Christmas!

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas! My parents and brother drove up from Florida Christmas day and stayed until Monday. We changed our tradition up a little bit and it turned out fabulous! See, for the past few years, I've cooked Christmas dinner (usually a Honeybaked ham!) on Christmas Eve, and on Christmas day for dinner we order Chinese food! Yummy! Well, this year, my parents were coming Christmas day, so I wanted to cook dinner for all of us. On Christmas Eve we went to our Church's service uptown and it was FABULOUS!! It was at the Belk Theater!!

Christmas morning Tyler woke us up by pulling on Eric's shirt saying "Daddy! Daddy! Santa came and Caiden is opening all the presents!!" So, Eric and I woke up (at 7AM) and had our Christmas. 12 minutes later, the gifts were open and paper was everywhere! LOL! It wasn't that quick.. hehe

We all go very nice things, Caiden getting a camera (because he LOVES to cheese like his mommy!) and Tyler got his Nintendo DS!!!! And he was super happy!!! Those were Santa gifts ;)

After we opened gifts and ate some yummy cinnamon rolls, Kate and I started preparing our Christmas feast! It was the VERY FIRST TIME I cooked a turkey BY MYSELF (with Kate of course!) I got all our recipes for the dinner on healthyrecipes.com. We made a shallot and apple stuffed turkey, roasted sweet potatoes, parsley and garlic roasted squash, apple and cranberry stuffing, and we can't forget the mashed potatoes and mac and cheese (the mac and cheese was made traditionally with all the butter and cheese!!) It was delicious!! My parents made it just in time for dinner and came with a WHOLE trunk load of gifts!! It was santa time all over again!!

Overall, we had a wonderful Christmas with friends and family!!!

Family Portraits

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Columbia (Gilbert), SC, to my Nana's (GiGi's) house! We got to see everyone! Including my cousins Cody, Dalton and Mason who I haven't seen in a few years. It's always nice seeing family! Nana cooked a delicious dinner, along with the help of all our family members who brought something! We had fun talking, playing games, drinking wine, we even did I Chinese gift exchange! Eric and I came home with some wine glasses, wine opener, wine tags, (that was one gift) and we also got the Mad Gab game... which is super fun! BUT our NEW favorite game to play now is the Game of Things! We played it for hours! Man I love my family! Happy Thanksgiving!

The day after Thanksgiving we went to the mall.... not to shop, but to get our pictures taken! Her are a few shots ;)

November Recap

November was a GREAT month! Eric had is BIG 20-10 (aka 30th) Birthday!!! I surprised him (along with many of his friends) with a Limo Wine Tour of the Yadkin Valley! It was AMAZING! The limo picked us up around 1030 on a Saturday morning and when we climbed in, the limo was filled with friends! We had a blast that day drinking champagne in the limo, laughing, singing, and tasting fabulous wines at 4 different wineries!!!! and for lunch, we had delicious gourment lunch boxes set up for us at one of the vineyards! We bought a bottle at each vineyard to take home. Our favorite one was Raylen Vineyards and Winery in Monksville, NC. Some others were Laural Grey and Ragapple Lassie. At Ragapple, we got to see how they made the wine which was a real treat!!

Overall, the birthday was a HUGE success! We wished EVERYONE could have joined us! We can't wait to go again one day!

Happy Birthday Babyface, I love you!

Here are some pictures from the wine tour!

Speed Camping

For our 2nd camping trip we went went to a couple campgrounds... Hiddenite and Lake Norman State Park and had a BLAST! Lots of fun memories were made... stories we'll tell for years and years to come!

This picture collage is at Lake Norman State Park. We went for a hike on the trails around the lake. The dogs were the first to arrive to the water (go figure) and jumped right in.... along with 6 other kids!! They all had a blast swimming and splashing around in the water on this beautiful October day!

This picture collage is when we had to move our tents because we had set up on a handicapped lot.... we didn't want to take down our tents (again) so we all grabbed a corner and walked to our next site!

This collage is mostley pictures from Hiddenite Campground... NEVER go there... it's terrible. We had TONS of fun at night though.. hay rides, home made haunted house.... but as far as the area/bathrooms, etc... it's not good..... ugh... but we made the best of it that night and packed up Saturday morning to go to Lake Norman! So worth it!!

October recap

The boys had a great time trick-or-treating in the Musso's neighborhood! Caiden and his friend Brayden would race to the door to ring the door bell.. it was the cutest thing!! I made Tyler's costume this year, he wanted to be a Zombie. Caiden was origiananlly going to be a race car driver, but the costume didn't fit and I couldn't return it so he enjoyed being Batman (Tyler's costume from a few years ago).

This year for my birthday my sister surprised me with a themed party! It was 100 of my favorite things.. from my favorite color (purple) to my favorite gum, wine, store, coffee, laundry scent, music, drink, food (salad with rotissouri chicken, BBQ, fresh fruit,..), my sister and mom even brought me chick-fil-a for lunch that day at work! ...etc, etc! It was a BLAST and all my friends participated!! My mom even surprised me by flying up! When I saw her standing in my kitchen at 10:30 at night, I fell to the floor and almost peed in my pants I was so excited!! Thank you everyone for making my birthday extra special!! I love you all!

Kate, Jen, Melanie and I drove to Columbia for my Aunt Robin and Uncle Jimmy's Anniversary/Halloween party! We had so much fun singing Karaoke!

Tyler lost another tooth..

Tyler lost his first tooth eating an snow cone, his 2nd was at school while eating an apple... 3rd was at the house... and the 4th was at school again! He has his front 4 teeth missing at the same time!!

September Recap

Def Leopard Concert.... Girls Night Out... Tammy visits...Grandpa Mick and Rachel visit... Greek Festival.. Matthews Alive carnival... camping... a whole month of FUN!

Greek Festival and playground fun in the dark with the kiddos!


My wonderful friend Tammy came up for a visit from Florida, so we gathered the girls and headed uptown for some fun!!

Def Leopard concert!


Grandpa Dave and Rachel came to visit for a long weekend! We took them to our church, Elevation, then went out to lunch afterwards!

Carowinds

Jay came for a visit this summer for about a week. Tyler and Caiden LOVED having their Uncle Jay play with them. On one of his last days here, Dad bought us all tickets to Carowinds! We all went, along with Kate, Hunter, and Peyton! We spent most of our day cooling off at the water park! It was so much fun!

Night out with Dory, Marcus, Kate and Dustin

Dory and Marcus took us out for a night of fun and Beantown!! We had a blast!!

Caiden's 2nd Birthday!

Caiden's 2nd birthday party was a blast! We had it at a park near the house that the boys love to go to all the time. Lots of family and friends came.. we ate pizza.. cake... and the kids played until they were nice a sweaty!!

Caiden, you are growing up so fast! You are a handsome, fun loving, happy go lucky little kid and we love you SO MUCH!!

Some of my favorite things you say (pronounce) are:

peese "please" and you still do the sign for it eventhough you can say it.. and it's adorable!

c'meer "come here" as you gesture your hand in the "come here motion"

yeth "yes"... you sound like Pedro from Napoleon Dynomite

I'm sure there are plenty more, but those 3 are my favorite! You always make us smile!

You LOVE your big brother! You want to do everything he does.. you want everything he has... go everywhere he goes.. you are like his mini shadow. Luckily Tyler loves you just as much and lets you follow him ;)

Happy Birthday Caiden! We love you!

Summer recap

Okay, so I slacked some this summer on my postings... I guess we've been super busy... or I'm just addicted to facebook! LOL! Even if both are true, I need to update this blog now!

Since my last blog post, we have done MANY things. I figured I'd briefly list some of the things we've done, then get into more details in later blogs until I'm completely up to date!

Here we go:

1. We finished our wonderful vacation at Indian Rocks Beach, Florida. It was a blast and we thank you mom and dad for EVERYTHING!! The condo was amazing, the location, etc., etc.!

. Eric and I celebrated our 3 year Anniversary on June 24th!!

3. My parents celebrated their 29th Anniversary on July 1st.

4. Eric's dad Dave and his wife Rachel celebrated their 2nd Anniversary!! They had a beautiful wedding in Jupitor Florida... I was 8 months pregnant!

5. Our neice Isabella turned 3

6. Kay, Tish and Jenn had a birthday in July

7. Dave, Dad, and Papaw had a birthday in August

8. as well as Caiden who turned 2 on the 19th!!!

9. Tyler lost another tooth on the bottom while vacationing in Florida in June.

10. Jay came to visit with us for 2 weeks and had a blast! We took him to Carowinds! (Thanks mom and dad!)

11. Mom, Kate, Aunt Robin, Robin Weibler and I had a girls weekend in Charleston and it was a blast!!

12. We tailgated at a couple more concerts and went in to see Def Leopard, Poison and Cheap Trick

13. I started a new job at a 5 Star Preschool and am SUPER excited about it!

14. Dustin and Kate got an apartment next to the town houses Eric, Tyler and I FIRST moved into!

15.We had some super fun parties at friends houses, Alive After 5, Live music at the Whitewater center, out on the town...

16. We helped some great friends move into houses, Eric even helped move people he hardly knows

17. We started going to Church every Sunday! Elevation- it's awesome. I volunteer their now in the baby room (go figure!)

18. Tyler met his new 1st grade teacher- and her husband works with ERIC!

19. Matt and Mery took us out on their boat for the day and Tyler got to go tubing for the first time! It was also Caiden's first time on a boat and he LOVED it! Except for the life jacket...

20. We got to meet and fall in love with Dustins wonderful sister Chelsea who took care of our boys while we worked!! Thank you again for your wonderfulness ;)

3 years ago....

on June 24, 2006 I married the man of my dreams.... my best friend! I love you babyface, more and more everyday!

Happy Anniversary!!

Vacation!!

DAY 1: Depart from Charlotte, NC; Arrive in Clearwater, FL

This summer my parents rented a condo on Indian Rocks Beach near Clearwater, Florida for the week of July 4th! We drove in on Friday night and are staying until the 5th of July!! We have been looking forward to this ALL YEAR (thanks Mom and Dad).

We loaded up my Explorer with me, Eric, Ty, Caiden, Kate, and our dogs Buck and Ellie Mae! We are all able to fit and only pack 2 suitcases!!! The ride was long, took about 11 hours, but the kids and dogs did great!! We stopped twice at rest stops for the dogs to run around and had a lot of fun.

When we got home, my mom had baked some yummy lasagna for us to eat for dinner!! We stayed up and chatted, had a couple glasses of wine, then hit the sack so we can start our vacation on Saturday!!!

DAY 2: Clearwater Beach, check in condo at Indian Rocks Beach
Kate's friend from college was playing in a beach volleyball tournament Saturday at Clearwater Beach so Kate and I went over there that morning to watch her play a match before we headed to the condo!! It was nice seeing the beach where I grew up at!! Love it!

We got to our condo around 4 (beautiful!!!) and then went straight to the beach! Caiden and Tyler loved the ocean. We finished the day with a dip in the pool then went to eat some fish at Crabby Bills!

1st grader in the house!

Tyler you did it! You made it through Kindergarden with flying colors! We are so proud of you!

Tyler accomplished many things this year; he reads independently now, can count to 100 (I first told him a little trick I knew " one, two, skip a few, 99, 100!" but he told me "that's not right mommy! LOL ! He can write sentences and he loves to draw pictures. He's also pretty good at Math (like his mommy!)

After the ceremony in the cafeteria where he got his diploma, we went back to his classroom where his teacher handed out individual awards. Tyler got 2: "Accelerrated Reader Award" and "Most Well-Rounded!" It brought tears to my eyes!! It's amazing how fast he is growing and maturing. He facinates us everyday. We are so pround of him not only as a son, and student, but he's a pretty awesome big brother too!! We love you Ty-man!

Has it been THAT long?

I promise to update this at least once a week. I apoligize for waiting a month since my last post. We still don't have a camera (sent both in to get fixed!). Here's a small list of things that have happend since Tyler lost his tooth....

1. Katelen and Dustin's sister, Chelsie, have moved to Charlotte! They are currently living with us until they find jobs and a house! We are SO happy to have them stay with us! Kate and I are finally together again!

2. Since Kate's here we obviously had to make a room for her, so we decided to bunk the boys together in Tyler's room!! Eric found an nice wooden one on craigslist! The boys LOVE it. Now we just have to find some matching bedding. We also learned that "nap time" for Caiden in a big boy bed was harder than we thought....

3. Country summer concerts have begun. We've been to 2 already- George Strait and Brad Paisley!

4. Tyler is finishing his last few days of Kindergarten. Last week Tyler had a Feild Day at school where Caiden and I went to help out/watch and it was tons of fun! He has his graduation on MONDAY!

5. We completed our flower garden out front and the leaves had started to sprout up! Hopefully we'll get to see some flowers soon

6. Kay (Nana), Wayne (G-Pa), and their dog Duke came to Charlotte for Memorial weekend! We had a blast together.. eventhough it rained most of the time! Buck and Duke had lots of fun together.. such wonderful dogs!

**Kay took some pictures since I didn't have one :( We saw something really facinating while they were here too... the inside of a golf ball... pretty sweet!

7. Kate, Morgan, Falyn, and I went to Sunset beach for Morgan's birthday!

8. We went camping for the first time this season at Kings Mtn. Since it was in SC during that huge forest fire, we weren't aloud to have a camp fire! What's camping without a camp fire!!? We still had fun though!