Her instincts have expired...

James and I went up to Indiana the second week in January to take Lacy to stay with my parents while our house is on the market.  We are so blessed that our parents are able to help us out, it's hard to keep the house spotless and available for showings at anytime with a huge hairy dog!  Thanks mom and dad!

Well, since Lacy is a husky, my mom thinks her natural snow-dog instincts should be intact....so she bought Lacy a harness hoping she'd pull James on the sled.  Well, you see the picture below...yeah, that's Lacy standing still...her instincts have run out!  She's much happier sitting down in the snow, having a cool snack.  :)  James had fun while I pulled him on the sled...wish we had a hill! 

 she gave up.  :)

 "Why won't Lacy pull me??"

 Happiness before the cold set in. 

James and I went to our long time family friend's, the Groelings, for a playdate.  This is Suzie and her son Levi.  He's just 5 months older than James and they had fun playing together while Suzie and I enjoyed a visit! 

When we got back to Clarksville there was snow here too!  Steven got out his remote control car to play with in the snow.  Steven got that car when he was 10...that thing is 21 years old.  Needless to say, he takes very good care of his toys, and personally I find it kind of strange that he's held on to it for this long!  :)  ha!  James likes to push it around, but he's a little unsure of it moving on its own. 

 Steven showed up at the house yesterday with a new "toy" for James.  He got this little Lightning McQueen chair and book for him, and James absolutely loves it.  As soon as he gets up in the morning, he runs to get a book and sits in his chair to read!   He also likes to tackle and push it around the living room...so cute! 

We have this little corner in our living room where we keep all of James' toys.  By the end of the day it's a bit of a mess...but he still likes it!  We found him sitting on his train, leaning against his ball, head resting on the wall, playing with his blocks!  He was comfortable!

Winter Crafts

I feel like all I've made this fall and winter are wreaths!  This one is my absolute favorite...I've been dreaming about making it for months and just before Thanksgiving I finally did it.  It turned out even better than I expected and I love the way it looks on my mantle. 

The mirror that it's hanging on is an old window that I found at my favorite flea market "This Old Place."   I refinished it by taking out the glass panes, painted and distressed the frame, and replaced the glass with mirrors.  I just love it so much!  Wish i had a before and after photo....

My mom found the perfect pine cones at camp and brought me a bag of 100.  I also picked up two more full bags of small and skinny pine cones at my parent's house, and so glad I did...it took me TONS of them to finish this wreath.  I think it weighs like 15 pounds...but that could also be the 2 bags of glue that I went through with the glue gun!   

 I was not thrilled about the straw wreath.  I intended to use a foam one, but couldn't find any around town that were bigger than 10 inches, and I was too impatient to buy one online.  In the end, the straw worked well, I hope it will last. 

 After 4 hours of glue-gunning I finally finished.  wow.  i love it.  thank you to V and Co. Blog for the idea!

I also made this generic wreath for my Grandma and Grandpa Dowling for Christmas.  They needed a wreath for their door at their new place, and I thought this would be nice all year round.  Thanks to the Shelly Inspired Blog for this idea! 

not a great photo, but you get the idea! 

Finally, I made a Christmas wreath at Erin's house.  She hosted a wreath-making party where a bunch of us got together and made pretty "Joy Ribbon Wreaths".  We had a blast! 

I'm having trouble uploading these pictures, but you can see this project by clicking here for Erin's Blog post.

Happy New Year at Opryland

New Year's Eve we drove to Nashville to visit the Opryland Hotel and check out the beautiful lights and decorations.  If you remember, this past spring Nashville suffered huge damaging floods and the Opryland Hotel was hit hard.  They underwent months of renovations and have reopened recently.  Stepping inside, you would never know there was any damage...it was amazing!  We had dinner there and enjoyed a relaxing stroll around the hotel.  Happy New Year!

 These pictures don't really capture the beauty of the lights or this huge, life size nativity scene.  Glorious! 

 Tree made of poinsettias.  so pretty.

 James is on the move...

 James loved these blue lit fountains, and had fun peering at them through the railings.

More Christmas Fun

Grandma has a huge bin of Christmas Bears that she got out for James to play with.  He does love to snuggle soft teddys!

 Anna sits on mom's lap each Christmas to have the Reindeer book read to her, James joined this year.  how cute is this!

 Anna and Scott's new kitten, Sheldon, was quite a joy!  He played nonstop all day, chased the strings, carried toys around in his mouth, and loved attention.  James has so much fun playing with him. 

 James and Grandma sat and watched the birds for a little while every day. 

Dad's best friend, Larry, is a member at the gun club (whatever it's called) in Ft. Wayne and is an expert marksman/hunter.  Combined with the arsenal Steven brought up with him, we had quite the gun show! Steven was a great teacher and spent lots of time with each of us, showing us the rules and proper technique.  We had a great time!

Greg & Sarah, Anna & Scott, Jenae & Steven

Dad (left) and Larry.