Centre friends

We were so pleased to see Centre friends who shockingly we hadn't seen in 5 1/2 years - that's just so awful of me. We can't let that happen again. On the way down, Whitney and her precious boys let us barge into their house to feed Liza and give her a break out of the car and on the way home Terri hosted a house full so we could see them, the Bentleys and Whitney and her eldest John. You all are such great friends and I hate that I'm not around to see you all more. Please make me be better about coming to KY for events. Love you all!


We tried for a group shot and as you can imagine we couldn't get the perfect picture - this is close enough for me because it has some of my most favorite people in the world in it. My Centre friends are the best. Why don't we have a girls weekend in Iowa? Ya'll up for snowshoeing and other winter activities?

Happy Birthday Grandmother Jones

In an earlier post I mentioned that both of Liza's grandmothers celebrate their birthdays in November and we were so glad to be there to tell my Mother happy birthday in person. Happy Birthday! We love you! As you'll notice Liza has learned to stick out her tongue!


My Daddy also gets a lot of praise this year because he got Mother the perfect birthday present - beautiful pottery. Even though the scavenger hunt to find it went a little awry it was all worth it in the end. Way to go!

Friends who are family

Our family has enjoyed getting to know Bev and we are so excited that she'll officially become a member of the family in April of 2009. We look forward to many more happy times with her - she's a joy to be around and we hope Christian knows how lucky he is!




Long time family friends, Judi and Dick, who are close enough to count as family celebrated with us this year and they were all over the place - walking dogs, slicing ham, mixing drinks, helping with recycling and loving on Liza. Thank you so much for coming to be with us and we can't wait to do it again soon.

Thanksgiving Tradition

I can't recall how it started but many years ago our family began bowling on Thanksgiving Day. Even though I never bowled well I kept going. When Bair joined our family I talked really big about how well I could bowl - not sure what came over me. When he went with us the first time I think I put more in the gutter than down the lane. Bair didn't want to go bowling this year and in a way I was thankful because I didn't want to watch him run up the score while mine went in the gutter. Somehow someway teams were picked and Marilyn, Daddy and I were on one team - if you haven't guessed it we were the left-overs - no one wanted our scores to bring them down. We had so much, I bowled my first strike and even broke 100. I'm not holding my breath because I don't think it will happen again but it was a whole lot of fun.

My cousin's children are having a lot of fun together.

One of the best moments was watching my Daddy concentrate on his form and in mid-stride toss the ball backwards. I think it was because he thinks wearing his hat backwards is still cool. Notice all the different color bowling balls...we thought one of each weight might improve our chances.

Liza's first Thanksgiving

The Bair family traveled to North Carolina for Liza's first Thanksgiving. As usual Liza was an angel for the 14 hours in the car. She is such a good baby and brings so much joy to us. We arrived in Montreat late Wednesday night and all settled in quickly. Thanksgiving morning was beautiful in the mountains and Bair took Liza on a long stroller ride because she loves to be outdoors and it isn't warm enough to do that in Iowa anymore. We were surrounded by the love of family and friends and the love and care they gave Liza was so kind and gentle. Liza says thanks to all of you!

I shouldn't have expected anything else with my Mother and others preparing the food; we enjoyed such a feast.

I was teasing a friend about the number of desserts she was making for her family Thanksgiving; after looking at this picture I realized I should have kept my mouth shut because my family enjoyed a few of their own.

While we were fortunate to be with so many family and friends we connected with those who weren't around by phone and webcam. Here we are visiting with my cousin Scott and are all trying to cram around the webcam.

This year Thanksgiving fell on our wedding anniversary and thanks to family friends Judi and Dick we celebrated with a champagne toast. It was so special for us to be in the place we were married to celebrate our 9th anniversary. Thank you to all for being there with us.

Christmas Warm Up

We've been told by so many that children Liza's age are more excited with the boxes and papers than the gifts. She certainly proved that adage true this morning as we were opening her new shoes!

What's in this box?

I really want to see what's in there!

Yeah that was so much fun! What's next?

I"m still really cute

The temperature is dropping and last night I think it got down to 18 chilly degrees. When it is this cold, getting ready in the morning requires a few extra steps and thankfully Chris stopped by to start the van and to help get Liza bundled up. What a Dad! Before he arrived Liza and I had our morning photo shoot so here are some fun shots for you.

Good morning!

This necklace looks really tasty!

Just as I thought - very yummy!

Let's move on to Mommy's shoe string...

Wait a minute where did that shoe string go?

I think I hear some noise outside...it's my Daddy! I don't understand why he won't come inside. I keep banging on the door to get his attention and I can hear him talking to me but he's still on the other side. Do you think I need to move?

Glad Mommy helped me move out of the way because Daddy gave me a big hug!

All bundled up and ready for the trip to Rita's. Happy Tuesday everyone.

Happy Birthday Grandmother Bair!

Both of my Grandmothers have November birthdays so I'll try and be very cute this month so Mommy and Daddy will post lots of pictures of me. I know you would rather see more of me than some silly old birthday gift.

I am coming to get that camera...

That's not fair...you can't lift the camera above my head when I get over here.

I think I'll give you a funny face rather than a smilely face.

I just can't resist - here's a smile - do you think I have a tooth in there?

Expressions

Winter Gear

Today was the day - hat and gloves had to go on and Liza wasn't a big fan. We awoke to snow flurries and fortunately thus far there is no accumulation. I'm not sure I'm ready for the daily bundling up of Mother and daughter.

Mom, what are you making me wear?


How in the world do I get these things off?


Don't you think my gloves are too big?


If I do say so myself I'm kind of cute in this get-up!


Maybe I can be a snow bunny after all!

Still need practice...

I've been working on teaching Liza to give kisses to her stuffed animals. We make big smacking sounds and say Uhmmm Waaa a lot! Not sure how much progress we are making but when she sees me pick up a few of her stuffed animals I think she knows something is up. My friend Jerry gave her the rocking horse when he was on campus for Reunion - thanks Jerry!

Liza is considering what to do next..

How am I doing?

Closing her eyes and trying to aim..

Still needs fine tuning...

Is this right Mom?

I think I got it right!

First Halloween

Halloween for Liza was short and sweet this year. We put on her pumpkin outfit and handed out candy for about 15 minutes before it was time for bed. Liza had a lot of fun playing in the candy and no matter what tricks I tried she was not interested in wearing her pumpkin hat for very long!

Liza is looking at the candy...

Liza is putting her hand in the candy...

Liza trying to eat the candy...

Liza very mad when Mom took candy away...

Fortunately she returns to our sweet pumpkin pretty quickly!