Will

Here are some pics of Will having fun outside. He is feeling better today but still is not completely himself. We spent the morning running errands and had lunch out at Jason's Deli. Will helped Daddy work on his future garden for this spring.

Christmas pics...

Well our Christmas Day was pretty good considering Will was not feeling well. As of today (Monday) he is still sick ;(

Ben and Will both got 5 gifts from Santa and a shared present. Ben got a little riding toy, a singing seahorse, Noah's ark, a farm noise book, and a Sesame Street ball. Will got a CAT excavator, a wooden birthday cake that he can cut and decorate, a magna doodle, Thomas domino set and a thomas train car. Needless to say he was really excited about his excavator but the big gift that the boys will share was a John Deere gator. Will had a blast riding it around the yard.

Santa did leave one surprise for the whole family and that was a blow-up snowman in the front yard. Will had told every Santa that he saw that he wanted a snowman..so Santa left us a big one!

Mommy and Daddy did not exchange gifts this year... Daddy had bought himself a new flash for mommy's camera (a mother's day gift) and Mommy got an I-pod touch a while back when her PDA broke.

The boys got some really neat gifts from Gigi, Pop, and Uncle Bub (puzzles, a set of paint rollers, bath roller paint, books, cars, a crawl through tunnel...and more) They spent all Christmas day with us.

They both loved their gifts from Meme and Pop...a little piano and a Thomas Lego set.

We just got back from a short trip to Mississippi and Will had a blast riding Nanny's "big" gator with Daddy, Mommy, Meme, and Papa Lee ( we all had turns).

Ben is 11 Months Old!

Ben is 11 Months old today. Big news for this month is that he is walking everywhere! He just started turning around while standing independently this week. It is so funny because he picks up the biggest toys and then carries them while he walks. He loves to follow Will around.

Ben is a very chatty little guy and will continue to "talk" until he has someone's attention. Hisfavorite person is my brother. If Uncle Robby is in the room Ben will walk past his daddy and me to get to him. It is the funniest thing. I have never seen a baby take to anyone like that before.

Just one more month and Ben will be tearing into some cake! It has been a wild ride with 2 kiddos this past year. I know this next year they will continue to keep me on my toes!

Christmas

Well our Christmas Eve did not go as planned... We went over to Gigi and Pop's for our annual Christmas Eve lunch of boiled shrimp. Will threw-up about 15 minutes before we were going to eat and was pitful for the rest of the visit. We then drove home for naps and we did not want to wake Will so we missed church. We thought we would brave it and go to a Christmas Eve get together that my family has been taking part in since 1984! Will loved running around with the older kids but before I knew it he told me he wanted to go home and turned down a cookie! Well needless to say he threw- up again! We then left and came home for a bath. Will went to bed quickly.

Chistmas morning Will was not feeling well at all. He even laid down to take a nap without any coaxing. He did go outside for a little while to play with some of his new gifts. He was feeling a little better by the end of the evening when we opened our stockings.

Gigi, Pop and Uncle Robby came over at 8:30 AM and stayed until 6:30PM. We had a huge breakfast and a good ham dinner. Daddy and Gigi did all the cooking! Everyone enjoyed their gifts. Will told everyone that it was Jesus' birthday and he even made a "cake" with one of his gifts.

Ben had a great first Christmas. He was the first boy up so we took him out to see his presents. He "talked" to them and then of course put them in his mouth. He loved all the wrapping paper and walked around with a animal from his new Noah's ark set in is mouth.

Throwing-up aside it was a wonderful Christmas and I got the gifts I asked for last year....for Will to be free of his ITP and to the have a safe delivery and a healthy baby boy in January.

Oh...Will's dollar store gifts for Mommy...a caulk gun and a bag of rocks!
I will post pics later.

Merry Christmas!

We wanted to wish everyone a blessed Christmas!

Christmas Shopping

We took Will to the dollar store today to pick out a gift for Mommy and Daddy. Let's just say he picked out some interesting items and was very specific in who they were for. I can't tell what they are yet because it would spoil the surprise. He also picked gifts out for Gi, Pop and Uncle Robby too. I have to say it was fun and he was so cute in telling and showing me what he wanted to get everyone. Mommy let him "pay" when we were at the check-out.

We were going to wrap them together this afternoon but did not get around to it. He has been wanting to wrap presents so I am sure it will be interesting.

Will also "wrote" his letter to Santa last night. He drew vertical lines and was telling me what he was writing as he did it...."Dear Santa, I want a snowman, Ben wants a ball, Daddy wants a reindeer and Mommy wants a train set." It was too cute. He also "addressed" the envelope.

Happy Birthday Gigi!!!!

We wanted to wish Gigi a Happy Birthday....we won't say how old she is but lets just say she is getting very close to a big one! Will picked out some flowers for her yesterday. We will not be celebrating until Sunday but hope she has a wonderful birthday today!

We appreciate all the love, help and support that she gives us!

I had to convince Will that it was her birthday....He told me "NO it is not Gigi's birthday, it is Jesus' birthday."

Will is 35 Months!

Will is 35 months today....only one more month till our little boy is 3 years old! I cannot believe how big he his getting. His vocabulary is growing everyday! Will has turned into a big boy right before our eyes.

Christmas this year is even more exciting due to Will's understanding of everything going on. His teacher told me that Will knew the Christmas Story very well. It made me feel really good that he knows the story of Jesus' birth and could share it with his teachers. Will had his Christmas party at school yesterday and had lots of fun! He told me he had pizza, chips, and NO grapes! I picked him up a little early and got some pics of him and his teachers.

Somebody is Walking!

Ben has now walked 10 or more steps several times. He walked across the room today to see me. He still likes to crawl because he can go faster!
You can also see that Ben enjoys eating biter bisquits!

Time for giving

I am a member of a local MOMS Club. We collected various little toys to re-stock the treasure chest at the St. Jude Clinic in HSV Hospital. The patients get to choose a surprise after various medical procedures. Well, the MOMS club was very generous and we collected 4 huge bags of toys (small or indvidual size) for the tresure chest! Will, Ben and I took all the goodies up there this afternoon. Ms. Beth the child life coordinator was very excited as were we!!!

Santa Train Ride

We took Will on his first train ride today at the North Alabama Railroad Museum. Santa even visited with us on the train! Will loved riding on train. It was so much fun to see the excitement in his eyes. We then went to eat lunch together..just the 3 of us.
Gigi and Uncle Robby watched Ben for us. Ben had fun "walking" between them...he is taking about 5 to 7 steps in between each person before he sits down. Thanks Gi and Bub!

Will's First Christmas Performance!

Will's school had their Christmas performance today. We were on the 3rd row so we had a great view of him. Will was very interested in all the older kids behind him on the stage. He did not sing much but was into the ringing of his bells! Gigi, Pop, and Daddy all came. Santa was there too but we skipped out and went to lunch under the conditon that we made cookies when we got home! (Mind you we have already seen Santa 5 times!) We then spent the rest of day indoors due to the NASTY weather.

Ben was a good baby and Gigi did a great job keeping him busy so we could get pictures and video.

Early to bed, early to ???

Will went to bed at 7 tonight, which is unheard of at our house. Will typically does not nap on school days. We went to the hospital early this evening to greet Miss Norah Eloise into the world. Daddy's college buddy and his wife welcomed a little girl into their family yesterday. The boys did fine at the hosptial. We even ran into the child life director from St. Jude. I told her we will come visit sometime before Christmas.

I just hope Will does not wake up at the crack of dawn!!!

Will 2 years ago...

Exciting News!

Heather, Erik and Will

I have been wanting to post this but I wanted to ask permission first. Our good friends Heather and Erik are expecting their first child this June. We could not be more excited for them. We pray for a healthy and happy pregnancy!!!

Breakfast with Santa

Will with Santa 2 years ago.

We went to Gigi and Pop's church today for breakfast with Santa. We had taken Will 2 years ago but missed last year due to Aunt Missy's wedding. Happy 1st Anniversary Aunt Missy and Uncle Jim!

Will had fun eating pancakes and doing crafts with Gigi. They had musicians performing some Christmas carols and hymns. Will loved the trumpet (good thing Uncle Robby has one to pass down if he is interested in playing one day)! We then made our way to "Will's church" and then home for a rest!

Ben has 2 new teeth...his top ones!!! This explains why he was up for 2 or so nights this week. Also, we bought Ben his first pair of shoes today. We probably could have waited another week or so but who wants to go to the mall that close to Christmas...not us!! Mommy did get a treat though....some Williams Sonoma hot peppermint chocolate mix...yum yum!!!

We finally got our Christmas pics of the boys done for our Christmas card....it was not fun! But hopefully we will get our cards in the mail soon. The pic above was one of finalist but did not make our card...

Questions

We are going to an event at our church tonight called "Happy Birthday Jesus". I told Will today that we were going to a party for Jesus. Well of course he wanted to know if Jesus, Mary and Joseph were coming and the most important...."Mary's donkey!"... I said we will have to see... and that kept him a little quiet and then he fell asleep (mind you this conversation took place in our van). He will probably forget about it when we get there because I believe there is a cake involved!

Cold!

It is very cold outside today. Not much going on here except mommy has been wrapping presents like crazy!!! Ben is now taking more steps on his own. He is letting go and then taking off with a couple and then sitting back down. Will helped me decorate our tree in the kitchen with the ornaments we have made at the Advent workshop at church.

Tonight is our Sunday school Christmas party so Will and Ben will have a fun evening with Gigi and Uncle Bub!

It is December!!!

It is my favortie month of the year. Today is my maternal grandmother's birthday...she is 88. It will be her first without my grandfather. Gigi's birthday is the 19th and mine is the 27th. Just wait till January..all the boys in my house will have a birthday within the same week or so.

We finally decorated our big tree. Chip and I did it by ourselves. I have very old ornaments so I am afraid little hands might brake them. (we have a superyard around our tree so Ben won't pull it on top of himself) Will hung the ornaments on his litle tree. He has sesame street characters and john deere tractors on his tree. We have one more to do and that is the one in our kitchen..I will let Will help with that one.

Will thought it was Christmas today due to the snow. It was so big and pretty! I really hope we have some that sticks sometime this winter so he can play in it.

Four Steps!

Ben walked four steps on his own tonight. Daddy was on the floor and Ben was standing up holding onto the back of Daddy's shirt....well, he let go and walked four steps to the couch!

Thanksgiving Fun!

We had lots of fun this Thanksgiving!!! We had a house full of people. Will loved the nice weather and had fun playing outside with his Pop Pop, Meme, Papa Lee and Nana. He also got to play train with Aunt Missy and Uncle Jim. Gigi made Will some really cute turkey cupcakes for dessert. Ben decided to push his "walking toy" full speed back and forth across the living room floor.

On Friday everybody was back over for lunch to watch the Miss State and Ole Miss game. Daddy also put our Christmas lights on our house. In the evening we went to Chip's Aunt Charlene's house for another Thanksgiving dinner. Will's cousin Olivia gave him a superman fishing pole...well he was so excited he did not even eat dinner! He did not even care that other people were getting dessert.

On Saturday we ventured out and did a little shopping. Gigi, Pop, and Uncle Robby came over to watch the Iron Bowl. We got our Christmas trees up but are still in the process of decorating.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Ben is 10 Months Old!!!

Ben is 10 months old tomorrow (but it will be Turkey Day). He is a moving and a shaking things at our house. Ben is making strides to walking and driving his brother crazy. He looks sweet but he loves to pounce on his brother, pull his hair or even give him a bite! Ben loves to empty the toy shelf and show you his finds. His newest thing is standing at the baby gate watching Will play in the playroom and marching his feet up down as if he is a baby Godzilla! It is pretty funny to watch.

I am thankful.....

I am thankful for many things this Thanksgiving so here are a few..

1. For Chip and everything he does for me and our boys.
2. For my boys and their good health
3. For my mom, dad and brother and all the help and support they give me with the boys

There are many more but I will have to add more later!

I want to wish everyone a healthy and happy Thanksgiving!!!

Preparing for Turkey Day!!!

We bought our Thanksgiving turkey on Friday! Chip makes a great turkey...he "brines" it in his cooking bucket before putting it in the oven. We are having a houseful this year...my parents and brother (Gigi, Pop, Uncle Robby), Chip's parents (Meme and Pop Pop; Papa Lee and Nana), Chip's sister and husband (Aunt Missy and Uncle Jim) and his grandmother (Nanny).

Will and I are making place cards for everyone with foam turkeys. We started some yesterday by sticking the comb, waddle, beak, eye and feet on them. Will did not enjoy that part very long but loved using the glitter glue on the body and on top of the colored dots (feathers). We used the whole tube up so luckily Hobby Lobby had all the glitter glue 50% off...Mommy loved that! So I bought two bottles because with all this cold weather, we will be making a lot of crafts!