CHRISTMAS

I know, I know...

it's almost the end of January and it's just not that exciting to see month old Christmas pictures.

But I feel I need it on record so I'm just going to hit the highlights.

The girls sat with Santa. Lillianna reported she wanted, "a Ariel dollie, a stroller, and a wand." Check. check. check.

The rode the merry-go-round. Not a traditional Christmas moment...just a cute one.

We celebrated with friends...here Lillianna and bibby show off their gifts to eachother. They just happen to get eachtoher the same thing!

Ellenie and Virginia show off their beauty.

We also celebrated with all of our precious little friends in Decatur. Here's just a few of the 18!

We had so much fun!

Christmas before Christmas in Birmingham with Sue-Sue, Pops, Jean-Jean, Aunt Ashley,

Uncle T, Aunt Lesley, and Cousin Kylen.

I wish I could kiss you everyday sweet boy.

My most favorite moment of Christmas...when Lillianna talked with Santa on the phone on Christmas Eve. Can't you just see the wonder in her face?

Christmas morning at the Lakehouse in Kentucky.

"Santa ate all the brownies!" (We forgot to bring the cookies to Kentucky!)

The Marvelous Millers came to celebrate too! Bentley looked so handsome and handy in his new tool belt.

Ella showed the other girls how to make a funny face with an apple slice.

Overall, a very happy Christmas!

A very, very sweet one too!

Connor Hayes Yezerski

Dear Connor,

Welcome to the world sweet nephew! I was so honored to be there...to hear your first cry and see your Mom and Dad melt with pride, excitement, and love when they first saw you.

What an incredible moment.

You are going to have a wonderful life my dear. Full of family, friends, laughter, music, teeth (your dad is a dentist), and lots of jokes (your Mom (thinks she) is a comedian).

You also have lots of Aunts, Uncles, and cousins who can't wait to get their hands on you and teach you the ways of the world. Lillianna couldn't wait and saw you when you not even a day old! We stopped on Christmas eve on our way to Kentucky so she could hold you.
Thank you for being so patient with her.

You do have 2 male cousins but you also have 5 female cousins so get ready to play your part in the next tea party. It's a loud, fun, crazy bunch when they are all together and I know you'll fit right in. Something tells me you are going to take center stage when you get big enough. I can't wait to be there and cheer you on!

I borrowed this picture from your Mom. I guess by now you know how special your parents are and how crazy they are about you. Your brother, Napolean, has had a little trouble sharing their love and their bed with you. But soon you will be big enough to play with him and love on him too. Just don't try and uncurl his tail...it's supposed to be like that.

I love you "Little Buddy" and wish you all the joy and peace and love your big life can hold.

love,

Aunt Carroll Lane

I don't know where to start....

I've never taken a break from this blog/family journal this long.

We just had so much going on I had to...but since so much happened I really want to catch up.

Let's see, in the last month...

We have a new nephew/ cousin!

We had a wonderful Christmas!

We moved to a new state.

We celebrated Ellenie's 1 st birthday.

We unpacked 167 boxes (okay, there are still atleast 30 in the garage)

We fought off the stomach bug.

We celebrated Brad's 30th!

We've tried to resume our old routines in our new surroundings.

Most of all, we've enjoyed our many blessings.

One of my favorite being that we all live under the same roof 7 days a week!

Whew. It makes Lillianna tired when I talk about it all at once.

So I'll try and catch up a day a time - just hitting the highlights.

Who knew wrapping paper could be so much fun?

Have you met my billy goat?

She won't eat pears, peaches, bananas, grapes, peas, carrots, beans, cheese, or yogurt.

But she will eat paper towels, wrapping paper, napkins, paper on straws, kleenex, junk mail envelopes, pew response cards, and her very favorite: toilet paper. She does prefer for it to be un-used. Thank goodness.

Oh Tannenbaum!

This past weekend, we went and got our Christmas tree.

We're pretty particular about which one...it's always the first tree Brad picks up.

So since we're only there a few minutes, I wanted to make the most of the "Christmas-y"

moment for Lillianna by introducing her a wonderful Christmas-y tradition she should always take part in...

Pelting your loved ones with snowballs.

Since we live in Alabama, she must learn to take advantage of such opportunities...who knows the next time she'll get to throw snow.

(A new shipment of trees from the North and they still had snow on them.)

Then we came home to decorate...
Ellenie was still in the snowball frame of mind.

Lillianna really enjoyed decorating the tree and was SO PROUD of ALL the apples she hung.

Got a few presents under the tree...looks like a few more are in the curtain....

Oh, just want I always wanted!



L: Since it's Christmas, I'm feeling like sharing.
E: W-w-w-w-what?!


E: Whew. Decorating the tree is very hard work.

L: You can say that again.

E: Decorating the tree is very hard work.

Yep. This was the scene a little after 11 pm last night.

I took a pic for Lillianna to see...she loved the story even though she was sad to see the tree bare and against the wall this morning.

Merry Christmas!

Giving Thanks

I AM THANKFUL...

for

blocks, ballet, boo-boos, bugs,

the minutes, the moments, the miracles, the meltdowns,

the looks, love, laughter, and little feet,

the playing, pretending, pooping, praying, and picking up,

our talks, treasures, your tantrums, twirly dresses, and tucking in,

the falls, frowns, the feeding, finger prints,

our walks, the wiping, and even the whining,

the diapers, diapers, diapers,

silliness, sassiness, song singing, snuggles, and smiles,

kisses, ketchup stains, keeping up,and more kisses,

the crayons, chaos, cuddling,

I AM THANKFUL

for you,

and you,

the two of you together,

for ALL that you bring into my life...

I AM THANKFUL.

Tiny Tim Walks!

Though she had taken a few steps here and there, Friday Nov. 20th was the big day.

The Concentration....she actually is alot more steady when her mind is on something else. Like this Thomas the Train Collector card her big sis would be furious to know she had.

ArrrMom! Quit taking pictures of me!

Thumbs up!

I'm cool, I'm rad, I'm hip, I'm so big!