Bear's "Lightning" 3rd Birthday Party

Last Sunday, we finished up Bear's birthday celebration with his Lightening McQueen party! We had planned on having it outside at our neighborhood playground/clubhouse, but the cold weather caused a change in plans. We moved the party indoors to our house - I don't think anyone minded! The kids had a great time playing - we got a lot of use out of the huge new Lightening McQueen tent that Uncle Travis and Aunt Jaclynn gave Bear for his birthday a few weeks ago.

We had some yummy racetrack snacks:

And of course so party is complete without birthday cake!

and cupcakes too! This birthday boy had both cake and cupcake...I guess you get what you want when it's your special day!

After cake, we opened some gifts - Bear's friends were so generous and gave him lots of fun things. He got a king truck, which was on his Christmas list, lots of cars and trucks, a puzzle, some clothes, and a Lightening McQueen suitcase.

Happy Birthday to our little race car driver!

Breakfast with Santa

We got to enjoy Breakfast with Santa at the Club again this year! Lily had been excited all week about her visit with Santa. Since she has been working on writing at school, we practiced by letting her write out a letter to Santa. We got a tearless picture this year! Bear got a little nervous and clingy when it was his turn to sit with Santa, but quickly perked up with Mr. Louis's goofy antics to get a good photograph. We haven't gotten the professional pictures back yet, but here is a quick glance that I grabbed on my camera.

Santa was great and spent a lot of time talking with the kids. He read Lily's letter - notice how bored Bear looks while going through Lily's list :)

But he was so excited when it was his turn to tell Santa his Christmas list - "a King truck"

After visiting with Santa, we enjoyed a yummy breakfast - eggs, hashbrowns, biscuits, gravy, and french toast. Mammy and Paw were able to join us this year too and had to get a quick picture of their babies in their Christmas best!

Thanks for a great breakfast Santa - let's hope you'll being making a stop at our house this year on Christmas Eve!

It's Being to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

and we are loving every minute of it! It's so hard to believe that we are 2 weeks away from Christmas! It certainly feels like it here, as we rarely get cold weather in December and we have snow flurries in our forecast for later this weekend.

We've been busy getting into the Christmas spirit around here. We took in the annual Cartersville Christmas Parade last week. We bundled up for event and had a great time. The parade was much longer than I remembered, but the kids had a great time seeing the floats, bands, and of course, Santa.

Bear and Daddy

Snug as a bug - and cute as one too!

Momma and Lily

Bear took the parade very seriously - never once did he whine about the cold or how long it was taking to see Santa!

Last Saturday, were were invited to a Christmas craft party at Katie Anne's house. Katie and Katie Anne did a great job hosting a house full of 2-4 year olds for a morning of fun. We painted several ornaments, had some yummy snacks, and played together for a while.

A look at the counter full of drying ornaments

A close up view of the tile I made with Bear and Lily's fingerprints

Best Friends - Katie Anne, Emma, Lily and Bear. Next year, Bear won't be so outnumbered when the little boys can participate more!

With all the busyness of the season, it was so refreshing to have a Ladies Night out last week. Each year, our church puts on a Ladies Christmas dinner. The event benefits the local Women's Center and we get to enjoy a delicious dinner, served by the men's ministry, listen to beautiful Christmas music, and hear an inspiring speaker. This year's speaker, Kelly Ingram, was hysterical! She was very real and very encouraging, but also had us all rolling with laughter as we listened to her stories. For the second year, I have hosted a table and it was a lot of fun to plan what dishes and decor I would use.

Our table - minus Paren, who had to leave early to put little ones to bed! I love these ladies!!

And to wrap up this lengthy post, last night we had a Christmas party with the Jones and Adams families. Josh and I are so blessed to have such a great group of close friends - and it certainly helps that our kids are all so close too! The party was so much fun. We had an Italian dinner - sun-dried tomato tortellini, lasagna, salad, bread and dessert! The kids were able to eat and play while the adults enjoyed our dinner at the grown up table! This was definitely much better than the chaos we typically bring when we try to take our rowdy bunch to a restaurant.

The kid table

After dinner - and much begging from the girls - we let the kids swap Christmas gifts. They were so excited to give each other the presents they had picked out and spent the rest of the evening playing with their new toys.

Lily with her new sticker book

Emma and her magic rise cake

I didn't get a good group shot of everyone last night, but suffice to say we all had a great time! More Christmas fun to come over the next few weeks!

Happy Birthday Bear

Today is Bear's 3rd birthday! With his birthday falling so close to Thanksgiving, we are doing his party next weekend, but still tried to make today a celebration for him. Bear wanted pancakes for breakfast before church - so we added a candle and sang to him!

.

After church, we headed to see a movie. Bear's pick was MegaMind. We got popcorn to share and settled in to watch the movie. Bear loved the movie, as long as he had popcorn to snack on. When Daddy finally took it away, he fell fast asleep. Josh and I watched the 2nd half of the movie, holding 2 sleeping kids - Lily had fallen asleep too! I guess they both actually needed an afternoon nap today after a busy few days.

No birthday is complete without cake, so after dinner, Bear had a giant cupcake to enjoy. We sang again to him, which just tickled him! I love to see him laugh so much!!

Happy Birthday Baby Boy! It's so hard to believe that this time, 3 short years ago, I was snuggled up with you in a hospital room, counting your fingers and toes. Now, you are a busy "big boy" as you insist on calling youself and I can hardly keep up with you! You've grown up so much in the last year, both in size and development. You've almost caught up with your big sister in size. In fact, at a recent doctor's visit, you both weighed the exact amount - 36 pounds, 4 ounces. Nurse Tina did a double take and weighed you twice, as she couldn't believe you weighed as much as Lily did! You are talking up a storm...your vocabulary as taken off this year. You started preschool, 3 days a week this year and seem to really love your class and your teachers. You are fascinated with all things car or truck related. Daddy and I love to watch you lay on the floor, pushing your cars across the floor, without a care in the world. You love to see big tractor trailers drive by on the road and always beg for us to drive faster to beat them and "win the Piston Cup." You love to watch the movie CARs, but have added Toy Story to the rotation in the last few months. You are a perfect playmate for Lily and are so willing to let her mother you on a daily basis as you play house or school with her. You have a laugh that is absolutely contagious - it's impossible not to crack up when you laugh or try to make a joke. It's no doubt that you have your daddy's sense of humor! Probably my favorite thing about you right now is that you give the best hugs in the world. You open your arms as wide as you can and squeeze so tight, with your cheek right next to mine...I just love it!!

As hard as it is to admit that you are growing up, I'm loving each new day with you! You are such a blessing to Momma and Daddy and we thank God for giving us the gift of raising you! We love you so very much!!

Thankful

Thanksgiving is here and there are so many things I am thankful for this year! It's easy to overlook the little things in life, but I've really been trying to reflect on just how blessed our family is and give thanks, when things are going well and when things aren't going so well!

I'm thankful for the salvation I have and a Heavenly Father who loves me more than I can fathom. I am so far from deserving of His grace, but yet He showers me with it day after day. I am thankful for a husband that loves me unconditionally, provides for our family, and pushes me to be a better person. Each day when I go to work, I am reminded just how thankful that I am to have two healthy children, full of life. Working in a Children's hospital, I see kids go through things they should never have to. It is exhausting to work all day and then come home to care for my family, but it is also such a blessing that at times I know I take for granted!

I'm thankful for a loving family. They have always supported us and helped shape who we are! I'm thankful for the wonderful friends I have! They are always by my side and add so much joy to my life! I love our church family and the unashamed love they have for Jesus. I've grown so much in my faith there and know that the children's ministry is also helping plant a great foundation for Lily and Bear. I'm thankful for a beautiful home, complete with a white picket fence, that I'm able to raise my family in. I'm thankful that we live in a country where men and women sacrifice their lives for our freedom.

This year, I really wanted to introduce the idea of thankfulness to Lily and Bear. A few weeks ago, we started a "thankful tree". Throughout November, we'd sit down at night and write down something each of them had to be thankful for on a leaf. We then attached the leaf to our "tree", which were branches that Josh had cut for us from a tree in our yard. Lily loved

to work on her leaves. She even practiced the writing skills she is learning in school by writing out her words, with my help only on the spelling. Their leaves were full of things, from our family members, to God, to trees and birds. It was such a great activity and kept us focused on giving thanks throughout the month! We've had Thanksgiving with my family earlier in the week and we're off today to celebrate with the Oliver/McWhorter crew! Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

"You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; MY CUP OVERFLOWS" Psalm 23:5

Daddy/Daughter Love

I'm so behind on blogging, but had to share this adorable picture of Lily and Daddy! A few weeks ago, they got dressed up and went to the Daddy/Daughter Date night at the Country Club. Lily was so excited about her special night. She picked out her dress and wanted it to be a surprise for her daddy to see! They had dinner, danced, and enjoyed a special night out together!

I love that even at a young age Lily sees how special her Daddy is and how very much he loves her! They have such a close relationship and though he might not admit it, Lily has had him wrapped around her finger since day one! She loves bedtimes when Daddy is home to help and bonds with him over their mutual love of eating out at the local places like Cody J's. I know there will be a time (probably not too terribly long from now) when it won't be "cool" to go out with your parents, but I pray they will in some way or fashion continue these daddy/daughter traditions.

Candy and Costumes

Tonight, we continued the Halloween fun with the annual Candy and Costumes event at our church. This is a great outreach event and we were expecting over 1000 kids to come and trick or treak through the church! Lily and I got there a bit early, since I was in charge of our Bible Study class's door - lucky for her, she got to meet Shrek up close and personal!! When Daddy and Bear arrived, we made our way through the hallways full of candy!

There was SO much candy! The kids took their time picking out their favorites - which were never the ones that Daddy or I would have picked :)

Each door had a theme - there were fall harvest, jungle, pirate, and many other decorations!

Lily, Mrs. Casey, and our favorite ladybug Noelee!

We found Dora/Katie Anne and had to pose for a quick picture with her too!

No festival is complete without refreshments - cotton candy was our pick!

We wrapped up the evening spending some time with our friends at our door, passing out candy! To counteract all the sugar we've eaten this weekend, we picked Cracker Barrel for dinner and had our share of country veggies! Tonight, as I was tucking Lily into bed, her bedtime prayer was "Dear God, thank you for all the children at church tonight and for all the people in the world". Oh, how I love her sweet spirit and in some way got what tonight was really about! What a great ending to a fun Halloween weekend!