Lipscomb Reunion

Andrea attended Lipscomb High School and one year of Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN before she transferred to Harding University in Searcy, AR.

Now that we are in Nashville, some of Andrea's friends from highschool decided to come together during the holidays for a reunion.

The original core group (plus their families) that came together consisted of Carrie McLean (Moss), Gere Acevedo (Shaw), Andrea Manor (Hall), Emily Choate, and Garrison Strickland.

Although I was not part of this initial group, I had a great time and enjoyed getting to know these individuals and hear stories of old times.

A Manor Christmas

This was the year to spend Christmas with the Manors. Andrea and I swap Thanksgiving and Christmas between our families from year to year.

Since we moved so quickly after Abby's birth, this was actually the first time for my Grandparents and Uncle to see Abby. We brought tons of pictures of Abby to give away and she was available for new pictures too :)

My Mom out did herself again with a vast array of food and goodies. In addition, we had a fun time decorating ginger bread men and houses.

For more pictures go to my 2005 Christmas Yahoo! Photo Album.

Beauty and the Beast

Andrea and I went to see Beauty and the Beast at The Arkansas Repertory Theatre in Little Rock, AR while we were visiting my family over the Christmas vacation.

My parents were happy to babysit Abby while we were gone for the night.

This show, was actually one of the best ones I have seen there. Outstanding! The costumes and actors were extraordinary!

Since we have season tickets, I look forward to going back to see the next play in a few months.

While we were at the show we ran into the Alan family from CrossWalk Family of God where we attended Church in Little Rock. It was good to catch up with them and see how things are going at CrossWalk.

Harding Reunion

On the way to see my family in Searcy, AR we stopped in Memphis, TN to meet with some good friends, the Wrights and the Livingstons.

We first met these couples at Harding University and have had many fond memories with them since our first introduction.

Actually, Alison Wright was the one who introduced Andrea and me together.

We hadn't seen them in several years, so it was a great treat to meet up with them. We hope that the time between our meetings will be shorter in the future.

Abby @ 4 Months

Abby is now 4 months old.

We went to her pediatrician appointment the other day and Abby weighed in at 12 lb, 8 oz and her height was 23 1/4 inches.

Abby is starting to roll over much more frequently ( especially after she wakes up from a nap ).

She is also drooling quite a bit ( as seen in this photo ). This apparently means that she is about to begin teething. She seems to put almost anything she can get her hands on in her mouth.

For more pictures go to my Abby @ 4 Months Yahoo! Photo Album.

Abby's Pretalk

In addition to laughing, Abby has recently started talking up a storm. Actually, I’m not sure if it’s called talking. It might be more defined as a type of mumbling, pretalk, or cooing. I guess it doesn’t matter what it’s called. It’s just neat to hear Abby making new sounds and trying to communicate with us.

We captured some of this pretalk on our camcorder. Take a look at the video to share in this experience.

Note: The video is uploaded on Google Video. I have noticed sometimes the link does not find the video. If not, please try it again later. Also, you may be prompted to install Macromedia Flash if you do not already have it installed on your web browser.

Abby & Santa

This weekend we went to the Gaylord Opryland Resort to see the ICE! display. Besides being veerrRRYY cold the ice sculptures were impressive and amazing.

We walked through a huge castle made out of ice and then I slid down an ice slide! There was even an ice nativity scene. It was quite beautiful.

At the end of the display we were pleased to purchase two hot caramel apple ciders. The apple cider was a nice treat after almost freezing among the sculptures.

After the ICE! show we headed over to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel to see the lights and decorations. I particularly enjoyed watching the Island Fountain at the Delta.

While we were in the hotel we ran into Santa. We got a picture of Abby sitting in his lap ( as seen in this blog entry ). She behaved herself like a little princess in Santa's lap. Santa was very patient and friendly with her.

It was a long day in traffic, waiting in lines, and walking around, but it was a very memorable and fun outing.

For pictures of the ICE! diplay go to my ICE! Yahoo! Photo Album.

Abby's First Laughs

As I mentioned in my previous Abby @ 3 Months blog posting, she is beginning to laugh. I missed her first few laughing episodes while I was away from Andrea and Abby, but I have come to experience many more occasions of laughter.

We were able to record some of her laughter with our new Sony DCR-HC21 video camera, so now you can experience it too. Take a look at the video.

Note: The video is uploaded on Google Video. I have noticed sometimes the link does not find the video. If not, please try it again later. Also, you may be prompted to install Macromedia Flash if you do not already have it installed on your web browser.

Family Back Together

After being apart for about a month ( minus weekends and Thanksgiving break ) Andrea, Abby, and myself are back together again!

As you can see from the moving truck, our furniture has arrived! Apartment living is not so rough now that it is furnished :)

We are still in the unpacking stage; however, we don't want to unpack too much since we are supposed to move into our house in the near future ( Marchish ).

Although we are very excited about moving into our new house, we intend to make the most of this temporary apartment stay and enjoy ourselves.