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surprise visitors






















At the end of last week I got a text from my mom that said "I might be in New York next week." Given that I get my lack of spontaneity from my mom, my mouth dropped open. After having her pour out all the details of needing to bring my brother and sister-in-law some furniture in New Jersey, she told me she was also bringing Mayce and McKay with her for a day in the Big Apple!

They arrived, took the city by storm, and now they're gone. I'm still pretty sad about that last part, but it was fun having them here for a quick trip and a fun time giving them a lightning fast 1-day overview tour of the must-see New York spots (American Girl, Build a Bear...of course)!

home.

I'm heading down south tonight to spend the weekend with my family and go to a friend's wedding in Birmingham tomorrow. I'm so excited for some R&R and warm weather. Have a great weekend!


five??!

I cannot believe this little girl is turning FIVE today. It seems like just yesterday I was hopping on a plane to Louisville on Thursday afternoon after my last class for the week to be in Kentucky when my sister was induced on Friday. (That same trip, my mom and I left Kentucky around 4am so that I could be back in time for my 11am class on Monday morning!?) This was one of my first times holding Abbey, and she was giving me the same look then that she gives me now...

Happy birthday Abbey!!!

cute kids at christmas

All of my Christmas pictures in Alabama wouldn't fit nicely into one post, so naturally I decided to split them up to make viewing easier. As I mentioned in my last post, we woke up at 5:30 am on Christmas morning so that we would have time to see what Santa brought, open presents, and eat breakfast before going to church. These pictures are from the post-Christmas-morning-madness! You can tell...as everyone is in their Sunday best.




 
  
Tate became quite the photog since I've last seen him! I'm not sure if it has more to do with the fact that he is 4 years old and wants to play with expensive, valuable things or if he really has a knack. I must admit, his pictures weren't half bad. I especially love the one below where I captured him focusing on taking the picture of his Gammaw and GG. It came out well (see below).


 
 
Since I was only home for the weekend, I only got to see my brother (and his family) who lives in Alabama. The rest of my siblings  - and nieces and nephews - weren't there yet, hence the reason for photos of only one set of families. Hopefully next Christmas we'll all be together again!

home for the holidays

I did a whirlwind trip home for the holidays. It was short and (very) sweet, but I would have liked for it to have been longer. Either way, I had such a good time spending Christmas Eve and Christmas day with my family! And as a special treat this year, my brother Brent and his family spent Christmas Eve at our house and Santa came and visited his kids there. It was fun waking up on Christmas morning (albeit, 5:30 am) with the kiddos because they could barely wait for Christmas to arrive.














Christmas morning:


 









And, I'll leave you with this face above. If that's not one excited kid on Christmas, I don't know what is!

another little patient


McKay went in for a small outpatient surgery today. I was thinking of her and praying for her this afternoon when I got a text with this adorable photo. Her dad said she sure was a brave patient! She looks like a beauty queen after surgery if you ask me... Glad she is ok!

new years day























Face-timing with Mom (and Maggie!...and dad, over in the background) because I was far away from home on New Years Day. (1,253 miles to be exact.) Holidays are hard because I'm so far away from home, but things like this sure do make it more bearable!

christmas dinner
































Nothing against my welcome-back-to-the-hustle&bustle Chirping Chicken dinner tonight, but I can't stop thinking about Christmas dinner leftovers. My brother deep fried a turkey for us this year, and before you go thinking about how unhealthy a "fried" turkey is, just taste one. And before you say you're a traditionalist and like oven-baked turkey more than anything, just taste one of these. I chose leftovers in place of Taco Casa for dinner last night because this turkey is that good. If you know me, you know that speaks volumes. Until next year, Christmas dinner...

photobooth faces

Thanks to this new app on my iphone (Popbooth Photo booth) two of my nieces and I had a lot of fun making photobooth faces during our down time over the holidays. I don't think I've ever seen McKay laugh so hard as when she saw Mayce's face in the top left photo. I must admit, Mayce's got some good faces. They've got skills.

a little visitor

This weekend I had a little visitor. Actually I had a few, but one especially tiny visitor. Abbey! My sister and Abbey came to New Jersey and New York for a few days. They were able to come to New York on Saturday and get a quick tour of the city. We fit in Shake Shack, Central Park, FAO Schwarz, and then they finished out with the Empire State Building, American Girl Doll store, and dinner. When I met up to say goodbye in Penn Station, they looked like they had survived a very long, fun (and tiring) day.

Don't mistake Abbey's lack-of-smile as not having fun. Pictures aren't her thing; she was having a blast!

Magic fairy dust in Abbey's hair at Alice's Tea Cup



She asked if she could take the leaf home!





Not amused by the man in gold. Even though his cane was make of sequins...

Checking out the seals at the Central Park Zoo.