Christmas in Tennessee

Tennessee is just a five and a half hour drive from O'Fallon. We began the trip missing our exit, but after looking at the map we decided to keep going forward instead of going back. The map said there was a HWY linking from Kentucky to Tennessee. Well, we'll never take that route again. Have you heard of the hills of Kentucky, yes it was hilly and we only went 35 miles an hour. It added 2.5 hours to our trip.
Here are some pictures of the sweet family! Everyone took their turn enjoying Suzanna and her charming personality.
We're a duo!
Look at those baby blue eyes! Great Aunt Vicki's party was so much fun!
Of course the trip wouldn't have been complete without her dolly and the stroller. Here she's making a funny face at Kristy.

Suz's message

Suz has an exciting message for everyone!

Early Christmas Gift

This morning before I had a chance to open the blinds, I saw rays of orange, pink, red and purple shining through our window. I wasn't going to miss this sunrise like the last, so on a spur of the moment decision, I ditched the coats and gloves and just put shoes on Suz and I. Quickly I got the camera and went onto the pack porch.

After I took the pictures I just sat and enjoyed the morning. Maybe this was a little something to keep my mind off being homesick. I suppose I can enjoy beauty outside of the Puget Sound.
Perhaps it was an early Christmas gift from Heaven welcoming me to our new interim home. How sweet it was!

So much fun

Aren't Daddy's so much fun??

Our street last weekend

I forgot to add these pictures I took Friday after the ice storm hit. We are not use to this freezing weather!
We were iced out of the mail box...Casey had to chisel away at it to get it to open up.

Snow in Seattle??

I couldn't believe it when earlier last week Seattle got a boat load of ice and snow! The kids of course were really excited to have 3 days off....and rightfully so!! Here the Daniel, Maddy, Ethan and Lizzy are in the front yard. Yipee....even Ginger loves it! Are you sure this is Seattle??
Our once beautiful tree has about 4 inches of ice wrapped around every limb. Sadly the weight of the ice broke it in two different parts....it's going to look very different once the ice melts. The storm hit us on Friday morning, we had no power from 3am-8am (not bad for St. Louis). It is now Monday and the ice has not melted yet off the yard and especially the poor trees.
Look at those little pitter patter of foot prints, I love it!
Suz is so done....she really wanted to go on the walk, but I think it was so cold she was done. We walked to the neighbors house (the family Casey carpools with to NGA) and quickly came back home.
Wew, go from Washington to this....what's next, a tornado?? Oh, that's right the area already got hit with one in August....man.....welcome to the midwest!

Thanksgiving 2006

Yes, it has been awhile since Thanksgiving was here....we were camera-less for awhile (and are waiting for the replacement to arrive any day now).
Nana and Papa came to visit us the entire Thanksgiving week....what a BLAST we had!
One of the days we went to the St. Louis Zoo. We were all very pleased with the layout and thought it ranked better than the National Zoo. This was Suzanna's second time at a Zoo, the first was also with Nana and Papa visiting the National Zoo in Washington D.C. My favorite part of the day was seeing how many things Suzanna called "dog". The giraffes were so graceful, it was nice to see how respectful Suz was with all the animals. She quietly admired each one and had a little skip in her walk.
Nana and Papa...what fun you are!
Of course we couldn't end the week without visiting the Arch! Casey stayed home with Suz this time to the Gateway...and we were able to get a birds-eye view of St. Louis.