Chick-fil-A and Chickies

What is this random construction picture?

Oh, friends!!! Let me tell you! It's a Chick-fil-A! They are building one in my town. All the silly Mid-Westerners that live here think it's just a fast food chicken place. Chick-fil-A has never been in this part of the country and is only trickling in. They don't know the magnitude. They have never experienced the pickle-topped, buttered-bunned, special-seasoned, fried in peanut oil, delight that is a Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich. They don't know about the waffle fries from Heaven or the perfect Iced Tea that I, a good Southern Girl, grew fat (I mean grew up) on. I, however, am in excited anticipation for my all-time-fave-fast- food-joint-ever-in-the-world to open.

They say it will be May. I say come on May!! I have heard that the first 100 people will get free Chick-fil-A for a year. I am having an internal discussion over whether I want to camp out in a tent, or sleep in a lawn chair in front of the building before the grand opening. I mean, should I take a vacation day? How many days in advance should I be on the curb outside the building? Is now too early? Seriously, I want me some me Chicken Sandwich...but I can't be on the news. I mean...the general public (acquaintances in town and parents of my preschoolers and such) they think I'm sane. I can't blow my cover by camping at my Mecca for a sandwich...can I?

We'll revisit the fil-A later. Maybe I will document it's progress...or would that, again, be too obsessed?!

The rest of my very long post is about more chicken related activities. It being spring and all, our local Tractor Supply Company has received their shipment of chicks and ducks. We went to pay them a visit.

Cuteness ensued.
The ducks were all gone. But the chicks were so cute.


There was a low tub Lylah sat beside and watched them all hop around. At one point she was
telling them she loved them and calling them sweethearts and talking to them sweetly. She was pretty concerned we had not brought bread for them like we do for the ducks at the park. She kept saying, "I'm sorry, little sweeties, I don't have anything for you." I showed her the feeders and she felt better for them. She got up the courage to put her hand in and they came running up. She said they nibbled her finger and was so tickled by it. I didn't even realize that I had gotten a picture of it happening. I just love her little hands in this picture.

There were some really tiny ones, too. She never got the courage to hold one. But she kissed a couple and was happy to see them up close. It was pretty fun.


Here is one from last year. She held a little chick reeeealy tight and gave it a smooch.

I love this tradition. I love springtime. I have some fun posts for this week related to Easter and spring. Can't wait to be back in the game.

Christmas Eve again

My previous post told about how we had an early Christmas and Christmas Eve with Glen's family...

Our second Christmas Eve happened on December 24th with just me, Lori, Glen and Lylah. There was talk on the news of really bad weather including ice, sleet, and blizzard -like conditions. You never know if it will come or how bad it will really be. But it all came true this time. It started up around 4:30 in the afternoon and kept on going all the way through December 26th. But we had a wonderful Christmas Eve despite the weather. Our church canceled services, but there was another church in town that was brave enough to keep the doors open and we bundled up and went there. It was a lovely service that included 3 baptisms,the Lord's Supper, and the singing of "Silent Night" by candle light. When we left the service we had to pry our car doors open and drive through slippery, icy sludge all the way home.

Here is Lylah enjoying her candy cane--notice the red lips--
before our super- awesome frozen pizza dinner.

Lylah opened her Christmas Eve gift. It would normally be PJ's but Grammy sent them alittle earlier in the week and I had to see her in them before Christmas Eve too. She opened hermicrophone because she thought the wrapping was funny and looked like a carrot.She practiced saying, " Hello down there" as if she were speaking down a tunnel.
Here she is in her Christmas cat pj's from Grammy. It's a bad picture.
But it's the only one I could get. It's either no smile or jumping these days with her.
All my pictures seem to be a blur as of late.

In the evening we ( Glen, Lori, Lylah, and I) made gingerbread houses together. Glen made his completely snow covered and minimalist. We all agreed it was nice but it needed a door. He showed it to Lylah who said, " Oh, Dada, it's so nice and beautiful. But it has no door, does it?" He said the door got snowed under. Lylah covered her house with as much candy as possible because she was pretty sure she would get a taste of each thing before she allowed it to be attached to the house. (Again with the chipmunk cheeks) Lori and I both were trying for beauty and style. If we had had better icing we might have had better luck. Our stuff kept slipping off. But they were quite festive all sitting together in a row on the dining table.

from left: Mine, Lori's, Lylah's, Glen's

We will have to do our houses earlier next year so we can enjoy them more. I fully intended to have the houses on display with on of my favorite Christmas decorations, Santa and his Roadrunners, but I never ended up decorating much this year. I ran out of time. [ A side note for those who don't know: I was born in New Mexico and my Dad's family is from there. My grandpa used to make Santa and Roadrunners to sell at craft fairs. The roadrunner is the NM state bird. When my grandparents passed away I got this bit of Christmas nostalgia and I love it so much.]

Lylah reading the Christmas story with her Daddy ( or dada as she likes to
all him right now--I'm mama. Sounds so sweet)

After our houses were made Glen read Lylah the story of Christmas from her Jesus Storybook Bible. I love this Bible. I have cried more than once over the beauty of the storytelling and the way the author makes simple truths come to life. The subtitle says: every story whispers His name. It tells all the Old and New Testament stories from the perspective of looking to Jesus as the rescuer and redeemer of all of us. It speaks so plainly of how God loves us and wants us to know him and follow him. Lylah loves this Bible and will look at it for quite a while and tell us about the stories.
Glen read one part of the story that said that God was like a proud Daddy telling everyone about the birth of his son. She was so excited that God is a daddy too. She said," like I have a daddy...like you daddy". It brought tears to our eyes. What a responsibility we have to show her her Heavenly Father and help her to try to understand that love!

I looked and looked for a children's bible that was simple but did not speak to
children as if they were stupid, had nice illustrations,and did not leave out the Crucifixion. I found so much more in this bible than I expected.I have read it devotionally for myself several times too. It's so good.

Our tree decorated with our special ornaments and favorite lights.
All of Lylah's gifts under the branches--guarded closely by the elf in cat's pajamas.
He hardly ever left his post throughout the season.

We tucked Lylah in bed with the anticipation of getting to open presents and eat Jesus' birthday cake the next day. She was out like a light. And then Lori and Glen and I finished up her Christmas surprises, took pictures of the snow, and went to bed too. We were all pretty excited to share Christmas morning and found it hard to sleep. I think I was up at 6 waiting for Lylah to stir so I could go in and get her.

Our white Christmas. This was only the beginning...

Oh Christmas Tree!

We went on Thanksgiving morning to get our tree. Lylah was so excited about the idea. She ran around the tree place and told us how beautiful and lovely all the trees were. We got it home and put it up---and there it has been until today. Today, December 6th, we decorate the blessed tree. We decorated her little one, but the rest of the house is due for a decorating extravaganza!! I will post the after shot later on when the tree is in full Christmas mode. For now I thought it might be fun to see a few shots of Lylah at the tree place and a shot of the Thanksgiving table later on that day.

She smiles so sweetly here not because I asked her to ( that now produces a frown or closed eyes ). She smiles because of the candy cane in her hand. Can't wait to lick it!! She pretended to lick it several times before it was opened.
We had a really fun and yummy Thanksgiving meal at Glen's parents' house on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. So on Thanksgiving day I made chicken and noodles and mashed potatoes. I got to use the beautiful soup terrine that my mom just passed down to me in the spring. On out table is fun vintage paper turkey decoration and also a new and cherished Lylah-made paper turkey. I don't keep all the things she makes. But I love the turkey. It's too cute!! I am a thankful girl indeed. I cannot begin to count the ways my life has been blessed. A Happy Thanksgiving to be sure!!!

Jack-O-Lanterns

Glen got the ball rolling on the pumpkins this year. He had the awesome idea of carving the little pumpkins. They were not the ity-bity kind but the small-ish kind that are good for pies, I think. Lylah was very into the scooping of seeds with her little spoon tool and getting the seeds into a brownie pan. She was thrilled that I said I would cook them in the oven and we would make a treat of them.

In the end they were very cute. Glen's is the one with the upside down question mark nose and mine ( Lylah's ) the circle nose. It's funny that his looks the way it does because it looks like every doodle I have ever seen of his. If you put his and a hundred others in a line up, I could find it for sure.
We had no candles in the house at all and Aunt Lori came to our rescue with some tea lights. When the pumpkins were done and sitting on the table Lylah said to me, "oh Mommy, look at it look at it" But when I lit them and turned off the light in the dining room to reveal the picture above, she was rendered speechless for about 3 seconds before she said the same words again but much quicker and louder. It takes a lot to render her speechless, but a tiny lit pumpkin will apparently d the trick. It has been so exciting for us this year to share all the fun family traditions because she finds such a thrill in them and actually remembers the event. This was a very happy day!