Bennett Farms

Jonathan, Hallie, and I went to Alabama for a sweet friend's wedding.  We knew we wouldn't have much time to spend with friends and family (other than at the wedding, of course), but we definitely wanted to make a trip to Bennett Farms while we were in Heflin.  I'm so glad we made the time to visit the farms because it definitely did not disappoint!  Hallie had so much fun!  And it was good times getting to see some old friends. :o)  

Unfortunately, I left our memory card at home.  Thankfully, Jim and Alexis (proud owners of the Farms) let us borrow their camera.  And my sister-in-law had her camera and captured some cute shots!  Sadly, I know that won't be the last time I forget our memory card.  lol.  I have a knack for not really learning any lessons when it comes to that sort of thing.  haha.

Hallie the Sunflower :o)

Abby shelling corn with Jim

The three sillies in the corn crib (they did not want to leave this fun!)!

Abby and Hallie...not sure where HG was.

I love this sweet face!

It was just a LITTLE sunny outside. :o)

Hallie with the minature pony. :o)

 The hayride

Lunch time! :o)

Hallie & Abby

Petting Sparky

Picking out a pumpkin

Nonna and her girls

Pumpkins!

Hallie and HG

Point those toes...Tap those toes!

Sweet Hallie Shea started at a new ballet school today!  She is taking a ballet/tap combo class at Joy's School of Dance.  Hallie loved taking ballet with Mrs. Korpi, but we decided to make a switch so Hallie could have the opportunity to take tap.  At Korpi's, it is strictly classical ballet...which Hallie may "decide" to go back to later.  I believe Hallie has the potential to be an absolutely beautiful ballerina. :o)  Of course, we want her to be whatever her little heart desires!

Hallie has been super excited about taking ballet at a new dance school.  She was excited to wear her new leotard and skirt along with her new ballet and tap shoes!  And she was adorable! :o)  I'm not sure what I expected, but Hallie walked right into class, sat her little dance bag down and found a spot.  She loved that there were little spots marked with colored tape on the floor and stayed right on her spot.  They started ballet right away, and Hallie fit in perfectly. :o)  She had ballet class for 30 minutes before changing over to tap. 

I'm so glad I got to snap a few pictures!  I knew parents weren't allowed in the classroom, but I was surprised to find that both classrooms had observation windows for parents to keep an eye on their little ballerinas/tappers! :o)  So...the pictures are through the glass.  And while they're not horrible, you can see some of the reflections.  Still, I'm just glad to have the memories captured in picture form!

I was amazed that these sweet little 3 and 4 year olds sat down and took their little ballet slippers off all by themselves.  Then they put those sweet shoes in their dance bags and put on their tap shoes.  They then lined up by the door and changed classrooms.  One room is for ballet and one is for tap (or so I figure).  I was just amazed that they did it so flawlessly!  Precious!

Hallie is on the far left (purple bow) and her mirror image is on the right--too cute!

Heel toe, heel toe!

Hallie loved ballet and tap!

Sunday Afternoons

Sunday is one of my very favorite days.  We get to snuggle in the mornings with a few cartoons, go to church, and then have lunch with the family.  It's usually extremely relaxing...and even more relaxing now that I am desperately trying to not stress out over being late to church (which we usually are). :o)  Hallie loves going over to Gramps and RahRah's house after church for lunch.  And we are blessed to have wonderful RahRah lunches on Sunday afternoons!  When we moved here, I said that once we moved into a house (out of the apartment), I would "host" Sunday lunches on occasion.  Well...I think that has maybe happened just a few times (if that).  Sorry, RahRah...maybe one day! ;o)

If we're at the same service as Gramps and RahRah, we usually beat them to their house after church.  On this particular day, we were there probably 15 minutes or so before they were.  Without the house key, we were at the mercy of the car's air conditioner. :o)  Whenever waiting, Hallie wants out of her carseat.  Not a big deal.  Today, Jonathan let her "drive" around the block.  Gasp!  Don't worry...there's little to no traffic and Hallie didn't go over 15 mph.  Wait...she can't even reach the pedals!  LOL. :o)  I have such fond memories of "driving" with my daddy when I was little.  Good times.  Oh, I also have fond memories of running his red Mazda truck into an embankment while I was driving while sitting in his lap.  haha.  I digress.  She made great memories with her daddy! :o)

Eyes on the road, Hallie!

I love this--look at the A/C blowing her piggy tails! :o)

Don't worry...we were parked! :o)

Look at my tiny flower. :o)

Love this girl!

Oh, those sweet piggy tails!

We had cheesecake for dessert...obviously, Hallie was a fan. :o)

Gramps and Jonathan got put in time out...lol.

Hallie and Uncle J (and Charley) under the dining room table--this happens every Sunday that Uncle J comes over for lunch!  Those two are quite the pair! :o)

Sweet girl and Charley

Sic 'em Bears!

Baylor vs. Buffalo...one would think being September and all that the weather would start cooling off.  Sigh.  So not true.  Nonetheless, it was good times with good friends.  Hallie didn't nap before the game, so with the heat, she was extra crabby...as was her momma!  Ha!  At one point, Hallie got it in her head that she had to have pom poms.  So Kelly and I took Hallie on a pom pom hunt. :o)  We were not successful.  But we did get some $8 rally necklaces!  LOL!  Next time we'll go to Target and get some pom poms before the game!  The one thing that saved us was seeing Bruiser Bear on the way back to our seats!

Look at this cutie! :o)

Sweet friends--Kelly & Kevin

Me & my girl!

Hallie and Bruiser

God Bless America!

Baylor Football 2010

We kicked off our Labor Day weekend with college football!  No better way to start a weekend!  I love college football.  And more than that, I love AUBURN football!  But, since I'm a long way from Auburn, I'll take what college football I can get. ;o)  We had tickets to the Baylor game this past Saturday...the weather was beautiful and the company was great!  Hallie looked most forward to getting popcorn--HA!  Baylor started their season with a win!  We're looking forward to another Baylor game this coming weekend!  Sic 'em Bears.  But, again, more than that...WAR EAGLE!

Hubs and Me

Hal and Daddy

Three Generations...wow!

Gramps, Hallie, and RahRah

Sic 'em Bears!

And because I believe in Auburn and love it...

Cousins

I really wanted to get some good shots of Hallie, Abby, and HG on Mawmaw's front porch.  My plan was to start the pictures at 10 am because it was SO incredibly hot in Alabama during our last visit.  Somehow the plan didn't work out and we didn't get over to Mawmaw's house until 1 pm.  And our flight left that very day at 5:00 pm.  Needless to say, I was less than thrilled to be sweating like the proverbial pig (yes, I'm aware pigs do not sweat)...and even less thrilled that I would be all hot, sweaty, and stinky before having to sit on a plane and then ride 2 hours home from Dallas.  Moving on.  I ended up capturing some pretty sweet pictures of Hallie.  I'm going to post them in a slide and when I have more time, I'm going to post some of my favorites.

If you'd like to see the pictures bigger, just click on them. :o)

We're still here...

My word.  It has been entirely too long.  At least I did a quick post about Hallie's first day of preschool, right?  haha.  Well...after we returned from our extended trip to Alabama, we did a little of this and a little of that.  We spent our mornings at the Splash Park many mornings because that was the only thing that was remotely refreshing and outside.  By 11 am, we would head home (or Chick-fil-A...grin) because the heat was just too much to bear.  A couple of times we would end up at the mall or at The Jumping Party (indoor jumping).  At the end of July, my sweet mother-in-law went to Austin with me so Hallie wouldn't be too far from me during a teacher's conference I had to attend.  We stayed Sunday-Wednesday, and Hallie and RahRah had tons of fun swimming and playing.  Hallie even decided to jump in the pool sans "froggy float" while RahRah was getting their things ready to head back into the hotel.  Luckily, Hallie had been practicing her swimming skills WITH her froggy float all summer--kicking her feet and paddling with her hands.  She had also gotten quite brave with jumping in while holding her breath--she'd go under every time.  So when she jumped in without her float (honestly, RahRah thinks she forgot she didn't have "froggy" on because really, Hallie is VERY careful around water), she went under, pushed herself right back to the surface, turned herself around and began kicking and paddling furiously all while keeping her head above the water.  I'm not sure who was more terrified--RahRah or Hallie.  But RahRah coached Hallie back to the ladder, and Hallie followed her directions.  I'm glad it was RahRah with Hallie and not me--RahRah was smart enough to know she shouldn't jump in after Hallie b/c it might have caused her to go under or scared her more.  I'm not sure if I would have been that calm about it.  But, Hallie was FINE!  And Hallie talked and talked about it--how scared she was.  I asked her if she wanted to show me how she could swim and she quickly told me no...that it was VERY scary.  Thankfully, it didn't scare her enough to never want to get in the water again.

While we were in Austin, my grandmother's health began to slowly decline.  Needless to say, my mind was not on the conference material at all.  I called my dad about every hour to check on her.  She hadn't been sleeping, then when she finally did fall asleep, she slipped into a sort of coma.  On Tuesday, the 28th of July, I got a call around 7:30 from my cousin Clay (after my dad had tried to call) that my sweet MawMaw had passed away.  While I was extremely and selfishly upset at the loss of her life, I rejoiced that she was in Heaven...she had been talking a lot about wanting to go HOME and see Lewis (her husband).  So to know she is walking hand in hand with him and praising Jesus all day long is the most comfort I could possibly know.  She lived a wonderful life.  She set an example of a Godly woman for my cousins and I.  She was one incredible woman.

After the conference, Hallie and I flew to Alabama for my grandmother's funeral.  We were scheduled to make it to the visitation, but it just didn't work out.  We missed our first flight out thanks to the wonderful policemen of Dallas/Ft. Worth.  Hallie didn't actually go to the funeral, my sweet friend Joy and her little boy stayed with Hallie during the funeral--she was a HUGE blessing to us!  The funeral was very sweet.  It was too hot to have a graveside service, so that was done inside.  Then the church had a meal for the family afterward...of course, it just wasn't the same without my grandmother.  There was no sweet tea (gasp!) and no brown and serve rolls.  My cousins and I weren't quite sure of what to make of that.  

After that quick trip--actually, we ended up staying about a week and a half to make the most out of the expensive airline tickets--we made it safely back to Texas (and it was an uneventful trip back...unlike the trip TO Alabama).  Hallie spent lots of time with RahRah the following week so I could get my classroom ready.  And then Hallie and I both started school.  

Whew.  That was July and the first part of August.  I have more to share...but at least I have all that out of the way. :o)

Here are some of the pictures I took during our trip to Alabama.  

To School, To School

Our sweet little Hallie has officially started to school.  Yep...our little three year old is in the Pre K3 class at Texas Christian Academy.  She has been SO ready to start to school ever since we went for our initial visit last February!  All summer Hallie talked about going to "big girl school".  She went to sleep excited about school and she woke up excited about school!  The pictures at home were exciting...the pictures outside her school were great.  When we got inside, she began to feel a little uneasy.  Then when we stopped outside her classroom door for a quick picture, she really was unsure.  

Once we went in, she wasn't very quick to open up to her teacher or her new classmates.  In fact, after a quick picture with her teacher (I didn't post because BOTH their eyes were closed--argh!) and giving her teacher a little first day of school gift, she held onto Jonathan or me for dear life!  And oh the tears!  It broke our heart.  And we both knew we just needed to leave, but it was so incredibly hard!  Thankfully, I have teacher in-service this week, so I was able to take Hallie to school the first day with Jonathan.  To say she was scared would be an understatement.  Bless her sweet heart. :o(  

Her first day was an Early Release day, so I made sure to have something happy in hand when I picked Hallie up--Chick-fil-A nuggies and a "banilla" milkshake. :o)  And Hallie had a wonderful first day of school!  She couldn't stop talking about it!  We took her to Cheddar's (one of her favorite places) for a celebratory supper...we were all talking and the little princess raised her hand for a turn to chat.  How stinking cute! :o)

Oh, and Hallie's teacher's name is Mrs. Lovecky...and it's not pronounced as you might think.  It's "Luh-vet-skee".  So to hear Hallie say her teacher's name is just too cute..."Mrs.  Wa-bet-skee". :o)  Love her!!

Our little girl, ready for school!

Milkshake...yum! :o)

Hallie got a hand stamp for staying on "green" all day! :o)

Great behavior for our little girl.  Yay!

Some wonderful goodies from Nonna--balloons, a stuffed lion, and Kit Kats!

Jesus Loves Me

Turn up the volume. Her soft, sweet voice is kind of hard to hear. :o)

Happy Birthday, Pop!!

Happy Happy Birthday, Pop!  We love you VERY much!  Wish we were there celebrating with you!  Hope you have a wonderful day!!

Mawmaw (Dad's mom), Pop, and Hallie

Pop & Hallie at the Mississippi River

Happy Birthday, Gramps!!

Happy Happy Birthday, Gramps!  We love you VERY much!

Now...a funny story about Gramps's birthday:

We were eating supper on the river, celebrating Gramps's birthday--he turned 60 today!  Jonathan was telling Hallie that Gramps would be 60...and tried to get her to count to 60.  She counted along with him until a little past 20...then she didn't know the numbers.  Jonathan counted super fast and then "out of breath" said, "SIXTY!"  Hallie was wide-eyed and said, "Whoa!!"  She was impressed.  Later, Jonathan was simply trying to get Hallie to SAY the number 60.  This is how it went:

Jonathan:  Hallie, say "sixty".

Hallie:  One, two, three...(loud sigh)

Jonathan:  No, Hallie...just SAY "sixty"...just say the number.

Hallie:  One, two, three, four, five...(head rolls, loud sigh)...I can't!  I'll be too tired!"

We all got a good laugh out of that! :o)

Happy 60th, Gramps!  Isn't it nice to know you're a number that makes Hallie tired. ;o)