Glasgow Christmas Parade

If ever there were a year to attend an evening Christmas parade, it was this one.  A daytime high of 65 degrees and a very mild night was perfect for our family to ring in the Christmas season at the Glasgow Christmas Parade. 

We walked to South Green Street, where we found our precious Italian neighbors, the Petucine's, waiting for the festivities to begin.

 Having never been to a night time Christmas parade, I really didn't know what to expect.  Turns out, I was so glad it was Hadley's first parade, because it was a magical experience.  While we were still waiting for the parade to begin, a man walked up and down the street handing out bags to collect all our candy. 

There was also a man selling cotton candy and glow-in-the-dark necklaces and light sabers.  I decided these people were hard core when it came to parades. Hadley was beside herself with anticipation over what was to come.  She really didn't understand what was going to happen, which made it even more fun. 

The floats were just beautiful.  Every vehicle in the parade was decked out in Christmas lights from top to bottom.  The Grinch and Shrek both made appearances.  The Grinch showed up first and Hadley darted for me as fast as she could.  When Shrek appeared later, she was slightly more prepared. 

Mr. Petucine helped Hadley get candy.  He would look ahead and see people coming, and say, "Hadley, Hadley, come here."  He helped her hold the bag,
which was as full if not fuller than it was for Halloween.

Hadley proudly commented that she did NOT want that candy to be used for her potty treats.  Potty treats that she doesn't even "need" anymore, I might add, but that we still just give her :)

At one point, the sheer excitement of everything caused Hadley to break out into dancing in the streets.  We laughed at her until our sides hurt!  We've never seen her ham it up like that in front of people she isn't super comfortable with.  Priceless!!

Sweet boy never made a peep through the whole parade.  And the bands were pretty loud!

The most highly anticipated parade guest......Santa Claus!!  What a perfect ending to a perfect parade.  So excited for the Christmas season!

Thanksgiving 2012

We are so thankful for our sweet turkey blessings this year.  Both of them!  Thanksgiving Day, 2012, was busy (as usual) but extra special, as it was our first Thanksgiving with baby Canaan.  First, we headed to Aunt Michelle, Uncle Mark, and Nathan's house, in Bowling Green, to celebrate with our White family.   Why do I look forward to the food for days ahead of time?

 Catching up with family is always so special.  The delicious food is just the icing on the cake.  Aunt Michelle is the hostess with the mostest.  Her house looked gorgeous. 

Sweet Canaan definitely got a little spoiled on Thursday.  He was held all.day.long. by various family members.  Then on Friday, the first time I tried to lay him down to do laundry or pick up the house, you can imagine what he did.  SCREAM!  Oh well, it was worth every minute of cuddle time!

We don't normally change clothes between our family get-togethers but Miss Hadley got pretty dirty at the White's Thanksgiving.  The 70 degree temps lured the kiddos outside to the trampoline and swingset for a few hours.  For supper, we headed to Auburn to eat with my mom's side of the family, the Hughes'.

My mom and dad, and Justin's mom and dad are EACH one of five or six children.  So we both have VERY large extended families.  I always thought that I wanted a large family, too, but when you don't get your start until age 30, that makes it a little more difficult.  I am thankful that God knows what is best for me!  All I know is that I'm am unbelievably thankful for the two I have been given.

Cousin's Amelia and Meredith got a little Canaan lovin' during our visit.  At the Hughes', we all have certain sections that we sit in to eat.  We gave ourselves those groups, by the way.  My group sits at the kitchen table, where all the food is and we are always in everyone else's way.  Well, Meredith and I are specifically because the desserts are right behind us.  We say our group is the group that likes to "catch up."  Which is totally code for gossip.  We sure have had LOTS of laughs at that table, over the years.  So much to be thankful for, this year!  One being precious family time.  Happy thanksgiving everyone!

Giving Thanks

Reflecting on what I'm thankful for:

 eternal salvation

 loving church

 wonderful husband

  precious daughter
newest addition to our family

close-knit family

good health

 cozy home

  stable jobs
sweet friendships

abundance of food
relaxing hobbies
basketball girls
students to invest in
great nation

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.  His love endures forever. 

Psalms 136:1 

I am so thankful that God's mercies are new every.single.morning.

Three Years Old

dress-up

big girl conversations

"readin' bout God and Jesus"

mommy with her baby dolls

stickers for pottying

little teacher playing "circle time"

pledge to the flag

singing non-stop

"Let's talk about...."

toys scattered all over the house

yellow roni....not blue

pantry playtime with paper products

hanging at practice with Daddy

biscuit and gravy girl

choosing panties from the panty drawer
"Five more minutes"


polka dot blankey love
bedtime books
watching "toons"
protective big sister

Happy three years to our sweetest girl!

Two Months

I really don't know if there are enough words to describe how ridiculously sweet our precious Canaan is.  To say that he is a blessing would be a major understatement.  People take one look at him and say, "He looks just like his Daddy!"  His personality is really starting to develop.  He grins from ear to ear when people talk to him and he coos up a storm.  We say, "Canaan, are you goooood?"  After working his little mouth for a few minutes, he manages to repeat "gooooood" over and over.  He gets so excited when someone talks to him that he starts to wildly kick his little feet. He loves his pacifier, as it seems to bring him great comfort during those sleepy times. 

He does throw us a curve-ball with his unpredictable schedule.  This is especially frustrating because I was a sleep training nut, with him, from day one when we got home from the hospital.  He gets so sleepy, by night time, that we cannot get him awake enough to drink more than 2-3 ounces of a bottle.  I blow on his head, change his diaper, tickle his cheeks and neck.  Nothing wakes him by then. And if we try to hold him off to make him "really" hungry, he ends up skipping a feeding which only comes back to bite us later.  So...we get up once in the night for a feeding, which he always falls asleep during as well.  

I think he's still adjusting to the noise and busy-ness of his daycare room, which he just started last week.  His very first week of daycare, a stomach bug swept through and knocked out 9 of the 10 babies, including our sweet newborn.  As if I wasn't already anxious enough about leaving such a small baby at daycare, right?  We are currently on night 7 of him sleeping in his carseat due to how congested he is.  We are using the nasal aspirator like crazy, but aren't seeing a big improvement yet.  Thankful that his 2 month checkup with his pediatrician is in just a few short days, needless to say.  He truly is a wonderful baby, though.  Looking at him makes my heart just melt.  How can you have only known someone for 2 months and be this totally in love?  Canaan Dale, I cannot wait to watch you grow.  Just not too fast, please!

Hadley's 3rd Birthday

Seventy degrees for a birthday party, in mid-November, is picture perfect for sure.  Hadley has been about all things Dora for quite some time.  Typically, I am not a fan of commercialized party themes.  However, I decided to have a good attitude and do the best I could to not see Dora's face every time I turned around, while still celebrating the cute explorer herself.  Honestly, the fact that Hadley was beside her soon-to-be three year old self with excitement made party planning so.much.fun. 

Everything started with her outfit (of course).  I didn't want a monogrammed t-shirt with Dora's head on it.  I realized that Hadley had an outfit with a monkey on it and decided to let that "symbolize" Boots.  The outfit was hot pink, orange, and brown so VOILA! the party colors were born.  That really made party planning a breeze from there. 

The teacher in me loves a good theme so we had Mexican finger foods in honor of Dora.  The adults had the option of taco soup, if they so desired. 

I was able to use the last of my beautiful hot pink knock-out roses to decorate in a few places.

My favorite part of the party planning was the adventure the kiddos would go on.  I got them orange backpacks and put a whistle, maraca, magnifying glass, and flashlight inside (gotta love Mighty Dollar).  We followed our map to the different stations and used one of the items from our backpacks each time.  At Creature Crossing, kids used their maracas to scare away the creatures while staying on the lilypads and not falling in the water. 

 Sand Trap Lake required whistles to scare away some varmits so that we could save the baby turtles buried in the sand. 

At Puzzle Point we used our magnifying glasses to put a puzzle together (poster sized coloring page of Dora and Boots mounted on foam board).

 

Rainbow Tunnel required a flashlight to help us see as we crawled through the boxes. 

 Finally, at Lollipop Forest, we picked up dum-dum suckers by the handfuls (thanks to  recent 50% off Halloween candy). 

After our adventure, we had cupcakes, cookies, and milk.  I had asked the lunch ladies, at school, if I could purchase strawberry (pink) and chocolate (brown) milk from the lunchroom.  For party favors, I bought orange and pink cups from the Dollar Store and put Dora snacks, a silly straw, bubbles, and either a Dora or Diego wallet.  A few kids stuck their maps in their wallets, which was cute. 

We had a wonderfully wild time celebrating with Hadley the Explorer!  Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Halloween on South Green

Trick or treating on South Green St., in Glasgow, is an experience in itself.  We are fortunate enough to live on a side street off of South Green so we can just walk to all the action.  A church on South Green has a huge cookout and, literally, tosses free aluminum foil wrapped hot dogs to anyone who wishes to partake.  Dr. Lessenberry creates his very own haunted house for anyone to walk through, for free.  He puts his tent up days in advance just for the anticipation to grow in the days leading up to Halloween.  Trick or treating is more of a social event for some people on South Green.  Many people just walk the streets and have no kids at all.  Yes, Halloween on South Green is in experience!

Hadley was a kitty cat and Canaan was a mouse.  My first experience trying to match the kid's Halloween costumes was actually quite painless.  I lucked out and found everything at Target at one time.  Canaan is difficult to "pose" at this point.  Hadley just isn't big enough yet to hold him up so pics with them are Canaan all laid back and Hadley practically laying down herself. 

As expected, this was Hadley's most fun Halloween yet.  She fully understood what she was going to be doing and couldn't wait to get all that candy!

Our kitty cat led the way, quite literally, sitting in the front of the double stroller.  She would hop out as Justin started to slow down at a new house. 

She doesn't run yet to get candy, as many older/bigger kids do.  She still hesitantly walked up to each house, holding Daddy's hand.  I told Justin that he'd better enjoy her hand holding now because it won't be long until she won't want to do that.  Sigh.... 

One house we visited was reealllly decked out in the Halloween spirit.  Or with spirits I should say.....

We were amazed that Hadley even walked up to this house considering the super scary undertaker, coffin, and tombstones.  Love these memories with my sweet family!  I wish that I had started my blog back when Hadley was a baby, but I'm working hard on letting that Mama-guilt go.  So just to make myself feel better, here's a quick glimpse back to Hadley's first two Halloween's.