Merry Christmas in TN!

http://portablenorthpole.tv/watch/95ec89f4442e4b633d988b64a18d0b93
Here's the message Santa sent Sydney.
Where to begin... We'll start with Christmas in November :)

Our Christmas festivities actually began in November with a visit from the C family from Louisiana (Trace's sis). They were here for Thanksgiving. While they were here we enjoyed Thanksgiving, complete with Turkey, lots of food and visitors from both sides of the family.

We also finished decorating the Christmas tree, went to the fantasy of trees with family and friends and opened some early gifts. Check out the adorable green/red outfit Syd wore to festival of trees. It was one of of her favorites as was her phone with a message on there from Uncle J. She mostly just loved the time with family and loads of attention. She learned to make lots more silly faces and sounds. D and S are in the pre-teen years and we enjoyed time with them. Kids are much different in various ages, so we got to learn what is important at that age. (The answer: Wii games, bottle cap necklaces, fun things to do).

Here's the link to the Festival of trees. If you haven't been, it's worth adding to your list of Knoxville Holiday must-do's. Sydney and her cousins decorated cookies, made ornaments, saw cool gingerbread houses, Santa, and much more. (http://www.etch.com/Fantasy.cfm). Rach, TJ, Koose and Kristy, we are so happy you guys came over to enjoy the day with us too! AND...Cindy & Jimmy celebrated their 10 year anniversary on this trip. Happy Anniversary! We love you guys.

Later in Dec, we got some SNOW in TN. There are lots of kiddos in our neighborhood, so they got to play and sled and make a snowman. By the time I got out there to take pics, some of the gang had gone in for hot chocolate. Here's a pic of the snowman the kids and nhood Dads made.

Some good friends of ours (and nbors) had a Holiday party for their kids at http://www.eventsatsherlake.com/. On another note, we hadn't ever been there before, but it's a great place to go if you are looking for a kids birthday party venue. We had a fabulous time and it was awesome to let the kids play and jump and burn off all that ENERGY and the adults got to see each other as well. We always end up seeing each other so much more when it's warmer outside. Here are some pics from that big day. As you may expect, she had a GREAT nap that day!

Also included a picture of Syd and Dora. Her love for Dora hasn't faded with time.

And...some videos. Enjoy

As this post is getting long (and I expect Syd will be awake from naptime soon), I'll post Christmas morning pics, Christmas in NC pics, more swimming pics and NYEve pics soon. Note to self, this is way easier to keep up with if you do it regularly.....

Making Cookies w/ Grandma Dotty

How cute is this?! So sweet....

This is from a trip to NC a few weeks ago. Mom watched Syd for a few hours while we enjoyed an evening out. It was great for everyone!

Louisiana Trip-Oct 09

In Oct, we flew to Louisiana to see family & friends. This is where T grew up and we haven't been there in about 3 years, so it was fun to see everyone! Syd jumped on the trampoline with her cousins, made cupcakes w/ her Aunt Cindy and Savannah, played with Lacy (the puppy), amused her Uncle Jimmy and lastly, saw the family do lots of new tricks. Her Uncle Bud even showed her how he can pull his finger off and take out his teeth. This one caused great laugher for the adults and serious confusion for Syd. You just never know what can happen in Louisiana.

Some explanation on the last picture.....as most of you know...we have good news! Syd thinks she needs to do everything her Mommy does, so "watching the new baby" was no exception. Check out the screen :). This is cute while she's 2, but be assured, it wouldn't be so funny in 15 years or so. She is now absolutely convinced there's a baby in her belly too. We'll work on those explanations in a few weeks.

Cute Pink Cast-Oct 09

So our little monkey is not invincible. A few weeks ago, she fell on the playground at school at had a small break in her arm. She selected a hot pink cast, of course. After she figured out she could still do most everything she wanted to do, she was ok. Her teachers at school told me she was still super-independent and the cast didn't slow her down at all. We all survived 3 weeks of more difficult bath routines!

Earrings!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pll9Ky0BTng

Sorry I haven't posted this until now, but Sydney got earrings after her second birthday. She was such a big girl. We had talked about it a few times then we decided we were ready to go, so....here we go. YES, the girls who pierced her ears did both ears at the exact same time and I highly recommend that if you are thinking about doing this for your little girl. There were 10 solid minutes of tears, but nothing a trip to Marble Slab couldn't take care of :)

Our little princess loves for people to compliment her earrings and always notices when other little girls (or people in general) have them pierced.

Pony Party for Eva

Syd's good friend, Eva, turned 3 a couple of weeks ago. She had a pony party and we had a blast. All the kids wore their best cowboy/cowgirl attire. We got to see some great friends that we don't see too often and the kids LOVED the pony rides! Here are some pics from the party.

Syd looked very cute in the cowgirl hat and pink cowboy boots. If you click on the link below, you'll see another incredibly cute kid in the same outfit :). It is actually Catherine's and she was nice enough to let us borrow it. THANKS again. It was seriously adorable :)

http://catherineandcarson.blogspot.com/2009/06/rabbit-and-pony.html

http://www.ponypartytn.com/party.html
Check out the cutie cowboy, Eden! The camera battery zonked out before we got a lot of pics, but Eva was adorable and we loved seeing baby Elizabeth again AND meeting baby West for the first time. Syd was also squeeling with excitement to see Allie, LeLe and B. We also loved seeing the grown ups too :)

Duck Races in Ktown

We enjoyed an afternoon at Volunteer Landing at the annual rubber duck race. http://www.knoxnews.com/photos/galleries/2009/aug/22/great-knoxville-rubber-duck-race/ Although our ducks didn't win, we had a great time watching them float down the river. Syd enjoyed the Kiddie activities (bounce houses and slides are always a sure crowd-pleaser).
She climbed up the big slide all by herself with no fear. Our baby is getting so big.

Visit with the Mills and a trip to Cades Cove and Congrats BECCA

Congrats Becca!!! You graduated and we are so proud of you. Good luck!
Last weekend, we were fortunate enough to get to spend some time with the M family. They live in DC and we don't see them often, so it was a real treat. THey were on their way to Alabama to see Becca graduate (again, GO Becca!). Syd enjoyed time with Katie. Can you tell Syd is excited?! Between the two of those girls, I'm not sure who has more energy. Syd loved it and it was great to have a moment with someone keeping my little busy body entertained. Sydney did all of her usual cute, smart kid tricks to keep them entertained--(cheerleading stunts, counting, singing the alphabet, etc).

The girls escaped for some girl time (sushi and shopping) and the boys did what boys do- enjoy sports. Given that Scott and Trace grew up together in Louisiana, they also had to make a pit stop for some Cajun food as well.
Over the weekend, we went to Cades Cove to enjoy the scenery and so what nature had to offer. It was beautiful. Sometimes you forget how pretty it is here.

On our short nature walk, we did see the signs noting that bears hang out there (in the woods), but we didn't really expect to see any. Needless to say, we were surprised when the hikers ahead of us told us to shhh and pointed to the baby bear just ahead. We watched with admiration, excitement and admittedly, a little fear! We were pretty close to this bear! And...being close to a bear in the wood is a little different than being close to a bear in a zoo, mostly because the wild strong animal is not in a cage. Anyway, it was certainly a highlight of the trip. The bear crossed the road in front of us and went to the other side to eat lunch and make bear surprises. We kept telling Sydney to "shhhhh" in hopes we wouldn't cause any bear concern. It was definitely a highlight of the trip! !

More posts coming soon. I have so many pics to download and so little time. Syd was a flower girl in a wedding a couple of weeks ago and went to a pony party the week before...again, more to blog on soon. Lauren- thanks for updating the cades cove pics on facebook