Buttercup Ballerina

Last week, Eleonora started going to ballet. She also did ballet two years ago, and she was ready to be back!

She always loves a good ballerina bun. 

The best part of the experience this year, is that her sweet cousin, Anna Kate is in the same class!

AK’s ‘spwit yeap.’

Fun times!  We can’t wait to head back tomorrow afternoon. 

The Zoo

Our public library has a Chattanooga family zoo pass, and anyone can check it out and visit the zoo for free!  We took advantage of it last weekend and enjoyed a chilly, yet pleasant, afternoon with the animals. 

Since we got in free and all, we splurged on camel rides. I still remember riding around a circus ring on the back of an elephant with my dad while he yelled like Tarzan, so I wanted my children to have at least a taste of such an adventure. 

I’ve heard of swings like this and we found one just in time to try it with Eleo!  (The parent and kid swings are attached.)

Also last weekend, Jennifer sent me these pictures from Eleonora’s Sunday School class. They were acting out the story of Zaccheus, a wee little man. 

Eleonora was acting the part of a villager and Jenno was amused by her off-the-shoulder styling of her Bible costume. 

Which reminds me of this picture I took of her while we were shopping today. She cracks me right up. 

We got some things to help me with an organizational project. I’ll just show you the before picture for now.  I just hope you all can handle the anticipation. 

Since it is unlikely that you would happen to read this post  in the next 49 minutes, I’ll just go ahead and say happy Sunday to you!

Feeling Crafty

Eleonora and Caleb must have been feeling crafty this morning because they woke up and created this horse together. Sweet siblings!  

In other news, I saw the new Little Women with friends tonight and enjoyed it very much. Nothing could beat the 1994 version for me, and I’m sorry to say that none of us were sold on the new Laurie, but a lovely time was had by all, nonetheless. 

Craft Night Christmas Party

Last week we celebrated our annual Craft Night Christmas party!  As usual, we each make everyone a handmade gift and exchange them at the party. Last Christmas I felt a bit overwhelmed by the extra December crafting, and I wanted to be able to enjoy it more, so this summer I made my plan to make Christmas pillowcases and went ahead and bought the fabric and started stitching. I’m very glad I did that, but I still ended up finishing at the last minute. 

We enjoyed helping Amanda arrange her delicious charcuterie board!

Fancy!

Festive veggies!

Everyone enjoyed snuggling under my new electric blankets while we played games and sang carols.



Always fun to put Jenno’s bows on your head. 

Thanks for the lovely gifts, ladies!

I made 16 of these puppies. And here are pictures from the tutorial that I followed, in case I ever want to try it again. 

This Weekend

I was laying in Caleb’s bed this evening, wondering if anything bloggable had happened this weekend, so I looked through my pictures and was reminded that all sorts of things happened in the last few days!!  

On Friday night, we attended a 4-H Banquet honoring students who had won 4-H awards this year - best chicken, best speech, etc. Josiah and his teammates from school represented our county in the Clover Bowl last spring.  All five of us enjoyed a tasty dinner, and then the guys dropped us ladies off at Bryan College to listen to their Christmas concert with Lou!  It was lovely as well. 

On Saturday, Heather and I joined my mom for a Christmas shopping extravaganza at Turkey Creek. Our first stop was Mimi’s for a delicious breakfast with cousins and aunts and uncles!  (Uncle Ernie is hiding, but he was there too!). We shopped til we dropped, or rather, til we had to head back home for our next activities. Heather was singing in a church choir concert (which I heard was fantastic), and I had to get back to see Josiah march in his first parade!

Eleonora got to watch the parade beside her best buddy, and her sweet kindergarten teacher happened to be standing on her other side!

There goes Josiah, trumpeting away!

He broke ranks when he spotted his cousins!

The smiling cousins in front of our historic courthouse. 

And with jolly old St. Nick. 

Next Chris build a roaring fire in the cabin and got busy on his work. The kids brought in all their presents they “bought” at the AWANA store, and I brought in all the presents I had so far, and we wrapped for hours!  Caleb and I probably tied for most gifts wrapped. 

This morning, Eleonora was puny, so she and Chris stayed home and watched our pastor from the cabin. How cool is that?

This afternoon, she had perked up, and joined me in adding bows to all our gifts. 

A lovely time was had by all!

Thanksgiving

We were so happy to get to celebrate Thanksgiving twice this year. First we headed to Oak Ridge to celebrate with my mom’s side of the family. We had a delicious feast, spent the night with my sweet cousin and her family, and played a game of Bolivia the next day, and this is the only picture I took of the entire event!

Next we headed to my Grandmother’s house in Kingsport to celebrate with my dad’s side of the family. Eleonora must have been worn out with all the feasting. She fell asleep under the coffee table!

Josiah nearly fell asleep on his Great Grandmother. The boys will be taller than her any minute now!

The next morning, my hero/the best hostess in the world, prepared biscuits and gravy for our breakfast, if you can believe it. 

Then we put up her Christmas tree!

A lovely time was had by all!

And for an adorable blast from the past, this is one of the first pictures I took on a phone, the boys with their turkey bread baskets they made at the library. Tender!

Eleonora.

Our kids are at such sweet ages!  On Sunday after church, Chris took the boys up to work on the truck, and Eleonora and I went to a wedding shower. Afterwards, we ran a few errands. Eleonora was excited to be the one to drop off the library books, don’t know that that’s ever happened before. Then we ran into the Dollar Tree to get bags for Altoids, and decided to go ahead and shop for my students. We picked all their presents and got home and wrapped them!  What a fun afternoon with a wonderful helper!

A fun thing she does right now is to grab me and squeeze me and say, “What a cute, cute, cutie, you’re the cutest girl I’ve ever seen, you’re the sweetest girl I’ve ever seen!”  What a cute, sweet girl she is!