Baby Shower Fun

Hallie and I got to be guests at a sweet friend's baby shower at the end of our Thanksgiving break.  She is expecting a baby girl in early January and that baby does not have a name yet!  So...baby's grandfather has dubbed her Shirley.  Isn't that the cutest?  I almost monogrammed a onesie with "Shirley" on it...and I still might. ;o)

While the mommy-to-be was visiting with guests, I snapped a few shots of my girl.  I tried using the external flash, but I'm just not a pro at it like the hubs.  Maybe one day he'll teach me. :o)

Hallie LOVED the punch--look at that face! :o)

The mommy-to-be (again, she has a 2 year old boy, Gabriel) and her sister, Emily...these two on stage were quite the entertainment!  Ha!

Hallie and Memory coloring

Love this girl!

Silly head!

WAR EAGLE!

THE AUBURN CREED
I believe that this is a practical world and that I can count only on what I earn. Therefore, I believe in work, hard work. 
I believe in education, which gives me the knowledge to work wisely and trains my mind and my hands to work skillfully. 
I believe in honesty and truthfulness, without which I cannot win the respect and confidence of my fellow men. 
I believe in a sound mind, in a sound body and a spirit that is not afraid, and in clean sports that develop these qualities. 
I believe in obedience to law because it protects the rights of all. 
I believe in the human touch, which cultivates sympathy with my fellow men and mutual helpfulness and brings happiness for all. 
I believe in my Country, because it is a land of freedom and because it is my own home, and that I can best serve that country by "doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with my God." 
And because Auburn men and women believe in these things, I believe in Auburn and love it. 
-George Petrie (1945)


There are many things I love about Auburn.  Below are just a few...

Our logo...it is just beautiful!  Simple and beautiful!

Our mascot...gotta love Aubie!!

Jordan Hare Stadium

War Eagle VII Nova

Click HERE if you want to read the story!

No matter when you went to/graduated from Auburn...no matter where an Auburn fan lives, we will always be an Auburn Family!  WAR EAGLE!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hallie, Get in the Bath! (Part 2)

For some reason, the video won't attach to the previous post even though I continue to put it in there.  So, it'll just have its own post. :o)  This one is the faster version.  LOL.  There is even a FASTER version, but I didn't capture that one b/c I was too busy laughing at Hallie! :o)

Hallie, Get in the Bath!

Each night, Hallie comes up with a new excuse of why it shouldn't be bath time.  Oh my!  So quite often, Jonathan will break out his guitar and play a wonderful song I've titled "Hallie, Get in the Bath!" :o)  It starts out slow and then speeds up each time.  I videoed a smidge of it on my cell phone...so the quality isn't great, but you should be able to see some of Hallie's pretty kickin' dance moves.  LOL! :o)  I'm also not sure which order of which movie is what...so simply enjoy.

Jump-n-Place!

 Yesterday, Hallie and I started our first day off with breakfast from Chick-fil-A.  The rest of the day was spent snuggled up watching cartoons and playing.  So we headed to Jump-n-Place (formerly Jumping Party where Hallie had her 3rd birthday party) for a few hours of jumping.  After lots of jumping, the Hokey Pokey and the Chicken Dance, we headed to the mall for a bite to eat and a cookie and Icee. :o)  Hallie fell asleep on the way home and I lounged around doing nothing until she finished her slumber.  It was wonderful!

Tomorrow we'll meet Daddy for lunch at the Simply Good Eatery at Spice Village.  I only get to eat there a few times a year because it's downtown and we just don't get down that way very often.  Plus, the eatery is only open from 11-2.  Hallie absolutely adores all the shops at Spice Village!  She calls it the big building with all the Christmas trees (they do have a lot of trees set up in there!). :o)  It should be a fun time!

Oh, and don't be alarmed at Hallie's attire...it was 86 degrees here yesterday!  Crazy!

Rah Rah putting Hallie's socks on so she can jump!

The Chicken Dance! :o)

I love this little girl!!

I was trying to take Hallie's picture...she put her hands on her hips and said, "Mommy!  You take TOO MANY pictures of me!"  Oh my.  We're really trying to nip the hands-on-her-hips in the bud.  She can be so sweet, but oh my word!  She can be SO sassy!

Thanksgiving in Houston

We headed to Houston to celebrate Thanksgiving with Jonathan's side of the family.  Fun times.  It was a very long trip--or as Hallie would say, it was "very far, far, far, far away...but not as far as Nonna and Pop's house."  LOL. :o)  We thought Hallie was going to be the only little bit there, but after just a little while, some of the other cousins arrived, and the rest was history.  They had lots of fun playing outside in the unseasonably warm weather!  The little ones wanted to badly to play in the pool, so we tucked their dresses up and let them splash.  They ended up getting pretty wet.  The water was quite chilly, but we quickly realized that it's no chillier than Nonna and Pop's pool in the dead of summer!  Ha!  Thankfully, I had packed an extra set of clothes for Hallie, and they came in handy!  It's always great to spend time with family. :o)

Caroline, Karston, Hallie, and Scott

Hallie

The kids had so much fun simply walking around the hot tub and the pool...we were certain there would be a loud splash at some point.  Somehow we escaped that! :o)

Hallie said, "It's COLD!!"

Philip (Jonathan's cousin) spent about 20 minutes swinging Hallie and Caroline around and around.  He was pretty dizzy and worn out after all their "Do it again!" cries!

Philip told Hallie and Caroline that it was his turn for them to swing him around!  Ha!

Sharing Nerds

Look at those sweet faces--Caroline and Hallie

Playing in Aunt Joann's dollhouse--they had so much fun!

Disney on Ice: Princess Wishes

 Early Release Day...out of school at 11:00.  I pick Hallie up at noon and head to downtown Waco for some yummy lunch with family and friends before heading over to the convention center for a who-knows-how-long "staff development" (my cousin says that sounds like a serious infection...I agree!).  With coloring books, crayons, snacks, and nap mat in tow, Hallie and I park ourselves along the back wall of the cement (and rather uncomfortable) floor of the convention center.  I barely listen to any of the opening remarks from all the important people because I'm trying to wrangle my 3 year old who also had Early Release at her school.  Let the bribing (or the threats) begin.  Being wildly embarrassed at how my preschooler was acting, I decided to nonchalantly use her as my way out of the lovely (and quite large...and also people-filled) room.  I'm walking probably 10-15 feet in front of her so that perhaps people won't actually know that the cutie patootie who is stomping (loudly) behind me and also yanking a bag of SunChips off the back snack table belongs to yours truly.  I'm pretty sure I was unsuccessful.  At least that's what it felt like as I hear all the snickering.

Nevertheless, hands full, we headed to the car...Hallie vehemently disobeying the entire way.  I had my eyes fixed on the two hour+ nap I would soon be blessed with!  We had a big night planned--Disney on Ice!  Hallie just HAD to have a nap!  However, when we got home, the girl would have nothing to do with a nap.  I told her we couldn't go to the special surprise if she didn't nap (we hadn't told her about the ice skating adventures).  Finally...after an hour long resistance strategy, Hallie gave up and napped.  While she napped, I took a load off by finally watching The Last Song--Miley Cyrus, while not enjoyable, wasn't as bad as I thought she'd be in the movie.  Moving on.  Two and a half hours pass and it's getting close to the time that we need to be getting ready for our little adventure.  I have to wake Hallie up...she was NOT happy about this.  Jonathan got home and we scurried around trying to get ready.  We headed out and met RahRah to get the tickets to the show.  We grabbed a bite to eat (oh yeah, and a princess dress beforehand) and headed to the coliseum.  Hallie was super excited...but not showing it in a very big way.

At last--Disney on Ice:  Princess Wishes. I'm not sure what I expected of Hallie, but I think I thought she'd be a little more giddy about the whole thing.  Far from it!  She was absolutely mesmerized by the entire production!  And honestly, she didn't get her nap out...the girl was extremely sleepy the entire time.  However, it didn't disappoint--the costumes and effects were wonderful!  Hallie loved it, though she wasn't very expressive about it.  haha.

I should have taken the longer lens with us...I don't know what I was thinking.  So while we snapped a few pictures (thanks to Jonathan's savvy knowledge of all things photographic), they're not all that great.  Still...they'll do. :o)

Daddy and his princess pre-show!

Mommy and her princess!

Aladdin (this part of the show was a little too long for our enjoyment.

The seven dwarfs

Snow White and her prince

Belle and Lumiere 

I loved the silverwares' costumes! :o)

The Little Mermaid--Sebastian and all of Ariel's sisters

Ariel

Hallie's eyes were completely glued to each performance!

The three fairies (Sleeping Beauty)

Cinderella!!  Now, this part wasn't long enough at all!!

All of the princesses with their respective prince...Tinkerbell in the carriage. :o)

Hallie after the show!  She wanted to see it again! :o)

Things to Remember...

While we sat in the waiting room at ballet/tap class, some other moms and I were discussing our little angels.  Somehow we got on a kick of their sayings and how we never want to correct them and never want to forget them.  I realized that I don't write down the silly things Hallie says enough, so I'm going to take a moment to do that. :o)

Right now, Hallie leaves the negative out of the phrase.  It is one of my favorite things.  Some examples:

"I'm going to school tomorrow, am I mommy."

"Charley ran fast, did he?!"

"That is so cute, is it!"

We love it and know that it'll correct itself, so we're not correcting it.  It's just too darn cute! :o)

Hallie drew a picture the other day of a butterfly coming out of a chrysalis.  It was quite good.  When I asked her if she drew it all by herself (because I hadn't seen her), she said, "Yes!  I was imaginationing!" :o)

On the way to Chick-fil-A from ballet, I was talking to Rah-Rah on the phone.  She asked how Hallie's day was and I replied, "Y-E-L-L-O-W."  I didn't want Hallie to know I was talking about her, so I was trying to be discreet.  The next thing I know, Hallie's singing, "Y-E-L-L-O-W spells yellow...yellow bus, banana, too, all those things are yellow."  I burst into laughter.  She is such a mess!

Hallie is the line leader this week at school.  Evidently, during PE, Hallie got into a little trouble and had to make a color change in the classroom--green to yellow.  We were discussing this over supper.  She was telling us what happened and then out of nowhere she said, "But I got my job back!"  LOL!  We cracked up. I guess when she made the color change, that also meant she lost her job.  Somehow she didn't remain "unemployed" for too long! :o)

Hallie is such a talker (hmm...wonder where she gets that from?).  It is so fun to hear her vocabulary expand daily by leaps and bounds!  We think she's a pretty smart cookie!

So...what are your favorite phrases your little one says/has said? :o)

Hallie's Artwork

If you know Hallie, you know she LOVES to draw!  She is always drawing.  She brought this picture to me, and I was pretty impressed.  As always, I ask her about her drawing.  She said, "This is a butterfly coming out of its chrysalis."  When I asked her about the other "object", she said, "Oh, that's a dinosaur."  haha.  And it looks like she forgot the "i" in her name.  Oh well! :o)

We think she's pretty great!

Fall Festival

October 31, 2010
Whew...so I'm a little behind with updating the blog.  Here are the only pictures I got of our Fall Festival at church on Halloween.  It was a whole lot of fun, and Hallie had a blast--she was so busy...the reason for so few pictures. :o)

First things first...straight for the slide!

Our little Angelina Ballerina

Showing off some of her Angelina Ballerina moves!

Hallie waited (OK, Mommy waited in line for her) for a LONG time to get a flower balloon from the crazy balloon clown.  After waiting for 30 minutes (no, I'm not kidding), Hallie's dreams of a pink flower balloon were crushed because he was out of pink balloons.  She settled for a red one. :o)