Kentucky: 69, Louisville: 62

GO CATS!!!

Happy Anniversary Rachael!!

Today is Rachael and Sylvain's fifth wedding anniversary - Happy Day to them!!

before we were mommies - what would ellie, scarlett, and clover think?!?

Man was that one fun party. Don't even get me started on crazy French Uncle Eric.

When I was searching photo albums for old Big Dolly pictures I also came across some pictures of me and Rachael from our single, college days. (Also my pre-digital camera days, hence the photo albums.) I was trying to think of an excuse to post them - an anniversary seems like a pretty good one! So here are some shots from before either of us was a missus. Summer 2003? Not sure.... we went to Hazard, KY to sing at a friend's wedding.

Paws and Listen - Jamie, Me, Michelle, Rachael

The bride, Raye, was our student director.

We look so young - Look at our beautiful skin! Le sigh. Here's to memories and old friends!

She got all she wanted for Christmas.....

...her TWO (top) FRONT TEETH!!!

The Story of Big Dolly

Pete received his first Baby Dolly (B.D., pronounced 'beed' for short) Christmas of 1981, when he was a little over 16 months old.


As is often the case with a beloved animal/toy/puppet, Pete did not like to be without his BD so his mom had to acquire several so that one might be in the wash, or the car, or temporarily misplaced.

A few years after Pete began his love of toy soldier dollies a big toy store in Chicago (near where Pete grew up) was going out of business. So his mom drove into the city to get BIG Dolly for Pete for Christmas. But Big Dolly wouldn't fit in the trunk. Or the back seat. So Pete's mom had to drive home - down Michigan Ave - with Big Dolly next to her in the front passenger seat! Can you imagine the looks she got?!?!

I first met Big Dolly on November 25, 2004 when Pete and I went to his mom's house in Louisville for Thanksgiving.

Pete's mom brought Big Dolly to our house along with Pete's other childhood possessions in 2006 or 2007. In our first house we put him in the attic and there never really was a good place for him during Christmastime. In our current house Big Dolly lives in the unfinished side of the basement until it is time to decorate for the holidays. Our first two Christmases here he stayed in Pete's office. But this year, for Ellie's sake, I wanted him to be in the living room with the tree and other decorations. It took some major furniture moving to squeeze him in!

2007 - Celia Lane house

2010

2011

We're looking forward to many more Christmases with Big Dolly and Ellie!

o holy night.

Need someone to guide your sleigh?

In the St. Nick of Time!

I finished Ellie's stocking and hung it by the chimney with care. My brothers and I have matching stockings knit for us by our Aunt Susie. If we ever had other stockings, I have no memory of them - and have never seen any others in pictures. Here's hoping Ellie's stocking is as meaningful to her as mine is to me!!

Ellie found the tree...

...and stole some ornaments!

She stakes out her next victim...and goes for it!Eh, maybe next time.The tree will live another day. I scooped her up before she pulled the whole thing down on herself. Also, I know the tree is crooked, I'm waiting for Pete to get home so we can straighten it.

2011 Christmas Tree Hunt

We had a beautiful day in the Bluegrass for our seventh trip to Nieman Tree Farm.


Ellie has a very discerning eye when it comes to choosing a frasier fir and knows to smell one for its wonderful piney scent in addition to checking for brown needles.


We decided on this nice eight-footer. If it's not going to scratch the ceiling, it's too short!


We borrowed our neighbor's truck-a-sauras so we could have both a car seat and a tree in one vehicle.


We got home and strung the lights - Ellie liked the glow!

Tomorrow we'll hang the ornaments!

Meeting an Old Friend

We're in full Christmas decorating mode at our house. So of course we had to make room for Big Dolly!! He comes out every year - since before Pete can remember - and we were excited to introduce him to Ellie.



She wasn't quite sure what to make of him but didn't seem to mind too much!

We recently lowered Ellie's crib. She was doing the following to show us it was time:

Now what could possibly motivate Ellie to crawl across her crib?

Her daddy? Nope! It was her favorite play thing --

The nasal aspirator!!!

We took Ellie to see Santa today.

It went fairly well! She didn't cry until the very end and I think that she cried more in response to the photographer who was jumping up and and down and shrieking like a dog than the Santa. Although she would have responded better to him if he had talked to her or smiled at her. Though being Santa and having a different germy child on your lap every five minutes, two thirds of which scream at the sight of you, can't be the most fun in the world. I guess it was pretty unrealistic of me to expect an experience the likes of Miracle on 34th Street in Lexington.

7 months old.

It's getting more difficult to keep up with these monthly updates - month seven was a busy one for us and month eight doesn't seem to be slowing down!




It seems like Ellie had some of her biggest changes yet in month seven, the most visible of which is TWO TEETH!

I saw the first one on a Sunday evening in early November and eight days later Grandma and I spotted the 2nd one while eating breakfast on her porch!

She also started scooting backwards on her tummy and knees. She was sort-of doing it on the carpet one evening, so we moved her onto the hardwood, and she went all over the place!

Ellie traveled through four more states in her 7th month - FL, WV, MD and PA - bringing her total to 13 states - not too shabby!

She sat in a high chair for her meals (instead of just her Bumbo with tray) at Grandma's.

side note: Ellie is wearing the greatest bib ever in this pic - grandma had it at her house - it snaps behind the head AND around the arms - genius! It's Gerber so I figured I'd be able to find them on Amazon and get some - no such deal - I searched for bibs and smocks - so if you know where to get these, please leave a comment :)

Now that we're back home, she eats at the table from her hanging seat.

mmm, hummus

Ellie swam in a pool for the first time at Aunt Susie's Florida house.


I feel like I already touched on the rest of the Florida firsts - many different foods at Grandma's, including acorn squash and pineapple, new favorites. As you can probably tell from the pictures above, her hair is looking red again; but I swear in my house, which apparently lacks natural light, it looks brown. Either way is fine, it's just funny how it appears one color one day, and another color the next. Red heads are sneaky that way!!