Christmas Cards and Tea Party

One of my favorite things this time of year is getting and sending Christmas Cards. I like to take pictures, so I always want to take my own picture for the card. A few days ago, Hadley was in a fun mood, so I decided the time was right. She got all dressed up and we took her picture by the tree and fireplace. I asked her to stand with her hand by her side. She replied, "Like a penguin? They go waddle, waddle, waddle." As she waddled away. This might be a little trickier than I had thought. But then she settled down and was ready to start posing for me. I got some really good ones. Then I had to decide which one to choose for the card.

The winner!

Sweet smile

Big Cheese

Eating one of Santa's cookies

One of my friend's, Amanda, invited us to her annual Mother/Daughter Christmas Tea. Hadley and I had a wonderful time. Amanda & her Mom have been hosting this tea for over 20 years. It was fun to visit with Amanda's friends who have been coming since they were 10. Now they are bringing their daughters to enjoy the tradition. Here is a picture of Mommy & Hadley before the tea.

Just another day. . .

Hadley is growing up so quickly. So often I just want to press pause and keep her at this young and innocent age. Everyday she is amazing me or making me laugh with something new. The other day we where out doing a little Christmas shopping. As we pulled up to Stein Mart she starts talking, "are we getting Daddy some pants". Obviously, we have purchased several pairs of pants for Daddy from this store. I told her that no, we were not getting him pants but we were getting him a surprise; so don't tell Daddy. I had been in the store a few days earlier and found a tie that I really liked. So I walked right in, got the tie, and got in line to check out. No discussion about if she liked it, what it looked like or anything that might make this purchase seem significant. I'm sure you may be thinking, Jenn, you are giving the surprise away. What if Brent reads the blog? Oh no, he already knows. At dinner that night, Hadley just tells him. "Daddy, we bought you a tie today. It is orange with stripes on it. Orange stripes like Tigger. We got you a Tigger tie." (Note to self: Hadley is not good with secrets.) "Oh and Daddy, we looked but couldn't find you a chair." Ahh, that was the other gift that I was going to get him! A new office chair.

During the first week of December Mom & Dad came down for a few days. Dad was hunting just south of here and Mom stayed with us. Brent, Hadley, & I were all sick while they were here. Mom spent her birthday taking care of the three of us. Sorry, Mom! But it was nice to have her here to help. All 3 of us were on antibiotics, cough medicines, etc. We had a little trouble with Hadley taking her meds. Instead of tasting them and seeing that they were okay, she would just spit them out. After a few disciplinary moments, she began to see things our way. Here is a video of Hadley being a big girl and taking her medicine by herself.

While Mom was here, she taught Hadley how to make an "H". Down, down, and across. Now Hadley thinks she is big stuff because she can write letters. The other day she was practicing writing some letters (O & H), when I heard her say, "Look, Mom, a lollipop." Sure enough, it did look like a lollipop. It was a circle with a line at the bottom. Maybe I'm easily impressed, but I thought that was pretty sharp of the kiddo. Here are some doodles of her lollipops and "Hs".

Music Class

Hadley & Natalie playing Ms. Janice's guitar.

Hadley undercover.

Mommy & Hadley

Hadley loves music. She was always nodded along with a song or clapped a rhythm while we are driving in the car. When Brent started to work, the department secretary mentioned a music class that TCU offered for tots & Moms. I looked into it and we signed up. It has been great. Hadley loves her teachers and all the fun songs. On the last day of class, we got to bring our cameras to capture all of the fun.

Thanksgiving in Arkansas

Picture of Aunt Rhonda playing Christmas Carols with a little help from Hadley. Taylor was too busy eating Marshmellows to join them.

Best of Buds

The girls watching TV in PopPop's lap.

The girls getting ready to eat Thanksgiving lunch. And yes, they wore those hats for nearly 2-3 days straight!

Picture of the dangerous Forrester/Williams Gang. This is my Mom's Christmas card. Too Cute!


It is always fun to spend the holidays with family, especially Thanksgiving. The weather was wonderful, food was delicious, and it is beginning to feel like Christmas is coming. Dewey had flown down a few days for before Thanksgiving. He and Brent cleaned out and painted our garage. I didn't know our garage could look that good. We have a great deep sink utility sink in the garage. I rarely used it because it looked like a toxic waste site. After a little work from Dewey, it looks brand new. So a few days before Thanksgiving we all loaded up and headed north. Our first stop was in Walnut Ridge to spend a few days with my family. Then headed to Searcy for a few more days. While we were in Searcy, I had a little trouble with my camera. So I didn't get many pictures of the kiddos.

What a Shoot out!

An attempt at Jingle Bells on the cellar at Nana's

Hadley at Mimi's house. Cheese!

Hadley and Madelyn by Mimi's tree.

Trying to get the kids ready to take a picture for Mimi's Christmas card. This is when my camera stopped working. This is the only one I got with Will.

Putting Up the Christmas Tree

Hadley with the tree after it was all decorated.

Hadley & Daddy putting on ornaments.

Mommy & Hadley putting ornaments on the tree.

Hadley being patient before we started decorating the tree.

Before we left for Thanksgiving, we got all of our Christmas decorations out. Hadley & I put up the Christmas tree and lights while Brent was out of town. We waited for him to put the ornaments on the tree. Hadley had a great time. She enjoyed seeing all the ornaments up close before we put them on the tree. She even got to decide where some of them should go. As I had hoped, she has been really great about leaving the decorations alone. By letting her help in the beginning, I think it took away a lot of investigating later. I had forgotten how special putting up the tree can be.

A Good Cowgirl who likes some coke beer

One of the fun things about Fort Worth is all of the cowboys. Hadley thinks she is one of the gang. She doesn't know that her mom is highly allergic and she will probably never be allowed to ride a real horse. But she doesn't need to know that now :)

After a long, hard ride, nothing is a refreshing as a nice cold coke beer. As a special treat, we will give Hadley some rootbeer. She knows it is called rootbeer, but she prefers her name for it, "coke" beer. To the untrained ear, it sounds as if our 2 yr old is asking for a "cold" beer. So when we are out in public, and the waiter asks what she would like to drink, I eagerly suggest milk, water, or Sprite quickly before she has a chance to order "coke"beer.

I'm a little too busy for ABCs

Here is Hadley singing her ABCs. As you can see, she was really too busy coloring with her Daddy to put on a good performance.