Happy 6th Birthday K!

K woke up and was so delightful this morning! Love birthday mornings- they wake up so happy! Here she is at breakfast this morning. Miss Mallory- notice the outfit( I went and got leggings so that she could wear it to school!



R and I ate lunch with K at her school. R loves to eat at K's school.

All three before opening the presents

K opening her gift from Aunt Jill and Uncle Mark- she loves listening to the music.

Look Ma No Trainig Wheels!

Last week the stomach bug made it's way through our family. First was R, then K, Brian, and JW. By Sunday I was not sick but just felt completely drained. So Brian had the kids played outside so that I could rest. K decided that she was ready to take the training wheels off. And in a couple of tries she was off! I missed it and by the time I saw her a little bit later she had already moved on to her bigger bike(thanks Stephanie).

And this is what R and I did during all the sickness. Can you tell how bad we feel?

Rough Game and an ICE Day

One of our presents were tickets for Brian and I to go to the Gator Bowl to see Michigan play Mississippi State. We had fun but unfortunately Michigan could not pull out a win. O well, at least one of our teams won!



R and Millie are the best of friends. I am not sure if it is b/c R is so small or if it is b/c he throws food to her all the time, but Millie really likes R(more than she did the other 2 at this age).

While all of our friends back in Georgia were enjoying snow we had ice. Here K is getting warm after playing out in the ice. R and I stayed inside where it was nice and warm!

Even though we did not have any snow, we did enjoy our ice day and having Daddy home!

Christmas in Jax

After we left Poppy and Tutu's we headed south to spend time with BP's family. The kids spent a lot of time playing with Grandpa Pete's trains.




One of the popular gifts some of the kids got was Pillow Pets.

And here is the crew trying to get a good group shot- impossible! We had a wonderful time and the kids did not want to come home.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Tutu helped the kids make cookies for Santa. I was so tired- can you tell!



Right before we headed to bed the kids prepared a plate of goodies for Santa and sampled the cookies to make sure they were ok for the big guy.

K really got in to picking out gifts for everyone. One of her gifts was a "cozy robe" for Poppy.

And we all had our first white in Georgia. It was neat and really made it feel like Christmas. We also saw our good friends the Hamilton's while we were back and saw the whole Smith clan the night that it snowed.

The Nutcracker

We left for Poppy and Tutu's a few days before Christmas and had several fun things planned for the kids. First on the list was a trip to the Fox to see The Nutcracker. R stayed home with Poppy and Tutu while we took K and JW to the show. We grabbed a quick bite at the Varsity before heading over to the Fox.

The kids did fine but JW did got a little restless near the end. He made it through the show though and said next time he would go back if Cars was playing! Brian and I had already decided that we would not bring him back next year!

Christmas Card 2010

If you got our card you know the one we chose was an outside shot. But I couldn't help but post some of my favorites from our attempt at a decent family shot. We were beyond short on time and luckily Walgreen's was able to bail us out since I waited to late to do anything else! Next year I will do better- at least that is what I keep telling myself. Although our cards were not my favorite this year, I just couldn't not send them. O- and if you are looking for a trick to keep your kids into picture taking we have found it! A couple of years ago Brian got a remote for our camera to use when taking a group picture. We let the kids use it and they LOVED it! If you look closely K is holding it-we later told them to try to hide it when holding it.

I loved this picture but we could not use it b/c of Millie!



Another favorite but JW's head is cut out.

JW now has the remote and had us all laughing!

After Brian and I were done the kids just wanted to pose and take their picture with the remote! We will definitely be using this trick in the future.

Pink Pig and Santa

Since we were not sure when we would be moving I went ahead and made our annual appointment to see Santa at Phipps. We left after lunch to head to Atlanta. Since the Pink Pig closed early the night we went last year we headed there first this year. The kids enjoyed it even with the blow freezing temps!



Here is the gang with Santa. Unfortunately R got a little upset so we had to pull out the ol' paci. After that he was content to just sit with Santa. Which was great b/c I did not have to join them on Santa's lap. This was JW's first year to really chat with Santa about his list. As we were leaving, the parking lot was tricky due to all the ice. We made it home with no problems but saw a lot of pile ups due to the bad weather.

Termites and a Christmas Party

When we moved in there were huge window treatments in several rooms that we took down shortly after moving in. While taking down one of these we found termite damage. So the last week before Christmas break we had someone come out and fix the damage. And of course the damage was worst than they originally thought and took them longer than expected. We can't complain though b/c our termite bond covered it all!



JW had a great time at his class Christmas party. I must say I still miss buddies at Cannon. And poor K missed her party and the last 3 days of school due to a fever.

Our New Backyard

One word to describe our new backyard- LEAVES! O my heavens are the leaves out of control. Brian is even at the point of paying someone to help, and if you know Brian it must be a lot of leaves. Before we left Brian tried again to clean things up- and the kids had a blast! Since we don't always get snow here in the south we settle for playing in the leaves even in December. Brian raked a huge pile that they loved blowing through.

Here is sweet R trying to help Daddy with his huge chore!

After the bikes they moved on to sliding down into the leaves. Check out R's expression! All and all the backyard is great we just will have to have a better plan for all the leaves next year!

R Update

This little guy is doing great! We had an MRI done in September that was a bit of a scheduling night mare but all and all went fine. R did have a reaction after the MRI which kept us at the hospital for an extra 3 hours. Two weeks later the Neurosurgeon went over the results with us. R still has room where the stenosis is located so no surgery at this time. He also said that R's lower spine looks more like an average sized baby's spine as far as the room around the spine. We will continue with our yearly MRI unless we see any signs that there may be problems.

This December we met with our Ortho. and ENT doctors. They took x-rays at the ortho appointment and said he looked great. That he still has a curve in his spine when sitting but straightens his spine nicely when standing/walking. At the ENT we had to unclog one of his tubes. R was not a fan! Unfortunatley, the dr. said it looked as though he might soon lose one of his tubes. Since his body grows so much slower than an average baby it will more than likely take his body years before his ears will be slanted enough to drain properly on thier own. So, we need them to stay in as long as possible- especially through the cold/flu season. The more times someone has tubes the more scare tissue can build up and cause hearing loss.

All and all we are doing great and just enjoying our happy little guy! Hetill is not saying many words so I think speech therapy is in our future. He babbles just not many words.