October to January Update

A lot has happened since my last post in early October. This is going to be a long one but I really want to make sure I get everything down otherwise it'll never happen. Here we go....

At the beginning of October we went to Stone Mountain as a family. Josh and Makayla both tried rock climbing (neither of them having much success!), Layla decorated a pumpkin, we took pictures in their pumpkin patch, played put-put golf and rode the train.

The girls and I took a trip to The Woodlands, Tx for my best friend, Juli's, 30th birthday on 10-10-2010 (how cool, huh?!?!). Mom, Dad and my sister's family all met us there so that we could spend time together. While I was in Texas I was able to drive to Sugarland, Tx and see my best friend from college, Dory, meet her new baby Ty and spend time with her family and another friend who has a baby boy just a few weeks older than Lilly. What a wonderful trip!

We celebrated Halloween a few times this year, which was nice since the girls got to wear their costumes more than once. Lilly was a flower and Layla was Princess Belle.

In early November we had our first casualty with Lilly. She fell by the fireplace and busted her lip pretty good. I have to admit that I didn't handle it very well. I might have freaked out a little bit because of all the blood and called Josh hysterically crying, only to be told that I needed to pull it together for Lilly, which I did. That first big boo-boo is tough on mommies!

We spent Thanksgiving in Mt. Juliet, Tn with Josh's family. Lilly met her Uncle Chris, Aunt Marcy and cousin Makenzie for the first time. Of course no family get-together is complete without a little skeet shooting! We also spent quite a bit of time playing Wii games that weekend. The best one was Just Dance 2. Oh the moves that were made by some people! Words don't do them justice so enjoy a few pics. :)

Sometime during November Lilly got a tooth (or 2). I've been so bad about writing things down with this one. Her hair has really started growing in and she's a chunk! Love her so much!

Santa came to our church this year. Unfortunately Layla got sick the night before so I didn't get a picture of both girls with Santa this year. The one (and only) picture I did get of Lilly with him speaks volumes! She was so not a fan of the strange old man with lots of facial hair and a hat (she REALLY dislikes hats!). I tried.

On December 19, Makayla had her Church Christmas performance. SHE started it off by reciting Luke 2:1-5 and she did awesome! Check out the video link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcqCJ69TJaA&feature=player_embedded

We went to Stone Mountain one night and had lots of fun seeing the parade of characters, riding the train, decorating cookies and taking pictures with the Snow Princess. It was really cold that night so I had the girls bundled up.

One day over Makayla's Christmas break, I took her and the Smith boys to Monkey Joe's. Monkey Joe's is a bounce house place and the kids had so much fun. Since I had Lilly with me, and I knew that it would be a wide open space, I took her walker and she loved it! She was all over the place...she probably walked a mile that morning!

Our church had a wonderful candlelight Christmas Eve service this year. We took a family picture after the service, however Makayla wasn't in the best of moods so she's off to the side.

Last year we ate Christmas Eve dinner at McDonald's so we decided that we'd make it a tradition and went back this year. Afterwards, I wanted to drive around and look at lights. Unfortunately the girls both fell asleep one neighborhood into it. Oh well! When we got home they opened their ONE present (pjs) and then we put cookies and milk out for Santa and off to bed they went.

Christmas morning was crazy fun! Santa dropped off lots of presents at our house. Makayla was so excited that she could FINALLY open all of her presents. Lilly was a little overwhelmed and spent have the time laying in daddy's arms drinking a bottle.

Once we finished opening our presents and after we ate breakfast, we packed the car and headed to Josh's parent's house in Mt. Juliet, Tn. Weather was a little bit of an issue, but we got there safely and were able to enjoy a white Christmas from inside by the fireplace.

On New Years Eve we decided to go to Dave and Busters again this year. We went with our friends the Wojtczaks and had a wonderful dinner and played lots of games. We of course were home by 8pm, and were all in bed before midnight.

If you stuck around and read through that entire 3 month post, then you must really love me or be really bored. Either way, thanks and Happy New Year! I hope that your 2011 is lots of love and laughter. God bless!