Christmas Programs

We have been so busy with fun Christmas activities! Josie had a school program last week and it was soooo cute! Josh and I were anxious to see how she would do on stage, because she had been singing the songs they had practiced for days and days. Josie really just stood there and danced for a split second. I think all of the people overwhelmed her! Josh was so sad that he had to miss the program, because he was in his last final exam for the semester, but I recorded the entire thing! However, Josie was very excited to see Nonni, Popee and Grandmommy!

Josie also performed with some of the bigger kids at church two Sundays in a row.

She didn't really do much the first Sunday except for pretending to "direct" the choir like the music minister was doing! She was waving her arms like crazy :)

The second Sunday was when they sang "Away in a Manger" and she did all of the little motions that I had been showing her to teach her the words. It melted my heart... so sweet.

(notice that she's in action in this pic!)

Opryland Visit!

We took a mini vacation last weekend to the gorgeous Opryland Hotel in Nashville, TN.

This was our first time to go during the holidays and we had a blast!

We went up Friday afternoon and walked around the hotel looking at decorations, went to ICE, ate dinner, walked around some more and then called it a night.

Josie went down the kiddie slide at ICE. I was waiting anxiously to take a picture of her as she and Josh waited in the long line and then the next thing I knew, there was Josie at the bottom! Josh said later that she wasn't allowed to go down the main slide since she's so little and I never saw her come down the kiddie slide! I was so sad! I think she was pretty proud of herself, but she wasn't interested in going down again :)

We wore the big blue parkas in the ICE exhibit.... it was COLD!!!!

The sculptures were amazing!

Josie was so excited to spend the night in a hotel for the first time! She thought she was such a big girl sleeping in a "big girl bed", but she did insist that I sleep with her. Let's just say..... Mommy didn't get much sleep :) I have one restless gal!

We had such a great time! We spent the night Friday night and then got up Saturday and headed to the Pancake Pantry. This was a very last minute decision and I'm glad that we did it. It was worth the wait. It's a Nashville tradition that we had heard about and it didn't disappoint.

We are looking forward to Christmas!!!

Winter Fun!

Wow, it's almost Christmas! It's hard to believe that it's only 2 weeks away!

We have been busy around here!

Josh has been studying for his Law School finals A LOT!

2 down, 2 more to go.....

Josie and I have been trying to keep busy with some fun holdiay activities..... baking, coloring, decorating, shopping, etc....

Our 2nd Christmas tree (Living Room)

Can you believe we got our first snow here in NOVEMBER!!!!!!
It didn't last long, but we sure enjoyed it while it was here :)

Elfie continues to make visits.... Last Saturday, he brought Josie some donut holes for breakfast and a present! She loved her new book, "What is Christmas?" It is a great book to remind us of the real reason that we celebrate Christmas. Speaking of that, I would love to have a "Happy Birthday Jesus" party. I love that idea!

This picture may not look significant to you, but.....

It symbolizes a new stage we are entering in our house.

Josie is not really consistent with taking naps these days.

I really dreaded this day coming, but I can honestly say that it's a-okay!

Josie is at such a fun age that we are always into something and having fun, so I forget sometimes that she hasn't even taken a nap! However, Josie enjoys lying on the couch all bundled up and watching Dora. So, she still does have a little bit of down time and I can knock out a few things around the house at the same time!

Did you know that we have a musician in our household!?!?

Josie LOVES the harmonica. Ok, this is rather humorous, because my grandfather (my dad's dad) has always played the harmonica. He carries one with him at all times. He has always bought all of his grandchildren a harmonica and tries to get us interested, but he's had no luck. Well, no luck UNTIL Josie came around. Josie loves it! She plays her harmonica all of the time! My grandfather is pretty proud. I need to get a pic of them together with their harmonicas :)

Funny Story/Side Note: There is a house out in the country near where we live that is always really, really decorated for Christmas. It's unbelievable! Well, we took Josie out there this past weekend to see the lights. The family allows viewers to drive through and look at lights and even Santa makes an appearance at times. Well, little did we know that he was there the night that we went. We had the windows down so that Josie could really see the lights and we were just about to drive out of their driveway when we heard a LOUD "Ho Ho HO!!!!!" Santa was right up next to our car, but he came from behind the car where we could not see him coming and startled us ALL. Josie SCREAMED louder than I have ever heard and she began shaking!!!! Santa said, "Oh, I am so sorry" and ran off realizing what he had done :( I had to jump in the backseat with Josie to try to calm her down all the way home!!!

Needless to say, I don't think we will attempt going to sit on Santa's lap this year! I am pretty sure my child is scarred for life :(

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

I personally don't believe in decorating for Christmas BEFORE Thanksgiving, but I don't see a thing wrong with decking the halls on Thanksgiving night :) So, that's what we did......

Tree #1 (den)

We usually use these ornaments on the tree in our formal living room and I decided to switch things up a bit this year. I like the bright colors and want to actually be able to enjoy this fun tree instead of it being in a room in the house that we rarely use. I had a pleasant surprise when I pulled the decorations out this year. I found the big colored bulbs that I bought last year on clearance and we were all excited to add them to this tree! It totally completes this tree!!! yay!!

My helper and I decorating the tree


Josie (re)discovered her Little People Nativity in the Christmas box.
She loves it even more this year!
FYI... For any of you with children or those of you buying for small children, this is a PERFECT gift. We were given this by a sweet friend a couple of years ago and it's always a hit with Josie.


Decorating our Gingerbread house.
I meant to take a picture of the box that this came in because, this is also a great gift for little ones. I purchased it this year and could be a walking advertisement for it! It's a plastic gingerbread house that you decorate and can wash off and use over and over and over! How fabulous! The brochure suggests that you decorate it with your child for all holidays... there were actually cute ideas for Easter, Fourth of July,etc! I can see that we will be using this a lot!
The website for the gingerbread house is www.CandyCottage.us

Our Masterpiece!

We used white icing, coconut (snow), peppermints, gumdrops, m&m's and saltine crackers.

Guess who's back!!!

Elfie reappeared from the North Pole the day after Thanksgiving.

We were sooooooo excited!

We read the story to Josie and explained that we shouldn't touch Elfie or he would lose his magic, but (as you can see) Josie hasn't really followed that rule and actually seems to be scared when we say that we can't touch him. So, we are bending the rules :) So far, Elfie has been on the dining room chandelier, on the back door and he had made Josie breakfast by the time we woke up this morning! How exciting!!

Sneak peek of my attempt at our Christmas card
picture today :)

I actually thought that I would do a family picture this year, but I'm going to say that I really don't have the energy for it!

Stay tuned for the official Christmas card!

Charlie & Nikki's Wedding

Josie and I travelled with my parents and grandmother to Mississippi on Saturday for my cousin Charlie's wedding. He FINALLY married his girlfriend of over 5 years, Nikki! We have always considered Nikki to be part of our family, but now we can just say it's official!

An attempt to get a family picture.....

My Dad, mom, grandmother, me, Josie and Uncle Larry (Charlie's dad/the best man)

bride and groom saying their vows

Charlie (the groom), my grandmother and Uncle Larry

The wedding was beautiful. You couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous setting.... a beautiful chapel in the middle of the woods. It was perfect!

Congrats to Charlie and Nikki!!!!!

Thanksgiving 2011

GOBBLE GOBBLE!!!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Shearon's!

our little turkey :)





We spent Wednesday night celebrating Thanksgiving with Josh's family.

We enjoyed a non-traditional meal of delicious steak, baked potato and salad!

Josie & Granny


these two girls crack me up!
I think Josie is telling Addison something very important...


Josie and Addison received a BIG THANKSGIVING SURPRISE!!!
Granny gave them both brand new Radio Flyer tricycles!!!!
HOW FUN!!!!!!!!!!

Then, we spent Thursday with my family and enjoyed lunch at a local hotel that has a wonderful Thanksgiving buffet with all of the traditional trimmings!

I am ashamed to say that I didn't use my camera much at all on Thanksgiving Day. I just got this one picture of my uncle and grandmother.... two of my favorite people!

We had a wonderful holiday! I'm so glad that we do not have to run and go from house to house like so many families do during the holidays. I'm grateful to be able to relax and spend time with each of our families.

Josh and I have so much to be thankful for each and every single day......

Feeling blessed as always :)

Double the Blessings!

I helped host a fun baby shower this week.

Carleigh (a.k.a Our "little sister") is having TWIN BOYS!!!

Carleigh with her mom, Cindy

Andrea "talking" to the twins :)

All of her wonderful goodies!

These boys will be the most well dressed kiddos in Brownsville, TN :)

We have enjoyed sharing this fun time in Carleigh's life. She and Ben will be such sweet parents. I can't wait to meet these little guys in January!!!

Pigtails and Baking

Josie's hair has really grown lately! We have tried little baby pigtails before, but she now can have REAL pigtails :)

Can't you tell that my little baby is growing up.... Pigtails and talking on the phone... what's next?!?

Josie loves to help me cook!

Don't you just love her new look..... not really sure what this look means..... she thinks it's funny!

Such a happy girl!

We are looking forward to some fun holiday baking soon :)

Flashback to the 80's

We had such a great time celebrating our sweet friend, Martha Jo's 30th Birthday this past weekend! It was an 80's party!!! At the last minute, we had to take Josie along for the fun (if I had more time, I would have dressed her for the fun theme!) Also, I am cracking up at Josh's attire for the evening. He totally threw this together at the VERY last second (literally as we were about to walk out the door) and it doesn't have a single thing to do with the 80's but he didn't want to be left out of the fun :)

All of the girls!

Catherine, Martha Jo (the bday girl) and Nicole

The b-day girl and yours truly :)

Josie and MJ's niece, Ava Reed. Josie wanted to hold a "real baby" and then wasn't so sure when we let her hold her!

We had a blast!!!!

Happy 30th, Martha Jo! Welcome to the club :)

Busy Week!

What a busy week! We finished up our Halloween festivities and had sooo much fun!

Daddy and his little helper carving the pumpkin.

We laughed that Josie got more of a kick out of drawing the face on the pumpkin first.... she had no desire in pulling out the seeds! I had hoped this year that we would paint a few pumpkins (saw some cute ideas on Pinterest), but time slipped away too quickly.... maybe next year!

The Masterpiece :)


my Halloween cutie!

We went Trick R Treating at my grandmother's retirement home on Halloween night! Josie helped my grandmother pass out candy (or maybe pull candy out of Mott Mott's bowl to put in her own pumpkin..... ) My grandmother was getting so tickled at Josie and poor J couldn't understand what we thought was so funny :)


Then...... We headed to Barney Live on Tuesday night!!!

I'm pretty sure that Josh and I were awarded the "Best parents of the year award" that night by Josie :) She had a BLAST!!!

We were soooo excited to see my college friend Emily and her sweet little girl, Ellie! My, how times have changed! We have gone from fun AOII Rose Ball formals to fun nights with our precious gals and Barney :) This was the first time for Ellie and Josie to meet! We would love to get together more often with these two fun gals!

Here's my dancing queen! We were surprised to realize that we had 2nd row seats at the Barney show and Josie immediately wanted to join the other kids down in front of the stage for some dancing!

We had to buy a bag of popcorn and a Barney balloon, of course!

I was quite pleased that we made it out of there without buying all of the other "junk"!!

I guess our crazy week had our sweet girl worn out and exhausted, because she came down with a cold at the end of the week. I had to pick her up early from daycare on Friday :( She's definitely feeling better and getting back to her "silly self" again .......

We are soooo glad it's the weekend! This week wore us ALL out!