11/25-11/30 (Thanksgiving Week)

 A friend of mine had the best idea of having a kids thanksgiving. A bunch of Landin's friends came together and ate turkey roll-ups and mac & cheese. They loved every second of it, especially the cupcakes. :) 

 Love this girl so much...and her outfit. :)

 We were given some tickets to the Bobcats game Wednesday night. This was the first game that any of us had been to. Landin loved it! There was so much to see and Ellen was there. He had a blast! We will definitely be doing that again!

While traveling this week, we made a stop at Grandaddy's house. Landin loved the piano that played itself! 

 Love this picture so much! Happy Thanksgiving!

 My two turkeys. These babies did so great on Thanksgiving. Both played hard and fell asleep on the way back to Charlotte! 

 Bundled up to get our Christmas tree!

 Landin was more interested in rocks he found all over the ground. I somehow ended up with his rocks in my boots. 

My grandma knits my entire families stockings. All 18 of us. They are, by far, my favorite Christmas decoration! Love you Beaka!

11/11-11/24

The past few weeks have been getting busy with the holiday season, but that also means I'm taking a million pictures of the kids. I'm hoping to be better about posting once a week to keep up with all the festivities!

 Started the week off volunteering with Bright Blessings. I love this organization! They host birthday parties for homeless children. They concentrate on doing either a party at the shelter or sending birthday goodies to the school so they child can have a little party in his class like a normal kid would. This organization warms my heart in the way they put so much thought into making each kid's birthday special.

 I brought out some big baby toys since Clara is pulling up on everything. She especially loved Landin's piano!

 Snow in November?? Although, it was a tiny amount of snow and didn't even stay on the ground 24 hours, this Carolina momma made the most of it. I had already put Landin to bed when it started snowing, so of course I got him out of bed in his pj's, put on his coat and mittens and ran outside. He LOVED it. With snow this early, I'm hoping we get more this year.

 This was a very proud moment for me. My man on stage with Pastor telling the heart behind what he does. Brian works so hard and sometimes long hours, but his heart is in the right place. "So that people far from God will be raised to life in Christ." He lives this, with every long hour and stressful moment, this is what is pushing him along. Thankful for his heart and the mindset that he is working for the Lord. He's truly one of a kind.

 This is Ellen. She is part of one of my favorite families at church. Landin went through a phase where he did not like being separated from me. When Ellen joined his class, he started loving church. He even wants to go when he doesn't have to. Thankful for Ellen and her family.

 This boy melts my heart.

 We had Clara's 9m check up this week. She is doing great and growing well. Thankful for a healthy baby girl!

 We had one warm day in the mix of the chilly fall and took full advantage of it by going to the park. This girl loves the swing. 

 First spaghetti night!! She LOVED it. I've wavered away from all the baby food for the most part. She pretty much is eating whatever I cook for dinner. 

Landin loves to be a helper. He has had a bit of a fear for this vacuum, but conquered it!

 This boy loves ice cream. After a bit of a rough day, I decided we needed to do something to make it positive.  So, we ended up at Chickfila. He played in the play place with some friends and finished with some ice cream.

 Cute girl playing at church. 

 Sunday night I need to run a few errands, so Brian took Landin to church with him. He loves working with daddy. :)

10/28-11/8

The past 2 weeks:

 Well, Clara has officially started pulling up! This was the first time I saw her pull up in her bed. Exciting!

The Tuesday before Halloween, the Elevation Staff joined up with an outreach partner, Hope Haven, for a trunk or treat. Hope Haven is a great organization that serves as a half-way house for substance abusers and their families. Of all the years I've been in church, I've never been to a trunk or treat. It was a really fun night!

 Crew and Clara. These girls were born a day apart and are growing up to be great friends like their brothers. We love the Schultz family so much!!

 Oh man, does this melt my heart! Daddy always gets up with my early riser, which has been EXTREMELY early since the time change. He is such a trooper. Came downstairs to find these two snuggling. :)

 Halloween was such a blast this year! We joined up with some friends of ours and went treak or treating together. Well, the Dad's took the kids and the mom's hung back and gave out the candy. We are really thankful for great friends. Love that these babies are growing up together :)

 My sweet girl LOVES her daddy :)

 Landin has really gotten into playing with legos recently. We built a tower together one morning and I took this picture and sent it to Brian. That night I came downstairs after putting Clara to bed and Daddy had built one that touched the ceiling. Daddy wins. HA :)

 She is so photogenic already!

 Sweet girl at the doctor. She did so great.

 Ha I love this picture. This is Clara's favorite place to play and Landin's least favorite place to her to play. Clara tears down the tracks and Landin and I spend forever trying to figure out how to put it back together. Constant cycle. I can't keep her away from here and look at her, she's already so hard to say no to.

 Landin and Bryleigh two years ago and now. This warms my heart.

 I co-hosted a shower for my almost sister in law last weekend. It's so exciting to finally have her become part of the family! Only a few more weeks until the wedding!

 So grateful my babies get to grow up in Elevation Church.

Clara 9 Month Updates

Clara turned 9 months Wednesday and is growing so fast!


Size: 6-9 months
Sleep: Clara's sleep schedule is still about the same. We had daylight savings time this month and she has done so well! She's just ready to to bed around five. I have to push her to make it to six and then I put her down. She still wakes up between 7-730 am. She wakes up once at night. Starting to wonder if we are ever going to make it through the night. Coffee is this momma's best friend, for sure!

New this Month:
- crawls on all fours
- pulls herself to a standing position
- says momma, dada, and "baba" (which is what she calls Landin)
- tries to mimic what you say. She REALLY wants to talk :) 

This month was full of fun things. I love this time of the year! We celebrated Halloween with great friends. Clara dressed as Landin's firehouse dog. She did great, even with her headband ears on! We also had our Elevation Staff Fall party. Clara had so much fun there. She would let anyone carry her around and would smile at everyone. Not much stranger anxiety yet, although she is DEFINITELY a momma's girl. :)

This month we also visited the cardiologist for a follow up appointment. Clara was born with 2 small holes in her heart. Obviously, I don't love the idea of this but the doctor has assured us that it would cause no problems. He said the holes can only do two things: stay the same or get smaller. Many people walk around with these even as adults. All good news! We will head back to see the doctor in a year to check on things, although our regular physician will keep an eye on it. 

Clara is becoming such big girl as she's learning to pull up and crawl. Her favorite things to play on are Landin's train table (he doesn't love this), her piano, and play table. All things that she stands on! Landin has been doing better with her. He still doesn't love it when she plays with his toys, but is getting better about taking turns. He is definitely the oldest sibling and loves to boss her around. I see a future leader?! Ha :) When Clara is playing with a toy and he takes it away from her either because he thinks it's not a safe toy or because he wants to play with it, she gets SO upset. Drama queen in the making. As my Bemaw would say: this is payback! ;)

This stage is so fun and hard all at the same time. I'm trying to soak in every moment because they're going to be gone before I know it!

Pictures from this month: These are a little out of order.

T

Happy 9 months sweet girl! I love you more than words could say!