I met THE Pioneer Woman!

One of my favorite blogs to read is The Pioneer Woman.  I love her recipes and photography, and her funny stories about ranch life.  Her youngest son was born the day before Aaron, so I feel like we have a connection, ya know?  Ha!

I got her cookbook for Christmas a couple of years ago, and I LOVE it.  I make a lot of her recipes both from the cookbook and her blog.  She recently wrote a new book chronicling her love story with her husband, a cowboy (she was a city girl so it was an unlikely match).  She is on a book tour right now, and she came to Memphis to do signings!  I was so excited, I wrote it on my calendar as soon as the date was announced. 

Luckily, my sweet friend Amy knows I love PW, and she snagged me tickets for the autograph line a couple of weeks ago, which meant I got to be towards the front of the line at the signing!  THANKS A TON, Amy!

Mom and I went to the signing, and met my friend Regina there. Regina had saved us front-row seats since she got there super-early with her boys. THANKS, Regina! (I have great friends, huh?)

Here's Regina and I right up front!


Ree's husband, whom she calls "Marlboro Man" on her blog, was there and signing books as well. He's a real, live cowboy!


Regina getting books signed...


And we finally got to meet The Pioneer Woman herself! 


Ree was so down-to-earth and super sweet.


I told her about our babies being 1 day apart, and how I vividly remembered June 5, 2004, her son's birthday.  It's the day Reagan died, if you didn't know.  I was at a family reunion, in the early stages of labor. 





Gotta love random guy in the background!


And us with our autographed books!

A perfect day

We had spring-like weather today, around 75 and sunny, and it was such a tease because I know it's going to get cold again.  But it was surely a nice break from the cold, and so great that it happened on a Saturday when we had nothing planned!

First on the agenda...Aaron needed to get off the training wheels.  We took the bikes to the church parking lot and he learned how to do it!  It helped that his classmate who lives down the street said yesterday, "Isn't Aaron a little OLD for training wheels?"  I said, "Yes, he is!" 





By the time we finished, he was riding across the entire parking lot by himself, and he even figured out how to get himself started. I got some video but have no idea when I'll have time to piece it together.

The girls got to ride, too.




And run around like crazy! We've been cooped up too long!


Next on the agenda was painting Mammaw's new door, but that was for Chris to do, so we just played outside at home for a while. Hannah got so filthy she needed a mid-day bath. That's a sure sign of a good time! Later in the afternoon we met friends for a short trip to the zoo. We actually took Aaron's friend with us, too.







And I got my new favorite picture.


A fun time was had by all!

Gingerbread houses and Santa!

Making our gingerbread house...




Then on to the Enchanted Forest with good friends! We go every year to see Santa there, because I always get a great picture and it's just good fun. We all piled in my van and had a blast!  Conner, Sydney, and Aaron in the way back...


Claire and Hannah in the middle, and me and Stacy up front, trying to have grown-up talk while ignoring the noise in the rear!










We got to see how gingerbread houses are REALLY done!


The train is a crowd favorite.


Hannah loved this little white bridge. If I let her out of her stroller she would run like mad over to the bridge. Once I even lost her for a minute and found her over at the bridge!




Loved this gingerbread "church".  I think it's supposed to be Bellevue.


The kids with Santa...real picture to follow. It was a GREAT Santa pic!


Aaron had taken his list but Claire never finished hers so she didn't bring it. That morning Aaron put "Wii" at the top of his list. He had never mentioned getting one prior to that morning, and I was shocked he even thought to ask for it! Thankfully, Santa already knew he would love one and had already bought it!



After the Enchanted Forest we went to a fun yogurt bar for dessert. It was so fun hanging out with our friends!

Big Scoop Ice Cream Festival

One Saturday in September, we had big plans to take our whole family with Granny to downtown Memphis for the Big Scoop Ice Cream Festival, which is a benefit for the Ronald McDonald House.  On the day before, Aaron came down with a fever virus, so Chris stayed home with him and Hannah, and Claire and I went with Granny and her boyfriend Don downtown.  We had a fun day!  I really hated Aaron had to miss it, but it was good to get more one-on-one time with Claire. 

She got to see DORA!

She really was excited, despite the somber look on her face. She knew it was just a lady dressed in a Dora costume, so she wasn't fooled.

We got to sample lots of ice cream!


Love her eyes in this picture!


Claire and Granny


Claire with some Boll Weevils. These guys were strange!




All 3 of us!


We also walked through the Peabody to see the ducks.


And over by the FedEx Forum, we visited the Rock 'n' Soul Museum, because it was Smithsonian day and we got in free!


Mom and Don


The Rock 'n' Soul museum wasn't very fun with a 4 year old who thinks museums are all like children's museums where you touch and climb on everything.  But I'm glad we went anyway!

Claire was wiped out once it was over. She ended up with the fever virus the next day! Oh well!