Our Christmas Best

We decided to dress Sunday best for Christmas this year.  Well that's not true, we just took some family pictures on the Sunday before Christmas after church since everyone looked so nice. -T

It's hard to get them to smile at the same time...actually, it's just hard to get Mae to smile instead of looking at Anna smiling

Not too bad

Ah boy

Mom and the girls

Anna doesn't smile as easy with just a timer

C'mon Anna!  We can't just get Mae to smile normal like this very many times!

Smile Mae!  C'mon!

We give up

Is it just me or have the girls gotten taller?  My other thought was, "Maybe  they'll get a 'teammate-sister' picture like this one day."

Out of the Mouth of Babes

While reading ESPN the Magazine (that's my girl!) Mae came across a Geico ad.  Her reaction?  "Dada!"  We thought it was just a one time thing.  We would then randomly pull out the ad and ask, "Mae...who's that?"  "Dada!"  Everytime she sees this picture, somehow she thinks it's me.  When Lindsey is working on something in the office, she doesn't even have to look anyore.  When Mae says ,"Dada," she know she has come across another Gieco ad.  Lindsey is more offended by it than I am.  I guess it could be worse...actually, no I can't think of anyone else that would be worse that would remind Mae of me - maybe a female caveman...or this lady? -T

Rivalry Senior Night: Chalk One Up For the Good Guys

There are some nights that you'll remember for the rest of your life. This night against Indian Hill was one of them. The JV had only one blemish all season: Loss at Indian Hill. The Varsity had not beaten Indian Hill since 2008. No Varsity CHL team had beaten Indian Hill in 54 games spanning 4 seasons. It was also our last home game - Senior Night. It wasn't known, but it was also Papa D's and my last home game. On this night, Mae brought her "A" game and everyone else did as well. -T

Mae with the Seniors (and others)




Mae loved Anne - and it was one of the few names she could say

Mom let her stay up past her bedtime for the entire Varsity game...she is ready to GO!




Mae congratulating the JV and keeping them loose at halftime of the Varsity game




Mom found a place to spread out and camp on the floor where Mae had more cheering access

The Varsity game was getting tense so Mae went for reinforcements

What a night

JV Game: Madeira 36 Indian Hill 28

Varsity: Madeira 39 Indian Hill 34

Mae Does Her Santa Lucia Responsibility

As tradition has it for Santa Lucia...

"On the morning of December 13, the oldest daughter dresses in a special long white dress with a red ribbon around the waist and white socks and no shoes. She puts a wreath made out of leaves on her head. The wreath has 6 - 8 candles on it...The children serve [milk] and [amazing cinnamon rolls dripping in frosting] to the rest of the family...As they bring in the [rolls] and [milk] the girls sing "Santa Lucia" (in Swedish, of course), (this didn't happen)...and then...the children then go to their neighbors and teachers and serve them the [milk and cinnamon rolls] (this didn't happen either).

So, this is what Mae did...more or less. Bottom line...we got cinnamon rolls! -T

We took a few family pictures PRE-Santa Lucia...

Well shoot.

Too much zoom on that last one

I wanna say this is the one we ended up using on our Christmas card

There's our Catholic deacon boy?

Nope, that's actually our Mae J!

Lots of distractions going on so she keeps the candlelit hat on

She wanted no part of the Santa hat..."It's Santa LUCIA, not Santa CLAUS!"

What the...?

She didn't technically bring the cinnamon rolls to us, she actually didn't even want them for herself. Here's us...trying to trick her into eating cinnamon rolls by enticing her with broccoli first. Our daughter is not normal.
Scared to death of sweets...she actually once told us, "A moment on the lips, forever on the hips."

Eating her broccoli, keeping an eye on the evil cinnamon rolls
This is post-dinner so...Broccoli = Dessert

So we trapped her to make her eat sweets!

"You WILL eat sweets little girl!"
(she looks like she just wants to dive right in, huh?)

We gave up...Dad ate the cinnamon roll and Mae ate her preferred dessert
It's not funny Mae...you're a strange strange child.

Green=Good, Sweets=Sin

Our First Parental "Uh Oh" Moment

The night of her 10 month mark, Mae also figured out how to do something. Lindsey and I were playing the piano together, Mae was playing on the floor. Someone wanted a better view of her parents playing(fumbling) the piano together...and she succeeded. -T

The ball wasn't there enticing her either...she brought that with her.

To make this story even more interesting...play "Name That Movie" with something Lindsey says.

In Case You Haven't Heard...I Have BIG Blue Eyes!

A tribute to the feature that sucks people in. These are all recent random pictures that I decided could all fall under this title. -T

I didn't take this picture, nor do I know what the purpose of the flower was, but hey, it's cute

Oh man...could a picture GET any better? She loves the swaddle

Okay, so you can't see her eyes in this tribute to her eyes, but she's wearing the color of her eyes and Carolina did win that night so it was all just a baby blue kind of night!

Sleepy blue eyes

Chubby-cheeked blue eyes

This was the stroller ride we took after she lost her mind crying. Stroller rides are amazing...as are her eyes even when squinty!

Under a Year Old = Best For the Parents Not the Baby

Since Baby Station was in our room to start, we realized that the most covenient place for Mae to sleep was on the changing table, and when we say changing table we really mean the shelf below. It was bed level...perfect...right next to Mom! Is this bad parenting or showing her who's boss!?

She liked it there!

See...totally convenient!

Starved for Attention

With Lindsey being pregnant and getting to go get stitches a few months ago, I think I felt a little jealous. Well, nothing a slice to the knee can't fix! Dad gathered a crew (Dale, Brian, me, and him) to put a metal roof on Grandpa's garage. The metal sheets were too long so I had the job to cut them shorter with shears and then hand them to Brian who was at the bottom of the roof and then he would screw in the bottom while Dad screwed in the top and the middle (he was on the top of the roof). Dale had not arrived from work yet. It was a GREAT system for about 30 minutes. As I was pulling off one sheet of metal to cut the next one, I slipped on a little lip in the grass and pulled the metal sheet right across the inside of my left knee. It hurt, but only like a paper cut would. Unfortunately, it was not like a paper cut. I saw the scratch and then was able to open up the side of my knee and see inside and as we all know Todd and insides of bodies don’t mix well. After a very brief feeling of light-headedness, I drove myself to urgent care, met Lindsey there, got 8 stitches, got a tetanus shot, and that was that.

The good news? I got some attention finally! =)
The bad news? I can't exercise for 10-12 days...8 weeks straight of motivation totally down the tubes!

This is a really close shot of it...you can see it's more deep than wide. That must be a needle the doctor stuck in to show the size of the wound. Oh no...whoops...I'm not sure how a fence hole picture got into this post!

We didn't really have a shot of it before the stitches since I was out on the job

Wounds are supposed to be gross! All mine looks like is a scratch with stitches in it!

All the attention I got just makes me look ultimately look like a wuss...seriously, a scratch with 8 stitches in it. I PROMISE it really did need stitches and I could really see inside past the skin! I'm not lying just for the attention!

We're Going WHERE For Your Family's Vacation?

So, seven years ago, I was engaged to someone who is not my wife. Let's ask a few questions...

Where is this former filly from and is currently still living? Savannah, GA
Where are we spending two days of our vacation? Savannah, GA

Interesting...it gets better...

Where are we spending the other days while we are down there? Tybee Island
Where was the honeymoon supposed to take place seven years ago? Tybee Island

Interesting...it gets even better...

Even though we aren't deemed "friends" on Facebook, do we have any mutual friends? Yes, two...Amanda Stalvey Crolley AND Amie Adams Spjut.

Interesting...it still gets even better...

"Amie, how do you know (former filly)?"
"She's in our ward."
"Huh...we used to be engaged."

From there we find out she has served with Amie in the Relief Society and currently the Primary. Her husband is also home teaching companions with Ryan.

Interesting...the story flames out here...

She was out of town at church.

This story started when we were pulling out of the driveway to leave. I looked at the address we were going to and it said Tybee Island, GA. That's how all this curiousity and information digging started.

Would pictures REALLY make this post any better? No