January 10 on 10

I love doing a 10 on 10 photo day.   Such a simple and fun way to remember our day.  So I am happy to be starting out the year by participating posting a 10 on 10 photo day along with my sister Amie.  So, here was our friday (well most of it)...

7:00am 

Starting out my day before the kids awake with a cup of coffee and some reading 

8:00am

Our day is well underway - Neal is fighting the "balloon bomb" and Gwendolyn joined in on the playtime a few minutes later 

9:00am

Time to tackle the pile of dishes from our company last night

10:00am

Nap #1 for Gwendolyn (she loves to sleep) 

11:00am

Neal playing with his sister.  Can't you just hear the laughter from this photo.  Makes me smile every time I see them together.  So blessed by these two kids each day 

12:00pm

Afternoon stories before Nap  

1:00pm

Naptime!  Everyone was napping (the quiet part of my day) 

2:00pm

Doing a little fabric shopping while enjoying a fire and a quiet house (this doesn't happen that often)

3:00pm

Snack time and watching a cupcake/cooking show all together

4:00pm

One of many daily diaper changes that happen around here

Looking forward to having daddy come home soon and then enjoying a friday evening together as a family.

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas

The Christmas decorations where unpacked immediately after Thanksgiving.  This year it was so much fun to see how excited Neal was about all the decorations.  It was hard to get him to be patient, he just wanted to open every box he could as quickly as possible.  He loved discovering his stocking again and was eager to hang it up for Santa along with Gwendolyn's.  He said "look mommy mine is a penguin 'cause I'm a boy and Sissy's is birds 'cause she's a girl, and only girls can have birdy stockings" (should I tell him that penguins are a bird also?)

Decorating the Tree was his favorite part and once all the ornaments were unpacked and hung Neal continued to look through the boxes in hopes of finding  one more thing to hang up on the tree.

Neal wants the Christmas lights, both inside and outside, to be on at all times.  We even hung some lights up in his bedroom which he uses as his nightlight.

This Christmas will be different for us, in that we will have a quiet Christmas here at our house with just the four of us.  I am looking forward to being able to start some Christmas traditions for our family. We can't wait to spend Christmas morning with these two smiling faces.

Our First Thanksgiving

2014 marks our first Thanksgiving at our house.  This was the first year that we didn't have Thanksgiving at either of our parents homes.  It was a little strange to think of having Thanksgiving here.  I was a little nervous knowing that we were the ones who were in-charge and that I had to cook a turkey (never cooked a turkey before).   This was one of those times that made me realize that Tyler and I are the parents now, the adults, and that Thanksgiving here will be normal for our kids.

We had a great time!  We ended up having 9 adults and 4 kids here for dinner.  It was a ton of fun and really great to have a few of those guest be family.

Thanks to everyone's help we had a great Thanksgiving meal and really great desserts.  Also, cooking a turkey, not nearly as hard as I thought.  We filled our day with football, games, and lots of food.

Aunt Jessi, Uncle Wes and Uncle Zach stayed with us the whole weekend, had lots of fun and ate lots of leftovers.

Over all I have to say our first Thanksgiving here was a smashing success. Anything is fun mixed with family and good friends and we were blessed with both this year :)

(Sadly I neglected to get a complete family photo of all of us, hopefully for Christmas I will remember) 

My little Man

Some days are good, some bad, some fly by and some seem to drag on forever.  Each day brings something new and each day my little boy grows bigger and bigger.

I love that I get to spend each day at home with my kids and I love the time I get to play with Neal.  My time is often occupied with taking care of Gwendolyn so uninterrupted time with Neal is harder to find these days, but when I get the time to play with him we have so much fun.

I love seeing his big smile and hearing him laugh as we play anything and everything from superheroes to cupcake baking.

Preparations

This is the first year that we get to have a Thanksgiving at home, our home.  Though we will miss being around our families we are excited to have some holidays here at home, start some traditions and it makes me feel all grown-up :)

We do get to have a few of Tyler's siblings here which will be fun and a few families from our church will be joining us as well.   This week has been filled with shopping, preparations for our feast, and lots of fun memories and moments as a family.

I love cooking, so for the most part have been excited about getting to host Thanksgiving this year.  I also have the best kitchen help around.

Neal is very helpful and loves to cook with me and Gwendolyn just smiles and then falls asleep (which is the best help you could ask for from an infant).

Now it's Wednesday night and we are all ready for tomorrow.  Our turkey is brining, cranberry sauce is made, pie is baked and everything else is ready to assemble and cook tomorrow.

Looking forward to a day with the family, friends, football and good food.  Happy Thanksgiving!

2 Months

Gwendolyn is 2 months old already!   She is such a joy to have in our family and we can hardly remember what life was like before she was here.

Neal has done so much better then I ever thought transitioning into the roll of a big brother.  He is so sweet to Gwendolyn and is always trying to help care for her and make sure she is happy.   He also wants to be right by her side as much as possible.

Over the last few months there have been dozens of things that he has done and said that just show how much he loves his sister, such as:

"Gwendolyn is my favorite person, I sure love baby Gwen" 

 Neal was singing this in his bedroom the night we got home from the hospital with Gwen.  

"I just love to hold sissy's hand" 

He holds her hand every time we are in the car.  

Gwendolyn started crying while we were watching TV and Neal sat in front of her and said: 

"I'm blocking sissy 'cause she is scarred of what is on the TV, I don't want her to be scared"  

"Do you have a smile for your brother, a smile just for me, just for me" 

Whenever she is awake he loves to get right next to her and talk with her and make her smile.  

The last few months have been filled with lots of change, but they have been the best few months. Change is good, especially when it comes by way of the wonderful blessing of children.

A Mountain Escape

Everyone needs a little escape sometimes.  I small vacation/get away from normal everyday life.  Time to relax, and retreat.  As our family moves forward into a busy season of ministry and travel (for Tyler) we decided it was important to take a small weekend trip away as a family, and that is just what we did.

A few weekends ago we were able to drive out to the Black Mountains and spend the weekend away from home with just the four of us.

The fall colors were pretty, the air was crisp, the weather was beautiful and the peace and quite was wonderful.  Yes, even with a 3 1/2 year old and a 1 month old we found some peace and quiet.

We filled the few days we had in the mountains with very few activities.  We visited a small animal nature center and took a hike through the woods.  The rest of the time we spent just relaxing, reading and napping.  

Our favorite part of the trip had to be our hike and jumping in leaf piles.

I am so thankful that we got to have this time away together and for the fun we had exploring the North Carolina mountains as a family.