Thanksgiving

Crete, Santa, Emily, Gray, Liz, and Emmie

Terry and Crete

Betsy, Bethany, and Emmie

Liz, Bobble, and Emmie

We went to Shelby to visit Liz's family for Thanksgiving. It's always so fun to visit Shelby at Thanksgiving. It's usually the first real cold that we get for the year though this year New Orleans was pretty cold too. We usually show up with tshirts and flip flops. Fortunately, we checked the forecast this year and packed a little warmer. After all, we are now responsible for this small child. Though to be honest, Emmie would rather be barefooted anytime!

Emmie was so glad to see everyone again especially Crete and Gray. She will watch Crete and is sure she can do everything that he can do. It was great getting to spend time with Raah, Bobble and everyone else as well. Terry outdid himself again with all of the cooking especially Liz's favorite cheez wiz casserole!

We also visited Santa while we were in Shelby. Emmie was not very impressed at first, but she slowly warmed up- as long as we were holding her.

Betsy, I'm still sad you went to the mountains to get Christmas trees without me and I fully expect you to wait next year! Except for being deprived of picking out Christmas trees =), it was a perfect first Thanksgiving for Emmie. It's always good spending time with family and Emmie always appreciates good food! That child does not like to miss a meal.

I'll post more pictures as soon as Liz collects them from her family.......

Birmingham!

Sorry for the hiatus! Now that Emmie is rolling from one end of the house and grunting her orders, time seems to slip away and I'm not sure exactly where it all goes. We are doing great and Emmie is growing and changing every day. I'm sure that I am a bit biased, but she truly is a fabulous and good-natured baby. She's very engaging and people stop us everywhere to play with her and tell her how beautiful she is. Her little personality is so funny and it's amazing what a true sense of humor she has at such a young age. I must say I've never watched a baby develop and it's really neat to see the new facets of her personality that emerge each day. Liz and I consider ourselves very blessed to have this precious soul in our lives.

We went to Birmingham last weekend to visit family and friends. It was so fun being back in the 'ham. I miss some of my fave old restaurants so we tried to hit as many as possible. I was really glad to have a fantastic dinner at Little Savannah with Lauren, Jim, and Liz. Nonie, Aunt Marsha, and Nicolas babysat Emmie so we could catch up with Jim and Lauren. Dinner was great and the company was even better. While in B'ham, Emmie finally got to meet her Aunt Holly and Casey (2 thumbs up Holly). Other than that, we hung out with Nonie, Pops, Aunt Marsha, Nicolas and the Hughey clan. Emmie had a blast with Nicolas, Emma, Fletcher and Campbell. She is fascinated by other children. You can just see on her face that she's trying to figure out how to run around and play like they do.

Birmingham was great. There are certainly things that we miss especially family, friends, and restaurants. Funny, we live in one of the best cities for food, but we still long for dinner at Bottega and margaritas at Sol y Luna. Time was too short there and there was so many people we wanted to see especially the Finch clan but we all had a bit of a cold and didn't want to spread our germs. We'll catch them next trip. Thanks to all of our Birmingham peeps for such a great trip! We love and miss you all!

Emmie's first Halloween!

This is a public admission that EVERYONE was right about buying Emmie a costume. I am so glad we listened to you all! Thanks for talking i.e. bullying us into buying a costume. She really was the cutest butterfly ever; however, she hated her antennas and wanted the costume off of her head. Thanks to the Hutchinson's for inviting us out to Timbuktu and showing us how to trick or treat West Bank style. The hotdogs and s'mores were delightful and I especially appreciated the flat screen tv in the bushes so I could watch the Saints game! Who Dat!