Doing stuff

The Nashville Opera did a free performance at the Country Music Hall of Fame a few weeks ago so of course we were there.

The opera was The Brothers Grimm, and we enjoyed it very much.

This weekend Ira's soccer team had their first game. He did a very good job posing at the house before the game.

Though his shorts have an eight, he's actually number sixteen.

Jason and Kyle came to watch the game and had lunch with us.

This afternoon we took a nice walk, and we found this cute, little bridge over a very tiny creek.

Soon we gave up on the bridge and Ira was stomping in the mud.

He was overjoyed.

Jesse had to work after Christmas so Ira and I went to Pensacola to celebrate New Year's. Here Ira poses with Nana, Papa, Uncle Luke and a lot of his cousins at Chuck E. Cheese.


Ira loves his cousin Cheyenne. They are almost exactly the same age and even though they don't see each other very often, Ira is always excited to see her. Here they are riding a horse together...


and here they are riding in a school bus.


Ira's adorable little cousin Isaiah on the Barney ride. You can see Ira and Cheyenne still playing together in the background.


After spending some time with Nana and Papa, Ira was able to have a sleep over with Nonny and Poppy. Nonny and Poppy recently moved in to a new house. Here Ira is inspecting the awesome tree house in their backyard. Sadly, the tree house is in need of some repair but should be up and running by our summer visit.


Nonny and Poppy had some great Christmas presents for Ira. Ira and his little cousin Michael got the cutest matching Superman pajamas.


Nonny and Poppy treated us to lunch at Tijuana Flats. Ira and Nonny took a break from lunch to snap this picture with Poseidon.


Ira had so much fun at Nonny and Poppy's. He played with his cousin, Michael...


and he played with Michael's toys. Ira is such a big boy. He even puts his own underwear on.


Ira's great grandmother, GG, came over for a visit.


And Ira was able to visit with his Uncle Jeremy one last time before he moves to Louisiana.


Poppy with his boys!


Ira can't figure out why babies don't eat giant candy canes. Thank you Nonny and Poppy for the biggest candy cane in the world.


No trip to Pensacola is complete without a visit to Uncle Anthony's fire station.


Nana, Ira and Holley playing on the fire truck.


Ira taking Uncle Anthony for a ride.


Climbing on the truck with David.


Spraying the hose with Jack Jack (Aunt Jackie).


After the visit to the fire house, we went to Bellingrath Gardens. Here Ira and Jacob admire the lights.





Goofing around with Papa at Bellingrath Gardens.


Under the Sea with Jack Jack...


and Holley.


Jack Jack and Uncle Anthony hosted a kid friendly New Year's party. We rang in the New Year at 8:00.


Papa and Ira were excellent noise makers.


Here Ira is in awe of Papa's incredible fireworks display.


This picture is blurry but you can see Papa puts on a serious show. Not bad for a guy in his front yard.


Ringing in the New Year with white grape juice and a party blower. Ira loved seeing his family in Florida. I wish we could see them more often.

Christmas, pt 2

Christmas was so awesome that I couldn't even try to blog about it until now.

We found this crazy reindeer wandering down the street.

Aunt Drew tries to stay hip even while adventuring in the forest.

A real deer! In the woods! We saw it! It was awesome!

Ira got a few presents on Christmas Eve, including some cool firefighter boots and this little chair, which has been in our family for a really long time.

We had a great Christmas Eve dinner at the Smiling Elephant Thai restaurant with Aunt Drew, Kyle, and Big G.

Big G read The Night Before Christmas then sent Ira off for his long winter's nap.

Cookies, milk, and a letter for Santa and carrots and apples for Rudolph.

Christmas morning! Santa wrote a letter back to Ira.

Ira was happy to open presents. He thought Santa was supposed to bring just one gift so he was a little upset at first to find so many presents waiting for him.

We had a white Christmas, I think our first ever. Big G made this cute mini snowman. It lived in our freezer for a few weeks.

We had a lot of fun in the snow. I think Aunt Drew had a little too much fun throwing snow at me. Ira looked adorable in his firefighter coat and boots.

'Tis the Season, pt. 1

We have decked the halls and donned our gayest apparel and fa la la la la'd all over the place.

We kicked things off in style in our beautiful neighbor to the north, Clarksville, at their Christmas on the Cumberland.

There were lots of Christmas lights formed into festive shapes like this gingerbread man . . .

and the traditional Christmas dragon.

The lights in Clarksville were nice, but the real festival of lights is Chanukah.

We did it up 21st century style and Skyped in Poppy, Nonny, and Uncle Jo for some candle lighting.

Of course Christmas time means Christmas parade time.

We grabbed a good spot on Broadway.



The parade started with a bang. You know, fireworks. Ha?

Ira and the lady behind us were pretty excited by the fireworks.

Don't worry, that's just a gingerbread man balloon in the parade not a giant mutant gingerbread man attacking downtown.

Ira told me the other day that Santa has three names: Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, and Mike.

After the parade we stopped by the giant Christmas tree downtown.

Ira's friend Sofia came by one afternoon and did some Christmas crafts with Ira.

Grandparents, don't look at this picture because this is what you're getting for Christmas.

What play date is complete without sugar cookies?

The kids did a pretty good job of decorating .

It snowed a little early this year. Look at our little angel.

The best part about snow days is hanging out inside by the fire with some hot cocoa.

You can't really tell but Ira's in a blanket and chair fort here.

And no Christmas would be complete without a trip to visit the Bass Pro Shop Santa Claus.