Paw Paws Truck

My dad (Paw Paw) has been talking about giving Evelyn a ride in his truck since the day she was born. 

Evie, if you are a good girl, one day Paw Paw will take you for a ride in his big truck to go get ice cream he tells her.

It's a big loud redneck pickup truck with big wheels that I need a step stool to climb up in.  And it's fun!

Well on Thursday we had a few inches of snow.  More than I'm willing to drive in. I don't do snow.  I was stuck at work and the baby was stuck at the sitters.

Imagine his excitement at the suggestion of picking Evie and I both up and taking us home.

So Evelyn got her first ride in Paw Paws truck.  She would lift her head up and look out the window then turn around and grin at him.

Paw Paw was pretty happy himself.

I guess it was kinda like a good pre-birthday gift, huh dad?

Yea, you knew that was coming!  Happy birthday Dad!!

(I promise. No more speech bubbles for awhile...)

Ack, last weekend before Christmas!  It's crunch time!

Message from Evelyn...

Taryn is my best friend. Ever. 

(Taryn and I right as labor was starting.  See, I'm still smiling.)

She drove in from Tennessee to be with me my entire labor and delivery.  And she even held my leg back as I was pushing.  If that's not love I don't know what it.  We call Taryn "Aunt Taryn" now.  Neither Matt or I have sisters so she was happy to take the job as Evelyn's Aunt. Works out nicely and she loves little Evie so much.

And it's her birthday today!

We wanted to do something special for her - so I had this idea...

Except Evelyn A) would not hold still and B) wanted to eat the paper which she did successfully.

So I took it away from her.  Which made her mad and she cried and cried and cried.  And I got frustrated and gave up.

Should have done this in the first place....

Happy birthday Taryn!  Have a wonderful day... we love you!

Puppy Love

This is Puppy.

Puppy was a baby shower gift from our friends Paul and Amy.

It has recently become her favorite toy.

Chewing on it's arm, slobbering and gumming it's fur into wet mats. 

Smooshing her face into him when she is tired and eventually falling asleep with her arms wrapped around his soft bean bag body.

Puppy is a good pal though, he doesn't mind.

Happy 5 month birthday to my puppy lovin' little girl.





Finally... it's a Christmas tree...

Not just a pine growing in the middle of my living room.

Among the many holiday traditions my family shares, none pulls at the heartstrings as much as decorating the Christmas tree. And this weekend, we did just that.

Stringing the lights.  Hanging red ribbon bows from it's branches.  Lights reflecting off colored glass balls. Ornaments reminiscent of past years.  And a beautiful angel to top it off.

Nothing on our tree matches. I don't like themes. It's a hodge-podge of items we've made, collected, randomly purchased, and have been gifted over the years. This year we added a few new ornaments to the tree we found while shopping at a local garden shop.
















 A new-baby-ornament for Evelyn and the family ornament that has become a tradition with Matt and I.

And of course, Evelyn's first Christmas s'more hangs happily in the middle of tree.  It has become my favorite.

Digging through the ornaments is like dipping into the past.  We hold them up with comments of "remember when?" and "remember this?" They all come together to form a beautiful collage of our past and present Christmases.  I place the angel on the top of the tree and as Matt turns the lights on, Evelyn's eyes widen to her very first Christmas tree.

For the past 48 hours she has been fixated on the colors and lights, mouth hung open, drooling.  It's a beautiful picture.

And as much as I hate to think about it... there are only 11 shopping days until Christmas.  It makes me shutter.  I have so much to get done.  Where has December gone?

If you are still looking for something special for a woman in your life... a daughter, mother, wife, or maybe yourself for Christmas, I'd like you to check out Sharim Afnan Jewels on Etsy.

I love supporting small businesses and handmade items so featuring some of the products I use myself from Etsy seemed like the natural way to go.

Sharim is a talented artist that makes beautiful and quality beaded jewelry that would satisfy the most classic of taste. I personally own a beaded pearl bracelet from her Etsy shop that has been getting a lot of wear as it goes with most anything and the craftsmanship is such that Evelyn is able to pull, tug, and mouth on it without ruining it.

It's quickly becoming my favorite piece of jewelry. Each piece she creates is unique and beautiful. Head on over to Etsy and see what she has to offer!

Me? I'm going to head on over to my couch... Evelyn and I have some serious tree gazing to do.

It's the most busiest time of the year...

It's almost been a week since I've updated you on all of our holiday happenings but the truth is, their isn't that much that is really happening. I feel like we are constantly running but not getting anywhere. The tree still stands in the middle of the living room with not one ornament on it's branches. Evelyn's stocking, while hung by the fire, is still nameless and still has the tags hanging on it. I've only done about half of my Christmas shopping. Christmas cards are not done. And there are only 2 weeks left until Christmas.

Last weekend we bundled up and headed out to the tree farm to pick out our Christmas tree. The tree farm is about 3 minutes from where we live and is where occasionally my dad and I would go to find a Christmas tree.

Interestingly enough, it wasn't for the memories that my dad would take me to the tree farm, but rather because it was usually a week before Christmas by the time we would make our way out to find a tree and most of the tree lots were closed.

So we had no other choice than to chop our own amongst the slim pickings of leftovers. Regardless of the circumstances, tree shopping with my dad, while my brother stayed home and my mom sat in the car irritated that we brought her out in the cold against her will, are some of my fondest and most cherished memories.

By the time we made our way over the tree farm there was already about 2 inches of snow on the ground and it was still coming down. It was starting to get dark and we were the only ones making our way into the rows upon rows of frosted white pines.

It was surreal.

An hour or so of hide and seek amongst the pine smell and 30 frozen fingers and toes later, we found our tree.

The tree that will eventually adorn 1st Christmas ornaments and multicolored lights. The tree that we will sit around drinking hot chocolate and wrapping presents. The tree that on Christmas morning, Evelyn will open her very first present from Santa Claus.

The most perfect tree. Much taller and fuller than Matt had allowed of course.

Evelyn and I watched as he sawed our perfect tree down, complaining the whole time that it was a lot harder than it looked.

As we made our way to the car he asked why we couldn't have just picked one of the trees in their pre-cut lot. My reply... Memories of course.

Well the tree went up that night, and today Matt will rig the lights and we'll decorate. The first ornament I plan to put up?


(A wonderful surprise in the mail from our good friends Laura and Jake in Indiana.)

During this busiest time of the year we not only spend time making memories with family and friends, but in the case of last night, with co-workers as well. My husband's sales team went out for a Christmas dinner at the local Japanese steakhouse.

Good entertainment, a lot of great food...

a little Saki...

and a fully mesmerized baby...

The clanging of knives and flaming onion volcano's kept her occupied while we enjoyed a long overdue night out.

I wanted to say thank you for all the nice comments and emails I have received.  I really appreciate them.  Thanks to all those who've submitted blog name ideas!  There is still time to submit entries for a chance to win a  thirty-one bag. 

I will not be including a Christmas gift idea on this post as I have a few new Etsy friends I will be introducing you to starting this weekend.  They are very talented women and I can't wait for you to see their items!

For now, I'm going to take advantage of the down time and make this lovely bare tree even lovelier. Happy weekend!

Parades and Tooshie Balancing

Whether you are in NYC on Thanksgiving morning or a little town called Vinton in southwest Virginia on a cold December night… Christmas parades are a sure fire way to get yourself in the holiday spirit. Nothing screams straight-out-of-a-movie-scene-moment like crowding together on the curb of a downtown street while float after float, classic cars carrying pageant winners, Shriner's and clowns, high school marching bands, tap dancers, and baton twirlers make their way past you.

Kids scream to be thrown individually wrapped miniature candy canes and plead for their parents to buy them toys, glow sticks, cotton candy, and cartoon balloons from the men pushing the trolleys around on the sidewalk.  You know these trolleys, packed full of toys that are played with for 2 hours and then are buried in the bottom of the toy box for the next few years, that is, if they don't break first.

Radio stations drive by in their traveling studios providing this "A Christmas Story" style parade some festive theme music.

You half expect to see a group of kids with their faces smashed up against a glass window marveling at a Christmas display of trains and dolls plotting out their letters to Santa... except for kids now-a-days have Amazon Wish Lists that they blackberry email straight to the North Pole. 

And then there is always the one guy you know just had to have pulled the short curly fry...

At least he's smiling about it.

Despite the push for Christmas to become more commercialized and secular, our small town still thankfully displays manger scenes built in pull along trailers. Little's dressed as biblical characters sit within and walk along side shouting "Merry Christmas! God Bless" and "Jesus is the reason for the season!" to those who care to listen.

And when you think it can't get anymore perfect, just as a float full of cheerful itty bitties pass by singing "Silent Night," it begin to snow flurry.

Evelyn took it all in from her daddy's lap. 

The lights, the sounds, the other kids running around, the dogs with lopsided antler caps, the clowns.  She seemed to really enjoy it all despite the frigid temperatures.

She really liked this guy who was more than willing to entertain us and pose for the camera.

We hung around to catch a glimpse of Santa and headed home where we spent the rest of the night thawing out in front of the fireplace and watching Christmas movies.

And Evelyn impressed us all by deciding to sit up on her own. 

And while we are so proud of her, she is very much proud of herself, flashing silly grins when she lets go and balances on her own.

And before I introduce this posts Christmas gift idea, I'd like to say Happy Birthday to my aunt Kathy.  We celebrated yesterday by going out to eat with the family.  We hope you had a wonderful day! We love you!

And this posts item is for all those Lego lovers out there. 

My husband picked these up one day to build and put into Evie's room for the holidays.  My husband is Lego crazy and plans to instill this trait in our daughter.  These little Lego kits would make great inexpensive stocking-stuffers for the kids in the family... or the husbands that act like kids.  Find the tree, snowman,and other Christmas Lego kits by clicking the links below:

LEGO Christmas Tree

LEGO Snowman


We went out and bought our tree this weekend and went walkin' in a winter wonderland... but you'll have to wait to hear more about that next time. In the mean time, here's a sweet smile to keep your
heart warm in these chilly temperatures....

And don't forget about the giveaway going on now!  Click HERE for details!