Adam, Tonya, & Rachel: December 2009

8 1/4 Months

Rachel is growing up on us and is now crawling all over the place. She has tried to befriend Nimbus (if you call "chasing" him all over the house befriending) and here's a cordial pic of them...but Nimbus was not so cordial when he "attacked" Rachel last week. He got her with each paw on the sides of her face and then bit her on the head! Poor girl! The worst part is that Adam and I were both within 3 feet of both of them (as we never leave her unattended with Nimbus for this reason). Nimbus was just walking by and Rachel must have grabbed at him or something as we were talking. It only took a split second for this to happen and of course we heard screaming. All in all, it could have been much worse since Nimbus has really sharp claws. I almost think he was trying to "play" with her in his own way. Her scratches were not bad considering and were almost gone the next day. Needless to say, we're much more cautious now. I hope they can be friends one day soon:o)

Good thing we had our gate at the top of the stairs completely shut. I went downstairs to check on some laundry. Little did I know I had a follower who was very curious as to where I was going. I heard a thump, but no crying. She had simply crawled down onto the step before the baby gate and was sitting there smiling when I ran up to check on her.

Cute pic...

Christmas Parties

This past weekend was filled with fun Christmas parties! Adam's work Christmas party was at the Opryland Hotel on Saturday night and the Upper Room Christmas party was Sunday night. Nana came up to watch Rachel so we could go to the party on Saturday night. Adam's company generously pays for everyone to stay overnight each year at whichever hotel the party is at. We enjoyed getting away although we were missing Rachel by the time we got home. It was the longest we'd been away from her (about 24 hours!) I think the "silent night" was our favorite part. Rachel is still having some issues with sleeping through the night. We're working on it, but I start most days completely exhausted. It was nice to sleep in until almost 9AM on Sunday morning after a full night's rest. We had to miss church and Sunday School, but it was a much needed time of rest and togetherness for us.

Here we are after the Christmas party...

Us and Big Al at the Upper Room Christmas party...and yes, I have on the same sweater, but I washed it in between. I needed something festive to wear so I bought this sweater at JCP on Friday night to have for both parties:o)

Decorating Aunt Bren's Tree

To end up our Thanksgiving holiday, we always go to Aunt Bren's house and decorate her Christmas tree. This has been a tradition for as long as I can remember. Aunt Bren doesn't have any kids, but in reality, we're all just like her kids. She'd do anything for us...always has and always will I'm sure:o) She makes her signature spaghetti and then we're off to start the decorating...

Someone (who shall remain nameless) thought it would be a great idea to get a picture of all the great grandkids to give to Great Pa for Christmas...what were they thinking! We had an 8 month old, a 14 month old, a 2 year old, and a 5 1/2 year old...do you think they all looked at the camera and smiled all at the same time?!?!? Of course not! Maybe Dana got one good pic amid all the chaos! This is the best one we got and it's not so great!

Laura laying on Duke...she was really sleepy...

Nana and the girls...

A McD family pic...

Nana and all the kiddos...

...and then, the chaos began...glad we got one good pic before they all started going their own ways:o)

Rachel was all pooped out after the weekend of festivities. Here she is sleeping on Adam at Nana's. We went back to her house to watch Cade & Laura after decorating the tree at Bren's. Mom had Christmas play practice at church and Donnie & Christy were in Chicago. We didn't figure she'd get much Christmas play practiced with those two running around...so we volunteered to watch them. Wow! Watching three kids under the age of 2 1/2 is a hard day's work!...but we loved every minute of it!

Cade showing Rachel the ropes of drivin'...

Rachel asleep in the car when we got home. Finally, one holiday down, one more plus New Year's to go!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was alot of fun this year and very tasty indeed! It was much more crazy with Rachel and trying to work around her schedule for eating/napping and all of our visits with family, but we made it. We started Thanksgiving morning at Great Pa's and had a huge, delicious lunch. Then, it was off to Pa's for dinner. We had Honey Baked Ham with him and it was equally yummy! Last, we ate with Adam's parents on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, then visited with Mama Elaine & Papa Charles on our way back up to Cookeville on Sunday since they didn't come down for Thanksgiving dinner.

Cade & Kassidy at Great Pa's...

Nana & Rachel...

Christy and Laura...

All the grandkids and great grandkids with Granny...I think Kayla is the only one who got the memo to look at Adam...as always, at least 3 cameras were going at one time, so you just try to look somewhere in the vicinity of all the flashes:o)

Rachel playing at Pa's on Thanksgiving night...

Laura -in all her cuteness and undeniable fashion...

Rachel just hangin' out as it got closer to bedtime...

Pa & Laura...

Rachel and Mimi...

...with her Dada...

Rachel got really hot later in the night at Mimi and Papa's, so we just took off her sweater. Then we noticed she matched Uncle Nate who also got hot and shed his shirt...had to get this cute pic on camera!

Our little monster after bathtime...

Our visit with Mama Elaine...

...and Papa Charles...

8 Months

It's been a while since we posted any updates because we have been extremely busy with the Thanksgiving Holiday and Christmas shopping every minute that we can find. I'm posting quite a few pics today to catch us up to the present:o)

Rachel and I spent the day with Ma a few weeks ago. We raked leaves in her front yard for what seemed like forever, bagging up 6 huge bags of leaves. Unfortunately, this was only the beginning. There are probably at least 10 more bags of leaves that need to be raked...but at least it was a start! Adam's cousins raked quite a bit over the Thanksgiving break, so there's only a little more to go until Ma's yard is lookin' good! Ma sat in a chair in the front yard while Rachel played in her Exersaucer and I worked on the raking. The question of the day from Ma was whether or not it was too cold for Rachel to be outside:o) I think I answered it about 100 times. Gotta love Ma!

Rachel and Ma before we started raking...

Taking after her Dada...here's Rachel tearing it up on her new guitar from Ms. Stephanie...an early Christmas present. Thanks Ms. Stephanie! I love my new guitar!