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.