Sunday, January 13, 2013

Quickly approaching TWO 2 years

Parks and Marlee will be 2 on March 12th.  Insanity.

I have done a terrible job of documenting since they turned one.  Luckily, I have a clever friend who posted each month on her daughter and I copied her idea during the first year.

Just wanted to put down a few favorite things to look back on:

MARLEE:  22 months
- straight, thin hair
- naps once per day around 1:30 - 3:30 or 4:30
- great night sleeper (8:30 pm - 8am)
- wears size 18-24 months clothes and has the best shoe selection of anyone I've ever known thanks to the jackpot garage sale we hit a while back (she has finally grown into a lot of it)
- talks and talks and talks and talks.  she loves to identify every person and item in the room.  everyone's names, shoes, coffee, turtle, golf cart, elmo...there is no way i could list every word she knows.  she can flip through a book and point out every animal and item on the pages
- loves all 4 of her grandparents to peices
- loves feeding the dogs during meals (mommy does NOT love this)
- runs with her arms flailing out and stomps her feet really hard on each step
- plays a game with daddy where she closes her eyes and cracks up while daddy says "open your eyes, marlee"
- loves her big brother so much and constantly watches out for him.  every time she gets a snack or a drink she says "parks? parks? parks?..." until you give her two and then she takes him one
- tells me every time she goes potty or "toots"...and is very proud each time
- enjoys school (Children's Morning Out) and Waumba and church
- likes to read, obsesses over "babies," says hi to every person we pass when we are out shopping or doing anything where we see strangers
- loves to count to five in english and spanish
- dang, so many more things, i will have to start writing these more often

PARKS:  22 months
- curly, gorgeous hair, and lots of it
- sleeps same as marlee
- 2T clothes
- actually...surprisingly...a much cleaner eater than marlee
- jumps off every peice of furniture in the house, and is really good at landing
- loves elmo, and any animated tv show/movie.  will watch an entire disney movie without moving...or closing his mouth.  favorites right now:  Rio, Ratatouille, Ice Age and Lion King
- obsesses over daddy when he comes home from work
- loves books, going "bye-bye," giving high fives and daps, bath time and brushing his teeth
- when he says "please" it sounds like "meeeeese"
- sweetest boy


I love these kids.  So Much. LOVE THEM.

Friday, January 4, 2013

Christmas 2012

Ahhhh, Christmas. How I love thee.

What a wonderful time of year.  We had a great time this year, made lots of wonderful memories and...as usual...it went by way too fast.  There is something about having family visitors come in from out of town that really ramps up the "specialness" of the holiday.  Erin, Taylor and Cousin Jack came down for Christmas Eve, and Aunt Libby's two sons, Jeremiah (Indiana) and Nathan (California), came to town along with Nate's family...Dawn, Juniper and Zeraphin.

Here's some highlights:

ORNAMENT EXCHANGE:  Every year, a group of girls I went to high school with get together and we have dinner and do a little ornament exchange.  It's so fun to see everybody and reminisce on our high school days.  They are all such fun, and we had a great night at Lindsay's house eating and laughing.




SICK:  I guess this should really be listed as a "lowlight," but whatevs.  My mom got sick the week before Christmas, and Marlee and I picked it up on Christmas Eve-Eve and by Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we were both lucky to be awake for more than 2 hours at a time.  We planned to go to Christmas Eve service at Catalyst Church, but we were so miserable we just couldn't get out...and didn't want to spread our germs.  

CHRISTMAS EVE:  We spent the evening with Mikey's family...Mike, Debbie, Erin, Taylor, Jack, Mamaw, Papaw, Mikey, Kacy, Parks & Marlee...plus lots of doggies of course.  We had fun eating our traditional meal of barbecue sandwiches, macaroni and cheese and baked beans.  Yummy!  Then gave out our gifts for each other and watched the kids run around.  When I started feeling my heart beat in my eyeballs we left to go to bed...but it really was a fun evening.  Loved hanging out with the fam!

CHRISTMAS DAY:  Santa Claus came to our house!!!!  We woke up around 8 and came downstairs to find some presents left from Santa for Parks and Marlee.  They were kinda in to it...and mostly confused.  It was fun watching them though.  Patrick spent the night at my parents house so we all shared the experience.  Breakfast, stocking and lots of gift un-wrapping...followed by relaxing and eating all day.  Libby's family came over around 1 and we played cards, ate a huge meal and hung out.  Great Christmas Day!



CALLAWAY:  Libby got us all a great day on the Callaway Gardens "Fantasy of Lights" show, so we all went one evening.  It just so happened to be the COLDEST night of the year and we rode the trolley.  Once we got on the trolley with our blankets it was fine, but standing in line was the coldest I have been in a few years (last year's ski trip included).  Parks, Juniper and Zeraphin absolutely LOVED the lights.  Marlee was really mellow and I kept thinking she was asleep, but she was watching with us.  I really enjoyed it too...I hope we can go back next year!

ATLANTA:  Nate, Dawn and Jeremiah really wanted to see Atlanta, so Patrick scheduled a night for us to go to the Sweetwater Brewery and then to dinner.  We ended up at Tijuana Garage in Five Points and had a LOT of laughs.  After dinner, drinks (for the non-preggos) and B-I-N-G-O, we headed home...or so I thought.  Nate convinced me to stop at Hangar 74 in Peachtree City for a "night cap."  This turned into karaoke, line dancing, and MORE than just a night cap.  I was tired, but the laughs would've been worth it if the place hadn't allowed smoking.  It smelled like a giant ashtray and I HATE the smell of smoke.  Other than that, it was a fun and exhausting evening.

NYE:  We went to a dinner at Crossfit Newnan at 6....then the kids were in bed by 8...Mikey and I by 9:15.   My kind of New Year's!!

Some pics of the holidays:
Hmm...can't figure out how to link them.  These will be added asap.