NOTICE!

Dear Jennifer @ Ranch Girl,
You have been so kind to follow my blog, check it regularly and comment faithfully. Being next door neighbors and all, I would LOVE to check out your blog. Unfortunately, it is for invited readers only and I am NOT on the list. Would you consider revising your list and adding me?
Sincerely,
A wanna be follower!

Long Live Hallmark!

Used to be my favorite kind of ornaments. They are great at filling space.

This one is Santa's Sweet Ride, displaying my husband's love for aviation.

This one keeps a watch on the tree for little peepers! It gives verbal warnings like "Step away from the tree, and No peeking" when one is too close to the tree or presents!

This celebrates our 1st Christmas as a married couple.

This one brings back the memory of Seth and I in the theater watching this movie. I was 8 months pregnant and we had to leave early because I thought I was going into labor!

Last, but not least, is Elvis. Yes Elvis. He sings to me with only the press of a button.

I have been a fan of Hallmark for many years. I LOVE shopping there. I must confess that I have not been much into their ornaments. I delighted in finding gift after gift after gift, but I passed by the ornament section. I never read through the wish book and kept all the ornaments I received in their box. Then, last year happened. I had my first child. We received a series of Baby's 1st Christmas ornaments and our 1st Our 1st Christmas Together ornament. Tucked in my mind was the thought of needing to get these ornaments, but I never purchased one. All of them were gifts! As I was decorating our tree, I carefully unpacked each ornament from its box and hung it on our tree. I found myself so excited to see what the next ornament was going to be! I couldn't wait to find the perfect spot on the tree for it to hang. Each one brought a smile to my face and graced my mind with a sweet memory. I LOVE these ornaments. I finally get what the fuss is all about. The more tranditional ornaments that I am usually attracted to, had no meaning attached to them. I hung them too, just as a matter of decorating. But when I broke out the Hallmark ornaments, my tree came to life! Instead of just being pretty, it's happy too. It's full of little treasures marking their way through my life. I am blessed!

What happens when you marry a computer nerd?

They hack into your system, see what you are working on and leave you a really sweet note!

Decorating with Charlie!

Fast as lightening to retrieve something that caught his eye!

He loved playing with these sprays and throwing them!

He thought it was so funny when he threw the sprays into the tree!

My husband has been struggling with some kind of head cold for a while. Instead of waiting for the weekend when he is so weary from the week, I wanted to honor him and haul all of the Christmas boxes in myself and begin the decorating. He really loves to rest on the weekends and we love to enjoy a big breakfast together as well. With a full Saturday planned, I thought it wise to go ahead with the decorating. Well, I had my hands full! Charlie thought it funny to take down what ornaments I put up and play with everything that was on the floor. I mean, he is a kid! After a while, he became bored with what I was working on and moved on to some of his toys. I was very productive then. Here's a glimpse of us decorating together!

A Tree for Charlie.

Santa surprised us all with a Christmas tree for Charlie last year. We smuggled it home with us to enjoy every year. Underneath the tree lies more Halmark goodies. This bear tells the Night Before Christmas. Charlie learned how to press that button too and we heard the story over and over and over!

Hallmark Lives On!

Interested.

More interested!

I've got the see what that is!

I can push the button!

I like it!

Aunt Melissa works very hard at funding a strong Hallmark tradition. I have always loved Hallmark. I began decorating for Christmas yesterday. I placed all the Hallmark goodies out on the table and floor and surrounding areas. Charlie has grown particularly interested in things that have buttons he can push. His 1st was a Hallmark goody for Halloween. He quickly caught on to this one yesterday. I have since unpacked more and he has really enjoyed them. Thank you Aunt Melissa for this memory!

Dinner Time!

Cuttin' up!

Praying for food that he likes!

Being sweet!

Charlie has always been a good eater. Praise God! I have found that he does not like black eyed peas though. I was in a picture taking mood yesterday. This is the mood Charlie was in for the better part of the day!

Chairs...

Not only does Charlie love to sit in this big chair, he also loves to stand on it, try to climb over it, climb all under it and now he loves to hold the 2 posts on the back and rock it! That's right: he tries to knock the thing over with him IN IT! So far, backing it against the table works. I know too soon, I will look over at him in this chair and he will be on the table. Do all little boys have this monkey character about them?

This little chair didn't capture Charlie's attention as long as I would have liked it to. He doesn't sit in it any more, you know, for sitting purposes. Instead, he gets in it and bails off into his bean bag!

Another view.

I thought this way a neat picture of the stained glass cross my Aunt Melissa made for me. I wish the whole cross would have fit in that little space, but it just didn't. You can see the other half on the corner of the secretary. In our church, our families are represented by crosses on a wall. I didn't have one, so Aunt Melissa made this for me. I fell so in love with it that I couldn't part from it. It adorns the window in the dining room.

Talkin' on the phone.

Charlie's new interest is talking on the phone. I have an ADORABLE message that I will ALWAYS treasure from him. I called my phone and gave him the house phone. After knowing when to strategically pull the phone away from him before he deleted the message he was leaving, I landed a precious memory! I just love listening to that message throughout my day, especially in his absence. The other night, Seth was talking on his phone. Charlie got the house phone and started talking on it. It was so cute! He was, as usual, in constant motion. He never paused for the cause! Isn't it so cute how he holds the phone?

Alabama Accent
From Montgomery, AL to Mrs. Montgomery

“Cooking isn't one of them.”

When I think of what makes a wife a “good” wife, being a good cook is high atop that list. I have listened to husbands talk about their wives having meals prepared for them in their absence. Oh how I wish I was one of those wives. I used to daydream about being married. I had visions of me wearing an apron, opening the door for my weary husband to walk through, as the smell of a home cooked meal surrounded us while we visited about our day. I would clean the table and serve him dessert as he reveled in the warmth of our home. I confess: I fall SHORT! Most of the time, Seth picks up dinner on his way home. Terrible, I know.
I have attempted to provide a home cooked meal on several occasions. Why is it that people remember most our biggest mess ups? When Maggie was much younger, I attempted to cook breakfast for her one morning. I began with grits. As I emptied the pot into her bowl, I noticed the bottom was completely burned. She did too and to this day whenever I try to cook for her, she reminds me of those grits! She repaid the favor when she lived here by cooking pancakes. I came home one day to a smoke filled house. Afraid of what I might say, she did not tell me what she had done. I examined the kitchen. A knob was broken off of the stove, a burner was missing and my trash can was full of burnt to a crisp pancakes. After laughing at the scene, she told me some of what happened. She caught the stove on fire! I am still not sure what happened to the knob or the burner, but they were never recovered. One would think this would bring ease to my grit situation, but I have still found no mercy with her. At least now I can remind her that I did not catch the stove on fire!
After becoming familiar with the fruits of my cooking labor, my husband and I decided that mealtimes should be a joint effort. We decide together if I am going to cook, if he is going to pick something up or if we are going to cook together. I keep hoping that one day, this talent will fall upon me. I look at my collection of aprons and wonder when they will actually be used. I share life with my son and know that he will need proper nourishment. Though I have many gifts, cooking isn't one of them.

Dustin' off memories.

If you click to enlarge this pic, you can see both of his molars too!

Playing with his new friend.

This is the look he has been giving EVERYONE lately!

Where she wrote a message to me!
It reads: To Katy My Darling
From Granny Who Loves You
What a treasure!

My great grandmother gave me this chair the year I graduated high school. I have used it as decoration in the past and retired it to the storage shed. I remembered it while shooting the children session and brought it back into the house. Charlie loves to sit in chairs now. He loves to sit in big, grown up chairs. I had to move him from Reba, to a dining room table chair, to Seth's computer chair while vacuuming yesterday. He preferred that I hold him the whole time, but that just couldn't be done:) So, I placed him in his own sized chair and he LOVED it.

Being ever faithful to the SSS, here is my weekly post!
I had so much fun shopping for my SSS exchange partner last week. I love Christmas. I love everything about Christmas! I love the decorations, the music, the smells, the wrapping, the food, time with family, etc. What I love more about Christmas than all of these things mentioned is that it reminds me of my first love: Jesus Christ. (I do not believe in being politically correct so turn your eyes if you're afraid of being offended.) It seems that society is taking a heavy shift to a "do whatever feels good" mode. Christmas is a feel good time of year. People are quick to embrace whatever makes them feel accepted. In doing so, we often deny the truth. The truth is. It just is. It doesn't matter what the world says: the truth is. It will prevail. People will learn one day that there is God, there is Jesus, there is Heaven and there is Hell. It is my fear that they will learn when it is too late. Christmas is a season of love. It represents the birth of true love: Jesus Christ. Satan is very clever to fill our lives with distractions. All the celebrations of Christmas can take away from its true meaning: the birth of Jesus. Am I close-minded to those who don't share my beliefs? Do I turn my back on someone who doesn't think the same way I do? No, I just know that they will discover the truth one day. I believe that I can have friendships with people who don't share my beliefs, and I do. We don't have to like every single thing about each other to like one another. We appreciate specific qualities the other possesses. Judgment belongs to God, not me. It is my responsibility to share the truth, but it isn't my responsibility to make others believe it. That is their choice. God is a God of love and I am called to love others. I may look at sin in my life and hate it, the sin, not me. Then I exchange the sin for the truth and remain in fellowship with God. I can still love the person, but not the sin. This is the heart and soul of who I am.

Children Session

I kept thinking how precious these girls are throughout this session. I loaded up a box of Christmas ornaments and a box of Christmas ribbon. I thought they would enjoy exploring these. I also brought along a couple of books. They were so excited to discover each thing I had for them. What was most amusing was that the younger one did everything EXACTLY as the oldest one did. It was adorable.