December

December is here! I love the Christmas season. Even though it's so busy and i'm doing finals - it's still so fun! Here's a random smattering of what we've been up to.

Sweet Bella made holiday cards for her grandparents and great grandparents.

Grammy made us an advent calendar last year so I was excited to put it up for this year!  Bella has also enjoyed doing this every day. She calls the Christmas tree "christmas". Cute!

There's nothing like a little baby straight out of the bath and who smells like lotion -right daddeo?

Bella is a morning person like her mommy. I heard her in her room sneaking around playing. And it was 6am. So I went into say hi and she invited me to a tea party.  Nothing like a tea party early in the morning. See why it's hard to study? I have other things to do!

I love these two guys.

Here's another reason why it's hard to study.  Naptime would be the  perfect time to read and write and study - but sometimes, I just keep on holding this sweet boy when he's sleeping.  Studying can wait!

I love this picture of Bella. She looks so grown up.  If it's bright when she's out the door to go to school, she has to go back to get her glasses.

Bella's daddy made her a fort the other evening.  JT had to get involved too.

And here's another fort he made - much bigger! What are those books holding up the blankets? Yep, my school books. ha!

"Mommy, let's make a castle."

We had a Christmas Cantata at our church that was so good. Here's a family shot before the first performance. Bella was in her first play!  Her role? Make sugar cookies.

Here's Sweet Juanita who takes care of JT at church some Sundays.

And i'll leave you with a picture of the other "stars" from the Christmas play.  Enjoy some time in your PJs with sugar cookies, everyone!

Mark and Gayla

If you're a reader of this blog, you know that we have very special friends in our life - Mark and Gayla. We became good friends when we lived in SC and now that we're back in the East, we're excited to be closer to them. Over Thanksgiving, they came down for a quick visit and were introduced to Mr. JT. Here's sweet Gayla with extra-sweet JT!

Bella was given a horse coloring book for her birthday from them and enjoyed working on it with them after dinner.  She let everyone know that girls can only color in purple and boys get grey or brown. 

Bella wanted to rock with Aunt Gayla before bedtime.  I was changing her clothes while they were there and asked if she wanted to go see Mark and Gayla in the living room.  She said, "No, it's Aunt Gayla."  So sweet!

Aunt Gayla and Uncle Mark gave her a skirt when they got here. Here she is in her PJs, socks, and pink cowgirl hat with her skirt.  That's the way to unload the dishes!

Here's JT looking at Mark.  I LOVE these pictures!

Mark and Gayla, you are so special to us.  We look forward to seeing y'all more!

Thanksgiving 2011

We were invited to a family thanksgiving at Mrs. Cathy's house - and had such a great time! As you'll remember her resort - I mean house - is on beautiful land. And the weather was about 70 degrees that day. Fantabulous! Plus, her son deep fried a turkey. I know i'm in public health and i'm all about advocating good eating habits - but good golly - that was good turkey!

Our little munchkins liked going out there too.  Bella sometimes still calls it "home", sweet girl.  Here's our little cutie with her ready-to-be-a-GAP-model outfit.

Sweet Maggie playing with Bella.

See how serious she is?

We had such a great time that day. Thanks Cathy for having us as family!

JT update - 7 months

Our little muscle man is on the way to be a linebacker. He is HUGE! 22.5 pounds and 29.5 inches long. What? That's about a third of what Bella is - and she's three. ha!

He is still so happy. Look at that face? Seriously, he's happy most of the time. And then he's REALLY not happy. =)

This is a 24 month shirt and pants. 

Look at that big boy sitting up all by himself (yes, I did just say that in a mommy-tone...you know you did too).

He's sitting up so well without falling over these days. He started that at around 6.5 months.

His two bottom teeth are ALL the way in. He just got one of his top teeth and the other one is working it's way out this week. Come on little tooth!

His hair is still reddish and is getting a little longer.  I love it when he gets a bath and I can put baby lotion in his hair to kindof stick it up. What? You don't do that with your kids?

He LOVES his sister.  He'll see her from across the room and nearly jump out of my arms to get to her.

He's said "ga" and "da" and I really thinking he said "mama"...or "I love Mommy"...or something like that!

Little charmer.  He still takes a while to eat because he'll start playing and smiling.  So I'll try to cover him up - and now he thinks it's peek a boo.  Then he starts laughing and it's all over!

Little man, you have no idea how much of a blessing you are. We love you - and all your muscles/rolls/chunk/adorableness!

Fall in North Carolina

Hello everyone! Welp, the semester is nearly over - halleluyer! And i'm catching up on the blogging. It's been a month, y'all. Sorry about that! It's been a beautiful month though!  Fall is my favorite season and i've been looking forward to being in the East for the colors for a while now.  I think i've said numerous times a day, "Mike, look at that leaf-tree-leaf-tree"...poor guy!  It's beautiful here though!  I went running outside one Saturday and could have won a race - it was so pretty...it made me excited...I ran quick!  So, to start off my catch-up-blogs-o-marathon - here is what we've been doing this fall.

Little muscle man is getting more hair - and it's looking red. woo!

Little Miss B is hysterical, sweet, and strong-willed!  I bought her ten packs of smiley-face and star stickers the other day.  Right before bedtime, she was sitting with her daddy watching a cartoon. He fell asleep...so, what did our sweet little gal do? Proceed to gently put about 30 stickers all.over.him. When I came back in the room from putting JT down for the night, he was covered! 

Awwww, sweetness.  Random pic.  But it's so sweet to not post!

One of the things I wanted in a house was "North Carolina" trees. You know - the ones that have leaves that change colors. The ones that are big and provide shade. More than one per house. You get the picture. Well, did we get that or what!  What I didn't think of are ALLL of those leaves that would fall!  I think Mike has bagged 20+ bags and we haven't even touched the back yard. And, the front yard needs a do-over. I see beautiful trees and colors...my husband sees raking and raking and raking.

Little Miss decided to help.  She dressed herself too - in all pink!

Then she got tired and laid down to watch Daddy finish the job.

Here's our front yard.  Depending how you look at it - beautiful trees? back-breaking raking for hours on end???

Happy fall everyone. Wait what? It's December? oops, i'm catching up!