Some Pictures I had Forgotten About

These were taken several weekends ago. It was cold and rainy and Alex was grumpy. She couldn't play outside, and I had told her no more T.V. for the day. My intentions were for her to play with all of the Christmas gifts that she had received. The next thing I knew, she was telling me how tired she was. I was doing laundry so I thought she went to her room. This is where I found her! She is REALLY asleep!


Copper begins to get annoyed!


He got out of his bed, to let her sleep.

A Christmas Post... a little delayed.

The following pictures are just some of the things that we did during our busy month of December.

When we returned home from Ohio, the next day we went to pick out our Christmas tree. We usually go to the Farmer's Market, to pick out our tree, on a Saturday or Sunday during the day. This year we went on a Monday night. Dad, Jody, and Jordan were not able to make it... and there were not a lot of places that were open. Some years when we go we are wearing shortsleeves to pick out a tree, but this year, it was was pretty darn cold. So, this picture is of Alex in front of the tree that she picked out, all bundled up in a hat that (I think)my Aunt, Eloise had given to me when I was a little girl. Mom had just found them in some storage stuff at her house.

Here is Alex and Grayben, visibly cold!!


Jordan's birthday falls right in the middle of the holiday season. We celebrated it this year, at Corey and Erin's house. You can see in the next two pictures, the apple cinnamon cake that Jordan requested... and his ever favorite mint chocolate chip icecream.

Alex had a little bit harder time "believing" this year. But, she did want to go to see Santa. And, I am glad she did. She looked very cute in the outfit that my mom made for her... I am just sorry I did not get a good full length shot of her in it.

Alex had asked for a Veteranarian Doctor Kit this year. My mom found one and she was soooooo excited when she opened it. She probably would have been okay with just that and nothing else. She immediately started pretending. There is a picture in her vet attire below... but, the following pictures got out of sequence again.

Dad opening his Ranger Windshield from mom.

Alex and Grayben, waiting to open their presents.

We also went to Samford to see the Nutcracker, and Alex really enjoyed the first half. I forgot to tell her that there would be an intermission and we would need to sit there for another 45 minutes. She was really good about it, and LOVED the first half (it ended with snow! in the auditorium) but really thought that we should be able to go after the first act. This picture is of her in front of the Christmas tree at Samford.

This is my cousin's oldest girl Evan.She was just a doll. She got the Hannah Monana guitar from Santa and just performed her little heart out for all of us. Precious! http://www.thefreemanfamilyalbum.blogspot.com/

The Brother's and Sister's or Aunt's and Uncle's. Rhonda, Darrell, Mom, and Doyle. This year was one of the best Christmas' we have had in several years. There were some key family members that were dearly missed, but we still had a great time without them. Jody even commented on how different things were this year (in a positive way) Can't you just see on their faces how much fun they were having. We only had about 42 cameras going off to capture this moment in front of the infamous mural.

Alex opening her Wii from Santa on Christmas morning.

Mom opening the portrait of Alex and Grayben that we (Corey and Erin and Jody and I) had done for her.

Alex in her Vet attire.

These are the stockings that I made for us this year. I loved what we had, but Erin had gotten these really cool looking ones from Christmas Village, and I decided that I wanted some similar, too. So, mom drew up a pattern for me and I picked out the fabric and sewed and monogrammed them. I think they turned out pretty cute.

So, when the season started rolling in. Jody and I decided that the washer and dryer, that we had to purchase in October would be our Christmas presents to each other. They are really nice front loaders that I have been wanting for a long time. And if any of you knew what I was going through just to wash clothes.. you will agree that it was at least time for a new washer! Anyway, he also surprised me with tickets to Robin Williams that I am very excited about. He loves him, and so do I but I think I am most excited about a TRUE date night, even though I have to wait for another 2 1/2 months. But, between our schedules we are often too tired to go out and do anything together. We usually just spend time at home watching a movie or something like that. So, this should be fun!... watch for a post about that later.

Probably, though, the most sentimental and thoughtful gift of all came from Alex this year. She planned a "photo shoot" with Erin back in the spring or early summer. She was supposed to spend the night with them and she had planned out everything from where they should go to take the pictures, to what she would wear, etc. Well, Corey and Erin got the news of Grayben's arrival the same week that this was all supposed to happen. So, everything got postponed sort of indefinitely. But, in September, around Alex birthday, they were able to follow through with everything. And Erin and Corey created this slideshow
And Alex all on her own created a scrapbook which she has inherited quite a talent for from her Aunt Rhonda, entitled "A Perfect Day". I wish that I could have taken pictures of every page to show... it is really sweet, down to every last caption.

Thanksgiving Trip to Ohio

the captions on this post are off... hope you can figure it out, cause I can't figure out how to correct it... not sure what I did! :)

We left for Ohio, and headed for Athens. We were going to visit Ohio University for Jordan. We started Tuesday afternoon after I got off from work. We drove until we got to Lexington, and it was pretty late. I had packed up some groceries... so, we stopped at a "fine" hotel (It was really the only one we could find as we drove around late at night not really knowing where we were.) that was being remodeled if that is what they wanted to call it! We finally went to sleep and woke up semi- early and started getting ready for about 5 more hours of driving. The following picture is Jody drying Alex's hair because it was entirely too cold (20 degrees) to go out with a wet head. As we were pulling out of our hotel, the temperature guage started doing weird things... Jody got out and tended to that which wound up being an easy fix, but definitely set the mood for travel on a bad note! The directions were kinda screwy that we got off the internet. Needless to say we passed about 25 NICE hotels, that if we had just driven about 5 more miles, we would have gotten to them. I got us lost once and Jody got us lost once and it was just a very tense and crazy drive on back roads that were not clearly marked!




On those back roads we went in and out of West Virginia into Ohio two or three different times (not because we got lost but because that is actually what you were supposed to do the way went! CRAZY!) Every time we went in and out of W. V. and Ohio we crossed the Ohio River and traveled over some cool bridges like the one below:

We also went past a Nuclear Power Plant and Alex insisted that we take pictures. She thought that the structures were neat and had no idea what it really was.

We finally made it to Ohio University. It was pretty desolate because of the holidays, but it was still a beautiful campus and a good opportunity to just walk around and see what it is. We walked into the city of Athens, which I thought was very cool. We went to the book store... Jordan got a t-shirt, and Alex got a book.

Jordan at the "Main Gate" of Ohio University!


This is Lindley Hall. Where the ROTC is housed and hopefully if Jordan gets to go here, he will be doing the ROTC, also.

Finally... We made it to Scot and Tracey's house. AND... THERE WAS SNOW! The girls played out in it... A LOT!! They really do have so much fun together!

They played with their sweet dog Nicki. And Aunt Tracey was kind enough to pose for pictures, too.


Alex loved it there and Chase loves his Mommy!



Jody caught up with his Dad, who came over for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Alex and I went to the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium, while Uncle Rob and Jody worked at Pap-Pap's house to fix the ceiling in his bathroom. The zoo was pretty cool! But I especially like the aquarium.


Alex petting the sting rays and sand sharks!:


Some really big fish!:



The zoo had two really cute baby elephants that were only about 4 months old! We spent about an hour in the elephant house. They were so intriguing... I just wish I had had my video camera with me!

And the other large animal of our trip!! Hunter, the golden retriever. None of the pictures that I took do justice to the mammoth size of this dog. He is my father-in-law's dog... and he loves him so much. He also feeds him a ton. Now, as Dennis says, he is naturally (or unnaturally) a very large golden to begin with... but the size that he has gotten to is CRAZY! He eats as much as Denny! He is literally the size of a coffee table!

Alex and Pap-pap! LOOK! they have the exact same expression!









Alex helping put the finishing touches on Pap-pap's bathroom ceiling.

And now relaxing with Hunter! the Mammoth Dog!

TAG

On my cousin's blog she did one of these TAG games, anyone who reads the blog should look at their own 4th folder at the 4th picture and post it... This one is mine! Thought it was pretty funny! This is from our trip to Ohio for Thanksgiving (that I never blogged about... I need to do that!) Alex took a shower and would not let me dry it and it was 19 degrees outside. She let her daddy, so I took a picture!