Lights, Lights and more Lights!!!

Last night we went to our second annual Benton Christmas parade. Last year Sydney wasn't even a year old yet and just sat and watched everything go by and didn't have a reaction to all the displays and floats. This year Dennis,Kali and Parker came with us. Although it was sooo cold at the parade I think we all had a great time. My camera was not taking very good pictures but I had to post them because it's a memory that I hope Sydney starts to look forward to every year.
These Pictures were taken with the Benton court house all lit up behind us.

Parker and Sydney loved it when the pony floats would come by.

This is a horrible picture that this guy took for us with the light shining behind us but this is a group shot of all of there.

Parker is such a lover! He had he head laying on Sydney's shoulder looking at the Christmas trees.
Sydney petting the polar bears.

The court house

Thanksgiving 2009

This year I had Thanksgiving lunch at my house. We had a great lunch and ate way too much. Mom was absent this year since she was sick. We even went to the Thanksgiving Old Navy sale. Dennis and Kali let us borrow their blow up jump house..THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!! The kids had a blast with it. Sydney is electric!!! Look at that hair!
Sydney enjoying her Thanksgiving dinner.

I am so thankful for my family!!!!

Halloween 2009

This Halloween post is late because as soon as Halloween was over we started working on getting thing together for our Branson trip. On Halloween night we went to East Union Baptist Church to there fall fest. After the fall fest we went to another local church and truck or treated. We finished the night with trick or treating in a east end neighborhood. We were exhausted by the end of the night. This year Sydney really enjoyed participating in all the activities. She was a pink "friendly" monster for Halloween.

We tried to get a group shot of the cousins. Brooke didn't want to get in the pic and Lauren had already ran off with one of her friends. Sydney was not diggin Jack's mask to his costume!

Sydney with the dum dum tree! After she picked one I turned around to go to the next game and I looked and she wasn't there. She was still at the dum dum tree picking suckers! ha
What do I win?

Getting down in the jump house.
Attempt at a family pic on Halloween night. Sydney always has another agenda.


Sydney loved riding the "ho ho".

I lost Stephen and Sydney half way through the fall fest and looked everywhere for them. This is where I finally found them riding this train. I laughed so hard! Stephen looks like he barely fits in the barrel.
Let's see what I have in here.
This was at the trunk or treat.
Can I eat this now?
Target game at the trunk or treat.

Branson, Mo

Last Thursday we headed out for our first family trip. We decided to go somewhere close and so we chose to go to Branson, MO. Stephen and I haven't been in eight years. We really wanted to stay at the landing in the heart of all the newest shops!! I was worried about traveling 4 hrs with a toddler but she did great! See....
Our hotel was next to a river and right next to the river was this amazing fountain/light/music show that went off every hour!!!

Sydney got to make her first Build A Bear!!!! She really enjoyed the whole process until it was time to pick out her clothes. She was too distracted to pick anything out. We went with a polar bear Christmas bear. The past two weeks it seems like Sydney will do anything to get your attention!!! All the older people down town would stop and talk to Sydney and make such a big fuss over her and she ate it up!!!! Here she is running down the sidewalks acting wild!!
I asked her to smile and look at momma and this is the pose I got!
The first night we were there the town had there annual Christmas tree lighting!! We had a family pic made with Santa who stays in the bottom of the town Christmas tree. Sydney went right to Mrs Claus.
Stephen and Sydney in front of the town tree.
We went to the Branson Zoo while we were there. It is pretty small but Sydney loves any kind of animal so I knew she would love it. This was a large tank that had 5 sharks and a logger head turSee what I mean!!! No reservations about touching this snake!!!This picture was taken inside of the Bass Pro shop fish tank.
Sydney has this on her Christmas wish list for Santa.
On every corner was these riding machines (I don't even know what to call them). Sydney would scream every time she would see one. "I wanna ride!!" We gave in a few times but it was .75 each time!On Saturday we ate at Joe's Crab shack. Our waitress asked if Stephen wanted a bib and He said no that's okay and I was nodding my head the whole time SO guess who got a bib??!!! We laughed so hard!!!Sydney wanted to pose with her shrimpees
We only went to one show while we were there. This is at the front of theater. We went to see The Miracle of Christmas. It was AMAZING!! Sydney loved it!! She would clap and wave her hands in the air. I really want to go back and watch Noah when it comes back.
30 minutes before the show starts a few of the characters bring out some of the animals in the show to get a close look at them. This little girl ADORES her daddy and loved spending so much time with him on the little trip we took. I'm glad we went to Branson. We had a blast and enjoyed having our family time.
This was our last night and we started out to have dinner by the fire but went inside because we were worried it might be too cold for Sydney. I had the best lasagna I've ever had here!! I didn't get any pictures of Sydney at the pool but she loved playing in the pool even though it was so cold to us. She didn't want to get out!! Good memories.

Saline Co Fair 2009

This past Thursday evening Stephen and I met up with Jennifer so we could take the kiddos to their first fair experience! Sydney is now 21 months and Whitney is almost 15 months. When we were walking toward the fair Sydney was squealing with excitement and I was so thrilled she was so interested. We of course started off with some yummy fair food. After we ate we headed to see the animals.
I figured she would really love the animals and think it was neat to be so close and her attitude was like yea okay what's next. lol. You never know how she will react. She did like the animals she just wasn't as excited as she was with something else!

This is Whitney with a sweet little cow eating some hay.

Sydney loves the Lunesta commerical where the rooster wakes the lady up in the middle of the night so Sydney knew exactly what this little animal was!

I think this pic is so funny! She was posing by the turkeys and I was happy they didn't peck her!
Stinky pigs!

Stephen got ahead of us and they were looking at this cow when Jennifer and Whitney started to walk up and Sydney yelled "MINE"

Family First at the Saline Co. Fair. (I'm holding Sydney's peacock feather)

Jennifer and Whitney taking their first fair pics!


I thought it would be appropriate to start off with a simple fair ride the carousal. Sydney was so scared so some reason? She was okay if she wasn't riding the horse and if I was holding her. I figured well she just still isn't ready to ride any rides yet......you would think right?


WELL..we decided to put her on a little car ride. She LOVED it. I almost started to cry but pulled it together. She has the biggest smile and screamed "HI DADDY HI DADDY" every time she came by us. Everyone thought she was so cute. I of course agree. She didn't want to get off. I tried to video on my camera but I guess I need to work on the video part because it didn't work and I was disappointed. I wish you could've seen her reaction to her first fair ride!


This is her second ride by herself. It was a truck but they were linked together like a train and it went around in a circle on a track.

Was she starting to have second thoughts? She loved this ride just as much as the first. I'm not sure if she enjoyed the rides more or her parents cheering her on and screaming every time she came around? I'm sure we looked crazy but I was so proud of her!

We ended our night with a fair game. I thought she may go swimming at one point instead of fishing! She thought she needed to splash in the water.

She picked out her own prize all by herself. Can she really be this big already?

8th Anniversary

Today is our 8th wedding anniversary. Stephen and I met while I was a senior in high school. It was only by chance that we met. I decided to pull over when a guy waved me down at Sonic. After that night Stephen continued to pursue me. Thankfully I realized what a great catch he was. We have been together a totally of ten years together. We have grown up together. Odds are against people who marry young ( I had just turned 20 when we got married) but we knew we were meant to be together after a couple short months together.

We now have a sweet little girl who is 20 months old who keeps us entertained and makes us laugh everyday. I love it how she hears the door handle moving in the afternoon and she takes off because she knows her daddy is home. I love our life together. I love my husband and I can't wait to have many more years together!

My little rock collector

This summer is passing quickly and we are kinda glad since its so stinking hot! Sydney and I got outside everyday even though its miserable we go to get out of the house and get our vitamin D!haha. Sydney has picked up a new hobby. She likes to collect rocks. When we go outside the search is on. She will carry them everywhere as long is she is outside. Here are some picks of her rock collection.
Showing off her cool rocks in her hand!

Putting her rocks in her bucket.

posing with some of her rocks in front of her.

While we are outside we have to make sure Dixie is fed as well. She loves Dixie and if there isn't any food in her bowl(even if she has just finished) we have to put some more food out for her.
Exploring! We found a full snake skin last night. Thank goodness no snake in sight! I guess its that time of year because my oldest sister said she found one as well.
Watching to make sure Dixie makes a happy plate!
Sydney trying to fix her four wheeler I ran over this morning on the way out to Wonderplace to play with Jennifer and Whitney. I guess everyone does it at sometime. I'm glad it wasn't totally destroyed.