Let's Catch Up

Well, it has been a while. Much has happened since my last post almost 3 months ago!! So, hold on. Here we go...


We sold our house! We're building a home closer into town. Here are a couple pictures of our empty home. Isn't this sad?? I cried that day, but not as much as I thought I would. Where are we in the mean time? We're staying with Jim's mom. Feel free to enter any joke here! :-) It's been going really well and I'm not just saying that since she reads this blog! We are so grateful to her for allowing us to invade her home for the next few months.




We found a wonderful, new home for our dog, Hana. Things had just become a bit too much for me with Hana around. I'd been looking for a new home for her for a while...it had to be the right one. Through a common friend, I found an amazing, dog-lover who was in search of a new pal for her dog, Gus. We introduced Hana and Gus on Halloween and the rest is history. Everything worked out and her new home has been such a blessing to me. I get updates about how Hana is doing and just got their family Christmas card. Hana's first photo session=success! This whole situation was a God-thing. There's no other explanation of how things would work out so well and in such perfect timing. Thanks B & G for accepting my sweet Hana in your family and for loving her so much!! This picture was taken on the way to her new home.




We celebrated Halloween with our cute little puppy and she did great! She really got into the whole getting candy thing. Surprisingly, she left her puppy ear hat on the whole time. My parents came for Halloween and to watch Tessa while Jim and I went out of town with some friends!! Yes, we were on our own...forgot what that was like. THANK YOU mom and dad for watching her!! And thanks for teaching her to salute us whenever we walk into the room! You guys didn't let her get away with anything! Seriously, we are so thankful to you for watching her. How about next year?? These are pictures from Halloween courtesy of my dad.




We went to Texas for Thanksgiving and hopefully I'll be able to post pictures from that visit soon. It was great to see my parents, and my brother and his family. The kids were able to play and get to know one another. One of my favorite nights was everyone dancing around the living room as we listened to music. I danced with my precious nephew and niece & Tessa took turns dancing with the rest of the family. I got a workout!! It was so fun!


We purchased a less than perfect tree for Christmas this year (it didn't have a top for the angel, bow, star, etc.). I like to think of it as we gave this tree a chance to feel beautiful! It's amazing what 2 talented women can do to bring a tree to life. :-) Martha and I made sugar cookies, decorated them, and hung them on the tree. It was a really long process, but we had a great time!! This is my favorite one. Look how cute that is??





We hope ALL 3 of our readers have a very merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Oh My

I went to pick up t yesterday from daycare and found out she has a special friend. One of her teachers was telling me about this and asked t to give her 'boyfriend' a hug. t walked over to this sweet, little boy and gave him a big hug. He was grinning from ear to ear. I thought it was sweet...daddy, not so much! Apparently, Jim's going to buy a shotgun today! :-)

Zoo Fun

We went to the zoo on Labor Day. Hopefully, I'll get some pictures posted soon. Here's a video to last you until then.

Storytime

This picture was taken on a lazy, Sunday afternoon at Emme and Grandaddy's. Granddaddy is quite the storyteller! ;-)

The County Fair

A few weeks back we went to the county fair and had a great time. Tessa had a lot of fun working on the farm and even got to milk a cow (a fake one!). She planted seeds, fed the animals, watched pig and duck races, and danced to the live music. Check these pics out.


Watering the planted seeds with daddy




Mommy's little piggy...


Real piggies


T's first tat


Feeding the animals


T's first pony ride

Cute Piggies

Apparently it was Spa Day at school. T's first pedi was without me!! :)

Seeing the Wilkinsons

In Pennsylvania, we were able to see my family and spend a couple days with them. In honor of my dad's b-day, we went to Kennywood which is a theme park he and my mom went to as kids. My brother and I also went there growing up. It was fun to take the kids there and for them to ride some of the same things we rode years ago. The day ended with hoagies from Danny's (one of dad's old school favorites) and they were stinkin' awesome!! My family can put down some serious hoagies! :-) It was an amazing day with the whole family together! I loved it! Sorry there are so many pictures, but I couldn't narrow it down!

Here's the whole gang (minus me)! Can you find the crying baby??

Look out, mom's driving!! Glad these cars had seat belts!

Chris looks very focused and a bit frightened.

Okay, maybe it's Tessa that looks frightened!!

Great pic of Jim & Tessa.

I love this shot of our niece, Livi.

This is one of my favorite pics of mom and dad. GREAT pic!!

This was Tessa's 1st time to a theme park. Kennywood has a section called Kiddieland with rides suitable for kids to ride on their own. Most of them were for the older kids, but there were swings for Tessa's age. I was so nervous!!! I didn't know if she was going to cry the whole time, but she did so great! This sounds cheesy, but I was so proud! It was one of the first things she's done on her own. What a big girl...look at her!!

First cotton candy...

First time driving. This was the first and last ride we went on. She was much more in to it at the end. Look at her face. She looks like she's having so much fun!

Me and Chris. What a cutie (Chris not me)!

Livi, GG Dobbie, and Chris

Pap pap and Tessa. What a sweet picture!

Sorry about the picture quality, but I couldn't leave this one out. It kinda sums up the Wilkinson family...

Missin' the Beach

Over the 4th of July we were in Destin, Florida for the 1st ever Forrester Family Vacation. This trip was planned by Jim, his sister, Melanie, her hubby, Chip and I a long time ago in honor of Martha's (Jim's mom) 60th birthday (which was in February). You still with me? Well, we all had a fabulous time and it was great having the kids together. Tessa got the biggest kick out of her cousin, Cole. All she had to do was look at him and she would just laugh and laugh!! It was really cute! Hopefully, we'll be able to do this more often. Here are some pics...

These are family photos we took. Don't you like our 'uniforms?'




This is Cole after he caught a little fish close to shore. That fish cost me 10 bucks!! After 2 days of trying to catch one it paid off...literally!


I couldn't pass up this photo opportunity. Look at that cheek!


Jim catching a wave. We had a lot of fun boogie boarding!


Jim and I parasailing...how cool!!


There was always time for Rock Band. Especially after all the kiddos went to bed!!


Some random beach pictures.

In Memory of My Grandpap

These last few weeks have been a whirlwind. My grandpap, Walter Douglas Fairfax, passed away on Thursday, July 2, 2009. It was expected, but still very tough to take in. He was diagnosed with congestive heart failure years ago and things just went downhill from there. He was 94 when he died.

We were in Pennsylvania about a week for the visitation and funeral which were held on Monday, July 6th. Family and friends had the opportunity to share stories or memories about grandpap...that was the part I liked best. I found myself wishing I would've taken advantage of the time I had while he was around. In my mind, I came up with lots of questions to ask him; questions about him growing up and what life was like, questions about my mom as a kid. There was so much I didn't know about him. Even though I know I can't go back, I do have fond memories of him. I've listed some below:

*Going to flea markets with him. One man's trash is another man's treasure! He loved going to these things and usually knew everybody there!

*Seeing him on his tractor. Nothing could come between grandpap and his tractor. I'm convinced he's in heaven riding around on one of those babies!

*Going to Long John Silver's...his treat (with coupons). Nothing beat their fish dinners! We had no choice...we HAD to get the fish dinner!

*I loved how he said what he thought. At Jim's and my wedding, grandpap made a comment about a friend of ours wearing shorts (if you know this friend, you know this is how he 'dresses' up). Our videographer caught grandpap's comment on video and it's hilarious!

*I will miss the smell of the air at his place. It had such a sweet, fresh smell; one of those smells that you associate with a particular time in your life. From time to time I get a hint of that sweet air here in Tennessee...it takes me back to days visiting my grandpap.

Here we are in 1999 or 2000, I think.

This one was taken in August of 2008. This was Tessa meeting her great-grandpap for the 1st time!

He's How Old???

At the end of April, my sweet hubby turned the BIG 3-0!! I had 30 things planned for a fun-filled day (here's a shout-out to Jim's mom for the idea - Thanks!). I called it "30 on your 30th." A few of the 30 were breakfast in bed, a good morning/happy b-day kiss from Tessa, no changing diapers that day (I told him not to get used to that), going to lunch with friends, the batting cages, the driving range, a 30 minute professional massage (not from me) and a homemade dinner (I told him not to get used to that either). Overall, it was a great day. Of course he was sore the next day after the batting cages and the driving range or...maybe it's because he's 30 now!!

Here are some pictures from the day. The necklace and glasses below have become somewhat of a tradition for our friends. Doesn't Jim look like a hottie in them?