About JP

I just realized that I hardly said anything about JP in that last post. Today he is 11 months old!!! How fast did that go by!?!?!?! The year of Kim will be here before I know it!!! Anyway, the following picture may be a little gross for you non-moms out there, but it was too funny. JP has so much going on. He has started teething again; so that means that his little cough is back and his runny nose is back and well, just general irratibility. Yesterday I took him to the doctor because he started running a little fever, and it ends up that he has an ear infection...so sad, I know!! Well, as I was feeding him dinner last night he got a little piece of bread stuck in the snot running from his nose (I know, but there is just no better way of explaining it). Being the mom that I am, I found it somewhat funny, somewhat amusing, and somewhat cute so I had to take a picture...and here it is....

Happenings....

This week has been a whirlwind of a week. Well, I think all weeks are like that these days. Can you believe that we are only two weeks away from Christmas!!! Oh man, I had better get moving on somethings.

Monday was a great day. Shelby went to school and JP and I hung out. We had lunch with Meme and went to the grocery store. That is all that I can really remember from that day. I had a great night though, I actually got to get out of the house for a little bit with one of my friends. We went to Starbucks and just got to relax without any kids hanging on us like little monkeys. It was great to chat and catch up with Heather. I hope that we will be able to start seeing each other some more.

Tuesday Shelby headed off to school again and JP and I went to CBS leadership. I truly love this time that I have on Tuesday mornings. Sometimes it seems hardly worth the effort of getting there, but once I get settled in I love it. The ladies and Al (our brave lone man of the leadership team) are always such an encouragement to me.

Now to the big day, Wednesday! This was our last week of CBS before the Christmas break. The children's program had their little singing show. It was so cute! I don't know what is wrong with me, but as soon as those sweet children started marching in the room waving their ribbons I had to start fighting back the tears. It was one of the most precious sights. There were tons of daddies and granddaddies there too. Anyway, this was the big test....would Shelby stand up there with her class and sing the songs that they were learning???? And the answer is.....NO. Most of the time she sat with me and JP. She started to walk up at one point, but then she got a glimpse of her daddy and that was that. Oh well, maybe we will have better luck at her school program. Afterwards we got to have lunch with Grammie at Hampton Lake. What a great week for Shelby, she got to see three of her five grandparents. (PS-while we were at lunch we learned that Uncle Jake was in the throws of finals, so Happy Finals Uncle Jake!!! We can't wait to see you soon!)

Oh so close!!!!

Today is the most beautiful day so once again we packed up and headed to Hampton Lake for a little afternoon play time. Shelby, Jack, Gracen, Neely, and Eliza ran around playing on the slides, in the sand, and the little treehouses while mommies plus baby Finn and baby Pavin hung out and talked about all sorts of things. What a perfect day!!!

I am so excited about tonight that I can hardly wait for the kids nap to be over....wait, did I just say that???? Just kidding, they can nap as long as they like. The longer the better, in fact. But, tonight we are heading up the Charleston to the Festival of Lights. It is going to be so much fun and I can't wait to see Shelby's face when she sees all those lights. They also have a little Christmas village set up with a train, Santa, and a place to get hot chocolate and make smores. I think that it might be too warm for the hot chocolate, but we may have to get some just because.

We Survived!!!!

Well, we made it!!! Last week started out with a lot of uncertainty on my part as to whether I could take on the job of being a single mom for the week. I tell you what, after just 5 days by myself with both kids, I now have an even greater appreciation and respect for military families!!! Think about it, I just had five days of non stop kids, but our military families go months and months as a single parent home. Thanks so much to all of you who are serving our country!!!

Pratt left Sunday afternoon for a CCIM course in Atlanta. I was very sad and nervous. For some reason him being gone all week sounded like such a long time to me. Thankfully we made it through and the week just flew by. Sunday night it was just me and the kids hanging out. Monday we got up and got Shelby to school and there was just no looking back. Before we knew it the end of the week had come and Pratt was on his way home.

Probably the most fun thing about last week was on Thursday. It was my dad's birthday; oh wait, really sweet story....in our family we always call each other on our birthdays and sing happy birthday. In years past it almost seemed as if we were having a contest over who could call the earliest, but thankfully that has changed to just getting several calls throughout the day (no offense family, but 6:30am is a little early). Anyway, I called my dad and told Shelby that when grandpa answered the phone to say Happy Birthday. Well, she did and then she sang "Happy Birthday" to him. It was so cute!!!! So anyway, after the kids nap that day we went down to visit and have a birthday dinner. When dinner was over we packed up the car and took Shelby to see the lights on Dove Street. As soon as she saw all those lights she got so excited. I can't wait to take her to the Festival of Lights this week.


I had to post this picture because Shelby actually has something in her hair. She is definitely an "au naturale" type girl. She never wants anything in her hair!!!! She really doesn't even like it when I brush it. Of course, she does let grandpa brush her hair during their play time in his truck. Anyway, I was out getting the kids Christmas outfits and she picked out this headband and wore it the rest of the day. She hasn't worn it since, but isn't she so cute!!!

The weather has been absolutely beautiful here. Some people are upset, they say it is too hot for it to be December, but I say it is wonderful. The kids do so much better when we can get out of the house and here is a picture of JP and Alex at the playground last week. They were both so fascinated by the bottom of the slide. I am sure that they were trying to formulate a plan on how to climb up it, but they weren't sneaky enough because Sheila and I were on to them.

JP is really growing and developing. He is so fast and he loves to climb on, in, around everything. The other day I was doing dishes and all the sudden Shelby started laughing so I stopped what I was doing to see what was going on and found JP stuck underneath her highchair. Somehow he figured out how to climb over the lower bar and get in there. Everyday I learn more and more that I am going to have to keep a close watch on him.

Well, one final comment....Aunt Lala and Uncle Matt, good luck on those finals this week. We are praying for you!!! We love you and can't wait to see you.

Elf Maddness

Since everyone else is doing it, I decided to jump on the elf wagon....hope you enjoy.
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1162884256

Shout out to Daddy....

Hey Daddy! We hope that you are having fun!!! We love you!

The completed Gingerbread House

Day of Crafting Fun

For those of you who don't know me, Martha Stewart has more craft sense in her pinky toe nail than I would ever hope to posses in my life so today has been quite a stretch for me as a mom. We started off our "day of crafting fun" with making ornaments with pinecones and lots of glitter. What a mess that turned out to be; and mainly because when I tried to take the cap off of the green glitter I spilt it everywhere!!!! Then Shelby grabs the purple glitter and ever so gently twists off the cap and hands it to me. Not a single piece of glitter came out......go figure!! Anyway, Shelby had a great time painting on the glue and then sprinkling glitter on the pinecones. Pratt also joined in the fun and made one for himself. I just supervised.

Once Shelby got bored with that we went out on the back porch to put ribbon on our Clemson Tree. Shelby supervised as I cut and tied the Orange and Purple ribbon on the tree. I don't have a picture of the tree just yet so I will show that on a later post.


Around 12:00 my dad came out and we loaded up the kids for Hampton Lake. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch there. JP loved just looking around at all the neat memorabilia they have hanging up and we even got to hear a stuffed moose sing a Christmas carol....I know, who would have thought. After lunch, Grandpa took on the task of keeping JP entertained while Shelby and I decorated a ginger bread house. It was great fun....no, I didn't eat all the icing and candy, but I can tell you some one who did enjoy a couple of gum drops....Shelby. Yeah, it is a Christmas miracle that she ate them, but she told me, "Those are my favorite."



Santa came by for a little visit; and as interested as Shelby has been in him, she wanted nothing to do with him. In fact, she didn't even want to be in the same building; so grandpa came to the rescue and took her outside while I took JP to get his first picture with Santa. Isn't he so cute??? He was a little unsure of this big man with a hairy face, but he didn't let his lower lip hang out too long. I think that he is even halfway smiling in this picture.