Christmas Lights at Bellingrath!

One of our Christmas traditions here is visiting Bellingrath Gardens to see the Christmas lights!

This was one of Ben's favorite displays, the Chinese Gardens:

We used this opportunity to get a rare family photo:

Standing

Maggie hasn't yet demonstrated her new skills for us, but when we aren't around, she will occaisionally pull up.

Does the fact that I'm taking a picture while my daughter is crying make me a bad mother? ;-)

Thanksgiving

We were very thankful this year to have a bunch of our family here for the holidays. My parents came down a week early and so Maggie got to spend a lot of time with "Grammy and Grumpa" which was much needed!




Maggie really started working on her new crawling skills - getting into everything. We now have "Maggie cabinets" in the kitchen in bathroom with things that are safe for her to play with hidden in them. She LOVES playing in those cabinets!


We took the opportunity to do some exploring of the area while my folks were here and visited Dauphin Island, which had been damaged pretty extensively during Hurricane Katrina. There is a lot of rebuilding going on, and it really is a pretty spot - even though it was quite cold and windy (for the gulf).





Of course our family get together wouldn't be complete without the cousins getting in the tub together. This was Maggie's transition to our "big tub" - she's been using the little counter-top version at our house all this time. My back likes the little tub on the counter much better, but with Maggie's new mobility, this is a better option and she LOVES crawling around in the huge tub!


We did some MORE exploring and visited the local zoo which was quite interesting. It's way out in the boondocks and by the time we drove down the dirt rut, I mean road, we really weren't sure what we were about to find, but it was GREAT for the kids! We were greeted by a young pig who followed us around the whole zoo. They had bears and monkeys and lots of tigers and all kinds of other animals and you could feed the animals peanuts though these tubes which was great fun for the kids! It ain't the San Diego zoo, but it was a lot of fun!

Video Update

Some people have reported problems with our video links so I am trying something new - Google has a new video player. I've changed the link on the right so it will take you directly to the video on Google. If you have a problem with this let me know. This link will NOT expire in 7 days (yea!) and you may be able to view it on a dial up connection - let me know if you try it and whether you are successful.

God Bless!
Heather

Fall Vacation

The week of Oct. 20th – 27th, we took a much anticipated vacation.

On Friday, we drove to Florence via Birmingham. We had a fun time at lunch with Aunt Peggy and her friends Sue & Charles.


Then it was on to Florence where we got to spend the evening with Daniel, Abbe, Jonah, and their new baby Maddie. It was great to meet Maddie. She’s so tiny!!

Jonah kept Maggie entertained and as you can see, they got along quite well.

Saturday morning, we each had lunch with friends, and then we attended the wedding of Sandra, one of our dear friends from Ben’s work in Florence. That night we had a nice dinner with some of our Woodmont friends and then gave Maggie some chill time (which we ALL needed!). Sunday, we attended church and had lunch at Woodmont, and then it was off to Grammy & Grumpa’s house.

The weather at Grammy & Grumpa’s was wonderful! The highs were in the 50s and the lows in the 20s and 30s; perfect fall weather! The color was past peak, but there were still a lot of leaves. We spent Tuesday riding on the Blue Ridge Parkway and hiking at Deep Creek.






There was ice in several places on the Parkway, and we saw some beautiful waterfalls at Deep Creek. Wednesday we spent relaxing and then we got to have a nice dinner out sans Maggie! All in all, it was a great week, we just wish it had lasted longer!

Skills!

It's been quite a week! Maggie's 9 month doctor visit is today and all week she's been cramming for it. While we were travelling last week, she woke us up in the wee hours one morning. When we went to check on her, she was sitting up. She seemed almost as suprised as we were! Late last week, she also began to clap. Grandmamma worked with her on this while she was here, and now Maggie is quite good at it! Finally, and most significantly, Maggie began to crawl this week with the help and encouragement of Mommy, Daddy, Grandmamma, and Grandaddy. She's still figuring out exactly how everything works, but each day she goes a little further. She finds the crawling quite helpful in getting to cords, strings, cabinets, drawers, magazines, and a certain cat!

If you want to see Maggie display her new found skills, click on the video link to the right (if you have high speed). This link will only be available for seven days. Happy viewing!

BA!

Wow! It's been over a month since I've posted anything. We've been busy with trips, Football games, visits from friends.

Maggie is starting to move around now - not crawling, but she has discovered that she can cover ground fairly well by rolling. . . we expect the crawling to follow shortly.

She's working on cutting tooth number 3 . . . it's taking it's sweet time coming and we are all looking forward to that day! But she is still in remarkably good humor, considering. . .

Maggie said her first consonant today! "BA! BA! BA! BA!" - it's music to my ears! :-) If you want to hear it to, you can download the video by clicking on the link listed at right. Remember - this video is only available for 7 days and only recommended for high speed connections.

At the end of September we had another visit with Maggie's cousin - they got to take a bath together and we all had a blast!



A couple of weeks ago we went to the Auburn-Arkansas game. A sad game to watch, but it was a beautiful day in Auburn and I really enjoyed the experience on the upper deck. Plus, Maggie looked so cute in her Auburn gear.



One of our favorite family pastimes is taking walks together. Now that the fall weather has finally arrived here we are getting out more often.



We hope you all are doing well. We miss our friends and family scattered across the country and think of you often! God Bless!