Myrtle Beach Anniversary Trip

Our very fancy, very tasty shrimp and grits dinner at Tommy Bahamas


View of the pier from a not-so-tasty restaurant


Cute little fountain outside of our condo


Our condo


Our 5th Anniversary dinner--I must say that we each look to be about 5 years old in this picture :-)

More Christmas Pictures

Christmas Day Pictures and Video

Christmas Eve Pictures

Whoa, Santa, Whoa!

We are having a fabulous time on our Christmas vacation, and I have finally found my way through the mess that is my house to my computer, which has been very lonely here since we have been out of town with no internet access. Our festivities started on Christmas Eve with a fun lunch with the Grant family (my mom's side) at The Brickery. It was a circus with all of the babies, and Sarah was her bouncy self, wanting to run all over the place and eat little. We spent the afternoon at my parents' house where Sarah decided not to nap but to run all over with her new doll stroller instead. That girl has some ENERGY! She also opened her Elmo Live that afternoon that my parents gave her. She is so spoiled...I think she really likes the Elmo but she is a little bit unsure about his "liveliness," I think. I love how he falls over and asks for help getting up :-) We took my parents, brother, and sister with us to the Christmas Eve service at church, and then we all went back to their house for a quick dinner. By the time we got home, it was past Sarah's bedtime, and we rushed her to bed so Santa could come.

Santa brought way way way too much, and I will have to have a word with him next year :-) He brought Sarah a kitchen set with some play food, a baby doll with a car seat, and a wagon. She loves the wagon and keeps telling us "car ride." Santa brought daddy some clothes and an I-tunes card, and he brought me a jewelry armoire that I can't wait to fill up! I have been telling Jeremy and Santa for months that I had seriously grown out of my small jewelry box. Among our other favorite gifts from our very generous families are Jeremy's new black coat, my new camera that actually went the whole vacation without the battery running down, and our new clock from a special store in Gatlinburg.

Mid-way through Christmas morning, we left all of our goodies in the floor of the den, loaded up the car, and headed to Greenville to spend Christmas with Jeremy's parents, brother, and sister-in-law. We had such a nice time spending time with them and of course, opening too many presents and eating too much food. We didn't have any drama on our trip, but Joseph and Alecia's transmission went out in Virginia (they live in Ohio), but they managed to drive the car to Greenville anyway. They got to have an extended and expensive stay in Greenville while they pretty much got a new transmission in their car. On the 27th, Jeremy and I took a 2-day trip to Myrtle Beach to celebrate our 5th anniversary. I can't believe we've been married that LONG! Sarah stayed in Greenville with Mimi, PawPaw, Uncle Joseph, and Aunt Alecia, and all of us had a fabulous weekend. We finally got back home to Bethlehem late last night, and we're only beginning to put the house back together. I'll post lots of pictures as soon as I a) find my camera and b) figure out how to upload pictures from it.

Happy New Year!

Rockin Around the Christmas Tree at the Christmas Party FLOP...

Sarah in the cutest little Christmas dress that my mom made for my sister Rebecca many years ago...


All bundled up at Stone Mountain


Carriage ride at The Avenue


Showing off her Christmas grin


Trying to sit in the tiny basket...

We tried taking Sarah to Jeremy's choir Christmas party last Wednesday and it was a total disaster. First she wanted to run around in between people and around and around a house full of candles, which made me really paranoid. It was probably a funny sight to see Sarah running circles and me running them behind her :-) Then all of the running sent her into a major coughing spasm (she had been sick with a bad cold/cough). The coughing spasm made her upset and then she was just plain angry. When food started to fly, we decided it was time to call it a night and we headed home. We were only at the party 30 minutes. Oh, well-there's always next year (and I think we'll get a baby-sitter)!

My friend Leslie was asking me the other day if Sarah could carry on a conversation with us yet. Here's a cute one from this morning:

(Sarah and I are sitting on the couch, and Jeremy walks into the room)
Sarah: Daddy! Sit. (pats the couch next to her)
Daddy: Do you want me to sit here?
Sarah: OK. Here. Barney!

She has recently started telling us "ok." She will ask for more, we will say something like, "oh, you want more?", and then she will say "ok," as if we were the ones recommending "more" in the first place. It's very cute.

We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and I'm sure many stories and pictures are coming next week!

More Christmas Memories in the Making

We had a great time at the Stone Mountain Christmas Celebration last Saturday--Personally, I thought it was much better than last year's trip (last year it was raining). As soon as we got there, we got on the waiting list for the real restaurant, and while we were waiting we got to take Sarah to the Snow Castle to decorate a cookie and we watched the parade--Santa stopped right in front of us and Sarah was mesmerized by the whole thing. Dinner was fabulous, warm, and peaceful with Sarah in her high chair. After dinner, Sarah saw her first "movie," The Polar Express 4-D show, and she was amazed (at least until it got a little scary and made her nervous...). We also saw a music show and rode the train (by then it was FREEZING, literally). At the end of the evening, right before event closed, we got to see the Snow Queen and it snowed all over the Christmas village. All in all, a wonderful night.

Today Sarah had her second go at visiting with Santa at our favorite little antiques mall, Happy's. I didn't make her sit in his lap by herself, but she was still very, very nervous. She did take candy from him with a smile, but when he offered her a beanie baby she kept telling him "no." Silly Sarah---don't you know that you shouldn't say no to Santa when he gives you a present?

Santa!

We had a lovely, cold, rainy afternoon visiting Santa at The Avenue in Snellville. Thankfully, Santa moved indoors, and due to the weather, there was no one else there waiting to see him, so Sarah got him all to herself. She was so TERRIFIED of poor Santa. We got the classic screaming picture, and then a nice picture of our family with Santa (although Sarah is still pretty pouty). The people there were so nice and took lots of pictures for us. Her mood changed when we left the store and hopped on a free carriage ride with horses (or "cows" that say "neigh" as Sarah referred to them...).

We elfed ourselves!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Thanksgiving-and lots of new pictures!

Sarah playing in the leaves--so cute!

First look at Thanksgiving dinner--not quite the reaction I was hoping for...

Playing my brother's Rock Band game...so much fun!

My brother, the rock star

Me, the not so good drummer...











We have had a FABULOUS time this week spending so much time with Sarah both at home and with our extended family. It's going to be hard on all of us to go back to work next week--at least we only have to make it 3 more weeks to an even longer vacation! Sarah got over her stomach bug and so far so good around here, except Jeremy did get sick for Thursday night-I think he's ok now!

On Wednesday, we met Michael at the Vines and he took some great pictures of our family, despite the fact that all Sarah wanted to do was run around and do the opposite of what we wanted her to do :-) Then I tried taking some pictures of her around the house. We all went over to my mom's on Thursday for Thanksgiving dinner--you will love the picture of Sarah when she got in her chair to eat her dinner. I guess her appetite wasn't quite back to normal :-) She would much rather have stayed outside all day playing in the leaves. Friday, since Jeremy was sick, I played with Sarah all day, and we had a fun trip to the park (where were all the women, though? Shopping, I guess. It was like dad city over there!). Sorry, Heather, that I missed out on the early AM shopping trip :-( Jeremy's parents, Mimi and Pawpaw, came to see us (Sarah) this weekend, and Sarah had SO MUCH FUN showing them EVERYTHING that she can do. She especially liked putting stickers all over us! We went out to dinner tonight and she was so well behaved, sitting in between Mimi and Pawpaw on the booth seat the whole time. I think it was the most relaxing, tasty dinner I have had in a long, long time. Then, to top it all off, when we got home, Sarah went #1 in the potty for the first time!!! Then, in the middle of her bath, she told me she needed to go #2 and she did that in the potty, too! She hasn't done #2 in her diaper since Tuesday!!! Go Sarah! As you can tell, I have really enjoyed this week and can't wait for Christmas vacation!

If you're looking for cheap entertainment...

...go to Sam's Club :-) That's what Sarah and I decided to do yesterday afternoon instead of sitting at home waiting for Jeremy to get home--they were having their "taste of Sam's" holiday thing or whatever it's called where they give out lots of food samples! So we went out for some gourmet snacks. Sarah had fun eating all the food and was only sad when I made her sit and watch a knife demonstration--but they gave me a free knife! So yay for Sam's Club!

Sarah's Fun Times

Here is a movie of Sarah's most recent fun times--dressing up like a ladybug for Halloween, reading stories in the big girl chair, having a Sing Along (or a shout-over mommy's voice) with mommy, writing a thank-you note to Aunt Mary, and talking on the phone. It is so much fun these days to watch Sarah try to be independent. I only wish I had more time to spend with her with no other distractions. I feel like I miss so much when she is at school, even though I do get to sneak peeks at her now and then on the web cam!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was so much fun with Sarah this year. We tried to take it easy and just do whatever made her happy. So....we played outside for awhile, then met up with our neighbors for trick-or-treating for a short time, then got ready for bed. Sarah trick-or-treated her heart out and was still in bed before 8! Mommy and Daddy went to sleep at 9:00 and slept 10 hours! I LOVED her in her ladybug costume!

P.S. I made Sarah help me carve pumpkins on Thursday afternoon, and it was NOT her choice of afternoon fun. I tried to make her an Elmo pumpkin but that didn't work out so well either. First his nose broke off, then his mouth, so his face was just one big hole. I did my best to piece him back together with toothpicks--I guess he does look like some kind of monster, at least....