Merry Christmas

The three (actually four, or five if you include Reese) of us celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve morning since we were going to Stephen's parents to spend the rest of the holiday.

Lily Kate is really into Christmas this year. She loves helping everyone open their gifts. Her favorite toys from the big day were:

Abby Cadabby Doll and an Elmo microwave- she microwaves everything

Doctors kit, she enjoys giving people shots and bandaids. I thought she might change this behavior after she got part 2 of her H1N1 vaccine yesterday, but it didn't phase her.

Making a gingerbread train with Rachie.

The finished product...minus a few candies, once Lily Kate discovered they were edible she was done decorating and ready to eat it!

We are truly blessed this holiday season! We had such a great time with family and ate way too many cookies! Thankfully I can get away with it...since I'm pregnant. We are due July 5th!

Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We have had a crazy week, but crazy in a wonderful way. It started off with not one but two cookie exchanges (one with my playgroup and one with Stephen's co-workers). So it doesn't need to be said that we have entirely too many cookies in our household right now. Which if you ask Lily Kate is definitely not a problem :)

This is one of the cutest cookies we got...It is a nutter butter dipped in white chocolate...too cute!

Tuesday JaJa, Lily Kate and I adventured uptown to see the Leonard Bearstein orchestra at Founders Hall. Stephen's grandmother used to take him to see the bears in Fayetteville, so this is a Christmas Tradition we want to continue.

More than anything, Lily Kate loved all the other children.

Checking out the bears up close with JaJa.

Lily Kate one of her Christmas dresses.

Ho Ho Ho

It is so much fun to take in the joy that Lily Kate has this holiday season. Friday night we went to the mall to see Santa. She has been talking about him quite a bit and loves to see him in people's yards, on cards and ornaments. She always says "Ho Ho Ho" when she sees him. When it was our turn to visit with Santa she cautiously walked up to him. Stephen asked her to give him a hug and she did and then let him pull her right up into his lap. It was so precious. And this is the picture we have to remember it by:

I highly recommend the Santa at Carolina Place Mall- he is great! Merry Christmas!

Baby Jesus

Tuesday, Lily Kate and I went to my Bible study small group leaders home to make Oreo Truffles. They are scrumptious and Lily Kate loved playing with her children while we crushed, mixed and dipped the truffles. While there I found out about a Drive Thru Living Nativity that a local presbyterian church does. We went that night and it was amazing! There was quite a wait to get to the actual nativity so we sang every Christmas carol we could think of to keep Lily Kate occupied in her car seat. Stephen sat with Lily Kate in his lap to help direct her attention to the different scenes (we were going maybe 2 mph!) Her favorite parts were

1. the animals: a llama named Barbara, donkeys, and sheep

2. she thought Mary and the Angel were celebrities - she hung out the window shouting their names and waving to them (thankfully they broke character and waved back)

3. baby Jesus sleeping, he was night night in the manger.

This is definitely a holiday tradition we will continue.

Where Did the Weekend Go?

Saturday night was the Resident's Christmas Party, Stephen was on call but was able to leave for the evening to attend. We had a blast dancing and hanging out with his co-workers, but like cinderella I had to have him back at the hospital before the clock struck midnight.
Rachie and Unca were in town visiting this weekend. Lily Kate loves them. She had fun playing with them Saturday night and all day on Sunday.

Oh Christmas Tree

A friend of mine hosted a playdate in which they made cinnamon applesauce ornaments. Lily Kate had a nasty cold that day, so we didn't get to go. Thankfully, Emily shared the recipe (equal parts cinnamon and applesauce) so today we made a "craft."

Kneading the dough in a baggie.
The finished product- can you guess which cookie cutter was Lily Kate's favorite? She wanted to make Candy Canes for daddy. They smell fabulous, I can't wait to thread them with ribbons and put them on the tree.

Nerd Alert..as Stephen puts it

Okay, so I must admit I am a nerd. Yesterday was my birthday...which was wonderful from start to finish! Playgroup had some birthday cheesecake complete with a candle- (THANKS, Cheryl!) and Lily Kate took a great nap yesterday afternoon while I finished reading The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks (great book- although I love all of his books). We met Stephen's parents at Firebirds for dinner. Dinner was fabulous. Lily Kate's favorite part was the birthday cake (note the frosting evident in this picture). Now for the nerdy part...

Yes, I am now the proud owner of a Snuggie. Reese and I curled up in it while we watched TV last night. A perfect ending to a perfect day.

I know lots of people dread Mondays, but I love them because Monday's mean playgroup. Last summer several of us got together to start a regular playgroup for our kids. The kids love seeing each other every week, but I have to admit the mom's probably love it more :)
Today the girls all decided to sit in the same chair at the same time and it was just too cute for words!
Cheryl, Jenna and I all attend Carmel Baptist Mothers of Preschoolers. We had our Christmas party last week. I tried unsuccessfully to win a prize for the craziest Christmas sweater.

Whirlwind Weekend

Stephen had to work a 30 hour shift on Friday night, so Lily Kate and I went to Gastonia to spend some time with Stephen's parents. The extra sets of hands are so helpful when he is working long shifts. Lily Kate eats up the extra attention! Saturday afternoon we attended two Christmas parties. One with our playgroup...Lily Kate loved it! They made ornaments and she is so proud of hers. The second party was with our Sunday school class. It was a great time of fellowship. Sunday afternoon the Panthers beat the Buccaneers. Stephen and Zach attended the game while Casey, Noah, Lily Kate and I watched from the comfort of our own home. We did see the guys on FOX when the Buccs missed a field goal...The guys had great seats right behind the goal post.

Casey and Noah enjoying the Panther's win.

Lily Kate showing Noah how this thing works :) She loves Noah.

Her Inner Princess

Lily Kate seems to find joy in all situations. She is just such a blessing to our lives.

Her favorite past time is reading with Daddy.

We went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner one night last week and they gave her a crown. She absolutely loves to wear it...she also loved the crane toy game as well...no quarters necessary.

Family Togetherness

Stephen was on call on Friday so my dad stayed home to watch Lily Kate and my mom and I hit the Black Friday sales. It was a little crazy out there, but we got some good deals and even got to meet Stephen for lunch.

I have started to decorate for Christmas. We didn't put our tree up yet, but I did get the mantle decorated how I wanted it. I got the idea from a Pottery Barn magazine- all of my good ideas are always "borrowed".
Stephen bought the Holiday Tappers from Hallmark last year. We got them out and Lily Kate loves them. I have to limit her time (since it is a little overwhelming when she has 3 of them tap dancing to different tunes at once!)
My parents are always such a huge help when they come to visit. They raked leaves, helped me keep the house in order and we even cleaned out the garage one morning...I now know where everything is and can park my car in there. THANKS MOM & DAD!

A Wonderful Thanksgiving

I just loved having my parents in town for the holiday. It was a sad morning yesterday taking them back to the airport.
The Thanksgiving meal turned out well for my first time cooking it solo! Stephen was a huge help- he even stayed home while I went to the airport so he could take the turkey out of the oven. We all ate until our tummies hurt...well everyone but Lily Kate. She only ate some turkey, a roll and lots of pumpkin pie.
We had a wonderful visit and Lily Kate is officially and totally spoiled...although I knew that would happen.

So Much to Be Thankful For

My parents are flying out to spend Thanksgiving with us. We are super excited, but in order to get low airfare they are flying in on Thanksgiving day. This means I will be preparing all of the Thanksgiving feast...it should be interesting! I should be doing prep work now...but instead I'm blogging...what is wrong with this picture :) Happy Thanksgiving!

Girl Time

The maid of honor from our wedding, Lynn Dawkins, is getting married in March. She stopped by a few weeks ago so we could go try on some bridesmaid dresses. We had some fun girl time...just the three of us :)

Lily Kate LOVES Lynn.

While Lynn was here she decided that George and Elmo needed to go for a walk...using Reese's harness and leash. It is amazing what she comes up with :)

Leaf it to Beaver

Fall is such a wonderful season...I love drinking hot chocolate, bundling up to keep warm and all the beautiful colors of the changing leaves. The one downfall (now that we have a yard) is the falling leaves...we raked 8 bags yesterday and after the winds and rain this morning you can't even tell we did anything. While we love the shade that our trees give us; the falling leaves never seem to stop!
It's hard to get motivated when you look up and there are more leaves on the trees than there are on the ground! Does anyone else feel this way??

After all our travelling last month, November has started off quietly busy. I wrote in a previous post that my favorite time of day is when Stephen gets home from work. Lily Kate also loves this time especially when her daddy will pull up pictures of all the family on the computer.

Lily Kate and her daddy play with legos. She built the tower...Daddy balanced the balloon on top

Glamorous in Mommy's glasses

She is also just getting into Playdoh! Oh the fun. She sat and played for 30 minutes today!

What Not to Wear- Halloween Edition

All week Lily Kate has heard us talking about costumes for Halloween. This morning she decided to make her own.
Before: Sporting her pjs, a leg warmer, giraffe shorts and a sun hat.

She had to dress up Ernie and Tinkerbell too!

After: The cutest Tinkerbell!

Happy Halloween

Friday night we went to the Bobcats game. It was an exciting game-they won in double overtime. Lily Kate pointed out the mascot, Rufus, whenever she saw him- on the court, on her t-shirt, in the team store...
LIly Kate meeting Carly Grace at the Fall Festival. The girls were adorable checking each other out :) After the festival we went trick-or-treating to a few houses.

Lily Kate checking out her candy stash.

Priceless!

Her favorite part of the entire day was handing out candy with Pa. She loved to see the kids in their costumes.

Night at the Museum...Not Quite

The American Academy of Pediatrics held their annual meeting last week in Washington, DC. We were able to attend and although the weather didn't cooperate the first few days, we really enjoyed our little get away (Lily Kate stayed with her grandparents). Stephen had to attend some meetings and on the few occasions that I didn't attend with him I did some shopping and site seeing on my own.

One of Stephen's best friends from college now resides in DC with his wife, Julie. Though they are incredibly busy with work and school we did enjoy getting to catch up with them. Jared showed us around town.

Stephen and Jared at the Art of Can exhibit in Union Station.

Of course, we couldn't miss seeing the Panthers play on Sunday so we spent several hours at ESPNZone. We were both so glad they got another W.

View of the Capitol from our building.

Proof that we did actually attend the conference :)

Our second night in town, the conference hosted a reception at the Smithsonian Museum of American History. After I got over my disappointment that it wasn't the Natural History Museum (we went there later in the week) we enjoyed the exhibits. Below are some exhibits that made us think of home.

A U-2 Spy plane (like Dad used to fly)

Ninja turtle for Unca.

This picture speaks for itself. We loved the vacation, but we missed Lily Kate like crazy!