Yowzers...that's a lot of pictures!

I literally have 3-4 update posts floating around in my head and every time I think I have a minute to type one out...I suddenly don't! And at this point it's getting pretty ridiculous that I still haven't talked about our trip to Gatlinburg that we took for my birthday the first week of December and it's even a little embarrassing that I haven't talked about Christmas! And what about my resolutions!?!? Don't worry - I'm not really planning to talk about that. But the rest, well, I'm going to do through pictures. Way.too.many.pictures. Get ready! GO!


Instead of presents for my birthday and Christmas for each other this year, we decided to take a vacation instead. We went to Gatlinburg, TN and stayed in a cabin. This is actually the second time we have stayed in this cabin. We went the first time when I was just 10 weeks pregnant! It was really sweet going back there with Grayson now a very active toddler! All three of us had a blast!

family photo shoot on the back porch of our cabin

hiking in the mountains!

It's best to grip both ears tightly for extra support!

He loved walking by himself, though sometimes he wanted to stray from the path a bit!

This kid. Kills me.

On the Gatlinburg strip at the Ole Smoky Holler - no we did not drink any moonshine (b/c the line was too long...)

fun in the cabin :)

We went to an awesome interactive museum called WonderWorks in Pigeon Forge. I highly recommend it for good family fun! It's pricey, but there is so much to do it's well worth the cost! Here we are doing a great job at riding this virtual bike..so easy to do with a toddler on your lap!

That's me on the 360 bikes! Yes, you pedal yourself in circles and if your feet slip off the pedals (like mine did many times!), you will hang upside down until you keep pedaling. Exhilarating! Seriously!

Grayson LOVES balls. And you would have thought we pinched him or stole him from his real parents the way he freaked out when we finally pulled him away from this game!

See the pure joy and excitement on his little face!

We ate dinner one night at Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory in Gatlinburg and it was super fun and delicious! Grayson appreciated the fries. -_-

While the trip itself was the gift, Scott did surprise me with TSwift's 1989 album on the car ride! (I also surprised him with new PJ bottoms once we got to the cabin!) Anyway, I just think Taylor Swift is amazingly talented and so awesome. The first listen of this CD was strange to me b/c it's SO different from her older material! I've been listening to Swifty since her song "Tim McGraw" which was like 8 years ago! This one is very different. But then I realized she was purposefully writing and producing songs with the styles of the 1980's as her inspiration. And then I realized she's kind of a genius. :) Now Scott and I both love this CD b/c it reminds us of our magical trip to the mountains. <3 br="">

We had an event at work where we wore our "most spirited holiday attire" (there was discussion from the planning committee that the term "tacky sweater" might offend someone who wears those things for real). Me, Scott, and several of my coworkers got together in advance to make some homemade outfits! Scott's shirt says COBA (College of Business Administration) and mine says CLASS (College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences). Those are the colleges we each work in at Georgia Southern. And guess what? Scott won the most spirited contest with his "COBA Elf" outfit! Whoop!

Christmas time! We spent Christmas at my mom's house near Tampa, FL. She actually just moved into a new house only 4 days before we came down! Not stressful for them at all! ha! But we loved spending time with them and the new house was just perfect for good family fun, complete with lots of deer walking around outside. :) We spent several days at my mom's and then shot down to the more southern regions of Florida and popped by each of Scott's grandparents' houses and one of his cousins. This was the first time any of these family members had met Grayson. Needless to say, everyone was completely enamored with him. Duh. All in all, we had a wonderful vacation and holiday! And Grayson traveled like a dream on both this trip and the Gatlinburg one. How did I get such an awesome kid, y'all?

Good morning and Merry Christmas! :)

he got this cool plane from Granna!

We went to the park one day...my mom just loved spending so much time with Grayson.

this kid has more Elmo stuff than you can believe!! PS - My mom paid for me to get my hair done! It's much shorter and darker! I love it!

Grayson with his Great Nana...and Elmo!

And then when we got home from our trip, we surprised him with our big gift -- the classic Cozy Coupe!

Ready to go! So serious!

For New Years Eve, we just stayed home and hung out with my brother and his girlfriend. My brother bought some really cheap, crappy fireworks and we lit them before Grayson went to bed. He loved it and kept clapping and saying "IGHTS" (lights). We played a lot of Taboo and sang some really bad karaoke. Grayson didn't wake up until 3 AM, meaning he slept through some rather loud, off-key singing. I was impressed! All in all, it was a great time. I managed to stay awake until 12:20 AM, so that's a pretty big success in my book! :) Didn't really take any pictures, though. So there's really no proof!!

So, that's what's new with the Curley Crew! Sorry for such a long update!