My little blue-eyed girl!

Just some close-up shots of my sweet blue-eyed girl!

Wagon Rides

Thanksgiving 2012

My family (minus Jen) at Susan's house Thanksgiving night...

 Decorating our Christmas tree...

Grady helping Pete hang his angel on Mom and Dad's tree...  (Dad's had this angel since he was about grady's age!)

Grady helping Grana decorate her tree...

Vera mostly just watched all the decorating going on...

But she played "toss the ball" with Grady some, too!

Grady thinks Grana's tree is the coolest thing ever!  She has TONS of light-up and sound toys under the tree and he wants to push every button simultaneously! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I did all of my cooking yesterday so that I could hang out with my fam in our p.j.'s all morning and do one of my absolute FAVORITE things to do on Thanksgiving each year...watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!  Two years ago, Josh and I were there... freezing to death, but happy as two little kids in a candy store!  Hope to take Grady and Vera when they are older!  I wish you all a wonderful day today, enjoying time with your family and friends and counting your blessings!  Happy Turkey Day!

Macy's Thanksgiving Parade 2010, NYC

8 months!

My sweet girl is 8 months old today!  Look at how big she is!!!!

 She is still the happiest baby in the world!  All of the ladies in the nursery at daycare say that she just grins ALL DAY LONG!  I love that little toothless grin!

 She is a talker too.  I told Jenny the other day that I am afraid she will take after her and get in trouble for talking too much in Kindergarten... ha!  She just babbles on and on all the time, like she has so much important stuff to say and she will talk LOUDLY to whoever will listen.  Grady will shout out after she babbles, "MOM!  She just said her first word!!!!  She said GRADY!!!"  ha!  and it's nowhere close!

 I am trying to encourage her to play with DOLLS so she won't be such a tomboy...  ha!  Can you tell?  This is "Dolly Parton." Vera is asking Santa for a Cabbage Patch (or should I say MOM is asking Santa to bring her a Cabbage Patch!)  She is much more interested in Grady's cars, trucks, and blocks.  Today, I found them laying on the carpet in the living room, sword fighting.  Yeah, and Vera was actually participating with glee!  No kidding!

 She ADORES Grady Michael more than any other person in the universe.  When he is in the room, she stares him down intently and if she is not contained in a pack-and-play, seat, etc., she ROLLS to get wherever he is!  No crawling yet, only rolling!  She wants to be like Aunt Susan!  :)

 And as you can see, the feelings are mutual!  Grady is so protective of her!

 Eyes are still as blue as ever!  Amazing to me that neither of our kids got my brown eyes...  I always thought that brown was the dominant gene, but obviously not...LOVE those big blue eyes!

 And as usual...at the end of every monthly birthday photo session, Vera proceeds to try and EAT the sign!  :)

Dawgs and Disney

Saturday, I got to go to Starkville for the first time this season... Better late than never, I guess.  Grady had a ball cheering on his DAWGS as usual!  This little man has been to more games this season than me OR Josh!  He is the biggest little fan I know of!

 Sunday night, we took him to see Disney On Ice.  He still has this fear of "characters"...Trusty at the Braves games, the Chic Fil A cow, etc.  We thought maybe this would be good for him to see the characters, but kind of far away and not so up close and personal.  He LOVED it!  I can't wait to take him to Disney World and experience it through the eyes of a little kiddo!  It was fun to watch how excited he got during the show when he'd recognize a song from a movie or a character he likes!  :)

First "Shiner"

Poor girl!  I let her bump her head on my friend Kim's table when she was sitting in my lap.  The little bruise was a lot darker, but it's going away.  With a big brother on the loose, I'm sure there will be many more bruises and scrapes to follow...  But this was her first!

More Halloween...

Their teachers painted tshirts for them to wear to the Halloween parties at school...  Here are a few pics I got of them before we changed to go trick-or-treating

Grady didn't last long trick-or-treating.  Neither did Vera.  Vera got hungry since trick-or-treat time coincided with SUPPER time!  ha ha.  Grady was doing fine and dandy until he spotted some older kiddos in "scary" costumes.  Once we got to that point, he was pretty much done.  He was frightened and ran into a rose bush and his Buzz Lightyear wings deflated!  Poor little guy!  So needless to say, I didn't really get any pictures!  :)