Lots of Thanksgiving pictures

Here is a not so brief photo synopsis of our Thanksgiving at the beach...

The fam about to dive into an amazing spread

Chase cutting the turkey

Jenny with Carl's dog Morgan, check out that tongue, we nicknamed him the anteater.

Everyone got to try turkey, even Raughley- that face says it all!

He really wanted to get in the holiday spirit, so Emily made him an Indian headdress and he got to "climb" a tree.  We considered that his post meal exercise.  

Here is what Bryant decided would be his post meal activity

and a little sun bathing as well.

  

Someone was certainly happy with their first Thanksgiving!

So happy he gave kisses all around

Even George got one!

Chase and George went exploring later on- Bryant doesnt share well, so George had to get in the back.

  

Geroge and Jenny

An afternoon of Oyster shucking- well Chase did the shucking. We watched and ate.  

Raughley was really happy here because Alabama just scored to win the game.  

Geroge getting some practice for down the road.  

The last day we ventured out onto the beach

Raughley and Mim

And R got to explore in the sand

Yum!

Wow, that's a lot of sand buddy!

It was so good he wanted more.

A little beach ballet

A rare pic of the other members of the Wise family :)

and one last look at the water before heading home...

mmm, tastes like turkey!

I am finally sitting down at the computer after an afternoon of traveling back to Birmingham from Boca. We spent Thanksgiving this year with Chase's family and George and Jenny in Boca Grande. It was six glorious days of sun, good food, good company, and a good old head cold. Raughley and I caught a cold right before heading to the beach, and if you know babies and colds, you know what that means- sleepless nights. The poor guy couldn't sleep because he kept getting so congested and his nose was running all over the place. I have to say thank you to Tracy for her Ferberizing blog post that helped us on day 7 of this series of sleepless nights. I had read about ferberizing but couldn't remember the exact schedule, so I went back and read her blog post and we were able to get Raughley to sleep through the night. A night of good sleep did wonders for my cold, and I started feeling better as well.
I have so many adorable pics from Thanksgiving that I want to share with you, but I had to show this video that we took today, the last day of our trip which was of course, the prettiest. We got R outside in the sand and let him "explore". Here is what took place...

sleepy head

There's nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby!!!

Ella May Diaz

Welcome to the world beautiful Ella! Our friends from Florida, Emily and Aaron, had their baby girl yesterday morning. She was 6 pounds, 15 ounces. We can't wait to see them next week!!!

Photo Shoot

Yesterday Mary Margaret Chambliss came to our house to take some photos of Raughley and Chase and I. I can't wait to see how they turn out. She takes really awesome photography. Check out her music section, that is my favorite.

MaryMargaretChambliss

Bryant just couldn't stand not being in the spotlight, however, and proceeded to jump onto the couch with us and get in the middle of the photograph. What a camera hog!

We get the pics back sometime next week and I can't wait to share them with y'all.

cute video

Seven months old!

Saturday was Raughley's 7 month birthday. We have officially rounded the curve to the second half of the first year of his life. Five months to go until he is one year old. I cannot believe it. This Friday night we spent the night at the "Farm" and had a great time relaxing by the fire, riding around on the mule (like an oversized golf cart) and playing in the leaves outside. Very relaxing.


Sunday I got to spend time with Lindsay helping her try on wedding dresses. The cool part about it was that she tried on her mom's, grandmother's, aunt's, and cousin's. They all look gorgeous on her and I think there is a lot of potential there for a seamstress to create something really wonderful for her to wear. I won't show you pictures of that- (bad luck to see the bride in her dress before the wedding and all), except for the one where Allene, Lindsay and I all put on dresses and pranced around the room. Linds is wearing her Redstone Ball dress, so it doesn't count as a wedding dress. Thanks linds for letting Allene and I relive the big day with you!

Activities!

Now that Raughley can sit up, he is engaging in all kinds of new activites!

Below, he gives the camera a big happy grin- I think he looks like his Uncle Carl in this picture- 

Here, he works on his fielding skills.

Followed by a little bit of banging on the drum all day!

And finally, another example of his love of all things furry- if you cant tell by this picture, he is sitting up leaning over the side of the stroller to look at Cody... and Cody loves him too!

Raughley's Friends

Everyone has that special toy that they remember from their childhood, maybe even a toy they had from the time they were born.  I look at Raughley playing with his toys, and I wonder which ones will end up being sentimental, or favorites for years.

He loves the big blue whale from his play mat, which reminds me of the beluga in Elf that tells Will Ferrell "Bye Buddy, hope you find your dad..."

Or the hula monkey that went with him on his first trip to the beach,

Or his sweet little elephant that helps him get to sleep at night.

What will he name them?  Will they be around until they are shreds of fabric and stuffing?  I named my dolls the most obvious choices when I was a baby, such as naked baby, the doll that never wore clothes, and I still have William the Bear, that my dad gave to me the day I was born, so we shall see which toys of Raughley's stand the test of time and pets.  

Homestead Hollow

Last Friday mom, Grandmama, Raughley and I went out to Springville, AL for the Homestead Hollow craft fair.  I remember going to this a lot as a child, but it had been a few years since I was there last.  Not much had changed from what I remember.  There were still fried pies, wooden pop guns for little boys to buy, and miles of booths with crafts and pottery for sale.  Raughley was too little to ride the ponies, but the owner let us walk back in the pen and pet some of the older animals.

When R first saw the ponies he gave them a huge smile, I wish I had caught it on camera!

I think he is going to be quite the animal lover.

He was really interested in these furry creatures.

We took the time to play in the fall leaves, his latest obsession

Of course he had to taste a few of them!

So good!

Later on that night he went home and played with his own furry animal!

They sure do love each other!

Sitting!

Today Raughley spent some time outside...

He loves to swing...

And then we decided to see if he could sit up. Guess what- he can!

He loves the outside- look who else does behind him.

"That's my brother back there" says Raughley.

We have been working on sitting for a couple of weeks now,

but he keeps tipping over, until today!

So he sat outside, enjoying the leaves and the afternoon sunshine.

What a big boy!