A visit from Uncle Brad

David's younger brother, Brad, was in town for the last few weeks. Brad goes to Parker Chiropractic College in Dallas, TX which is about 8 hours away. Usually when Brad comes, he works on housing construction every day with his brothers, so Saturday we decided to do some Memphis touristy stuff with him.

Just outside of Graceland (which is only 10 minutes from our house!) It's customary to do a little vandalism on the wall by writing a tribute to the King. Nothing like graffiti to show how much you care right?


We went downtown to Beale Street to check out all the shops. Downtown Memphis is cool in that so much you want to see is so close: shops, dining, The Orpheum, FedEx Forum, museums, etc. Should've taken more pictures I guess!



We're doing our best "Elvis" faces. Not impressive, I know.

After Beale Street we took a look at the Mississippi River (sorry, no pics) It was a fun day .

Caroline loves her Uncle Brad. They must have some funny connection, because she really does hide from most men she doesn't see regularly. (and even some she does!) It was nice to have him here, he's pretty helpful too - he's an expert at downloading music and pretty good at Guitar Hero! And who doesn't love a free live-in babysitter?!

Our Christmas

Well, this Christmas was interesting. First of all, Caroline has been sick this week. She's had a terrible cold and an ear infection. I'm not sure if it's the medicine she's been on or the lack of peaceful sleep or just a bad case of Toddleritis, but she's been really ornery lately.

Unfortunately, Christmas was no exception.

But, we did have some good times in spite of it!

Caroline loved opening gifts and was a good sport, even though she was coughing the entire time! Caroline got lots of stuff from cousins - it was so fun to hear her say stuff like, "From Holly? From Baby Jenna? That's so nice!"

Archie the Pup was our early Christmas gift! We got him from the same family we got Stewy from. (although Stewy and Archie have different mommies) They were so nice and understanding. And Archie is a good puppy. He is bigger and A LOT more energetic and playful!

Caroline posing with her loot!

That afternoon, we were feeling a little cooped up (especially since we've had to keep Caroline home because she's been sick) so we decided to go to the park by our library. And it was finally a nice, sunny day! Lately it has been so cloudy and rainy (really. for like, 2 or 3 weeks) I asked Dave, "Did we move to Mississippi or Seattle?" I was really missing the Sun! Anyway, we love going to this park because of all the geese! They walk right up to you if you have food for them!

Dave especially loves the geese and I think he could feed them for hours! But Caroline started coughing and we decided to take her home.

That night, Uncle Brad came over and we played Guitar Hero (Dave's Christmas present!) for a couple hours! It's really pretty fun! I'm not much of a video game person, but this is different - I really got into it!

It was a nice Christmas at home, despite some behavioral issues (I really hate to put a kid in time-out on Christmas Day, but a Mom's gotta do what a Mom's gotta do ya know!)

I really missed my AZ family and NM friends this year, but I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Remember when I did that dumb thing? Well, I'm sorry.

Caroline has been cracking us up with her funny way of making amends. Lately she has been randomly apologizing for past transgressions...only she does it a little late. For example, we were driving to church today and Dave and I were discussing the lessons we had to give and Caroline said sweetly and out of the blue, "Dad, I'm sorry I cry when I go to bed." We just looked at each other and smiled and said, "That's ok sweetheart" because she's been doing this A LOT lately! (not crying at bedtime, but saying sorry) Sometimes it will be days after whatever happened! And it's so sweet when she does it! One day, Caroline and I ate lunch at Chik-fil-A and I had to keep telling her to sit down to eat and she kept jumping up with food in her hands and running around. Well, she ending up spilling a glass of milk on a man's foot! I felt horrible and apologized profusely and told Caroline we weren't going out to eat if she couldn't sit until she was finished. She, of course, cried on the way home and the incident was forgotten until a couple days later when she said before naptime, "Mom, I'm sorry I spilled the milk on that guy" I had to think a minute about what she was talking about! It reminds me that she's getting older and has a better memory. So I guess there's no point in me telling her "go to your room and think about what you did" Apparently, she does!

Zoo Lights

Last night we headed to the Memphis Zoo to see the lights. We were in good company with Ryan, Courtney and their girls and Uncle Brad!

The girls couldn't wait to ride the train. It goes around the farm area and we saw two real reindeer! Did you know even female reindeer have antlers? - it's true!

Caroline really just loves Uncle Brad. It usually takes her a while to warm up to men she doesn't see on a regular basis, but not Brad! When we were loading in the cars to go to the zoo, Caroline started crying because she wanted to ride with her cousins... until we explained that Brad was riding in our car. Crying came to an immediate hault and she jumped in with glee!

I'm not sure if the spots are due to the fog in the air or our camera.

Caroline really wanted nothing to do with this panda bear (which she insisted was a polar bear) I just dragged her over for a picture. Mean huh?

The men sat outside while the kids went in to visit with Santa. They really looked like a couple of grumpy old men in their porch chairs until I made them smile for a picture!

They had a room set up to decorate sugar cookies which the girls, of course, enjoyed!

It was fun mostly because the weather cooperated! Sorry I didn't get a picture of everyone touching the snake in the Herpetorium. I don't do snakes. I don't even like to look at them. I just waited outside of the building until they were done! What a wimp!

Breakfast with Santa

Saturday morning we went to "Breakfast with Santa" at the YMCA! We have really been looking forward to this and Saturday was very exciting!

(Waiting her turn with Mrs. Claus!)

We tried the Santa thing last year, but our usually outgoing girl was suddenly shy and scared. So we were a little worried this year that she would clam up.

BUT...

She was ALL smiles!

She ran right up to him and had a cute little conversation with Ol St. Nick! It was really so cute!

She even got a Christmas tree painted on her cheek (that you could still see a little this morning at church - in spite of a bath last night!) And they gave her a bag of "Magic Reindeer Food" (oats and green glitter:) to sprinkle on our lawn to attract the reindeer to our house!

It's so fun this year with her really understanding everything. She's excited for Santa to come and she has decided (with Dad's help) that he would like peanut butter cookies this year!

On a more spiritual note, we told Caroline the story of Christ's birth for family home evening on Monday. We used a nativity set and gospel art pictures and the 5 minute video from the church. It was probably THE BEST FHE we've ever had as a family. Caroline was so interested and really sat down, listened and asked questions. It really felt like how I always thought Family Home Evening should feel!

I think sometimes we think that kids are only interested in fun things. But kids want to learn and feel the Spirit too! Let's hope this is a trend and not just a Christmas-time fluke!

Holiday Spirit

One of the joys of home-ownership is the social obligation to hang Christmas lights on your house!

We had to borrow a ladder for the second level. I was nervous, but he seemed right at home up there!

Caroline was supposed to be napping during this, but she kept peeking out her window to spy on Dave on the ladder!

The picture's fuzzy, I know. I've been having a heck of a time with my camera lately.

But I think Dave did a great job, especially for a first-timer!