Black Friday

Caroline enjoyed her first day of Black Friday shopping. She slept the entire time, which was a blessing. It was crazy! People are crazy! After about 2 hours, it was time to head home. However, must brag that I did find 2 items at Gymboree for $12.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Caroline's First Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our families. We had dinner with my family last night. Our family decided to make our own Thanksgiving tradition by celebrating the night before. We all gather at Mom's early to put up her Christmas decorations and have our celebration. It was a lot of fun this year. ALL the kids, except Caroline of course, were able to help with the tree. We had Christmas music playing and the kids joined in on a song or two. Daniel BBQ some chicken and we had the fixings. It was so YUMMY!! Oh how I wished my Daddy could have been with us. He would have loved every minute of the excitement especially the kids.

Decorating Granny's tree

Then today we were bums until this afternoon. (It felt SO GOOD!) We had Thanksgiving with Andy's family. We had a feast. Everyone brought several dishes and it looked like a buffet. There were so many little kids here this year. It was a lot of fun watching them interact with each other.

Our very own Pilgrim girl, Grace.

We have so much to be thankful for! The Lord has blessed us with many blessings. Hope you enjoy the pictures from our Thanksgiving Celebrations!!!

Just one of our many blessings from above!

A Heavy Heart

Last night I received a call no one likes to get. My best friend's father was killed in a head on car collision coming home from work. To make the situation even harder, he was killed by a drunk driver. So many questions ran through my head. I thought about the lose of my own father. He was taken home to be with the Lord after a long battle with cancer. We knew it was coming. But to hear a knock at the door to find out that your husband will not be returning home from work today. Oh how my heart aches. My prayer is that God will be with Heather and her family and give them peace in this time.

Heather and her husband Robert will be flying today. Pray for safety as Heather is due with baby Ethan on December 19.

Thankful!

What an amazing year 2008 has been so far. We have so much to be thankful for.

• a beautiful, healthy, happy daughter
• a wonderful, selfless birth mother who gave us the most amazing gift
• a father that loves us and knows what's best even when we don't
• a family who has supported us during this new journey
• a house to protect us from the cold
• a job that allows us to provide for our family
• a body of believers who love us and support us
• a feeling of hope for the future
• a feeling of joy during this holiday season
• a feeling peace as we enter the next season of life with our daughter

I love what Thanksgiving represents! I have tried to do a better job of slowing down and giving thanks for all that God has blessed us with. I hope that are we begin a new year, I will slow down and truly give THANKS!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

11 Weeks

Baby girl is 11 weeks today. She has had a pretty good week. She has been waking up a few times a night just for her paci and then right back to sleep. She is "talking" a lot more. She has the prettiest smile EVER! It just melts our heart!

She spent her first night at Granny's (my mom). Andy kept her while Mom and I went to a gala benefit for the YMCA. We had a great time and I really appreciate Andy watching her while I was gone. She had a hard time getting settled so Mom said she would stay up with her and put her in the pack n play when she was asleep. I woke up several hours later to find Caroline snuggled up with Granny in the BED!!!!! We know what's going to happen when she stays at Granny's house...

Happy Thanksgiving Early!

2 month shots

I sat Caroline on her boppy to answer the phone and came back to find this... She was out!

We made it! Caroline had her first set of shots today and did ok. There were a total of 3 different shots. The first one was ok, the second one was "what was that" and the third one she screamed! Thank goodness that was the last one because I could imagine having to get another one. So far he has been very calm and very much like her normal self. We shall see how the night goes.

She weighs 11 pounds 14 ounces and is in the 75th percentile. She is 23 1/2 inches long and is in the 90th percentile. Dr. E was very excited with her progress and moved her up to 5 ounces every 3 hours, except at night. We have officially made it one week with sleeping through the night!!!!!!

Wanted to show you her battle scars... She has done so well. She is an amazing little girl. And did I mention how sweet she is?

10 weeks!

This past week has been filled with lots of fun stuff for all of us. The big news is that Caroline has slept 5 straight nights from 9:30 until 5 or 6 ish. WOW, what a relief sleep is. Just this Sunday I thought "This almost seems normal." Andy was on the couch and I was in our room in the bed reading getting ready to take a nap. Caroline was asleep and the house was so quiet. I know that all you moms out there are thinking "yep, won't last for long and your normal will never be the same." But we are enjoying it while we can.

Friday night we enjoyed a fun family dinner with Mema, Doe, Tomi Jean Greg, Jack and Grace. It was a lot of fun and Caroline was an angel. Then on Saturday we ran errands most of the day. We visited with Mema and Doe and then with Andy's aunt Sibby and cousin Dawn. Then our friends Jill, John and Tyler came over to watch the brutal Carolina vs. Florida game. Baby girl wore her cheer leading suit and boy it sure does look different from the first game of the season against Georgia.

Carolina vs. Flordia 11-15-08

Carolina vs. Georgia 9-13-08
our little angel...

Sunday we went to Church and Sunday School. We took a LONG nap and then went to the park to meet our Sunday School Class. It was freezing so Caroline didn't see much other than her blanket and her stroller. It was fun. I am so thankful that we are able to still go and do things and Caroline just tags along for the ride.

This beautiful dress was Grace's. They both looked like angels when they had it on.

ready for Church

Napping in Daddy's arms

Mommy and Caroline

the girls

Wyman

Catherine is getting so big!

Family fun at the park

10 weeks old and my first pair of REAL PJ's. Thanks Peep!

We are going for her shots tomorrow. We thought they were last Wednesday and when we showed up, we found out we were wrong... So think about us tomorrow. We are hoping for the best.

Visiting "Granny"

My first year at Delmae I quickly learned that Mrs. Trina was more than the custodian. She was "Granny!" Mrs. Trina is one of the nicest people I have ever met. She always had a smile and a kind word. She prayed for two years that the Lord would bless us with a child. Every month she would ask "are you pregnant? Are you sure?" Well last January she retired. I promised her that once the Lord gave us our baby, I would bring them to her. A few weeks ago I called Mrs. Trina and told her that I would love to bring Caroline over to meet her. We made plans for her to meet Caroline last Friday. Granny was so excited! She has sweet tears of joy as she checked out our little girl. She told Caroline she was her Granny and that "Granny loved her!!" She checked Caroline out from head to toe. We promised that we would bring her back again soon and she was so excited.

My visit with Mrs. Trina made me realize just how much I missed her. It made me think about the way that I treat people. I have never heard Mrs. Trina say a bad thing about anyone. She is truly a picture of Christ's love towards others.

Eight and a half hours

Last night Caroline had the best night yet. She went down around 9:30-9:45 pm and and is still sleeping. I am going to have to wake her up in just a little while but WOW. I am so excited!! Last week was pretty rough and her sleep pattern was off. Sometimes she wouldn't go to sleep until way after 10 and was back up at 1. It almost felt like a newborn again. However, with the prayers of my faithful Bible Study group and the good Lord, I think Baby Girl is back on track.

Caroline is going to have her picture made with Santa and Mrs. Clause today. She has the prettiest smocked Christmas dress that Gracie wore 7 Christmas' ago. I can't wait! She is going to be precious!!!

Not a care in the world...

Snoozing away...

9 weeks

Caroline is 9 weeks old today! She is slowly becoming her own little person. She loves for someone to talk to her and she tries to babble back. Her smile lasts for what seems like forever! She hasn't surprised us any this week by sleeping through the night, but that's ok. She got off schedule this past week but seems to be back on track. We are continuing to adjust to our new life with our beautiful baby girl. It's a challenge but we wouldn't trade it for a single minute!

We had our second date this past weekend. We left Caroline with Pop and Peep for the day. She had a great time and so did we! It was a lot of fun just having some time for the two of us doing something that we both love so much!!!! And to make the day even better, we won! To make the day even better, we saw Micheal Phelps, Olympic Gold Medalist. It was pretty neat.

"What Mommy, it's my birthday?? It's to early for the camera!"

"You want me to do what?"

Look at that sweet, sweet smile! Couldn't you just eat her?

Happy 2 Months Birthday

I know I'm cute!

Dear Caroline,

Today you are two months old. I thought I would go back and look at what you were doing at 1 month. I am amazed at all that you have learned in just 1 short month. You love your playmat and will entertain yourself for about 20 minutes just looking and reaching. You have started smiling at us more when we talk to you. You have this huge smile that is all mouth. You smile so big, your eyes are closed. You love to follow us if we are in front of you. You have really noticed your mobile and enjoy watching it go around. You have slept from 9:40 until 4:30 one night and 10:30 until 6 another. You are drinking 4 1/2 ounces every 3 hours during the day and once during the night. It's time to move you from your bassinet to your crib. (You only have about an inch at each end!!) You are not a big fan of your crib so it should be interesting to see how you do.

Mommy and Daddy are looking forward to the Thanksgiving Holidays when we will both have some time off with you. We love you so much and treasure every moment with you.

Love,

Mommy

Who me? Couldn't be...

I have had ENOUGH!

Curious

History has been made in America. Now I am not the most intelligent person and I don't always understand why things turn out the way they do. I will admit that I supported John McCain, although I didn't really think he was our answer either. There were some really tough issues that I just didn't agree with Obama. I have a hard time supporting someone who is going to be in charge of our country but doesn't support our flag. He doesn't sing our anthem. Why did we elect someone who doesn't have American Pride? Why should we punish people who have worked very hard to achieve things in life? There are a lot of other issues...

I try to think of myself as someone with an open mind. If you supported Obama, I would love to hear why you did. He is our President Elect and we are going to be looking at him and living under his command. I would like to know makes him so popular and why many people chose him. Maybe I missed something. I just need a little more information as we enter the next 4 years...

A fun day with friends

Yesterday Caroline and I voted early and then visited with our friends Wyatt, Walker, Greer, Reagan and Sage. As always, Caroline was a good girl. She slept through the 1 1/2 hour wait. :-) She also slept most of the time while we were over at Sage's house. Many, many summers ago a Clemson intern came to my home town to work for the summer on the plantation near our house. He quickly became a friend of the family. He was a great guy and my family kept in contact with him over the years. A few years ago, I was talking with our friends Wes and Sage about a friend of theirs. Come to find out, the Clemson intern Chad and his wife Reagan were friends with Wes and Sage. So yesterday I got to meet Chad's wife Reagan and their beautiful daughter Greer. We had fun just "chatting" and watching the kids play. We had a great lunch and then Caroline and I came home for a nap. It was a great day. I really appreciate Sage and Reagan inviting me to a fun day!!!

Caroline, Wyatt and Greer

(Unfortunately Walker was sleeping...)

Oh my goodness, 8 weeks already

We continue to be amazed at just how quickly each week goes by. This week has been so neat. Caroline slept from 9:30 pm until 4:30 am two days last week. Then on Saturday night we placed Caroline on her play mat while we were watching the Carolina game. Out of the blue she reached for the toys overhead. We were so excited. Mom and I were so excited and wanted to get Andy's attention but were scared she would continue. Wrong... once she realized what she had done, she kept grabbing. It was so amazing. I bet she played for 30 minutes or more just reaching for her toys. Then on Sunday Mom and I took her for a stroll. We were trying to keep her awake a little longer. We sat her up and strapped her in and she had a great time. She looked around and stayed awake the entire time. I think this may have been the first time she has ever done that.

It is amazing to me just how alert she has become over the last week. We are really getting in a routine. It takes a little bit of effort but she is staying awake about an hour after each feeding. She is able to entertain herself about 20 minutes in her crib watching her mobile or on the floor or for tummy time. God has truly blessed us with a perfect little angel.

One of my favorite authors is Karen Kingsbury. She has a children's book "Let Me Hold You a Little Longer." It's a must read. It's talks about all the milestones your child reaches and how with each milestone comes another last. It' a must read. We are enjoying every minute of this amazing journey. It's funny how your perspective changes. I can remember the day that I counted down the days until the end of the school year or my birthday or other major events. Now I am enjoying where we are because when my birthday comes or when I get out for the summer baby girl will be a little older and another portion of her life will be in the past. I want to savior every little milestone. Because she is going way too fast!

Just chillin' with Granny.

Caroline enjoyed her first trip to Wink to paint pottery.

Sleeping good!!!!

YEAH, she can now wear the jeans I bought her. Look back around her second or third week and you will see just how much she has grown. These jeans use to be 2 times too big.

Caroline was supposed to wear this suit to Jack and Grace's party but it too was too big.

Happy Halloween

Caroline enjoyed her first night of trick or treating. Pop, Peep, Aunt Katy, Jay and Ansley Kate came over to enjoy the night with us. Greg, Tomi Jean, Jack and Grace stopped by for a brief second. Then we had soup, cornbread and brownies for dinner. After dinner, Pops and Aunt Katy and her two little ones hit the streets. We were really surprised by the low number of kids out. Usually our neighborhood is crowded. They bring the kids in by the car loads. However, last night I bet we only had 75 kids, if that many. By 8:00 the neighborhood was quiet, there weren't any kids out so we closed up everything and turned out the lights.

The night began with Caroline as a ballerina. Then as it got cooler, she became a puppy dog. We thought it would be cute for her to look like her big sister Lucy. They were super cute together. Lucy is such a good girl and does just about anything you ask her to do. I guess next year we will have to hit the streets with Caroline. Oh the fun is about to begin...

Thursday afternoon we went over to Tomi Jeans and Greg's to get some Fall pictures with Caroline. Here they are...

"I am not very happy about this Mommy..."

"Okay so maybe this won't be too bad?"

"Mommy this is all I've got."

Grace wanted to take this picture. She said "Rita, do that again."

Mommy and Caroline

Jack, Caroline and Grace

Grace and Carolina-two sweet, sweet girls!!

Pop and Peep with Caroline, Jay and Ansley Kate

Caroline, Jack, Jay, Ansley Kate and Grace

Cowboy Jay and Lady bug Ansley Kate

Caroline the Puppy

Caroline and Big Sister Lucy

Happy Halloween Everyone!