What a Merry Christmas

We have had such a fun month. We have gone to the Christmas parade downtown, Santa in the Park, the Zoo, Christmas in the Oaks, Christmas parties, Lighted Boat Parade, West Point, and many more. I took Matthew to see Santa, but he would not say a word, much less sit in his lap. I will say Santa was very good to us though. The boys had a wonderful Christmas! I swear our house is like a Toys R Us! Toys everywhere. We really enjoyed seeing everyone over the holidays. It is so fun to catch up and see how the kids are getting bigger and changing. Here are some pictures of the past month.


Ava Greear, Tucker, Thomas and Matthew. We took these pictures over Thanksgiving when we went to see my sister and Family. I always forget to take pictures in West Point. We had a great visit with everyone.


The Christmas Parade downtown


Santa in the Park...It was really cold.


Matthew eating a chocolate cookie. Paul trying to clean him off.


We had Christmas at our house this year! So much fun! Toys everywhere :)


Sweet Mimi and Pawpaw! We love you!


Matthew got a bike...


a John Deere Tractor....


and a Home Depot Workshop...I think Thomas likes it better though ;)


Matthew and Whitt wrestling....what I have to look forward to...I'm a little scared.


"The Who Dat Babies"

Almost normal

Our house has been crazy for the past few weeks! Lots of work going on here. Hopefully it will be finished this week. We have just been all out of wack. Matthew has been sleeping in his old room, Thomas has been in ours because Matthew had a virus last week. We have been kicked out of our house so that people can do the repairs for us, but we couldn't really go anywhere since Matthew was sick so we ended up at Paul's parents for a few days. Then we went to West Point for Thanksgiving. Thomas woke up about every 3 hours since he is teething! So needless to say, we have just been here, there, and everywhere and running on little sleep. Paul did surprise me for my birthday and took me to New Orleans for the night! A much needed get away! We have never left the boys overnight so it seemed as though we were gone forever! We had a great dinner at the Pelican Club, had a horse and buggy ride afterwards, went to church the next morning, and then lunch at Mother's. What a great birthday, Thanks Paul!!


Busted! Playing in the spices. For some reason, both boys loves getting the spices and playing with them!


Thomas is everywhere and loves being by his brother! It was very had to keep them separated when Matthew was sick!


The boys having a jump off.


The finished product!!!

What to do

So we had a little water in our kitchen now from a leaking pipe that we did not know about :) We have floating wood floors, and the pad was soaked halfway through the kitchen. Now we are trying to figure out how we want to fix it. These are the options we are between now. Do we
1-tile the kitchen area and leave the rest wood?
2-tile the whole room?
3-put down brick in kitchen area and leave the rest wood?
We figure we need to do some kind of tile/brick in the kitchen to prevent this from happening again. We also have to pull up all the original floor because water has gotten under it. We still like the wood in the kitchen so we thought if we did half and half it would break up the room a little, and we only would have to repair half the room which is half the cost. But will it be worth it, or would it look better to go ahead and do the whole room? If we did half and half we would go from the kitchen area through the walkway from the side door to the dinning room door, and the dining area would still be wood(about where the wood stops in the picture). Suggestions are welcome and appreciated :)
Here are some pictures and ideas





Check out the Old South Carolina tile to get an idea of the transition in the room
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Loving this weather!

Matthew and Anna Gray walking around at Seward Farms



Thomas and Caroline at Seward Farms



On the Cow Train



Matthew pushing Thomas in the car



At the Zoo with Nana. Our camera died so we didn't get many pictures :(



Halloween Party at Kindermusik. Matthew is Woody from Toy Story. "Cowboy"



Chilling in the bed with daddy



Such a big boy!



I was cooking one day and Matthew had taken some Chili Powder and sprinkled it on the window ledge. He was rubbing it on his face like I do with my makeup. haha

Happy Birthday to...

Matthew has his 2nd birthday Saturday! We had a Thomas the Train party at our house. We had lots of family and friends to help us celebrate! He was walking around singing "Happy Birthday to" "Happy Birthday to". He really liked it when we sang Happy Birthday to him. His face lit up. He had a great time at his party!
Thomas is crawling everywhere. He is also sitting up on his own now and starting to pull himself up/climbing on everything. He will be walking before we know it! He is such a sweet, happy boy!
We took the boys to North Carolina to see Paul's sister and her family. She has 2 children: Whitt, 3 yrs old and Payson, 7 1/2 months old. We drove 14 hours in one day!! The boys actually did really well. We went to a few museums, did a little shopping, had some carolina bbq, went to Duke gardens, and got to see our friends, Dawn and Bailey from optometry school! We had a great trip!


Birthday Boy!


"Happy birthday to you!"


Paul's Family- 4 generations


Celebrating Matthew's birthday with his cousin Whitt.


Matthew and Whitt running around at Duke Gardens.


Thomas and Payson, 3 weeks apart


I love this picture. Matthew wanted to walk with Thomas and hold his hand. So sweet.

What is not going on...

We are super busy these days. Matthew started Mother's morning out at Trinity Methodist Church this week. He did great and has a great class. I know he will enjoy that. Next week we will start Kindermusik. I think Thomas and Matthew will both enjoy it, and we are doing it with some friends. I have also joined a women's BIBLE study group at Trinity which I am very excited about. I have been wanting to do one for a while, but our church just doesn't really offer that for us. It is during the day, and they offer child care, so Matthew and Thomas get to go play for a little while. I have also starting running a little now that it has cooled off a some. We will see how long it last though ;)
Tropical Storm Lee left us with some water in our bedroom and Matthew's bedroom. We had a couple inches of water coming in from the ground. We have a french drain, but I think we just got too much water for it to handle. So our bedrooms have been a mess this week, and I think we are going to have to replace the carpet pads, walls, baseboards, and french drain. I dread having to do all that, but I don't think we have any other options. Matthew has been sleeping in Thomas' room since his is all messed up, and they have been doing great with that. I tried the big boy bed today, and he did great with it. I have really been debating about putting them in the same room lately anyways, so I may just take this opportunity to do it now. I can make Matthew's room a playroom and hopefully reclaim the den!! :)
Thomas is crawling around everywhere now. He likes to get the power cords to the lamp and phone, so I have to keep a close eye on him. Everything goes in his mouth these days. He is doing great with solids, sleeping great at night, and is close to sitting up on his own. Matthew is obsessed with Thomas the train and Toy Story 3. We have to watch them at least once a day! He also is climbing everything. He loves climbing onto the beds and lately he keeps climbing into Thomas' crib with him. Especially after nap time. He doesn't do it unless I am in there though, thank goodness :)

Brotherly love and bunkering down

The boys ready for the first STATE game. GO STATE!!


Matthew was helping me feed Thomas one day, and yes, he has on just a diaper.


Play time!

Well we are bunkered down for the weekend with Tropical Storm Lee. It hasn't been too bad so far, just a lot of rain that comes and goes. But yes, there was a moment this morning when I was scared. We were under a Tornado WARNING, which anyone who knows me well knows I don't do well with bad weather. I think it is one of my biggest fears, so anyways I get out the radios and make sure they work with batteries, get Matthews mattress and take it into the bathroom along with some food, diapers, wipes etc...just in case. Paul went back there and started laughing, which of course I wasn't :) Once the tornado warning expired and the rain had stopped, I sent Paul out to get a weather radio and some groceries. Now I have calmed down a little, and we are ready to watch football and eat my favorite dip- spicy spinach rotel!
I hope and pray this weekend won't be too bad. I can handle the rain and a little wind, but tornadoes scare me!!!

As for my goals, I haven't done too well with them, so since it is the beginning of month, I am going to try really hard to do better this month!

Fun day in New Orleans

Paul had Thursday off so he wanted to take us to New Orleans for the day. We started at City Park at Storyland. It was a really cute place with lots of props from nursery rhymes and popular children's stories. It was a great place to take cute pictures and let the kids climb on and slide down the props. We wanted to go to the zoo, but after being outside for 30 minutes, we decided it was way too hot! So we ended up at the Louisiana Children's Museum. It too was a very neat place. They had a lot of places for the kids to explore. They even had an eye area, which Paul thought was really neat. We had a great time in New Orleans. Can't wait for it to cool off a little so we can go to the zoo!



Jack and Jill with a well and slide


The cow jumping over the moon


The whale


The Firetruck


The Three Little Pigs houses




Matthew is showing Thomas what all the pictures are.