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. 

Halloween 2015

Trick-or-Treat 

Caroline enjoyed her first Halloween dressed as a pumpkin! It rained all afternoon but that didn't stop us from putting our costumes on and handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters. My family dressed up as the cast of Wizard-of-Oz. Luckily, Caroline didn't get too frightened by my wicked green face or the scary Lion's mask! 

I mean, seriously. Is he not the CUTEST munchkin you ever did see???? 

And sweet little Dorothy clicking those heels together to try to find her way back home. 

There truly is no place like home....or family :)  

"I think I'll go to Boston"

Alan had a conference for residency in Boston last week and I decided to take a baby break and tag along. It was my first time away from Caroline for longer than eight hours during the day since she was born.  Although I missed her liked crazy and we talked about her almost the entire trip, it was a much needed break for Alan and me. We hadn't been on a real date since Caroline was born and we hardly even get to sit down and eat a meal together at home. So the time away with just the two of us was so refreshing! We had a great time with some of Alan's residency friends and we knew that our girl was in GREAT hands with the grandparents.  On that note, HUGE shout out to Granmomma and Lollie who love our girl so much and take such great care of her. We are SO grateful for them!!! 

Boston was one of the prettiest and cleanest cities I have ever been to. The weather was perfect and the colors of Fall were breathtaking. We ate our fair share of clam chowder, crab cakes and cannoli's. Good thing we walked a lot during the day to make up for our horrific caloric intake! 

We took a duck tour that was on land and water.  The bus converted into a boat and it made for quite an interesting tour. Our tour guide was hysterical and had us laughing the entire time! 

My favorite street in Boston was Newbury Street.  It is in a gorgeous area of Boston with the best shopping and parks around.  Two of my favorite stores side by side. I die. 

It was a great three day get-a-way but I couldn't get back to my girl fast enough!