baker's twine...

I plan to use you a lot over the holidays...and raffia too!

count your blessings...

...instead of sheep. This song, sung by Bing Crosby, is one of the songs that I rock Georgia to each night. It is one of Paul's favorites from his favorite Christmas movie, White Christmas. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were able to reflect on all your many blessings. We had a great weekend. It all kicked off on Wednesday evening. Paul and I hosted our 3rd annual chili night before Thanksgiving at our house. Our families came over and we had a great time just talking, laughing and playing with LC (aka Leighton Capri) and G. I don't have any pictures to show from our dinner, but I did want to share a recipe with you from the evening. A co-worker of mine made a rainbow chopped salad at a work party and I loved it so I made it to go along with our chili dinner. I was a little intimidated by the pomegranate since I've never cut into one, but I followed these directions and all went well. The salad was a hit!

Thanksgiving Day was filled with great company and great food all day long. I always love Thanksgiving. We had your traditional meal for lunch at my parents and then delicious smoked ribs at Paul's parents. We also attempted to take pictures of LC and G in their Christmas dresses. If only this was on video. There were at least four adults standing in front of the girls saying "look here" "cheese" "smile at granddaddy" ...all the while I'm waving G's light-up butterfly in the air to get her to look at the camera. Leighton was getting sleepy and Georgia was wet and hungry so you can only imagine how this went. I think we got at least one good picture of the girls though:)

I truly enjoyed a few extra days at home with Georgia. We did a little black Friday online shopping, some Christmas decorating and she has heard the story of Jesus' birth several times already - Grammy and Grandaddy recorded themselves reading it to her. On Saturday we took Georgia to get her first Christmas tree at our favorite little lot. It was unseasonably warm out. These are the only pictures I took the whole weekend, oh yes, other than those pictures of the girls:)

Merry Christmas! I hope you have had a great start to the most wonderful time of year!

thankfulness

We have so much to be thankful for. I am reminded every day of that. Sometimes I feel like our society completely overlooks this holiday and just heads straight for the commercialism of Christmas. Not sure if you saw this or not, but Nordstrom is one of the only stores that has not already decorated for Christmas and I sort of like that about them. They made the statement, "We just like the idea of celebrating one holiday at a time. From our family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving." Maybe that's just a PR/Marketing tactic for them to stand apart from the rest, but I do like that they recognize Thanksgiving.

I'm not sure that the things that I am thankful for have changed much from last year, but I do have one pretty big thing to add to my list...and that is Georgia. I am so thankful to have her in my life. This time last year we were telling our families that we were pregnant. I thank God everyday that he blessed us with this healthy child. What a priceless gift! I'm also thankful for the time I get to spend with her. It is a joy watching her grow.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

happy 4 months

Georgia is 4 months old today! She is growing like a weed. This past month I felt like there was something new to see and hear each week from our girl from smiles to giggles to 'agooing' to rolling all over the place. Sleeping has improved over the past month too. There were at least three or four occasions of her sleeping through the night. She still continues to not be a good napper, but I'll take that if we get a good nights sleep. I still think she looks a lot like her daddy, but I see glimpses of myself here and there too. She is a delight each and every day!

What Georgia has been up to:

She is ROLLING over - back to tummy to tummy to back

Her hair continues to fall out - so does mine:(

She loves to stare at her books while I read

She is sleeping in her crib

She still loves to play with her singing butterfly

The Beethoven Baby Einstein video is her favorite. She giggles at the conductor.

She has grabbed her feet on several occasions

She still loves to eat her hands

She continues to babble on and on

We go to the doctor for her 4 month check-up on Wednesday. I'm anxious to see what she weighs. My guess is close to 14lbs. We shall see!

dancing ballerina

We celebrated Leighton's 3rd birthday today! She had a ballerina themed party and it was so much fun. The picture below perfectly illustrates Leighton at her party. She smiled and danced around the entire time in her tutu!

Most of her little girl friends had tutus on also, including Georgia. They all looked precious!

Below are some pictures from the party. My sister did a lovely job coordinating it all.

Happy 3rd Birthday beautiful ballerina!

lots to share, so little time

Hello friends. I have lots to share with you, but just can't find the time to do it. There are so many 'posts' that I run through my little head during the day, but just don't seem to make it to the blog. While I have a moment, I thought I'd share a few things that I've been doing.

First off, I have already started Christmas shopping. This may be the earliest for me EVER. I just know I'm not going to have as much time this year so I'm trying to do as much as I can online. Here's one small stocking stuffer idea for you - personalized luggage tags. They come in so handy. I have already had a couple made for friends/family. I have used the one I got for Georgia on her diaper bag and I have used mine on my camera bag and I also put it on a potluck dish holder just last week for a get-together. Check out JM Papers for more details and paper samples!

Moving on...Georgia is growing up so fast! I can't believe she is going to be 4 months old next week. I am really enjoying reading to her now. We lay in the floor beside each other and as I read she just stares at all the pages of the books. A few of our nightly reads are below.

Speaking of 'G'. I just bought her a pair of mittens and a matching hat from Next. What cute clothes they have. Leighton and Georgia have a couple things from Next and I've really been impressed with the quality. I can't wait to see them in their matching sweaters. I just ordered a Christmas treat for myself from there too.

We are celebrating a special ballerina this weekend. Leighton will be having her 3rd birthday party on Saturday and I can't wait to see the girls in their tutus. Pictures to come some time next week. Hope it was a happy Wednesday for you!

can I wear you tomorrow?

Found here, here and here

papa

Happy Birthday to my Papa! He turned 87 today and is still sharp as ever. He still plays 9 holes of golf almost every day and has read more books then anyone I know. And did I mention that he's on Facebook? I hope I'm that cool when I'm 87.

This is the closest we got today of a picture with both great-granddaughters! So sweet.

I enjoyed family time today and extra time with Georgia. This is the first time I've had her in a headband. Paul thinks it looks like a sweatband. It sort of does, but she still looks cute:)

What a great day it was! Love you Papa!

something beautiful

A couple weeks ago we had pictures of Georgia taken at our house. They are just beautiful of Georgia. Thank you to the talented Nicole Rogers! Check out the slideshow here. I'm having a tough time deciding which pictures to order. I hope you have a great weekend!

oh yeah...

...sorry for all the blog 'face lifts' over the past few weeks. I've turned into an indecisive person. I'm now one of those people who has to see things in action before I decide if I like it or not. You know, sort of like the kind of people that try on a shirt at the first store in the mall and really like the shirt, but then proceed to go in all the stores in the mall to see if you see anything better before you buy the first shirt you saw. Oh goodness, that's me! Anyway, I missed all my white space so I'm back to a pretty simple look again and I like it that way.

I've enjoyed looking at everyone's halloween pictures. Haven't you? We enjoyed a weekend full of fall festivities. On Saturday night, we headed into town to the Halloween Bash. It was fun to see all the kiddos dressed up. We enjoyed showing Georgia off in her costume too! Georgia even had her picture made with her Pops and it made the front cover of the Banner News - our little paper here in Belmont! And on Sunday our church hosted a Trunk or Treat event. We enjoyed walking around and seeing more friends and their children dressed for the occasion. Well, halloween is now behind us so you know what that means...the holidays are fast approaching.