Birthday in Birmingham!

A very happy birthday to my sweet sister, Ivey! We made a quick trip to Birmingham on Saturday to celebrate with her! You are an amazing woman, and we love you so very much!

Playing with my baby girl before lunch:

"Auntie Tat" reading to Thomas:

 Grammie and baby girl:

 I am loving this new nail color that Ivey gave me for Christmas...it's OPI "French Quarter for Your Thoughts"

 For Ivey's birthday lunch we went to a fabulous place called Bottega. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there:

 

The food was wonderful...homemade potato chips and onion dip:

 Kale pizza:

 When we left, there were snow flurries! How festive for our day of celebrating Ivey's life! Happy birthday and here's to many more years of happy memories together!

Merry Christmas Y'all!

We had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends celebrating the birth of Jesus! I only had Christmas Day off of work, but it was a great time to be together as a family!

The weekend before Christmas, we traveled to Atlanta for Christmas with my dad's side of the family. We had a wonderful time together, but missed several of the cousins who couldn't be there!

 Christmas Eve is always a special time for the children at the hospital. We try to make it very special for the patients and their whole family! Thanks to amazing donations, we are able to wrap gifts for each patient and sibling, and then Santa comes and we deliver the packages! It is such a blessing to be a part of making the day happy! There were many excited children, and I saw one dad crying because of how touched he was! Here is our amazing team of helpers!

 One of our intensive care doctors told me I looked just like one of Santa's helpers! I had fun dressing Christmasy for the kiddos! :)

 I was able to leave work in time to make it to the Christmas Eve service at my parent's church, and then joined the rest of the family at my parent's house for Christmas Eve! These precious young'uns made it all so exciting! Here they are in their matching PJ's:

 Granddaddy reading the Christmas story before we went to bed:

 Christmas morning babies trying out a new toy:

 My parents always make Christmas morning so special! My mom gets up extra early and has a huge breakfast ready when we wake up! I treasure those memories of Christmas morning from years past, and I am so thankful that we could all be home this year together!

 Thomas was so much fun! Here he is reading one of his books from Uncle Nathan and Aunt Laura:

 Playing cars with Aunt RuRu

 Love those chubby cheeks!

 Sisters (missing Laura):

 All the boys (missing Nathan):

 Precious!

Nathan and Laura drove in from Mississippi and got to the house around lunch! We were so glad they were able to make it! Late afternoon, we have our Christmas day dinner! A few years ago we started the tradition of having steak and baked potatoes and we LOVE it! It's a tasty dinner without too much work! Eating by candlelight:

 Aunt RuRu and her baby girl!

 Sisters again...colored skinny pants were the fashion this year!

I am so thankful for each one of my family and praise God for his goodness to us!

Let the Parties Begin...

Yesterday we had our first family Christmas of 2012! We usually end up having quite a few by the time everything is said and done! We celebrated with the Dameron side of the family, and had a wonderful time of food and fellowship! We didn't have our normal Thanksgiving together, so it was great to see everyone (we missed you Nathan and Laura!).

First of all, I have to share this great new way to ice cookies, which I made for the party. In the past, I would spread the icing on with a knife and it was time consuming, but with this new technique, it took no time at all!

I mixed powdered sugar, water, and food coloring together until it was the right consistency (not too thick):

 I dipped the cookies in:

 Let the excess drip off:

 Sprinkled with sugar crystals:

 And ended up with these...

 Saturday, we all gathered at my parent's house (which I refer to as my "country house"). Here is one of the trees that I cut down and decorated a few weeks ago. It is HUGE!

 Ivey and "Dindaddy" (as Thomas calls him! When Thomas was leaving he pointed to him and said, "He is fun!")

 Cousin Ashley, her husband Jared, and little Landon:

 Robby and Grandmother:

 The twin cousin's wives, Rachel and Megan:

 Pretty mommy playing with Thomas' new car track:

 This picture cracks me up! Aunt Marlene is a hoot! She keeps us all laughing every time we are with her! Here she is with her "all pooped out from making so much stuff for this party" look! So thankful for her life and the joy she brings!

 My sweet parents and the host and hostess of the party! Thanks for all you did!

 Playing with toys:

 Aunt Lori and Uncle Bob...so many fun memories together!

 The two Davids! My mom and her sister Marlene both married men named David!

 Group shot:

 Sisters...where's Ivey? We'll eventually round her up for a pic!

 "Auntie Tat" with her babies:

 Elaine Mae is getting so big:

 The three sisters:

 Cutie pie:

 My sweet friend Meredith invited me to a holiday concert at the Tivoli featuring our symphony and chorus. It was a great concert and definitely was a great ending to a day full of Christmas festivities!

 Here we are in front of one of the window displays downtown:

 And the celebrations continued today! Today is my brother Jonathan's 21st birthday! After church, I went back to the "country house" to have dinner with the family and celebrate Jonathan's life! We are so thankful for you and the godly man you are! Can't believe you are so old! :) haha May God continue to bless your life as you are such a blessing to so many people!