Small Town Christmas Parade

December 11th, our small town had their Christmas Parade. Of course, we had to take Will.

We parked our car near the main intersection and met up with some friends from church.

There were two police cars at the intersection and Will was facsinated by them.  He kept saying, "one, two police cars!".

The parade was fun.  We got to see the fire truck, the local high school band, and some cute Christmas floats!

Busy, Busy

Work is really busy this time of year, so I haven't been able to update the blog as much as I would like.  After this week, things should calm down a little bit--just in time for our holiday celebrations to start!  I am going to try and catch up on some posts I have been meaning to write and I hope to post as we celebrate the season with our families!

I know this season can become so busy and we start to worry about things that don't seem so important after the fact.  I just want to finish this work stuff and turn my mind and heart towards the true reason for the season.  I want to be intentional about spending as much time as possible with Will and Clay and teach Will about why baby Jesus came into this world.

I hope you are all enjoying this wonderful time of year.  I'll be back with some Christmas posts soon!

Sunday Singing

My favorite part about the holiday season is the music. I love Christmas Carols!!  I try not to drive Clay to crazy so I only listen to them during the month of December.  I think the best Christmas music can be heard at church.  This past Sunday I got a full day of choirs singing and I loved every  minute of it.

We started out the day at the church where my brother is the children's/youth minister.  His church was having their Christmas program and he is in the choir.  The adult choir sang first and it was great. It is a small church but they have some great singers!  After the adult choir finished, they had the children's choir do a short program.  It was so sweet and they sang all my favorite Christmas Carols. Also, there was a 4-year0-old blonde haired little boy on the front row and all I could picture was Will in a couple of years. It totally melted my heart.

On Sunday night, we headed to our church to watch my mom preform with our adult choir.  AMAZING!  They always do a fantastic job.  There are about 40 choir members and they are accompained by a 25 piece orchestra.  It was so good. There was a short drama that went along with it and it was based around Mary's view of what was happening in those days leading up to Jesus' birth. Such a touching story and our drama team, choir, and orchestra did a great job getting the message accross to the audiance!

The pictures were taking with an iPhone so the quality isn't great, but that doesn't take away from the fact that it was a great day of worship with my family!

Winter Coat

I bought Will this winter coat without trying it on him because he was pitching a fit in the store that day.  I assumed once we got it home and it got cold, that he wouldn't mind wearing it...I WAS WRONG!!

He hates wearing it.  Mostly because he can barely move when its all zipped up.  Think the little brother in "A Christmas Story."

We have to bribe him with two M&Ms every morning to get him to put it on.

His mobility gets even worse when he has to sit in his car seat. He doesn't like it and doesn't think its funny, but Clay and I both think it is a little funny!

He looks like a giant blue marshmallow.  Poor baby.  Even though he hates it and doesn't like wearing it, it is a necessity!  Maybe he will learn to love it. He has definitely learned to love M&Ms!!

The Innkeeper's Dilemma

Since September, I have been working with our Youth Drama Team at church. It has been so fun working with these kids and getting to hang out with. 

Last night was the night they preformed their play, "The Innkeeper's Dilemma."  The play was about the night Jesus was born from the Innkeeper's perspective.  It was a light and fun story with a important point.  The Innkeeper was looking for a revelation in his life, and when Jesus was born he got that. 

The Cast and Crew

I think my favorite lines of the whole play were:

Innkeeper to Mary:  "Mary, how did this happen?"

Mary:  " I said 'yes' and God made the impossible...possible."

Wow!  What God did for us by sending His Son to save us from our sin is absolutely amazing. I can't even describe it in words!

The kids to a wonderful job and I am so proud of them! 

Since we were trying to do this as a fundraiser for the youth's mission trip, we did the play as a dinner theater.  We had 20+ women from the church decorate tables with their Christmas dishes and served a wonderful dinner.

Here is my table:

This is my wedding china with the Christmas accents plates. I love my china.  I had a Martha Stewart moment and made the centerpieces.  I was pretty proud of them. 

It was so fun to go around and look at everyone's table and then we all enjoyed a meal together. And on top of everything, we raised over $1200 for our youth group!

It was such a great night.

Auburn Tigers--2010 SEC CHAMPS!

Saturday was an awesome day for our Auburn Tigers and Clay and I are so grateful that we got to be in Atlanta to witness the game! Thanks Dan and Celia!!!!

Dan and Celia gifted us tickets to the game and we traveled with them and Kate and Gray to the game.  The package that we had included a bus ride to and from the game. It was nice to be able to hang out with everyone on the bus and no have to worry about driving!

Once we got to Atlanta, we headed over to the World Congress Center to walk around Fanfare.  It was packed!!!  I thought we would never get in.  We got there in time for the Auburn pep rally, but it was so packed we couldn't see anything.  We did enjoy listening to the band and cheering along with the cheerleaders.  Nothing like spending the day with 20,000 of your closet Auburn friends.

Then we ran into these folks:

Me, Donna, Robbin, Erica, and Hunter

Me and Robbin--Love HER!!

Just so you all know, Donna is the female version of Clay.  They love football!  It is so funny. They say a lot of the same things and they love to scream and be loud. It is really fun to watch them together.  We walked around and chatted a bit and then we were able to get some pictures of Hunter and Erica getting Ben Tate's autograph.

It was getting close to game time so we headed over to the Georgia Dome to find our seats and get something to eat.  We ate and waited for the game to start. I was so nervous. I never get nervous over football, but this was a make or break game for us. If we win, we go to the National Championship. If we lose, we get nothing!  So much riding on 60 minutes of football.

The game was AWESOME and Clay and I had the best time!!!!  It was the first game Clay and I have been to together without Will.  We missed him so much but it was nice to enjoy the game without worrying about sippy cups, baby food, and diapers!

Our Tigers played so well and we WON!! SEC CHAMPS 2010!!

Kate and Gray

Dan and Celia

The final score of the game was 56-17. AMAZING!

And the best part of the day was getting an early Christmas present from Dan and Celia.  They are taking us to Glendale in January for the National Championship Game! I can't believe that I will witness Auburn playing in the the National Championship Game.  It is so surreal.  Clay is absolutely beside himself.  He has been an Auburn fan since the day he was born!

The Yates Men

See you in Glendale and WAR EAGLE!!

21 Months Old (a day late)

Will and Tiger--21 months old

Will is 21 months old now!  Wow!  He is so amazing and is learning something new everyday. Clay and I are always surprised at the amount of information he remembers and understands.

Here are a few things he is up to these days:

--He eats well at most meals.  He eats mostly chicken and fruits.  He will occasionally eat a vegetable.  He still loves yogurt and bananas.

--He is talking ALL THE TIME!!!  99.9% of the time it is cute and sweet, 0.01% of the time he has a little bit of an attitude.

--A few things he says:  Sit down, stop, color, read book, let's go baby, and so much more. He repeats everything we say, and he is starting to answer questions with appropriate answers.

--He has shown interest in the potty. He tells us when he poo-poos and tee-tees.  We aren't doing any official potty training, but when he asks to go to the potty we take him and he sits on it.  He hasn't done anything in the potty yet.

--He does visit time out more frequently these days and I am sure the "terrible twos" are right around the corner.

--He loves cars and trains.

--He loves to color and does at least a little bit of coloring everyday.

--He is wearing 18 - 24 month old clothing and a size 6.5 shoe. He is in a size 5 diaper.

There is so much more but it would take me days to get it all down.  He is growing up so fast and I wish I could slow it down just a little bit!

To see more monthly pictures of Will and Tiger, go HERE. I can't look at that album to much or I will cry!