For Carrie.

Once upon a time, we had a month of November and I forgot to blog about all of it. Before it turns into December, I'll tell you how it went.

Mary turned FOUR and we threw her the surprise party she had been asking about for months. We took her out to lunch and to one of those jumpy inflatable places and then surprised her with a big family party. She was pretty darn surprised ... she had to ask me to hold her collection of leaves before blowing out the birthday cake.

We gave her a balloon and a coloring book when she woke up that morning and she thought that was her entire birthday. She scored much more awesome birthday loot at her party. Like this sweet Strawberry Shortcake set from her Uncle Cory. She checked it out when she opened it and announced "It's like the same thing, but with different STUFF!!" (she already has a different Strawberry Shortcake set).

Best present of the night had to go to Devin and Becky who gave her a big box of TAPE (and other art supplies). This girl puts tape (and lots of it) on everything. Lots of love to Devin and Becky.

Paul went to Boston for work the following week and trekked his way out to Walden Pond for a day.

I lost about half of the pictures from Paul's trip and Mary's birthday when I tried to upload them ... so I am missing pictures of:
-Mary's breakfast in bed on the morning of her birthday
-A picture of the awesome Princess Cake I made ... when I cut the whole in the icing bag to big and tried to write Mary's name on the cake and it came out looking like the cake was for "Many" instead.
-Paul and Mary at her preschool "Donuts with Dad" breakfast. Paul ended a meeting early in Boston and took the last flight back to Atlanta, getting home after midnight, so he could make it to Donuts with Dad the next morning. Dad of the Year Award right there.


Paul's birthday is 8 days after Mary's and his only request this year was to go to Helen for the day. We ate at Hofer's Cafe for breakfast, lunch, and dinner -- apple fritters, donuts, soft pretzels, sausage, schnitzel (and both gained 5 pounds in a day). We hiked up to Anna Ruby falls and spent about 10 minutes walking around the town of Helen; when you mix Germany, with Southern people, and airbrushed t-shirts, and a back room Tarantula museum, it's just ugly, but it really was an awesome day. Happy Birthday PAUL :)!

As for the rest of November ... here's what I have.

Adventures in the bathtub.

A picture of Mary's hampster.

A trip to the Zoo!

and two happy kids.

It has taken me an entire afternoon to finish this, so I hope you love it. Thanksgiving and such will have to wait for another day!

Photo shoot with a leaf.

 We had some gorgeous weather this week and Luke was so happy to be playing outside with his leaf. 

He couldn't stop smiling about all the goodness in his life.

He was looking exceptionally like an old man and an elf. 

 It was a perfect peaceful afternoon in the life of Luke.

 until Mary came outside and thought it would be a hilarious idea to blow bubbles straight into her tiny brother's face.

Sometimes I like to call her The Tornado. 

Introducing

The Princess and the Frog.

Cupcake

When our kids turn 6 months old, they get a cupcake. This has been a tradition for Paul's Mom with all of her babies, so we've adopted the tradition.

Mary thought it was great fun when she got hers at six months; Luke thought it was a confusing mess and opted to suck his thumb through the whole ordeal.

{Luke 2010}

{Mary 2007}

Remember?

Remember when I told Mary that she can't marry Luke?

It didn't work.

Those two block people up there are Mary and Luke --- 

and they are getting married.

6 Months

Luke is half a year old.

How did this happen?

I just jumped on the scale with him and he was an ounce shy of 20 pounds.

He has hit a number of big milestones this month.

-sitting up on his own-

-real crawling, not more army/belly crawling-

-pulling up in his crib and on the furniture-

What can I say about this guy? He nothing but goodness. 

He has a very mellow temperament, but is so curious and busy. 

He's pretty quiet, doesn't really make noises ... unless he's cracking up laughing at my face, which he does often. 

He is moving pretty fast and can make it from room to room like a stealth bomber. 

He has formed an attachment with a particular blanket and he gets pretty excited whenever I pull it out at bedtime.

He is still nursing 5 times a day with 3 naps and usually one feeding with solids.

He doesn't seem to care what we feed him. He eats whatever is on the spoon.

He loves pumpkins. A lot. He will shove your face and fight his way out of your arms if he sees a pumpkin, or anything else for that matter, but especially pumpkins.

Lucky for him it's pumpkin season.

love you Luke.

My latest obsession.

My video monitor.

I have this problem with checking on my kids while they are sleeping. I do it entirely too often. It's always been easy with Mary, she is a sound sleeper. You can turn the lights on, run the vacuum, pick her up and move her and she does not wake up (I will honestly clean her room after I put her to bed). Luke is a different story. If I even think about opening his door, he wakes up. It's not a good situation, since I want to  want to peek in on him sleeping 24/7. I have been known to lift the covers off my sleeping baby, just so I can see what their little legs look like under the blanket. I love it. A lot. Since this business isn't working out too well for Luke and me, I plopped a video monitor in his bedroom and I am hooked. It's my entertainment. We sit down to watch TV at night and we watch our shows, and Luke. If Mary wasn't such a sound sleeper, I'd be tempted to add another camera in her room. She'd be much more entertaining to watch.