It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas....

Even though it's 70 degrees outside.  We have been playing in our Christmas jammies and embracing the Christmas season anyway! 

We have some exciting Christmas festivities coming up including a trip to Gatlinburg with my family! We can't wait to spend time with the ones we love, eat yummy food, and celebrate Jesus' birthday!  Wishing you lot's of holiday cheer! 

What's Up Doc?! 9 Month Check-Up

Last week Caroline had her 9 month check-up and she is one healthy, growing girl!! And busy, busy, busy. So busy. She is keeping us on our toes these days but this age is so fun!

At nine months we are working on saying and waving"bye-bye" and associating the words "mama" and "dada" to who we are.  I can tell we are getting close but she doesn't do very consistently. She is crawling (faster than I can walk at times), pulling up on everything she possibly can, and can stand up by herself for a few short seconds at a time. She <finally> started cutting her first tooth last week. She is full of energy and I couldn't love her more if I tried. Here she is waiting like a big girl with her lovey at the doctor's office.

Finally getting to play with the big kid toys! 

27 1/4" long (31st percentile)

18lbs  (45th percentile) 

Reading Mommy stories while we waited on the Dr. 

 We got a A+ on our check-up! 

And of course, can't forget our monthly photos! Which are getting almost impossible but so entertaining :) 

Happiest nine months with you, baby girl.

Thanksgiving 2016

Caroline's first Thanksgiving was full of food, family, and fun. We enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving meal with my in-laws and the Shaw's at Shoal Creek Country Club. The food didn't disappoint and Caroline loved sitting like a big girl in her high-chair at the table. She enjoyed a healthy portion of grapes, sweet potatoes, dressing, and ice cream. After lunch, Caroline was busy crawling around on the gold course while we attempted to take some photos.

After Thanksgiving with the Cease crew, we headed north to visit with my side of the family. We gathered at my Aunt Tracy's house and had a huge feast with our BIG family! There were around 40 family members in attendance (we were missing a few). We always have a big time and it was great catching up with those I don't get to see very often.  

The crew. 

Granny (my great-grandmother) with her children. 

My Grandmother and her immediate family. (A little wind-blown) 

"Sandra" Clause came and visited the children. Huge hit! Caroline sure did enjoy meeting him. 

Love this sweet pic captured of Dad and Caroline. 

It was a Happy Thanksgiving with wonderful memories made. 

It's so easy to get caught up in the stressors of life and this sinful world that we live in. We tend to lose sight of the positives in our lives and focus on the negatives. But if we take a big step back and realize how great our God is and how much He has done and provided for us the list of good in our lives seems overwhelming. So this Thanksgiving, I will praise my God who in the midst of a fallen world still provides hope, grace, peace and love to His children and for that I am thankful. 

New York, New York!!

For my mother-in-law's birthday, my sister-in-law and I took her to NYC for a girls trip. Meghan lived in New York City for a brief time a few years ago and she was the perfect tour guide.  She knew all the hot spots and made the trip so enjoyable. We had a great time sight-seeing, eating, and watching a couple of shows.  Every time I go to the Big Apple I am always amazed at how big this world is. It is a spectacular place with so much energy!  I missed my girl like crazy but knew that Aunt Mac and Grandmommy were spoiling her rotten and that she was loving every minute with her big and little cousins :) 

Arriving at the hotel in style in our private limo! 

Beautiful Skyline

 Enjoying a beautiful lunch at The Boathouse in Central Park 

The Rockettes never disappoint and seeing the Christmas story displayed in the center of Times Square during the performance made my heart so so happy.  This nativity scene was breathtakingly beautiful and the applause at the end of it sent chills up my spine. 

Macy's was decorated like a winter wonderful.  Gorgeous.

We somehow managed to score tickets to the Meredith Vieira show! It was so neat to see the "behind the scene" details. I got to see NSYNC's Lance Bass as well as Regis! It was a good time indeed.  

Happy EIGHT Months!

Eight months old.  Goodness gracious. Not much has changed since month seven except you are pulling up on everything to a standing position and making me so nervous that you are going to take off walking at any moment. I still think we are a few months away because your balance isn't that stable yet but it's coming. You also have recently started eating some table food and you really enjoy it.  Peas, carrots, potatoes, mac and cheese, you name it and you'll eat it. Oh what fun we are having and we cannot wait for the holiday season! 

These past few weeks we have been so insanely busy and I have been out of town a good bit. It was so hard being away for a few days at a time but we are all back home together again and life is as sweet as it can be. While I was gone however, Caroline was in pretty good company! She stayed at my sister's house with a multitude of toys at her disposal, a big cousin and a little cousin to play with, plus all the snuggles and loving from Granmomma, Grandaddy and Aunt MC. :) So thankful for a family that loves my little girl so much. 

Story time with Will. 

Restaurant entertainment. Sucking water from the bottom of the straw. Works miracles. 

Out shopping with Mommy and Granmommy until she dropped. 

Blurry pic but had to document. I walked in from work to find them like this. Sweetest sight in the entire world.