A Tent for Lilian

Yesterday afternoon I needed to unload a few groceries from the van and so as Lily played on the floor on her playmat I asked the boys to "take care of her." After a couple of trips in I peeked around the corner, making sure everything was okay in the den because it was a little quieter than normal...everyone seemed very content. While Ty had decided to do his own thing (he was not entertaining he sister as he was asked to do), Micah had decided that she needed a tent. I watched as this was "built" around her.

At first she was very amused as she lay under it one her back and watched the pillow teetering above her. Eventually she decided she would try to manuever herself out of the remaining holes. She seemed to be pretty entertained by Micah's "gift" to her.

Later she found the baby in the mirror and entertained herself with this.

And just a few more pictures of our precious baby girl!

Her latest trick is that she is trying to figure out the crawling thing. For about 4 weeks now she has been scooting like this:

bottom in the air, nose in the carpet.

But today she has continuously been rocking on all fours and sometimes getting up on her tip toes. At Tracey's house today she made her first big lunge forward. Does this count as a crawl? I don't know...but either way, she's changing and growing up way too fast!

A Little Snow, A Lot of Fun!

We awoke this morning to a small amount of snow, but enough to cover and make everything appear white. The boys were really excited! They quickly made plans to go out and make a snowman and "make" a snow ball fight (in Micah's words). When I finally decided it was late enough to get ready and go out, 7 a.m. was a little too early for me, the boys set out to their room to dress themselves warmly. And Ty did just that. He came out in what I found out (as I was trying to undress him later in the garage) was an undershirt, 2 long sleeve shirts, a button up-and-down camoflouge long sleeve shirt and another long sleeve shirt on top of that. He also had on 2 pair of shorts, carhart overalls, and sweat pants. I put a coat on top of that because I didn't quite realize how many layers he was wearing, though I knew he was looking pretty thick.

We snapped a few quick pictures and then I sent the boys off to play. They quickly realized there wouldn't be many snowballs or a snowman and began wandering around the yard. Eventually they discovered that their trampoline had a nice layer of snow, and I think maybe ice, on it. And...the fun began! By the time they were finished jumping, slipping and sliding, and throwing snow at one another, they were pretty much both covered from head to toe. But, they had lots of fun in the process.

Christmas- Part 2 (Finally!!!)

For those of you who have been waiting anxiously for a week now to finish reading about our Christmas excitement.... :)

Christmas morning we awoke to find all that Santa had brought us....

Just out of bed and ready to open presents!

But first...the most important part of Christmas morning, the Christmas story!

One of the boys' gifts from Santa, a bow and arrow. Just like daddy's. Sort of...I'm not sure these bows and arrows are going to kill any deer.



Lilian was much more excited about the paper!

I think the presents kind of bored her.

Once we opened all the gifts, we finished loading our van and trailer. (Yes...we really did pull a trailer to Alabama in order to carry all that we would need for 10 days of traveling and gift giving/receiving.) My friend Sarah Beth decided in her blog it might be humorous to log all of the hours her family spent driving back and forth to and from Alabama. Before sharing pictures of some of the places we visited, I thought I should do the same.

• Spartanburg to Talladega, AL (Christmas morning) - 6 hours


• Talladega, AL to West Blocton, AL (Friday morning) - 1 1/2 hours


• West Blocton, AL to Tuscaloosa, AL (Friday night) - 30 minutes


• Tuscaloosa, AL to Shelby, AL (Sunday morning) - 1 1/2 hours


• Shelby, AL to Birmingham, AL (Sunday afternoon) - 45 minutes


• Birmingham, AL to Tuscaloosa, AL (Sunday night) - 1 hour


• Tuscaloosa, AL to Biloxi, MS (Monday morning) - 5 hours


• Biloxi, MS to Talladega, AL (Friday morning) - 6 hours


• Talladega, AL to Spartanburg (Saturday) - 6 hours
  

Yes...this is a lot of hours in a minivan with a 5 year old, 3 year old, and 5 month old. But, I am so glad we were able to go and see all of our family! This is the one time of the year that we get to see greatgrandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, 2nd cousins, 3rd cousins, etc. The boys loved every second of our trip and I know they are making great memories!

On Thursday and Friday, we spent our time with DJ's family. This is D.J.'s dad with our nephew "Baby Cade."

We also got to spend a day with DJ's grandparents, MawMaw and PawPaw. They had seen Lilian once before, but these are their first pictures with her.

The boys love to visit here because there are horses to look at, barns to explore, four-wheelers and tractors to ride, and lots of males to hang out with.

D.J. likes to visit here too!

On Friday night we spent time with my sister, Lacy, her husband, Luke, and our niece, Audrey, along with my parents. Saturday we spent the day with my mom's parents and her family in Tuscaloosa. Again, the boys had a blast! I didn't do a great job of getting many pictures, but here are a few.

Our Sunday was so busy that I didn't take a single picture. We had the priviledge of attending church with DJ's parents, as his dad preached his last sermon at his current church. He did a great job! We also spent the afternoon with my dad's parents and family in Birmingham. There were some great pictures taken of the 40 of us all there and together, but I don't have one uploaded on my computer to share.

Monday morning, my mom, Lilian and I made our way down to Biloxi, where my parents live. DJ took the boys on their first official hunting trip with my dad and father-in-law. While Ty saw 26 deer, he wasn't quite able to take his first shot. Micah, on the other hand, enjoyed running around at the bunk house with my dad. I think the two of them only lasted in a shooting house about 30 minutes.

The boys and my dad joined us in Biloxi on Tuesday where we did lots of playing and ate plenty of seafood. We also were able to visit with some very special friends of ours from our time in New Orleans where DJ was in seminary.

These are a few pictures of the kids at the beach. It was a little chilly so we didn't last long. But, long enough to get a few pictures and satisfy the boys' desire to play in the sand.

I think two weeks later I'm still playing catch up from all the time we were gone! But, as I said earlier, it was definitely worth it. I'm so thankful for all of the wonderful family we have and the special Christmas we had with them!

Christmas 2008 - Part 1

I have missed blogging! We were so busy getting ready for Christmas and then traveled out of town for 10 days that I have been unable to load pictures or post about our Christmas happenings (and there were plenty of them)!

They boys had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed every minute of their Christmas events in Spartanburg, Alabama, and Mississippi. I'm going to try and highlight what we have been up to the past several weeks.

The boys both enjoyed Christmas parties at school.

Our preschool choir sang several Christmas songs at church. Ty has been on the big stage in "big church" several times and seems to enjoy being in front of everyone. This way Micah's first time. It took him an entire song to warm up. He didn't sing the first song, but held his head down and looked at the floor.

Ty also had a Christmas program at school. All of the 4 year old classes and the K-5 class participated. They did a great job learning many new songs!

I saw the idea for these cute reindeer cookies in a magazine I got from my friend Tracey. I thought we would try to make them. I think they turned out cute and the boys enjoyed making Christmas cookies to leave for Santa. (Ty enjoyed making them. I think he finished about 12 before Micah finished 3. Micah enjoyed eating all of the pieces that were supposed to go on the cookie!)
To be continued....