I decided to take my own photos for our Christmas cards again this year, simply because there are so many talented people out there in cyberspace who can design me a custom card, rather than having to pick a pre-made card with only one picture AND they are cheaper! I'm not posting the final images from our cards, but I WILL post some of the cast-offs. They are still super cute, they just didn't make the cut! My Christmas cards are being designed now, and will hopefully be completed soon...

In the meantime, maybe these will hold you over!
With this outfit, I took over 200 pictures and the ones below were the only ones I liked!! It was a nightmare! She would absolutely NOT sit still when I was trying to take these pictures!!!! I finally gave up and started bribing her with chocolate, and if you'll look closely at one of these pics, she's got chocolate all over her face!!!






This photo "shoot" went way easier. I only took like 10 pictures and got what I was looking for. It was really tough deciding which of these to use on my cards!

Winter Wonderland????

Whoever coined this song did NOT live in a snowy area!!!!

Another song I don't get is "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas". Another case of not living in snowland like we do, because I am dreaming of a brown Christmas in Arkansas. I even asked Nic the other day if it would be too hard to snow blow the entire yard. He told me to go ahead....:s

We've got at least a FOOT of snow on the ground and I am soooooo done with it. I can't go anywhere, because the only car that will make it through this mess is the jeep and Nic takes that to work, and besides, I don't know if I can tackle driving that by myself. So Abi and I have been stuck here for the past WEEK!!! We did take one outing...to Wal-Mart for groceries. That was the longest grocery trip ever because I did NOT want to leave!

Oh, it's not all bad! We've actually had a lot of fun in our wintery land. I made us all some snow ice cream last night and Abi and I love it...Nic of course said it is too sweet! We are going out tomorrow to play in all this snow and make Abi's first snow man.

Here are a few pictures of all of our snow:

I don't know if you can tell, but that is our bird bath buried out in all that snow. Just so you can see how deep it is!!


This is my front yard. Even the driveway is covered! We are having someone come out to clear all that snow later today. I think it would take Nic 2 or 3 days to uncover the driveway from all that snow. These guys will probably do it in like an hour - they have their own snow plow!!


This is Anthony's boat that he parks here...and forgot to cover!!! He'll have fun cleaning it out this spring...if he can find it!!!!!!!!!!


And here are a few of Abi that I took the other day. I was taking pictures of some stuff for craigslist and she kept jumping in the picture. She was in such a cute mood!


I wish this one wasn't so fuzzy! I love this picture!

It snowed again the other day putting us up to about 5 inches on the ground -- WAY more than Abi had ever seen before, and the amount of snow she will see this winter is only going to continue to grow!!! She really liked the snow -- kind of like the water!! -- she DID NOT want to come in!!!!

Larry and Betsy got Abi a sled while they were in town. They got a two person sled, specifically for Abi and Titan to be able to ride together.

....but of course Daddy had to try it out with Abi too!!!!


This was at the beginning of the day, when we first went outside. Daddy was helping Abi get used to the sled.


Here's a few pictures from when everybody was here for Thanksgiving. Abi wanted to go snowboarding with the big kids!!!


And here's a picture of Abi with the boys and Candace. She was really excited about all of the attention she was getting!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

One of the great things about living in Wisconsin now, it that it gets cold so early! The weather here is definitely putting me in the Christmas spirit. Here are a couple of pictures of the living room all decorated for Christmas. We had a Christmas party for some people from Nic's work on Tuesday and had a great time!




These other pictures are from a Christmas parade we went to before Thanksgiving. It was super cold, so we all bundled up in our best winter gear (thank goodness Abi's snowsuit had arrived THAT DAY!!!) She kind of looks like a marshmallow in her suit though!


Waiting for Santa Claus...


Watching the parade with Mommy!

I lost my camera cord for a couple weeks, so I have a lot of posts to do today!! Here's a post from another trip to the waterparks a couple of weeks ago. Abi really does love it there and would probably go and have a blast every day if I would let her!

Here she is on the baby slide with Daddy. She sort of liked it, I thought, but check out her stomach muscles, she looks like she's trying to stop, but can't!! Poor baby!



Here's a happy picture of her in the water swing. She TOTALLY loves the water!!! If you look close, she's kind of blue...she's FREEZING!! But she doesn't care, she will still scream if we try to take her out of the water!


Here's Abi and Mommy floating in the lazy river. I love the tubes they have here. I've never seen anything like them, but they are perfect for small children!


Here she is lounging and having a snack at the end of the day...


And then she collapsed! She just couldn't play any more!!!!


More to come....

GREETINGS FROM WISCONSIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





You may have noticed that I've been updating this a lot more lately. I decided that since we've moved so far away that I should do everything I can to keep all of you at home involved in our day to day life. (And we bought a new camera, so we are taking tons of pics, and now they are easier to upload!)

We are finding lots of things in Wisconsin to keep us busy. Our leaves have fallen, or are starting to fall, and Abi loves to play in them while Nic is trying to rescue our house and driveway from them. They end up "playing" in the leaves at least once a week!

Abi and I went to a MOPs (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting today. As far as I can tell, we both had a blast! I really enjoyed the chance to meet some new mommies, and the opportunity for socialization for Abi too. This time we talked about sibling rivalry, which doesn't really apply to me, but the subject changes every meeting, which is every other week. On the off weeks, they have a play group that meets at the church, which was next on my list of things to find, so now I crossed off two things at once!

I talked to one mom, who told me about winter last year and how she and her kids had MAJOR cabin fever. She said besides MOPs and the playgroup, that really the only other place to play is at McDonalds. MCDONALDS???? Nic and I made it our goal for the day to find a better place for me and Abi to hang out...and we did!! One of the things that WI Dells is famous for is indoor waterparks. Almost all the big resorts in town have one, including The Wilderness, which is where Wyndham is located. Employees get to use the facilities for free, we only have to go pick up a wristband, which we did today and we had a great time!

Check out the resort here: http://www.glaciercanyonlodge.com/ . There's even a live webcam in one of the waterparks. Maybe one of these days I'll tell someone when we are going and you can watch for us! There's tons of indoor activities at the resort for me and Abi to check out when we need to get out of the house. There's a GIGANTIC playground, with a separate area for toddlers, an arcade and 3 (yes 3!!!!) indoor waterparks. All we have to do is send Nic in for a wristband and 2 minutes later we are good to go! Hopefully the snow isn't TOO bad, so I'll be brave enough to go. Otherwise, we'll have to wait for Nic to be off to drive us over. I've heard that they plow the roads pretty fast, so we'll only be snowed in on the days it actually snows. That doesn't sound tooooo bad, right?











Here are a few pictures that give you an idea of what the waterparks look like.





This park is great for kids! It has a HUGE bucket at the top of the play area that holds 1000 gallons of water and dumps every few minutes. This is the before:





This is the after:

I've got a lot to talk about this time. We've been really busy!!! We went to Branson for a week. We were waiting for my friend Megan to have her baby...and she did! Jackson Edward was born on October 23 at 5:46 pm. He weighed 9 lbs and 10.7 oz (BIG baby!) and was 22 inches long (tall too!) and his mommy had him with NO EPIDURAL!! She is a SUPER WOMAN and I would know, because I was there for the delivery! It was so cool, and I am so grateful to Megan and Jess for including me in something so monumental.

Then, in our whirlwind trip, we headed to Benton for Kaci and Clint's wedding (there are a few pics of that below) where Abi had her first (and probably not the last) run as a flower girl. She did pretty good considering that she is only 17 months, with a 17 month old attention span and she looked totally adorable to boot!

We got home just in time for Nic's day off, Friday, which also happened to be Halloween. But first, Nic and Abi had to do some yard work! Nic raked the leaves while Abi got to play in them. She had a BLAST!!

After a good nap, she was ready for Trick or Treating. Nic, Abi and myself dressed up in our Arkansas Razorback finest, figuring, correctly, that it would be our only chance to wear our gear this year, since we now live too far away to go to any games. A few people way up here in WI even knew who the Razorbacks were! Probably because they whooped up on us in a bowl game that we went to in Orlando a few years ago. Well, as you can tell, things are going pretty well here. It hasn't been too cold here yet, though, so I may be singing a different tune then! In fact, for the first few days of this week, it will be really warm - up to 70 on Monday, then the end of the week goes down to 39. 39?????? :s I'll never survive this winter!!!!

My CAMERA BROKE!!! Which is why it had been so long since I've posted, especially considering the big move. We are all settled in now, and photos are coming featuring my new house...I just have to clean up first! That's my goal for this week. These are a few random pictures from this summer that I found when I finally got to upload the pics from my dead, old camera. Some are from Abi's swimming lessons (of the 8 that we paid for, we only got to go to 3!) and one she is even under water! There is one from the week we spent frying on the lake - you can tell how hot it was from Abi's glowing, sweaty face! There's one of the 2 of us from 4th of July in Gulf Shores. And finally, one of Abi and Daddy that was taken here in WI when we went to this little park zoo. They are looking at the gigantic white-tail deer that they knew Grandpa would think was a waste! I'll try to post again soon!

I know I always say this when I post, but it's true! SOOOO much has happened since the last time I posted. Abi is walking and running and starting to climb. She can blink her eyes at you, nod her head, spin in a circle, stomp her feet, and dance. She can also play "Where's Abi?". She covers her eyes with her hands until she decides to come out of hiding. It is adorable!!!!!! She still isn't talking much beyond mama, dada, and byebye, but she can do the sign for "more" - and she does it OFTEN!! She is a little pig! She can eat so much food at a time that it astounds me, but she is still long and skinny like daddy.

We are making a big change in a couple weeks. We are moving to Wisconsin Dells, WI. I'm excited to make a move, but anxious too. I'm not a big fan of winter, as some of you may know, and WI has pretty harsh ones. I've heard though that you get used to them with time. Hopefully, though, we won't be there long enough to get TOO used to them! I've got a few pics to post of our summer, although, we've been so busy that I haven't taken too many pics. I've also got a picture of our house to post and I'll post more when we get moved in. Enjoy! And I promise not to wait so long for my next post!!

These are some of my favorite pictures from our 4th of July vacation to Gulf Shores, AL. We had a blast and we hope we can make it an annual trip.