October 24, 2010

For the past year we have been visiting Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church and have really enjoyed it and our church family. This past spring, we joined a Sunday School class for our age group and have become more involved. On October 24th, we decided to join the church and also have Claire baptised. It was a wonderful day and we're so glad to have found a welcoming place to worship. After the service, our families joined us at our house for a lasagna lunch and cake.

Waiting for Claire's baptism.

The Spradley Family

The Creel Family

Claire's cake....decorated by Grandma.

GO TIGERS!

Auburn Tigers that is. War Eagle! What a great football season we have had. 12-0 and headed to the National Championship. I sure would love for Santa to bring me 2 tickets to the game in Arizona. Even after all the allegations Cam has gone through this season.....our Auburn Family has stuck together and stayed positive. What a great team! Unfortunately, James and I only made it to one game this year....and who else but LSU. My mom & dad came in town and so generously got us 3 tickets which meant Claire was able to go too. The game was in Auburn and lots of fun....for us anyway! :-) We met up at our friends tailgate with Farrah & Jodie, and James' parents joined us too. What was great is that half the tailgate was for LSU and the other half for Auburn....so my parents weren't too outnumbered. So, obviously this is a very big/fun game for us and was also Claire's first big Auburn game. Last year she went to homecoming and only stayed for the first half, but there is no leaving early for this game. She was a trooper and did great. The first quarter was tough b/c she wanted to be held so she could see....and we almost had an entire drink spilt on us....but after a trip to the snack area for a snowball she was set. Somehow Claire also managed to fall asleep with a minute left in the game and stayed asleep all the way from the stadium to the tailgate even with all the cheering. She must have been one tired little girl. I'm so glad we went though and took Claire.....thanks mom for the tickets! And next year I hope we can make it to the plains for many more. I can't think of a better place to be on Saturdays during the fall.

Walking to the tailgate....War Eagle! Hey!

Our half orange & blue........purple & gold tailgate

A few family pics....thanks Farrah for taking these.

Grandpa, Grandma, James, Claire, Me, Paw Paw & Granny

Me & Farrah

Can you see him.....the eagle is about to fly.....I LOVE this part before the game.

Time to play football now!

Here come our tigers!
Celebrating with the student section after the victory!

Pumpkins!!

This year we took a family trip to Old Baker's Farm in Harpersville to pick out a pumpkin. They had a great pumpkin patch and lots of things for Claire to enjoy. We met up with our friends Whitney, Joey, Hayes & Tanner. First, we visited the animals in the petting zoo. Claire wouldn't get too close, but did touch a baby calf with Daddy. After the animals and Hayes' horseback ride, it was time to hop on the hayride out to the patch. What a great selection of pumpkins. We must have chosen the hottest day in October to go to the farm, but still managed to take our time picking out the 3 prettiest pumpkins. It was lots of fun!

Look.....chickens!

Petting the sweet baby calf.

Ready to pick out pumpkins.....

...until our tractor was hijacked. Apparently the day we went was "western day" and our ride was held up by the bad guys. Luckily the sheriff showed up just in time so we could be on our way. Claire was really confused when the robbers jumped on our trailer, but just watched in amazement.

Picking out the perfect pumpkin takes time.

Vegas Baby!

A few weeks ago, James had a work conference to attend in Vegas. As soon as I heard where he was going I thought this would be a great one for me to tag along! We booked our flights and were ready for fun! Granny/Paw Paw & Grandma/Grandpa kept Claire for us over the long weekend. Claire even went to Charleston to Aunt Debbie's while we were away. They celebrated Abigayle's 7th birthday and were all spoiled rotten. The girls went to see Disney Princess' on Ice for their birthdays. Grandma, Aunt Debbie, Abigayle & Claire went to the show and LOVED it. Claire has been talking about princesses ever since.

Meanwhile, we were in Vegas doing a little gambling, relaxing by the awesome Caesar's Palace pool, and seeing some pretty entertaining shows. Cirque de soleil was by far the best one! We saw the "O" show which was in water and were amazed. Jersey Boys was another night, and I think not too painful for James' first musical. The restaurants were all wonderful. We ate at Mesa (Bobby Flay's restaurant), this amazing chocolate restaurant, and at the top of the Eifel Tower. My favorite part may have been the fountain in front of the Bellagio. It was gorgeous and I loved watching the spraying water in sync with the music. I don't know when or if we'll ever make it back, but I'm glad we got to go once.

Princess Abigayle is 7!

Claire and Walter wait for Abby to get home from school to yell "Surprise"!

Happy Birthday to Abigayle!

Abby is the best.

Aunt Debbie & Claire waiting for Disney's Princess on Ice to get started. Unfortunately, we don't have any good pics of the skaters....but I heard they were great!

We make it to Caesar's Palace...the center of the action.

The city that never sleeps.

While James was in meetings all day (poor guy), I spent most of my time right here.

The pool was gorgeous!

Trip to Baton Rouge, Grandma's Birthday, and a hair cut

Shortly after Claire's birthday, we took a long weekend trip to Baton Rouge to visit family and celebrate my mom's birthday. We drove in late Friday night and decorated the kitchen for Grandma's "surprise" party. When she woke up Saturday morning, she couldn't believe it. We had a yummy breakfast and then hurried out the door for Claire's haircut. It's sad when I have to drive all the way to Baton Rouge to get Claire's haircut, but they don't have any fun kid haircut salons in Birmingham. I've decided that I may start doing it myself, since we were there all of 5 minutes. But Claire did great, and we cut off a couple of inches. When we got back, the surprises continued for Grandma with a yummy ice cream cake and presents. The ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins was adorable. It had miniature cones on top with different flavors, which we all loved. While Grandma & Grandpa went to the LSU game that night (West Virginia - which they won), we went to visit Ma Bessie, Aunt Bob & Uncle Johnny. We had a nice time visiting with family, and were so glad we made the trip.

Grandma's decorations above her chair in the kitchen.

Adorable Ice Cream Cake

Time to cut Claire's hair.....she was pretty mesmerized with the TV in front of her and stayed completely still.

One last pic of Grandpa's okra. He was so proud of his super size plants!

Birthday Girl

Here's one more picture of the Birthday girl on her actual birthday! She's wearing her Dora shirt from Grandma & Grandpa!

Claire is THREE!

On September 13, 2010 our sweet little girl turned 3! I can't believe how fast the time has gone and that she is such a little lady now. We had a great birthday celebration for her big day. My entire family came into town from Baton Rouge and Charleston, and Claire had a gymnastics party at Premier Gymnastics. The theme was "Dora" and we invited all of her friends and classmates. We have such wonderful family and friends that all came to help us celebrate Claire's birthday. The kids tumbled and played for an hour, and then we had snacks and cake. She had a wonderful time, and I highly recommend having a birthday party there...it was stress free and the kids loved it!

The birthday girl!

These 3 are ready to play

We love DORA

The parachute was lots of fun and the kids loved sending the balls flying everywhere.

We had a yummy cake from Edgar's with Dora on it.....it was delicious as always!

The Sunday after Claire's party was our church's fall festival. We went that afternoon and Claire got her face painted, ice cream, and a blow up doggie balloon. Grandpa enjoyed looking at some of the antique cars that were there too.

Grandma & Grandpa

Claire asked for her face to be painted as a princess....so we got flowers and glitter dust.

She's a very pretty princess.