Snow Sisters

Snow Sisters

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Some costumes are sweeter than others

What will an almost four month old tolerate for Halloween? This was our dilemma, we figured the best bet was incorporate the Bjorn somehow (which she loves) and go from there. I have to give the credit to Dave for coming up with the idea below. Lily seemed to be none the wiser and was entertained by all the strangers coming up to her to get a better look. Monday night we participated in a 'trunk or treat' event at Milligan. Because I accidentally ran down the battery to the camera, we didn't get any pics. But today was the "Halloweenie Roast" at QCOM and we scored a few pics and some yummy treats there, oh yeah, and a few oohs and awws.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Week 16

Despite being 'football-less', or as they phrase it "Undefeated since 1954", Milligan holds its Homecoming in the Fall like every other 'football-ful' academic institution. This past weekend we enjoyed the festivities and the beautiful Fall weather that finally hinted that winter will be coming soon. Once the parade processed down the center of campus and the new name of the Milligan buffalo was revealed (which is Brutus, by the way, much better than the previous 'Buffy' which makes you wonder what took them so long) we enjoyed, what I now believe, is the 'make or break' component of any outdoor Fall festival.......Kettle Corn. And let me tell you, it was gooood (made in the big cast iron kettle and everything)! We ran into one of Dave's students while we were munching on the good stuff and he asked to take our picture, the result is to the right (sorry about the big white space...don't know how to get rid of it...).

That evening we attended Valerie and Damon's reception for their wedding which was held in Jamaica several weeks ago. For anyone local reading this, it was held upstairs at Carter at Main and the food was delicious! Everything, especially the beautiful couple, was lovely. This is me with the blushing bride, or shall I say Jamaican tanned!

Sunday we were off to Asheville. The boys hit a round of 18 (with Dave incidentally hitting the 'best shot of his life' (insert golf clap here ....)) leaving the girls some much needed time to catch up. It was not only Anna, myself and our two new additions, but also Alison (Ulrich) Hadden (friend from Wofford, now living in Kansas, with her own new addition due in April!) in the mix. Oh and we also brought our dogs. So the grand total for the day was six dogs, two babies, two nursing women, one pregnant woman and two new dads....does this equal fun or what?!?!



We all set off (sans dogs) to a pumpkin patch and apple orchard.... note to self, three days before Halloween is probably not the best time to pick pumpkins. The 'off the vine' variety were a bit scarce, but it was the thought that counts. We grabbed some great pics, a baby pumpkin for Lily, and one authentic cup of hot apple cider.....not much beats it....except perhaps kettle corn.


As far as the week picture goes, yes I know she's not looking in either of these, but take my word for it, her eyes are still big and still blue.....it was quite a day battling the wicked mid-afternoon sun....we did what we could. For more pics of the day you can visit Sam's Flickr page
http://www.flickr.com/photos/samharrelson/ .(I know, soon I'll be owing him commission or something) It was so great to see Alison, we wish her and Kyle a healthy uneventful pregnancy from here on out, you can visit her blog at http://alisonandkyle.blogspot.com/.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Week 15...Pumpkin or Punkin?

Warning:


The above is a result of one too many references to the baby Lily as "pumpkin" (or actually 'punkin' but that's not really a thing, is it?). To prevent future metaphysical transformations of human babies into squash, please take careful consideration when using certain 'terms of endearment'.




Okay, I'll stop trying to be cute. I just thought I'd work in some of the multitude of pictures that are actually taken on these weekly photoshoots. The above was just one of many different arrangements attempted throughout the day. It appears Miss Lily is becoming a bit of a diva realizing that we are at her whim. This pic is the look I got when I realized, okay, you're right it is time to stop.........I think you would agree.

But like the resilient baby she is we went out for a second try and were much more successful.

One final note. During our photo shoot this weekend, in an effort to keep Lily as happy as possible as long as possible, she endulged in a scrumptious bottle.......or so we thought!
Thanks to Lee's lightening fast trigger finger this moment will be heartily laughed at for years to come. It's amazing how fast 'bodily function' humor becomes so funny once you have a baby!

Mr. Curtis




Pictured above, from left to right, are my friend Ryan, my brother Chip, Mr. Curtis (Ryan and Connor's Dad), my friends Tom and Connor, and I'm on the end. This picture was taken at a high school graduation party for Ryan and Connor's sister Erin. Ryan and I have been friends since our days at Centreville High School; then Chip and Connor went through school together as well. Sadly, we learned that Mr. Curtis passed away this weekend. The Curtis family is in our thoughts and prayers, please keep them in yours as well.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

The Fall Lily is in Bloom


Mark Peacock is one of my colleagues at Milligan (the law professor), who also has an interest in photography. He had offered to take some pictures of Lily, and we decided to take him up on it this morning. So Mark and Lee Fierbaugh (another Milliganite) were kind enough to meet us on campus this morning to try and take advantage of some of the fall colors. As you can see from the picture above, Mark and Lee did a great job. They sent us links to the photo shoots that are posted below. We are going to order pictures from them, so if you would like any (of course we're mainly speaking to the Lily Grandparent types out there) please let us know and we will add it to the order.

Mark's Pictures
Lee's Pictures

Also, check out the links to Mark and Lee's webpages in the Navi-gator. They have some very beautiful images of Appalachia.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

My Man Liston

The reason we traveled up to northern Viriginia last weekend (all our other adventures aside), was to attend Liston's first birthday party. We enjoyed getting to visit with Tom and Christy, and also getting to see a lot of their friends and family that we haven't seen since their wedding. While the big kids were catching up, Lily and Liston made their introductions and were quick friends. They even had an effect on some of the bigger kids, including this conversation between Tom and Lily concerning the Redskins chances of making the playoffs this season. In the next picture down, all the kids are playing with Liston's new toys. Among the highlights were a wagon full of building blocks, a percussion set, a new cell phone, and plenty of new clothes! With plenty of delicious food, cake and ice cream, there was a good time had by all!

Incidentally, before we left I caught Lily getting Liston's digits to the new cell phone....we'll have to keep an eye on their texting!


Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Week 14, Uncle Chipper and A-squared


Well, as was previously suggested in this post, I have been slightly remiss in my posting duties. So here is my attempt to catch up. Part of the fun last weekend was getting to visit with my family that still lives in Fairfax. This was the first time that we got to visit my brother Chip with his fiance Ashley (Aunt Ashley, or A-squared). Mom and Dad also made it over for a big dinner on Friday night that Chip and Ashley prepared, and it was excellent! The combination of reliving our own wedding experiences, while sharing in the excitement of Chip and Ashley's upcoming nuptials, was a lot of fun. I can speak for both Emily and myself when I say that we really enjoyed the weekend. Here are some more pictures of the Campbell Family Mayhem:

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The Don


Lily participated in a great many adventures this past weekend, one of which was to meet the "head of the family" for the first time. Don Granny, as she is affectionately known, is the reigning matriarch of the Campbell Clan. And she was most excited to meet her new great granddaughter Lily. Incidentally, the Don has 5 grandchildren, and Lily becomes her 8th great grandchild. We stopped to visit Granny both going up to Northern Virginia on Friday night, and on the way back to the JC Sunday afternoon.
As you can see in the picture to the right, Lily took to the Don immediately. Granny is also known for her ability to rock her babies to sleep (something both Chip and I can readily attest to), while Lily is not asleep in the picture below, she is still enjoying the ride!


Monday, October 15, 2007

DC Trip


What a week! Lily had so many 'firsts' this week that we're splitting 'blogging' duties. Lily traveled to the jungle of Northern Virginia for the first time this past weekend to help celebrate Liston's first birthday. Liston is the son of Tom (one of Dave's groomsman, for reference) and Cristy Goff. Details and pics on this to follow.....

But while we were celebrating AND getting to hang out with Uncle Chipper and Aunt Ashley, we took advantage of proximity and visited the WWII memorial. Construction of the monument began my last year at GW and due to the nature of things, I have not been back to see the finished product.

My grandfather was a WWII veteran from East Point, GA. I have such vivid memories of him telling of his time in the Army. I always loved his stories, and at a young age I remember trying to imagine what Italy and Africa are like.

He was awarded the Purple Heart and despite himself, his pride gleamed in his eyes when he would show it to us and tell how he came to receive it. I hope he would be pleased with the permanent symbol that honors what he and his fellow servicemen gave for this country.
A wonderful addition to this memorial is the registry of servicemen which can be found at http://www.wwiimemorial.com/ . It was such a treat to see Grandaddy (aka John Harkey) so young and handsome in his uniform.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

My name is Thatcher



So before that little bundle of joy that I call my sister arrived, I used to get tons of attention. In light of my attention deficit over preceding months, I have decided to reach into my own baby book and pull out a couple of pictures that show how cute I am. Here I am after rolling in a mud puddle......and then there was that time that I barked at the neighbors over a wall at the beach.

This is just a little reminder that before Lily was cute, I was cute (and maybe even Gator too.)

Sincerely,
Thatcher - the most senior sibling in this household



Tuesday, October 9, 2007

It's a Girl!

For all of you out there who know our good friends Anna and Sam Harrelson... we are proud to announce the arrival of their daughter Mary Hudson Harrelson at 6:30 AM this morning. Mary Hudson weighed in at 7lbs 10ozs and 19 1/4'' long. I was lucky enough to make it to Asheville this evening to visit the happy family and little Mary Hudson is adorable!

Anna is doing great (trying to overdo it already) and Sam is taking on daddyhood like a champ, which today has meant alot of calls, keeping everyone informed and making trips back to the house - it was remarkable how similar it all was for me and Dave. I don't have any pics just yet - the ones I got on my camera were not on Anna's 'good side' (and I certainly don't want to upset the new mama, she's got enough on her hands!). So I'll have to wait 'til she sends me hers, but 'til then you can visit Sam's Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/samharrelson/ to sneak a peak at the happy family! Congrats again Harrelson's!








Here are some shots I 'borrowed' from Sam

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Week 13

Beach Week! Lily took her first pilgrimage to the her daddy's true homeland this week. We were able to capitalize on Dave's "Fall Break" with an excursion to North Myrtle Beach courtesy of a friend of Nana and Grandad's. Little did we know that word got out of Lily's arrival and in celebration, all the Harley-Davidson's on the eastern seaboard and beyond came to give her a proper 'Myrtle Beach' welcome. (Translation: we fell into Bike Week.....what an experience)

It rained the first two days, so we took day trips,
one to Wilmington where as shown here, Lily
discovered the sugar is just as sweet.







When we finally made it onto the beach Lily lounged in her bouncer like the beach baby she is! Thanks to the craftiness of the Campbell men, we had a tent to relax under to get a break from the surprisingly hot October sun.



Lily had a grand time playing with Nana and Grandad. They got to experience first-hand Lily's favorite time of day (besides meal time).....morning!









We all had a blast and I know Lily can't wait to get her next taste of the sand and surf !