christmas celebration--round one

one of the joys of having such a big family is being able to have multiple celebrations. fortunately, we were able to forge the snow roads and make it to georgia last weekend. i'll give you two guesses for all that jack wanted for christmas.

speaking of two. i'm thinking there are only two things that keep little emery's bottom stationary. 1. video game 2. opening presents

these are pretty much the only non-blurry pictures i have of him.

mia drew an excellent rendition of our very own family portrait. byron's the one on the far right. evidently, mia was feeling pretty generous with the brown marker. 'tis the season.

while she wasn't practicing on becoming the next davinci, she was cuddling up to our little honey bunny.

and here's a shot of quite possibly the cutest kids in history

hope your holidays were as merry as ours.

have yourself a mary little christmas

photos by kristi hedberg photography

baby it's cold outside

snow-mania. here's a shot of our driveway and outback. yep, there's a car underneath that white stuff.

luckily, we still have power, heat, and beer. so, we're good to go for the weekend. although, we might try and tackle the roads and head to georgia. wish us luck.

snow way out

we woke up this morning to snow falling from the sky and it hasn't stopped yet. this is definitely the most snow that we've seen since living in Montana. unfortunately, since it hasn't really stopped falling, we haven't been able to play for very long. well, that and the fact that we haven't gotten the girlie a snow suit yet. whoops.

mary adelyn liked the snow and loved watching delia rolling around in it. so much so, that she let us know she was not happy about coming back inside.

believe it or not, she was really interested in putting my boots on. that is until, we put her on the floor to stand. we're hoping the weather will allow us to leave town tomorrow to begin our holiday celebrations. if not, looks like we be staying close to the fire and wishing we had made a mad rush to the grocery store.

i'm in love...

with this little girl

and my new camera lens


and my new boots. merry christmas to me. have i ever mentioned how long i've been searching for a pair of brown boots? well, i don't think that i will. it's a little embarrasing in regards to my inability to decide on the perfect pair. but, all that is behind me now. because i couldn't be happier. may this be the first and last pair i ever buy. of brown boots, of course. there's always more room in my closet for other colors.

better run, got to return the three others that didn't make the cut.

new uses for old things

we've had an extra crib mattress for quite some time, just sitting in the corner of the guest room. obviously, we both hate to just through something away, as evidenced by the amount of time the mattress remained in our guest room corner. well, that or the fact that it would require spare time to be able to take it somewhere. so, byron had the great idea to use it as a "gate" to block the entrance into the hallway this weekend. with the crazy idea that if we could block her in one room, we might actually be able to just sit and hang out on the couch--not so much. so, i decided that we could spoil the dogs a little and lay it flat for them in the living room. and yes, it was intended to be a one time thing. but it seems that the dogs and mary adelyn have adopted it as their new favorite place in the living room.

delia doesn't mind sharing this with babies.

real or fake. and the best part is, mary adelyn has a new place to watch for her daddy to come home.

let's...

...go



for



a



walk.

are you coming?



good.



then, i'll run from you.

this is the new game.

mary adelyn tested,

mary adelyn approved.



what better way to try out your new coat and hat. the fridge. she's a smart one.

the o-o-z

as it is now referred to at my sister's house. if said allowed or spelled correctly, riley kate, my 3 year old niece, has her bags packed and car seat buckled in 2.5 seconds. so, it was fun to finally experience the zoo through riley's eyes. this girl is destined to be an elephant trainer, or at least a zoo tour guide.

mary adelyn was actually a little more interested in the animals than what we thought she would be. probably because byron and i were both expecting to see the zoo that we remembered growing up. luckily for the kids, and the animals, it is in much better standing. the parakeet retreat was definitely a fun spot.

but not quite as fun as the goats and sheep.

this girl loves to 'pat them gently.' the zebras were pretty cool, but not nearly as interesting as the fence that contained them.

and to finish off the tour, there's nothing better than a merry-go-round.

we had a great time and somehow managed to escape with these three monkeys.

first things, first

here's a peek of the girlie's first birthday tailgate. she wasn't quite sure of what to think while watching us run around and get the tailgate situated. so, she just sat on the chick-fil-a nugget platter (minus the nuggets, of course) and soaked it all in.

and then, like the light above the griswold family christmas tree, her cousin mia arrived.

oh, how we love mia. i'm already thinking of ways we can smuggle her back to asheville with us. and when mia found bigger people to play with, the tunnel arrived!

i have a feeling a tunnel very similar to this one will find a permanent place in our hallway. i'm sure the dogs will adjust to their new mode of travel down the hallway. don't worry, cousin elic got his chance in the tunnel too.

now for the most important of details...the sweets! mmm, hamburger cupcakes.

well, not really hamburger. more like brownie-burger cupcakes. they actually tasted as good as they looked. i found this really cute idea on one of my favorite cooking/baking blogs. and you know, you can't have burgers without fries.

that's what sugar cookies are for. special thanks to the chick-fil-a of clayton, ga for sponsoring this event.

mary adelyn thoroughly enjoyed her very own red velvet birthday cake (although, i'm pretty sure she never really made it past the icing).

and even decided to share with her daddy.

this girl is a true sweetheart, especially now that she has entered the world of sugar. all in all, it was a wonderful tailgate. we couldn't have asked for better weather. and the amount of friends and family that traveled to athens truly amazed us. byron kept saying the last time we had that many people gathered for an event was for our wedding. which just so happen to take place about 15 feet to the right of our tailgate.

it's still hard to believe that mary adelyn is officially a toddler.

here's to many more years just as fun as the last!