Iron Bowl Family Fun

We went to Ramer to my sister Amy's house to visit with my Dad and Step-mom who came up from Jacksonville, FL. My grandmother also came over for the day. We had a fun time hanging out and watching the game. Of course, it was a complete disaster as Auburn didn't even show up. My Dad was happy though! I guess we have to let 'em win some time, huh?


Natalie and Daddy playing together


My nephew Braden was such a big boy- he climbed up on the step ladder to help his Mom make pecan pies.


Baby Ava is growing so fast! Her she is with her Mee-maw.

Turkey Time

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year for the first time ever. We alternate each year between eating with my family and Ryan's family and this year was with Ryan's family. Now that we've got Natalie we thought it might be nice to have everyone over to our house. Ryan decided to follow Alton Brown's advice and put the turkey in a brine bath to make it really moist & tender. Here is the before and after:





Alton Brown's advice for brining the turkey to make it super moist was dead-on; it was the most moist Thanksgiving turkey we've ever had.... but, some of the different spices & ingredients in the brine recipe weren't flavors that we really cared for... oh well, it was still good!

Here are some cute pics from Thanksgiving day:


Exploring the magazine basket with Daddy


Natalie and her Grandma Sharon


Our first Thanksgiving as a family


Look at that big cheesy smile; she is so proud of herself for reading that book


Waving at the camera with her second cousin Angie


Reading books with Great Aunt Linda Kay

Scooting Part 2

She is doing it MUCH more often now so I was able to catch it on tape! :)

Daddy's desk

Natalie thought she was such a "big girl" when I put her in Daddy's office chair and let her explore his desk drawer.


Look at that concentration on her face!


She thought the paper clips were her special "prize"! She was in heaven!

Brrrr...... It's cold out

The high temp for the day wasn't even 50 and the lows for tonight are in the 20s! That is C-O-L-D by Alabama standards. I've been seraching in every store for a winter hat for my sweet little baby's bald head.
I haven't had much luck because either I didn't like the style or I couldn't find her size. (She has a large noggin- over 95th percentile at her 6 month appt.) I finally got this hat at the consignment store (it is size 12-24 months).

So, don't you think the pompom on top is just a little too big??? We're gonna get Natalie's Mimi to fix it.

Scooting along

Natalie has been putting her hands out and pulling/pushing herself along the floor some. She isn't good enough yet for it to be really effective in getting anywhere but she can scoot a few feet if there is something she really wants (like anything that is an "adult" object). Sometimes she manages to go forward; other times it is backward. It sure is cute. Here she is practicing her scooting moves.

AU vs. GA Weekend

Well, the 2008 tailgating season has come to an end (we have one more away game against Bama). It was a rough one for us Auburn fans! Another heart breaker of a game yesterday. We had some friends in town who stayed with us this weekend. The weekend started out with Ryan and Zach preparing 6 slabs of ribs on Friday night. (The guys were picking on me about my blog so this post is dedicated to them.)


Watch out - Men preparing meat!


Saturday morning everyone was up and ready to get out to the tailgate (except me, I stayed home with Natalie until after the game). Ryan decided to pick on Josh by dressing EXACTLY like him (even down to the same pair of Asics) . He didn't have the same Under Armour shirt but Zach did so they switched out. You probably had to be there but at the time it was quite humorous.


"You know how I know you're gay?"- You're both
dressed just alike.



My Mom came and kept Natalie while I headed out to our tailgate after the game. It was COLD and WINDY but that didn't stop our fun. The afternoon involved Ryan and a bottle of "Old Grandad" (he did some google research looking for a "good" cheap bourbon- what an oxymoron!), a few shots of Drambuie, and of course, enjoying the ribs. We called it quits and headed home not too long after it got dark. Let's hope for a better home football season next year!



Ryan and I at our tailgate spot



Acting silly- Sucking the meat off the bone



Some of our tailgate crew



Getting dark out- time to head home!

8 months old

Little Miss NC (Natalie Claire) is 8 months old today. We think she is starting to get a little more hair. Her Daddy still affectionately calls her his "little bald baby" though. She weighed 16 lbs. even on the infant scale Thursday at the support group. Her newest accomplishment is waving. She just started this about a week ago and it is so cute when she does it! She holds her little hand up and opens and closes her fingers. I hope to catch it on camera sometime soon.

I wanted to take her outside for some nice fall pics but she woke up with a little bit of a runny nose and it was colder today than it has been so we stayed indoors. Here she is playing with her toys (well, actually, more like pulling apart her floor mat).

Giggling Girl

This is from about 2 weeks ago. It is so much fun to hear her laugh. I love it!

Happy Birthday Ryan

Today was Ryan's birthday- another year older and another year wiser! Our lives are so different now than they were a year ago. Natalie was more than happy about assisting her Daddy with opening his gifts; of course her favorite part was the tissue paper! :)