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!  :)

Happy Halloween....

from Buzz Lightyear and his ladybug sidekick!

Vera...7 months

A little late in posting 7 months pictures of Vera...  But then again, I've been bad at posting PERIOD lately!  Our family has had our share of sicknesses. Basically since August, one of the four of us has been sick pretty much every single week.  We've had three rounds of the stomach virus, which we have given to everyone ELSE in our extended family as well!  Vera is on her second ear infection.  We've also had pink eye, tonsilitis, and strep!  Oh the joys of daycare germs!

As of now, we are all pretty much well (knock on some wood, please!).  Vera is growing like a little weed and is developing such a little personality!  She is a big girl...skinny, but LONG.  She is going to be super tall!  She weighs 16 pounds, 10 ounces now.  She is sitting pretty well...still needs a little assistance or she will flop over, but overall she does really well.  She sat on her own one day for 18 seconds before flopping over (yes, I am a dork and I counted!)  She is so excited over the new freedom to "roam" on her mat on the floor and be closer to her brother as he plays.  She isn't crawling, but you can tell she SO wants to!  She's more into ROLLING than crawling at the moment!  Taking after Aunt Susan on that one!  ha ha.

Here are some recent pictures...

We Still Believe!

One for Pete...

Being three must make you the most animated and funny person in the world....  or maybe it's just my three year old.  But lately, the conversations that we have just crack me up so much...  And it totally may be that I am a delirious mom who has had a lack of sleep, rest, and relaxation for the past two months (more to come on that later), so even things that aren't really that funny are funny sometimes.  Anyway...I am rambling (yet another sign of a tired and delirious person!!!)  So here is the conversation from tonight at bedtime, tucking Grady in:

me:  I love you tons!

Grady:  I love you more than ears! (followed by LOTS of giggles)

me:  Ears?  Really?  okay.  Well I am glad you have ears.  If you didn't, then you couldn't hear me.  And I'm glad you have eyes, too!

Grady:  I'm glad I have a mouth.

me:  Oh yeah?  Why?

Grady:  So I can talk to you.

me:  Yeah, I'm glad you can talk to me too.

Grady:  And I'm glad I have arms...so I can reach you!  (giving me a huge, wonderful GRADY hug and melting my heart!)

me:  oooh, YES!  I am SO glad you have arms to hug me with!

Grady:  And I'm glad I have hair.

me:  Hair?

Grady:  Yeah, hair.  So I'm not bald!  Like Pete!  He's bald! (followed by TONS of giggles...)


Ok, so it's really not that funny.  But I laughed for two whole minutes without stopping because it cracked me up so much...  Sorry about that, Pete!  ha!  We love you, hair or not!