Thanksgiving

Once again the family Thanksgiving was held at our house. What a fun time we had! I love getting in the kitchen and cooking, especially for a crowd :) The fun began on Wednesday, when Debbie and Bill came over. They stayed with us through Saturday so Claire could enjoy some quality Grammy and Grandaddy time. Thursday was the big day, followed by shopping all day Friday, and a girls' day out, complete with tea, on Saturday. I love the holidays and my family!!

Watching the parade with Grammy

Lee and I preparing the turkey for frying...

Claire enjoying the fruits of our labor!

Daddy enjoyed his meal.....and so did 'Lamby'

(You know I had to put it on here)

Claire and Grammy at the Sugarplums Tea Room

Claire was more interested in Grammy's camera than anything!

What a fancy grilled cheese and goldfish!!

Mama and Gretchen

The beautiful table for tea

Too much sports...

You can tell she is her father's daughter....

Kids ii Nite Out and Yogurt

This weekend was full of fun! On Saturday, while Lee was watching the Dawgs whoop up on Auburn, I enjoyed a night out with Gretchen. I love any excuse to get dressed up! It was the 40th anniversary of her company, 'Kids II'. The big celebration was held at Opera in Atlanta. We had a blast! The food was yummy and the atmosphere was great.

All dressed up and ready to go!

Claire wanted in on the picture, too!

On another exciting note, Claire has begun to feed herself with a spoon. Now, I use the term 'feed' loosely, as I'm not sure exactly how much food actually makes it into her stomach. But nonetheless, she tries very hard and has so much fun doing it! I captured a little of the fun she had with yogurt on Sunday. She's becoming so independent!!

Halloween!

This year Claire dressed up as a puppy. We thought it appropriate since she is so good at barking :) Since she's still so young, we decided to only visit a few houses on our street. So, we suited up and headed out in the rain to trick-or-treat. It was a lot of fun! Claire really enjoyed walking up and down the street and looking in the neighbors' houses. She only got a few pieces of candy, but since she doesn't eat it, that was plenty! Once the rain really started falling, we packed it in and headed indoors. I think she was ready to be rid of her hot, furry puppy suit. I can't wait until next year when she is really able to enjoy this tradition. I wonder what she'll be...hmmmmmm...

Getting ready to go

Putting on the collar

Taking a few practice laps in her costume around the dining room

About to take the leap off the driveway!

Visiting next door

Up the street we go!

When she walked, her tail wagged!!

NLWC Family Tailgate Party

Tonight was the New Life Worship Center "Family Tailgate Party". It was a blast! We enjoyed the music, the atmosphere, and most of all, the hayride!! Claire was a hit in her new 'GOOSE' jersey (thank you, Mary Ellen!). She loved running around and dancing. What fun!!

Dressed and ready to go!!

Daddy holding her tight during the hayride

Our Bulldog Family

Our Little Goose

Random Claire-ness!

I just thought you might enjoy a glimpse into what Claire is up to around the house these days...

Sporting her new robe...thanks Pam!

On her way to a meeting...

"Helping" mom fold the laundry....the underwear usually ends up on her head!

With mom and dad at the Apple Festival in Ellijay

All dressed up for church

She just finished singing into the microphone :)

Itsy Bitsy Spider with Madison

Friends

The Mechwart Family

We've had the privilege of seeing some of our dearest friends recently. We are very blessed with special people in our lives and it is truly an exciting time when we are able to visit with them! Last weekend we were invited over to the Mechwarts' house for a cookout. Not only were we going to see the Mechwart family, the Woods were coming with us. AND, as a super treat, the Goffs were stopping by on their way back from Florida! Candace (Jones) Goff is one of my dearest and best friends. We lived together for 4 years while in college and managed to remain close :) I wish I was able to see her more often, but at least we got this time to catch up. Her two beautiful girls, Brooklyn and Sydney, were fast friends with Claire. The 3 of them played very well together. We picked up right where we left off and talked almost non-stop the entire night. I miss her so badly!! While the wives entertained the little ones and watched some TV, the boys braved the frigid weather and went to the Cumming fair. Once they returned, the fun was over--HA! I mean, the night had to come to a close. We all said goodbyes with promises of keeping in touch more often, and headed in various directions toward home. What a great evening. Thank you, Lord, for wonderful friends!

Claire was raring to go!!

Brooklyn helping Claire with her drink

The wives holding down the fort

Claire and Sydney playing together

A-Visiting We Will Go!!

This week has been full of visits. We started off last weekend with a visit to Cousin Monica's house for her baby shower. Claire loved playing with Morgan and watching Monica open her gifts. She walked and walked and walked all over the place!

Claire watching from the comfort of Grammy's lap

Then on Monday we spent the day in Duluth. Lee and I had dentist appointments in the afternoon, so Claire and I decided to go over early to have lunch with Grammy and Grandaddy. After the dentist, we all went to visit Great-Grandaddy. Claire was a hit! All the residents of Plantation South loved playing with Claire and watching her run around. She explored every hallway and every door she could find. And she had lots of love for Great-Grandaddy, of course!

Taking a break from the action to catch a ride :)

Claire my little walker thief! Thanks, Gertrude!

Kisses for Great-Grandaddy

After our visit at Plantation South, we visited with our dear friends, the Gilliams. My, how baby Mikayla has grown!! Yet she still feels so tiny. It's hard to believe that Claire was that small--and that was only 18 months ago. Time flies. We enjoyed visiting at their house and then headed over to Frontera for a delicious Mexican dinner. It's great to have friends close by!

Claire is wondering what her daddy is doing with that other baby!!!

Claire's Laugh

This is a short clip of my favorite sound...Claire's laugh. She is blessed with a fun and silly Daddy that she finds so amusing! Enjoy!

Video Uploading

Well, I have finally figured out how to post videos to the blog!! Since Blogspot never would cooperate, I have to do it the hard way. Now I embed the videos straight from my Facebook page. So, if you're one of my Facebook friends, I'm sorry that these will all be duplicates! Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the videos. I'm sure I'll get busy posting new ones soon, now that I have it all figured out.

Claire's First Steps!

Here they are...Claire's first steps as they happened on September 5!! What an exciting moment. I'm such a proud mama!!

Dedicated.....or slightly insane???

Yesterday we had an adventure. Since I missed out on going to the UGA/South Carolina game a few weeks ago, Lee decided to surprise me with tickets to last night's game against ASU. I was so excited!!!!!...that is, until I saw the forecast. But, being an optimist, I thought, "it won't be that bad." HA!!!

"Looks good to me!"

After dropping Claire off to stay with Mom and Gretchen, we spent the morning at the PGA Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club. Lee had been given tickets by Humana, and we enjoyed watching Tiger putt a stones throw away from their air conditioned tent. Fun! I wish we had just been able to stay there all day :) But after the final pair finished their round (Tiger was in 2nd place), we headed for the shuttle bus line. After 45 minutes in line inside a tent, we emerged and could see the buses lined up!! Hooray!! Unfortunately, as soon as we were in the portion of the line that was outdoors, the bottom fell out of the clouds. I had brought an umbrella, so we were somewhat covered. Our feet and shoes were soaked, and by the time we reached our car, the rest of us was pretty wet as well. But, hey, we were on the way to see the Dawgs play!!

On the way to Athens we drove through some of the most torrential rain I've seen in a long time. Well, since last Monday anyway. It was awful. To make matters worse, every place we stopped to buy ponchos was completely sold out (thank you, 100 year flood). We finally found and bought ponchos at a Wal-Mart in Lawrenceville and headed to the monsoon between the hedges. To say that we got wet would be a hysterical understatement. But being the true, die-hard fans that we are, we were there from kickoff until the last second field goal that brought the 'W' to the Bulldogs. What a night!! As miserable and cold as I was, I had SO much fun. Lee and I laughed harder than we've laughed in a long time. It was as if we were dating again--bonding and acting like kids again. Of course I can't guarantee that I would feel the same way had the Dawgs lost :)

Cell phones, cell phones...

Claire is absolutely fascinated with cell phones. Well, she's actually fascinated with anything that has buttons. Since cell phones also light up and make cool noises, she is especially fond of them. Any time anyone has a cell phone in sight, she thinks that it should be hers. She loves to put it up to her ear (usually backwards) and chatter into it. The other day Mom stopped by after school to check on us. While here, Dad called her on her cell phone. Well, Claire wouldn't let her alone until she was allowed to talk to her Papa. We put Dad on speaker phone and Claire carried the phone around forever, just chattering to him. He would tell her to do things, like touch her nose, and she followed all of his commands. When it was time for him to go, he told her "bye, bye" and she held out the phone and waved at him. It was very cute! I'm afraid Lee and I might have a socialite on our hands--we better start pricing wireless plans now!!

Pointing at "mama" as Papa requested

She has very important things to say...

"Bye, Bye Papa!!"