Happy New Year

My Dad and his girlfriend, Janet sent us this.....I thought what better way to wish you a Happy New Year than a good laugh....click HERE to see the Fleming Elf Yourself video! Best wishes for a Happy and Healthy 2009!

9 months old.......crawling

I first have to apologize for the quality of these pictures, they are from the "mommy cam." Sometimes when good things are happening it's all I have time to grab......Quinn is 9 months old! She has 4 teeth, weighs 18 lbs. 4 oz(1lb of that weight gain is from the goldfish Canon fed her!) and is 27 inches long. She is happy go lucky and smiley(mostly). It's official, she is crawling. It's a slow and methodical scoot really, but I'll give it to her, she can get around. I love how she puts her one leg out to the side. We've had some oddly warm days and so she had just a diaper on, the freedom from her pants helped her so much from sliding on our hardwoods. Her are some of her crawling and drooling.......

Go Fish

Yesterday I had a bride coming and was home alone with all 3 kiddos. I was planning to have Canon and Quinn asleep, but they had different plans. So, I put Quinn in her chair and gave her a small handful of goldfish. I kept the box nearby so I could refill quickly if needed. I gave Canon a cup of milk and some fruit snacks and turned on the tv. It was a 5 minute quick meeting, so I thought perfect, they're quiet, happy. So the meeting ended and I walked back into the living room to this...........

I guess she had run out and being the good big brother, Canon gave her a refill by dumping out the entire box. She didn't seem to mind though! Can you see her 4 teeth? She finally cut the top 2! Go fish.........

Christmas Night

We had the day to ourselves to play and get the house ready for the rest of Todd's family to come visit. We had another decent meal:-) and then Todd's sister Stacey and her husband Mike got talked into playing the Wii....I wonder who would have done such a thing? We might have to create WPA(Wii Players Anonymous-"My name is Tara and I'm a Wii-aholic!) We played a little Rock Band and then decided they had to try boxing. If you haven't done it, it will wear you out! They cheated, they sat down and boxed, but it was still hilarious. We had a great time with you guys, sorry the visit was so short!

Christmas Morning

We celebrated a sweet Christmas this year. It was Quinn's first, which is always fun! We went to late church Christmas Eve and Aidan got to go with us this year into "big" church. He was so excited. It was so neat to watch him singing Christmas Carols and taking it all in. Then we went home and tucked the kiddos into bed and got to work! The boys actually slept in! We think it was their gift to us and it was a great one. We all got up and slowly opened and enjoyed the presents and the time together. What a sweet way to celebrate Jesus' birthday; together, safe, and happy.

P.S. Due to technical difficulties the slideshow of pictures is in the next link down!

Christmas morning pictures

Cookie Decorating and Addie

The last night with the Blakes we made cookies for santa. We had a decent dinner(I cooked, so it wasn't gourmet!) and then decorated cookies. It was so nice getting to spend time with Chris, Ashley, and Addie. It made us realize how much we wish we lived closer. Maybe one day we will....until then, there are always good visits and memories! Here are a few of cookie decorating and sweet Addie!

FUNBU(that's our band name)

So, we are official Wii junkies. While at the zoo in the freezing cold, we decided the best thing we could possibly do was to go buy Rock Band. We were back in the car and on the phone searching in no time. Ashley was the lucky one and found it at Target(we had split up to find it as quickly as possible!) We were so excited to get it home. We started our own band and "rocked" every song, well almost. We stayed up way too late and had way too much fun. The band's already broken up, but we're really looking forward to a reunion tour!

Zoo lights

Being the great parents we are, we bundled up the kids while Chris and Ashley were here and took them to zoo lights. It was 16 degrees and we didn't last long. We hung out in the Creatures of the Dark inside for as long as possible and then ran through the rest of the zoo. It was COLD! The girls were wrapped up and in the stroller and so cute and quiet. I think they were thinking, "What are our nutty parents doing to us?" It was fun though and we all thawed quickly.The kiddos in the Creatures of the Night(the only warm place at the zoo!)

They are the absolute best models! We miss you guys!I am laughing because I had just taken out the light display. I ran into the wire holding it up, the lights fell over and I did too. I'm so graceful!

Surgeon General Warning

We have had such a great Christmas break! It started with Todd and Ashley shooting a wedding together in Nashville. Todd brought Ashley, Chris, and sweet Addie back to Memphis with them and we had a short, but fun-filled visit with them. (more to come on that!) So, about a month ago I called and asked Ashley what to buy Shelby and Annibell for Christmas. Shelby and Annibell have been living with Chris and Ashley(let me tell you how amazing Chris and Ashley are-they are my heros!) Shelby is a teenager and so Ashley's advice was, and I quote, "Just don't buy her cigarettes!" So when we exchanged presents with the Blake's what did our sweet baby Quinn get from them? A pack of King's! and the cutest pair of shoes ever, but a pack of King's! They were candy of course and we laughed so hard. So of course Quinn shared with Addie, because that's what good cousins do!

Chris the good uncleChris the "bad" uncle! Thanks for cracking us up! And don't worry we talked to both Quinn and Addie about not smoking!

Sitting with Santa

Does anyone else find it strange that we expect our children to go and sit on a strange man's lap and smile? :) We dressed the kids up last week and took them to see Santa. We were a little thrown off, because when we walked in he was just hanging out on a couch. It just seemed wrong! But we got what we were after, a screaming photo of Quinn with the bearded man. Aidan and Canon both told Santa they wanted bikes. It was a fun night and we of course had to take some extra pictures while they were all dressed up!