CeCe: Our Overnight Guest

We have a new friend sleeping over at our house. After a couple of days and deep thought, Adair finally decided to call her CeCe. She is an (approximately) 8 month old, black, gray and tan striped, fluffy kitty cat. She found us on the side of the road and insisted on coming home with us, really.

Mom, Adair and I were driving to Centreville to meet Dad when Adair announced that she needed to use the potty. (I keep a small potty with disposable bags in the back of my car for just such an occasion.) So, we pulled over for Adair to go potty. As I was closing the hatch, I turned around to see this adorable kitty walking up to our car. Now, most of you know, I am a cat person. I have always had a soft spot for kitties, so I bent down to pet her and noticed that she was incredibly boney. After I stopped petting her, she jumped in our car and started trying to get into Mom's coffee. We realized she must be starving, so we gave her the only food we had in the car, a Dunkin Donuts munchkin. We tried to throw it away from the car, so she would eat and we could pull away without running over her, but she gobbled it up so quickly that she was back before we could leave. Mom had her window down and she jumped into the car through the window. She was bound and determined that we weren't leaving without her, so we didn't. Since there were no house for miles (we were in the country) and she was so thin, we had to assume she was homeless. We took her to the vet to have her examined and she has now been bathed, tested for feline leukemia, dewormed, given flea and mite prevention medicine (she had none), and vaccinated.

So, now she is sleeping over at our house and we need to find a good home for her. Eleanor, our cat, has not been very welcoming to CeCe, but is tolerating her for now. She is the sweetest kitty, truly. She is very loving and just follows you around. She has a great disposition, rarely meows, has been very tolerant of Adair and hasn't tried to scratch anything yet. I love her already, as does Adair, but the more practical family member (Hank) says we don't need a second kitty living in our house. I know he is probably right, which is why I am posting about her here. If you or anyone you know is interested in adopting her, she is free to a good home. Please email me at brecca.powers@gmail.com if you would like to know more about her. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

A Mix of Fire and Ice

ICE:

Yesterday afternoon it started "icing" or raining ice. The temperature was so low, that it started to accumulate pretty fast. Hank, Adair and I snuggled up on the couch to watch Toy Story 3 and by the time it was over the ice had turned to snow. We were hopeful we had narrowly escaped the "ice storm" every Meteorologist in Birmingham had predicted and just gotten the pretty, fluffy white stuff. Not exactly. When we walked outside this morning there was no fluffy white stuff, the ground just crunched with each step. Walking on the road was like walking on a sheet of ice...I think if we had had ice skates we could have used them. Every tree limb, bush and flower was wrapped in ice. It was pretty, but it definitely kept us home for the day. Walking around our neighborhood and watching the older children sledding was a fun start to the day, but the end was even better!

FIRE:
Auburn (Hank's Alma Mater) played for and won the BCS National Championship tonight!!! It was a great game and came down to a field goal in the last 2 seconds of the game for a 22-19 victory over Oregon. How exciting and an awesome end to a great season! Auburn was named the National Champions for the first time since 1957 and, for the first time in history, two teams from the same state won the National Championship and the Heisman in two consecutive years (Alabama in 2010/Auburn in 2011).


After the win, Hank had to burn off some energy. He threatened to get a group together to go and roll Mountain Brook Village, but with the icy road conditions he decided that wasn't the best idea. So, he settled for toilet papering the Crepe Myrtle in our yard. It was nothing compared to Toomer's Corner, but it was funny!

Congratulations, Tigers! It's great to be an AUBURN TIGER! War Eagle!

Reflections on the Year Behind

As the clock rolls from December 31, 2010 to January 1, 2011 I find myself reflecting on the year behind us. 2010 was a good year for our family. There are many, many highlights I could share from our year, but I'll limit them to the big ones.

~2010 was the first full calendar year that I got to be a stay-at-home mommy. I count this as a blessing every day and am so thankful that I have gotten to be home with Adair, teaching and training her, playing with her, taking her places and just plain having fun. We have had a great year together!

~At the end of 2009 we decided to start visiting new churches. We visited Mountain Brook Community Church on the first Sunday of 2010 and never made it anywhere else. It was "love at first visit". We have made so many wonderful friends and built a sweet support system in just one year's time. We are both so grateful that God lead us to the place He wanted us to worship and grow.

~Hank started a new job with FindLaw on January 7, 2010. It has been a huge blessing to our family. He now works from home and travels only on a rare occasion.

~In June, my mom and dad moved to Birmingham. This is the first time since I went away to college in 1999 that the three of us have lived in the same city. I grew up in Centreville, Alabama just about an hour outside of Birmingham, but having them 15 mintues away has been amazing.

~Adair started at Creative Montessori School on August 15, 2010. The Montessori method is one that was introduced to us by my mom and after exploring and researching it, we decided it would be a good preschool environment for Adair. She is thriving in this environment and has become so much more independent, self-confident and self-sufficient since she started at CMS.

~2010 was the year of potty training. It didn't take the entire year, but it did define 5 months of our year. We started potty training in July when Adair was just 25 months old and continued until it finally clicked in November. She is now fully potty trained and fully reliable. We are so proud of her.

I would be lying if I implied that 2010 only brought good things to our family. We faced some difficult things as well, the most notable being infertility. But through challenges we only grow stronger and closer to God. I will always be thankful for hardships, because they remind me that God works together for the good of those who love Him. He never promised that our walk would always be easy, only that He would walk with us through it all.

So, 2011, we greet you with fervor and great anticipation. May you be a year of growth and joy.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

When Adair woke up the day after Christmas, the first thing she said was that she wanted to go play in the snow. So, after breakfast, Adair, Ben, Kate and Lucy bundled up and headed out to play. They only lasted about 20 minutes, but they had a blast! They sledded, threw snow balls and stomped in the snow to their hearts content. Adair's only disappointment was that their wasn't enough snow on the ground to build a snowman.

Happy Birthday to Jesus

On Christmas night, we had a birthday party for Jesus with all of the kids. We gathered around the cake and candles and Gabby, Adair, Kate, Max, Kyle, Ben and Lucy sang at the top of their lungs.

"Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to Jesus,
Happy birthday to you!"

So, this is Christmas!

This Christmas was so much fun and so special. Adair was really excited to celebrate Jesus's birthday and for a week leading up to Christmas day she would ask, "Is today Jesus's birthday?" I am so happy that the first thing she thinks of when someone mentions Christmas is Jesus.

Anyway, we had to wake Adair up at 8:30 am to open gifts. (I am sure this will be the last or next to last year for that.) As soon as she got up, we sat in the floor of her room and read the Christmas story. Once we finished, she asked to hold baby Jesus (from our nativity), so we gave him to her and she quietly whispered, "happy birthday, baby Jesus". You'll see in the pictures below that she carried him around for a while.

We snapped a picture of her sitting at the top of the stairs and then let her come down to see her new toys. The first thing she saw was the filled stockings, then as she rounded the corner she spotted the dollhouse, cradle and wrapped gifts. She was so excited about each gift that we had to open and play with each new toy. She got food, pots and pans, and dishes for her kitchen, Hi Ho Cheerio, and rain gear (boots, coat, umbrella).

After we finished opening the gifts, we had breakfast together and then headed to Atlanta to spend the weekend Hank's family. As we were packing the car it started to snow! We left before it started to stick, but as we drove the grass on the side of the road started turning white. The "experts" in the newspaper said it didn't constitute a white Christmas because the amount of snowfall was immeasurable, but it's going down as a white Christmas in my book and the first I can remember!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

This Christmas Eve we celebrated the coming of our Lord and Savior at a wonderful service at our church followed by dinner at home with Nona (my mom), Joe-pa (my dad) and Mama Alice (my grandmother).





After dinner we opened gifts and then it was time to get ready for Santa, well sort of. Originally, Adair had asked Santa (via letter) to take her gifts to Nona and Joe-pa's house and let them bring them to her. Well, a week or so before Christmas, she decided that she had a new plan...Santa should send Aubie with her gifts. I have no idea how she concocted this plan, but we went with it. She was freightened by Santa coming into her house while we slept, but not Aubie (man vs. animal maybe?). So, Adair left a handmade finger print card addressed to Santa and Aubie, an orange for Aubie (fitting, right?), a cookie and a cupcake (in honor of Jesus's birthday) for Aubie to take to Santa, and grapes and a carrot for the reindeer (I guess Aubie was borrowing Santa's sleigh in Adair's mind).




After the treats were ready it was off to bed for our little one for dreams of sugarplum fairies and Aubie in a sleigh with jinglebells.

Merry Christmas (and War Eagle)!

A Favorite Family Tradition

A couple of days before Christmas, Adair, Nona (my mom) and I made Christmas cookies together. This is something we used to do together every Christmas when I was a little girl. Fortunately, Nona invited us to her house for this project and boy was I glad when I saw the mess we made! Perhaps this is a grandmother thing, but Nona is much better at letting Adair do things by herself, regardless of the mess she knows will follow, than I am. Adair had the best time measuring, dumping, stirring and using the cookie cutters, but her favorite part was eating them, which is no surprise. We iced the trees with green icing and sprinkled them with little disc sprinkles that looked like ornaments. Unfortunately, my camera battery died before I could get a picture of the final product, but they were adorable and delicious. I think this will definitely become a favorite family tradition.

Cookies, Icing and Sprinkles-On My!

Right before Christmas, Adair and I held our second annual Gingerbread Man Decorating Party. This has become a fun tradition at our house, so the Monday of Christmas week 15 two-year-olds converged on our house to decorate gingerbread men and celebrate Jesus's birthday with cupcakes and candles. We had a blast piling on the icing and sprinkles and making a mess! Some of the kiddos ate more of the toppings than they put on their cookie and others piled their cookies so high with toppings they wouldn't stick, either way, as you can see, we ALL had fun!