Happy New Year!

Savannah and Vince with Uncle Gary

We hope that you had a wonderful Christmas! Santa was very good to us-he brought the family a Wii! He left Savannah a Princess Parlor, a Princess bookbag, and a Barbie. Vince got some animal crackers, a book, and a toy. Savannah has loved playing with her TAG system that Nana and Grandaddy gave her, and Vince loves all of his toys that make noise and his inflatable helicoptor. He especially likes the balls that came with the helicoptor...they end up all over the house! Jeff and the kids gave me a Cricut scrapbooking system and I am anxious to use that at my next scrapbooking weekend getaway.

Vince at Christmas Dinner-he ate peas and cheesy mashed potatoes!

The kids and I are in Charlotte now visiting family and friends and are having a great time. It's been nice catching up with lots of different people! I have reconnected with some friends from Matthews softball and high school via facebook.com and we have gotten together since I have been here. Savannah didn't understand why Uncle Gary got small PJs for Christmas...
...then she felt Aunt Lin's belly!

Last Saturday night I went to dinner with Misty Spruiell and Shanna McCollum Tucker; they played ball with me out at Matthews from the early 80s to the late 80s. We had so many good times together! In fact, we stayed at dinner for 4 hours talking about old times and what we have been doing since then. We figured it had been 20 years since we last saw each other. I guess I am now considered old.

Today, Savannah and I met up with Rebecca Sweeney Anderson and Jeanna Murrill Rimmer at Sports Connection in Ballantyne. Savannah enjoyed playing the video games and the inflatables and the parents enjoyed bowling. It's pretty sad that none of us broke 100 in our game. In my "hey-day" of the Fickling & Company bowling league I was averaging about a 165...here again, refer to the last sentence in the previous paragraph.
The three of us were all in DECA together at East Meck!
Tomorrow we meet up with Shanna and her family for some good outdoor fun! Savannah is excited to hang out with some boys, and I will enjoy catching up some more with Shanna.

We wish you a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2009.

Twas The Week Before Christmas...

we have been busy! Disneyland on Ice, The Incredibles, came to Macon on December 14, so the three of us went to see that. Savannah had a wonderful time seeing all of her favorite Disney characters. None of us has ever seen the movie The Incredibles, but we enjoyed the show since there were so many traditional Disney ice skaters represented.

On Tuesday, December 16th, the Broadway touring "Annie" came through Macon. Savannah has been watching the movie that I grew up watching and she loves singing all of the numbers. The show was late starting (close to 8pm-our bedtime), so when intermission rolled around, we left then. She enjoyed the show, we'll know to attend a matinee next time around.

Last Saturday Savannah was invited to a Breakfast with Santa party and she had a blast! Santa arrived in a firetruck with huge bags of presents for all of the kids there. G-Mama came to visit on Saturday afternoon so that she could hear Savannah sing in the children's choir on the 21st...be sure to watch the video below from that. We have all been busy running errands and entertaining kids since then! We are looking forward to Nana and Grandaddy's visit tomorrow.

All of the kids had to hold their gifts until all were given out, then Santa counted to 3 and

they all opened them!
Savannah received UNO Attack and loves playing it!

Savannah and Vince both got to visit with Santa at the Bass Pro Shop

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Christmas Decorations

We have just about completed all of our Christmas decorating! Savannah and Vince both helped me with the Christmas tree ornaments, as you can see in the pictures below. It was much easier, and faster, to wait until they went to bed to finish the projects.

Savannah and I made a gingerbread house (don't get excited, it was from a kit) earlier in the week and she took it to Children's Choir at church on Wednesday night and they all enjoyed eating it. I was fortunate that Savannah's piece was a "wall", and not the roof which was drenched with icing!

We hope that you have a very Merry Christmas! Savannah will sing in the choir on the 21st, so check back for an update with those pictures and video.

Happy Thanksgiving a few days late!

Our Pilgram snacks at school

We have been out of town since Friday a week ago and had a wonderful time visiting family and friends in North Carolina. Savannah had a Pilgram snack at school Friday before we left town, so we joined her for that. Our trip up to NC was uneventful, we made great time and the kids did really well in the car, as did Buddy.
Both kids suck their thumbs

We spent the first weekend in Charlotte and spent some time at the Urgent Care with Vincey. He had bronchitis the week before but was never able to shake the cough. We took him to Urgent Care on Saturday afternoon and we were told that he had Fifths Disease...of course, it sounds a lot worse than it is. Just a simple virus with no treatment, has to run its course. On Sunday morning we took him to see a friend of ours who is a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and she said that she thought it was just a cold and maybe some allergy issues. We now realize that Benedryl will make the kids sleep really well.

Savannah and Molly (the daughter of Laura Ann's friend, Bryan Carney) playing dress-up

The kids spent the week with Nana and Grandaddy in Denver, NC while Jeff and I went ahead to Boone to relax. The kids and Nana and Grandaddy re-joined us on Thanksgiving Day in Boone for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.

Friday morning we went to Hawksnest for snow tubing. G-Mama and Vince hung out in the lodge while Savannah, Jeff, and I all went for tubing runs. It was lots of fun, and Savannah did a great job tubing by herself. Uncle Gary and Aunt Lin joined us in Boone on Friday and we enjoyed spending time with them. Savannah won more games of UNO than anyone else!

It's hard to believe that Christmas is right around the corner. We hope to have the decorations out by mid-week. Have a wonderful December and check back later in the week for more pictures and updates.

The earphones were hurting Savannah's ears, so she put her super soft blanket under the headphones. The trip back took over 9 hours!

Vince is 100% Mobile

Vince has perfected his crawl over the past 10 days, and is all over the place. His favorite place to crawl is to the hearth, crawl up to the fireplace, perch, and pull the "rocks" out of the fireplace and put them in his mouth. If we call his name while he is up there, it startles him and he topples over the edge onto the hardwood floors...somewhat of a "no-win" situation. I guess we won't be turning on the gas logs this winter.

Savannah has been working very hard on her manners. 75% of the time she responds with "yes ma'am or no sir" and is using words like "thank you" and "please" all the time. Now we just have to work on her staying in her bed all night long!

I spent last weekend with 8 Theta friends from college in Big Canoe, Georgia for a girls weekend getaway. We all had so much fun! I think it had been 8-10 years since I had seen some of them, for others, they hadn't seen one another since our days at Alabama. I have included a few pictures from the trip and we hope to make this an annual event.

Laura Ann and Meredith (she was our maid of honor)
Melissa Grupe Hitt, Carrie Comstock Woodard, Laura Ann, Sandy Tiller Schulz, Heather Owen Thompson. Back: Kriste Richardson Dragon, Romy Tappero Nickolof, Leah Wallace Anderson, Meredith Bagwell Matlock

Savannah Sings in Church

Savannah has been singing with the children's choir for the past few months. She has diligently practiced her songs throughout the weeks and was so excited to wear the official choir robe in church today! We were able to video it and have it posted here. Vince continues to do well, I will include some pictures of him as well. Have a wonderful week and enjoy the cooler weather!

Vince Is Crawling!

We secretly hoped that Vince wouldn't be crawling before Thanksgiving because we will be at all two story homes with staircases! We look forward to another round of babyproofing-covering the outlets, securing drawers and cabinets, etc etc. I was able to capture some of his crawling and pulling up on video and have shared it below.

Halloween Weekend

Savannah and Vince at Martha Bowman's Fall Festival

Savannah at home before going to visit Avery to trick-or-treat

In between Trunks at the Fall Festival

Savannah had a wonderful time at the Martha Bowman Methodist Church Fall Festival Friday night. She trunk and treated and also played on the inflatables. Her fairy outfit got itchy, so her trick or treating in the neighborhood didn't last long at all. She was very excited to get home and help hand out candy. The only problem was that it was 7:30 and most of the neighborhood kids had already come by. She was able to see two kids ring the doorbell, but went to bed very upset and crying because she didn't get to hand out the candy.

Saturday, she and Vince hung out with Julia...in the morning at church while I had a Presbyterian Women's Meeting, and then that evening at home when Julia's parents and we went out for dinner. Vince is crawling better each day and can pull up now.

Nana made coordinating outfits for the kids and it's just gotten cool enough for them to wear them, so they wore them to church this morning. The pictures don't do the outfits justice-they are very cute, thanks so much for your hardwork Nana!

Weekend Fun!

After the Race for the Cure on Saturday, we made a dash home for naps so that the kids would be rested for Evan's birthday party at 2pm. Savannah woke up right before it was time to leave, so we got her dressed and ready for the party. She had a wonderful time hanging out with Evan and three other members of her soccer team. Vince slept most of the time which made it easier for me to spend time with Savannah and the other parents.

Savannah and the other kids looking at the treasure map!

Vince swinging after his nap

This evening we attended the Forest Hills Methodist Church's Trunk-or-Treat. Savannah chose to wear her princess outfit that Honey bought for her. We were able to get some pictures at the pumpkin patch with her and Vince dressed up. He is a puppy dog, but you can't really see the puppy head; I think it looks more like a bonnet.

Savannah and Abby (a friend from church)
Dad can always get Vince to smile!

Savannah and Vince at the Forest Hills Pumpkin Patch
Since she couldn't be DIEGO for Halloween she carried this basket instead!
Vince's First Halloween

We hope to visit a new pumpkin patch later in the week and plan to attend the Martha Bowman Trunk-or-Treat early evening on Friday...she has three different costumes that she wants to wear, so we figured this was the best way for her to model them!