Mery Christmas!

Enjoying the weather!

Christmas Day

Matthew and Brian

Jen (with Disney Princess earrings) and Morgan (AKA Snow White)

Christmas Eve 2008

We hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and are looking forward to what the new year will bring!

Above and below are pictures from our Christmas celebrations with our families. Happy New Year everyone!!


More pictures:

Christmas 2008

Need a last minute Christmas Gift?

I thought I would share a few neat websites that are all about giving:

Compassion - http://www.compassion.com/default_a.htm

Worldvision - http://www.worldvision.org/content.nsf/about/aboutus-home

Donorschoose.org

Brian sponsored a child through compassion this year. We also recommend World Vision. Donations on our behalf were used to purchased vaccines (yeah!) and chickens for third world countries. My coworker shared the donorschoose.org website with me - it gives you a chance to financially help a classroom of your choosing with a project that you are interested in (how neat is that?)!

More Elf Yourself Fun...

Morgan, Matthew, and Amma (Great Grandmother Olson):
http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/cubWqey7WWSnJjshmaGt

Morgan Elizabeth - 3 years

More photos:

Merry Christmas

Designed by http://www.obviouslyrsvp.com/

Thanksmas

We had a great visit to Colorado last week for Thanksmas. Because it is crazy to travel during the actual week of Christmas/Thanksgiving, we started celebrating a late Thanksgiving and an early Christmas with my family.

Because the last two times I went to Colorado, I traveled for work, it really didn't feel like a vacation. However, this trip was strictly a vacation and it was a great visit with friends and family. The only hiccup was that Morgan developed a strange rash that covered her from head to toe - it didn't slow her down though. Because she usually gets an unusual illness while we are in Colorado, we almost come to expect someone getting sick while we are there!

We had a couple of 'firsts' while we were there - Morgan's first time sledding, making a snowman and snow angel, and eating 'snow ice cream' (snow ice cream really tastes like real ice cream - thanks AMY!). Morgan even went to her first movie and also went to a musical (Seussical the Musical) - although I think Matthew had more fun at the musical as he spent the time clapping and bouncing! Matthew also had a first - he finally started to crawl! (more about that later - he has picked up the skill super fast and is into everything!)

Below are random pictures from our week vacation.

Hope you all have a blessed Christmas!

Brian and the kids

Papa and Matthew

Ma-Ma (doesn't she look great in hats?!!!) and Matthew

The family (except for Mimi)
This photo with Santa was free (guess I shouldn't have paid for the ones earlier this year)

Morgan and the reindeer

The Nunnally's and the Lemmings

SNOW ice cream - fresh from the backyard!

Morgan and I sledding (using the sled my grandfather made me - it is VERY special to me and something I was excited to share with Morgan)

Snow Angels

Alicia, Jennifer and Matthew

ROCK BAND BABY - GOOOO Morgan (if you don't have this game, and are thinking about getting it - DO IT!)

Aunt Mimi, MaMa and Morgan

Brian's Sunglassess are HOT!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/WIF8PolPDhfxsEIUStnp

THANKS MEGAN!!

Matthew Brian - 9 Months

More Photos:

Deck the Halls....

We managed to get our tree up this weekend. I'm fighting the 'crud' so it took some extra effort to gather the energy, but we did it. Morgan had a lot of fun this year, and although she dropped several ornaments during the process, she didn't break a single one. I, on the other hand, broke two (and of course, they were two of my favorites). Morgan did assure me though that for the next tree, she will help me put the ornaments on so they don't break. I think I will have to take her up on the offer.

After the tree decorating, we had a festive meal from taco bell and had a picnic right in front of the tree.

'Tis the season!!!

Our 'Picnic'

Matthew and Morgan

I wonder what they are doing down there!?!?!

Morgan

More pictures from this long Holiday weekend.....

Happy Thanksgiving

Things I am thankful for this year....

• My wonderful husband and two healthy, beautiful children
• My Mom's will to survive and to kick cancer in the bootie
• Airplanes and automobiles that make travel so convenient! (not to mention gas prices!!)
• Living near family and that my kids are growing up with their cousins
• A great job and a roof over my head

Happy Thanksgiving!

Grandmother Lemmings (Brian's Paternal Grandmother)

LEMMINGS, Melvina, age 86, passed away Wednesday, November 26, 2008 at Crown Health Care. Mrs. Lemmings was preceded in death by her husband, Raymond C. Lemmings. She is survived by a daughter, Fran Collier; a son, Paul (Janine) Lemmings; grandchildren, Brian (Jennifer) Lemmings, Christy (Brandon) Norris, Alex Lemmings, Mark (Sherry) Collier, Scott (Kristy) Collier, Brian (Michelle) Collier, Susan Collier; great-grandchildren, Jackson Norris, Morgan Lemmings, William Norris, Maggie Norris, Matthew Lemmings, Megan Collier, Austin Toler, Mattie Collier, Jared Collier and Tyler Collier. Graveside services will be held on Monday, December 1, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. in Greenwood Cemetery with Reverend Cliff Stevers officiating. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to Vista Care Hospice or Jackson Hospital Foundation. Leak-Memory Chapel Directing

My Pictures

So several months ago, our hard drive crashed. The 'click' of death as I was told....and death to all my photos. A few months earlier we signed up for an online backup service to back up our computer and hard drive. Little did I know I only had seven days to restore the files - after that, the company deleted my files (something they don't tell you so I wouldn't recommend backupright.com). Therefore, you can completely ignore my post from earlier this year. After a valiant effort by John, the files couldn't be saved.

We do have random photo CD's from my parents (thankfully, they always insisted we send them hundreds of photos of Morgan), but we did lose thousands of photos - memories I won't even know I lost. So, why am I bringing this up again?? When Yahoo photos went bust, they transferred my photos to Snapfish. I received an email from them this week that stated unless I order from them, my storage of my photos will be deleted. As this is the most complete set of photos I have since Morgan was born, I didn't ignore the email. I did notice that you can download photos from their site - YES! However, they CHARGE, $0.25 for each photo I download (Huh???). I can also purchase a photo CD - so, after $69.08, I purchased two photo CDs with MY photos. Do I hate that I had to pay to download photos that I put up there in the first place - YES (if you ask me, I should be able to download them for free). However, I was able to reclaim some lost memories which is well worth it. And thanks to retailmenot.com, I scored 20% off.

Lessons learned -
1. Back up your photos in multiple places
2. Don't waste your money on online back up services - stick with CD/DVDs. Now that we have a DVD burner, this task is much easier
3. Don't rely on electronic copies - periodically print your favorite pictures
4. Use google/picasa. Google is going to take over the world anyway, so they'll be around when you need your photos.

Fall Update

We spent last weekend in Auburn - pictures from the park and our golf lessons are below (thanks Kim for the tour of the AU Golf Facility!).

We also took the kids (Jackson, Morgan, William, Maggie, and Matthew) to get Christmas pictures this weekend. They are included in the slide show below (the quality isn't great as they are photos of photos and I don't have electronic copies). We are pretty proud of how they turned out - all five kids cooperated and it was actually a pleasant experience. Thank you to Aunt Fran and Nene for the great outfits!

$24.99+tax...

...that is how much a visit to Santa costs these days.

Ok, we were NOT intending to visit Santa (considering it is ONLY November 15), but we stumbled upon him in the mall, there wasn't a line, and Morgan was very excited! This was the first year that she knew who he was and willingly wanted to sit on his lap. After I put Matthew on Santa's lap, Morgan ran toward Santa as fast as her little legs could carry her, wrapped her arms around him, and jumped on his lap. I figured I couldn't let the Kodak moment slip by and purchased a photo package. So, $24.99 (+tax) later, we walked away with one sheet of Santa pics. The cheapest package was $22.99 - at this point, what is $2.00 more? Oh, we did get free candy that was probably left over from Halloween, but I made sure we took our fare share. However, there wasn't a candy cane in sight - I guess it is still too early for them!

The quality of this picture isn't great, but since we don't have a scanner, I had to take a picture of the picture.


Merry Christmas - VERY VERY EARLY! I did learn that one of my best friends started decorating her house for Christmas this week, so at least we are not the only ones getting into the spirit!

Thanks Mimi!

In case you haven't actually read my blog on my actual blog in a while (AKA RSS readers), check out the new artwork -- lemmingsfamily.blogspot.com. My sister jazzed it up a bit as a birthday gift - thanks Mimi!

A message from Auntie Mimi...

Happy Halloween (BELATED!)

We had a fun filled Halloween last weekend. Matthew dressed up as the "Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" by day and a purple dinosaur by night. Morgan was Arial (she loves being a Disney Princess).

We went trick or treating with Jackson, William, and Maggie (although the little kids didn't quite make it to trick or treat time as they were ready for bed right after dinner).

More pictures of Halloween and the evening we spent painting and decorating pumpkins can be found below:

Howland Family

http://norrisupdates.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-first-update-in-two-months-is-sad.html

Brian's High School Reunion

Brian graduated high school 15 years ago (wow!). I would call him 'old' except I am not too far behind him! To celebrate,we went to Auburn this past weekend for a gathering of his former classmates. I wish I had a picture to post of Brian while in high school. He was voted 'Best All Around' his senior year - he was friends with everyone! A current picture with a few of his classmates is below:


We spent the rest of the weekend with Peppy. We went to the Auburn Women's Golf Tournament so Morgan could see what a golf tournament is like in person. Thankfully both the kids were super quiet (Matthew even took a nap).

GO AUBURN!

Peppy, Matthew, Morgan, and Mr. Derby the Scarecrow (Peppy and Morgan spent Sunday morning putting him together)

More pictures are below:

October 2008

Picture Update

We went to the zoo last week with the Norris clan (and their Mimi and cousin Coleman) - as usual, we had a great time!








Morgan also met her 'idol' Hello Kitty! She was so excited to meet her - she didn't want to leave!


We also went to Jackson's baseball game last weekend. Morgan hung out by the fence and flirted with the boys.....I think we are in trouble.