Cortlyn & Alaina

Alaina belongs to one of my best friends, Stephanie. Alaina survived very grim odds when she was born and is our little miracle! Stephanie decided spur of the moment to drop everything and run away for the weekend and visit me- something we both were overdue for!!! Cortlyn LOVED Alaina!

Stephanie got here late on Friday night and then Saturday morning, we decided to follow USM to New Orleans and spend a few hours over there. It was SOO much fun to have Alaina around! I can't wait til our next girls weekend!

Our Christmas!

We had to make a few more cookies for Santa... Chef Cortlyn was on that!

 When we woke in the morning, Cortlyn had so many things under the tree that Santa had brought (And a few things Aunt Cheryl had sent!)

  

Cortlyn was VERY excited about her very own telephone!

 

Santa left one half eaten cookie... which Cortlyn promptly took care of! 

 

After baby got her new outfit on, Cortlyn shared her winter cap that she got from Santa

 

Doctor Cortlyn making sure baby is okay (she is!)

 

 I think this table is going to be a lot of fun for her, she has enjoyed it so far today!

Cookies and Santa

 I decided that Cortlyn needed to prep for Cookies for Santa... since he would need some for Christmas Eve, right? So, last weekend we had our first trial run!

Cortlyn was not all that excited about cutting the cookies... So, Mommy just had to cut them out and let her get on to the fun part anyway...

 THE SPRINKLES!!!!

 She got the idea of the sprinkles, right?

 And we had to let her taste the yummy-goodness!

Due to the traveling back to Georgia at the time when Santa usually comes to visit, we have arranged for him to visit us a little early. It is a little early, but Santa made the necessary changes to his schedule to help us out! So, since he is coming tonight, we went to visit him today. Cortlyn seemed very excited about visiting with Santa, so I was sure we'd get a great picture like we got last year. 

 

Except someone didn't want to sit in Santa's lap!!!! So, instead of freaking her out, we decided that Momma would just stay close- and in the end we got a GREAT picture... that we can crop!

Snow in Hattiesburg???

First things first! Big Mama Blog is giving away $100 gift card from Hersey Kisses! I could always use a little extra cash, and if you are interested, go comment here!

So, they had been talking about it on the TV all week... but do you really expect in Southern Mississippi to wake up to this outside your front door??

Cortlyn has a little cough and a runny nose, so I couldn't let her stay out for long, but she has to play in the snow a little right?

Here Daddy is giving her a little snow to see what it looks like, and how cold it is!



This is the view from our back yard... the sky doesn't look real, but I swear it is!



And then, she was done... she had walked in it, touched it, but like her mother... she wanted where the WARM is!!!
And this week we went to the Tree Lighting at USM, the pictures I took came out horrible, so this is really the only one. You can't see the tree and the ornaments very well, but it is a beautiful tree!

Oh Christmas Tree!!!

Today was the day... while Cortlyn took her afternoon nap, Momma & Daddy worked hard to rearrange the living room and put up the Christmas tree! Cortlyn was VERY excited to see her surprise when she woke up...

I hope we have the "touch, don't throw them to the ground" part down... Since our ornaments are all from Ikea, they are plastic, so they *shouldn't* break. We'll see.

She was so excited she kept covering her mouth! It was cute!

She really wanted to have the "Tar" but, it was just out of her reach... darn!

I can't wait for the rest of the holiday and for her to enjoy this Christmas. Last year was so much fun, but this year will be even better! Now, if the USM athletics would decide what Bowl game we're going to, that would be great!

Thanksgiving 2009

Sorry its taking so long to post another blog! Last weekend Nana & Pops came to visit last week, and do you know, I don't have a single picture from that visit?? Sigh. I do have a picture of Cortlyn and daddy hanging out on the couch from that saturday morning (Cortlyn is in her USM t-shirt, although, she had to miss the last game of the season due to freakishly cold & wet weather)


We were able to find a parade on TV (stupid DISH), the Chicago/McDonald's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Cortlyn LOVED to watch the parade and the floats.


She sat there and watched, until I said "Look, Cortlyn! It's Santa!" I didn't expect her to remember Santa or even know what he was about. Well, she shocked me and JUMPED to her feet and pointed at Santa and dancing around. Who'da thunk it?

This is Daddy carving our delish crock pot turkey!! It was SOOO tasty, if I do say so myself!
And this was my shot of the table. We didn't decorate much, but SOMEONE couldn't wait for the meal to start...

Little Miss...

Today we took Cortlyn for her first pageant. It was a small local natural one. She did pretty well, so I thought, but she got 3rd place. She had a blast playing with the other kids that were in the pageant!

These were the three girls in her division. The girl in the middle won.

There was also a little boy in her division... he was a cutie!

Exciting month ahead!

So, the ice cream truck stopped by again on Sunday!!! YEA!!!! Although, it was RIGHT at naptime but it was a nice day and I want Mr. Ice Cream Trusk to know we're a good place to stop in the spring! I thought we could just buy the ice cream and then put it in the freezer and she could have it after nap... Wrong! She figured it out and was NOT happy that we were planning on not giving her the Push Pop right then! So... Momma was the pushover this time. I gave her the ice cream. I figured she was going to eat it anyway, better now than around bedtime, right?

Cortlyn sharing with daddy!

Is this the spitting image of her father or what?

In other exciting news, I found a local beauty pageant to put Cortlyn in! It's not a glitzy, makeup and hair piece thing... just a natural little pageant. I promise... Cortlyn will NOT become a pageant kid! I just think she's so adorable!

The Zoo

As previously mentioned... there is a Zoo in Hattiesburg. Its nothing terribly exciting, and it only cost $2/person to go, so at least its affordable! But we don't have gobs of animals to look at. But Cortlyn seemed to enjoy it, even if she could understand why she couldn't go play with the big cats and birds...


The monkey didn't seem very happy about being in a cage with the parrots...Peeping at the prairie dogs
Super Cortlyn!

I wish this had turned out a little better... but the guy who drives the train took it.

Butterfly's events!

Cortlyn had many opporunities to wear her Butterfly costume this week... First there was the Zoo Boo (see last post!) and then we went to the Oak Grove Elementary School's Fall Festival. When we arrived at the school, I let Cortlyn run in the field behind the school, while I got the stroller and things out of the car... she thoroughly enjoyed the chance to run in the wide open field!


While at the festival, Cortlyn also had fun in the bouncy house! She would barely get stood up, when she'd get knocked down again! The girls in the house with her, were so sweet and helpful, but of course, their bouncing was knocking her over. She didn't mind though! Cortlyn was smiling and squealing the whole time, and was NOT happy when Mommy crawled in to get her out!
Cortlyn got to play a few games, although, she had a hard time understanding what the games were at times...
On Saturday, our friend Julie invited us to her friend's house to go trick or treating in their neighborhood. Cortlyn enjoyed all the new children and toys. She played very well with them!
We decided that we needed the kid leash for Cortlyn though... she didn't want to hold our hand while we were walking around... but she's nearly 30 pounds!!!

Zoo Boo!

Tonight, we joined Cortlyn's Sitter Nita and her daughter Alyssa, sister Amy and niece Emma at the Zoo Boo! It was the first time we got to try out the Butterfly outfit I came up with for Cortlyn! My friend back home Michael Ann, made the tu-tu and I've had the wings for a while!

We finally have a picture of Cortlyn's Sitter!! This is Nita!

Cortlyn LOVES Alyssa! They get along very well!

This was while we were waiting for the train to take us on a little trip around the zoo. It was dark and all the animals were put up for the evening, so there aren't any pictures from the ride.

Cortlyn enjoyed the Carousel ride!