Family Thanksgiving

We met at my mom's today to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Caroline, Emma and Mary Claire had a girls weekend and stayed with granny last night.  They had such a good time just playing and watching tv together.  Our annual tradition to to decorate my mom's tree when we get together for Thanksgiving.  This year the kids were easily distracted and didn't get the tree finished-we usually meet at night so they are stuck inside, this year they were too busy playing outside on a beautiful day. We are so very blessed to be healthy and able to celebrate together.  If I could have anything in this world, it would be just one day with my dad and ALL his precious grandchildren!!  I know he would love every minute of it!

Sweet Maggie was having a tough day for some reason.  She didn't want to be held, didn't want to be put down, etc.  Jennifer finally took her outside and got her to sleep.  Then she just held her the rest of the time.  Of course, when we got in the car to head home, she woke up and wasn't too thrilled.  This was my first time traveling with the girls alone, at night.  It's about an hour and 15 minutes from my mom's to our house.  Caroline was a HUGE blessing.  She sang to her, held her paci in, let Maggie hold her finger, whatever it took to keep her from crying.  I counted down each minute, thankful we were getting closer to home. :-)  About 30 minutes into the trip she fell back asleep.  I asked Caroline a question about her and she said "Shhh the baby is sleeping.  Praise the Lord, now let's be quiet so she doesn't start fussing again!"  Love her!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

I truly LOVE Thanksgiving.  Yes I may listen to Christmas music early or think about decorations and such, but I love the meaning of Thanksgiving.  A day set apart to really slow down and think about the many gifts and blessings that we have!  This year, our Thanksgiving is a little extra special...we have our precious Maggie to celebrate with us.  And what a sweet blessing she is!!  She came into our lives rather quickly, turned our world upside down and filled our home with such joy!

Thankful for the silly big sister who loves her little sister so much. 

 One of my Thanksgiving meal contributions...my apple pie.  I made this pie after our trip to the apple orchard and froze it.  I wasn't sure how it would taste but it was YUMMY!

 Our cousin Teressa found these fun hats for us to wear.  Maggie even had a tiny headband but she was tyring to go to sleep when we took this picture  Family fun at it's finest!!!!

 Every year after dinner and dessert, Uncle Greg lights the large tree in the back yard.  It's officially time for Christmas!!!!

 These two LOVE sitting by a warm fire!!!!

Maggie is 21 weeks YIKES!

This sweetness is somehow already 21 weeks old!  Good grief, how does that happen?  It's been a big week for her!  Her two bottom teeth have broken through.  She seems to have done really well with them.  She has officially outgrown her size 2 diapers and is wearing size 3 rather comfortably!!  We started sleep training with her on Monday.  I am not gonna lie it was hard!!  I have tried a few other times but just haven't been able to "make" her or myself follow through.  But now that she has started waking up every time we lay her down, I knew it was time.  She has done remarkable well.  The first day during nap she cried about 30 minutes, that night she went down without a whimper!  Day 2 she cried about 15 minutes at nap and then about 5 every bedtime after that.  Some naps are harder than others but I think a lot depends on how tired she really is.  

She is eating cereal twice a day now, once in the morning and once in the afternoon.  

This is the funniest thing.  She loves turning around to see the snails, frog and butterfly on her seat.

 Look at this sweetness...those eyes and that smile melt my heart every time!!!

 As I mentioned, with teething she is trying to put EVERYTHING in her mouth!  Even the pole on her play mat.

Big sister helping again!

 Maggie has officially been introduced to her lovey this week.  I mentioned to Caroline that we needed to sleep with them for a few days so that they would smell like us and help her "feel close" to us at naps and such.  Caroline went into her room and got one of hers to give Maggie.  She said "She can have this one while we sleep with the others."  So sweet

 Look at those legs!!!!  Oh my!!!!!!  Lovey #2 was introduced 

My Chef in Training

I was o excited to have my girl home with me today!!!  I have missed having her at home so much!  Now that she is in school, these days at home together are so special!  Once Maggie went down for her nap, Caroline and I got busy in the kitchen preparing for Thanksgiving dinner.  She was so happy to get to help and I was so proud of how well she did!

**Update** It was so yummy AND she was so proud to tell everyone that she made it!!

Love this girls style

The picture really doesn't do this outfit justice.  She has a striped shirt layered with a sweatshirt.  She has navy tights with a navy lace skirt and rain boots.  The shoes under her arm are for when we get into the library so she can take off her rain boots!  Oh my she is a mess!!!!

Oh Christmas Tree

 Caroline was so excited to get our Christmas tree down and out.  She was a HUGE help!  She was so excited!!!  At one point she looked at us and said "This is so much fun.  Spending time together, Decorating the tree, Having a family fun night without the fussy baby!"  With the exception of the tall ornaments, we let her place them accordingly.  She would ask for help with the higher ones but told us where she wanted them to go.  Our tree is a little heavy with decorations in certain places and rather bare in others but I am so thankful for this sweet girl who helped us decorate!!

It's Rivalry Week

If you live in South Carolina, this is the most fun week of the year.  The week our two state rivals play each other.  Some people take this game a little too seriously while others just enjoy the fun.  We have been lucky to have won the last 5 years but by the looks of our team, this just might be the year our winning streak will be broken.  But anyway the girls will be dressing in their favorite team colors this week in preparation of the fun!!

Fun date with my man!!!!

A few months ago one of Andy's coworkers asked us if we wanted to go to a game with them.  The school he graduated from, Southern Alabama, was playing Carolina and they thought it would be fun for us to go together.  This day reminded me a lot of our first date.  We left shortly after 8am and didn't get home until after 7pm.  We met Tonya and Ronnie in Cola and headed to our parking spot.  It was a beautiful but cool day, especially if the sun wasn't shining on you.  Thankfully our Gamecocks won, which hasn't been the case much this year, and Tonya and Ronnie were good sports about it.  After the game we headed to our famous D's wings for dinner before heading home.

I LOVED the day with my sweet hubby ALL to MYSELF!!!!!  Thanks Mom for watching the girls for us!!!

Baby it's cold outside!

 Love seeing this girl all bundled up!!!!  All you see are her beautiful eyes ad sweet little face!!!!

Fun with Catherine

 Caroline was SO EXCITED that her sweet friend Catherine was coming over for a sleep over.  The girls had a WONDERFUL time together, as usual.  Once Maggie was sleep the girls enjoyed a movie "Barbie Nutcracker" which is appropriate because Catherine is about to perform in "The Nutcracker." Then it was time for bed and no one wanted to sleep in the actual bed...so they swapped sleeping bags and hit the floor.  LOVE these girls!!!!!

Annual Trip to the Zoo with Friends

 Each year either in the spring OR in the fall we try to plan a trip to the zoo with our friends Lia and Sage and the kids.  Usually it's no big deal but this time...I had to make a choice to either send C to school and let her miss seeing her friends or keep C out of school for a fun day!  Thankfully the hubs was ok with her missing a day and her teacher thought it would be a fun day of learning. :-)  And boy was it ever.  Almost all of the big kids can read now. So as we visited many of the animals the kids would take turns reading information about the animal.  It was so sweet to watch how much our kids have grown since we started this fun day years ago.

The penguins are always a favorite spot to visit

 Love that she has her sleeves pulled up as she sits down to milk the cow.

 Thankfully mommy remember the quarters to feed the goats

 This kid LOVES an animal

 This little love slept almost the entire time!

 Compairing all the places the apes live

 And this my firends is where it ALL went south!  We got every situated with lunch and sat down to eat.  We noticed there were a few yellow jackets but they weren't too bad.  About the time us mommy's got our lunch out, we heard cries from the kids table...poor Abby got stung...and the rest of hte kids went nuts (a rightlyfully so) if a yellow jacket came within a hairs breath of them.  So we finished lunch the best we could and called it a day.  

 Thought these trees were gorgeous!!!!!!

The zoo is under major renevations and therefore several of the exhibits were closed.  We can't wait to go back and see the new stuff.  Glad our pass doesn't expire until January 2016!!!!!

Maggie is 20 weeks

 This little one is a mess!!!  She continues to love to smile and cackle!!  Her big sister is one of her biggest fans and entertainer!  She has learned to squeal and is pretty loud!  She may be the second child but she won't be left out!!  One "major" milestone this week is that she is trying to hold her bottle as well as grab it from the table if she thinks she can reach it!

Sleep has gotten better.  She has dropped all nightly feedings and only wakes for her paci.  However, getting her to sleep has been a little harder.  She will lay in our arms and fall hard and fast asleep.  She will actually "sing" with me which is a hoot.  But once we lay her down she is wide awake...so I guess it really is time for sleep training.  I have tried several times but just give in...

We discovered this week that she has her first two bottom teeth trying to break though.  The little white specks are there which explains the drooling as well as trying to put everything in her mouth.  She likes the feel of the teething ring but doesn't like to hold.  Thanks to sissy for helping her out.  Also, she is sitting in her bumbo a lot more these days and seems to enjoy it. 

 As Caroline would say "Maggie slept with me last night."  What that really means is that mommy isn't ready for either girl to start the day so they hang out together while I get breakfast ready.

 Caroline LOVES that she and Maggie have matching dresses!!

Caroline's Thanksgiving Feast

Caroline's class had their Thanksgiving Feast today.  I was surprised it was so early but given the number of class who "feast" it makes sense.  She had a wonderful time helping her teacher prepare for the big event.  The students prepared the cheese sticks by cutting them into pieces and placing toothpicks in them.  They made ham roll ups as well and put toothpicks in them to hold them in place.  I love hat she is not only learning academics but everyday life skills!  She is flourishing and we are so proud of her!!

Here are a few work samples she has hanging up on her "wall of fame" spot at school!