~HAPPY NEW YEAR~

Photos By Emily

This are pictures Emily captured with her new camera.

Merry Christmas

By Christmas morning, the "Christmas Bug" was gone and Emily was feeling much better. We spent Christmas Eve getting ready for Santa by baking him cookies and feeding the reindeer. Emily was full of excitement to find all the toys under the tree on Christmas morning. I was overly excited to find Kenny Chesney! Way to go Santa! We spent the evening over at Todd's dads and enjoyed everyones company and a great steak dinner. Today has been a lazy day, just playing with all the new toys.



I CANNOT GET THESE PICTURES DOWNLOADED?!?!? MAYBE TOMORROW...... I AM GOING TO SCREAM!!!!!

Christmas with the Slushers

On Monday, Laura and the boys came up so we could celebrate Christmas. Emily enjoyed helping me fix lunch and set her little table up for her and Caleb. She insisted on using her new dishes that she received from MawMaw Breen and using a placemat from my table.
After we ate we exchanged gifts. Emily got a set of Graco doll equipment comlete with a stroller, high chair, baby swing and diaper bag. She enjoys pretending to be Laura and that her doll is Graysen so this she will enjoy! Caleb picked out on his own a set of wings which she put on and wore for quite some time.
Laura gave me a daily planner. She use to laugh at me all the time for having a tiny calendar on the fridge and didn't understand how I could keep up with anything that I had planned. You would have to know Laura to understand....she is such a planner and has her whole life planned out months in advanced. So this past summer I purchased a planner and it has made things much easier. So she knew my planner would expire at the end of the month so she got me a new one. I can't wait to start filling in our play dates. Thanks Laura!
The best gift was to Todd and I. Lee (Lauras husband) drew a portrait of Emily for us and had it framed. It is amazing! He did this from a picture he took of her at her birthday party this past spring. He is so very talented. I am at a loss of words at what to say. It is incredible. All the littlest details. Her eyes, lips ear...just amazing how talented he is. The picture I will post is nothing compared to actually looking at it in person. I have held it and just admired it over and over. It is one of the nicest things anyone has ever done and given to me. We will treasure it forever. Thank you Lee. I will expect on each year. Ha Ha You need to start advertising your talent showing others what a great gift you have. I can't tell you enough how great this is.

Well....I have rambled on enough. One last thing. Emily ended Monday with getting sick. I guess a virus she picked up in WV. She woke up "puking" last night...(while I was on the phone trying to thank Lee for our gift) and was up off and on all last night. She also has a sinus infection. That was confirmed at a Dr.s apt this afternoon. She has a terrible runny, congested nose and eyes. So....she spent most of today sleeping and laying around watching movies. She should be feeling much better in the morning. Anyway. Enjoy the pictures, sorry I was so long.

Gift from Lee

Chrismas in WV

We spent the weekend celebrating Christmas with my family. We had a great time seeing everyone and it was especially nice seeing my niece Beth who we hadn't seen in way too long. Beth is 2 years younger than me.
Peg and Brian hosted our family party by renting a cabin so we could all be together and have plenty of room to enjoy ourselves. There were a total of 30 people. That included the 11 kids, and Santa Claus. Santa stopped by to see us and delivered presents to the kids. Each girl got a 30 inch princess doll, which they all loved. We played games and had contest and ate way too much food. All the ladies and little girls were given personalized tote bags filled with goodies from Peg.
Todd, Emily and I won the pajama contest. We had matching snowmen pjs and we won a family picture album with pictures from past Christmas'. Debbie was the dessert contest, with her awsomes decorated sugar cookies. I think I ate a dozen of them. That includes the ones sent home with us, they are gone! Deb...please send more!!!
We had a great time and was sad to leave. I will post more pictures tomorrow. We are all very tired. I slept the whole way home and then took another nap when we got home and unpacked. Todd went to bed at 6pm and Emily was not far behind as you can see in the picture she is exhausted.
THANK YOU PEG AND BRIAN. WE HAD A BLAST! THANKS FOR ALL THE MEMORIES.

Christmas Lights

Tonight after dinner, Todd took us to Christmas Towne USA to see all the lights. Emily and I wore our pajamas and rode in the back seat with the window rolled down and a blanket around us. She pretended she was in a parade and waved and yelled Merry Christmas. She really enjoyed all the lights, but I think she liked seeing baby Jesus in the manger the best. She did say "that big tree is neat" to all the large trees.

Tomorrow we are meeting Laura and the boys for lunch at McDonalds and then Todd and Emily are going to go run an errand. Hmmmm, could they be getting my Christmas gift? I hope so, only 9 more days!

Christmas Lights

Christmas Visitors

On Sunday, my mom, dad and sister Peg came for a visit. We celebrated Christmas while they were here, so they could see Emily open her gifts from them. Peg is having our annual family Christmas party this weekend, so we decided to let Emiy open the gifts from them yesterday since there will be so much going on over the weekend. We actually had to spread out the gift opening over two nights, because once she opened her cash register from MawMaw, she didn't want anything else. When Peg ask her to open another gift she replied, "no I already open this" and was satisfied with just one gift. So finally on the second night, she was a little more into it. She got a porcelin tea set, a cash register, a dvd, a door bell for her bedroom door, (Thanks mom!!?!?, its not noisy at all) and some other odds and ends from mawmaw and pawpaw and aunt peg gave her a huge selection of princess dresses, shoes, tiaras, jewels and wigs. Her favorite is snow white. She really likes the black wig and can walk very well in plastic high heel shoes!

We also celebrated my dads bday with cupcakes made by peg and emily. That confused Emily a little, because she then thought the presents were for her birthday! We had a great visit and can't wait to go to WV on Friday.

I got a new camera.....

and I can't figure out how to download my pictures yet. That is why there are no pictures yet. The camera is an early Christmas present from Peg and Brian. They know how slow I am at learning new technology, so they wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to learn how to use it before Christmas. The camera is great, I just need to take the time to get the program downloaded so I can download the pictures.
Thanks alot guys!!

Since Thanksgiving, we have been busy with Christmas activities. We had breakfast with Santa one Saturday morning, but Emily was not brave enough to talk to him. Last week though, she did pass him in the mall and gave him a "high five" and was more than excited to get a lolly pop from him.

We have seen two Christmas parades, which we all enjoyed and this past Saturday got our tree up. The outside is decorated and now we are busy getting our shopping done. Our last day of school is on the 18th and we are leaving to go to WV. We are not sure how long we will be staying. WE are all hoping to see some snow while we are there.

I had a major hair issue the past two days. I colored my hair as usual and it turned dark black!! I then recolored and it became burgandy. I then decided to call for some so called expert advise and I then became a carrot orange color and now I am a reddish brown. I am not 100% pleased with it, however it is much, much better than the black and burgandy. Alot of time and money wasted!!

Well, I will be spending time in the next couple of days, figuring out the camera and get some new pictures posted. In the meantime, enjoy some pictures from the past two Christmas'.

November pictures

Finally, here are some pictures of Emily at her school program. She was an Indian girl "Little Bear". Also some pictures of her playing in the leaves in the front yard.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I can't believe a month has almost past since I have posted on our blog. Since going to work at the preschool, I can't seem to get anything accomplished. I am only there in the mornings!! I can't imagine if I had a full time job!!

Lets see, Todd is officially off vacation. He got alot of hunting in on his vacation and was successful with getting a 6 point. Emily is enjoying school and has gone through a growth spurt this past month. She is getting so big. Not just in size but in development as well. She amazes us more and more each day. I am enjoying working with the kids at school and am so glad I was given the oppotunity to do so.

We spent Thanksgiving in WV. Thanksgiving day was spent at Nancy's house. We all had a nice time and enjoyed alot of good food. Peg and I woke up at 4am on Friday to go do a little Christmas shopping. Was it worth it....NO!

Emily had a blast making pumpkin pies with MawMaw while Todd and I took Dad to lunch at the DQ. Can't go home without getting hotdogs from the DQ. Emily also enjoyed staying at Peg and Brians, playing with their puppy Molly.

Sorry, I will have to post pictures later, can't get the pictures downloaded.

Happy Birthday Caleb

Today we went to Spartanburg to celebrate Calebs birthday with him and his family. We were very happy to get to go, because Emily developed pink eye over the weekend. Luckily, she was well enough to go today.

Zoo Trip

Emily is enjoying school very much. Last week she cried each morning as we went our separate ways. This week, she was fine. However, on Tuesday, her teacher said she got upset and cried for a minute or two. Not for me but for Tanner. They passed in the hall and she wanted to go with him. After class, they met in the hall and embraced in a long hug. Next week they have a lunch date.

Monday after school; Todd, Emily and I met Laura, Caleb, Graysen and their freinds Alisha, Katelyn and Abigail at the zoo in Greenville. We enjoyed our afternoon and especially enjoyed out dinner at Cracker Barrel afterwards.

I love you, you love me.......

"Me wear cow costume:"

Several weeks ago, I made a cow costume for Emily to wear to a party at the farm. I thought it would be better for her to play in and more comfortable than her Minnie Mouse costume. Since we were going to be at a farm, I thought the cow would be cute. Well......she didn't like it and didn't want anything to do with it. O.K. no big deal. She NEVER touched the homemade cow costume.
At 5:45 pm this evening, when we were getting ready to get dressed for trick or treat, she wants nothing to do with the Minnie Mouse costume and informs me that she wants to be a cow!!! Well, long story short and after a phone call to Peg (I thought maybe she could convince her into wearing the pretty costume) Emily went trick or treating in the cow costume. I was so sad:(
Caleb, Graysen, Laura and Lee came up and we all went trick or treating in the neighborhood. We had a blast. Todd and Lee took turns pulling the kids in the wagon and they had so much fun. After alot of practice trick or treating at home, both kids did great. We got alot of good candy, but no compliments on the cow costume! Oh well, she had fun.
After coming home and everyone digging into candy, the Slushers left and we ended our Halloween in bed watching "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" Emily and Todd were both asleep at 10pm. We started this Halloween day by standing in line for over an hour waiting to vote. Emily went with us to be included in this important part of history that is about to take place........ Below are the only good pictures of Emily in her Minnie Mouse costume taken by Peg last month when she first got her costume.

Minnie Mouse