Christmas with Nana and Pop

A few weeks before Christmas we headed up to Tennessee to visit with Jeff's family and celebrate Christmas. The ride up was NOT fun! Anderson was great and so was Lydia- right up until the last hour that is. She screamed the entire last hour of the car ride. It was rough. She actually cried so hard that she made herself throw- up. It was not pretty! I will be so glad when traveling (to the beach, to Jeff's parents, etc) isn't such an ordeal! This is just a hard age because you just can't reason with them and tell them- "Hey, we are almost there!"

Once we did get there though, Nana and Pop were there ready to spoil both kids for the weekend!

We had a great visit with Jeff's brother Scott and his wife Andrea and their children, Ethan and Anna.

Opening presents!

Feeding her new baby doll!

She LOVES this turtle from Jeff's parents!

Uncle Scotty getting some assistance from Miss Lydia!

Jeff's Parents

Anna got a new puppy and of course Anderson was in LOVE! That poor dog didn't get a seconds rest.

Hanging of the Greens...

Our church had a "Hanging of the Greens" Ceremony to kick- off the Advent season. The Wednesday night children's classes were asked to sing and her a story during the ceremony. Of course Jeff and I were nervous as a wreck- let's just say Anderson's track record for public performance is not stellar!

Well- he didn't disappoint! Someone thought it would be nice to light tiny little votive candles all along the banister- you know- right about eye level for a three year old. Then they decided to give them all a piece of hay while talking about Jesus in the manger. Now I don't know about you house, but at our house- Hay and fire are not a good combination...watch and learn!

I love how he slowly isolates himself and gets as close to the banister as he can before looking up right at us as if to think- "hmmm...can I do this before they can physically get to me?" I am pretty sure you can hear me in the background quietly saying- "no-no-no....." Luckily the teacher swoops in a blows out the candle before he had the chance to torch the place!

Neighborhood Party

Every year our neighborhood has a little Christmas party. They hire out a train that takes everyone for rides around the neighborhood and of course Santa makes an appearance. This year it was FREEZING outside, so we didn't stay out for too long, but both kids really enjoyed it!

Afterwards we came back home and enjoyed all of the outdoor decorations Jeff had put out that afternoon. I just love Christmas decorations!

Heelstretch anyone? Ha!!

Probably my all time favorite pick of her!

All lit up for the Holidays!

Just because I like their outfits! :-)

Breakfast with Santa

I was asked by the Junior League to donate my services this year for the photography for the "Breakfast with Santa" fundraiser. I've been in the League for several years now, so I was glad to do it and really had a great time getting to photograph so many friend's little ones! Just about every other shot I took that day involved a screaming child- some of them are just priceless shots...including this one-

Perhaps I am biased, but has there ever been a funnier Santa picture taken? I think not! The look on Anderson's face says "I am only doing this because they are making me!" The look on Lydia's face says "Why have you dropped me in the lap of the Exorcist?" I think I laughed for a solid 20 minutes afterwards!!

Jeff and I had to get into the shot to get one where Lydia didn't scream her head off!

Anderson with a couple of his best buds- John William and Hartley

Hartley and Libba- poor baby girl!

Davis and Piper
Kennedy and John William

The perks of having a photographer as your neighbor!

I set up a little mini- photo session at my studio for our friends and neighbors that we trick or treated with. It was so fun to get some cute pics of everyone all dressed up!

My precious peacock and muscled up Batman!

Henry the fisherman!

Hannah Faith as Scooby Doo complete with her daddy as Shaggy!

Farmer Jack and a precious little Lilly as Dorthy

Paul Phillip all snuggled up

All our sweet friends from our hood!

Amy snapped this quick shot of me. I didn't take my camera trick or treating since I had the kids by myself. I knew I wouldn't have time to snap away! Jeff was still in the bed with the stomach bug! That night after we got home I got it!

Halloween!!

Our Halloween festivities started on Thursday night with trick or treat on Sorority Row. This is a little tradition that we have done since Anderson was born, but I have to say this may have been our last year! It was just wayyy too crowded! We had to wait in huge lines for just a few tiny pieces of candy and unfortunately there were too many older, unsupervised kids jumping in line and just being annoying to really enjoy it. To top it off that night around 2:00am Anderson woke up throwing up. At first we thought maybe he just ate too much candy, but we quickly realized it was a nasty little stomach bug...Jeff had it Friday night, which resulted in me having to take the kids trick or treating on Halloween without him...and then that night I got it. My Dad and step-mother cam and got the kids to help us out. What was their reward you ask? oh yeah- they got it too! It was awful and left us ALL exhausted and feeling just plain bedridden for about 3 days! So I guess these pictures are of the calm before the storm! Ha!
I bought Lydia's Peacock costume online months ago. I saw a little girl in one in a picture last year and immediately searched for it online. I just had it in the back of the mind the whole time I was pregnant waiting to find out the sex of the baby. I just loved it on her and I can't tell you haow many people stopped and gasped at the serious cuteness!

Anderson was determined to be Batman this year! I was not too excited about it. I felt like he'll have years to be a super hero, but he is only this young once...can't we just do a little more of a baby type costume- a dragon, a pony, a giraffe, anything?? He was adamant about it, and I quickly came to the realization that not allowing him to wear what HE wanted would be robbing him of his joy. So I gave in and thoroughly enjoyed watching him "fly" about with his cape and flex his HUGE muscles! A big thanks to my mom who basically took apart his costume and re-made it. The smallest "muscle" batman was a size 4 which completely swallowed my lil guy! She altered it so he could wear it without tripping!

Anderson with all the ladies!

Have you ever seen tailfeathers so cute??

...and then after all of the chaos I got to stay up to make over 30 of these! I am the world's worst at over-scheduling and thinking I can do more than I really have time for. This was yet another time that my "project" eyes were bigger than the time frame I had to complete it. However- they were adorable little treats for the kids preschool classmates.