struttin' her stuff...

with dad's help, liv has started to take some steps... however, as shown above she is not always thrilled about practicing....she complains a little bit & then she off.....

the best party of the season...

on sunday, shelley hosted our 16th annual girls dirty christmas party!! this is always the most fun party of the year. since we were in 7th grade, we have faithfully gathered every year (i've never missed a party) to celebrate the season... and each other's friendship. i love these girls. they are all my bestest friends from forever. it is just so comfortable & easy in their presence & i always leave wishing i had more time to spend with them. i have been friends with many of these girls since i was olivia's age.... we even have some pictures together where we are "propped up" by pillows because we weren't sitting by ourselves yet. it was a bit more interesting this year as we realized we are now out-numbered by our children.... it was quite a mad-house.

olivia drae

kristen & beth with baby eli

all the little ones... with aubree fleeing up the stairs in the back- not much of a picture, i know- but the best we could get....

annie- who obviously loves being held by her aunt keli :)

me, jamie & beth.... we've been quite a 3-some since we were all in braces traipsing across the state in a camping trailer with my parents... those were the days!

crysta with sweet sam

beth & liv

annie marie

jamie & ashley (who brought a fantastic white clutch that i successfully snagged as my gift)

WACKY TACKY CHRISTMAS!!!

a huge thanks to jeff & ashley for hosting a very fun & fabulous tacky christmas party saturday night! we enjoyed yummy food, drinks, and some crazy caroling around their neighborhood... (with a trumpet & several men in extremely tight pants... scary!)

nathan came as one of the 2 "cousin eddie"s that showed up @ the party & really showed their stuff! (from national lampoons christmas vacation) he said these pants were a kmart blue-light special!

me & rich (who shaved his goatee, leaving only his mustache, and instantly was transformed into be the grossest chester molester man you have ever seen)

drason & rocky (in one of jeff's mom's sweat shirts :)

court & tiff

dana & drae

me, dana (& sweet baby andrews under that funky blue sweater)

we even had a very dirty christmas game.... with some truly horrible gifts! above is jesse with his GRAMP mug...

drae went home with a massive hand-me-down clock tiff finally kicked out of the lankford household...

and finally, nathan with his sweatband & incense burner....

A Dickens of a Christmas!!

what a fun time we had on saturday taking in all the sights @ franklin's annual Dickens of a Christmas festival downtown. many volunteers dress up as characters from A Christmas Carol and walk the streets wishing all a "VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!" there were Old English carolers, sugared plums, warmed apple cider....
here we are with a few of the "characters".... (couldn't get liv to take her eyes off any of them long enough to get a good pic :)

snow!!! (yes, i know, last week)

livi enjoyed her first snow day as we woke up to this on friday morning.... it was so beautiful!

ho ho ho....

ho ho ho... this is livi's second official word (if we can stretch it and call it that)... however, she thinks "ho ho ho" means christmas lights. she absolutely loves them. we have spent several late nights driving around our subdivision looking @ lights & saying "ho ho ho" at the big blow up santas in the yards. so, now sweet liv is saying "ho ho ho" from dawn till dusk. this morning we lay in bed listening to her "ho ho" on the monitor in her bed. when we pick her up from her crib, she instantly points to the window & wants to look out for the lights.

this past weekend the elementary school behind our house was offering free pics with santa. so we headed over & were delighted with all the fun christmas activities they had to offer...

liv was totally intrigued with the big man himself and of course, for the first time in 2 weeks, refused to utter "ho ho ho"...

we even had story time with granny clause...

we also went to the first annual spring hill parade & christmas tree lighting.... liv's nanny thelma came along for the adventure & a good time was had by all!

giving thanks...

we had such a wonderful thanksgiving holiday this year. olivia drae enjoyed spending time with all her family members... and meeting some for the very first time.

sister in law dianne with my sweet nephew zander


rich and dana

above is thanksgiving day lunch @ my mom's house...

sister-in-law dianne, me and my sister jackie

sister shalia & colby todd

my dad about to dig in...

barbara and jackie

my nephew jered & drae

my niece jodi & liv

me & daddy

daddy & my brother royce

barron hudson... is he too young to be going after some copenhagen??

my nephew joey on his birthday with barron & liv

me & tiff

dana, rich & nathan @ the big yard sale

liv with sweet briley

this is drason teaching liv to do "touchdown" while watching some thanksgiving weekend football!

this is drason carving our turkey we named HERMAN @ the thanksgiving feast!

this is drason stuffing HERMAN with all his secret ingredients...

HERMAN right before he went in the oven for 7 1/2 hours :)

liv with one of drason's nephews, chris

liv with drason's mom

liv with her aunt lachelle

drae's nephews chris & cameron