Chocolate Chip Pancakes

It's always been a special treat for our family to go out for breakfast. It's just fun to go out to eat so early in the morning and enjoy spending time together before the day starts. Last Sunday, after a busy weekend, our family went out for breakfast. I ordered the kids chocolate chip pancakes knowing it would be a special treat. Oh boy...did they enjoy them! You can tell by their faces!

Noah was generous enough to give Daddy a taste.

Isabella showing off her chocolately hands.

Needless to say, everyone around us got a great morning chuckle watching our two precious little ones eat chocolate chip pancakes!

Noah on the move

I knew the day was coming...my own pediatrician even warned me! Noah started crawling when he was only 5 months. He figured out how to climb onto the couch when he was 9 months old! For the past couple of months, he's been cruising around the house and well.... now he's walking, well...more like running! I've had a fun time chasing after my two little ones!

These video clips were taken a couple of weeks ago and he was still a little wobbly, nonetheless you can see just how fast he's walking!

Noah has also been using a lot of sign language and he says several words. He enjoys reading books and wants to do everything his big sister Isabella does. It's so cute! He also finally got his first tooth in December and now his upper two front teeth are coming in. I can't believe how much our baby boy has grown! He's such a wonderful little boy with a sweet spirit!

See his two pearlie white teeth on the bottom?

Movie Night & Monkey Joes

We had some really cold weather here the last couple of weeks so we opted to do some fun things indoors to keep the kiddos from growing restless.

Movie Night- Isabella is loving Veggie Tales right now so we watched Veggie Tales "Lord of the Beans." We had a fun evening sitting on the living room floor eating carmel popcorn and drinking hot cocoa while watching the movie.

Look at all this carmel popcorn! Yummy!

Noah wanted to try the popcorn too but got Honey Nut Cheerios instead.

Monkey Joes- Monkey Joes is a big warehouse filled with bounce houses. We had our two little ones jump to their hearts content...not to mention Mommy and Daddy had a blast jumping too! Plus we only paid $4 for admission for all four of us...doesn't get any better than that folks!

Christmas Pictures

Finally, here are pictures of Isabella and Noah opening up presents on Christmas morning. What a fun morning it was! With some prodding along, it only took a couple of hours for the kiddos to open all their presents from their loving grandparents, aunts and uncles! After breakfast, we went to Ocala to spend Christmas day with memaw and grandpa, aunts, uncles and great grandparents.

God has been so faithful in providing all that we needed this past year. We are so thankful for all our family! Here's our Christmas tree overflowing with gifts from loved ones on Christmas morning!

Noah just waking up

Wow...look at all these presents!

Isabella & Noah opening their Christmas stockings

Noah opening his Sit n Spin Elmo chair



Isabella opening her play kitchen

Noah playing with his new saxaphone

Isabella going shopping in her new tutu and mommy's red heels

Our little sheep

One of the most exciting and memorable things for me as a parent was that Isabella was in her very first Christmas play this year! She played a little sheep-along with other two-year olds and I volunteered my sweet husband, Paul, to be a shepherd.

Isabella was so cute in her sheep costume that I had made, although you may not be able to tell from the pictures. By the end of the rehearsal, all the kids were picking off each other's cotton balls!

There was also a moment in the program that the choir of children started to sing, "Go Tell It On the Mountain" and Isabella got up and started dancing. It was so cute! She certainly was not shy about shaking her little bottom on stage! Unfortunately, I video taped it on our video camera and I haven't quite figured out how to transfer it to the computer but here are some cute pictures.

Baaaa! Baaaa!

So adorable!

Paul was a such a good sport for letting me volunteer him to be a shepherd!

I'm Back!

I know it's been a while since my last post and I apologize for my blogging hiatus the past 3 weeks. I knew things were going to get hectic closer to the holidays but I didn't expect things to get that crazy! Anyways, belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We pray that your Christmas and New Years was blessed by the joy of togetherness and filled with God's goodness and grace.

With that said, I'd like to share the highlights of how we celebrated the holidays. I might need to break it up into several different posts so that I can get them up so stay tuned!

Now I have a confession to make- I love Disney. I know that not many grown adults would admit to that! But, I have fond memories of countless Disney trips as a child with my family. I still enjoy going to the theme parks and I love experiencing the child-like excitement and "awe" that Disney creates. Since having children, we've been to numerous theme parks with them. This Christmas season, we were blessed to be able to go to Disney's Hollywood Studios (free of course!) to see the Osborne Spectacle of Lights.

Isn't it beautiful?



Noah loved all the dancing lights!

Feliz Navidad!

Isabella was pooped after a full day of seeing her favorite Disney Princesses and Disney Characters!

Noah's First Birthday

Our sweet son, Noah turned one on Friday. We celebrated his first birthday for two days! The celebration began on Friday morning with a birthday party with lots of friends at the park.

Friends and fun at the park

                Noah going down the slide

Noah wasn't so sure about his cupcake

There was just too much pressure to eat the cupcake- my poor baby!

Noah opening presents and checking out the green ball he got from Mrs. Jaimie and her girls

Our family with the birthday boy

Noah tasting his cars 

Then, Saturday afternoon, we celebrated Noah's first birthday with family members in Jacksonville.  More presents and cake!

Noah eating his birthday cake (take two!)

This is more like it!

I'll stick my finger in it first to taste the frosting!

Now, I'll take a big bite!

Although Noah never really dug into the cake, we all had a great time watching him poke at it.  

Here's the birthday boy with his birthday present from his Aunt Charissa

Thank you all so much for celebrating our baby's first birthday with us. It truly was a wonderful two day celebration and we thank you for make it so special for Noah.

Noah,

Happy Birthday sweet boy! Daddy, Bella and I love you so much and we can't imagine our lives without you. You are such a blessing to us. We love your energy, excitement and your infectious laugh. We look forward to all the things that God is going to do in you and through you.

We Love You Bunches,

Daddy and Mommy