Most of you have seen these already, but if not...




We had a great Christmas this year. It was very different making the trek to AR from Wisconsin, instead of Branson like we were used to. We had gotten used to making that trip over the course of the four years we had lived there. We had a little trouble getting Nic back to WI, but I'll write more about that later. We made it to AR just in time for Christmas Sunday. We took Abi to church, which she loved to participate in, and she only went to the nursery for a little bit. She spent the whole time in there playing with a cozy coupe car that she was getting for Christmas, so we knew right off that we had made a great choice in gifts! We got to spend a few days in Mt. Ida, then it was time to let the Christmas whirlwind begin!

Christmas Eve, my Aunt Rosemary and Uncle Randy had rented a cabin at Iron Mountain on Lake Degray and the whole Cloud clan met up for a steak dinner and gift exchange and had a great time...I don't have any pics though, so Robin, if you read this, e-mail me some! Then we went to Mom and Dad's where we had a house FULL! Mom, Dad, me, Nic, Abi, Kaci, Clint, Kory, Kyle, Kody and Grandaddy -- 11 total!!! We set up everything, and then went to bed, because we knew we would be up early...and we were-- 6:30!! It's so fun to wake up early still for Santa, and it won't be an adjustment when Abi starts waking up early for him too...we will be used to it!

Then we headed to Mt. Ida for the Byers Family Christmas celebration. Abi was spoiled with more gifts at Papaw's and Bebe's house, and then we went to Mimi's and Granny's. Then we had to rush off so Nic could fly home to WI. Right before we left, we got a phone call saying that his flight had been cancelled and could he be there for an hour early for another flight. We knew we would have to rush, but we had to try, since Nic was supposed to be at work early on Friday.

We were about halfway to the airport when we realized we had lost Nic's ID somewhere along the way. We searched the car and all the bags as best as we could (we were pretty loaded down with all the goodies we got in Mt. Ida) and called everyone to see if we had left it behind somewhere, but no luck. We turned around and headed back to Mt. Ida, since that's where Nic thought he'd had it last. After tearing up the house and emptying the car, we finally found AN id. Not THE id we had been searching for, but another license Nic had lost a long time ago, in my console, that was still good. Nic had another flight booked out of LR on Friday, but early Fri morning we got another cancellation phone call. They offered him a flight on Sat, but Nic had to make it home to get to work! So, they found him a flight out of Texarkana going to Dallas and then home to Madison. Upon his arrival in Dallas, he got some great news--you got it -- CANCELLED! Thankfully, his aunt and uncle live in Dallas (HI Rick and Jeanie!) and they picked him up at the airport, gave him a place to sleep, and dropped him off for his flight the next day. So he gets to the airport on Saturday and everything looks good. He even gets to take off for Madison, and then...you guessed it -- CANCELLED AGAIN!!!!!! The flight landed in Chicago instead, which is a good 2 1/2 hrs from Madison, and if you will remember O'Hare had been having a lot of trouble with getting flights out, so there wasn't a rental car to be had anywhere! He, along with most of his flight, hopped a bus to Madison, which, of course, didn't drop them off at the airport, then took a $10 taxi ride to the airport, and his car, and finally made it home...2 days after he planned! I don't know that he'll be flying home for Christmas next year...but we'll figure something out so that he'll be there!

Abi and I had one more Christmas gathering with the extended Hamlin family at my mom's house after church on Sunday. We had great fun, great food, and Abi had to learn to share some of her new Christmas toys...and she did not like that!

On to the pics!!
This is Abi in her Christmas dress that DeDe (my BFF Windy) bought for her.


This is Abi singing (LOUDLY) during church, during the offering, when NO ONE else was talking. She was singing her little heart out. I couldn't stop laughing and didn't even bother to try to stop her. Then it was time for preaching and she wouldn't quit singing, so we had to leave. It was super cute though!!!


Abi checking out her booty that Santa left for her...


Waving bye-bye in her new car!!!

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!