What a Night!

We had a very interesting night last night. It started out pretty well. We went to Chick-fil-A to see Santa and have dinner. Catherine loved seeing Santa, even though she couldn't think of anything to ask him for for Christmas. She finally came up with "decorations"--not sure what that's supposed to mean. She had the "Birthday Buckaroo" horse with her from her preschool. Each kid takes it home for a night on their birthday and writes in a journal about what they do. She was excited to take him to see Santa.

Will was a fan of Santa in theory, but not in person. He kept saying that he wanted to see Santa, but when we walked up, he completely freaked out. Jay was holding him, but he was shaking and crying and truly terrified. You would have thought we were handing him over to a kidnapper or something. He did however like the candy cane Santa gave him. He ate it after dinner and wanted another one. We told him that to get another one he had to see Santa. You could tell this was causing a really big dilemma....he really wanted the candy cane but did not want to see Santa. He decided to skip the extra candy cane :)

So we got home from Chick-fil-A and about 5 minutes later, Will fell and hit his head on the brick fireplace. He had a very deep gash, about an inch wide but very deep. I was pretty sure we needed stitches, so we all headed to the ER. (Yes, this is our 3rd ER visit in 6 months.) The ER was crazy busy. Apparently Catherine did not handle the stress of Will bleeding and other sick people very well. As we were checking Will in, I look over and she started throwing up in the middle of the floor. Great. This was getting interesting! So 4 hours, 5 stitches, and 2 throw up buckets later, we headed home at 11:30pm. Catherine's reaction was really quite interesting. Within a couple of minutes of Will finally getting his stitches, she perked right up and started talking and was completely fine. I think she really was very worried about him. I'll spare you the details of keeping a 2 year old still to put 5 stitches in his head, but let's just say that it is not an easy thing for a mommy (or daddy) to handle. I did pretty well, didn't even cry, but it was not a memory I will forget. Poor Will. But what's a boy without a few battle scars? Thankfully today he seems okay. We just have to go back on Monday to get the stitches out.

These are the things that make me feel like a legitimate parent! We're all about making some memories.

More Happy Birthday

These are pics from today, Catherine's actual birthday. I really can't believe she's already 4 years old. I know that sounds cliche, but really...wasn't she just a 6lb 3 oz baby who surprised us by coming 2 weeks early? Wasn't she just born during the ice storm and we couldn't even go home for a week? Didn't she just learn to walk and talk? Wasn't she bald for a long time? Sometimes I have to look back at the pictures to remember her from the early years. I love how interactive she is though now. We have so many fun conversations, often about very real and serious things. She loves to help and is gaining lots of independence. She is a wonderful big sister and loves babies. She has such a sweet spirit and is already learning what it means to love God and know that He loves her.

Our big 4 year old in all her Christmas red

With one of her big birthday presents from Mimi and PopPop, a baby stroller she's been asking for weekly since this summer.

On her big girl bike from Mommy and Daddy. It's a little cold to ride outside right now, but we'll practice downstairs and in the garage from now until spring.

Will loved the birthday activities too!

Happy Birthday, Catherine! We are so thankful that God made you part of our family.

Princess Birthday Party

Catherine is 4 years old today! We celebrated by having a Princess birthday party yesterday with some of her friends. They all wore their fanciest princess dresses and jewels.

Here's the birthday princess!

Playing princess bingo--it went fairly smoothly (once Jay learned the names of the princesses to call out) and everyone won flower bracelets.

They each decorated a princes placemat with stickers and jewels to use at lunch. They took turns one by one showing everyone their placemats and describing their princess gowns. We then had lunch and cupcakes.

So many silly princesses! We had a great time and love that Catherine's friends came to celebrate with her.

Catherine's Dance Lessons

We got a chance on Tuesday to observe Catherine's dance lesson and see all that she's been learning this fall. It was so much fun to watch 8 little girls in their leotards and tutus. They really have learned a lot. Catherine definitely knows more ballet terms (in French) than I do. This has been a great activity for her and she's enjoyed making some new friends too.

Many thanks to my friend Taryn for the photos since I forgot my camera that day.

A Happy Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving celebration this past weekend. We were in Union on Thursday for lunch with the Wilburn family at my Aunt Patsy's. It's a small crowd, only about 40 to 50 people! It's fun to see lots of cousins and extended family that we don't get to see often. We headed to Mama Belk's for dinner that night (a more manageable group of only 20 people). We drove down to the beach that night and spent the weekend with Jay's parents. It was great to have a few days to relax before the December rush begins.

Last week Catherine's class had a special Thanksgiving feast and celebration on Tuesday. The girls were Indians and the boys were pilgrims. They sang some cute little Thanksgiving songs and poems. They each walked in and were introduced on their own while the teacher read what they're thankful for. Most kids said they were thankful for things like "mom, dad, Jesus, etc". Catherine, however, was thankful for her clothes. That's my fashionista :)

On a separate note, but something we are very thankful for, Will is done with speech therapy! He had his 6 month evaluation a week or two ago and scored much better. While he still is slightly behind for his age, it's only 2%-5% behind, which is close enough to be in the "normal" range. He was also evaluated by an ENT last week for any structural abnormalities of his mouth and throat and he had his hearing checked. Everything looked great with both of these, so he is offically done now. We are so thankful for the progress he has been making and how hard he is working to learn and use his words.

Sweet Baby Ultrasound

We had our ultrasound today and were so excited to see our growing new baby. He/she looks great (no, we didn't find out if it was a boy or girl) and weighs approximately 15 ounces. It's so exciting to see how God develops a little one. We can't wait to meet this little person in about 19 more weeks!

Princess Parties and Baby Showers

Catherine has had lots of fun at some friends' birthday parties recently. At one party, all the princesses got their hair curled and fingernails painted. At the other party, they got "all fancied up" and had a wonderful tea party. It's so cute to see her have so much fun as a little girl. And she is so girly, that she loves every minute of it.

I've also had lots of baby showers lately. We had one 2 weeks ago for my friend Haley, who is expecting her first baby (a girl) in about 3 weeks. Haley is one of my best friends from growing up and it was fun to celebrate with her.

Last weekend we had 2 showers for my sister Kelly as she and Kevin get ready for baby Jasper. On Saturday night, we had a shower at the hunt cabin--you don't see many dads in camo opening baby presents :) On Sunday, we had a shower for her church and our family. We are so excited to have another boy coming to the family.

Pics by Frances

My friend Frances (www.franceslightcapphotography.wordpress.com) took pics of Catherine and Will last week. I always like to do pictures in the fall between both of their birthdays, so these are to remember when Catherine was turning 4 and Will was turning 2. She had lots and lots of great pics, but I just thought I'd share a few. These should be great for Christmas cards! We had a fun morning going on an "adventure" and exploring with Catherine and Will while she captured how incredibly precious they are at this age.

Trick-or-Treat

We had lots of fun trick-or-treating last night with our friends. We went to their neighborhood because there are a lot more houses and lots of little kids. Thankfully the rain held off for a little while and we had a chance to go all around. Catherine and Will were very excited about the whole process! They have a sweet tooth, so who wouldn't love getting all of the candy??

Catherine was a fairy-princess and Will was a fireman.

Getting ready to go: Will the fireman, Pressly the kitty cat, Catherine the fairy, and Olivia the pink unicorn

Trick-or-Treat!

Fun, fun!

New Landscaping

We got new landscaping in front of the house this week. Yeah! The other bushes were so overgrown and mismatched. And for some reason there were poky holly bushes right by the steps. So it's all gone and we have new Indian Hawthorne and Abelia bushes. They look tiny now compared to the others, but so much cleaner and fresher. The big camelias by the steps are starting to bloom, but once they're done, they will get a significant trim.

Here's the new look:

Here's the before:

Totally unrelated to the house, here's a cute picture of Will. Mimi and PopPop got him this little man hat the other week and he thinks it's great. Jay dressed him in his vest and tie to coordinate last night and he was so proud. How cute!

Fall Weekend Away

Jay and I went on our fall weekend trip to Chattanooga, TN this past weekend. We try to go somewhere each spring and fall, just to take a few days for the two of us to enjoy going on dates and relaxing. As much as we love our children, it's great to occasionally have a little break and remember what it's like to just be the two of us. We don't want to look at each other after they all move out one day and think "who are you?" I really appreciate that Jay puts this effort and energy into our marriage. I'm a lucky girl!

We stayed at the Stone Fort Inn in downtown Chattanooga. It's a small hotel (only 15 rooms) with lots of historic charm and antique details and furniture. And they have a wonderful buffet breakfast! We really enjoyed it.

It was exciting to just have the time to decide what we wanted to do, without having to rush home for a babysitter. On Friday night, we went to a Thai restaurant (one of our favorites) and to the movies. On Saturday morning, we walked around downtown, browsed a few bookstores, took a walk over the big blue bridge. We took naps, read books, and watched football that afternoon. We ate a great steak dinner at a restaurant called Hennen's on Saturday night and then went for a carriage ride (in the freezing windy 35 degree weather, but it was fun!). We had to head back to G'ville on Sunday morning so that Steve and Marcy could get on the road to go back to WV.

Here's the 16 week baby bump. (I think I have as much of a butt bump as I do a baby bump.)

Catherine and Will had lots of fun while we were gone. Mimi and PopPop took them to get Halloween costumes, carve pumpkins, make cupcakes, go out to eat at their favorite restuarants, have slumber parties....I don't think they missed us at all! They were asking to go to bed by 6pm last night though, so they must have been worn out. We are very thankful that our kids have grandparents (on both sides) who love to spend time with them.

It's great to go away, but it's always great to come home.

Just catching up

Nothing major to report, and this is a first for me...a post without pictures! But I just thought I'd catch everyone up on the little stuff and include some cute Catherine and Will stories.

• Will had his first run-in with the police the other week. We were downstairs in the bonus room playing and heard a knock at the door. Jay went upstairs to find a policeman. Apparently, Will called 911. He had gotten the phone off the hook a few minutes earlier and in his random number dialing, called the police.
• The other night I got them out of the bath tub. Jay was out of town, so I was doing my best to get everyone dried off and ready for bed quickly. This is when they think it's best to be super silly. So Will kept running around naked and Catherine kept saying "Will, don't go pee-pee." He then ran back into the bathroom and promptly peed all over the floor. We all actually thought that was funny. So I told them to stand still while I got a towel to clean up. Before I could do that though, Will ran right through the pee, slipped and fell in the middle of it. Now they're both crying and he's completely covered in pee. But I still thought it was funny!
• I love how Catherine phrases things or still gets a few words messed up. For example, she likes to put Vasoline on her lips, but she calls is "gasoline". She informed the other day that Daddy is tall and Mommy is low (I'm assuming she means short). And her new thing to tell us about every morning is what she dreamed the night before. It's usually about mommy or daddy or heaven.
• Will is doing much better with his speech. He's working on putting 2 and 3 words together at a time. His favorite 3 word phrase is "I don't know." It's really cute when he says it. We are having him seen by an ENT in November to have his hearing checked and make sure there are no physical abnormalities in the back of his throat or mouth that would be causing his speech to be slower than expected. I expect that it will be fine, but we just want to be sure.
• Catherine LOVES her dance lessons each week. She is so excited to show us what she has learned--plies, first position, her stretches, etc. It's definitely one of the highlights of her week. Jay took Tuesday afternoon off work this week to take her dance lessons and she was so thrilled about Daddy going with her. It was precious.
• Catherine and Will are both very excited about the baby in mommy's tummy. Will often wants to pray for the baby at night and loves to give it kisses and blow raspberries on my tummy. Catherine is fascinated by the whole process and she has babies in her tummy almost every day. She pretends that she's having baby showers, going to the doctor, picks out names, etc. It's so encouraging to see them excited about God growing our family. We'll be 16 weeks this weekend and are thrilled for this new little one.
• Jay and I are headed out of town this weekend for our fall weekend away. Mimi and PopPop will be here with the kids. I love having some time with just my husband. He's my favorite person in the world!

I'll post more (including pictures) soon. Happy Fall!

Will's Birthday Party

We had a little birthday party for Will this morning with my family. We just enjoyed some time outside in the yard playing with his t-ball set, tennis racket, soccer balls, and any other kind of sports stuff we could find. Will had a great time!

He really enjoyed having his cousins here. These are Amanda's daughters--Kennedy, Maddyson, and Brooklynn. Riley was here too. Will will be excited when he new baby boy cousin arrives next year and he's not the only boy.

Will quickly blew out his birthday candles. These are his "baseball" cupcakes.

He really liked eating the cupcakes!

We had a great time celebrating Will's birthday.