Family Portrait!

We recently went to see a very special portrait artist to have our family portrait drawn.  Well, Jake and Abigail were planning on going by themselves until I noticed what they were doing and I ran over to jump in. I was on the phone with my mom and just stopped talking to her and dropped the phone from my ear in all my excitement (I'm sure leaving her bewildered as to what happened to me). That might possibly explain the expression on my face..... I was very excited. And I will treasure this goofy picture for a long time!

Did you know that the pizza at Chuck E Cheese is very good? I was so surprised. Well, good for that kind of thing. Not greasy at all!

The way I've felt this year...

 

times 2... at least...

Local Man Is Master of Divinity, Has Paper to Prove It

29 year old Jacob Hanson, of Vestavia Hills, Alabama is now officially a Master of Divinity. He obtained this status upon his graduation from Beeson Divinity School in December of 2009, however, his diploma did not arrive until January 29th, 2010. Jacob was unavailable for comment but his wife, Charissa Hanson, almost 29 (!), also of Vestavia Hills, told us that they were surprised to get it in the mail that Friday. "I'm so proud of him!" she added, telling us that Jake worked several jobs all through seminary to provide for his family, making his study time last late into the night on many occasions. We were able to get a partial picture of this important document.

In other news...

A Vestavia Nap, who has recently had strained relations with it's three year old, has decided to call it quits. We attempted to contact Nap, but it left no phone or address when it left. The mother of the three year old, also almost 29 (!!), also of Vestavia, asked to remain nameless, but informed us that the three year old never did much like her Nap. "It has been a rocky relationship for quite a while" she said, teary eyed. "Oh, I expect every once in a while Nap will show up for old time's sake, but for the most part, it's gone. When I think back to all the good times we had with Nap around, it makes me sad. Real sad. To see it go like that, you know? After all I did to make sure Nap always felt comfortable here. I even tried to set a good example and occasionally invite my Nap over!" She noted that the three year old growing up too fast might be a possible reason why Nap felt it had to leave. Recently, in order to help the whole family cope with the change, the mother has introduced a new friend to her three year old, Personal Time. The three year old and Personal Time seem to be hitting it off great, but the mother laments that Personal Time doesn't last as long as Nap.

Three year old making cookies at Grandma's house.

These are a few of our favorite things

Abigail's current favorite toys, which makes them our favorite too. All of these she plays with at least once a day:

The Berry Cafe

Berry StylishPicnic in the Petals with Lemon Meringue

Strawberry Shortcake and all her tiny pieces made their way into Abigail's heart via the marketing genius, McDonalds. In the fall of 2009, Abigail's happy meal included a little Strawberry Shortcake stamp. Along with that stamp was a little 3" x 3" piece of paper with pictures of Strawberry Shortcake toys available for purchase elsewhere. After a close inspection of this little piece of paper, Abigail requested that we go and get it from the store immediately. When that didn't work, she asked, "Maybe tomorrow?" Despite never getting the toy, Abigail hung on to the piece of paper for months, always yearning for the toy, always inspecting the little picture intently when she happened by it. Come Christmas, we knew what Abigail wanted and sent the list on to Grandma. Lets just say, it made her day to open that gift and find the desire of her little heart! Don't even tell me this never happened to you as a child!
Picnic in the Park Bears with Brea, Piper and Apple

These tiny, sweet bears picnic with Strawberry Shortcake and Lemon Meringue quite frequently. Sometimes they try to trade umbrellas.


Melissa and Doug Farm Cube Puzzle

Abigail actually had this for over a year before she got really into it. Now she can and will do several of the puzzles by herself and is really proud of it. Most days we see the duckling and pig once or twice.


The Lion King figurine set.

Abigail's favorite color is orange. One of her favorite animals is Lions. One of her favorite movies is the Lion King. Which one it is that influences the other favorites, I don't know. But they are a marvelous combination, don't you think? It is very entertaining to listen to the conversations these guys have at our house.And last, but certainly not least, plush Simba

Forever Friend. Sidekick. Bedfellow. "My Simba!"

I love kids

Today Abigail was overcome by a tender moment and, leaning over to hug me, said, "Aw, mom- you're the best mom ever, I think." Wow. That was great. Makes up for all my past not-being-the-best-mom-ever moments. What were we doing? Well, having a special Dominos TV dinner, for one. She was said something silly to me and I said the same silly thing back to her. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was what put me in the best mom ever book. Unfortunately, unlike the book of life, I think the additions to this book are regularly taken out again by the people who put them in. While still hugging me, Abigail added, "And Daddy's the best daddy ever."

About a different matter Abigail later said to me, "But mom, I don't have my sad on now." In my mind's eye I briefly pictured a teenage Abigail who phrased her words like that on purpose. It made me hope I would always remember her sweet little face looking up at me, her little frame swallowed by a seemingly gigantic twin sized bed. What she meant was, "I'm not crying anymore." "Yes, Abigail" I said, "but it's bed time now, its later than you usually go to bed." She looked at the clock and, confusing digital and analog clocks, said, "It's eight o'clock? When it points to the "o" that means no?" I think she meant that eight o'clock was time to go to bed, but my child can not stand to be apart from the action, which makes going to bed seem like us telling her no. Don't worry, she can't tell time yet, but I'm impressed with what she has grasped so far!

White Christmas?

In Texas? Who would have thought?

The day before Christmas eve in the Dallas Fort Worth area, I was regretting having only packed my heavier clothes for forecasted 30s and 40s in Colorado (Where we would be headed after Christmas) and lighter winter clothes for the forecasted 60s in Texas. Why? Because it was 76 degrees and I was a little hot!

Have you ever heard the expression, "If you don't like the weather in ___ (insert which ever state the person is from), just wait five minutes!" The story is always accompanied by crazy weather stories to which the hearer feigns interest- not because they're not interested, but because they are thinking of the even crazier weather stories from the places they've lived. Well here is a story I'm adding to my list. The day after it was 76 degrees, on Christmas eve, it snowed! In the exact same spot it was 76 the day before! And it wasn't your normal, 'It snowed in Texas- there's an eighth of a centimeter on my car' kind of snow. This was a good blanketing snow that thoroughly excited me, made Jake sigh and Abigail pleasantly happy, not knowing how good of a thing she was getting. Over the next two days, we had an all out snowball fight with cousins, made snow angels, ate snow, and built a few snowpeople. Ahhhh... how nice.

(mid snow"ball" throw)

(Gramma checking out the view)



(decked out with her new umbrella. BTW- isn't the clarity of this picture awesome? This is thanks to the new lens that Jake and my mom got me. THANKS!)

The snow was almost totally gone on the day after Christmas, the day we were leaving for Colorado. Jake checked all the road conditions and even looked at live video of a few places along the way for our trip and everything looked good. Well, not too far out of Dallas Fort Worth, we hit snow and ice on the road. A lot of snow and ice. We're talking 2-3 inches of ice and everything covered in snow. We were going 10-15 mph and passed quite a few cars abandoned in the snow. It was a little crazy. There wasn't much we could do but follow the car in front of us and pray to get out of the ice safely. Two hours later, we did.

(this picture doesn't show the dramatic whole-road-covered-in-ice part.. but you can see a couple of abandoned vehicles!)

First Hair Cut!

We took Abigail to get her first haircut last Saturday! We decided to take her to one of those special kid places for her first time, so I found out about one, called and made an appointment. I was telling some friends we were going to take her there and they said, "Oh yeah, and she'll get glitter in her hair?" Uhhhh.... glitter? Suddenly, I wasn't as excited. The store is called Sweet and Sassy, it is a chain started in Texas and does parties and other such things but also has a salon side. They market to little girls who like to dress up and do make up and hair, but claim that they don't want them to look like mini-adults and instead are more age appropriate. When we walked in on Saturday, sure enough, two little girls around 6 and 8 were coming out with fresh hair cuts and glitter in their hair. Thankfully, Abigail did not notice because there were plenty of princess things and candy to look at. I asked for a no-glitter cut and was relieved to see a normal looking salon section (shaped and colored fun though). Abigail had her hair washed and cut and dried. We barely got a smile out of her the whole time because she was self-conscious and a little nervous, but she enjoyed it and got to watch a party that was going on (the girls were all dressed up and dancing and having their hair put up). Here are our pictures!

(holding on for dear life)

(how she tries to not put her fingers in her mouth)


We forgot to get a picture there, but here is what her hair looks like! Can you tell a difference?