Happy Halloween from The Dever Dish!!!

Happy Halloween, Y'all !!!

The Devers hope you and yours have a happy and safe Halloween.

(Halloween pictures will be forthcoming but here are some pictures from the past two years to get you in the spirit.)

Halloween 2007

(3 1/2 months old)

Halloween 2008

(1 year and 3 1/2 months old)

Flashback Friday

It's Flashback Friday Y'all!!!

July update

After a two week hiatus we are back and this edition is special; it's the, much anticipated, birthday edition!! So, needless to say, this Flashback Friday really has nothing to do with Danny and I (good thing we had nothing going on in July) and everything to do with Ms. Emerson. July was pretty much a slow month for the Dever's except for the week of Emerson's birthday.  We did have a great July 4th with Grammy and Papa and had some fun at their neighborhood park.  Emerson got her birthday present early this year, in the form of a big sandbox.   Thanks again to Jasper, our house builder, for making such a great sandbox.  Emerson loves it!!  We had an incident with cows at Fearrington Village and working toward getting Emerson more comfortable around cows :) !!! Emerson moved from the toddler room to the 2 year old classroom.  It was a very sad day for Mommy, Emerson did great!!  We did some bowling with the Hermans and with Grammy and Papa on two different days.  We also had some pool (baby pool, that is!!) time with Mimi and Birdie.  All-in-all, a pretty low-key July, except for, oh, that big birthday party we had. 

Emerson's real birthday is July 9th but we celebrated on July 11th with a Luau party.  We had about 40 kids and adults over to celebrate the big day. Birthday planning is so fun and I tend to go overboard, go figure!!  I think the event was a huge success and I think everyone had a great time.  I was fortunate enough to have Mindy Church and Jordan Shamp of then, Mindy C. Photography (they have since changed their name to JAM Photography) take pictures.  They did an excellent job and I am so glad I have those pictures to cherish and SHARE WITH YOU!!  So, without further ado.....I give you the annual birthday slide show!! July picture link is at the bottom of the page!

Please make note, to view this slide show you will have to install the photodex installer...I had my neighbor, Amy, test it out and it only takes two seconds to install and run...then you can see the high quality version of the slide show.  If for some reason you can't get the slide show to work, email me and I will figure out a way to get it to you!!

Emerson's Birthday Slide Show

(Click here for Photodex version; once on the website, click on the middle show "Aloha")

July Pictures

(click here)

School Pictures - Fall 2009

We all remember picture day from school.  We  would get all dressed up, we would go sit in front of a camera with some ugly background behind us, smile and then wait anxiously for our pictures to come back.  We would wait 2-3 weeks only to get our pictures back and critique everything about them, and it was over if you had a bad picture, because then it was going in the yearbook and there was nothing you could do about it.  Well, they are starting kids out younger and younger these days in hopes that they are all prepared for grade school.  Hopefully they will all know how to take a good picture so there are no scars when it comes time for the yearbook. 

We got Emerson's school pictures back yesterday.  I wouldn't say they are the best pictures I've ever seen of her (I know, I am a horrible mom for saying that) but they are pretty cute, so I wanted to share them with the rest of you.  Emerson has had a hard time with school pictures the past two times she has taken them. (You'd think with the amount of pictures that are taken of her at home, she wouldn't be so camera shy.)  We didn't even get pictures from school in the spring (pictures happen twice a year at Parkwood) because she refused to go into the room.  This time, I really talked up the fact that it was picture day and everyone at school was going to get their picture taken; it didn't help!!  Emerson had a fit when I was there and didn't want to get her picture taken at all.  Gail (the Director and Emerson's favorite) and I decided it would be best if I left and they would try again later.  The next attempt must have gone better than the first.  Gail told me that with some coaxing, she got Emerson to smile.  Gail ended up sitting on the platform with Emerson so that Emerson thought both her and Gail were getting their pictures taken. (No wonder Gail has been doing this for such a long time...she's good!)  I am surprised Emerson didn't ask where Gail was when she saw the pictures yesterday.  But, thank goodness Gail was there to "sit" with Emerson and we could walk away with three decent pictures!!

Hopefully this will get easier as Emerson gets older and used to school pictures.  I would hate for her to be one of those kids scarred by a yearbook picture!!! 

I have also attached the pictures from Fall 2007, Spring 2008, and Fall 2008 so you can see how much are little one has changed.  Sorry for the quality of the pictures...scanners really don't do them justice!! 

Fall 2009

No pictures for Spring 2009

Fall 2008

Spring 2008

Fall 2007

Monster Mashed

In the spirit of all things Ghoulish...check out how Danny, Emerson, Hogan, Lovey Bear and I were all Monster Mashed.  We hope you are all looking forward to Halloween as much as we are!!!

Our Monster Mash

(click here)

Show and Tell #13 - (10.23.09)

What do you think this weeks Show and Tell item is going to be from?  Of course, The Fair, especially since we went twice this week (see here and here)!  Emerson "won" this pink dinosaur while she was fishing on Wednesday night (our 2nd trip to the fair).  We paid the big bucks ($5) for her to be able to pick out an acutal prize instead of just a small trinket from the bins next to the game.  She was pretty excited about the dinosaur after we peeled her away from the actual fishing game itself!!  Gotta love the fair.....