Happy Thanksgiving!!!

This picture of Emma Claire just might be my favorite one of her ever...

Grayson and his cousin Joey--or "Jody", as Grayson calls him :). We also celebrated Joey's 12th birthday today! Happy birthday, Joey!!

I just love these two pictures of Grayson in motion...

We had a wonderfully relaxing Thanksgiving with Ben's family today. We ate lots of delicious food and spent time catching up with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Here are some pictures that we took with Ben's Uncle Mike's awesome digital SLR camera---I'm BEGGING Santa for a camera like this!!

Girls' weekend!!

The adorable oceanfront cottage that we stayed in

Hanging out at the spa...

Dinner at Marshside Mama's

Meg and me
Jen and Christie

Lindsay, Kat, and Meg
Meg leading everybody in song while waiting for our ride :)
Jen, Meg, Lindsay, and Brooks snuggling in bed

Beautiful sunrise from our front porch

This past weekend I went to Daufuskie Island for a girls' weekend to celebrate my friend Jen's 30th birthday. What a FUN weekend!!! We had a great time getting pampered at the spa, drinking wine and laughing our butts off, pigging out at Marshside Mama's, and sleeping all night with no babies to tend to. Ben held down the fort at home with Grayson and Emma Claire and said that it was "so easy". Glad he thought so---all the more motivation to plan the next girls' trip away! :)

My happy babies...

Naptime = soap operas and cookie dough

I love being a stay at home mom. It's very rewarding, but also a lot of work. Most days it's constant driving, cleaning, diaper-changing, nursing, and cooking. Some days I beg Ben to stay home and let me go to work in his place (ha!), but most of the time I wouldn't trade what I do for anything in the world. One of my favorite times during the day is naptime. Grayson and Emma Claire nap at the same time so I usually have at least an hour or two where it's quiet and I can do whatever I want to do without having to check on the children every couple of minutes. Today I had to laugh at myself, though---not long after both of them were down for their naps, I literally sat down on the couch, turned on As the World Turns, propped my feet up on the coffee table, and dug into a bowl of cookie dough that I had just made. AH, what a life!! :)

Breakfast, with a side of politics

This morning I went out to breakfast with two of my best friends, Christie and Meg. John McCain stopped by and joined us for a little while, too. :) He is in town today for a Veteran's Day event and stopped by the little restaurant where we were eating to do a some campaigning. It was pretty cool---the place was PACKED and he gave a great speech that had everybody cheering. We didn't talk to him but had a great view from above where we could see everything perfectly. It's not every day that I take Grayson to school, hang out with a presidential candidate, and then go run errands!

Buddies

I took these pictures last week when Grayson went to play at his friend Vann's house. Silly boys loved standing on the table in Vann's nursery!

Thursday Thirteen

13 Things That Remind Me I'm a Mommy (in case I ever forget!)

1. I either step on or sit on toy cars, trucks, or trains multiple times a day.

2. I know all of the cartoon theme songs on the Disney Channel by heart. They play in my head constantly throughout the day.

3. I don't think twice about getting poop on my hand (another thing that happens daily).

4. I love drooly kisses! Never thought I'd say that! :)

5. It's rare that I can go to the bathroom by myself.

6. I can swaddle a baby with my eyes closed.

7. My pocketbook currently holds three pairs of socks, a burp cloth, four pacifiers, and two toy cars. Somewhere else in there are my wallet, keys, sunglasses, and cell phone.

8. I do at least two loads of laundry every day. I have no clue how we go through so many clothes!

9. I can put on my makeup in 2 minutes flat.

10. I can have a 30 minute conversation about breastmilk or baby poop.

11. I worry about lead in toys and polycarbonates in baby bottles.

12. Ben can ask where his "doot" is and I know that he's looking for his watch. We have picked up some of our two-year-old's vocabulary somewhere along this journey in parenthood. :)

13. Saturday mornings are no longer for sleeping in---they're for snuggling in bed with our babies...around 6:30. :)

Wordless Wednesday...sort of...

Okay, just a few words. This is what my messy 2-year-old looks like every day when he gets home from school. I need to buy stock in Shout!!!

Weekend in the mountains

We spent the weekend in the NC mountains with some of our friends and their kiddos---what a great trip! Our friends Gretchen and Ben and their children, Henry and Ruby (interesting fact: Grayson and Henry are 11 days apart in age, and Emma Claire and Ruby are 10 days apart!), were our neighbors until May when they moved to Maryland. We hadn't seen them in 6 months, so we were able to meet up for an awesome weekend at a cabin in North Carolina. Christie, Brad, Tyler, Sanders, and Gibson also went, so we had 6 adults and 7 children---we were outnumbered! We all had a blast playing, dancing, drinking, eating, and catching up, and are already planning our next trip together in January. We love y'all, Hogies! :)

Happy Halloween!!

Finally, Halloween pictures to share! Grayson was very resistant to wearing his monkey costume, but I quickly figured out that if I gave him a lollipop he wore it without any more protesting. Bribery at its finest! We went trick-or-treating to a few houses with Tyler and Sanders---the kiddos had a great time and the babies tagged along and looked adorable. :)