Merry Christmas!

"Baby Drew" and "Cadey-boy." 

Cade has since quit calling her Baby Drew, but I think he will always be Cadey-boy to her.

Drew and Cole, Carson, and Cade all got guitars. Drew let Cade borrow the Barbie guitar for a bit. They look like they know what they're doing, don't they?

Here Drew was trying to pray (by herself) at dinner.

Christmas morning Drew got a new toy kitchen and food to go in it from Santa. She's been baking desserts for us ever since.

As well as feeding her Bitty Baby, in princess clothes, of course.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Preschool Class Party

 We're not sure if Drew is giving her teacher a backrub or if she's going to be an over-the-shoulder reader.

 Papa, Grammy and Daddy all visited Drew during her party. It was the first time Drew saw Daddy for a few days since he stayed in Memphis a little longer. She was super excited!

Memphis 2010

For the first, time Drew and I went to CMOM (Children's Museum of Memphis). There was hardly anyone there and she played for 2 hours! I think we'll have to make it an annual trip! Here she is in an actual FedEx cockpit.

Doing a little Kroger grocery shopping. While her cart had ice cream, cake, waffles and syrup, she also packed it with fruit and vegetables -- could some of what Mommy and Daddy tell her be sticking?

Riding on a police motorcycle, a law enforcement future?

Drew and her cousin Grace (2) help Pa, Will and Jeremy get out the Christmas decorations and Grandma and Pa's house.

Drew was in heaven with all of the singing toys Grandma had!

As the older cousin, Drew bore the responsibility of putting the angel on the tree.

Will was certainly kept busy dancing, swinging and being tickled by both girls.

"Mom, why are you inside the house?" 25 degrees, that's why.

Sarah Guff, Maggie Guff, Drew and and Sam Cohen - the party crew!

Christmas stuff

Drew got a few new ornaments this year: Tiana from the Murdents, Belle from Grammy and a recordable ornament that now has her singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas. She couldn't wait to decorate!

And, she got a return letter from Santa Claus!

Christmas Program 2010

We're a little behind on posting with the program being Wednesday night and then hopping a flight to Memphis Thursday morning. You can't tell by the photos, but Drew decided she was going to give a solemn performance at church, very few smiles from our usually boisterous little girl. Videos to come.

She was definitely ready to boogie at the beginning of the night.

 Proof that she knew the choreography to at least one of the songs.

One quick, flash of a smile after some prodding from Mom.

Can anyone/everyone guess what song this is? I think it's the universal toddler Christmas song to sing at church programs.

She had quite an audience of friends/godparents...

Grammy and Boppa....

Mom and Dad...

and one proud Papa!



'Tis the season

....for friend love. The girls were hilarious at the El Niguel Breakfast with Santa this year, they hugged and held hands and chatted and kissed. 

 "Ok Santa, here's the deal: I leave you cookies and you leave me the good stuff. Got it?"

Thanks to Boppa and Grammy for taking us to Breakfast with Santa for the third year. This year Drew could not wait to sit on Santa's lap. She ran over and gave him an extended hug, sat on his lap, smiled big and whispered what she wanted. She was super excited.

The girls are watching the Christmas puppet show. I'm guessing this is the part where SnowBird comes out. Meghan is afraid of birds and I think Drew is just sympathizing.

They were quite affectionate toward each other and just love to play together.

Not our Christmas card, but not a bad family photo.

I mentioned they were affectionate, right?

Thanksgiving

As the holidays come crashing in, my posts and pictures are getting fewer and further between! As always, Thanksgiving was very plentiful (although as of this afternoon we were officially out of leftover turkey) and we're all reminded how good we have it. I'm most thankful for knowing that even when we hit rough patches we have it pretty darn good. This year I did a little more cooking than usual - I figure 31 is the age where you really have to earn your Thanksgiving keep. I made sweet potatoes, pecan pie and a pumpkin cream pie, all from my new favorite recipe blog: The Pioneer Woman (see righthand side for link). Everything turned out good, but Jeremy has requested the pecan pie make another appearance at Christmas, I usually trust his judgement but since my dad (who holds nothing back) also loved the pie, I think I found a winner! Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and is as excited for Christmas as we are!

SeaWorld with the McFarlanes

Drew and Nolan became fast friends and were so sweet to watch at SeaWorld. Here, Nolan is putting on the moves. Drew didn't hate the attention.

Look Dad! Birds!

Watching Shamu take a few warm-up laps before the big show. 

The fish was THAT big. I think it could've swallowed Nolan whole. 

Patiently waiting in our seats at the top of the Splash Zone. I think the kids were disappointed that we didn't get soaked.

Neither kid wanted to hold any of their parents' hands, but they quite enjoyed each other!

I can't tell you how much I love this picture.

To end the day, we got to meet Elmo, Zoey and Cookie Monster. Nolan was a little shy but Drew could not wait to hand out hugs. Overall a great day at SeaWorld with friends we see far too infrequently.