MoseleyWorld

Samantha is almost six months old. Like her older sister, Saxon, Samantha is very curious, wants to grab everything and loves to chew on paper. Much to her Mommy’s chagrin, Samantha is almost in full crawling mode. Crawling backwards is no problem, it’s the forward motion that has yet to be mastered. She loves to watch her big sister and smiles when Saxon walks into the room - just like I do.

Things have been quite crazy, busy around here, to say the least, in the last few weeks. We hope to be able to catch our breath after the Christmas holiday with family. To add to the usual holiday stress, old Santa has been terrorizing Saxon any chance he gets.

We stumbled upon Santa Claus and his elves at the Magnolia Hotel during the downtown Dallas tree-lighting ceremony.Saxon seemed quite content to study St. Nicholas from afar, but as we began to leave, she voiced a request to see him up close & personal.

As the line got shorter, I could hear Santa asking the kids what they wanted for Christmas. I thought, “Holy Rudolph! We have not prepped this child for this moment!” So Carey quickly told Saxon that Santa will ask her what she wanted for Christmas and suggested that Saxon ask for a new dolly. When I suggested to Saxon that she might want to ask for something for Samantha as well, she interrupted me saying “a new blankie for Samantha!” (because what the heck else does a 4 month old really need? and it keeps Samantha away from Saxon’s favorite!)

We walked up the stairs to Santa’s throne (?) and I plopped Saxon down on St. Nick’s lap. She refused to look him in the eye - preferring to keep her eye on Mom & Dad. But I could tell she was watching Santa out of the corner of the eye to make sure the funny looking fella wasn’t going to make any fast moves.

I could tell Santa was ready to punt, so I picked Saxon up and started walking off when she immediately began yelling, “Santa, I want a dolly, I want a dolly, Santa!…and Samantha wants a new blankie, got it? a new blankie, Samantha!”

So, when we got to the car, Saxon looked all sad and said, “where’s my dolly?” Obviously, we get an F in the preparing the kid to meet Santa Claus department. Although Saxon has wanted nothing to do with Santa Claus the other times she’s seen him (the man does get around!), he’s pretty interesting to watch from at  least 10 or 12 feet away.

Here’s the official 2008 Moseley Christmas (yes, it says, Merry Christmas!) card. This year, we went with a “wide format” card that opened up from the right side (vs the standard foldover type card).  We had fun photographing our pretty little girls for the card.

front of card

inside left of card

inside right of card

back of card

The 2008 edition features somewhat of a final farewell, a tribute, to Ranger, who died earlier this year.  Unboxing the Christmas decorations and finding Ranger’s personalized stocking (sorry about the treat we left in the stocking last year, buddy!) and seeing several canine-themed ornaments brought the kind of grief sorrow I realize many people experience every holiday season.We still miss him terribly, but pledge to remember the good times the little “devil in a clown’s suit” brought us. Merry Christmas little guy.

Samantha will be 12 weeks old this Friday. She’s displaying lots of smiles (and, oh, what a cute smile she has - I’m biased, of course) and is starting to really enjoy watching the world. Watching her, I am often reminded of one of my favorite Jimmy Buffett songs. In Little Miss Magic (itunes link), Jimmy does a great job expressing some of the thoughts that ramble thru his (and my) head while he watches his baby daughter.

Constantly amazed by the blades of the fan on the ceiling
The clever little glances she gives me can’t help but be appealing
She loves to ride into town with the top down
Feel that warm breeze on her gentle skin
She is my next of kin

About Little Miss Magic, Jimmy said, “When Savannah Jane was born, my world was definitely altered…Before she could speak I would watch her follow the blades of the ceiling fan with her big brown eyes, and I couldn’t help but to be a proud father. Besides, if you don’t write a song about your daughter, you will go to hell.”

My charge would be to make a great portrait of my daughter. I’ve made a few of Saxon and my portrait below, titled “Samantha’s Lucky Number,” will be enjoyed by my very own Little Miss Magic some day.

Aunt Ashley’s tour bus stopped off at MoseleyWorld last weekend, after making stops in Beaver Island,  Napa, San Francisco, Atlanta, Wichita and Newport, RI just to name a few stops. Despite getting to see Saxon’s newest impersonation (she does a really good “whining 2 year old” from time to time - stick around long enough and you might get to see it too), Ashley had a good time with her two nieces (I think).

Saxon definitely enjoyed her Aunt Ashley’s visit, since she got a fancy new tutu and she got to go with her mom and Aunt Ashley to the salon - to have her toenails painted fancily (See below). This week, every time an airplane has flown over, Saxon says, “Aunt Ashley’s Airplane.”

click for larger image

Tis the season to order Christmas cards! Of course, you could contact a great photographer (uh, click the link) to photograph your kids, dogs or whole family so you would have a fancy photo holiday card (hey, who can blame me for the shameless plug - I’ve got another mouth to feed!).

Tiny Prints has great designs. From Christmas party invitations & Christmas Cards to cards announcing your new baby or that you’ve moved, they’ve got a great selection of cards at Tiny Prints. Click here to get 5% off your order with Tiny Prints (good thru Jan 5, 2009).

We recently made my annual pilgrimage to the State Fair of Texas, this time as a family of four. Regarding the State Fair of Texas, did you know:

• The State Fair was first held at its current location in Dallas in 1886.
• The Texas-OU football game has been played annually, since 1929, at the Cotton Bowl, which is in the middle of Fair Park.
• The ubiquitous corny dog was invented by the Fletcher brothers and popularized at the State Fair of Texas.
• Speaking of fried foods, the State Fair of Texas is where you can get almost anything deep fried or chicken-fried. Chicken-fried bacon, fried banana split, deep-fried s’mores (Ok, these were good), Texas fried jelly belly beans, fried chocolate truffles are just a few of the new foods offered at the State Fair this year.
• The Texas Star located at Fair Park is the largest Ferris wheel in North America.
• Fair Park was first choice of the Dallas Cowboys for their new stadium until former Mayor Laura Miller ran them off (in less than 48 hours - she’s got skills).
• Saxon made her 2nd visit to the Fair on the same day Samantha made her 1st.

Here are some photographs from our visit.

watching the dancing with dogs show

samantha awake, looking for the dogs (actually watching her sister)
running around proved to be much more fun than watching the dogs dance
performing

here’s one of those world-famous Fletcher’s corn dogs.
One word: yummy
mangy corn dog?
at the young farmer’s exhibit, staffed by FFA (that’s Future Farmer’s of America for you urbanites)
stopping for corn (which, of course, feeds everything at the farm)
planting her onion “seed”
cow milking - saxon told the gal she knew all about this because she sees it at home all the time.

saxon’s favorite activity was the petting zoo, where she got to feed everything from baby goats to giraffes. the ostriches and emus were true-to-form with their stares and freaky snakelike neck movements. yikes.