Christmas 2008

Well, we've returned from our holiday of nomadic traveling and are happy to be home in this new year of 2009! I hope that all of your time with family and friends was relaxing and rejuvenating. Here is a recap of our last week of 2008.
We spent Christmas eve and morn in Athens as a family. Esther still hasn't quite grasped Christmas, but was excited none the less. We made cookies Christmas eve and read 'Twas the night before Christmas'. As tradition in the Allegood family, we allowed E to open one present on Christmas Eve.

Cuddling w/ Papa early Christmas eveOpening her Eve presentChristmas Morn'We didn't have an abundance of presents for E, but I think she was pleased with her books, doll, and other small items. This cute wooden doll family was my personal favorite. I found it at a garage sale and it is from Finland. I think the little figures are so precious!

Later Christmas day, we headed to Ben's parents' house. His brother, sister-in-law, and our nephew came up. Esther had so much fun playing with Colt. They are really sweet cousins!

Bath-time (black mail for the teenage years)!

Later in the week, we celebrated Christmas with my family. My brother, sister-in-law and nephew were there, so Esther got some 'Spencer-time'. My grandparents also came down from North Carolina, which was a special treat! The magna-doodle (below) was a life-saver with the road trip to Mississippi and Louisiana!Great-grands!On Sunday, we left for Mississippi to visit Ben's grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Esther has never been a fan of long car rides, but did really well this trip. Our first stop was at Ben's grandparents' in Gulfport, which for some reason, I don't have any pictures of. Ben's aunt took a bunch, so I'll have to get those soon. She had lots of fun playing with Ben's cousins and her new gifts from Mississippi's 'Santa'.

Our next stop was Ben's Aunt and Uncle in Lousiana. Ben's cousin lives close by and brought her daughter, Maggie, over. They are only two months apart and have so much fun together.

Matching piggy-talesThey got into Miki's closet and played dress-up. Esther was running around singing, 'Cinderelli, Cinderelli' thinking she was a princess in her heals and 'dress'.Esther loved going to Maggie's house and visiting their chickens, ducks, and horses!

We then headed back to Mississippi to visit Ben's other grandmother (which I also somehow don't have pics of). The girls entertained with song and dance until they were both tuckered out.

The last leg of our trip brought us to Bowden, GA, the home of our good friends/family. We have gone there to pray in the new year most years since Ben and I have known each other. We got engaged there and are blessed to have such a wonderful community of people to share life and prayers with. Unfortunately, Ben had to work early this morning, so our visit was cut short this year and we had to head home before the year ended. However, it was wonderful to see the new babes added to the community, and those on the way, and all of our friends that we consider our family and are so blessed to have in our lives.

The 'farm' is beautiful and E loved exploring the fields, woods, and creeks.

Looking for fairies in the moss

As always, it is good to be home. We returned to our humble abode in Athens around 10:00 last night. We got little lady to bed and enjoyed a relaxing last couple of hours of 2008. This next year holds a lot of change, as we will be moving, I'll be starting a new job, and Ben will be starting his Masters at Emory. We are excited and optimistic for an exciting year. Blessings to you and yours, wishing you much love and happiness in the new year!

Photography session

Rather than spend hours uploading pictures from our wonderful photography session at the Botanical Garden, I'll provide the link to peruse at your leisure. Esther was quite a handful that day, so we were very pleased with all the wonderful pictures Lorin captured. (Link to proofs)

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and blessed New Year!

Video Share

We have dance parties quite often in the Fleming household. I'm so glad Esther shares our love for 'getting down'. Here's her and Papa having a boogie-session in the kitchen. Sorry it's so dark. This video is from our little camera, but at least it captures moments like these. She's got some great moves!

"If you're happy and you know it..." It was a British kids video I found on uTube. Esther was a bit thrown off my the different version, but enjoyed it enough to do it 'again'.

Finn came over to play with E today. They ended up cuddled in bed together reading a book. Ben is very upset with their continued affection (remember the kissing scene last year), though I think it's the sweetest thing in the world. I'm afraid he is going to answer the door with a bat (not into guns) when boys come over to take E out on a date.

Birthday Bash!

We made it through Esther's 2nd year and what a blessing it has been. We all had a big birthday weekend and are partied out (in a good way)! Here are A LOT of pictures to recap our weekend.

Esther's Montessori class had a special birthday ceremony for her. We brought in pictures from birth to now and her teacher went over the progression of her time on this Earth. She then walked twice around a candle holding the Earth - representing her two years (candle=sun, E holding globe and circling twice=Earth's yearly rotation). We finished off with apple muffins, candle and all, and a round of Happy Birthday song. She enjoyed celebrating with her class. I'm so happy that she loves her school so much.

Friday night was a mad rush of sewing, baking and other preparations. We finished her birthday outfit, baby doll, crown and cake in the wee hours of the night. Ben went over to a friends' (thanks, Josh) to put the tricycle together, so we were both busy bees. I may have gone a bit overboard, but it was totally worth it to see Esther enjoying her special day.

I love how her outfit turned out. The fabric was adorable and the '2' turned out great! I hope that she appreciates it later in life.

Link for crown pattern

Here's the link for the baby doll pattern. I love its precious simplicity.

Grammi let Esther open her present Friday night. She made some really cute felt food (apples, oranges, watermelon, pizza, pancakes, eggs, and bacon). The most exciting item were the fries - she has an out-of-control love for french fries.

I could not fall asleep Friday night, figuring my body was awaiting E's time of birth, 12:56am. I lay there thinking of my labor and Esther's entry into this world. Though very painful (broken tailbone), it was such an blessed event. I am so grateful for the gift of being a mother and for my amazing husband, who is also a wonderful Papa.

And then for the big day!

PARTY TIME!

Playing with our godson, Jay, in the balls

Hugging her new baby

Esther has been asking for a bicycle for months (I think since she knew the word). The utter joy on her face at seeing her big present from us was amazing. She also loved all her cooking paraphernalia, tea pot, more really cute felt food, dress-up doll, books, tractor (yes, she asked for a tractor), clothes, music instruments, movies, stickers and all the other sweet gifts. Thanks, everyone!

I know I've mentioned E's love for the color orange, hence the orange outfit, crown, balloons, and playdough. All the kids played w/ playdough and made handprints to take home with them. Poppi helped Esther make little animals. The turtle was too cute!

Cake time! This was quite a treat! Keeping with the orange theme (she wanted orange cake), I made carrot cake. The cream cheese icing was especially good and the main thing she ate. She has been practicing blowing out candles and got them both before the song was over.

Thanks, everyone, for giving our girl such a special day! Thank you also for all your prayers and support through her two years of life. We definitely could not do it without those blessings!

Oh, Christmas tree

We got our Christmas tree last weekend, which made Esther very happy. She ran around and around the trees. I grew up with an artificial tree, which has a lot of benefits (environmentally, safety, etc). Ben and I got a real tree the year E was born and now I can't go back. It feels good to support the NC family we've gotten them from every year. And they smell SO good! Here's a few pics of E making laps. You can see the pure joy on her face.

We got the tree home and put on the lights. E kept trying to blow the lights out. She has been practicing blowing for her Birthday cake (the countdown is on for Saturday - I have so much to do).

Bad Santa

Good Santa

More pictures of the decorated tree and Christmas shots to come. I have Birthday on the brain, as well as trying to finish up the many homemade Christmas gifts I'm making this year. Time is flying way to quickly!

Random pictures

This is what Esther's hair looks like when she wakes up

Family self-portrait

My very attractive husband

Me and my girl

Thanksgiving and family

Ben's Aunt, Cousin, and cousin's daughter, Maggie, came in town from Louisiana a few weeks ago. Maggie and Esther are only few months apart, so they really enjoy their time together. Esther was a bit puney with this never-ending cold/cough, but they still had lots of fun.

They ran circles around my in-laws' house. I'm surprised there aren't tred marks in the carpet!

Some cuddle time with Poppi and a book

PJ play

For Thanksgiving, Esther and I went to my brother's house in Marietta. Ben had to work and was greatly missed. Esther had fun playing with her cousin, Spencer and the grands. We had two delicious turkeys (one smoked, one fried - thanks, Kris) and all the trimmings. We all really enjoyed the time with family.

Such hard work! We gave them a break after they had hauled all the wood to the house. :)

Pops and Spencer time

Pre-Thanksgiving preparations. At 8:00pm, Ben informed me that he wanted to take a sweet potato casserole to work with him. This was also my contribution to the meal on Thursday, so we made a VERY large batch of sweet potatoes. Esther helped, as usual.

I wish I could remember what she was telling me. It seems quite serious!