Sweet Home Alabama

Almost every year for the past 6 years since Matt and I have been married we've always headed to his hometown in Alabama for Thanksgiving. This year was extra special because we now have a sweet little man named Cannan in tow! Going to the Flummer house for the Holidays is like walking into Mrs. Claus' home because it seems to magically transform into a Christmas castle overnight! Seriously! Sandra was a teacher for 30 years in the public school system and all of those Holiday gifts and treasures given to her from students through the years now hold a special place on display throughout her home at the Holidays. In addition to those sweet gifts, her father, John James Moon, loved Christmas too! Every year he could be found making the most unique Christmas decorations in his little backyard workshop out of wood, glass, ceramic and other materials that most people would never think to use. Everyone in her family has a creative streak and there are so many beautiful handmade things to look at and behind almost every one is a special face, time, place or memory to her. So, if you are ever around Alabama near the Holidays, I would highly recommend taking a detour over to the Flummer house. Don't worry, you won't be a stranger at all they will welcome you with open arms and a home cooked meal. That's just how they are.
With that being said...everything that you would normally see in the non-holiday months comes down and everything Christmas goes up....

















And here are the two lovebirds on Thanksgiving Day! While the house looks beautiful and the meal was unsurpassed by any other Thanksgiving meal I that I know of...Sandra was in her element being at home with family. But, I know it was no easy feat to pull off and she doesn't ever stress one bit.








Cannan's great Aunt Gloria and Uncle Terry.

We packed up and drove South

Like it does so often the south calls us to come home. At least it does for our little family. I love the North, the snow and crisp cold weather but I LOVE the warm blanket that is the south.

So, we packed our bags and headed down for a long southern Holiday. It was a special trip because my Aunt Dawn, who lives in Savannah had planned a special early Thanksgiving for the days that we had planned to be there and invited everyone...Cousins, Friends, New Babies, Grandpa, Just Sheryl, Uncle Donald, Crazy Aunt Jackie, who brought this amazing dessert that we won't mention by name but it involved pretzels, chocolate and peanut butter and it was super delicious!!! There were so many people there. It was great. We had a wonderful dinner and for the first time, Cannan started eating real food! Not just solid food because he's been eating that for awhile, I mean, turnip greens, stuffing, turkey, and courtesy of my wonderful rebellious aunt (this is where I get my streak from) and to my disapproval, he even got his fill of banana pudding...

Cannan & Dawn


One happy and stuffed little man...


I wish I would have thought to bring the camera out more but I was so excited to see and meet everyone that I forgot to take pictures, so I will just have to tell you a little about what is going on around us in the photos that I did manage to snap. My cousin Branndon and Stephanie brought my new baby [2nd] cousin, Autumn Tressie, who is named after my Grandmother and who I fell in love with in a matter of minutes. Truly. I already have a love for this baby girl that I cannot explain. I am kicking myself for not snapping a picture of her and her sweet mama.
Dawn loves animals and takes in strays wherever she can (including people, that's why she and I are so close ;-) so just outside, Cannan met his first Pigs, Sweetie & Wilbur and the dogs: Jadis, Travis, Lily, Selena and Yoda, she also has a bird, cats and I think a few other small caged animals. Who needs a petting zoo??? I have family that's got us covered!! Yes, it's a sort of like a miniature farm I guess you'd say. Anyway, wish I had gotten a picture of Cannan with those pigs. It was pretty funny watching him check out these new creatures that he's never seen before.

We had so much fun and look forward to the next visit!


Dawn, Cannan & Grandpa
He was fascinated with Grandpa's glasses!


Grandpa & Cannan had a good time playing on the floor. I'm not sure who wore who out first...









The Fam...Steve, Dawn, Cannan & Grandpa

Modern Stoneage Families

REMEMBER THIS???



So, I really wanted Cannan to have a Halloween costume this year and I racked my brain trying to figure out something fun to do. Well, after talking with my friend Heather, who is the queen of resourcefulness, not to mention she has mad sewing skills, we decided to go with a Bedrock theme.
We decided making our own costumes would be the way to go and thanks to Hancock's fabulous October discounts we found everything we needed for under $20!!! My sweet Barney and Bam Bam's costumes were a piece of cake even for this amateur seamstress, which, using the term seamstress is actually a huge overstatement but I couldn't think of another word. Oh well. It was Betty's ensemble that was a bit more tricky, yes, leave it to [ancient] women's fashion to be all complicated right?! Well, Thanks to Heather, her mad sewing skills and her enviable ability to whip up a stylish Betty Rubble hairbow in less than 2 we were fully dressed in our stoneage digs....

MEET The Flintstones & The Rubbles!!!
A.k.a. Noah, Heather and Allie Grace Oldham and us Flummer's :-)

My sweet little BamBam...


Cannan & Allie

First Official Family Photoshoot in Tower Grove

Family Photoshoot in Tower Grove! I have truly been blessed to have an amazing photographer in my life who is willing to take our family's pictures because trust me, we aren't always the easiest subjects. Thankfully, God puts people in our lives who understand our quirks. This was our first "official" photo shoot as a family of three. We headed out to beautiful Tower Grove park with my dear friend KellyBeth of KBK photography and had a great time under the beautiful old trees kicking up leaves.
As you can see, the colors were breathtaking!

Also, I think our little man is a total ham for the camera. What do you think?








KB has got some cool little props. Love this chair! Cannan was having a good time hamming it up for the camera as you can see. His balance was pretty good by this point so I wasn't too worried...until we all watched in slow-mo as he tumbled head first to the ground....oops! He didn't seem to be too concerned though. He was quickly over it and ready for another take. He's all boy so I've already started preparing myself for what lies ahead. Can a mother ever really prepare for this really?

Cannan's a Crawler!

This month (September) Cannan learned to crawl! Once he figured out that he could get a whole lot more accomplished if he could just get across the room to those objects he was eyeing, I was one busy mama! It was a rough month for us. Cannan, was finding out the hard way that hard wood floors are rough on the knees and hard on the head when he'd lose his balance and take a tumble. I was afraid people were going to start talking...and I wore out my running shoes chasing this little crawler and re-babyproofing for the 5th time. I thought I had everything covered, well guess what?! Apparently babies can find things in the strangest places and books are no exception. Who needs ALL of the pages anyway. You get the gist..right!?!

Apples & Pumpkins and Eckerts Farm

There have been several Holidays and events over these past few months that I haven't posted about so let's start with Fall. By the way, I love Fall, especially Fall in St. Louis! In September my friends KB, Heather and I headed out with the babies to this cool place in Illinois called Eckerts Farm. They have apple orchards as far as you can see that you can pick apples from and pumpkins that are bigger than my kitchen table!!! Which actually is not really saying much but, really, they are huge.

Cannan did not love apple picking but he did like to taste them and gum on the big chunks that I'd bite off for him...







We've been trying to photograph these two together since birth and so far, this one seems to be the best yet, obviously we've got our work cut out for us as you can tell. I am sure Heather is standing behind KB doing something that resembles an African tribal dance to get these two to even look in the general direction of the camera at the same time. The whole thing is pretty entertaining really.

My serenade to you...

Everybody needs a little time away
I heard her say
From each other
Even lovers need a holiday
Far away
From each other
Hold me now (not literallY)
It's hard for me to say I'm sorry
I just want you to stay
After all that we've been through
I will make it up to you
I promise to
And after all that's been said and done
You're just the part of me I can't let go
Couldn't stand to be kept away
Just for the day...

Okay okay I'll stop, but I hope that swooned you a little, maybe?

You should know that I don't recite 80's lyrics to just anyone. You must know you are loved. Truly.
So, I really want to share with you a few bits and pieces of what has been going on in our small corner of the world over these past few months. As always and since I am not (yet) an amazing storyteller, I am working on it though (not really), pictures are the best way to give you a small glimpse of the times we are enjoying as a family. So, stay tuned, I have several posts in the works...

To Grandparents house we go!

Cannan got to meet his Grandma & Grandpa Tolmie!!! One Friday afternoon Matt and I realized we had Saturday wide open with nothing to do, so Kentucky bound we were. We hopped in the car and to grandparents house we went! We got there just in time for lunch and mom had a roast and vittles ready for us. Since we were in Kentucky I feel that it's okay to talk in a Hillbilly manner, although, there is truly nothing Hillbilly about my family but save for the sake of location if you will. Anyway, we had a great visit and we even got to see Apollo who lives just a hop, skip and a jump away, that is if you can hop, skip and jump for 2 miles.

Don't mind Cannan's skeleton outfit that's just the way we roll. Actually, this was taken the weekend before Halloween and my friend Anna sent me the sweetest care package of digs for Cannan. This was in it and we loved it right away! Do you see the little heart??? I LOVE!!!!

The Fam


I loved that Dania and I got to spend a lot of time chatting and catching up on the trampoline.


I think he likes them!



My Beautiful Sister Miss Dania Kay Tolmie...

Labor Day Love, Football, Babies & Food

We squeezed so many events into this past labor day weekend I don't even know where to start. Sandra & Jerry, (affectionately known as "Matt's rents" or Nana & Papa) came from Alabama for a visit. We enjoyed having them and they even treated us to a little getaway so we could sneak out and have a date night for our 6th Anniversary, which was on Saturday. That is right folks...6 years!!! It has been fun to say the least. I truly and honestly can say from my very core that I could not have prayed for a better man. I know I am blessed that I can even say that. So here is a little flashback to September 4th, 2004...





ROOOOOOLLLLLLL TIIIIIIIDE! (Or as Cannan will soon be saying Woll Tide!)
Saturday was Alabama's first game of the season so of course everyone was decked out in their Alabama garb. Even Cannan was wearing the colors...I think he was excited to watch the game too...

first, Cannan wanted to show us how to kick a football...

Did you see my kick papa?


It was perfect timing too because if you know me you know how much I love watching football ;-) So, while they all watched the game I snuck off to my friend Amy's baby shower to oooh and aaaah over her adorable belly and baby girl things. She was going back and forth about cloth diapering and decided to give it a try so a few of the girls from church went in and got her her first stash of Bumgenius'....

Here is Amy with all her new colorful CD's...isn't she beautiful!?!


The Girls...


On Sunday we headed out to GreekFest for some Gyros, Greek Salads, Baklava and more, "wouldn't you like to have some?" delicious Greek food...
I'll spare you the pictures of us chowing down on our Grecian Vittles and only show you the sweet side...
Mmmmmm Baklava!