tallahassee

On our way home from Destin, we took a trip down memory lane driving through Seaside and Panama City, and Woody and I relived our beach project days!  We then stopped in Tallahassee and made it just in time to visit the Old State Capital Museum.  The girls got to do a scavenger hunt for items in the museum, and it was really neat to walk around our state's capital city, if only for a little while!  

thanksgiving 2011

For Thanksgiving this year, we joined family in Destin to celebrate not only Thanksgiving, but also Nonie and Dagan's anniversary and a very special birthday for Nonie!  We all had the best time.  It could not have been better!  

And I have no pictures to document it, but one of my favorite parts was getting to go out for Midnight Madness with Woody... just the two of us! 

Looking to the right standing on our balcony... 

thanks and giving trees

For Thanksgiving 2011 we tried something new that I think will become a family tradition!  I got the idea from the blog, Chocolate on my Cranium.  I printed off a "Thanks" tree and a "Giving" tree for each girl and we hung them in the hallway.  Woody and I will have trees next time around!  Beginning the first of November, each night at dinner, the girls would say something they were thankful for and we would write it on a "leaf" and that leaf would get glued to the "Thanks" tree.  For the "Giving" tree, they would say something that they did to help or serve someone that day and that would also get written on a "leaf" and glued to the tree.  The "Giving" tree was a little more difficult, but after a few days, the older girls started looking for opportunities to serve someone throughout the day!  All three of them really got into this and it was really neat to look at the trees at the end of the month to see them full of thanks and giving leaves!  

Here's a pic from our first day of doing the trees...

thanksgiving part two

The week/weekend of Thanksgiving, Woody had a crazy work schedule, so I took off with the girls and went to Statesboro to see my family.  We got to see lots of family as we spent Thanksgiving day with my mama's side of the family and then got together with all the Groovers the next night.  Chloe had fun being passed around and Arden and Esther loved being able to have some extra time with their cousins!

Chloe with her Great Uncle Ricky and Great Aunt Martha 

"Flying" with Uncle Curt

3 silly monkeys

Harrison and Chloe

Papa and Esther roasting marshmallows

Papa and G.G. with all their grandkids

At Aunt Gale's for the Groover get together

We also got to meet up with Betsy and Hillary, friends I've known since at least preschool.  It was fun being able to catch up a little and see all our kiddos play together.  Here they are taking a break from playing at the park.

Chloe and the mommies

early Thanksgiving and Christmas

This year was our year to spend Thanksgiving in Birmingham, but because of Woody's work schedule we actually went up the week before.  Although we were gone for a total of 6 days, 4 of those days were spent traveling in the car!  Our visit was a lot shorter than normal, but we had a wonderful time seeing everyone and hope our next trip we'll be able to stay a little longer!

 Chloe was introduced to more family and a couple of friends during our visit...

with Daddy and Great Grandmom

Allison and Chloe

me and Chloe (10 weeks old) and Heather and Chloe's future husband, Ty (a week old)! :)

Uncle Michael and Chloe

The Saturday we were there, we all walked over to the Samford football game... took me back to my SU days!  

Dagan and Esther

Arden with the cheerleaders behind her... she had an absolute blast and I must say, was a little dangerous with that pom pom!

We celebrated an early Christmas on our last day in town.  It was a lot of fun watching the girls open their gifts and to see how different they are when it comes to opening gifts!  Arden flung tissue paper everywhere and looked like she was in a race to get hers opened first. Esther, on the other hand,  took her sweet time, carefully unwrapping and opening each individual gift.

The girls with Nonie and Dagan