Merry Christmas!

We've had a great 24 hours! Last night, after the Christmas Eve service, we loaded up one of our church vans with friends and headed down to the Mississippi River to see the bonfires. This is a huge tradition here in which the bonfires are burned to light the way for Papa Noel (The Cajun-French version of Santa Clause). There was one bonfire after another and people everywhere! It's was a fun time for all. This morning, Anna Claire slept in, and when she got up, she was thrilled to see presents waiting for her! Merry Christmas!

Anna Claire Makes a New Friend

We are playing Santa's elves this year by helping some friends keep a new puppy for their girls a secret until Christmas! Anna Claire has grown fond of this little guy, but fear not, we will NOT be getting another dog! When Anna Claire sees the puppy, she says, "Awww..." like she does when she sees a little baby! This morning, she was copying the puppy yelping while he was in his kennel! She reached decimals that are not natural! Ha!

Art Project...Part II

Here's the reindeer picture mentioned in the previous post!

Art Project!

Anna Claire came home with this adorable bag today! Melt our hearts! She also came home with a reindeer made from her foot prints! God bless her teachers!

Pizza Night!

Tonight, we were invited to some friends' home for homemade pizza! Delicious! Anna Claire was her usual self and in EVERYTHING! She made a friend with this snowman that was her size - literally. She would try to carry him around, but would fall after only a couple of steps. Like everything else in life, she found great humor in this! After dinner, Anna Claire took great delight in unpacking her diaper bag! She was fascinated by this one pair of pants, and she took them to our friend, Mr. Vernon, who jokingly put them on her head! Again - she thought this was rather funny! Do you think she's embarrassed by the fact that I'm taking a picture of her with pants on her head?

Anna Claire's friend, Hannah, was also at dinner. Anna Claire LOVES Hannah and whenever she sees the baby, she tilts her head and says, "Awwww....".....too funny! I guess she felt compelled to share her pacifier with Hannah - such a giving child! *grin*
PS - I successfully made 2 batches of Me-Ma's peanut brittle today! Anna Claire will take these batches to her teachers tomorrow. Merry Christmas!

Who's Anna Claire?

This is Anna Claire's new trick - pointing to herself when you ask her, "Who's Anna Claire?"...Thanks to her super dad for teaching her this! The spoon in her mouth is because said dad was trying to teach her to balance it on her nose....well, she still needs to work on that one, I guess.

'Tis the Season....part II

Tonight was the annual church Christmas dinner. Each table was decorated by a different family in the church. Here's a picture of our table and one of the place settings.
(the oil lamps were a requirement for every table).
And here's our "table". The guy sitting next to Brad is the manager at the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market that is across the street from us. We've become good friends with him (mainly because we are in his store sooo often it's ridiculous!) and we were thrilled to have him join us at our dinner!
Anna Claire was "singing" along with the congregation as we sang some Christmas carols. Her version of Silent Night gives a new definition to that song....not so "peaceful"! :)
Every child in our congregation from newborn to 11 years old is paired with an adult in our church who commits to pray for that child throughout the year. At this dinner, the adults give a gift to their child/prayer partner. Here is my little girl with Anna Claire.
Merry Christmas.

'Tis the Season...

....for Sunday school Christmas parties, school programs, holiday shopping, and the like. We are crazy busy like the rest of you, so the updates on the blog have suffered. All that to say....brace yourself for a few pictures! Tonight, we attended one of the Sunday school parties, and we had a great time! Anna Claire loved the fried turkey, Cajun rice dressing, and the Asian slaw with dried cranberries! Did she like the green beans? No. Silly girl. This first picture is of the two of us being silly at the table. Kisses from Daddy....look at her cheeks! "Monkey See, Monkey Do" in this next picture! Brad was being silly and put AC's snack trap on his head. The next time she had the snack trap, she quickly put it on her head....nice. This next picture is typical Anna Claire....always on the go and talking! Anna Claire made fast friends with one of the men in the group tonight when he had a plate of chocolate chip cookies. I guess she smiled just right because she quickly had one in her hand! The look on her face was hilarious! It was as if she knew she was getting away with something! She picked the chocolate chunks off the top and ate them. She was making quite a show out of eating this silly cookie! As is evident in these two pictures, she is a fan of the good 'ol chocolate chip cookie! All good parties must come to an end. Needless to say, Anna Claire crashed when she got home.

Table for Two, Please

Super Brad strikes again! My birthday was on Friday, and we had to attend a district dinner that night two hours away. We had a good time with friends, but Brad knew it wasn't exactly the birthday dinner I had envisioned. Today, I called him after school to let him know that I was on my way to pick up AC, and he informed me that he had already picked her up and that he had a sitter for the evening so we could go to dinner to celebrate my birthday! Love him! We enjoyed a delicious seafood dinner, and he bought me cake squares at our favorite bakery! This has been a wonderful birthday! Next year will be the big 3-0.....bring it on! I'm ready!
Anna Claire did swell tonight with the sitter. When we were leaving, she turned to us and said, "Bye Y'all".....heeehee! Melt our hearts!

The Simple Things in Life

I received a package in the mail a couple of day ago, and Anna Claire was quite certain the empty box was for her. She loves this box and spends time sitting in it, climbing in and out of it, and trying to close it on herself. It's rather amusing.


And Anna Claire is fascinated by the Christmas kitchen mat.

Such a lady??

We were getting things ready to go out tonight, and I walked around the corner to see Anna Claire squatting in the living room, eating veggie puffs from her snack trap, and happy as a lark. Ladylike, don't you think? Oh dear. (Editor's Note: Please notice the "Blog Archive" on the right-hand side of this blog....the next blog entry we post will be our 100th post!)

Sleeping Beauty

Tonight, we went in to check on Anna Claire before going to bed.....and this is what we saw.....love her! "Lovey" in one hand and her arm wrapped around her pink monkey....does life get any better? Sweet dreams.

Our new best friend...the snack trap!

If you know anyone that has a child around Anna Claire's age - buy them a snack trap! This is Anna Claire's new best friend! I'm pretty sure we could put just about anything in the snack trap and she would eat it! ha! Green beans might get a little messy! She is so fascinated by the idea of sticking her hand in the lid and pulling out a cheerio....oh, the simple life!
Anna Claire is modeling the snack trap in the picture below....please also note the clip in her hair! I love a little girl with a clip or a bow in her hair, but for the last several months, Anna Claire has pulled them out quicker than I can clip them in! But tonight, she decided to keep the clip on! That's my girl! Thanks to Super Mom Lindsay for making the clip!

Anna Claire and her new doll

Granny couldn't resist this doll because is giggles and Anna Claire thought that was great! Anna Claire's new trick is to hug a stuffed animal or doll when you hand it to her! I think she has figured out that this melts everyone, and she gets the doll or animal....smart kid! Thanks to Rick for taking this picture!

Thanksgiving and such...

Pictures....

Here are some recent pictures - I haven't updated in a while because we've been busy!Enjoy. (Her visit with Santa is pictured below this post.)

Anna Claire Meets Santa

This morning, we took Anna Claire to meet Santa. She wasn't so sure about him, but we got a cute picture before the meltdown.

Anna Claire, the Elf

Click here to see Anna Claire as an elf. Thanks to Aunt Elizabeth for this!

The Next Chubby Bunny Champion

Growing up, our family (read: my mom!) loved playing Chubby Bunny! Well, I'm pleased to introduce the next generation of Chubby Bunny! *grin*

The Last Few Days...

On Saturday morning, AC had pancakes for breakfast - her favorite! She was wearing her new pj's from our friends, Jeff and Anita. She loves them, and points to the dancing princesses on her shirt!
Last night, she found great delight in pushing buttons on the TV remote and watching the channel change or the volume increase! Nice.
And finally, tonight, Anna Claire found it necessary to share her snack with the dogs! They weren't too sure about Anna Claire when she started crawling, but now that she eats good food, they have found a new best friend!


And on a totally "not related to AC" note....my darling students are in the throws of research papers right now, and they are researching various ancient civilizations - exciting, huh? Anyway, we've been doing research for close to three weeks now, and the time has come to begin writing the paper. Well, this morning, one of the darlings came to my desk and said, "My group is telling me that Ancient Rome and Romania are not the same thing! Are they right?"....To which I calmly replied, "Yes, why?"....and his response, "Well, I've done all my research on Romania!"........URGH.

Parenting and Bedtime

Here is a funny video where a dad captures his feelings about children and bedtime. It's rather humorous...enjoy!
(PS - Mom, click on "video" to watch it. Love you!)

The "Puffy" Vest!

For her birthday, Anna Claire received this "puffy" vest and shirt from Jenna (Aunt Elizabeth's roommate at A&M). Apparently, there is a little joke between the girls regarding this style of vest. Regardless, Anna Claire wore the vest to church tonight. She likes her vest and so did the rest of the church! So Elizabeth and Jenna- these pictures are for y'all! :) Enjoy.