deck the blog with lots of pictures . . . fa-ra-ra-ra, ra-ra-ra-ra

our new nutcracker this year - a hunter!

round 'em up

a good many (but not all) of our group of girl friends from college got together for dinner this past friday night. it was a nice evening and great to see everyone.

our babysitter this past semester, jenny, went home for the holidays last week. she is fabulous! we will miss her, but are glad she will be back next semester.
crazy hair after his afternoon nap! whoa! poor guy is getting not one, not two, not three, but four teeth on the top all at once. he has good days and bad days with the teething. I feel so bad for him-they are BIG teeth.

I love that Christmas feeling . . .

. . . it does my heart so much good. enough with Bing Crosby for now (although he is one of my all time favorites, can't get enough actually). henry helped us decorate our tree. he thought taking the ornaments out of the boxes was great!

gazing at the tree-probably wondering what in the heck is in our house?

aubie claus!

finished tree

stockings (all 7 of them - gary, me, henry, and four dogs) were hung by the chimney with care

each year gary's mom gets us a nutcracker to add to our collection. they are all different and unique - I really look forward to putting them out each year. one of my favorite traditions!

candy cane hinkle

this past sunday at church, gary, henry and I were honored to light the candles on the advent wreath at the 11am service. the gift of the advent season we celebrated this past sunday was love. henry did a great job with the scripture reading . . . :)

my mom and dad came down and went to church with us.

o christmas tree, o christmas tree

we cut our tree this past weekend. we went to a new place my sister heard about in west point. we normally get a pine, and all of their pines looked like the charlie brown christmas tree. so we ended up getting a cypress instead-it turned out just fine.

henry enjoyed looking around

here is a glimpse of one of the pines . . .

fun times!

red-dy for rudolph

henry and christmas bear

when henry is having lots of fun or concentrating really hard, he sticks out his tongue. funny guy.

family fun and war eagle anyway

we went over to my aunt (Dad's sister) and uncle's in newnan for thanksgiving - great times! we had everyone there but one cousin and his family. this is great considering there are 15 people in my immediate family and 12 people in my aunt's immediate family.

the butlers - love Trip's expression in this picture!
the Edmondson family (minus spouses and children)

uncle brock getting some good henry time

mom/dad with my aunt and uncle. by the way, the newnan cougars won again this past Friday night! they are now in the Georgia state semi-finals. their defense has set the new record in the state of GA among all classes in fewest points allowed in a season. Uncle Bob got his 301st win this past week. Go Cougars! So exciting.

henry loved the swing!

and now to the Iron Bowl . . . the next two pictures are from last year's Iron Bowl . . . Gary wears his orange bathrobe to our tailgate every time we play Bama at home. Last year he got up on the RV and waved the Auburn flag (yes, he was stone sober) to get fans fired up about the game.

this year he figured Auburn needed all the luck we could get so he wore his robe again and got on top of our house with our War Eagle banner. I need to point out that it was pouring down rain and I was the only person outside. gotta love his enthusiasm and team spirit!

he tried to make Henry a matching orange robe . . . we tried to use an old one from my sister (that was pink) and dye/paint it. as you can see, we came up WAY short. seemed fitting given the outcome of the game . . . it's still great to be an Auburn Tiger though.

henry did not like Satan's, I mean Saban's, time out call before halftime. why does NCAA allow timeouts to be called from the sideline?!? ludicrous.

happy thanksgiving!

the list is quite long of things for which gary and I are thankful . . . to highlight just a few:

a gracious and giving God; a healthy family and extended family; an unconditionally loving family, friends and four legged children; jobs that provide for our needs; and a country that, despite its economic and political turmoil, is still an amazing place to live. there are many more but I won't bore you - we hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving Day and safe travels to those on the road or in the air. for those family members we won't see, we miss you!

bricks is thankful for pillows to curl up on each day
henry enjoyed his first wagon ride today

when he really gets excited, he sticks out his tongue-it is too cute!

henry's week o' fun - from henry himself

my mum is off of work this week (my sitter has gone home for the holiday, so they tell me, and mum had a few vacation days she needed to use before year end), so mummy is all mine! we are having a wonderful time so far.

my to-do list includes:

• kicking back and drinking a B in the pack and play and listening to some Willie Nelson quality dog torture time (savannah so badly wants one of his rubber duckies!)
  
• strange soapy hairdos
  
  

  splashing in the tub
  
  

  swimming in the tub
  
  

  catching back up on eating (haven't felt much like eating since I was sick until yesterday).

  • trying some new foods: papaya, tilapia, yogurt . . . all yummy (not together in case you just went "yuck-o!")!
  • looking at all the colorful items at Hobby Lobby (mummy is catching up on my scrapbook and getting Christmas presents wrapped). I also like to wave and smile at people at the store-they tell me I'm cute so I keep doing it over and over again.
  • laughing at mummy for trying to do some crazy things with our kitchen/dining furniture . . . like re-arranging them. doesn't she realize that there is not enough room to move things around?! she's not the brightest.
  • playing lots of hide and seek games with mummy . . . I'm getting better at finding her now that I'm a speedy army crawler
  • splashing in the dog's water bowl - one of my favorite past times! when I do this I hear the word "no" come out of my mum's mouth. now what is that supposed to mean?
  • going on walks in my stroller
  • helping mummy cook my food and cook for turkey day . . . I am mesmerized by the food processor.
  • helping mummy clean and vacuum . . . I am even more mesmerized by the vacuum. my mum feels the need to run the vacuum many times a week-I think she thinks there is a lot of dog hair on the floor. looks like to me the dogs have all their hair on their bodies, so I'm not sure what she is thinking.
  • taking lunch to daddy at work
  • seeing my crazy cousin's thanksgiving program at her school . . . she is a really good singer!
  • swinging at Felton Little Park
  • trying to find/make a complimentary outfit to my daddy's game day attire for the Iron Bowl (explanation forthcoming)
  • having thanksgiving with the Herring family - let me add that the Newnan Cougars are still undefeated, have made it to round 3 of the playoffs, and have 8, yes 8, shut outs this season! it's couga' time!
  • I'm sure I could think of some more to-dos for the list, but I had better get back to sleep before my parents realize what I'm doing. night night.