Merry Christmas 2013!

Well....it was a great Christmas by most standards! We saw each family and visited with all.....first, we were off to Salem for the McCrary Christmas! We went to my mom's house and it was lovely to be home in my "home" for the weekend!

William could have cared less about presents but really enjoyed climbing on everything!

John and Virginia were thrilled about opening their gifts and William's gifts...so that worked in our favor!

Just a light game of tackle....at my Uncle Billy's house where we were in the country! I shot a gun (and so did Virginia), we cooked meat over a fire pit, some of us had some moonshine, and we lit lanterns in the air! What fun!

In our Christmas jammies from Granny B!

William is so thrilled to have a chair like John and Virginia!

Christmas Eve night...leaving treats for Santa and food for the reindeer! 

Our Elf on the Shelf "Frosty" left this picture of Santa on Christmas Eve!

All they asked for was "motor jeeps"....thank goodness Santa found them at a local consignment store for a discounted price!

SO MUCH FUN!

William could have cared less about his Sit N' Spin from Santa...but Virginia's (you read that right) Hulk Hands were a hit!

And sadly....these are the few pics from our time in Maryland....my time was spent in bed with sick children. John started feeling bad on the way up in the car and it trickled down....to end with a trip to the pediatrician (with our bags still in the car today)...and FIVE prescriptions for Strep. Although never tested, he felt it was a good diagnosis and meds should come for all! Best dr. ever! At least we made it home and have meds for the next week! Ugh! BUT happy holidays to all!!!!

Happy Holidays!

Pretend Snow

We had our first pretend snow day! This was it! But we were out for it all!

Poor William wanted to be in the mix!

Let's hope this is not the last of the snow!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We headed to Maryland for the Koontz Thanksgiving fun!

Classic photo for both of them!

Virginia was so thrilled about her big girl plate and cup that she refused to move in order to save her seat. So cute!

And then we left the kids there and went to a wedding in NYC! So fun and we are very thankful for the easy ride home on 95 on Sunday! Thanks Grandma and Granddaddy!

Snack Please!

So this year with two different drop offs in the morning and two different pick ups in the afternoon....we have learned to use our car for eating. A lot. William is the funniest about it. He will grunt at certain times and I can look back and he just has his hand up for me to pass him a snack. It is the CUTEST thing ever. And now he has started to say "pwwss" which I can only assume is PLEASE and it makes it all the more adorable. This was a prime example when we were an hour late for dinner and waiting at CVS to pick up some medicine for him, since one of his tubes it out and the dr. wants to see if we can clear up his ear infection. And ear infection we did not even know he had....so good! If it does not clear up, we have to go back in a few weeks for another tube and adenoids surgery! But each and every day I love the fact that he reaches for snacks. Precious....even though he weighs 30 lbs. 

Fall Fun

Happy Halloween and Soccer

Well the no-theme-family-theme went over ok! I think I was the only one disappointed! We went to the fall party at my school and several parents asked what theme we were...shame! One parent said..."Ok...I have been thinking about it for like 10 minutes and I just can't figure it out!" Bummer....but there is always next year!

One creative friend said....the dinosaur was trying to eat the hot dog and the ninja turtle came to save the day!

We are wrapping up soccer for the year in the next few weeks. This was the first time we had all of our players! 

William Doctor Visit

So we are a little late on our 1 year old Doctor visit! Not from me....scheduling!  But it worked out great because I got all three flu shots done as well!

William's stats:

Weight: 28.3 lbs- 99%
Yes, we were allowed to go to 1% milk. Shocking to none of us.

Head: 19.75- 100%

Height: 34.75- 125+%
Poor Dr. Rowe said he was maybe the biggest baby he has seen. Ever. No way! (enter exaggeration!) But for sure the biggest one year old on his case load! Shame!

Pumpkin Patch

So last year when I "explored" preschools.....I loved St. Anthony's immediately! And later the director told me there would be a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch!  So fun! And this was last October 2012....while I was touring preschools on maternity leave with William.

So the time came this year! So exciting! And it was planned.....and then it rained for the first time in 5 weeks. And it was cancelled. And then rescheduled.  And then......I got a text that William was sick the day before. Ugh.  No! I took William to our so convenient after hours care for kids in our neighborhood. 103.8 fever. At first....I thought it was teething. Wrong. It was a virus. They sent us home with a pathetic baby and a dose of motrin/tylenol schedule. Boo! About 3 hours later....he refused to take any medicine. We checked his fever....105.1. Yikes! I called my pediatrician and they suggested going back to our urgent care place we had already been and doing more testing.  I went with a pathetic little boy....two catheters and blood tests later...and we were off with a high white blood cell count and a shot of antibiotics in the leg! Poor thing! Thank goodness Grandma came the next day and kept him home so I could go back to work! He went for a reevaluation last night and all was well! Whew! And he was great today! 

So Joe took a few hours off to be home with William and let me go on the field trip!

WAITING to plant pumpkin seeds!

Playing in the corn. Just so you know....we had corn come out of our clothes at bath!

John and our friend Casey....of "baby Casey" fame! He started going to our same preschool! So fun!

Pure joy!

Our teacher, Miss Sarah is in the brown coat. She is awesome!

Picking pumpkins...so thrilling!

And a hay lunch! It was a great time! Thank goodness I could be there for most of it!