Christmas Collage 2008

A Very Merry Christmas

Christmas morning was a lot of fun at our house this year. Santa paid us a visit, and he left a lot of nice toys for the kids. Owen woke up at 7:30, so he got to check his stuff out first. Since this was Owen's first Christmas, he received a toybox just like Olivia did for her first Christmas. I love these toyboxes because they have a cedar bottom and can double as a hope chest when the kids are older. Even though Owen is still too young to know what is going on, he did enjoy playing with all of his new things. Olivia had been sick with a sinus infection all week, so she slept until 10:30. When she finally woke up, she was very excited about all of her new goodies. Santa left a baby doll for her and we thought that it would be her favorite toy, but it wasn't. Olivia preferred the soccer ball and the toy dinosaurs to the doll. Remy and Reecee were also good this year, and they each received presents from Santa. Remy got a new bed, and Reecee got a chew toy.



The kids played with toys for a little while, and then we all got dressed and went to Granny Buie's house for lunch and another round of present-opening. After a long day of gifts and food, it was time to head home. Because Olivia had slept so late, we did not have time to open our family gifts in the morning, so we opened those on Christmas night. I was so happy to get a new cell phone from my family (my old one was shot), and Brian was excited to get the jacket that he had been eyeing in the L.L. Bean catalog.

This afternoon we finished our Christmas season by visiting Brian's mom in Valdosta. The kids got a lot of nice toys there also- including a Dora CD player and two ball-popper toys. The kids also got a chance to spend a lot of time with their Granny and Papa Charlie while Brian and I went to the movies (which is the first time we have been to the movies in over a year). Christmas is always one of my favorite times of the year because it is a time when family gets together and when everyone is happy. This year was no exception. We had a merry Christmas indeed.

Christmas Eve at Gigi's

Christmas Eve was very exciting this year. Once again, we had supper at Gigi and Papa's house. After eating and visiting for a while, it was time to open gifts. We usually open gifts in order of birth with the youngest going first. Even though he would have been first, poor Owen just couldn't hold out. He fell asleep and was out for the night. Olivia gladly volunteered her services and lent me a hand in opening Owen's gifts for him. By the end of the night, she was getting to be quite the pro at opening presents.

We all received such nice gifts. Owen and Olivia got a lot of clothes and toys. They also got a cool cross and yamaca from Israel (thanks to my cousin, Pam, who is always going to cool places). Brian and I also got a lot of nice things- including a garbage disposal (Yay!!).

The nicest gift of the night, though, had to be the diamond ring that my mom got from my dad. The diamond of mama's old engagement ring fell out in the bathroom sink at Sears and was lost several years ago (like a decade ago, maybe?). She was so upset about losing her old ring, and we are all so thrilled to see that she finally got a new one.

Toward the end of the evening it was announced that there was one final present for Ava and Olivia. Hmm... what could it be?

Drums?? Thanks a lot, Gigi!

Pulling Up

Well, I guess it won't be long now before Owen is walking all over the place. For the past several weeks he has been pulling up, and he is now in the first stages of cruising. This new skill has brought new challenges. For some reason, Owen is inexplicably drawn to Remy's dogfood. Between his "dogfood" stage and Olivia's "constantly-taking-her-clothes-off" stage, Brian and I stay busy. It also doesn't help that the Christmas tree is up. It is like a beacon that just pulls the kids toward it (and this usually ends with ornaments on the floor). Needless to say, our afternoons are often quite interesting.

Christmas Parade

This past Monday was the Blackshear Christmas Parade. My Daddy had parked his truck in our usual parade spot, and Brian and I took the kids down to take part in the festivities. Since we were at the far end of main street, we could hear the police car and marching band coming long before they actually got to where we were standing. Ava and Olivia waited anxiously for the parade to reach us. Brian jokingly asked Ava if the suspense was killing her, and she told him that she "couldn't handle it". In this picture, the girls are standing in the bed of their Papa's truck watching the parade come down the road toward them. I like this shot because you can really see how excited they are.

Both girls had attended the Homecoming parade a month ago, and they remembered that parades equal candy. Olivia and her daddy scurried to get all of the candy that was thrown in their direction. We actually came home with a fair amount of sweets. I was content to sit on the tailgate and snuggle with Owen. You're not seeing things, Owen is wearing a pink hat in this picture (the pink is due to the fact that I forgot to bring his hat and Claire had a spare).

Of course, no Christmas parade would be complete without Santa Claus. We were lucky because the parade got held up for a moment, and Santa's carriage stopped right in front of us. Santa asked me for Olivia's name, I told him, and then he said "Hi, Olivia. Merry Christmas!". Olivia was happy that Santa knew her name, but was even more thrilled that he threw a candy cane in her direction. The parade a lot of fun, and was a great way to kick off the Christmas season.

Satsumas

For the last several weeks, Olivia and I have been enjoying one of our favorite afternoon snacks- satsumas. Thanks to Brian- who watered the tree all summer- we have plenty of oranges to enjoy this fall. Olivia likes going out to the tree and picking out which orange she would like to eat. Actually, I think that part of the reason she wants to go out is so that she can run around the yard with Reecee (and Reecee likes seeing her, too).

I'm actually proud of my little satsuma tree because it is still alive (once again thanks to Brian- not to me). My Granny and Papa Walker used to have satsuma trees in their backyard, and I would eat the oranges every fall. After hearing about how delicious they were (over and over again for several years), Brian got me a tree of my very own as an anniversary present three years ago. Judging by the way that Olivia devours these things, I do not think that I am the only one in the family hooked on this fruit.

Walking with Dinosaurs

On Sunday, we took Olivia to see the Walking with Dinosaurs Live show in Tallahassee. This is a show that uses robotics and puppetry to create huge life-like dinosaurs. Olivia was amazed by the dinosaurs. She watched them intensely and even shouted things to them (like "run! run!").





Olivia was not the only one who enjoyed the show. Brian thought that the dinosaurs were cool, and I enjoyed the educational information that was given about the dinosaurs. I could not help but appreciate this visual representation of life in the triassic, jurassic, and cretaceous time periods. This show is definitely edutainment at its best.

Here are some of our favorite dinosaurs from the show. I liked the brachiosauruses because they were the largest dinosaurs in the show. Another cool dinosaur was the torosaurus (the tricertops looking thing). It had the largest skull of any living creature that ever existed.

All of the dinosaurs were cool, but the show-stopper was the T-Rex. Thanks to books and TV, Olivia could identify this one by name and site. She waited patiently the whole show to see it. It was the very last dinosaur to come out, and it made quite an impression on her. Even though the T-Rex's roar was loud, Olivia was not phased (which is more than I can say for the little boy sitting three seats down from us). Between the fall festival and the dinosaur show, Olivia had a very busy weekend.

Fall Festival

This afternoon was the fall festival at my school. I had to work the last shift at the popcorn booth, so this gave me enough time to take the kids around to all of the other booths before reporting for duty. Olivia really enjoyed all of the games and activities. Her favorite thing was the horse ride. When we pulled up, she saw the horses immediately and wanted to ride. I didn't know how she would do on the horse. I actually thought that she might be intimidated once she got on it and want to get down. To my surprise, she loved it. The look on her face as she was led around on the horse was one of pure joy.

In addition to the horses, Olivia also enjoyed all of the games. She won a lot of prizes. Brian was especially thrilled that she won a 2-liter Mountain Dew in the ring toss. Since we were limited on time, we didn't get to visit all of the booths. I guess we can do the other things next year. Owen will be bigger then, too, so he'll be able to do something other than sit in the umbrella stroller (like he did this year).


Before leaving the festival, we let Olivia ride the horse one last time and then took the kids to the petting zoo. Olivia got to pet a calf, a duck, and a goat. The goats were very gentle, and she was able to hand-feed one of them. The Ag. teacher was working at the petting zoo and commented that most kids her age had been scared of the goats. He also said that maybe we should get her one. I don't think that's going to happen. Reecee would not like sharing her backyard with a goat! Who knows, though, maybe when Olivia is older we'll get her one to show.

The Walker Reunion

Here are a few pictures from this year's Walker reunion. This is the family of my Papa Walker and his brothers and sisters. It is always nice to get together with extended family- many from out of town- and catch up (and let's not even talk about all of the delicious food). I remember going to the Walker reunion when I was little and playing with all of my cousins. Now they all have kids that are Olivia's age, and she plays with them.

Yo Ho, Yo Ho! It's Halloween, Matey

This year we decided to begin a new tradition in the Sanders household by having everyone dress in a particular "theme". Our theme for this first year was pirates. Everyone wore a pirate costume- even Remy (who wore his for all of two seconds so I have no picture). Olivia loved her pirate costume, and I could not have found a costume that better matched her personality. Here is a picture of "Captain Brian" and his crew. Unfortunately, my camera was not cooperating, so most pictures ended up on the fuzzy side. Yes- that's right- the camera was having issues, not the operator of the camera (my story and I'm sticking to it).

Trick-or-treating was held on Thursday the 30th in Blackshear so as not to coincide with the Friday night football game. As usual, we went to Granny Buie's house and trick-or-treated in her neighborhood. Owen dressed up, but couldn't go trick-or-treating because he had an ear infection and didn't need to be out in the weather.

Ava was Cinderella and Claire was Tinkerbell this year. These two "princesses" were Olivia's trick-or-treating companions. I love this picture of Ava and Olivia that was taken before we set off on our quest for candy. What a cute pirate and princess! Also notice Olivia's Dora treat bag (given to her by Mrs. Shari). She has been calling it her "Dora purse" and carrying it around the house playing with it ever since she got it. I think it was fun for her to see what it is really used for.

Olivia received a good bit of candy. I really had to keep an eye on her because she would stick the candy- wrapper and all- into her mouth the minute that she got it. In this picture, she is knawing on a Hershey bar and wrapper.

Here is a picture of Olivia pillaging and plundering (aka trick-or-treating). Once she realized that she got candy when she said "trick-or-treat", she did not hesitate to walk up to the front doors of various houses and try out her new phrase. At the end of the night, we sorted through all of our "pirate booty" and realized that we had lived up to the pirating tradition. Yo Ho, Yo Ho! A pirate's life for me.

On the Move

Well, it's official- the days of Owen sitting around passively are over. He is now on the move. Don't get me wrong, he is still an angel, he is just a curious angel these days. Brian and I have to make sure that we always have an eye on him. He can get into things quickly. For example, one morning this week I was getting Olivia ready for daycare. Owen was already dressed, so I put him on his playmat in the living room. As I was pulling Olivia's hair up, I heard a noise coming from my bedroom. Sure enough, Owen had crawled the entire length of the house.


I don't think that it will be too much longer before Owen starts pulling up. He is already pulling to his knees and trying hard to find his footing. Because of his progress, he has been moved out of the young infant room and into the older infant room at daycare.







It kinda makes me sad that my baby is growing so fast. Everytime I turn around, he is doing something new. With Olivia I couldn't wait for her to start moving, but with Owen I'm in no hurry. I guess I know that I'll miss the "baby days" when they are gone, so I'm going to savor them while they're here.

Wedding Bells

I would like to take a moment to congratulate my cousin, Jessica, and her new husband, Franklin. They were married yesterday in a lovely afternoon cermony. My sisters, my cousin Bailey, and I were the bridesmaids. We told Jessica that she had a bunch of "pros" for bridesmaids (because we have done it so many times). Bailey, the youngest of us, was the flower girl in my and Hannah's weddings. We had fun teasing her by saying that if she didn't do a good job as bridesmaid this time that she would be demoted back down to flower girl next time. Everything was just perfect, and we are all happy to welcome Franklin into the family.

Fernbank Museum

On the final day of our Atlanta trip, we visited the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. We saw all sorts of really cool stuff. Olivia had a fun time in the children's interactive area. She especially liked the bubble and the lightening exhibits. The museum also had dinosaur bones and life-like replicas of dinosaurs. Olivia liked these as well.