Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

The video is pretty dark, because the only light was from the Christmas tree. But the singer is not too shabby. This should get you into the Christmas mood. Enjoy!

In no particular order . . .

Well, I have not purposefully gone on a blog fast. But things have been a little busy. Summer in the Philippines, a fall trip down south, and then a surprise pregnancy (in 2 words described as nasty nausea) keeping up with the blog has been far from my mind. But here we go. I went through nearly 500 pictures and picked out a few, with some difficulty, to catch up. So, in no particular order . . . . .



As I was walking behind my mom and daughter, I thought it very interesting that there they go walking down the same sidewalk going to VBS. A few years ago it would have been my hand that Mom was holding. Now it's Marie's.

While Marie enjoyed visiting her daddy's family, I think she found her calling while playing with the basement band. With a little help from Uncle Greg, of course.

It would be an understatement to say that a highlight of our trip down south was going to the opening Georgia football game. That was the first win of only a few more to come later in the season. Well, at least we were there for it!

Marie sure does love her Aunt Tammie! Tammie visited us at the first of October. She was the speaker at our Ladies' Day. It was a double blessing!

I almost let summer slip by without getting a picture of Marie beside some of our beautiful Alaskan flowers. By this time almost all the fireweed had gone to seed, so we settled with this picture at the park close to our house.

If I were to describe this summer in one word, it would probably be hiking. Here we are on the East Glacier trail. I can't tell you how many times we hiked it. In fact, Bill and I even got babysitters so we could hike more. When the fall rains came, I almost went into mourning over that trail knowing it would be many months before I would be able to hike it again. Ugh! And now that I'm pregnant it will be even longer! Not that it's a bad trade, please don't misunderstand.

Marie is practicing her ballerina moves in her Halloween Costume. She makes a cute little Care Bear ballerina!

Oh my, when the cat's away the mice will certainly play! This is what I came home to one day after work. Bill had brought the mattress from the spare room into the living room. I'm sure it didn't take this little jumping bean long to figure out what to do.

And here we are - all caught up. Marie is deciding where to put the Frosty the Snowman ornament. But it has moved several times since this picture was taken. Frosty has become Marie's favorite movie, ornament, song, and story.

Thanks for bearing with me through the long dry desert. I'll try not to go that long without posting again!

For those of you who wish to see

I had mentioned that Marie had learned Kum ba ya and there was an interest in seeing her sing it, so now introducing (drum roll please)..............

MARIE

Jesus Loves Marie

Philippine Blog Address

Check out the Philippine mission trip blog at juneautothephilippines2010.blogspot.com.

For the Fans

Marie adding to the daffodils in the yard.

Goeffrey and I witht he kids hiking at montana creek.

Marie entertaining Carley and Isaac.

Of course, I am following in the footsteps of my dad trying to be a grill master.

Amanda and Marie on a sunny day, gardening and playing.

Hope you enjoyed a few pictures. I hope to keep few more coming at least to keep me occupied until Amanda returns from the Philippines.

Slide

Marie Reads a Book

April Catch-Up

Happy Easter, Marie!




Marie and her daddy.




Winter tires to summer tires.




Marie helps her mama.

It's a great big world!

Computer Out of Order

Shortly after we returned from Hawaii and the Alaska State Lectureship, Marie knocked our laptop off the coffee table. It just happened to land on the power cord and damaged a piece of it, which means no power. We've ordered a new one and have been waiting on it for a while now. So after we have the new one, I'll post some picture updates. And I'll keep the laptop away from Marie. Live and learn . . . . .

Twins are born!

My big souvenirs from Hawaii was a pearl necklace. Because we bought a pearl, the shop lady gave us the opportunity to get a pearl from an oyster that hadn't been opened.


Here is our oyster.



This is the shop lady opening the oyster. It looked gross!




Here are our 'twin' pearls! The shop lady said that you don't see 2 in pearl that often.

Now . . . what to do with my twin pearls?

Hawaii Highlights

Here are some of the highlights from our vacation.



We really enjoyed the Polynesian Culture Center. We learned about 7 different Polynesian cultures, enjoyed a great dinner, and a show at the end.



This was the sunset from our sunset dinner cruise. It was so beautiful!




We sent to Pearl Harbor Church of Christ on Sunday and Bill had the opportunity to speak. Everyone here was really friendly.





On Monday we visited Pearl Harbor and several other historic sights from WW2. This was one of our favorite memorials: The four soldiers represent WW2, the Korean war, Vietnam, and today's soldier remember a fallen comrade.







Bill and me before going to a luau at our hotel. You can't tell it from here, but the grounds were so pretty.

This vacation was really nice, but I look forward to getting back to Tammie's tomorrow and spending time with Marie. But, I do think more vacations are in our future.

First Day in Hawaii

Amanda and I were waiting with baited breath for our first trip to Hawaii. We have been excited about it since we bought it at the first of the year. As we were sitting in the terminal, we saw the plane that would be taking us to Honolulu.

When we arrived on Wednesday, by the time we got our car, it was dark and I was very confused because almost all the street names are Hawaian names. Needless to say, it was a harrowing adventure getting to our hotel (you can ask for the details later if you wish). But in the sunlight of a new day, here stands our hotel right on the beach. It is a very nice lcation.

Amanda and I hiked up the Diamond head crater, a focal point of Oahu and Waikiki beach. It was harder than what some people had told us, but the view from the top was spectacular. A nice man offered to take a picture of us with Honolulu and the ocean in the back.

If you were wondering what hotel we stayed at, I took this picture that is next to our tower and it could be on a pamphlet. Very nice. And a plug for them, our first night was rocky but they more than made up for any bad feelings we have had about Honolulu the first night. They have made our stay, so far, very pleasant and relaxing.

There is a lagoon which is sepreated from the ocean to give a nice calm area to swim in. Amanda even got in the lagoon with me for a while and enjoyed it. We thought that hanging out at the lagoon every night and watching the sunset would be a great way to end the day of "hard" touristing:)

By and large, we have only been here a day and a half, but there are no second thoughts on this choice for our vacation. The only thing is that we miss Marie, but Tammie lets us talk to her and is taking excellent care of her for us.

Aloha!

March Catch-Up

Enjoy March catch-up.

In the mornings, Marie has started wrapping up her legs in her blanket and setting Nana beside her. They talk, sing and laugh together.

Marie's 2 newest favorite big girl books with 'real' pages. And we've only had to repair one torn page.

Marie has started to color and occupy herself in my craft room while I'm working on projects.

Marie loves her tea set.

She really likes having tea parties, and she invites all her friends. And she really set this up all by herself. Now, some of you might be asking why she has no pants on. Well, the answer to that question is that first she poured diet pepsi all over her pants. And second, we didn't have any more pants clean and had to wash some. I guess I was a little behind on the laundry.

February Catch Up

Well, now that I've had a couple days of R & R in Hawaii, thought I would catch up on my blogging a little bit.

Marie loves the snow, even as little as there is here. And she loves wearing her "new" coat and boots even more.

Well, we've put the high chair away and Marie has graduated to a booster seat. That means she's growing up a little! And I think this looks much more normal around our table now too.

Marie after bath. I think she knows she's a pretty cute girl.

From Marie to everyone

Hey this is Bill. I have decided to let Marie write something to all you blog goers. And with no further ado......Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeres Marie.

j,,cmmm n m mmmmmfmmnavdn,.lpmm mv v,m,k . jfesjhx8 duw
jjgkgghgghhh,bjfndb xkfkdueuehtiuknmcnmmc.,,l,nb bnururuire ljjgfvcj 8jujhhg
\,kjffk,fnkl c/pm. po45 oroele; ew. oo5, e eeeeeeexxxx

That was an adventure. Take care.
bill and marie

Busy Little Girl

This particular morning, we went into Marie's room to find her and Nana enjoying the morning. And she's usually this happy too!

Happy Valentine's Day! I bought this dress in Anchorage back in October specifically for Marie to wear on Valentine's Day.

This past Saturday we had nice weather, so we drove out to the Shrine. Marie liked playing around in the chapel.

Bill and Marie explored the front yard together. This time last year, there was more snow than I had ever imagined.

Carly and Isaac came over one afternoon this week and Marie loved it! This is Marie's new favorite toy - thank you Meemaw - and Carly and Isaac liked them too.

Needless to say, Marie is a very busy little girl.

Exploring

Marie's Talent

Well, our original thought was that Marie would play the harmonica at the talent show. But she ended up being a microphone hog. She's pretty cute!

Dancing to her own Music

Christmas House Questions

She takes after her mom

Oh look at her! She's going to be a piano teacher just like her mom! See how she's instructing her doll where 'B' is?

Just Marie

I just can't resist taking pictures of this little girl! Here are just some of the most recent cute ones - enjoy!