Holiday Photos

My good friend, Amanda's, sister in law came out to our house to take our family photos in November. We truly wanted to capture our mountain view in the backyard so we could look back and remember our first home together. We are still in the process of trying to get moved to Texas so we wanted to get good shots before we move. Just as an update: We got an offer our home, it stunk, we "let go" our realtor and are now getting ready to re-list. What a fun process (umm not so much).

Lauren is really into the star that I put on our wreath....

Her doggie is her best friend, along with our cat too who didn't make it in any of the family photos...

I'm slightly crazy about this Strasburg consignment sale dress that I scored for $20. Love it!

Checking out the backyard. Lauren gets held when we get this close to the bluff. It makes me super nervous!

Held some more...she isn't allowed on the rocks :) Wild girl would scale them and go down the mountain if we let her. By the way, you can totally hike around our house and walk down the rocks. Lauren is just way too wild!

My BFF of 6 years

Our Christmas card courtesy of Shutterfly. All you smart Mac people, how do you save it to your desktop? This is a picture of the card. I'm not a techie.

More Christmas Pictures

Lauren had fun helping with the Christmas tree this year. She was such a trooper and listened really well when I asked her not to touch the ornaments. The only thing she really wanted were the candy canes I put on there. The girl loves peppermint!

She was very into the wrapping this year. She liked to sit on my lap to help me with the tape. She constantly asked for "more tape more tape."

My little peanut sitting with her stack of wrapping paper. She grabbed her Little Mermaid book and "read" to me while playing in the paper.

We've gotten our fair share of snow on the mountain this winter. It's truly gorgeous up here in the winter. I love looking down into the valley on days when it's crystal clear. It sure it pretty up here! 

Last year, Lauren was not a fan of the snow. See....

But this year was different. She's been screaming "Snow Mommy Snow!" multiple times a day. She has enjoyed going out on the deck and just walking around with her sweet puppy. Anything Lauren does, Belle does too.

After freezing outside, we like to come in for some hot chocolate. It's definitely my favorite drink to have during the winter.

My 2 peas in a pod. I like how Lauren practically puts her face in the cup. And yes, those are mini pumpkins in the background. Fall and winter decorations all in one :) I'm happy to report that they are gone now. I saved them to do a painting project with Lauren but ended up just throwing them away. 

Here is a video of Lauren at her school Christmas program. She wanted nothing to do with her class. She wanted to stand next to the big kids.

Millwoods: This video is of Lauren spotting her new presents from you. She decided to help me wrap them. She was super excited about the wrapping process!

Christmas Part 1

We had such a nice Christmas down in the A-T-L this year! Todd actually had Christmas Day off so that was a nice little surprise. After 16 years with the airlines, it's about time! 

We've always had the tradition that Santa leaves 1 big present, unwrapped, by the tree for the little ones. Lauren's Santa present didn't disappoint this year. She got a baby doll and baby set that included a swing, diaper changing station, high chair, and baby bed. She was in baby heaven Christmas morning! 

My mom and dad also got her a mini computer. It's awesome and Lauren has played with it non stop. I ordered our matching PJs from Kelly's Kids and had Lauren's monogrammed. I love that we matched on Christmas morning :) No, I didn't get Todd a matching set. I thought about it though...kidding!

There is a house in my parent's neighborhood that goes all out with Christmas lights. You tune in to a radio station and the lights and songs coordinate with each other. Lauren took us there :) 

Parked and enjoying the light show.

Lauren definitely has Todd's sweet tooth and that proved true over the holiday. She discovered a plate of petit fours and decided to help herself. It was the funniest thing! She got herself a paper plate, climbed up on a dining room chair, got her petit four, placed it on a plate, and brought it to us screaming "Caaaaake!" The girl loves her sweets. It's opposite of me. I could eat a whole bowl of mashed potatoes over any sweet.

See...I told ya. She discovered Todd's red velvet cake the next night...

She was quite attached to her Auntie for the few days we were in Atlanta. They played non stop together and she pitched a royal fit when we dropped Lindsay off at the airport to head back to Dallas. We hope 2011 is our year to get this house sold and move to the Big D!

My diva child...does she not look like Michelle Tanner from Full House in this photo with the sunglasses???

"Oh, Papa!" Papa is her #1, as you can see.

Todd and my dad got decked out with North Face gear. They matched with their hats and gloves. We have about 7 inches of snow at our house in Chattanooga now so it'll come in handy. My dad works in Nebraska so he really needs the warm gear!

It started snowing at my parent's house on Christmas Day. It was beautiful when it was all said and done. It was so nice that we actually had a white Christmas!!

The original Rogers, family of 4!

Ho Ho Ho

Merry Christmas from Atlanta!

Animal Kingdom

I only have 2 more posts left from our Disney trip and then I'm done! Sorry if this is boring but this is my family journal so I want to document all the fun we had before I forget.

We decided to visit Animal Kingdom one day. I was on the fence about whether we should go or not because I've heard such mixed reviews. Some people say it's just a "glorified zoo" but I'm so glad we decided to make a day of it. If you don't like animals, I definitely wouldn't go but we do so it was great.

We started the morning by checking out the amazing Christmas tree at the entrance of the park. It was beautifully decorated with a ton of different animals.

We first made our way to the Its a Bug Life 3D show. Lauren hated it, seriously. She was mortified of the loud noises and bugs. Needless to say, we didn't do that again. I guess we didn't start out the day right based on the picture below. She wasn't crazy about that big ole' gorilla as you enter the show.

A massive frozen yogurt cone cured the fear. And no she didn't eat that whole thing by herself, sheesh. All 3 of us split it. I could have eaten the whole thing by myself though. It was sooo good!

We migrated over to the awesome roller coaster there. It's my favorite among all the parks. That's Todd below waving at us. There was a great waiting area where you could easily take pictures.

There's a huge play area at the park that is wonderful. We could have easily spent 2 hours there but we needed to get moving to the rides we wanted to ride. Lauren spotted the slides in .2 seconds and had to give every single one of them a test run. She loves her some "iiiides."

We then chilled out to watch The Lion King show. It's amazing. The music is wonderful and Lauren truly enjoyed it. We've learned the hard way that we need to sit on the end when we go to shows. Our little peanut needs room to get her groove on :)

Now on to my favorite part of the entire park, the safari ride. It's seriously awesome. You board a vehicle that feels just like you're in Africa. You go on a lengthy ride throughout this part of the park that is filled with animals you'd see if you went on an actual safari. It's truly unbelievable. The ride closes at 5:30 (I think) because of it getting dark. If we would have known, we would have ridden it first so we could have done it multiple times. It was that good. 

Look at the mommy elephant with her baby!

After the safari ride, we boarded a fun train to take us over to a petting zoo. We all know that Lauren LOVES animals and petting zoos so it was great. However, they didn't have chickens and those are her favorite. Remember her birthday party post??? She will gladly hold a chicken if she sees one :)

Before getting to the petting zoo, we stopped for a character picture. Who is that dude? Lion King? I don't know. Lauren covered her eyes. Love it :) And just to set the record straight, we aren't mean parents who make our kid take pictures when she doesn't want too. Lauren can fool ya in a heart beat. 2 seconds after we walked away, she was blowing kisses and asking for more. It's just a show on her part.

In her animal glory...we need to live on a farm. I take that back, Lauren needs to live on a farm. Not her city mama.

Below is a video of us riding the dinosaur ride. Its just like the Dumbo one at Magic Kingdom. We rode it over and over again because there wasn't a line. It was seriously the best time to go to Disneyworld!

Thanksgiving

I am so far behind on blogging. I thought I would interrupt the Disney posts to write about our Thanksgiving before I forget what we did that day. Before long it will be Christmas. I better get to better blogging!

My sister, Todd, and I got up super duper early to participate in the Gobble Jog in Marietta, GA on Thanksgiving morning. Let's get one thing straight, I don't run. I am terrible at it. I could do it if I had my mind set on it but it's hard. I really thinking jogging is harder than my spinning and Zumba classes. 

(before the "race")

We all signed up for the 10K but I was the loner who totally quit after the 5K. I think 3.2 miles was sufficient enough. My kind sister walked/barely jogged with her slow sister to the 5K finish and then ran on to the finish the 10K. I ended up waiting for Todd at the finish line so we could cross over together - he the 10K, me the 5K. I think I should sign up for the Couch to 5K program. Maybe I can learn to jog well then. By the way, how did I ever finish a HALF MARATHON in 2007? I have no clue.

We enjoyed Thanksgiving lunch at my parent's house with my mom, dad, sister, and grandparents. It's always nice to have a lazy, quaint Thanksgiving dinner your own house I think.

On Friday, we drove over to South Carolina to our cousin's house. We always head over there for the holidays. It's a great meeting point for family that lives in North Carolina and all of our South Carolina fam. 

Lauren and Ace really enjoyed hanging out together. I think because they are close in age, they play really well together. They are 6.5 months apart, I think. Ace's big sister, Olivia, is so sweet and gentle with Lauren. PS: Kenna, If you have pictures of all 3 kids, please send. I could only find these on my computer.

Lauren wanted to escape the little room we let the kids play in. There is a sunroom at the back of their house that is pretty kid friendly. There wasn't anything that our wild ones could break so that's where they go. Lauren was banging on the glass window trying to make her escape plan.

Ace posed for me! Lauren and Ace would sit by the door going into the house and try to open it. Lauren mastered opening the door finally so they had many opportunities to make their escape.

After everyone ate and played, we took some family photos on the stairs. Here's our little family of 3 after about 20 attempts. It's amazing how hard it is to get a 2 year old to sit still and smile at the camera. 

The Rogers fam below...We didn't color coordinate, oh well! 

Meet my sissy, Lindsay.

A little cousin shot....Courtney, Kenna, and Lindsay. My mom and Kenna's mom are sisters and the 3 of us practically grew up like sisters.

Dancing like old times :)