Santa Picture

Here's the kids and Santa. We're not sure how to make it bigger - but it's still pretty cute! They're making serious faces, but there were no tears!

Family pictures, Thanksgiving, Emma's getting faster!

The weekend before Thanksgiving we put our indoor Christmas things up. Here's two partners in crime checking out the tree.

My mom got Emma a winter coat - with matching pants! So cute!

We FINALLY got some family pictures taken! The photographer took a ton of pictures and then gave us a cd of all of them to do whatever we want with them. There's a bunch of really cute ones - here's a few of our favorites.


Emma was super distracted with the new surroundings and didn't feel much like smiling!

On Thanksgiving, we invited Chad's parents to join us for the day. We went to the parade in Charlotte, which seemed to be mostly school bands and paegant queens. Last year there was more variety! It was 50 degrees and drizzly, and when the drizzle became rain we headed out early! Here are some pictures of us passing the kids around (both to keep them warm and to see over the rude people who came and stood right infront of us).

Note to self: never wear a scarf and fuzzy sweater when I'm gonna be holding a baby! She had black fuzzies all over her drooly chin and the scarf became a choking hazzard for me! haha

After we got back and ate lunch, Drew took a nap. But he woke up early b/c he was too excited about our company. So Chad brought him down...and he fell asleep for another hour like this!! He never does this! I think I was the only one in the house awake for awhile - our comfy couches sucked everyone in.

Thanksgiving night we decided to skip the 10pm sale at Toys R Us after hearing about the 2-3 hour waits to get into the store and another couple hours to checkout...and we are so glad we did. We ordered our things online at the same awesome sale prices!! I did go shopping Friday morning around 7am and was surprised at the lack of lines or crowds. Then we all went to Concord Mills mall, which was busy. The kids even sat on Santa's lap...no line for that even!! I'll scan the picture from that and post it later. Then Friday evening we took the kids to BounceU - a facility full of inflatable bouncers and slides. Here's Emma cheering Drew on.

And here's Drew at his favorite thing there.



And another one.



And I just wanted to show you how Emma can get around now...and FAST!

On Saturday, we went to Chad's parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner. Grant, Sherry and Olivia were there too. Olivia and Drew are good buddies and had a blast! They ran around like crazy kids and loved every minute of it - even though we were trying to control their chaos! haha And we had to protect them from the mean Buffy cat (apparently the kitty is an angel for Susan, but she isn't too fond of our kids). Sharon, Susan and Alan's good friend, stopped over with Christmas gifts for the kids, which was so sweet of her! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera - there were some cute photo opportunities! I hope to get a copy of a picture of the three cousins that everyone else took and I'll post it later.

On Sunday, we let Drew pick out an outdoor decoration at Wal-Mart, so we ended up with one of those moving reindeers that light up. So, we got home and put up all our outside lights. We even put some on the back deck so we can enjoy them from inside the house.

It was a busy 4 day weekend - but lots of fun!! Definitely too short though!

Emma discovers Drew's toys!

HAHA!! I love Drew's reaction to this! "Emma, your toys are over there!"

And she almost pulled up to a stand in this video! Needless to say, we moved her mattress down in her crib!

Gatlinburg, belly to sitting, and our squirrel

This past weekend we went to Gatlinburg with my parents. We stayed in an awesome little log cabin. Drew really enjoyed the fire in the fireplace - especially when it popped and crackled.

And the one weird thing about the cabin that we couldn't quite figure out...the HUGE tub right in the kitchen/dining room area! But Drew thought it was the coolest thing ever and took a bath in it.
We went on a hike on Saturday. I thought Drew would be able to handle it (since he walks our 1 mile loop in our neighborhood all the time). But he was a really tired and out of sorts and the trail was about 3 miles total...at least Chad got a good workout carrying him a lot of the way! Here's Chad and Drew, and my parents pushing Emma.
About halfway up there was a tiny little waterfall - Drew thought that was the falls that we were hiking to. I think he was ready to turn around and be done!


One of our frequent breaks for Drew (and Chad).

Once we reached the top, there was a neat waterfall. This was a good time for a snack break. Here's Drew snacking w/ Grandma and Grandpa.



And here we all are in front of the falls (although you can't see most of the falls - it's really pretty).

Emma liked getting out of her stroller and seeing the sights.

Drew fell over the side of the cliff and, fortunately, caught this limb to save his fall... not really! But some good zooming and cropping can make it look that way!

And on our way back down the trail, Emma decided to relax a little...

On Sunday, we went to some of the little shops in Gatlinburg, and I SOOOO wish I'd had my camera. We went to Santa's Claus-et and it was all Christmas stuff. Well, right when we walked in, we spotted Santa Claus behind the counter. He came over and talked to Drew - who was stunned and scared to death at first (trembling lip and everything!). But he was such a good Santa (I about believed in him - he had the real beird and all), and Drew warmed up to him. He gave Drew a little ornament and even wrote "To: Drew From: Santa" and he wrote Drew's name in a little book on the "NICE" list. Very cool!! My parents got me some really good pumpkin butter from there - hopefully I can get Drew to try it!

Last night Emma showed us her new trick - she can now go from her belly to sitting up! What a big girl! She's so mobile w/o even knowing how to crawl. Although, at her age, I was starting to walk!! I'm very thankful she's not doing that yet! I also wanted to report that Emma is finally eating solid foods - a whole jarful at a time! yay!!

And here's a quick video from this morning of our little squirrel friend. He does this everyday and drives our kitties crazy!! There's always a big pile of nut shells sitting at that corner of the railing.

"talking", eating, and SOON crawling!

Here's our little Colts fans! They were dressed for the Monday Night football game last week.

We got Drew's old Baby Einstein dvd out - which he LOVED at Emma's age. She doesn't sit and watch it like Drew did, but she was pretty interested in it in this video. I was trying to get her to show off her new sounds, "da da da da!"

After over 2 months of trying to get Emma to eat solid foods, she finally quit spitting it out and decided it's pretty tasty!! She has been eating bananas and sweet potatoes. Her pediatrician said she should be eating 3 meals a day of solid food. We are working our way up to 2, and just about 1/3 of a container each time. We'll get there! Here's the first day that she actually started opening her mouth for bites (instead of me making her laugh and then stuffing it in!).

Tonight at dinner, Emma even figured out how to get a few puffs in her mouth! She'll soon realize I'm not her only source of good food! :)

Monday we went on a tour of the police station with some other kids. A police woman read them a story about safety and then handed out stuffed animals. Drew picked out a pink bunny... hmmm... haha!!

Today I took Drew and Emma to the Y to do gymnastics. We are going to start offering open gym time a couple mornings a week there, so I wanted to give it a try and see how they would do. If I can get some of our friends to come too, then I can clock in and get paid to play with my kids!! Works for me! Here's Emma hanging out, watching Drew and I jump on the trampoline.

Last week, Drew and I were playing cars and thought it was pretty funny when we looked over and saw Emma with her Santa beard (spit up). She had no idea why we were laughing, but she joined in and giggled too!

This has nothing to do with the kids (except the fact that they are my shopping buddies/helpers)...but I just wanted to share a picture of my groceries that I got for $12. (I saved $66!) Couponing has been a huge hobby of mine, and I typically save 40-50% each grocery trip. We have a stock pile of pasta, desserts/mixes, cleaning supplies, toiletries, condiments, etc. I have even donated food to several different organizations in the past few weeks - and will probably do more through the holidays.


I haven't caught it in a video yet, but Emma is starting to figure out crawling! She gets up on all fours and takes a step or two and then lays back on her belly. And she'll army crawl a little on her belly too. We'll try to remember to get a video of it and get it on here!! It's pretty cute how determined she is!

Happy Halloween

We had a Halloween party at our house Friday morning with 8 of Drew's friends and one of Emma's friends. There were tons of treats (pumpkin donuts, cup cakes, rice krispie treats, apple cidar, candy, etc) that everyone contributed along with some healthy things (apple slices, grapes, and pretzels) that I'd set out. The kids had a blast playing with Drew's toys, and I was proud of Drew for sharing so well (never heard him say "that's mine" once!). The party was supposed to be till 11:30, but the last guests were leaving at 12:30! That tells me the others were having fun too! We tried to get a group picture of the kids, but that just wasn't happening - here's what I could get. Thanks, Drew, for looking at the camera! haha Drew was pretty mellow until his buddy Luke showed up! Then he completely lit up and was happy - it was pretty cute. Here's Luke (wall-e) and Drew (Lightning McQueen).
And they soon shedded the costumes...and found some candy!

Here's the table full of JUST SOME of all the treats!

Drew sat down for a minute for some snacks!

Then Saturday we carved our pumpkins. Here's Emma with one of my masterpieces. (I don't think she could wear that outfit one more day...too small!!)

Drew would NOT put his hands in the pumpkin (I think Chad got him to get maybe two seeds out). I didn't know 2 year old boys could dislike pumpkin guts! Here he is carving holes in the cardboard while Chad carves a pumpkin.

And our 4 jack o' lanterns - the top two are Chad's and the bottom two are mine. We were feeling some school spirit!

On Halloween, Drew helped me make pumpkin muffins that were egg and milk free (just a box of spice cake, a can of pumpkin puree, one single serving applesauce and a little water!!)...and he actually tried it!! AND LIKED IT!! Chad and I were so happy and excited that I think we both could have cried! Drew hasn't tried a new food in over a year! As he was taking the last bite, he said, "I don't want this to be all gone. I want another one!" So he ate two!

Here's Drew as we headed out to Trick-or-Treat.

And here he is on the go! He did a good job saying "trick or treat" and "thank you." We did the whole loop of our neighborhood (about 3/4 mile), but by the end he was saying, "hold me Daddy." He hadn't taken a nap all day (probably too much excitement!), so we expected him to be worn out.

Emma lasted about 30 minutes of trick-or-treating and then decided it was more fun to snooze!

We already have to keep a close eye on Emma. She can't crawl yet, but she can get anywhere she wants (usually backwards)!! I lay a huge blanket out for her with a bunch of toys, and within seconds she's off that blanket and somewhere else!