Playing with Garner

Last weekend, Clayton and I went over to Rachel and John's house to visit.  Clayton loved playing with Garner.

 

 

 

 

Harris, don't you think she needs a little brother? Ha!

Our Little Toddler

Clayton has been taking more and more steps.  She still prefers crawling as it is much fast but she will toddle when she isn't too much in a hurry.  This day she took off and made it pretty far.

Da, Why is the White-Bearded Man Holding Me?

Harris and Clayton were going to Bass Pro Shops while I was out shopping with my mom.  I jokingly said, "Get her picture taken with Santa while you're there."  Well, I got a text of my confused, shoeless baby and Santa.

For her first Santa encounter, I'm surprised she wasn't screaming.  I'll get her all "dolled-up" for another picture with Santa.

Clayton's 1st Thanksgiving

Last year's Thanksgiving, we thought at any second I'd go into labor.  With the "progress" I had made, my doctor guessed our baby was coming early.  So, we had a Thanksgiving meal at my parents which basically consisted of them and Harris just sitting around waiting for my body to give me a "sign".  Nothing!  Our baby had no intentions of coming.  Heck, it probably would have been January if we had waited on her.  Sometimes she has to be made to do things and along with changing her diaper, her entrance into the world was another one of them.


This year, we started out the long holiday weekend by driving from Tupelo to Iuka, MS to visit Harris' family on Wednesday night.  We ate dinner with his grandparents and mingled with the rest of the family.  Then, we drove to Memphis so Harris could wake up and hunt on Thanksgiving morning.  

Harris fried the turkey.  He gets an A+.

Kids...are they all strange these days?

Christine and the feast she prepared: spinach madeleine, dressing, sweet potatoes, mash potatoes, green bean bundles, and lady peas.  Yum!

If you're wondering why Clayton has on a LSU apron....well, the highchair, which happens to be mine from when I was little, doesn't have straps.  So my mom ties Clayton to the chair with the apron.

Clayton enjoyed the sweet potato casserole and tolerated the spinach madeleine.

But it was past her nap time and she was done.  Her rubbing her eyes moved to her hair.

After a few mimosas I thought it would be great entertainment to join the masses at Toys R' Us for early black Friday shopping.  I thankfully came to my senses remembering past times when individuals come to blows over a toy and opted against this.  After seeing the long lines on the news and knowing I had nothing in particular to buy, I'm glad I found other ways to entertain myself Thanksgiving evening......making party hats for Clayton's birthday party.

This year's Thanksgiving didn't have the possible surprise factor like the previous but will always be coined "Clayton's 1st Thanksgiving."  It was a reflection of how thankful we are for all of God's blessings and a reminder to not just be thankful one day of the year but everyday.  

Dog Food & Pumpkin Stems= yum!

Clayton likes to play in Sadie's food and get a nibble when she can.  It's torture for Sadie who hopes she is getting fed again but she's excited to get any Clayton drops.

And I'm not sure what the fun with tasting pumpkins stems was besides weird. 

Friendsgiving

Our friends in Memphis have a tradition of having a potluck Friendsgiving the week of Thanksgiving.  It's a great time of food and fellowship with friends.

This was last year.

Yep, I'm the extremely preggers one who learned from these pics that it's not okay to wear horizontal stripes when you're about to pop (or ever really).

Sadly, this year we were in Tupelo and not able to make it to the Memphis Friendsgiving.  So the Rogers' and Rhea's had our own Tupelo version.

And I learned from this year's pics that I will be hitting the tanning bed soon.

LSU vs. Ole Miss Weekend

We returned from Louisiana on Thursday and of course spent the rest of the weekend in Memphis.

She looks huge in this picture.

I bought Clayton a new toy and this is how she thanked me.  It scared her terribly.

On Friday we went to dinner with the Koerner's and Mr. Fienup.  Clayton (11 months) and Baby Denny (2.5 months) were introduced.  Think it's time to switch to a bigger car seat?

On Saturday, we headed over to my sister's to watch the LSU vs. Ole Miss game.  A friend sent me a text, "Is Clayton wearing purple and gold today or does her dad have her in red and blue?"  I hadn't even thought much about it being the family "rivalry game" but my response, "Oh she will be sporting the winning team shortly in her cheerleader outfit.  And she doesn't own anything red or blue.  Her mom does the shopping around here. ha."

Clayton got a shopping cart!  She only needs her Da's credit card now.

And our Sunday ritual of driving back to Tupelo.

Oh, and the Tigers won, 52-3.

Louisiana Getaway

Harris headed back to Tupelo on Sunday.  Clayton and I stayed at my parents and headed with them to our hunting camp in Louisiana for a change of scenery.


Aren't my girls cute?

Clayton would fall asleep and then when she realized that Sadie was napping on her, she would kick her feet.  Oh, children!

I entertained myself by snapping snaggle-tooth pics.

 
And after 11 long months....Clayton can finally hold her ba-ba all by herself.

After a bit of crying cause she wasn't so sure about the pack and play, she fell asleep with her cereal and one sock.

The sisters love to look at all the "excitement" in the campyard.  We accidentally forgot to make sure the latch was closed and she took a tumble onto the porch.  Opps!  (yes, making sure it was pushed closed was a priority then on.)  Good thing, my little girl is tough.

So, we are at our hunting camp and camo is acceptable.  Well, I bought Clayton a few camo garments.  Since she has almost outgrown them I thought she could flaunt them one more time.  I dressed her up in the most tacky one.  It's a quality-lacking dress with camo on the skirt part and it's embroidered on the top with a picture of a deer and states "Daddy's Little Deer".  Yep, tacky.  When we were getting her dressed, my dad asked if she had anything better to wear.  My mom and I laughed.  She woke up from her nap and he took her around the camp with him to visit a few people.

He brought her back and insisted she change.  Hilarious!  Pretty bad when the guy who flaunts a mustache for over 40 years, Hawaiian shirts, and hunting scenic shirts says she is tacky.  

The "sign-in shed" at our camp has pictures from all the years.  Here's the pic of my first deer from 1991.

On Wednesday, we made a trip to Vidalia to visit Cajun Specialty Meats & Seafood to grab some stuff to take home with us and stopped to eat at Big John's BBQ in Ferriday.

   That afternoon while my parents went hunting, Clayton, Sadie and I picked pecans.

 
One of my helpers didn't want to sit for long.

My other helper ran around checking everything out and then would run back to her momma to check in periodically and then take off running around the orchard again.

And about the time I gave up on Clayton sitting in the stroller (the straps no longer exist so I couldn't strap her in), she conked out.

Clayton has been taking more and more steps.  This is me calling her like a dog and her walking a few steps.  (I try not to talk on video and this clip proves why.  I really am not a military-mom.  But ignore that...she walking, she walking.)

And this was the ending to our relaxing excursion.