Emily Grace's First Symphony

Last weekend, we took Emily Grace to her very first Symphony. We just had to. She has this obsession with the violin. When I was girl, I always thought that I would have my children take piano lessons. Now that I have a child, I realize that they think for themselves. :-D Imagine that! She loves classical music and when there is violin in the piece of music, she gets so excited and says "Mommy, I hear the violin" and begins to play her invisible violin. It is too adorable. This orchestra had a "instrument petting zoo" before the show and Emily Grace was overly thrilled to be able to hold a violin and actually use the bow (is that what you refer to it as)? I feel sure that there are Violin lessons in the near future

We Came in 4th place in the Photo Contest

Please check out the following website and see a pic of our family that came in 4th place in a Photography contest. Once you have seen our unique pic, please look back at the top of the website. The pics change and there are about 3 of Emily Grace being shown. We aren't proud of our lil' beauty or anything :-)
photosite

Christmas Morning with gifts from Santa Claus

PIctures from Various Houses on Christmas

Here are pics from the various Houses. In a little while I post pics from Christmas Morning after Santa came to visit!! I have to organize those..you know how it is :-)

Our Favorite Christmas Yet!!

What a wonderful Christmas we had this year!!! It was filled with family, love and especially filled with a wide eyed 2 year old full of excitement about all of it. It all started with a journey to the North Georgia Mountains where we spent a Christmas celebration with my extended family in Cabins (12/19-12/21) We then spent Christmas Eve with my nuclear family at my brother John and his wife Chris' house. Christmas morning was spent here with both sets of Grandparents watching the thrill of Santa Claus and a big breakfast. We then had a Christmas Day dinner at my brother Michael and his wife Sydney's house. The following day we had another entire Christmas Day with all of David's family and finally New Year's Eve we had a family party here at our house and New Year's Day, we had a big extended family dinner at my parent's house. All of it was joyously fun and filled with wonderful food and gifts!! We are so blessed!!!!
Here are a few pics and mostly of Emily Grace and her Santa gifts. She received a much wanted bitty baby with all of its accessories, a doctor's outfit and a sushi set along with countless wonderful big gifts from grandparents and family.
Hope yours was as wonderful!!!

Christmas Then and Now

Compare Emily Grace's pics from 2008(33 months) and 2007(21 months)

Emily Grace's visit with Santa Claus

Last year, Emily Grace called Santa Claus "Ho Ho." She seemed interested in having her picture made with him so we stood in line and watched all of the other children have their pictures made and when it was our turn, she clutched onto me for life and screamed "NO NO HO HO" so we left and I just had to laugh. This year in preparation of the event, I showed her pictures of myself and of David and her age with Santa Claus and we began watching classic movies and such. I began talkin' up the fellow like I was on his publicity crew. This year, she was so excited that she nearly pushed the little fellow in front of her off of Santa's lap just so she could get on. She was so excited that she smiled right away and they snapped the picture before I could "pose her or straighten our her dress." It was so cute, she began telling him all that she had planned to tell him about what she wanted for Christmas and even told him what a "good little girl" she had been ... yeah, let me tell you that it sure hasn't been every day :-) My favorite, though, was when she asked him to say "Ho Ho Ho". He did and then he hugged her. David held me close and I cried during the whole thing thinking about how we had dreamed of this very moment. We couldn't believe that our dream was truly a reality!!!! I love Christmas!! I definitely KNOW the reason for the season!! Thank you Jesus for our amazing daughter!!! She is everything and more that we dreamed of and prayed for!!!

A more recent update is soon to come

On December 5th, my family lost a very cherished member. My uncle Thomas Shrewsbury, affectionately known as "Budgie", lost his battle to cancer. He was one heck of a good man with a true character and stern faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and a fantastic sense of humor. On one of his last days here on earth, it is noted that he called many of those that he was closest to and asked if they were definite that they knew the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior because he wanted to be sure that he would meet them later in Heaven. It was just like him to worry about everyone else when he himself was taking his last breath. He will surely be missed!! I went north for his funeral among the ice and snow for four days. When I returned home, David told me that he had a new found respect for all that I do with Emily Grace and he said that I HAD to TEACH him how to use those elastic ties to put her hair in pig tails. Too funny to me!! I came home on Tuesday night and by Friday evening, my students and I put on a show for close to 300 guests complete with Gladiatorial combat, War drums, Dancers, Roman Cuisine even a Roman wedding took place. We had spent weeks on this production and it went very well!! I was very proud. However, it was soooo much work that I have decided that it will be my last one. I have been running nonstop. From both of those events, I am so far behind in every aspect of my life. I hope that you all will receive our Christmas cards before Christmas. I wont bore you with the details of the rest of my life but I can hardly stay awake during my days and there is so much to do at night trying to get caught up that I never get any sleep. Eventually, I will put the pics of Emily Grace meeting Santa Claus on the blog. What a wonderful happy moment it was for all of us. She was in utter heaven!! She is a BIG FAN of the jolly ole fat guy in the red suit.
Stay tuned... :-)

Emily Grace Plays Soccer

Emily Grace played Soccer on a "Sporties for Shorties" Soccer team for a few weeks. It was just for 2 1/2 - 3 year olds. It was so cute and so much fun to watch. Those kids had absolutely no idea what was going on and at least one parent of every child was out on the field to help "coach." That was funny in and of itself. David was so excited to share this with Emily Grace. She just loved being out there running with Daddy, regardless of what they were doing. Of course, snack time was her favorite part.

Between the Hedges at an UGA GAME!!!

In September, David and I went to a home UGA game and David scored some V.I.P passes from work so that we could go onto the field 45 minutes before the game began. This gave us an opportunity to get up close and personal with what goes on there. We met UGA, Hairy Dawg, some Cheerleaders and Sonny Seiler (famous for caring for many generations of UGA dawgs) We were able to watch The Players drill before the game. It was surreal to be between the hedges and look out into the stands of cheering people and the game had not even begun. I can't imagine what it must be like for those guys during a game. It was too much fun.