Christmas 2008

Small Group "80's Skate" Party

Kate and Brandon (with a mullet wig)

Ava and I made a gingerbread house! I iced while she put the candy on.

Early Christmas at our house--Santa brought a train table!

Took the kids to look at Christmas lights, but they both fell asleep before we saw any.

Christmas day with the Walters side of the family in Decatur

Ava and sweet cousin Karaline

Pierson hitting his new baseball

Swinging with G-Sir outside

Football with the boys

Chad taught Pierson "Down, set, hut!"-- Look at that stance.

Seeing the musical "Annie" at the Bass Hall

Ava LOVED it and has been singing "It's a hard knock life" ever since.

Downtown Fort Worth Christmas Tree

Christmas with the Pierson side of the family at Kate's house

Matching hats (above) and matching sock monkey outfits below

Playing with  K-Papa

Pierson and Sasi

A new drum and harmonica-- What a fun Christmas this year!

My Crazy Kids

This is what Ava would look like every day if I let her dress herself. She has the makings of a fashion designer.  In this ensemble she is sporting silver shoes, striped tights, a giraffe print skirt, a pink sweater over a grey short sleeve sweater over a floral print shirt, and a scarf wrapped around her head. This was her "after school" outfit today. She told me her other outfit was just too boring. For the record I do let her dress herself most days, but I usually have to help her tone it down a bit especially on school and church days. Today at school she insisted on wearing a purple shirt under her red sweater just to keep warm. I didn't argue since it's freezing outside, but when I picked her up she had taken off the sweater, and had been wearing a purple and blue heart print t-shirt with brown and red leggings all day.  Awesome! This girl has a mind of her own. (I'm not sure why these turned out blurry. . .)

Pretending to be scared!

Playing an air guitar. . .

"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful."

Pierson is obsessed with anything that looks remotely like a ball. He can spot them from 50 feet away, so you can imagine the joy when he woke up to a tree filled with balls. We have had to move many of them up after a few got thrown and broken.  He is such a ham right now. He loves to make people laugh by playing peek-a-boo and dancing. It's like he knows he's goofy and he acts silly just to get a reaction.  He will be 15 months old tomorrow and says several words: ball, basetball (basketball), two, mama, da (dad), Aba (Ava), ha (hat), papa, shoe, go, boo (book), ni-ni (night night), lots of animal sounds, owsigh (outside), tan-tu (thank you), cacker (cracker), ju (juice), bath tie (bath time), and he signs please, thank you, more, milk, and blows kisses to say bye-bye.  He is so much fun. We love watching him grow and learn! 

Chad's mini-me

He wouldn't take off his hat when we got home. He's loves wearing anything on his head (including Ava's headbands and tiaras.)

Smiley boy

Where have all the bloggers gone?

I started this blog back in 2005, before "blog mania" began. Back then the only links I had were my sister, my dad, my cousin, and Shelly.  Whenever I mentioned "blogging," most of my friends had never heard of it!  Skip ahead a few years, and now it seems that everyone I know is posting their own deep thoughts or photos of their kids.  I was really enjoying being connected to all my blogger friends.  But lately I have noticed that the once faithful updaters have been slacking and even the comments have dwindled.  I was beginning to wonder where all the bloggers had gone, and then I found you. . . on facebook!  The Internet is a funny, fickle thing.  There's always something newer, better, and cooler!  I had been holding off, but I finally gave in and joined fb. I have to admit that it is pretty addicting watching every one's status and finding friends. I'm not giving up this blog though.  It's been with me now for 4 years since Ava was a newborn!  So if I don't comment on your post, I am still reading, but I'll just catch you on facebook.

October

ACU HOMECOMING

Fun at the parade

We got to catch up with the Ridgells. This is Ava and Anna who were having a great time yelling "Go Number One" with their purple ACU foam fingers while at Sharon Allen's BBQ. Joe Don commented, "At least they're not yelling, 'Go Number Two!"

I also got to spend some time with my good friend, Heather, who was on the Coming Home Court this year. She had a busy weekend juggling reunion events while keeping up with 2 kids and a 3 month old, but we managed to get in some quality time, which I loved! I can't believe it's been 10 years since she graduated. 

HALLOWEEN

Ava wanted to be a bride this year, and Pierson ended up as a giraffe. 

She wasn't the only bride. Here she is with her friend, Anna.

Chad went as zookeeper with Pierson to our small group Halloween party. They're both sticking out their tongues like the giraffes at the Abilene Zoo.

Since Brandon couldn't make it, Kate and I went 

as bridesmaids with Ava.

One cute little animal.

This picture cracks me up because Ava posed it herself. She wanted to take pictures like a "real bride," so she took a series of bridal portraits . This is the classic "Bride looking down at the bouquet pose." 

Both kids together.

Okay I went a little crazy with the picture taking.  I love kids in costume.

OUR TRIP TO THE METROPLEX

We got to spend Halloween night in Fort Worth with our old small group.  It was great to catch up with friends.  This is me, Pierson and Julia as a bee.

All the pretty girls. Hard to believe that when we left Fort Worth all of these girls were babies.

On Friday night after the party, Chad and I left the kids with his parents and headed to Dallas for a much needed getaway weekend.  We hadn't spent time away with just the two of us since we moved to Abilene. It's hard to believe, but time goes quickly with little ones.  We kept commenting on how easy meals were- no clean up, no one to feed but ourselves, and I couldn't get over how quickly we could hop in and out of the car with no rounding up of kids, diaper bags and supplies, buckling everyone in, etc. I took this picture with a timer; you can tell we haven't taken pictures without kids in a while because neither of us knew what to do with our hands.  

We ended our trip in Decatur on Sunday afternoon with the Walters family.  It was good to spend time with everyone, and the weather was perfect. Our kids LOVE their cousins!

Elmo, Pumpkins & a Visit to the Farm

A few weeks ago, we enjoyed an afternoon with Teressa, Larry, Melissa & Bryson at the Elmo Live Show! Bryson danced the entire time. It was so cute. We had great seats and loved watching the kids watch Elmo! 

The Sesame Street Gang
Teressa (Larry hiding) and Bryson
A visit to the Abilene Pumpkin Patch

Ava picks the perfect pumpkin.
Posing with the kids
Ava paints her pumpkin with Grandma Ruby.
And finally. . .  a visit to May Farm for  a friend's birthday party. Pierson was a little freaked out by this goat.
Ava thought they were cute, but kept her distance.
I reluctantly put both kids on a horse for a short ride. I can honestly say that I had one of those gut motherly instincts that tells you not to do it, but I had seen other kids riding and figured I was just being paranoid. The horse's owner told me she was very tame and they had never had a child fall off. I did stay beside the kids the entire time. I stepped back to take this photo a few seconds before a bee flew by which made the horse shudder. This caused both of my children to fall off, head first in the opposite direction from where I was standing. It happened in about 0.3 seconds, but I saw everything in slow motion and I still could not reach them.   A mother's worst nightmare!  That moment has replayed in my mind and might be the scariest thing I have ever witnessed.  Amazingly both kids were fine. . . scared but not injured. I am praising God for His protection.  We might have a new fear of horses now, but no permanent damage was done. (And by we, I mean me.)