean adults only) headed off on a work trip to Aruba.  It was ahhhmazing!  We spent 5 nights at the Grand Hyatt resort, all expenses paid, great dinners every night, spa treatments, golf, catamaran snorkeling trip, fruity cocktails, the works!!  It couldn’t have been better.  Thanks to DeDe and Pro for keeping the little angel while we were gone.  I don’t think she asked about us one time!!  She did great.

The whole group that went …. 22 employees plus guests …

Can’t wait for next year’s trip …. The Ritz Carlton in Grand Cayman!!

Home for the Holidays

We went to Memphis for an extended Thanksgiving weekend to visit DeDe and Pro.  Much to Emmy Cate’s delight, we also got to hang out with Uncle Ben, cousins Molly (4.5) and Atticus (2.5), great aunt Sally, and second cousins or cousins once removed (depending on who you ask) Alex and Sara.

The kids had a blast wrecking the place playing with each other and the most popular activities were getting pulled in the wagon, reading books, and coloring.

On Friday night we went to the lighting of the Germantown Christmas tree.  The kids got to see a reindeer, hear carolers, roast marshmallows and see the lights come on.  You gotta love the South where the weather allows you to do fun things at the holidays with no coats and even short sleeves!!

One of the kids’ favorite things was taking a bath together.  Three kids in a tub is a bit crowded when you have a wild man like Atticus trying to do flips!  But they had a blast and were asking to take baths every night.  Silliness generally ensued right after bath time to include dancing, streaking, and plenty of silly faces!!

 

We surprised Mamaw with a cake and big and little voices singing her Happy Birthday for her 90th birthday coming up in a couple of weeks.  She had absolutely now idea that anyone was even coming to Memphis for Thanksgiving, so you can imagine when she walked in to find both of her grandchildren, her great grandchildren, and my aunt and cousins too!  She was blown away!  Happy 90th Mamaw!!

We took the kids around one day to see all of the “horses” around Germantown by request of Molly, the horse obsessed.  The girls wanted to ride the pretty horses (Atticus steered clear).  For those that don’t know, Germantown has always been associated with horses and horse shows and they create these life size horses that artists paint with different themes and they are placed around the city. 

Boy were DeDe and Pro tired after all of that complete chaos fun!!