Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi all. Happy Thanksgiving! So this past week was Thanksgiving. We've had a good time... and we're really thankful for how great our life is.

On Thanksgiving Day, we started the day with Hannah doing some cooking in the kitchen while Raegan and I ate breakfast and watched the Macy's parade. Raegan seemed to like the parade. In fact she seemed almost in a trance watching the parade some of the time. I felt bad that Hannah couldn't just sit and watch the parade but she was preparing some really good food.


We drove down to Hannah's parents (Grammy & Granddad) house for lunch. Most of the family was there. Raegan remembered playing with tennis balls and Granddad the last time she was there. She didn't waste much time getting him to play with her again.


After we ate (lots of good food), Raegan went down for a nap and the grown-ups played the Pirates of the Caribbean Dice Game. I was the first to go out... so I wasn't really impressed with the game. But Hannah won and of course she thinks it's the greatest game ever.


Later Raegan got up from her nap. Aunt Jennifer taught Raegan some new dance moves. (or was Raegan teaching Aunt Jennifer?)

Uncle Jacob brought his cute new little puppy (Bailey). Even though Raegan loves "doggies", she seemed a little reluctant to pet Bailey. But none-the-less, here are some pictures of Raegan & Bailey. I have too many pictures of this... but there's just something cute about a little girl and a tiny little puppy.

The rest of the time we just hung-out. Raegan did like so many kids and spent a lot of the time on the phone talking to someone else. Wait a minute... no... she's on a remote... not a phone.

Even talking on the remote in both ears at times!

I'm actually not sure where this picture came from (other than Thanksgiving day)... but I'm posting it. We don't have all that many pictures of Hannah and me together like this. Also... due to the glare of the flash, it looks like I'm darker than Hannah. But I'm not in real life.

So Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving and people always go crazy buying things at bargain prices. I had finally decided to buy a 46" LCD TV. Until I have a place to mount it on the wall, I decided I needed to get one that could fit in our entertainment cabinet. I found one at Sears that met all my criteria and was marked down to a crazy price for the DoorBuster sale. I had planned on getting there at 3:30am on Friday morning. Anyway... long story short, BestBuy priced it $1 cheaper on Monday so I ran down and bought it right then. I was in and out in like 5 minutes (after ordering online). So I didn't have to deal with the Black Friday craziness and I got my new TV! Now I just need to upgrade some of what feeds the signal to the TV.

See below... Raegan likes to watch Elmo on the new TV. (her hair is crazy from getting meatloaf & ketchup in her hair and then us trying to get it out of her hair.)

This is another shot of Raegan's crazy hair.

On Saturday, we spent the day watching Auburn lose to Alabama and UGA lose to GA Tech. Not the best outcomes... but the UGA game was exciting to watch. Anyway... in the midst of that, we started getting our Christmas decorations out. Once the games were over, we started Christmas music and drank eggnog. Then we let Raegan stand there as we turned on the lights to the tree for the first time (before adding ornaments). She really liked it and seemed to just be in a great mood. Check out her grinning below...

We let Raegan help put a couple ornaments on the tree but then she had to go to bed. Hannah and I finished decorating the tree Saturday night. I think it turned out nice. We just have to hope that Raegan understands the rules and that she doesn't try to pull ornaments off. So far, so good!

I couldn't decide which picture of the tree I liked best... so you get 3.

So that was the week. Now we're looking forward to entering Christmas season! This coming week will be really busy!

Teething & mood swings!

Raegan got a fever during the week at daycare and she pooped through her diaper - and had to go home early. So naturally she seemed to have a stomach bug. We heard of some other kids having the same issues. The fever never got over 100.9. We now think that she is just teething more. She has been slow getting her teeth but they're coming in like crazy now. She has been really moody. One minute cute & silly... and the next minute, really upset and we can't calm her down.

Raegan has started expecting a daily dose of Elmo on TV. (We Tivo Sesame Street episodes.) When I got her home, when she had to leave daycare early, she just sat on the couch and said "Emow" (Elmo). She just wanted to sit there and watch Elmo. It was kind of sweet. (but also meant she must have felt bad because she usually can't sit still for very long).



On another night this week, I think she may have done her first role-play. She pushed her shopping cart (gift from Grammy & Grandad) to the middle of the floor and then she piled some stuff in it. Then she brought over a little doll to me and started whining. I couldn't figure out what she wanted me to do with it. This made her more frustrated. Finally, she took my hand and led me over to the buggy and tapped the buggy. So I asked if she wanted the doll to sit in the buggy... and she kind of nodded. I put the doll in the buggy the same way Raegan sits in it when we go to the grocery store. Raegan was content. I think she was pretending she was one of us pushing her in the buggy. See below.


Now that it is cold outside, it's too cold to go to the park we usually visit. So I took Raegan to a Chick-fil-A and let her play on the playground. I wasn't sure she was old enough but it turns out it was perfect! She crawled through tunnels, climbed a stair type thing, played with an activity wall. It was all great until another kid kind of pushed her a little in the tunnel and she got really upset. I had to climb into the tunnel to get her out. How embarrasing!

Anyway... that was mostly the week. If Raegan can make it through this teething, I think this week will be a better for Raegan. Hannah is doing well, the dogs are well... and we're all looking forward to Thanksgiving week!

Auburn/UGA weekend

This past weekend was the Auburn/Georgia game. Hannah & I got tickets and were able to sit on the 50 yard line on the 20th row! It was really good seats and it was one of the more exciting Auburn games I have watched this season. I really thought Auburn would pull an upset all the way until the end. But in the end, Georgia won.


While we were at the game, Raegan was staying at the Lake with Nana & Papa (my parents). They seemed to have fun (I also got copies of the pictures Nana took). We went back to the Lake after the game and hung-out too.



Hannah made Raegan wear a UGA cheerleader outfit. Though she was really cute in the outfit, she showed she wasn't choosing sides... using a symbolism with two thermos jugs.


I think these pictures of Raegan eating ice cream are cute...


It was pretty cold outside... so we had to bundle Raegan up to go play. It's funny how she'll try to suck her thumb even when she's wearing mittens.

I just thought this was cute of her with her new Baby Elmo doll and a duck. (I'm not sure what happened to the bottom of the picture)

Finally... our dogs, Bristo & Luci don't get enough notice on this blog. Luci always loves the Lake. Nana & Papa have a dog named Bailey. So there are usually 3 dogs to play together when we go out there. This time, two of the neighboring dogs (Dixie & Bently) came over to play. This slideshow shows the fun they had...

Raegan's New Dance

Hello. I have quiet a bit to share from this past week... at least quiet a few pictures. It is too late tonight for me to post them... so... to hold you over, here is a little video of Raegan's latest dancing. She watches Sesame Street sometimes now... and when there is music, she dances. She's getting more creative in her dance!

The beginning of November...

Well I didn't honor my commitment to update our blog every Sunday evening. Sorry! There actually hasn't been much to report. Last week I went to Long Beach, CA to do some prep work for our Chick-fil-A seminar being held there in February. I didn't have as much free time as I thought I would but it was a fun trip.



Meanwhile Hannah was here (a little jealous that she didn't get to go to California). Hannah's sister Jennifer came and stayed with her & Raegan. Hannah had neighborhood Bunko one of the nights and on Friday she went out to celebrate a Birthday with some of her girl friends.



Saturday Hannah, Raegan & I just spent the day eating out, running errands and just playing around. Hannah and Carrie won their T2 Tennis match on Sunday afternoon.



I don't have many pictures to post. Hannah took these while I was in CA.

Raegan likes to point out noses & say "nowse". Also... she found the headband in the picture and put it on herself and wore it for a while. (she usually doesn't like things on her head)


She has started to run some. And kind of run away from us a little... especially outside. Right now it's just a cute little game... but one day she'll be faster than us!








She likes the Fall leaves... and we have some big ones across from our house!



One more thing I did this last week is figure out an electrical problem that I'd been trying to figure out for a while. Below are the pictures that tell the story. Basically, when I wired the lighting on my deck & pergola, I had too many connections in one junction box. It seems 2 wires were touching. I could have burned down my house! I have now fixed it and we are safe!



Notice where it had started burning. The reason it burned that far is because in trouble-shooting the problem, I straight-wired past a GFCI outlet that kept tripping. Kids... don't try that at home. You might burn your house down.

The fix... more than one junction box! (thanks for the tip, Jason... he's the twin with better electrician skills)


(Dad... I know if you see this... you're wondering why is that white cap on there. The only junction box I could find that had the opening on either side was this T-box. So I just had to cap that opening. And they only had white caps. I know it looks amateur.)