More Christmas Festivities

As Hannah Claire gets older we are trying to teach her the fun of giving. Since we were making some yummies for her teachers at school, she helped in the making. She loved it! We made some White Trash (chex, pretzels, cheerios, peanuts and white chocolate. She mixed up all of the dry ingredients for us.

She nibbled some too.

She did a great job and was very proud of her handiwork. Hopefully she will learn that the true fun is in giving instead of receiving. Afterwards we went out to see Christmas lights. We got a prime spot for the best house with lights that flash to music through your radio.

Hannah Claire was thoroughly enjoying it until...she had to go potty. Ugh, the disadvantages of being potty trained. We called our friends Ron & Emily to see if they were home so we could make a quick pit stop. That of course turned into a visit with warm chocolate cake and milk. It was delicious!!! By the time we left it was way past HC's bedtime so we headed back home. We had a great time crashing the Cryer's quite evening.

The next day was Hannah Claire's Christmas party at school. They all wore their pj's (HC refused to wear her Christmas pj's, insisting on her Cinderella pj's) and snacked on a bunch of junk food. They were in hog heaven.

Afterwards they played. It is so funny to see the rambunctiousness of a child when both parents and teachers are there. It's like they sense the power struggle and just go crazy. Needless to say, they were having a great time!

Daddy even stirred them up some.

Poor Ms. Misty tried to steal a seat and all the kids jumped on board. They kept yelling "we are going on a hay ride". It was great fun until Austin felt a little squished and gave Leah a push to make more room. We actually caught him red handed in our pictures. Whoops!

After some tears, at time out and an apology things were back to fun again.

Hannah Claire has had Mrs. Karen for the past two years as her teacher. Mrs. Wendy is her other teacher this year but she missed the party because of the flu reeking havoc on her house. Ms. Misty was back for the party (HC's other teacher from last year). Hannah Claire loves all of her teachers and we are thankful for that!

Hannah Claire's First Christmas Performance

Once the kids reach the two year old class they are automatically part of the big Christmas production at school. This was Hannah Claire's year. Leading up to the program we would talk about it. I kept asking her if she was going to sing Jingle Bells, to which she replied "no, Twinkle Twinkle". You can imagine I was very skeptical of how she was going to do. We were very hopeful though. Shane and I arrived way early to get a good spot. It was a great idea because that chapel filled up fast! The performers started filing in. Once they were seated I tried to snap a few pictures of HC. She was totally fired up and dancing to the music.

Hannah Claire's class was first up with their rendition of Jingle Bells. Our little ham was front and center and sang her little heart out. She even shook her bells!

We had to get a picture of the whole stage because Rachel (on the far right side) was putting on a show. That kid was having a blast! She separated herself from the others and was singing and dancing. I love kids!

After the show there was cake and drinks for Jesus's birthday party. After cake we went back to the chapel to try and get some pictures. One of HC's best buds was in there, Samantha (or as HC calls her Ms. Dampadoes). They put on a whole different show for us. They were laughing and chasing each other around the stage.

The teachers and staff at school did a fabulous job! The kids were great and so much fun to watch!

Zoo Light Safari

We finally had a free night to head over to the Zoo Light Safari. This was our second year and it was even better this year than last year. It was pretty chilly but we were bundled up. Hannah Claire is just like her mommy, we both get red noses.

We headed straight over to the train for a ride around the zoo. HC's favorite part of the night.

It's Hannah Claire the elf!

HC had a passion for Frosty this year. Anytime we saw a snowman she would start yelling, "it's frosty!"

Daddy and Hannah Claire took their turn on the carousel. We hit it at a perfect time with no line and room to move around. Each time they came around they were on a different animal.

How cute is the flying pig? HC loved it! Daddy's favorite was the Chick-fil-a cows in lights (missed a picture of them though).

Decorating for Christmas

Hannah Claire really got into the decorating for Christmas this year. Especially since we started with a 4 foot tree in her room. She hung most of the ornaments by herself and she was very serious about it.

She was very proud of her tree. She slept with it on every night. She has even cried when we mentioned having to put it up. This should be interesting.

Once HC's tree was up we brought out the new tree for our living room. We purchased it after Christmas last year and I was super excited to see how it looked once we got it up. Since HC was an old pro she was hands on with getting the tree out. She even got to experience bubble wrap for the first time.

While I was fluffing Hannah Claire got to practicing her beauty skills. She loves to tell me my hair is "crazy" and start brushing it. Notice our matching pj's. Thanks Nana, we love them!

Our old tree from the living room got moved upstairs and became our Bama tree. Roll Tide!!! I have to give a huge shout-out to my counterpart. She painted a script "A" on some ball ornaments for me and tied houndstooth ribbon on them. They are awesome!!! It is especially awesome since she is an Ole Miss alum. Thanks Morgan Leigh!

Random picture but HC fell asleep on the couch for the first time ever!

The tree in the living room holds all of our Christmas cards. I love it because it keeps all of our friends and family in the middle of our Christmas celebrating. HC loves it too because she gets to hang the cards.

Yea for all of the great pictures we get! I love to see how families have grown and changed over the years. We even have a photo album of all of the pictures over the years. Yea for Christmas memories!

We also had our big tree with all of our keepsake ornaments. We were a little concerned how Hannah Claire would be with it but she has been great. She likes to go and point at different ornaments but that is about all. The memories that come back as we hang ornaments every year are great. We have ornaments from as early as 1981 (when I was 3 years old), ornaments from all of the places we have travelled together, ornaments that were gifts (like from my friend JC from here December wedding). We love to decorate the house so it is a constant reminder of the season and the real reason we are celebrating! Shane even decorated outside this year. It looks awesome! We need some pictures.

Hannah Claire's Big Announcement

We attempted to link a picture of our Christmas card but it didn't work too well. So I thought I would post one of the pictures from it.

That's right! We will be welcoming Baby Miller around June 30, 2011! Excited doesn't even begin to explain how we feel about this baby! 2010 was a challenging year for us. We miscarried twice. While it was a very difficult thing, we leaned on God and each other to get us through. Now God has blessed us with this special baby and we can't wait! It truly is amazing how perfect God's timing is. I remember telling Shane when we came home from the doctor the first time saying, I know God has a plan through this and I trust Him but it still hurts. Well, here we are, prayerfully excited about the new baby! And what a great and wonderful plan He had for us!

Santa 2010

Early in December we headed over to Brookwood Village for our annual visit with Santa Clause. Now we knew it had not gone so well last year so were skeptical of how it would turn out this year. She was sorta excited when we arrived.

We even got some smiles while standing in line.

As we approached the big guy the smiles disappeared but no tears yet. Santa asked HC about her baby and she handed baby right over to him.

However she then backed away and didn't want to take baby back from Santa. (For the record, she has a death grip on my finger and I can't pull it away. Trust me, I tried.)

We ended up getting our picture beside Santa instead of on his lap and with no smiles (but no tears either).

As we were leaving Santa asked HC what she had on her shirt. She willingly let him pull it and see her Christmas tree. Seriously, had we had a few more minutes I think we might have gotten a smile. The kids behind us in line might not have been up for that though.

Silliness and Birthday Party

I love that Hannah Claire has such a great personality. You never know what she is going to say or do. She is quite the fashionista too. Sometimes I just have to go get the camera and roll with it. All I can say is, "at least we were not going anywhere".

One Friday evening we headed up to Gadsden to celebrate Porter's birthday with the Ayres. They had his party a cool jumpy place. Hannah Claire in her typical fashion was skeptical at first but quickly warmed up to the bouncy.

Sweet Rebecca helped Hannah Claire get up on the slide. They Ayres kids are some of the sweetest we know.

HC wanted to get up on this slide but the only way was a foot ladder that was a little difficult for her. She tried but kept getting frustrated.

After some persistence and a little coaching she made it to the top!!!! It really is amazing how proud you can be as a parent for little accomplishments that your kids make.

Hannah Claire was very excited to join in on the festivities. When they said lets sing, she asked if she could go up to the front table. Of course when the singing began she didn't say a word, just watched all the other kids. She was loving every second of it.

After some pizza, cheese curls and of course Capri Sun's, it was back to the bouncey. She had a little trouble figuring out how to get through the horizontal bars.

She made it and actually came up laughing. Daredevil!

HC had a blast and was not ready to leave at all. She got a few more slides in before we had to leave.