Malana & Erik's Engagement!!

The best gift I received this Christmas was to get to be part of my sister's engagement night. What a happy moment to witness. I appreciate that Erik was willing to include us on this fun surprise by the Reedy River Falls bridge. And aren't the votive candles fun!! Just wanted to share my excitement as I rejoice that she has found "the one" and is so very happy!!

Christmas Highlights

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!! We enjoyed visits from both sides of the family this year. Abby understood much more about what presents were and kept saying "present me" to anyone who would listen. Our friends the Hatten family invited us to to their Christmas Eve service where they portrayed the holy family this year....and don't they look the part!! And right after the service we drove around and looked at lights before taking my sister to her surprise engagement (which I will do a separate post for). I am so thankful that Jesus was born! And that he was born to die for me and you. Reflecting on that has been such a great part of all this holiday hoopla. I enjoyed watching "The Nativity" a few days beforehand which is a great portrayal of our Savior's birth and the culture he entered. Anyway, great family time and great reflection time sums it up...and of course seeing Christmas through Abby's young eyes is quite a bonus!

Train ride with playgroup

Wednesday night we had a very fun playgroup outing to the "Polar Express" train at Simpsonville's Heritage Park. Erica and Caleb couldn't make it...we missed them, but we did have fun!! Santa even rode in on the train and Abby got to "meet" him. I'll have a picture of that sometime soon since Logan captured that "joyful" experience on camera for me!! It was pretty chilly out and we enjoyed some fake snow, hot cocoa, and cookies and rode the train twice.

79 degrees in December!!

We are loving the warm weather we've been having, but ready for coldness so it feels more like Christmas time. We took advantage of the nice weather yesterday morning and went to a couple parks around town...and went again in the afternoon! Abby is much braver on slides now. The slide in the video is the one she had the most trouble with...every time she went down she did a split, but seemed to have fun!

Fun weekend

Even though it was a busy call weekend for Stephen, we had lots of fun during the down time. A mini-reunion with some of our PC friends on Friday night. Downtown carousel rides, dinner, and "A Journey to the Manger" with the Roemmich family on Saturday night. Abby has enjoyed playing in the leaves recently. She loves to hide her feet and then try to jump out of the leaves. The FREE carousel ride downtown was a big hit...she was very disappointed to leave and kept saying "see horseys" the rest of the night.

Monkeying Around

Finally I figured out how to post video on this blog! A few issues with the browser on the Mac, but now I've got the hang of it.

Here's a recent zoo trip where the monkeys were putting on a show and Abby was either laughing really hard or trying to imitate them...you decide!

Headless wiseman and other Abby moments

Well we had our 1st Christmas blooper...went ahead and got it out of the way. We are letting Abby play with this seemingly non-breakable nativity set. Well today she brought me a wiseman's head and some myrrh. Oh well...time to go buy some super glue. All day she's been saying, "oh no, broke wiseman, i sorry." At least she's remorseful. She has learned the names of the figurines and I love how she says baby Jesus. Angels comes out as "anals" which we need to work on!! I love that she is talking so much though!

She has enjoyed having tea parties with the 2 feet tall snowman a friend made me several years ago.




And Elmo has enjoyed having quite a mouthful of her snacks!

Greenville's Downtown Parade

Tonight was the Christmas parade downtown. We forgot to go last year because it snuck up so fast on us. This year I was prepared. We went with the Anderson family and had fun watching the kids faces when they saw the marching bands, the dogs, the horses (see below for the pic of the largest horse any of us had ever seen!), and even a camel and a llama....yes, nothing gets me in the holiday spirit quite like a llama, how about you? Abby enjoyed seeing the Chick-fil-a cow to which she exclaimed, "Oh my goodness!" I loved hearing all the Christmas tunes. The parade got me in a festive mood to decorate our tree....which may or may not come crashing down any minute. It's a little on the crooked and wobbly side for some reason?

Frazier Fir 07

1st day of December and to kick off the festive, fun month we went and picked out our tree today. The past few years we have gotten our tree at the local farmer's market. This same old man gets them from Cashiers, NC. He's really sweet and it's a good deal. Abby had fun running around "helping" pick one out. So here's the one and then here it is decorated....just finished at 10:30pm...took me a lot longer than I expected and now I'm ready for bed. Worth it though...beautiful and yummy smelling!!! Maybe next year we'll venture out and cut one down somewhere like some of our friends were doing this year. I love Christmas!

More zoo fun!

Last week we made it back to the Greenville Zoo with friends Ethan and the other Abby. We heard the giraffes had arrived...and they have, but I didn't get a good picture because you still can't get close up yet. The youngins had fun times with the fake bear and the possibly fake (or dead) alligator??? The last pic is Abby's face while watching the apes going ape wild. I have a great video of it, but haven't been able to get it to link correctly...maybe later.

Turkey day family pics

Our families followed thru on emailing us some pics from our fun & yummy time together!

Here's the Jones side---Abby was napping and Amos couldn't come this year.



Here's the Davison side---Abby was not excited to sit still



4 generations together---Grandmom came down this year.



Sisterly love! I love Nana!

Big shoes to fill...

I love this picture! It reminds me of how little she is and how big my feet are!! So precious how they are on the wrong feet.



We've started putting her up to the table with us now instead of using her highchair tray. I thought she'd try to get out, but she actually enjoys the new seating arrangement. She is growing up fast! Before long she'll actually fit in my shoes....I need to really savor these young days with her as she soaks up all that life has to offer. Okay enough sappy stuff!!

Thanksgiving leftovers...

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. As the dust settles at our house from a fun few days with both sides of our family, we realize how very thankful we are for all of them. And I am thankful in advance for all the pictures they will email me of our fun family time!!!. The one time I got the camera out I only took one picture before the battery died. This is our nephew Grant with his creative additions to plain old pumpkin pie...a few m&ms and mini hershey bars make everything taste better!!



Glorious leftovers in a full fridge mean that I won't be cooking for a few days!!



Once everyone headed home today, Stephen brought the backpack blower out of its summer hibernation to tackle our leaves....which will be a neverending battle for the next few months.

Playgroup Friends

Here's Abby in the dress she was going to wear apple picking, but we never went this year after hearing there were no apples!! We'll start the tradition back up next fall! Isn't she cute?!!!



I am truly thankful for our playgroup. The other 3 moms friendships and encouragement mean so much as we learn the art of parenting alongside one another. Here are our cuties from playgroup today!! We need a picture of the moms together!

Unexpected "wild"life

Uummmm...some friends asked me to make sure I posted this picture. I took this one because I was excited the male and female lions were near each other and I could get a good picture. Most of you with digital cameras that are not the fancy, super expensive kind know that there is usually a delay involved between when you push the button and when the actual picture is snapped. So what I aimed at originally was going to be a great picture, but this is what I captured instead.....and let's just say we are glad the delay wasn't any longer!! We got our fill of "wild"life in the first 10 minutes we were at the zoo!

Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC + Family time = Wonderful Day!!

On Stephen's recent day off, we met his sister Jennifer and her children, Grant & Blythe, at the zoo. It was really a great zoo and lots of fun to see Abby's face when she saw many animals for the first time.



The giraffe exhibit was pretty impressive. We were able to feed them and pet them....talk about up close and personal!



Some personal favorites of mine were the koalas and the aquarium. You may not know that I used to want to be a marine biologist....I am just fascinated by sea life...seriously. The penguins were neat to watch. Abby was not enthralled by them and kept saying "no pingins" when we got her close to the glass.

Prayer Requests

Please join us in lifting up our friends in prayer.....Over the past few weeks we've had 3 friends experience the loss of a baby due to miscarriages. And another couple from our church just found out some devastating news about their baby boy due in March having a rare fatal condition that will end his life within hours of his birth. Needless to say our hearts are heavy with such news and such loss. However, God is good and He is sovereign. We trust him for healing for our friends experiencing loss. And we're praying for a miracle for the little boy with the fatal condition....all according to God's will. It's difficult to have friends experiencing this when we also hope to have another child sometime soon. We appreciate your prayers on behalf of these 4 families. What a blessing every little child is!!! We thank God for Abby!

Tree today, gone tomorrow...

One of our four big oak trees died this summer. Not sure if it was the drought or a tree disease....and no one who came to give us costly estimates on taking it down seemed to know either? We finally had it removed this week. Sad to see it go because it was a really big, nice tree. It changes the landscape a great deal and actually opens up the front of the house a lot. On the positive side, we'll enjoy less raking and less bird poop on our cars!! Abby enjoys climbing on top of the new stump...she seems to think she has really conquered something big when standing on top!

Jones Family Reunion "Portrait"

Big Daddy, Special K, The Nicholson Family, The Disasa Family, and us of course!!!! Could this be the Christmas card??

Jones Family Reunion

We spent a beautiful, family filled weekend in Black Mountain, NC. The Jones Family Reunion takes place every other year...it's Stephen's dad's cousins...something like that. They drew a family tree this year which was helpful. We had fun walking around Montreat, enjoying the fall leaves, playing games, and being with the extended family. Abby was a big hit as usual. Here are a few pics. I'm waiting on some nice group shots from some family members who actually remembered to take there camera out before the last day!

Montreat's Lake Susan


The lonely swan of Lake Susan


Abby on a stroll...note the pretty leaves!


Abby enjoyed Special K's attention and hugs


Bonding moments with cousin Blythe