NEW YORK CITY

SCOTT AND GRETCHEN ONLY VACATION!!!

Scott had a conference Dec 7-9th in NYC, so we headed on the 4th for a long weekend. The grandparents were gracious enough to keep Natalyn so it was an actual vacation. Even though I am not fond of the cold, it was alot of fun. NYC was beautifully decorated for the holidays, I know I just BEAMED tourist, but OH-WELL!!! At first I did not like the city, it's just too big and entirely too many people, but it does grow on you. I would definitely go back, but in the summer! OH-and there is NO WAY that I would ever want to live there!

We stayed at Club Quarters at Rockefeller Center. And here is the gorgeous tree at Rockefeller Center. Trust me, it is way more impressive at night, during the day you can see all the cables and such, so it isn't very pretty. Also, I know it is a huge tree, but it looks kinda tiny next to all the sky scrapers!!! I can't believe there was a carousal inside Toys R Us. The Fayetteville store needs to look into adding this attraction!!

On Sunday night, we went to see The Lion King. It was so awesome!! Scott seemed to enjoy it about as much as a person who hates musicals can!!

This sculpture was originally outside the Twin Towers and survived the collapse of them. It is currently at Battery Park and will be moved back to Ground Zero after the Freedom Tower is built. The Freedom Tower will be 1,776 ft high-A: to prove a point to the world that America overcame the tragedy of 9/11 and B: The US signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. (I know I sound like a tour guide, we actually spent the large part of Saturday with tour guides on a bus tour-we learned a lot of interesting tid-bits!)

Scott and me going on a carriage ride through Central Park. This seems to be the only place where there is grass in the entire city!

I totally love this picture! We are at Times Square heading to see Lion King.

9 years!!

I know I have been really bad lately and haven't undated my blog in like FOREVER!!! I will try to get what has been going on in our household posted in the next few days, after you see how busy we have been you will realize that I have had no time to work on my blog!!!

But I did want to mention that today is our 9th Wedding Anniversary!!! I love my husband Scott, he is a great husband and father. He works very hard to provide me and Natalyn with all we need and want. I am looking outside as I type this and the weather is cold, but it is a clear, sunny day! This is a far cry from the weather we experienced on our wedding day. I remember praying for a little snow for our wedding (we had a Christmas-themed wedding) and I just thought a little snow would be the perfect touch. Well, boy did I get what I asked for! We got several feet of snow instead!!! The cake, photographer, guests, etc.. almost did not make it!! But thank goodness everything worked out in the end. We don't have big plans for today, we may go out to eat or just hang-out at home with Nat-Nat!!

NATALYN IS SOOO SMART!

Sorry, there are no pictures to go along with this posting. I just thought of this and it is pretty funny, so I thought I would share it!!! I just LOVE the fact that over this holiday season so far Scott and I have been outwitted by a 2 yr old about a million times. I think that there is maybe one or two presents for Natalyn that she hasn't discovered yet. What we usually do is have half the presents from Santa and half from us, and I try to keep it pretty even (like a big gift from us and a big gift from Santa, etc...) but when Natalyn finds something, I have to shift things around or go out and buy something else that she is not aware of, but then she finds it and then we are back to the starting line. Last Wednesday, Scott got of work early, so I sent him to Wal-mart to pick up a little tyke basketball goal. He came home with it and immediately put it up in the attic while Natalyn was taking a nap. On Friday, we were all outside getting the Christmas lights on the house and Scott had to get in the attic to get the light clips. Natalyn looked up in the attic and said "I want to play with that!" I looked up and saw the top portion of the basketball goal box exposed! I told her to go see her dad in the yard and I immediately shut the attic door. It amazes me how smart she is... I mean, there are several boxes in the attic, and she noticed that there was a new one up there and knew what it was! GEEZ! I told our good friend Susan the story this morning and she suggested just bringing Natalyn's stuff to their house from now on and we can come over on Christmas eve and get them!! We will definitely have to do that next year!!!
Oh- by the way, Natalyn is calling the snowman stuffed animal that my dad sent her "snow animal." And she calls Frosted Flakes -"Frosted Snowflakes"!!!

MORE MAIL!

Today, Natalyn received some special mail just for her from her Grandpa Nixon. OOOOOO! Frosty the snowman!!!

Another snowman!!!

Natalyn had a great time decorating her own Christmas tree with some of her new ornaments, the rest of the ornaments enjoyed a trip on Natalyn airlines!!!

THANK YOU GRANDPA NIXON!!!

Thanksgiving Day!

On Thanksgiving, we went to Scott's parents. Papa Sill recently got a new tractor and Natalyn really wanted to take a ride on it! It was a little chilly, but she still enjoyed it! The tractor was really noisy and Natalyn kept putting her hands over her ears! This is Papa's new barn to house his new tractor! He hit the garage door track as he was pulling out of the barn and had to have it replaced!

Natalyn is steering with her eyes closed. She was getting really tired and was ready for a nap!

On a sadder note, Grandma Sue passed away Thanksgiving evening. She was a very sweet and kind lady. She made my Pappoo very happy!

FINISHED PRODUCT-CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

I am always excited to get the Christmas decorations down from the attic, but it just seems like it takes forever to decorate when you have a 2yr old helper. But I did finish the end of last week and now we can enjoy it. It's hard to believe that Christmas is only a month away.

(All the stockings are Natalyn's -just kidding!) There are people who love to wait until the great sales at 4am on Black Friday to start their Christmas shopping, but I am not one of those people! So I have been finished with my shopping (other than a few more things for Nat-Nat) for about 2 weeks.

I love receiving Christmas cards, but where to put them?!?! I like to display them in the greenery on this shelf in the corner of the dining room.

I have several pottery snowmen that I like to put around my kitchen. This one is my favorite.

This is Natalyn's bathroom. I put pictures of her from her first and second Christmas in the frames I have displayed.

We have several hand-me down ornaments that I decided to finally start to use. The tiny ornaments are from Scott's side and the larger vase is displaying several ornaments that my aunt K-K has painted, there are also a few ornaments that Mammoo (my late grandma Nixon) used to have on her tree.

Here is the front porch.

Getting the blog ready for Christmas

I just spent some time switching my blog colors over to a more festive pallet. This is the only Christmasy (I am pretty sure I just made up that word!) I have of Scott, Natalyn and myself, it is blurry, but will just have to do until I get another one.