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.

Tennessee Excursion

We like to take a quick trip after Christmas each year. Our destination this year was the Smoky Mountains. The drive through North Carolina was gorgeous with snow still clinging to the trees.


We arrived in Pigeon Forge and laughed about how nothing had changed since my childhood.


They still sell pancake mix at the Old Grist Mill and the river is beautiful.

Then we caught the trolley to Dollywood. It's amazing how a 50c trolley ride can be the most exciting thing in the world to a child. We forgot the stroller but Tessa was in heaven being able to run free about the park. There's no slowing her down these days.

Tessa loves trains but she was a little impatient that this one took so long to get going. Had I realized we were going to sit at the station for fifteen long minutes, I would have waited to board with my squirmy toddler. But once the conductor blew the whistle and we started moving she was happy again.

And of course, there are the ever popular carousel rides. This child loves carousels and with short lines we were able to ride this one over and over again.

Part of the fun of Dollywood is that there are plenty of rides for little kids. Tessa had her first spinning tea cup ride. I thought this was particularly cute since she had just received a tea set for Christmas. I'm pretty sure she didn't make the connection between her tea parties and this ride, but I did and it made me smile.

Amazingly, Tessa was tall enough to go on the Ferris wheel too. I think Gampa and I were secretly hoping we would be turned away at the gate, we're both afraid of heights. Tessa loved the ride, little daredevil. I was doing pretty good until we stopped at the very top and she started wiggling! Whew, we were glad to get off that ride.

Dollywood has more than just rides. There's shopping, restaurants and live shows too. We found an Ireland store where Gamma and Gampa bought Tessa one more Christmas present. We ate pizza, corndogs, french fries and funnel cakes. All the amusement park must haves. We even managed to take in one show, Appalachian Singers. Tessa loved it and danced her little heart out.

Christmas Day

Christmas morning was so sweet with our precious baby girl. Tessa slept late and then snuggled in bed with us before we all headed downstairs to open presents.

Gamma and Gampa arrived with Nanie in time for brunch and more presents.

Tessa really didn't tear into her packages. She would easily get sidetracked with something like tissue paper, the dog, or a previously opened toy. It took us literally all day to open her presents. But the slow pace made for a nice and relaxing day.

Here she is hanging out with Gampa and Anabelle on the couch.

Probably my favorite gift was the trunk full of dress up clothes. It could be said that this gift is as much for me as it is for Tessa. We played dress up and Tessa modeled several of the new princess and fairy outfits by prancing up and down the "runway."



She was skeptical about the crowns at first so I demonstrated how fun it is to wear a tiara. She received all kinds of cool accessories, including Snow White's Mirror Mirror on the Wall.

Here we are cooking. Ryan was a big help in the kitchen, as always.

We planned our big meal around Tessa's nap schedule so we were all able to sit down and enjoy the food. She didn't wake up until long after we'd finished dessert. Then we had more presents!

We broke out the games and Ryan tried to bankrupt us all with Christmasopoly. Granny deeded me all of her property and Daddy and I made some sweet deals. After that, we called it quits and decided everybody wins.

It was a very merry Christmas!

Irish Christmas Eve

When Irish Eyes are Smilin'....

Christmas Eve is at my parent's house. Each year we choose a different country and it's traditions as a theme for the evening. This year was Ireland and we had such a good time. Here's my little darlin' all dressed in green for the holiday.

It helps that we have Irish ancestors, most of our menu came from my great-grandmother's cookbook. Beer stewed lamb, oysters, scalloped potatoes, soda biscuits, homemade fruitcake and of course the tea and coffee were "flavored" with whiskey. Great job Gamma, everything was delicious!

The boys look like they are about to head out to a pub.

Three genereations of girls, I believe the fourth is watching Mickey Mouse in the living room.

It is customary to clean the whole house for Christmas and give linens as gifts. I love my new linens. Maybe I'll get around to that cleaning by spring.

On Christmas Eve, the youngest girl lights a candle in the window to light the way for weary travelers like Mary and Joseph. Very smart Gamma, an electric candle so our toddler could be safe.

All decked out in her new flannel robe and nightgown.

We danced a couple of Irish jigs, and laughed and laughed. No, I will NOT be posting those videos. We also sang the Twelve Days of Christmas and talked about the true meaning of the song. During times of religious oppression, this popular carol was used to teach about Jesus, the real reason for the season. Merry Christmas Eve!

Christmas Pictures

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to all of our loved ones with December birthdays - Nanny, Aunt Heather, Nanie, Grandma Bobbie, Grace, Danny and Baby Jesus!

Gingerbread Houses

So I had this brilliant idea to make gingerbread houses with Tessa this Christmas season. Granted, I haven't done one of these in years, but I remembered it being a fun and relatively easy activity. Hhhhmmmm, fun and easy is defined differently when a toddler is involved.


I love the kit I bought, it came with five mini houses for my mini person to decorate. I assembled and iced the houses and divided the candy into little bowls. Then I let Tessa decorate the houses. (OK, honestly I totally helped.) It was very cute to watch her alternate between eating the candy and mushing it into the icing. I believe she has a mouthful of mini M&Ms in this picture.

By the time we were done the kitchen was a disaster, the floor was covered with candy and crumbs, Tessa looked like she had been tie dyed and I was a little stressed out. But it was fun and the finished houses are pretty cute.