Ho-ho-Holidays!!

This post is going to be mainly a photo dump.  We had an amazing Christmas Break. 

 I enjoyed being a stay at home mommy for two short weeks.  

I dare you to look AT the camera Avery!

helping Mommy and Daddy

It wouldn't be the holidays without spending time with our family. Mom and I took Laila and Avery up to visit Grayson and Andrea for a couple hours one day over break.  Somehow we timed it perfectly and got them all asleep just in time to eat lunch together in peace.

The weekend before Christmas we drove to Aunt Nicki and Uncle Jeff's house to celebrate Christmas with the Ellington's.  We found out Aunt Mary and Uncle Mark are also having a baby girl, Sadie Ruth.  The girls will out number the boys which I'm sure Patti/Mimi is fine with considering she has 3 boys.  Bring on the tutus, smoked dresses, and of course hair bows.

Ellington cousins playing together

Opening her ECU Barbie Doll 

They will hate me for this one day!!

Christmas Eve was spend at Gigi and Pop Pops house as usual.  Some of our family came down with a pretty bad stomach virus, so they were sadly unable to be with us.  We ate delicious food and spent great quality time together.  These kids sure do love their Pop Pop and Gigi!!

My baby girl

Last Christmas of a family of 3

Maslow Family

Baby Pearl Annie

Awesome sleeping bags Gaggy

Joe, Avery and I spent a quiet Christmas morning opening gifts and enjoying our time together.  Mom, Dad, and Grammy came over for brunch and I do believe we stayed in our PJs ALL day.  What more could you ask for?

It's a....

We were able to find out the sex of the baby a week before Christmas.  I had a feeling I knew what it was going to be, but of course there's always a 50% chance of being wrong (or right). I surprised myself at my restraint and allowed the doctor to put the gender in an envelope and immediately gave it to my sister.  She went out and bought silly string to match the color of the gender. The rest of my family came over that evening for pizza and of course the silly sting episode.  It didn't go exactly how planned, but it was still fun.   

All prepared to spray"up" instead of at us... 

and so we got it in the face

It's PINK!!!

Avery not happy about the string all over her 

 

My Little Turkey

We spent our first Thanksgiving in Swansboro this year.  Usually we just go for the weekend, but Joe was blessed to have that Friday off , so we left Wednesday evening and stay through the weekend.  

We were also very lucky to go to downtown Beaufort to see Santa Claus arrive on a boat.  Avery and her two cousins, Brayden and Jamison were there to visit Santa and sit on his lap.  None of these were too thrilled with meeting him, but Avery loved seeing him come into port and watch him walk down the dock.

Thanksgiving in Swansboro would not be complete with watching the Floatilla on Mimi and Pop's dock.  Look how tired my lil lady was. 

Pumpkins, Ghosts, Goblins, and big kids...

Fall always kicks off with a trip to Hawks pumpkin patch in Winston Salem.  Joe and I have been visiting this patch even before baby girl entered our lives.  These pumpkins played a special role in our "baby announcement" this year. We got a pumpkin for every member of the family, including a baby pumpkin for our newest addition who at the time we did not know was a boy or a girl.

Getting a 2 year old to look at the camera is a challenge for us!

Always on the move

When Halloween arrived I was a little unsure how Avery would do.  Sometimes she is bubbly and outgoing and others she is timid and shy.  Well Halloween scared the dickens out of her.  She didn't want to walk to the houses without being carried, EVEN with candy as an end result.  She could care less.  We went trick-or-treating with our neighbors at Old Salem and she was clinging to Joe or I and refused to walk by herself.  Poor girl was scared to death of the scary costumes, but I can't really blame her.  That's a lot for a two year old to grasp.

*** pictures coming later (for some reason I don't have them on this computer)


But alas, Minnie Mouse was rescued by her Pirate in shining armor and Carson made her feel safe enough to walk and go to houses.  Next year hopefully she will be brave and show her little sister what trick or treating is all about.  I wonder what little costumes they will have?

Neglected...(again)

I'm seriously guilty of abandoning this blog.
However since my last post we've had so much going on. This mama went back to work, my little lady turned TWO, oh yeah and we're expecting baby #2 in May. So needless to say the past couple months I've been tired,sick, and even more tired.
New blog posts are in the very new future, promise :-)