Thanksgiving...

We traveled to Jacksonville, Florida this year for Thanksgiving. Jonathan's brother Steve lives there. He recently bought a house, so we went to check it out! I have to say, I was a little sceptical about our Thanksgiving meal! But alas, there was nothing to worry about! :-) Steve bought our meal from Honey Baked Ham and it was DELICIOUS!! And I have to say it was REALLY nice not to have to worry about getting everything ready. Ordering out is a great idea!! Steve was a great host. He certainly kept us busy...parks for Emma to play, shopping for big ticket items for his house, the zoo, putting together big ticket items for his house and going to church. We had a great time!

Emma and Uncle Steve. Emma really took to Steve. Every morning she would say "Teve?" Then she would go into his room and wake him up. Poor guy didn't get to sleep in one day!

Steve's Secretary, Beth, made him this BEAUTIFUL apple pie for his Thanksgiving meal with us. It was really good!

Steve and Emma at the zoo.

Emma looking at something...not sure what it was. :-)

LOOK AT THAT TONGUE!!!!! OH MY!!!!

Emma and Daddy riding the carousel.

Emma playing with the goats. She LOVED this part of the zoo!

A crocodile. Did you know they aren't hungry this time of year because of the cooler weather?! I had no idea!

Emma on Daddy's shoulders. :-)

Emma liked the monkeys. She kept saying "monkeeees" :-)

Steve tried to show Emma how to snap her fingers! :-)

How long is too long?

So I need real mommy advice. Lately Emma has flat out refused to take a nap once or twice a week. She will play in her bed for an hour and a half to two hours and then be ready to get up. I'm SO not ready for her to give up her nap and frankly...neither is she! She is a total WRECK by 4:30 or 5 on the days she doesn't nap. She's been crying in her bed for 30 minutes and I've told her she can't get up until she takes a nap, but honestly I don't think it's going to happen. Any advice would certainly be welcomed.

Been busy (and just plain tired)...

Here are a few pictures of what we've been up to the last few weeks. I've tried several times to upload pictures over the last several weeks, but Blogger doesn't seem to like me. And to be honest, I haven't had the patience to wait!! :-)

Pumpkin patch on 10/13 or so...

Mommy and Emma.

Emma and her friend Jonathan checkin' out the rabbits.

Emma picking out her pumpkin!!

This is the "big girl" furniture we bought for Emma a few weeks ago. It's all still in the boxes in various places around the house at the moment. We are in the process of getting rooms painted and getting closets and rooms cleaned out. Once all that is done, we will put all the furniture together and start transitioning Emma to her new room! We'll keep you updated!!

Our trip to VA a few weekends ago. We drove up to an Apple Butter Festival where there was a pumpkin patch and then to Crabtree Falls. The weather was beautiful and the mountains were so refreshing and beautiful. Emma has no fear! She climbed up 3/4 a mile or so of the mountain with us! She would have kept going, but we knew she still had to make it down and we didn't want to carry her!!

This last picture was taken no more than 5 minutes after we got back in the car to go home! She was so tired and didn't even know it!!

More updates to come over the next few days... Here's what you have to look forward to: Birthday party for a friend, Halloween and pictures of our newly painted room! :-)

POTTY!!

For the past several weeks, we've let Emma sit on her potty with her pants on to get her accustomed to sitting on it. The last 2 weeks or so, I've let her sit on it without a diaper when she tells me she has to go, which is usually right after she's already gone in her diaper. Last night she told he she needed to go, so I took her diaper off and sat her on the potty. I kept checking on her (she likes to just sit there for what seems like FOREVER!). I was in the kitchen and I hear Jonathan say, "Get back in there, you're not finished!" I tell him she probably is, and before I can even get it out I realize that she has actually gone poopoo!!!! She missed the potty, but we were SO proud of her for recognizing that she needed to go and for waiting until she went. It almost made it in the potty! I think it's time to get serious about this whole potty training thing! Our little girl is turning into such a big girl!!

Puzzles I'd rather not put together...

About 2 weeks ago, Jonathan came home saying that we were going to get to go to a benefit Gala at the end of October and that it was a Black Tie affair. Of course the first thing that I thought of was what is a 6 month pregnant woman supposed to wear without spending a ton of money?? So I began searching for something appropriate and affordable. Suprisingly, I found something I thought would be perfect at Motherhood. I was hesitant to buy it, not knowing exactly what others would be wearing. I put it on hold and Jonathan and I went back that evening to look at it. He approved and we purchased it, knowing we only had 10 days to return it if we happened to not be able to go to the event. Later the next week, Jonathan told me we might not be going, since the shareholders where he works (the doctors) get first choice. A few days later he was 99.9% sure we were going. (Our 10 days to return the dress were going by fast.) Over the weekend, Jonathan assured me we were going and he tore up the receipt. :-) Then this Monday he found out he has to go to a conference in Washington D.C. that weekend and we wouldn't get to go. :-( Monday was the 10th day (the last day to take back the dress). BUT the receipt was in pieces in the trash, along with several other receipts (about 10). I got all the receipt pieces out and began searching for pieces that looked like the right one. It didn't take as long as you might think. The woman at Motherhood thought I was crazy, but that's OK. :-)

Ok, I know...

It's been FOREVER since I posted anything, but as history has shown, I try to make up for it in a lot of pictures and posts to catch you up. Keep scrolling down. There are several new posts. Enjoy! Oh...be sure to check out Emma's blog. There are even more pictures there!

More Little Dot...

It's been awhile since I posted anything about the pregnancy. Things are going well! I'm feeling much better, but I'm still really tired. Who knew chasing a 2 year old and being pregnant could make you so tired?! We had our "big" ultrasound a few weeks ago. Little Dot wasn't interested in showing us his or her face...maybe next time! Everything showed a healthy baby!

She's 2!

(A month after Emma's birthday, I'm finally getting some pictures posted!)

Here is Emma at 1.





And here she is at 2.

She has changed so much over the last year! She is such a big girl. I'm amazed at all the things she is doing and saying. I shake my head everyday. I can't believe how fast she is growing up. At the YMCA yesterday, the ladies that watch her on most days in Child Watch, told me they don't know how I do it! HA! They were talking about how Emma is all over the place and into everything! They can hardly keep up with her. I said, "Why do you think I come so often? I need a break!" :-) She is an active healthy little girl! We are blessed that God would give us this gift. She brings us so much joy. God has already used her so much to sanctify us. It's almost scary to see what He has in store for us! :-) We love you so much little girl!!

BEACH...

Finally!! Here are some pictures from our trip to the beach last month. We had a GREAT time!! A house on the beach is definitely the way to go! We met Jonathan's parents, brother and family friend Kellie there. Grammie and Emma the first morning we were there.

Grampie and Emma looking at the "bubbles" (the water).

Jonathan and Steve building a castle that would last the whole week!

Steve an Emma by the water.

Our view from our porch.

Grampie and Grammie with Emma at the ice-cream place.

Jonathan buried himself in the sand!

Emma in Daddy's t-shirt.

The Kelly's 3.5 :-)

Honestly?!

How hard is it to steam broccoli?! 1 out of 3 times I let the water evaporate and scorch it...today was one of those 1 out of 3 times. *rolling eyes*

There's a piper down...

Emma fell down the stairs outside this evening. :-( This is her first bandaid. She cried a little, but overall she was very brave. Poor thing!

NEW CAR!!!!!!!

We got a new car! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! Was our old car still running? Yes. Did it get us from point A to point B? Yes. But with a new little one on the way, it sure is nice to know that we will have plenty of room for two kids and even an extra adult or 2 if we need it. It's also nice to be able to put Emma in and take her out of her car seat without bending over and killing my back. I've even already changed a diaper once and it was so much easier than stooping over.

We wrestled over the decision to get a minivan or an SUV. I had settled into the idea of a minivan until Jonathan came home a few weeks ago and said he thought we could make it with a Hyundai Sante Fe. I was thinking, "There's no way! It doesn't have 3rd row seating." But before I could even get the thought out into words he told me the 2007 models have a 3rd row seat option and they seat 7. Wow. Let's look at them. So we looked on Thursday and bought one on Friday. They didn't have the color I wanted, so they had to get it for me. We drove a white one until yesterday. And finally...our car was here. I have to be honest. I don't know that I've been so excited about a purchase in my life. I want to be careful and not seem as though all I care about in this world are material things, because that is certainly not true. But this car is everything I have ever dreamed about in a car up to this point in my life. Thank you to my husband for indulging me in this purchase. Thank you to God for the means to purchase it. Thank you again to my husband for spending his birthday negotiating trade ins and signing all kinds of paperwork.

Church sports?!

Ok...it's official. the guys shouldn't be allowed to play church sports anymore. If you haven't read Michael's post about Sunday afternoon baseball, you should read it first to have a frame of reference. The following Wednesday at small group, my husband (yes my husband) hit a wiffle ball in our backyard that smacked Tom in the forehead. It was red and looked like a little bump to me, to which of course Tom said, "I don't think you realize just how big my forehead is." What?!? There's a bump and it's red! No more church sports and that's final, do you hear me?!

Parent's visit...

My mom and dad were here the last week in July. It was really good to have them here. It's hard not seeing them as often as we'd like, but I suppose the distance makes our time together all the more sweeter. They arrived Monday night late. Their flight was a little late, it took an hour to get their luggage and then I offered a man a ride to the store after he and his family got stranded in Charlotte for the night with no luggage. After all that we finally got home around 12:45am! Tuesday was our least busy day. We did a little shopping and tried to eat at Olive Garden. Emma did not sleep very well the night before and was horrible in the restaurant. I ended up getting my food to go and sitting in the car with her while Mom and Dad ate lunch. Wednesday we went swimming. :-) Thursday was shopping and Friday we left for Myrtle Beach! We decided to go down for the weekend while they were here. I'm SO glad we did. We had a great time and Emma finally warmed up to the sand and ocean. We got back to Charlotte Sunday evening and Mom and Dad's flight left the next day. It's always kinda of crazy when they come to visit. It seems like we try to fit everything we've missed doing together in one week. But it's fun! Here are some pictures from the beach for you to enjoy. There are a few more on Emma's blog.