Thanksgiving 2010

We had a great Thanksgiving in Tallahassee with Grandma and Papa and all the crew minus one (Cole). We met new family members!! (Viv, Elijah, Caleb, Savannah, Luke) and a future family member! (Kyle)

Fellows fellowshipping on the porch

Papa and Justin

Kyle and Richardo

 Leigh, Viv and Juliet

Juliet in her Thanksgiving glory

The spread…it was wonderful!! Everyone contributed, but Aunt Becky was the master cook!

 

Leigh and Rachel dressed the tables

Grandma, Mama and Aunt Sister

Papa, Viv and Aunt Sister

The Crew!

Our family plus Rach and Aunt Becky

 

**Since I am so behind, I’m just trying to get the information out here! Thanks to Audra for the hint about Windows Live Writer; I just did this post in less than 5 minutes!!!! Awesome

2010 Christmas Card

Dotty And Nice Christmas Card

Shop Shutterfly.com for elegant Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

A few things @ 23 months

Juliet is so near two! I can't believe it. She is so funny and smart. There are a few things I wanted to document and not forget about what she is doing and saying right now:

• When she sees anything Christmas related, she says, "Ho, ho, Kimmy trees!"
• The other day we were laying down for a nap and she was restless. I told her she needed to rest because it was church night. I reminded her that Shepherd would be there. And she responded, "Who else, Mama? Who else?" I would name a few more people and she would say, "who else?" Finally, I said that was enough and we needed to stop talking. We bedded down and she whispered, "Who else, Mama? Who else?"
• She has a new love for Sesame Street characters even though we don't watch it. She's found her love through a few books we have. Right now she loves a Thanksgiving book about Cookie Monster. We read it multiple times every day. She is thrilled about Big Bird.
• When the door bell rings or she hears the door open she says, "Who's dat?"
• The first sentence in the Curious George book is "this is George..." Today she opened the book and said, "This is George!"
• We ran out of toilet paper in the bathroom and she went and got some out all by herself! It was under the counter and in the packing too.
• If you ask her what time it is she says, "Nine-a cock." It's always nine-a cock.
• If she is comfortable with a place, such as the church building or WM, she is a ham and a show-off. But if she is somewhere that she's not familiar with, she's shy. She's comfortable with certain parts of the library and the post office.
• We pulled into the Publix parking lot and she said, "Cookie!"
• She tells us to go faster in the car and run when we push her in the buggy.
• She can buckle herself into her carseat. 2 buckles and a tightening strap.
• She's telling us, "stop that!" Funny, but we're going to have to stop laughing.
• She is singing with us now! Jesus Loves Me is her favorite song to sing. She also requests "ibby-siba" (itsy-bitsy spider) and "hipopas" for the Hippopotamus song.
• She loves to "call" Deda. She says, "Hi Deda! Wha-cha doin'? fine. fine. Walmart, diapers, uh-huh. uh-huh. Ok. bye-bye Deda." She hugs and kisses the phone. Of course on real conversations she says nothing.
• For the first time she said she was getting milk and cottage cheese and bread at WM instead of diapers.
• She eats a ton of tomatoes dipped in ranch.
• Chalky-milk = chocolate milk
• She is into imaginative play! She told me she was hungry in the car one day. So I opened a bag of imaginary chips and she was thrilled! I gave her one at a time and I had to have some too!
• She's sleeping with a lot of stuffed animals now. They play with us a lot too. Baby Ellen helps put the puzzle pieces in. Juliet will hold Ellen's hand in her hand and put the piece of the puzzle in. Puppy rode with us to the library and on the way she showed Puppy everything! From the ducks, to the "pool", to the dump truck.

Already learning to multi-task!

 Camping: she loved the dogs, she's chasing after them here.

 Fell asleep on the 4-wheeler twice!

Shutterfly Christmas Cards

I am crazy about Christmas cards. I LOVE receiving them in the mail and I love sending them out too; especially now that we have someone really cute to go on them:) I guess why I like them so much is not only because of the updates, but because someone thought enough about you to send it. There is nothing better than receiving a letter in the mail.

Since we've moved multiple times, our list is quite long (at least 100) and we just moved this summer, no doubt more will be added to the list. Sending out cards can get expensive, especially postage. So, when I saw this amazing deal with Shutterfly, I had to jump on the opportunity! Shutterfly’s Holiday Card promotion: 50 free cards for blogging about it! If you would like to participate follow this link.

They have a great collection of cards! Here are three of my favs:

Fa LaLa Holiday. I really like this one and it isn't traditional green and red. Usually I'm 100% traditional, but this one seems fun. That's what's fun about Christmas cards, picking a design every year!

Confetti Flowers. This is a fun card too. I like that it's vertical. I like vertical family pictures the best. You can fill up the picture with more people and less background. When I get pictures, I like to really see the people.

Elegant Wishes. Okay, now this is more of my traditional tastes shining through. I really like everything about this one.

Ultimately, the picture we, who am I kidding, I choose will determine what card I go with. There are so many great choices. And I have no idea what picture I'm going to use! That is the most stressful part. Juliet isn't a fan of the camera. She only wants to see the pictures or play with the camera. Although, I am able to reason with her, sometimes. "You can see the picture, after I take one of you! Say cheese!" Wish me luck!
 

Happy Halloween

First Halloween Activity, Pumpkin Carving on Tuesday.

Granddaddy was with us all week on business, so we had an extra set of hands and a babysitter! Thanks, Daddy!
We had a crazy busy weekend with church activities. First Justin and I attended a costume party as an Oreo and glass of milk:

Then we had a Fall Festival, Men's chili cook-off, Women's dessert competition, and Truck-or-Treat.

Finally we had our 5th Sunday Fellowship Meal (we were cooking fools this weekend) and closed the day with Trick-or-Treating with our neighbors. Juliet did really good. About half way around the neighborhood, she was tired of walking and then on the home stretch all she wanted to do was sit in the middle of the road and pick up rocks. We were out for about 2 hours! She was really happy walking around on her own and for the first time, she sang all on her own! She told me "Jet singing!" And then she told me it was Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. She also got the concept of trick-or-treating, after we left one house she would say, "Next house!" Most of the door bells were too high, but she did say trick-or-treat a few times and Happy Halloween! Throughout the night she would sit down where ever and dig into her candy. So as soon as we got home, she dumped the loot and got busy! When I would start picking up all the candy she would say, "No mama! Candy out!" She cried when I took it all away.

Thankfully puzzles and her baby doll made it possible to function again. She didn't really want to go to bed, but she wanted to rock baby Ellen, so we rocked together and I sang. When I thought she was asleep I stopped singing and she whispered, "Mama, sing."

A few videos

Juliet singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" for us 9/21:



Justin and Juliet playing with Lucy last night 10/28:


This one is a little bit longer but I like hearing her talk. She says frog with a "s" sound. She is not afraid of animals. She touched the frog right away, but didn't like it b/c Lucy drooled all over it! Justin handed her a lizard yesterday and she held it like it was nothing! Yuck.

What A Busy Time!

I have a few quite moments this morning to post about Juliet. She has changed so much since this summer. Her height, hair, behavior, skills, communication have all changed. Really, she seems like such a big girl. For speed, I'll do a list. Date are for record sake.

1. This girls loves to "match." I used a site to print out pictures from Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you See? and she matches the front of the animal with the back of the animal. She was obsessed at the beginning of the summer. She would wake up and say, "Match, Mama!" (August/September)

2. When stacking her blocks, she understands that smaller blocks cannot support the bigger blocks. So if she gets one out of order, she'll take it off and put the correct one on instead. And AS SOON as she completes the tower, it's knocked over with great force. (10/25)

3. Yesterday she picked up Dr. Seuss' ABC Book and while turning the pages said, "ABC, ABC, ABC." (10/29)

4. She "reads" her new favorite book Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats to me, sitting in her glider in her room. She says while turning pages, "Will-we, doggie! Pete-ta, dizzy! pocket, shadow, hide, hat," tries to whistle. (September) Of course if you don't know the book, you probably can't appreciate. If she can't find the books she says, "Where Will-we go?" (9/5) Books are still her favorite!

5. Picked up her Creation Cards (large index cards with pictures of water, rocks, trees, nuts, stars, etc.) and when she came to the moon said, "Day wa-un, Mama!" And held up her finger. Just a few days off, but progress, she's listening!! (10/28)

6. She loves Lucy, "Wee-cee!" (May) She says a lot of "Wee-cee, No! No!" "Back" "Excuse Me, Wee-cee." She also growls her name. Too funny. She also likes to throw her toys and says, "I fro it!"

7. She loves being outside! We have a great yard. We been collecting a lot of acorns in her bucket and rocks. She tries to pick up a rock everywhere we go.

8. Obsessed with dump trucks, diggers, tractors, choo-choos, garbage trucks. We have construction on our road, so she sees them almost everyday. For a while she called tractor-trailers, choo-choos.

9. When she says, "ook, Mama!" I better be ready to respond. It indicates 98% of the time that she has done something not good. One day I was in the office working and I had left her in the kitchen coloring at her table and I heard, "Ook, Mama!" I went into the kitchen and she was sitting in my chair at the table reading her library book...not so bad, then she said, "ook, Mama, otion!" (say it ocean) Sitting on the table was hair gel Justin had just bought the day before. I hadn't made it to the bathroom yet. She was covered head to toe in "otion" aka "lotion." We went straight to the bath. The next day I picked those clothes up off the floor and they stuck! Of course she didn't get in trouble because she did think it was lotion. (October) Which she still likes to eat, by-the-way.

10. Prefers not to be near us during church. She has three favorite ladies, Ms. Julie, Ms. Karen, and Ms. Chesley. She goes to them immediately and is finished with us. One Sunday she would not let us take her to class, sit with her in church, or even come home! They had to bring her to the car.

11. She LOVES church. Her new buddy is Shepherd. She calls him, "Shep-herd." At church we meet before bible class and when the kids are dismissed she says with great joy, "Bible Cass!!!"

12. She loves her Bible and you can tell. "Taste and see that the Lord is good." On the way to church last night she sang, "B-I-B-I." She hugs, rocks and pats it too. (10/27)

13. Sometimes she's good, sometimes she's terrible. We have seen the terrible twos!

14. Passy was taken away 10-24. Justin cut the nipple in half, long-ways. At first she was showing it off, saying, "Passy broken." When she would put it in her mouth, she would spit it out like it tasted bad. Then when nap time rolled around, she was upset. "Passy broken, Mama. Fig it." Oh, that was so sad. It made my heart hurt. She's been great without and didn't ask for it again until Thursday. She didn't cry about it though. I told her it was broken and she said, "Oh-whoa [other] passy, Mama!" Smart cookie!

15. She's very tall for her age, and most people think, due to height and her developed speech, she's at least 2 1/2.

16. All colors are green, pronounced "gee-en".

17. All numbers are 2. When counting 1, 2, 3 she says 2, 2, 2!!!

18. Vacuum is pronounced "vac-e-room."

Maybe I'll get around to some pictures and videos later.