Ryan's 8 & 1/2 Birthday

My Leap Year Sweetheart turned 8 & 1/2 this year. His parents came in for a long week-end and we had a great time celebrating this non-birthday. Here's Ryan and his mom getting ready to grill.

Ryan and his parents enjoying the food.

Group shot of the birthday boy with the family. Tessa had no interest in sitting at the table until we were ready to eat cake.

Once Tessa spotted the cake, she could not wait to have her piece. I think she was actually banging her fork on the table while impatiently waiting for us to sing to Daddy. And yes, we sang Happy Birthday twice because my camera died on the first round. Thank goodness my parents had their camera. Tessa was so cute helping Daddy blow out the candles, but she did not like the smoke. Good thing I didn't put the real number of candles on Daddy's cake - bonfire!

Time for presents! Most presents these days are for Tessa, no matter whose birthday it is. I'm afraid there is some adult assembly required with this one.

We love the new Dora tricycle! Notice Lil' Bear is in the basket and ready to go for a spin.

Happy Birthday Daddy, we love you!

Pump It Up Party

Our sweet little friend OK turned 3 and her party was at the very popular Pump It Up. Happy Birthday Princess!

Frank and Paula were in town so Ryan and his dad stayed home to start building our new swingset (check back later for pictures of the finished product). Paula and I took Tessa to the birthday party. Nanny Paula was a good sport and even went down the big slide with Tessa. Here they are at the very top.

That was fun!

Tessa loves the obstacle course. I noticed other kids her age actually climbing the rock walls. Amazing! My little darling would hold up her arms and ask to be carried. Wow, what a work-out for Momma.

This was a ploy to get the girls to sit still for the picture. "Tessa give her a hug. Awww!" Click goes the camera. Ha!!! I just realized my blog sounds like an episode of Diego.

Date Night

The men of our SS class decided to organize an after Valentine's date night. I have to say I was impressed. Catered dinner, a photographer, a talented live band and dancing. We had such a good time! Thanks guys and Vicki who helped them out!


Check out our band Take 3.

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

More Snow

It started snowing again on Friday afternoon. It took Ryan forever to make it home from work. We all know Southerners cannot drive in snow so the interstate was a mess. Not really believing that it would snow for more than five minutes, Tessa and I bundled up and played outside.

Of course, when Daddy finally made it home, he wanted to play in the snow too. Amazingly, it was still snowing - huge fluffy flakes.

We attempted snow angels but discovered snow ball fights were much more fun. Ryan managed to get a snowball down the back of my jeans which he and Tessa thought was hilarious.

When we woke up Saturday morning we were greeted by at least 5 inches of beautiful, powdery snow. We dug out the ski jackets and went out to play.

Our little family and our snow family.

Anabelle had a blast chasing snow balls up and down the hill. By afternoon, all the snow had melted but the memories will last a lifetime.

Geaux Saints

Daddy had a few friends over to watch the big game. My little socialite didn't want to be left out and used every delay tactic in the book before going to bed. It's hard to be strict when she's so cute!

Fast, fast, fast!

Tessa, Anabelle and I spend a lot of time walking on the path behind our house. Tessa loves to cruise by the ponds and look for ducks and geese. Usually we practice our numbers by counting the geese, and sometimes we feed them too. Other times Anabelle just chases the geese until they fly away honking indignantly. It's an entertaining way to get some fresh air and exercise.

One day, Tessa was fidgety and to distract her I started jogging with our big stroller. She loved it! From then on she always wanted to go fast, fast, fast! So, we recently invested in a jogging stroller. One child, three strollers! It's great and, as you can see by the huge smile, Tessa loves it. She's my little cheerleader and keeps me going when I get tired. "No slow Momma! Fast, fast fast!"

Snow!!!

The snowflakes started to fall just as I got home from working late last night. We took Tessa out on the deck to marvel at the fluffy snowflakes. She was ecstatic to see the snow.


Of course, here in the South, we get more ice than snow and by morning everything was frozen solid. For most of the day we stayed inside and played in front of the nice warm fire. After dinner it started snowing again so we bundled up and headed outside. Here's a picture of Tessa and Ryan catching snowflakes on their tongues.

Then it was time to wrap up the party and head inside for a warm bath. Snow is fun, but I'm glad it usually only happens once a year here.

Happy Half Birthday

We had an impromptu birthday celebration today. My sweet baby is officially two and a half years old. She has grown 2 1/4 inches and gained 3 pounds since her second birthday. This explains why we needed to graduate to size 3T. Her vocabulary has exploded during these past few weeks and I've noticed a dramatic increase in her attention span. She's more active than ever and really keeps me on my toes. Her smile lights up our lives.

Daddy was able to have lunch with us before his afternoon flight. We headed out to a new bbq restaurant. The bonus of this place is the free ice cream, a big hit with our little sweet tooth.

Gamma brought cake, presents and a huge singing balloon to Wednesday family dinner. Notice Tessa is actually wearing the birthday hat, whoo hoo!

As always, Tessa loves being the center of attention and I think Happy Birthday might be her current favorite song. So, here's another video of my wonderful singing.

An Irish Jig

For those of you that were disappointed when I didn't post the dancing videos from Christmas Eve.

Happy New Year at Hollywild

On New Year's we took Tessa to Hollywild. It's a crazy place where animals roam free and you can feed them right from your car. The park was still decorated for Christmas with millions of lights. After turning off the main road we pulled Tessa out of her carseat and she "drove" with Daddy. Of course, this was a huge thrill all by itself since I'm a major carseat Nazi.

Notice the look on Ryan's face, he had just washed, polished and waxed my car. And here we are driving through muddy fields inviting animals with horns to come right up to the windows.

We saw antelope, deer, zebras, ostriches, bison, cows and more.

It was all fun and games until the zebra tried to eat me and I screamed. Tessa was on my lap at the time so it totally scared her. I love animals and don't scare easily but with this guy all I could see was teeth.

At the end of the drive is a place where you can get out of the car and feed baby animals, roast marshmellows and drink hot chocolate.

After my dramatics in the car, we had to do a little zebra therapy. I showed Tessa that zebras are nothing to be afraid of. Notice this zebra is much smaller than the other one.