Happy 8th Birthday, Bailey!!

We celebrated Bailey's birthday all weekend, culminating with her party today. We always like to do something a little different, so Bailey invited a few of her friends to see the new movie, "The Tale of Despereaux," at the Regal Riviera downtown. After the movie, we walked to the new Marble Slab on Market Square for ice cream. The whole thing came together without a hitch, and I was really sweatin' it! The kids were super-sweet during the movie and they traveled well to get ice cream. Bailey got to open her presents after finishing her ice cream and she got so many neat things! The hit of the party was Andrew's present, the Wild Time Pin Print! It was a hoot - every kid wanted a turn with that thing.


For her pre-birthday dinner, we went to Wasabi with Sam & Sarah and had a blast. Then, the dads and kids came back to our house to play Wii and the moms took off for the mall - a place Jennifer and I should never be allowed to go without supervision!! We had a great time - it was a wonderful break from the holiday craziness. Bailey's 8th birthday turned out to be a lot of fun for all of us!!! Yea, and I'm off the hook for a whole year!!!!!

Merry Christmas to All!

We had the most wonderful Christmas season! We were so blessed to be able to spend time with family and friends. We started new traditions while keeping the old ones - we went on a Victorian home tour, walked in the Fountain City Christmas Parade with Bailey's Brownie Troop, went to the Downtown Christmas parade (and almost froze to death!!), had a cookout with friends on an especially warm (then rainy!) night, went to church on Christmas Eve with Grammy & Pops at our church where Bailey was an angel in the nativity pageant, enjoyed a delicious lunch with Chris's family in Crab Orchard, TN, delivered cookies on Christmas Eve to people who had to work, enjoyed a country Christmas at Dollywood, bought a cool bicycle and helmet for a boy who was part of the Angel Tree program, enjoyed another delicious meal with our Sunday School class at Calhoun's, and many, many other fun and special activities.

We are so thankful that our families are healthy this year and so are we. Chris's work hours are crazy but we are so thankful for his job. We made an extra special effort this year to keep Christ in Christmas, to not get caught up in the craziness that the season often brings and the little details that are often so unimportant. And, as I'm writing this on Christmas night, feeling calm and serene, I think our Christmas was as close to perfect as it could possibly be.

Love and blessings in the new year,

Angela

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!

Today, Bailey & I delivered a few treats to the teachers and staff at school so, of course, Bailey had to wear a Santa hat and the cute little Santa shirt I found yesterday!! We felt like elves going to the classes and offices leaving goodies! It reminds me of when I was young and Daddy & I would "play Santa" and deliver gifts to our friends. That is one of my very best memories and I hope Bailey will always have good Christmas memories, too!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had the best Thanksgiving!! We slept in and then cooked for my parents. Chris fixed his famous and delicious country ham and mom made my favorite cornbread dressing casserole. I made a pumpkin spice cake with caramel sauce that was to die for!! So basically, we ate all day and then had to walk it off at the Fantasy of Trees. It was so great! I am always amazed that the trees are more and more amazing every year. The brown and turquoise one was my favorite! IT WAS BEAUTIFUL! Bailey had such a good time, too! She rode a spinny ride and did crafts and loved all the gingerbread houses. Her school tree was really neat! The theme was recycling, which sounds kind of dull, but it turned out to be a fantastic tree! There was a huge lighted globe on top and lots of super-cute ornaments that the kids helped make. We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too!

Rocky Hill Rodeo

Holy cow! I have never seen a school raise money like Rocky Hill Elementary School! We've been to their Rodeo two years in a row and it is always WILD! There are dozens of cool baskets for auction and activities like this year's bucking bronco and bungee run that "encourage" parents to willingly fork over lots of $$ for tickets and chances to win big prizes. Last year's grand prize was two tickets to see Hannah Montana at $5 per chance (sadly we didn't win!) and this year, they gave away a Wii and other cool stuff. Bailey and Regan rode the bronco, Bailey a little more reluctantly than Regan! But, as usual, I got some good pictures . . .

The Cheetah Girls Concert

Bailey and I had such a blast at the Cheetah Girls concert!! We had AMAZING seats - 17th row on the center aisle! I think I had a better time than Bailey, but she really loved dancing her heart out. I believe she wanted to be "discovered!" I took a ton of pictures because the camera did so well! This was our first concert together and I can't wait to take her to more and more as she gets older - if she'll let me!

Who's that girl?!?

She's a Spanish dancer, of course! Halloween was great! We met Grammy and Pops for dinner at the Downtown Grill and then took Bailey trick-or-treating on Market Square. She flew from store to store and slowed down only when she saw the sword fighting. The little treaters could "fight" the professionals with fake swords and Bailey tried her best to beat the crap out of a grown man. A proud moment for all of us! After Phase 1 of trick-or-treating, we headed to Bailey's friend, Austin's neighborhood, and I thought she was going to come unhinged. Phase 2 yielded a ton of candy, which is just about gone now. Good times!

Our Fall Break Adventure!

We had so much fun on our recent trip to Asheville, NC, and Greenville, SC! Fall Break is our very favorite time to travel and it was even better because the weather was amazing and the colors were beautiful! We went to Asheville first and walked around downtown - there are so many neat shops - and ate at one of our favorite restaurants, Carmel's. Chris had a steak he loved and I had the best shrimp scampi ever!! Bailey had root beer so she was happy! It's a very nice restaurant but also family-friendly and always delicious. The next day, we had brunch at Tupelo Honey (another local favorite - try the grits cakes - YUMMY!!) and hit some of the shops that were closed the night before. To be so young, Bailey absolutely LOVES going into every shop there is! Chris found out that there was an REI store not too far away so we set out to find it and it was truly amazing! Even I was impressed! Once Bailey & I had seen all the camping equipment we could stand, we checked out the other shops in this new center and that's when Chris went CRAZY!! Apparently, he bought one of everything they had! He was in his glory! After an exciting shopping spree ;) we went to Greenville, SC. Our first stop was at Furman University, where I went to school from 1989-1990. We haven't been back since then and it was amazing to see how it had changed, but also how familiar it was! We drove around the campus and then headed to our hotel downtown. We walked our legs off and then ate at a restaurant called Smoke on the Water. Yum! The best crab cakes I've ever had! Greenville has a wonderful downtown area - lots and lots of shops and restaurants and a beautiful park with a really cool suspension bridge. The next day, we had breakfast and then rode our bikes through downtown. It was AWESOME!! The weather was cool and sunny, and Bailey was a pro on her bike. So was I! I just "learned" to ride again not too long ago, so it's exciting when we can ride together as a family. We shopped along the way and checked out the park again. If you're ever in Greenville, be sure to check out The Cook's Station - it's one of the prettiest cooking stores I have ever been to. After a wonderful morning downtown, we headed back to Furman to check out the Southern Living Green House, an eco-friendly abode that is just too beautiful for words (http://www.furmancliffscottage.com/). After our tour, we rode around the lake at Furman and took lots of pictures at the famous Bell Tower. The urban legend is that the person you kiss under the Bell Tower is the person you'll marry and, in our case, it's true! Furman really is one of the prettiest college campuses in America and we were so lucky to be able to visit on an especially glorious fall day! I can't wait to go back to Greenville - it might just be my new favorite city!! Enjoy all the pictures!

Hurray for Dollywood

OK, so I blinked this week and the weather was cooler - YEA!! FINALLY!! So today turned out to be the perfect day to go to Dollywood for the Harvest Festival. We started our adventure at Starbucks (of course!) and then headed on up to Smokey Mountain Knife Works. It was recently remodeled and it is HUGE!! Bailey was in her glory. She loves anything that Chris loves, and Chris LOVES knives, swords, practically everything sharp and metal! So we killed enough time there to let traffic thin out so we could actually get to Dollywood. The decorations were so beautiful. I have never met a pumpkin that didn't inspire me!! There were lots of colorful displays and we took Bailey's picture next to all of them! Bailey & Chris shared a GIANT turkey leg for lunch and I had homemade biscuits and warm apple butter. YUM!! Then, we had the obligatory frozen lemonade and went on our merry way. It was a great day!

Autumn in Townsend

Since Chris was in Kentucky this weekend, I decided to take advantage of this most glorious fall day and go to Townsend, TN, to look around the shops and take some pictures of Bailey with all the beautiful pumpkin displays. It was way too hot for this sweater, but she looked so cute in it and it photographed amazingly well! We had a great time! Bailey fell in love with a pair of reading glasses she found at one of the stores and I think she looks like Sarah Palin in them!! When I took her picture, I told her to say, "I want to be Vice-President" and "I'm from Alaska!" After shopping and checking out the Visitors Center, we went to eat at Deadbeat Pete's, a very interesting little hole in the wall by the river. We ate outside and it was so peaceful. The walls at Pete's are covered in "decorated" $1 and $2 bills and Bailey had to add one of her own creations. It was so much fun! We had a great day!

Have a great week!

Race for the Cure 2008

Today was the Race for the Cure and Bailey & I walked with friends from church in honor of our friend, Ashley, who's been battling breast cancer for about a year. We had a great turnout from our Circle. There were more than 11,000 people registered for the race and it was just AMAZING to be part of something so huge and such an important cause. Bailey did GREAT! She walked the entire 5K - she looked so cute with her CamelBack backpack on. It's the coolest thing - a backpack with a container for water and a "straw" so she could drink the whole time. I took lots of pictures today - the best ones were of our group praying and putting our hands on Ashley. It was so emotional and meaningful. We just had so much fun supporting a cause that is near and dear to our hearts. Have a great weekend!