These Little Moments...

Our family enjoyed a very low-key, relaxed holiday weekend. We spent Thanksgiving morning in pajamas, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, then joined my sister's family at my mom's house for an amazing meal. That evening, we started bringing out the Christmas decorations, which was exciting to both Ethan and Gracie! Our tree looks kind of pitiful this year. The ornaments from around the bottom keep disappearing... Thanksgiving Morning.  (Of course my two were the ones not cooperating, but I still love this picture!) Since Sean was also off on Friday, we took the kids over to Sean's brother's house for a post-Thanksgiving breakfast. As much as we've enjoyed traveling to visit family in the past, it was nice to stay close to home this year. We're lucky to have family members who live within 10 minutes of us, so we still get that "togetherness" without the stressful car-rides or out-of-town trips. Although my actual birthday wa...

I'm always amazed when I look back at last year's pictures, then compare them to this year's. Children grow so, so quickly! Halloween 2011 Ethan wasn't even crawling a year ago, and now, he is everywhere ! Dressing the kids up was a lot of fun this year. Instead of walking through our neighborhood, or my mom's, as we've done in the past, we joined our niece and nephew, Madison and Drew, in downtown Kernersville for some Trick or Treating fun. It was chilly, but Ethan stayed pretty warm in his raccoon costume. Our pumpkin was knocked over, rolled around, kicked, and beaten. We didn't even bother carving it; this "gu-kin" (as Ethan calls it) was entertaining enough as is. Gracie chose to be Rapunzel, one of her favorite princesses. She loved having such long hair! She wears her dress-up Rapunzel dress almost every day, so getting this new one was pretty exciting for her. Anderson and I tried so hard to get a p...

Thursday evening, at the end of dance class, the parents were invited to watch our girls perform two dance routines, one tap and one ballet. They danced to Witches' Brew and the Monster Mash. The girls were allowed to wear their Halloween costumes for their performance. I wasn't sure Gracie's costume would work well on the dance floor, so I did exactly what I did last year and turned her into a pretty kitty. The girls were adorable, and we especially enjoyed watching Gracie dance. We were very proud of our girl! Meow!

Sean and I arrived home Friday afternoon after a week-long cruise. It was absolutely wonderful. I am honestly having a hard time accepting that our trip has come and gone! We started counting down to this vacation over 130 days ago. It seemed so far away back then! We left Greensboro last Monday morning at 6 am, on a flight to Atlanta, Georgia. I was actually really nervous about flying, but everything went well and I was able to relax a little on our 2nd flight from Atlanta to Miami!! I am a Miami, Florida baby. It was neat to be back in the city where my life began. Nerves aside, the view was spectacular. From there, Sean and I joined a group of our fellow cruisers on a coach that took us straight to our ship, the Carnival Imagination. Sean was 100 percent prepared with all of the necessary documents, boarding passes, and our "Faster to the Fun" cruise information, which made both of our flights and boarding the ship an absolute breeze. I greatly appreciated that ...

One of my favorite things to do during the month of October is to take a family trip to the pumpkin patch. We've brought pumpkins home from the same patch, hosted by a local church, for the past 5 years. This year, Gracie was very excited about choosing the perfect pumpkins for our family. Ethan was also excited... and spent his time throwing every "ball" he could get his hands on. It was a much different experience with him this year!  Pumpkin Patch 2011 - Ethan was only 4 months old! Ethan tried to lift some of the larger pumpkins. He soon realized those weren't any good for picking up and throwing, but were fun to sit and bounce on! In the end, both kids chose their own small pumpkins and we chose a larger "family" pumpkin. We're now looking forward to dressing up and celebrating Halloween! I can't wait to get Ethan in his costume and I think Gracie has made a final decision on "who" she wants to be thi...

A couple of weekends ago, our family was invited to celebrate a special little girl's birthday. Raegan is one of Gracie's best friends from school. They were in the same class last year and are in the same class this year, too! Her party was held at Cash Lovell Stables and Riding Academy. This was a new experience for most of the kids and it was a huge hit! Gracie has been asking us for a 5th birthday party at the stables!