The Hassell's: January 2009

My Tazmanian Devil

So, Barry left yesterday afternoon for Memphis and the ACDC concert leaving Crew and I by ourselves. Once again, Crew has outgrown his shoes not so much length wise though... we seem to just get wider and wider. Pretty soon my precious child's feet may closely resemble cinder blocks. While at the shoe store (Crew has a total shoe fetish), he FELL IN LOVE with the rain boots posted here. In fact we took a nap in them and had to wait until he fell asleep that night before Mommy could remove them.
We also went out to help the Sory's celebrate Alston's birthday. Okay, I have learned that when you have a child as hyperactive as Crew, you should NEVER, NEVER attempt to eat at a restaurant alone. If Barton had not been there to help, I think I would have gone nuts. Don't get me wrong, Crew is NOT bad, just very, very active.
This all leads up the the best story yet... Mom (me) was already a little frazzled from the boots, the restaurant, the fact that he some how attached his toy train to my mother's dog and freaked her out (the train sings the Thomas song every time you pull the strong and she wouldn't stop running long enough for me to remove it), as well as several other incidents. We woke up very much anticipating Daddy's return, had a bath, breakfast, etc. I was drying my hair when I realized it had been a minute since I had last seen Crew and it was really quiet. Where was he?!?!?!?!
Crew, I discovered, has now figured out how to push chairs up to my dining room table and use them to crawl on top of it. There he was in nothing but a diaper and his boots (of course) sitting in the middle of a bowl of potpourri on my table throwing the contents to my dog (who ate it... possibly improving his breath) and dumping salt EVERYWHERE!!!!! I've never wanted to burst out laughing and pull my hair out all at the same time.
He is truly my wonderful Tazmanian Devil!

The Mermaid Cafe'

This post is a little random but I've been getting several questions, so I thought I would just post it for all to see. My parents are opening another restaurant and we're all VERY excited about it......

The Mermaid Cafe' is a waterfront restaurant on Lake Caroline (how convenient is that for me?!?!?!) and will most likely be open for business on January 20th. Now, wipe Nick's from your mind because this is nothing like it. Very low key, VERY family friendly and a lot of fun with a great (not expensive) menu. I've placed a link to the website under my friends but it's not up and running just yet. I think the entire family will be pitching in the first couple of weeks so I hope to see all of you there!!!!

Hotty Toddy!!!!!

If you didn't watch this year's Cotton Bowl, you definitely missed a great football game. Not much needs to be said other than Hotty Toddy Rebels!!!!!

More Fun Christmas Stories...

Let me begin by admitting that I flat out stole all of the following pictures from my sister-in-law, Beth. She is an amazaing photographer and I wish she would think about doing it professionally. So, in addition to our little Christmas, we shared part of the holiday with the Hassell family in both Vicksburg and Laurel. Barry's parents have this great park down the street from their house where all the boys love to play (age is not a factor). Then, we traveled over to Laurel where Jay and Emily introduced everyone to their 9 lab puppies. Can you imagine taking care of that many puppies? Take a look at all the fun that we had... I hope everyone had as much fun over Christmas as we did!