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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Happy Birthday, Lindy!


 Today is my sweet Lindy's 10th birthday! We had a little party to celebrate tonight.  Mimi and G&G came over for burgers on the grill.

The kids decorated the living room (can you tell???)....


Will posing with Lindy. He thought she would like sitting in the baby crib.

Cake time!!!





Time for gifts!!
Avery helps Lindy open gifts, and gets a little help of her own from Uncle Gray


Lindy showing off her new scarf!
Stella is modeling a scarf too!

Then we moved to the living room for some limbo that the kids set up all by themselves. Or maybe Aunt Greta helped, not sure! Uncle Gray said he couldn't limbo because he was born with a condition that didn't allow him to bend that way. Party pooper!



Me and my Sandy Lady Lindy - 01.29.12

Sunday, January 15, 2012

One/One/Twelve

We started something new this year on New Year’s Day. Something I hope turns into an annual tradition. We went to my friend Jessica’s (new) house for New Year’s Day lunch and to celebrate Christmas with her and her (new) husband.  Jessica and Kyle, aka Aunt J and Uncle K, have a beautiful, gorgeous, wonderful (I could go on and on) new house and it was the first time the kids and Matt had seen it.  Their house also is on a pond…a pond with fish! Although I think the fish may have gone south for the winter!



The kids had a great time playing outside and “fishing”.  I just think these pictures of Avery and Kyle are so adorable.


There was also lots of exploring….they even found a pile of bones! Yes, that was a little creepy!! And no, I did not take a picture of that!


After a lunch of chicken puffs, black eyed peas, collards, corn muffins and fruit, the kids settled in for story time with Aunt J.  Oh how they love her so!!

So I hope this is something we can do every year (unless the Wolfpack or the Aggies are in a bowl game!!!)…..I love creating traditions for the kids to remember. Just as I remember getting a burnt hot dog at The Spot once a week and spending Saturday nights with my grandmother, I want them to remember breakfast cupcakes on Saturdays, our Friday night dinners with friends and New Year’s Day with their Aunt J.

Friday, January 13, 2012

2012

Well, I guess this is the official 2012 kick-off post. I feel somewhat obligated to do one I guess. I don’t want to do resolutions though. I’m not good with resolutions. I’m not good with sticking to things like that; you know things where basically me, myself and I are the only motivation. Unfortunately.  I also haven’t been in the mood as 2012 as worn me out so far. Worries over my grandmother’s health situation, worries over my job.  The kids (and us parents) have been coming down off that “Christmas high” and quite honestly, it hasn’t been pretty.   Of course in the big scheme of things, I still realize I am pretty darn lucky.

But we’re settling into a routine and into a good place. 2012 promises to be a very exciting year. Will starts kindergarten. We’re going to Disney (in less than 100 days!!!). Lindy turns 10. Avery starts ballet in February.  I will more than likely have a big change in my career. So there is a lot of promise on the horizon this year.

So maybe I’ll offer up my prayers for the new year instead of resolutions.

Prayers for continued success and happiness in our careers for Matt and I….

Prayers for the health and happiness of our children….

And prayers that they always know they can find love and safety in their parents’ arms…..

Prayers for Stella and especially Lindy as they age….

Prayers that my grandmother can recover from this latest setback and get back home where she desires to be….

Or, if it comes to this, that she finds peace in whatever long-term solution comes to pass….

Prayers that my mother can make above two prayers work for everyone…..

Prayers for the health of our family and friends…..

Prayers that our godson and his brothers (and sis too!) continue to thrive and grow…..

Prayers that Will adjusts to kindergarten without much incident and that Avery adjusts to not having her Bubba with her every day…..

Prayers for safe travels this year…..

That should probably be followed up with a prayer for me to not get too ill with everyone on our trip this spring :0)   just sayin’.…

Prayers for my good friends having babies this year or trying to get pregnant…..

Prayers that I can continue to grow as a wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend…..

Prayers that I can have the grace to deal with all the unknown things I don’t even know I need to pray about yet….

Prayers for all the things I'm too scared to write down on this blog....

There are so many more. At night I feel like I could truly stay up all night long praying to God and never even make a dent in the list of things that I am thankful for or the list that I need his grace and help with. Yet I know he still hears me. All of me.

So here's to 2012.....I think it is going to be a good year!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Dance Party Retuns

Remember this post from almost a year ago????? Yeah, so we are still rocking it out at this house in 2012.  Will received a Kidz Bop CD for Christmas from a family friend and we have really been throwing down!


Monday, January 2, 2012

Best Ride Ever

At least it ought to be. We waited in line for 2 hours for it!!!!!!!


For the first time ever, we went downtown to participate in First Night Raleigh. The big draw this year was a ferris wheel in the middle of downtown. Obviously the kids wanted to ride so we got in line. We stayed in line, for 2 HOURS. The kids had a great time so it was worth it I guess.

Thankfully we passed most of the time chatting with friends, eating funnel cake, and visiting the porta potty!  In all honesty, I am not sure what else we would have done down there other than drag Will, probably kicking and screaming, away from all the overpriced booths of junk. At one point Matt and I decided we had probably saved a lot of money by standing in the line!


Matt took some really cool pictures while we were on the ride.




In addition to the ferris wheel, the kids played with a homemade light brite wall. It was neat and odd, all at the same time.

We got off the ferris wheel just in time to see the acorn drop. It would have been super cool to have seen it from the ride, but we missed it by about 90 seconds. Ironic, considering we had invested well over 2 hours into the ride!

After a quick dinner at Chick-fil-a, it was time to go home.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Merry with the McLamb's

We had such a nice treat a few days before Christmas….we were able to celebrate Christmas with our favorite family of multiples!! They were in town for family Christmas celebrations and so they were able to come over for pizza.  I haven’t seenthe boys in a while, definitely not since they were all officially walkers. Wow. Thankfully our house is mostly baby-proofed so they pretty much had free reign. Lilly and Avery are like 2 peas in a pod and had a blast playing with each other. Lilly even taught Avery how to climb into her crib. Too bad for Avery that she didn’t get to practice this newly learned skill very much because we took her crib down a few days later!!  Will just adores the boys and was so sweet and big brother-ly to them. I hope it remains that way forever.  Here are a few pics of the night….
Austin and Currin headed for the water bowls

Lee striking a pose

Blessing time

Too sweet

Always charming big sis

Love that face

Austin the Elf

This is what happens after a hard night of partying!!!