Another random smattering

These little kids melt my heart. And keep me laughing. Bella likes to play dress-up a LOT lately. And because the only other kid to play with is her brother, he plays with her. And dress up with her too.

And dress up some more.  I'm pulling this out when he starts dating at age 38.

JT likes to crawl in little bitty spaces and play peek-a-boo.

Bella has mastered the art of wanting to cuddle. And her daddy never says no. Who could turn down this smile?

We do lots of crafts lately too. Coloring, gluing, cutting, painting, and throwing all the colors on the ground (JT).

Bella's night time routine includes us reading three books with her, prayers, and then we'll let her "read" by herself before we sing and turn the lights off.  One night I was studying while she was reading and she came around the corner really carefully. She had made a fort out of her books and cups. And, I of course had to document it since I thought it was genius. She was so proud of it!

I also had to document this of JT.  He actually wasn't doing anything except sitting in his carseat and talking/singing/shouting "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy". And, I thought it was so adorable. That's why it was a random picture.  I'm reminded so much lately how incredibly thankful I am for the gifts of my kids and husband. Any little moment seems like it needs to be documented. Even if it is just sitting in a carseat. It's not the picture - it's the people in the pictures that are worth being thankful for.

Random smattering of pictures - Catch up

These kiddos are growing by leaps and bounds lately. And, I can't get them to stop.  Don't get me wrong - I love watching them develop and grow and learn new things. But, I want time to slow down sometimes. To document the last few months, here's a random smattering of pictures from the iphone.

JT likes to pretend he can ride his sister's bike.

The kids received some nutcrackers as gifts from Granny Ruth and Pop in Texas. The nutcrackers stayed on the table for a couple of days to play with. Thanks!

In the middle of a very busy semester, little breaks like this are so special!  We decided to have an impromptu tea party in Bella's room one afternoon. Bella insisted on setting the table herself.

JT has the funniest expressions! He's trying to show me a grape.

Bella likes to play the story of Mary and Joseph. Here she is playing the part of Mary and the donkey.

This was my sweet valentine's day present from Mike.

Told you about the fun expressions!

Another update on JT - this boy likes to eat! He can eat more than Bella any day - and he usually does.

He also loves cookies - but who doesn't!

Superman JT

This superman cape was Mike's cape when he was little.  We tried to get him to put it on over Christmas and he wouldn't do it - until the final day. This picture is one of Mike's favorite pictures of Jonathan. So, I wanted to devote an entire post to it. I would agree it's pretty cute!

Wintry Duke Gardens

We traveled to Duke Gardens to have a picnic with the kiddos on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. I took JT to go see all the fish in the pond and he yelled "fish" at every single one of them. It was adorable and disruptive to anyone relaxing. Oh well, he was excited!

Here's Bella acting like an adventurer - that's what she said she was doing. Little cutie!

First family hike 2013

Spring is coming! And with that comes some beautiful weather in North Carolina. So last weekend we decided to take advantage of the weather and travel to the Eno River State Park. What's really cool about that state park is we can literally walk to it from our house. We packed a lunch, all put on hoodies, and started off. The hike to the river lasted a little longer than anticipated - mainly because our little man wanted to pick up every.single.pinecone and show it us. And then he wanted to show us every.single.leaf and show us.  It was pretty cute! We found our picnic table overlooking the river and just sat there.  I think three or four times Mike and I said, "Do we really live here?" We didn't have to go 3 hours to get the mountains or stress out on packing. We just went around the corner. Needless to say, we will be doing that a lot this spring and summer! I hope you enjoy the pictures.

I love this picture!  This little gal loves her daddy and her daddy loves her.

Our little man is talking a lot lately! He grabbed my hand and said, 'C'mon" and started walking on the trail.  What a cutie!

He's having a conversation with me here. But I have no idea what he said. I just agreed.

This whole day was filled with me saying "thank you" over and over again. Like looking down at Jonathan while we were walking. My heart could have burst in that moment.

After we went to the park, we decided to work in the backyard a little. Well, the kiddos "worked" by testing out the pillows.

He was trying to lay on the pillow like Bella was doing.

Happy spring everyone!

Trip to see two of our favorite people ever

Y'all, I promise to get on the blogging-bandwagon after this semester is over. This semester is notoriously the hardest and most time-consuming. Plus, my qualifying exam is coming up. So, long story short - IT'S BUSY!! Hence, my severe lack of blogging.  But this week I seemed to have caught a "fun" bug that has placed me in bed for two days straight.  This provides an excellent opportunity to catch up on blogging. Prepare for the onslaught of catch up posts.  To start it off, I will tell you about the awesomeness of Mark and Gayla - of course, if you're regular readers then you already know how awesome they are!

Before the semester started (I know, I know - it's been that long), Bella and I went on a girly trip to Sumter. This was her sweet face when we were getting in the car. Can't you just eat her up? I love this little gal so much.

We had a great time catching up with our friends at "Mark and Gayla's church", as Bella calls it - otherwise known as ADBC.  We sure have some special people there that we love. We also stayed up way too late every night talking about anything and everything. Bella found her new BFF in Gayla. I think they colored 438 pages in her coloring books and played the matching game 29 times.

I also got booted out at bedtime when she wanted Gayla to read books to her.

I also was very excited about taking Bella to Swan Lake in Sumter before we came home. Mike and I enjoyed going there when we lived in Sumter - so, it was fun to take our little gal here.  Unfortunately, it wasn't as dreamy as I thought it would be. The next picture is of sweet Bella saying hi to the swans  - before it attacked her! Those little boogers move quick! It grabbed her turtleneck and would NOT let go. Thank goodness she had a thick turtleneck on or it probably would have hurt her worse. I didn't know what to do - so I did what all other mothers would do. I grabbed her and "made" the swan let go. I'm usually a nice person - but if you mess with my kids all bets are off.  Poor little thing was so traumatized.  We got in the car and she said, "I'm never going to the lake again".  Grrr, I was so mad at that swan. But some ice cream and lots of talking about what the swan did made it better.

Mark and Gayla, thanks so much for such a great time, as always. Y'all are very special to us!

(This next picture was taken before the mean-swan attacked her, obviously).