My Sister the Superstar

So, apparently my sister is a big deal. We went down to Daytona this past weekend to honor Abby who was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame for her college. I knew it was an honor - heaven knows FSU won't be calling me any time soon - but it was really an amazing thing so I felt like I need to brag on her for a minute.

This is the first year that Embry-Riddle has inducted people in to the Athletic Hall of Fame and they started with 5 people...one of which was a female. We went to the school's basketball game Friday night where there there was a dinner for the inductees families and then they were introduced on court before the game. (Nate loved the band and dancing mascot - he kept tapping his toes to the drumline.) We also got to see the actual "Wall of Fame" with Abby's plaque and her jersey (that was retired when she graduated).

Then came the banquet Saturday night. I have never been so proud of my little sister....there were over 250 people at this dinner to honor 5 people, one of which was her. When it was her turn in the spotlight, the Athletic Director said very kind words, her old coach sent in a video talking about her, there was a video montage of her athletic career....she was honored for not only her skills on the soccer field but for her leadership as well. She then had to give an "acceptance" speech in front of everyone and she did beautifully. It brought us all to tears - which means that my photography was pretty poor, so I only have a couple of shots that are in focus:
I am so proud of you Abby!

We have some exciting news....we closed on our new house this week! We are in the process of getting the house ready to move in (paint, etc) so we should be in this weekend. We are very excited! So...the date they gave us to have our cable/internet installed is a couple of weeks out (which is devastating for many reasons) which means, unless they move us up, I won't be able to do much blogging ....but keep checking in because Nate will be back to the blog very soon! Here are some parting shots to hold you over until then...

Christmas Pics

Here are a few pics from Christmas....I will try to creat an album soon with some more.  But most of our pics seem to be of the back of Nate's head as he went from toy to toy....

Making Cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve

Coming down the stairs Christmas Morning

Elmo!

Nate at the Big Kid table for Christmas Dinner, enjoying the conversation

Christmas Memories

{I WILL GET PICS UP SOON, I PROMISE!}
Nate's 2nd Christmas has come and gone....and it all went too fast. Since it has been a month since I last posted (where did December go??) I will just highlight a few things that made this a memorable Christmas:

1) Grandad, Aunt Abby and Uncle Jeff visiting - Nate was so excited, he woke up around 11:30 one night, so Abby and Mom smuggled him out of bed and he joined us downstairs in front of the fire. Normally this would stress me out, but since it was the holidays and he doesn't get to see his aunt that much....I figured, what the heck. Then, his Nena decided to feed him apple pie (that's right, at midnight) - guess who wouldn't go back to sleep and ended up tossing and turning in mommy and daddy's bed that night??

2) Santa Visit - my perfect, outdoor, free, take your own pic Santa went Commercial this year and was in a studio. Still free, but we waited too long and certainly Nate pooped right before it was our turn to go in to the dark room with the bearded man (not a good set up for a soothing Santa experience) - since I was not about to lose our place in line, we went in "as is", and he cried as expected (kinda didn't blame him). The lady finally told me to pick him up and get in the picture with him since things weren't going so well....exactly what I wanted, a pic of me and Santa!

3) Taking him to "Magical Night of Lights" at Lake Lanier - he is obsessed with "ight" (light) so we thought this would amaze him, and it did. He stared out the window intently and pointed at the "ights". And since it was a Cox Family Outing, something had to happen....we got out of the car to see the Live Nativity and I tripped and fell while I was holding Nate. That story is probably a post in itself, but I will just say that Nate was fine, I am still nursing my bruised shins, and we completely disturbed the peacefulness of Baby Jesus in the manger. But, despite my clumsiness, it was a fun family night and I loved the look of wonder on Nate's face while taking in all of the lights.

4) Christmas Eve - making cookies for Santa with Nate. Mom and I weren't exactly thinking clearly when we put raw cookie dough in front of a kid who is allergic to eggs, but we managed to keep it out of his mouth for the most part and he had some fun cutting, frosting and sprinkling. And Santa and Mrs. Claus have pretty much single handedly polished off all 2+ dozen cookies as of today.

5) Christmas Morning - the look on Nate's face as he came down the stairs, and him running to his toys. He went from one thing to the next. He actually wasn't even that interested in tearing the paper this year - he just wanted to play, so he was fine with me opening and handing him the next toy.

6) Our trip to Knoxville - Nate playing with the girls in their new Princess outfits and him pushing the Pink Princess doll stroller around the house. He tried so hard to keep up with them - he even got to eat at the kid table Christmas night, he loved it! We had a great time visiting with CC and Papa Steve and the rest of the Cox crew.

7) Playing with all of our new stuff - my favorite moments were when he realized his Power Wheel 4-wheeler had power, he hit that red button for the first time and, what a surprise! He also enjoyed me playing with my new toy....he rolled on the ground belly laughing watching me on my new Wii Fit. It was hysterical!

So, that is just a tiny snapshot of what made this holiday special. The best part was having time off of work to spend some quality time with my guys. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with their loved ones as well. Have a happy and safe New Years!