Ringling Brothers ...

This weekend we took Hailey to her first circus -- it may have been mine too, I'm not quite sure I remember going as a child?! Needless to say it was a hit. She loved all the animals; zebras, horses, dogs, elephants and most important TIGERS! She probably could have done without the acrobatic tricks, but Karl and I found them entertaining! Here are a few pictures from our day ...

Pre-circus cereal and cartoons in bed

Pre-show, the view from up top is good!



Checking out the bike, although she is more concerned with her pig tails ... and wow, that lady has on some fancy clothes!!!


Mmmmm...cotton candy = blue lips


And intermission = time to run around the stadium seating!


The magicians hat was pretty cool ...



but the best ...

was yet ....


to come ...


"GIGERS!!!!"


Phew ... all that excitement was exhausting; moments after the Tigers she was SPENT!


Needless to say fun was had by all parties!

Daddy Time

Last week Karl had a long weekend and got to spend some quality daddy daughter time with Hails while I was at school ... they had a lazy day at home and an exciting day at the zoo!!!! Must say I was a little jealous of that! The weather was great (for a few days ... it's FREEZING again!) so they headed to the Nashville zoo and had the whole place to themselves ...

My Study Buddies

Well for those who may not know, I am again chugging away in school! I swear, it'll never end :) But I am happy to FINALLY be pursing my RN, 3 more semesters and I'm done; until my Masters of course. Hailey is happily attending childcare, I'm actually, as I write this, in the process of potentially transitioning her to a new facility ... the one she is currently at is great, they are nice and clean and new; however, it is more focused on being a day care center. Another center in town called The Settlement is well known for being one of the best preschools around our area; so even though they have full time childcare beginning at 18 months, they have a program and curriculum vs just being a day care center and I feel she'll get more out of being there. I'll keep you all posted on how it goes :)
Back to me ... so being in my RN program is very time consuming. I have three classes currently; Med-Surgery Nursing, Behavioral Health Nursing and Pharmacology I ... all of which requires a lot of study / homework time as well as class room and clinical time; so even when I am home I'm pretty busy! Thankfully tho I have some great study buddies ...

Karl is preparing for his GRE test, to be taken sometime in April, as he will be applying to grad schools for Fall 2011 admission (can I tell you how EXCITED I am for him to be a full time student with a CPT/MAJ pay?! ... no more Army BS, but still the nice paycheck for 2 whole years!!!!!) ... and Hailey is working on, well becoming Picasso of course!

*Please disregard my charming "curtains" ... I have refused to put up any curtains in my big bay windows as I LOVE the view, but think I may have to break down and at least put in a mini "dust ruffle" curtain to block out the bright morning sun*

Sweet Tooth

Busted ... little fingers obviously have a greater reach than we expected .... I guess even up on the counter sweets are no longer safe!

Adventures in Babysitting

Last weekend we got to watch little Greyson ... he's already gotten so big, it seems like just the other day I was in the delivery room with Jada and Garrett and yet he's 5 months old!

Hailey was a great little helper, so was Karl :) We all enjoyed having the little fella around but don't mistake that to mean we plan on extending our brood anytime soon ... this little threesome is quite happy as a threesome :) I'm pretty sure Hailey would die if she had to share her mommy & daddy!!!

More Christmas Fun

There was a long enough "story" on the last post ... so here are some pictures from the rest of our great Christmas Vacation!

There were birthday's to celebrate ....

Santa's to visit ...

Office politics to handle (for the Senator from Nebraska) ... and graduations to attend...

National Trees to visit ...

And cookies to bake ...

(and eat!!!)

There was Christmas morning excitement!!

and TONS of presents to open with aunties, uncles, Gaba, Boompa ... and Giger of course!

....museums to visit ... phew ...



and lots of travel!!



And lots waiting for a little nephew / cousin to arrive ... which he FINALLY did ...



on January 1, 2010 at 4:22am!!!


Just in the nick of time ...

Thanks to Gaba, Boompa, Nonni, Papa, Aunties Lisa, Heidi and Kris, Uncles Mike & Mike, Great Auntie Lisa, Great Uncle Mike and all of our friends for making the vacation an awesome one; and Jackson Edward D'Ettore for gracing us with your presence!

After all that excitement Jan 2nd arrived and it was time to go home ... not a moment too soon however as I think we were beginning to run out of steam!