Thanksgiving 2013

We got to meet cousin Camden!!

So Many Blueberries

A few weeks ago Grayson visited his Mima and Pop-pop in Gainesville, Florida. He went swimming every day, went to the movies, and the highlight was picking blueberries. Mima and Pop-pop's friends own a blueberry farm, and they let Grayson pick as many blueberries as he wanted (for free!). He came home with more than 5 pounds of the most delicious blueberries. For about a week we ate blueberries with every meal, we made blueberry bread, we made blueberry smoothies. We managed to eat all the blueberries except for a quart which remains in our freezer. So yummy!

Getting Ready for Ella

Ella will arrive any day now, and her nursery is ready and waiting for her. It is, of course, all pink. But it also coordinates with our much-loved yellow glider in which I nursed each of my boys for over a year. It holds lots of memories, and I'm glad I'll get to use it with her too.

















And a few months ago Susan's (Mima's) friends threw me a baby shower. The reason the closet and drawers of Ella's room are so full is in part because of the shower, and in part because of a good friend who has handed down all of her daughter's baby clothes. I have bought some things, of course, but really not much thanks to the generosity of these lovely ladies and other friends and family members who have given us gifts.










While in Gainesville for the shower, the boys got to take a bubble bath, Grayson went to a Gator basketball game, and we had nice family dinners.

This Poor Little Blog

This poor little blog has been ignored for so long. Every other day or so I think about needing to sit down and make a post, and then something else (or someone else!) gets in the way. We have had so much going on around here. Here's a quick rundown:

• Grayson is doing GREAT in Kindergarten! Every Thursday his "courier" comes home jam packed with artwork and schoolwork. Every Wednesday when Max is at preschool I volunteer in Grayson's class, making copies and preparing projects for his teacher. And about once a month I help out with a cooking project. Earlier this week we baked apple pizzas and the kids loved them! But Max and I sure miss him when he's not at home.
  
  

• Max is doing GREAT in preschool, and a few weeks ago we started taking a Gymboree class together once a week. He reminds me a lot of his brother at this age - he is very energetic, outgoing, and coordinated. He is also starting to say lots of words and a few phrases. His latest phrases are "What's that sound?", "Where did Grayson go?", "What 'ya doing?", "I love you", "I don't know," and he's getting good at saying "please, thank you, yes m'am, and no thank you" (which sounds like no tutu). And we still have regular playdates with Max's best little friend, Catalina.
  

• We still go to playgroup most Tuesday afternoons, and we've started having Grayson's friends from school over for playdates about once a week.
• At church, I'm teaching Sunday School every week to the 3-year-olds and continue to work on projects for our Children's Ministry Leadership Team. Just last week we put on a dinner and silent auction and raised over $7,000 for the ministry.
• Tony is busy as ever, which is a good thing! And a few weeks ago I was able to go with him to Chicago for a couple of days where he had a conference. We enjoyed nice dinners together and I was able to shop while he was in meetings. Thank you to Mima for watching the boys, and to the boys for being so good while we were gone!
• And our biggest news - - we have a new baby coming in February! I spent most of the summer very, very sick and exhausted. It was the worst of all three pregnancies. But now I'm back to normal and loving every moment. So when our days are not filled with all of the above, I'm off to doctor's appointments and planning for a new baby!
  

And now some more pictures. First, our little Max, who isn't so little anymore. He's almost 2!

He loves all sorts of vehicles and planes - and especially helicopters because they are so noisy and fly over our house regularly.

Juice is a very special treat.

Max is especially helpful with yardwork.


This is Grayson's very special rock collection. He's been working on it for at least a year now.





This summer Grayson spent a few days in Gainesville with Mima and Pop-pop. . . by himself!

He counted and sorted all of his silly bands - there were over a hundred.

He took a fun bubble bath in the big tub.

And he baked star wars cookies with Mima and played golf with Pop-pop, and he swam in their neighborhood pool nearly every day and skipped his naps. So much fun!

And now some pictures from Tony, Grayson, and Max's trip to Ohio this summer (I was too sick to go and Tony was such a trooper to travel alone with the boys!):

With Uncle Scott.

With Aunt Lauren.

They celebrated Grayson's half birthday!

Max LOVED Aunt Jean and Uncle Craig's dog, Rommel . . . almost as much as Rommel loved him!



I missed them so much, but they had a great time and Daddy proved (once again) what a great Daddy he is!