January started out by finishing up our Christmas 2015 celebrations with a visit from Eric's mom and stepdad, brother's family, and stepbrother's family. Its always fun to see how the cousins get along so nicely and laugh and play and end the visit asking when they get to see each other again. :)
I didnt grow up around cousins, so I know what its like to not see cousins on a regular basis. The times we did get to spend together were extra-special and full of fun memory-making.
And its so wonderful to see them all having so much fun together!
My mom makes the BEST pot roast dinner. Its always been a favorite. I remember missing that meal when I was away at college, and even as I became a "grownup", I was too afraid of using a pressure cooker to attempt making her famous meal on my own.
But she bought me a pressure cooker a year ago and I reallllly wanted pot roast on a cold January night, so I did what any adult does when confronting a scary situation. I called my mommy.
Facetime saved the day as my mom virtually held my hand through the cooking process....and it turned out fantastic!!!
Weve made it several times since my first attempt, and its a family favorite, for sure :) Maybe someday our kids will miss this meal when they go off to college :(
After a year of coloring my hair myself, it was TIME to get back to a professional. :) Kathy knocked it outta the park!
This is SO my kids. Whitney insists on getting Bow in the picture, and Grady insists on channeling his inner Jim Carey :)
LOVE these babies of mine :)
I love car-line conversations with this little dude :)
"Mommy, is dat a x-wing fighter in da sky?"
"Hey! Dat white car 'minds me of a stowmtroopuh!"
"Mommy, stop driving and hold Darth Vader's tie-fighter, please?"
"Oh no! Mommy! Where's our Mennium Falcon?! I need Han Solo!"
"Uh oh! Why doze sand guys tryin to destroy R2D2?"
"Doze tie-fighters are lookin' for at-ats, Mommy."
Star Wars has definitely livened up our car line conversations.
I love this.
Whitney didnt have a whole lot of mispronunciations, and Grady's toddler-ease is starting to go away now. I will miss:
-Alenium Falcon
- Cai (as in "Cai have a snack, please?" aka "Can I...")
- Winnie (Whitney)
- Is the sun goin' up or down? (Not a mispronunciation, but a cute question he asks every day. Its sorta like his way of asking "How close are we to bed time...?")
- dis and dat (this and that)
I know there are several more but Ill have to keep track of them in my phone throughout the day so I dont forget them so easily :(
Eric attended his first "Donuts with Dad" in January! Grady was so excited to have dad head to school with him, and it was an added bonus that Eric got to read two books to the class!
Grady chose "Little Blue Truck Leads the Way" and "I Love You, Stinkyface!"
Apparently the kids loved it :) Grady's teacher texted me a video and said Eric was the best Daddy yet :)
Doing letter puzzles together while classmates arrived :)
I mean. Really? Does it get cuter?
Eric makes the best animal, car, dragon, horn, monster noises EVER, so these kids were in for a treat!
We have been car-payment-free since a few months before Whitney was born in 2009 when we paid off the Camry by making double payments every month. Then, as our Accord started to need help, my parents were also upgrading their car situation, so we bought their Jeep Grand Cherokee from them. A few months later I found out I was pregnant with Grady, so the extra space was nice! But then the air conditioning never really got cool enough for the backseat, so the kids were always sweating. Eric only drives three miles to work each day, so he took the Jeep and I was back in the Camry. Well....fast forward four years and the Jeep was barely making it the three miles to Eric's office each day. Funny sounds. No A/C and a Florida Summer quickly approaching. It was time. We searched for a few months and found a GMC Acadia at a Carmax across town. It met all of our "wish list" items and our "must have" items. The kids were SOOOO good while the process took HOURS and was well past dinner time, but at the end of the night, our new car was all ours!!
The kids were super excited and I was thrilled to be back in an SUV again :)
We thought it would be called "Katie the Acadia", but she quickly proved to be the "Dream Machine" instead! Both kids crashed on the way home :)
Whitney and Faith are meant to be besties forever :) It is SO fun to watch these girls play and make memories :)
They celebrated Faith's 7th Birthday at the farm and then enjoyed a sleepover at our house :)
Love that they both love church and they always want to dress alike!
And finally, after a long and exciting Clemson football season, the day arrived. My Clemson Tigers were facing Alabama in the National Championship Game! We were ready to cheer them to victory!
It was not the outcome I had hoped for, but it was a GREAT game and I am forever proud to be a Clemson Tiger!
I was super excited to be a chaperone on Whitney's first field trip of the first grade! Always an adventure, our bus started having issues as soon as we got on the highway, so we were almost late for the play at the Orlando Rep, but we made it in time and safely :)
And the next day was one of my favorite days ever :) Eric, Whitney, and I hopped on a plane to New Jersey to spend the weekend with my Goddaughter as she was baptised!
Whitney was SOOOOOO excited! She has flown before, but was so little she doesnt remember it. So this was a big deal for her :)
My parents were awesome enough to take Grady for the whole weekend, and he had a blast! Didnt even want to come home with us when we got to their house on Sunday afternoon!
Seeing the airport and the airplane and the whole flying process through Whitney's eyes was so awesome. She had some great questions and was just SO happy the whole time :)
When we arrived, this sweet Sammy girl was all smiles :) I am so honored to be her God mother :)
And I love that Whitney said, "Ive always wanted a sister, so does this mean that Sammy will always be my God Sister? Forever?"
Friday night, we hung out at Carolyn's house and the girls all had so much fun! They were instant besties and got along SO well! They were such gracious hostesses, sharing their toys and enjoying sleeping in the big bed together. So fun. I remember loving sleepovers at Carolyn's house growing up, so it was even more fun to listen to the giggles on my girl loving time with her girls.
It was SUPER cold, so we had to borrow winter gear for this Florida chicky! The next morning, Eric, Whitney, and I took the train from Carolyn's house to NYC! Whitney really wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, and we wanted to make good on that promise, but also wanted to show her the rest of the city!
She'd had a busy 24 hours of planes, trains, and automobiles!
We took the train to World Trade Plaza, and Whitney was in awe as soon as we stepped above ground to street-level. It was so fun to see it all through her eyes!
We visited the WTC memorial for a few minutes but didnt go inside. When the kids are older and better able to understand, we will go to the museum to take it all in, but we just talked with Whitney about the events of 9/11 and what it meant for our world.
From there, we walked to see Libby!
New favorite picture :)
After a quick and windy glimpse of Libby, we took an Uber to a pizza place near Time Square. On the way there, a great college friend, Mike, texted that he was headed into the city to meet us! I was SO happy to see him after all these years :)
We had a great lunch full of laughs and memories and more laughs. Couldnt have been better :)
After lunch, we walked across the street to get some New York Cheesecake. We figured we'd get Whitney a small slice and we'd each get a bite. Whitney loved it right away!
And then we turned around, and Mike had bought the whole store! Literally, "one of each"! It was amazing, and totally Mike's style :)
We walked to Times Square to show Whitney the heart of NYC :)
Mike is NYPD, so Whitney got the royal treatment from some of New York's Finest! She felt SO cool! We did, too!
We were already having the BEST day EVER!
And our day had really just begun!
Whitney spotted some Star Wars stuff in a store window and exclaimed, "Oh! Mommy! Daddy! Grady would LOVE that suitcase!!"
After grabbing some little souvenirs, we walked to Radio City Music Hall and towards Rockefeller Plaza.
We showed Whitney where Uncle Jay used to intern in college, and made our way towards the ice skating rink.
She reallllllly wanted to ice skate, but she forgets that she doesnt know HOW to ice skate. So instead of setting her up for disappointment there, we got tickets to take her to the Top of the Rock instead! She was happy with that trade-off, and agreed that she should learn how to ice skate first, and then we'll bring her back here to skate someday :)
We saw the Today Show studios
and then made our way to the top of The Rock! We happened to plan it PERFECTLY, so we caught sunset on a cloudy, but pretty night!
When we left the Rock, we walked across the street to St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was gorgeous. We lit a candle for Uncle Joey :)
After a long walk, we grabbed some dinner and walked back through Times Square one last time :)
And then hopped back on the train with one very tired little tourist :)
We couldnt have planned the day better if we tried! From start to finish, it was magical! Im SOOO glad we decided to make NYC part of our trip!
The next morning was Samantha's baptism! These cuties were all smiles and giggles!
The ceremony was short and sweet, and Im so glad I made the effort to make this trip happen so I could be there :) Im relaly honored that Carolyn and Andrew chose me to be her GodMother!
Carolyn, Me, Sammy, The God Father, and Andrew
Carolyn and I didnt even get ONE pic of the two of us the entire weekend, but this was close enough :) LOVE these Silder girls! Beth, Me, and Carolyn. Hard to believe we are all raising our own kids now!
After the ceremony, we all went to lunch. As we were sitting at the table, someone quietly said, "Oh, it's snowing...". We jumped up! We grabbed our Florida girl, threw her jacket on, and RAN outside!!
It was BARELY snowing. It was light flurries, at best. But we were SO excited for our girl to be able to say she flew on an airplane, saw NYC and the Statue of Liberty, AND saw snow all in the same weekend!
The New Jersey girls hadnt seen snow yet all Winter, so the first signs of snow was pretty exciting for them, too!
Future college roommates!
We went back inside, ate some lunch, and enjoyed a sleepy Sammy girl..
....and before we knew it, the snow was REALLY coming down! Whitney made her first snow ball and was ALL smiles!
There was not a happier child on the entire planet.
We headed back to Carolyn's house, pulled out all of her snow gear, and sent the girls outside!
Unfortunately, shortly after this pic was taken, Eric started feeling sick. He was quarantined to the basement while Whitney LOVED being outside in the snow with Jacklyn and Natalie!
Her first snow man!
It was a PERFECT weekend!
Sadly, the next morning it was time for us to pack up and head back home. :(
This guy cried when we picked him up at Mac and Gramps' house. lol
And it was still pretty chilly in central Florida, so Grady wanted to wear the hat my Aunt Anne sent when he was first born :)
TWINSIES!
Whitney was very excited to celebrate her bestie's 7th birthday and sang "Happy Birthday" to Faith on her big day :)
Eric and I were VERY excited to start our second annual kickball season at the end of January. Sadly, I am still paying for it.
Shortly before this photo was taken, I wrecked my ankle running to second base. :( That night, the urgent care said it was just a bad sprain and would heal in a week or so. Ohhhh, how WRONG they were....
I spent five full weeks on the couch, much like this:
....and my ankle continued to swell and change colors....
...and it turned out I had not one, but TWO broken bones in my left foot. :(
Lots of sitting around. Accepting help from my parents and Eric. And listening to this cutie read to me :)
I blinked, and this happened:
This guy kept me entertained on the couch with his light saber shows :)
And with a lot of help from friends, I got out of the house after WEEKS inside!
It felt really good to just NOT be on our couch anymore!
This guy totally held down the fort and jumped in where ever he was needed, NEVER complained, and went above and beyond to help me and to keep the kids in their routine.
And we have the BEST friends :)
I spent all of February on the couch but finally ditched the crutches and was able to function a little more as each week passed. The year started out with a bang! Its now March and Im hoping and praying things simmer down and go smoothly from here on out!
No comments:
Post a Comment