Deck the Halls

We hosted Thanksgiving dinner again this year at our house with my sister's family, my in-laws and some neighborhood friends. Rebekah and I cooked all week to prepare for the big day and had a fabulous meal with lots of leftovers. Unfortunately, I did not get many pictures of our day except these few.


Charlie's first time in the tree swing. Can't you tell he loves it?!


On Friday, Nana and Papa did some Christmas shopping. Chad and I did not attempt to get up early to go, but we enjoyed an outing to the mall later that morning with the boys and Nana and Papa. Our mall has a lot of fun activities for children this time of year, one being a great puppet show. That evening we went to a tree lighting ceremony and then home to decorate our own tree. John Randall loved pulling out all the ornaments. His favorite has been the Mickey Mouse car ornament since he is VERY into cars lately!




What's decorating a tree without a little dancing?



Even Charlie got in on the action. His very first ornament!

Charlie's Baptism

The weekend before Thanksgiving, all of our family came into town for Charlie's baptism. The service was so sweet and special reminding us each of the promise of our own baptisms. Our pastor, Rich Lambert, told us of the reality that Charlie and all of us are a riddle to everyone except to Christ who knows us in the deepest and richest way possible. Chad and I are thankful that God has given our family the hope and peace of the gospel!

And so it begins....

Chad: John Randall, did you turn off the t.v.? (He is not allowed to touch the t.v.)

JR: I don't know.

Chad: John Randall, did you turn off the t.v.?

JR: Nope, Charlie did.

More Conversations...

Lately John Randall loves playing with his cars. He will spend lots (and I mean lots) of time lining them up, rolling them back and forth and playing with them on his car table. The other day our conversation went something like this...

Mom: Why do you line up your cars?

JR: It makes me happy.

Simple enough...right?:)

Conversations with a Two-year old....

JR: Momma, that shirt makes me sad. Put on the pretty shirt.

Guess I need to make some changes to my wardrobe?



These are a bit late to post, but still fun. One Saturday before Halloween, Caroline and Rebekah came over to make and decorate Halloween cookies. JR and Caroline had so much fun dumping the ingredients into the bowl, eating the cookie dough (don't worry - made without eggs), and of course, decorating the cookies (actually eating the icing). Can anyone say "sugar high"?






Charlie has been eating rice cereal for a couple of weeks now. He has done a great job eating from a spoon. However, I think he is over the bland rice cereal...so time for us to move on to new foods. Any suggestions? I have already forgotten what to do next!

Next Time Won't You Sing With Me?!

Here is a little clip of what I get to see on a daily basis - Charlie fully entertained by John Randall. Just so you'll know, Charlie is laughing at JR throwing beads onto our coffee table. Ah, the simple things that entertain a baby!:) And don't you just love that sweet little smile and laugh?!



This is rare, but I finally got John Randall to perform for the camera. He loves singing the ABC's and the Gingerbread Man song. Excuse the chewed up cracker in his mouth. We are still working on manners:)

Trick or Treating

We were skeptical that John Randall would wear his monkey costume since he refused to try it on before he actually wore it on Halloween night....but he did...and LOVED being a monkey. I wish I had gotten a better picture because the costume was adorable with a curly tail and a banana in the pocket. Charlie was the cutest pumpkin, and Caroline was a tiger. John Randall and Caroline really "got" halloween this year or at least the whole trick or treating idea. They ran to each house (even taking some tumbles on the way), knocked on the door, said the greeting and collected their candy. After each house, JR would show me his candy. At the end of the night, they were pooped and didn't argue too much when we said NO to more candy. It was a fun night!