Rural Visit with Santa

We saw Santa three times this holiday season. The first was at Parker Tractor in Tunica. Matthew wasn't too sure of Santa, but he loved his candy canes. The second Santa sighting was the same day at the Allen's house. He didn't get close to him there either.

Uncle 'Bobert

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=2038&dept_id=230617&newsid=17645203&PAG=461&rfi=9

Video of Lunch

Matthew had spaghetti for lunch the other day. As you can tell he was finished eating when I shot the video.

Thanksgiving at Grammy's

Grammy and Max, thank you for taking pictures while we were in McDonough for Thanksgiving! These are great pictures!!












Look! Airplane!

Completely By Chance

Matthew is fascinated with colors so we have been working on matching the right color with an object. So far it is more like a process of elimination. He loves to say red, yellow, green, and blue. Those are his guesses most of the time. It is only by chance if he gets it right. Take our fish, Bob, as an example. Matthew adores the fish at Wal-Mart. Every time we pull in the parking lot he starts requesting the fish. We immediately head right over to the tanks. There is one tank full of yellow fish so the first thing he says is "yehwhoa" as he points to all of the fish. One day we finally conceded and bought a fish. I first did some research and found that a betta would be the best choice for our family. We selected a red one but Matthew insisted it was "yehwhoa". Since it is red and the rocks are blue I thought it would be appropriate if we named him Rebel or Reb. Matthew still wanted to call him "yehwhoa", so in order to avoid confusion we selected something easy to say - Bob. Anyway, Bob is red, but Matthew still thinks fish are "yehwoah." Here is a video when he actually gets a color right of course it is completely by chance.

Counting

Matthew can count to ten! My camera only allows for short videos. It cut him off at seven, but I assure you he can go to ten.

Catch me if you can

Happy Belated Halloween! I attempted to dress Matthew up as a gingerbread man. He wore the body suit but refused to put on the hat. You win some, you lose some. We ended up having a great Halloween. The Tyners and the Dulaneys came over for trick-or-treating and chili. It rained some last night but that didn't stop these trick-or-treaters! Check out Matthew's bucket. LaLa (Aunt Claudia) sent it over. It had his name painted on it. It was too cute!


He really didn't want to wear the hat or the costume for that matter.


Waiting on Precious and Papa


Matthew ran inside as soon as Papa opened the door. Here is is backtracking to get the candy.


Matthew didn't take his eyes off of the candy!

Pumpkin Carving with Pete and Papa

The Neals were in town this weekend! Friday night we carved a pumpkin. Surprisingly I didn't forget my camera.

Sorry it has been so long!

Here are some recent pictures and videos.


The Dulaneys had us over to their farm yesterday. Matthew helped Mr. Dulaney drive the combine as they harvested soybeans.


Carving the pumpkin with Daddy.




Book before bed last night.

We Have The Bat

We have Mate's cricket bat! Steve was in Atlanta helping Grammy clean out her basement, and they found the cricket bat. Mate, we promise to give it to you, but first we must play with it! Granted, we do not have a cricket ball but we can at least swing it around a little.

Here is a picture and then a video of Matthew with Mate's bat.

Apple on YouTube

Let's try something new. VIDEOS!!

I wanted to take a picture of Matthew's apple, but the camera was in video mode accidentally. The first video I wanted to post was to be of Matthew, but let's try the apple instead. It is incredibly anticlimactic, but hopefully our next video will make up for it!



Ok - now that I look at the video, I notice that the lighting is horrible. You can barely see the sliver of apple left. I had an uneaten apple next to it to give perspective. Obviously I am no Stephen Spielberg.

PDK Playground

We were in Atlanta a few weeks ago to see Georgia Tech play Notre Dame. The outcome of the game wasn't what we would have liked, but we had a great time anyway.

While we were there we went to the Peachtree Dekalb airport with Pete, Sam, and Mags. Matthew is still infatuated with airplanes. Plus the airport has a playground. It was so much fun!






Obviously, Matthew would not sit still for a picture with Pete.

Cute Pics

Thanks to Maxine, we have new, cute pictures of Matthew. Here you go!

Mine

Matthew has done it - he has claimed Nam. Just as we all think Nam is ours, Matthew has made her his. He calls her "Mine." I am sure one day he will figure out he has to share her with not just me but everybody else. Right now I will let him go with it, and not correct him!

Mowing With Daddy

If the lawn mower starts to get close to him he waves at it. This is his way of telling Daddy he is alright. :)


Both Boys Mowing

New Weedeater

New Weedeater!


Goggles Coming Off


Goggles Off


Ooohh So Cute!

Living It Up

We have been living it up the last few weeks. Janie, Will, Robyn, Mary Alice, Bramlett and Meredith came in town for a brief visit. It was so good to see them. We had a lot of fun celebrating Janie and Mary Alice's birthdays. Then Matthew and I went to Montgomery to visit Caroline for a few days. We had a fabulous time. Matthew thought Caroline's dog, Bailey, was awesome. Bailey would chase after the ball and leap into the water. I am not sure who had more fun Bailey or Matthew. Of course Matthew couldn't understand why he couldn't jump in the lake too. Don't feel too sorry for the boy because we took him to the swimming pool instead. When we returned home Ellen and Caterina were here! Matthew played with Caterina in the sprinkler, at the park, and at the swimming pool. We were sad to see them leave, but Corinne Kearbey filled the void! She just finished summer school in Oxford and came by for a night. We loved catching up with her!! Then after a quick change of sheets on the guest bed Uncle Glyn showed up! Matthew and Glyn are too cute together. They both are crazy about the other. Matthew wouldn't stop saying Geh. Geh this and Geh that.

After Glyn left we were able to catch our breath. It has been a great week, and this weekend is pretty fun too! The Sunflower River Blues Festival is this weekend. We were at Ground Zero Thursday night partying with my high school buddy, Saramel. She is visiting from Charleston. Last night we were at the Mullens house celebrating Hannah's second birthday. Tonight we are celebrating another friend's birthday then we hope to meet up with Saramel at the festival.

As usual, I neglected to take many photos, but here are some Meredith took with my camera and a few other random shots I grabbed.


Photographer Meredith


Janie

Jane Ellen


Robyn


Will


Matthew is greased up and ready for the pool.


Big Smile!

It was a serious matter. Matthew wanted to make sure all three trucks were going to go in the car with him.

Articles on Clarksdale

Clarksdale has been in the press recently.

Here is a link to the New York Times article
http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/06/16/travel/escapes/16hour.html

and to the London Observer article
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/story/0,,1824091,00.html

Georgia On My Mind

Matthew has Georgia Dulaney on his mind. Today we went swimming at Georgia's pool as we have done once a week for the past few weeks. Georgia is not afraid of much and has given Matthew a lot of confidence in the pool. He now floats in his swimmies and blows bubbles. It is too cute to watch both of them bob in the water. Georgia is exactly one month older than Matthew, and it is fun to watch them interact. During a break from the pool they were playing with the sprinkler. When they had had enough Georgia held Matthew's hand as they walked back to the pool. It was adorable. I tried to get a picture, but by the time I got my camera out they had made it to the pool. Here are some pictures I did get.


The look he is giving is pretty intense. Watch out Georgia!


This is a better look on his face!


He was crazy about the popper until the bricks became too hot under his feet.

The Chair

Matthew had a great time climbing in and out of Grammy's little chair. It is the chair she would climb in and out of when she was a little girl.

On the Road Again

We were in Atlanta this past weekend for Maxine's graduation. We stayed down in McDonough with Grammy. Matthew loved her cats, well, the little he saw of them. They preferred to stay in the basement away from him. He made sure they knew he was still there as he peered through the cat door and yelled byyyyeeee byyyeee. I still cannot understand why they wanted to stay in the basement. :)

Friday, we went to the Georgia Aquarium. Matthew had a great time! He really liked the beluga whales and said bye bye to them even after they were out of sight.

Saturday, we dropped Matthew off at Ellen and Jack's. Ellen and Jack were in the mountains so Caterina's babysitter,Ms Jean, kept him while we went to graduation and lunch. Maxine graduated with honors and received an award! We ate lunch with Maxine's entourage, picked Matthew up, then went to Maxine's for a short visit.

Here are some pictures from the weekend.