Happy New Year!!!

2009 was definitely a CRAZY year for us! I am so thankful it is over and we can look forward to a bright 2010. Even though 2009 had more downs than ups for us, we fell more in love as a family and fell more in love with Jesus than ever before. We are counting it as a great learning year!

Here are a few pictures:

January 2009

It was so warm last January that we got to play at the park...in short sleeves! (looks like that will not be happening this week!)


February 2009

This was his first time to really watch TV..I put in a Wiggles DVD and he sat sooooo close to the TV to watch it!


(It may have snowed in January or February of last year...can not remember which one)


March 2009

First time to ride a pony....did not love it!

Discovered his love of the splash park at the zoo


April 2009

Swimming at an indoor pool at a hotel with Daddy

He got his first lawnmower from Nona and Papa...he has wanted to cut grass almost every day since then


May 2009
He went from this...


To this....
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And did great!!!


June 2009

Happy 2nd Birthday!!


Loving the Water

Not loving the beach so much



July 2009



August 2009




September 2009

Playing for the last time in his room at our old house

Worn out from moving twice in the course of about 5 days!

October 2009
We visited McWance Center at least twice a month during the fall



November 2009
Going to his first Auburn Football Game!!





Decemember 2009

Merry Christmas!

We had a BUSY Christmas week this year! We started off a few days before Christmas going to eat dinner for my Mom and my Aunt's birthdays. We ate at Stix by the Galleria. Beau loved seeing all the family and sitting with everyone. He did not love when the cooks turned on the fire and started to cook. He sat with his cousin Jenna and had a very tight grip on her! She was so sweet to hold him the whole time they were cooking.


Then, we went to the Christmas service at our church the next night. Beau sat with us this year and loved watching all the people. We did have to occupy him with several snacks, but overall, he did very well. Pastor Chris gave such an incredible message and the music was wonderful too. We are so blessed to have a church like that to attend.

Rodney's parents spent a few night with us too. Christmas Eve day we traveled to Sylacauga and back. Our power went out due to a crazy windstorm around 6:30 that night. It came on around 4:30 pm Christmas Day. So, we have no pictures because our camera battery was not charged! We stuffed stockings by candlelight on Christmas Eve and really thought our power would be back on the next morning. The power company really did a great job with keeping us updated, and once we realized it was not coming back on anytime soon, we packed up and headed out to warmer places! I never dreamt on our Christmas morning that we would have no food, no lights, no heat, etc.... My mom went to her sisters house and we went to Sylacauga (again) to Beau's great grandparents house. They had made Jesus a Birthday cake and Beau got to blow out the candles. We came back to Birmingham Christmas night and celebrated at my aunt's house and then we have been trying to recover since then! We were all worn out!!


Love his Christmas outfit!

He is singing Jingle Bells in this one!

Explaining Christmas to Beau

So, Rodney has been reading a book about Christmas to Beau at night for a while. In it, Jesus is covered up by a purple blankie in the manger. Beau wants to have a purple blankie now because Jesus has one.

My Mom has a hand made nativity set that was made by my Great Aunt. It is in our dining room, so we talk about it a lot over dinner. Beau knows who all the people are in the nativity and he likes to feed baby Jesus milk. Rodney asked Beau what gifts the wise men brought Jesus and Beau said "candles, lotion, and money." I laughed because I thought Beau made it up. Apparently Rodney has been teaching him that the wise men brought candles (frankincense), lotion (myrrh), and money (gold) to Jesus.

My Mom told Beau that Baby Jesus grew up to be a carpenter...like Handy Manny and Bob the Builder. I was laughing so hard at the Handy Manny comparison that I was crying! So, if my child tells you any of these things, please know that he learned these things from his Dad and Granny!

Happy Thanksgiving....a little late!!

We had a great Thanksgiving with family this year. Everyone came to our house to celebrate and it was so nice! Beau had a great time with his cousins and entertaining all the ladies in the family. We also discovered that Beau has a love of candy corn. We were making turkey cookies (cookies that looked like turkeys, not cookies made out of turkey). I looked over and Beau had his hand in the bag of candy corn and he was shoving it in his mouth. Here are a few pictures:








He has a mouthful of Cookie in this picture!

Fun Times

We took a few pictures of Beau with a pumpkin in our yard a while back. We never made it to a pumpkin patch this year, so we were "pretending" with the fake pumpkin in our yard. We had so many good pictures this day, but here are 2 where Beau was cracking up at his daddy..




We went to a friend's birthday party at the Galleria (it was supposed to be at a park but it had been raining non stop for a week, so the party relocated to the food court). Beau loved it because he got cake and a juice box. He did not, however, love the carousel ride. I had to hold him the whole time on it!

You can see the look of terror in his eye when we were trying to make him ride an animal on the carousel....we all ended up sitting in a sleigh type booth on the carousel and riding as a family.

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When we go to the Galleria, we always go to the Auburn store so Beau can rock in the "Future Tiger" kiddie rocking chair and so he can pet the tiger.

We could not figure out what he was doing to the tiger at first....

Then, he told us he was feeding him 2 ice cream cones....

And this is a picture of "Muddy Muck" from Bob the Builder. I found this at Kid's Market at the fall sale and knew Beau had to have it. We gave this to him when we had to move out of one house and into another during the course of 4 days...he was very confused during this time, but Muddy Muck went with him to the new house and that helped a lot!

A Weekend in Auburn

We spent the last weekend in Auburn for the Auburn Homecoming game. We stayed with Rodney's parents and had a great time. Beau loved being at Nona and Papa's house and told everyone all week long that he was getting to go to Auburn. He was a perfect angel on the car ride down...which is rare for the 2 1/2 hour drive(in traffic). We took him to his first Auburn game and he was so excited to go! He was just in awe of all the people in the stadium. I thought he would be scared of the noises on the jumbotron, but he just ate his granola bar and looked around. He did LOVE to see the Eagle fly. He could not tell that she started from the American flag, but did see her land on the field to eat her treat. He has been talking about it for days!


What a cute couple!


This picture is special to me because Beau and I are standing in front of the mural on the stadium that has my grandfather "Bo" on it. We named our son after him (even though we changed the spelling of the name). He is #45 on the mural. I tried to explain to Beau that his great grandfather was on the picture above us, and I got a little teary. Beau said "Mommy you upset...you need a kiss!" What a sweetheart!


Beau is not a fan of the real Aubie and apparently not a fan of the life size fake Aubie either....


When we were unpacking, Beau found his lovie named "tigey". He wanted to take him into the game too!


Papa and Beau in the stadium...this is Beau's first look at the field. He was in total amazement the whole time!

I loved holding him at the game....those times where he will sit in my lap and be still are rare the older he gets, and I take advantage of them as much as possible!

Beau fell asleep on Papa 5 minutes into the first quarter....precious! And, yes, he fell asleep holding his half-eaten granola bar.



After nap time, we went to Toomer's Corner. We let Beau take some toilet paper with him to roll the trees. At first, he would throw some toilet paper and run really fast, like he did something wrong! Once he found out he was not going to get in trouble for throwing toilet paper in the trees, he ran from tree to tree having a great time!

McWane Center

We spent Saturday at McWane Center. Beau loves this place and so do we! He plays so hard there, then we eat at Subway in the cafeteria area and Beau gets to drink a juice box. This rarely happens, so he drinks it so fast he is "all done" in a minute. Too funny!


Checking out Fish











Playing at the Water Table





Playing at the "Garage"







Digging for Dinosaur Bones




Light Bright