Three Christmases

This year, with all of our visitors that came to meet Mr. Kimber, we got to open presents three times. I am pretty sure we have spoiled Matthew...and myself into having three Christmases. Matthew was spoiled by getting new toys to play with every couple of weeks and I was spoiled by having him entertained with new things!

Our first Christmas was with Willie's parents, Nana & Gramps on the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Our second Christmas was with my parents, Nana & Papaw in early December.

Our third Christmas actually happened on Christmas....weird huh?

We were all spoiled and these boys definitely added to their toy collection.

Here are a few pictures from our Christmases.....








We hope you and yours enjoyed your holiday and hope to see more of you in 2010!!

More Grands....

My parents....now referred to as Papaw & Nana, came to visit a few weeks ago. Matthew did an excellent job of introducing them to his little brother as well as his new home. We subjected them to the movie Madagascar, took them to see Santa, checked out the U.S. Space and Rocket Museum and built our very first Gingerbread House. A great time was had by all, we miss them and hope to see them again sooner rather than later.

Hanging with Papaw

Kimber meeting Nana

Showing Papaw the U.S. Space and Rocket Museum

Enjoying his gift to Nana & Papaw

Kimber supervising the construction of the Gingerbread House.

The construction crew...minus the cameraman.

Happy Three Month Birthday Kimber

Happy 3 Months My Sweet Baby Boy

This past month flew by but you seemed to grow a bit each day. This month you found your hands and I get tickled listening to you suck on them, seriously, you smack and suck as if these are the last things that you will ever get to ingest. You have gotten even more "smiley" this month. Not only do you smile at Dad and I, you just gaze and laugh at your silly big brother and I have even caught you smiling at Muppet, the dog. I have failed miserably at enforcing alone sleep in a big way. You love sleeping on Mommy and I know this time is so short and it is too hard to put you down sometimes, even though the house or laundry seems to always need attention these days. You will be celebrating your first Christmas this morning and while you are not sure what is going on, I am sure you will giggle and smile, thus entertaining us all and once again reminding us how blessed we are to know you.

Once again little man, I love you with all of my heart and am thrilled to be on this ride together!

'Bama Snow

On Saturday morning we woke up to a beautiful dusting of "snow". After spending many days skiing the mountains of Colorado it is hard for my southern self to call what we got "snow", but alas that is what it was. It was white, cold and crunchy and Matthew and Muppet enjoyed playing in it before it all melted away.

I remember as a child visiting my grandparents and being thrilled when it began snowing, in fact my dad tells a story of us three kids going outside in our PJ's to frolic in the flakes. My grandparents lived in the panhandle of Texas and they got REAL SNOW...snowman making snow.

Here are a few pictures of our snow day....Kimber was in his bouncy in the foyer looking out the window....in his knit cap of course!

Crunch, crunch, crunch....

OUCH!!

I am pretty sure I was never let in on the fact that parenthood is quite a painful experience. I am not referring to the emotional roller coaster we step onto at the moment of conception, I am talking about the physical pain.....it beings with contractions and childbirth then continues with nursing, being utilized as a jungle gym, hair pulling, biting and climbing. While most of this abuse is completely unintentional, it hurts nonetheless.

Add in the complete lack of sleep that has characterized my life since becoming a mom just a couple of years ago...and well....I am so not the person I once was.

That being said, mommyhood agrees with me and I would not trade it for the world.

Playmates needed....experience required!!!

We have been very blessed to have Nana & Gramps (Willie's parents) visiting us over the last several weeks. We have all had a good time and made some wonderful memories. They traveled here in their motorhome and have been staying at an RV Park near our home.

Matthew has grown quite accustomed to grabbing the hand of Nana or Gramps as soon as they walk in the door and dragging them, willing or not, into his playroom to PLAY. Usually it is trains or tractors but he really is not picky, as long as they are sitting on the floor interacting with him he is happy. They left this morning and I foresee an increasing amount of train-play in my future.

We are sad to see them go but are thankful that they were able to come spend some quality time with us and the boys!

Nana meeting Mr. Kimber.

Kimber getting some snuggles from Gramps.

Happy Thanksgiving

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving. ~H.U. Westermayer

I hope that you and yours are aware and thankful for all that you have on this day.

Personally, I am thankful for a number of things:

* A healthy family
* A happy marriage to an awesome man
* The two cutest little turkeys
* A comfortable warm home
* Amazing loving friends
* And a blazing fire in the fireplace on this chilly morning!

Wishing you and yours a splendid turkey day!!

Galaxy of Lights 2009

Last weekend we visited the Huntsville Botanical Gardens to see the Galaxy of Lights, they decorate the gardens with a truly massive amount of Christmas lights. We went with friends and had a great time. Kimber slept the entire time, Matthew enjoyed the lights and got pretty excited when he recognized animals, stars and FINALLY a tractor!!!!

My little heater.

The whole family!

Happy Two Month Birthday Kimber

Happy Two Month Birthday Kimber

My sweet Kimber. Seriously, two months have passed and you have managed to make us love you even more. This second month has been a busy one for you. Your godparents came to see you all the way from Texas, you are holding your head up as steady as any normal 4-month old, you have the absolute biggest and most adorable smile on the planet and your coos melt my heart every single time. We have been working on tummy time which you like in short doses. We have also been trying to encourage a little alone sleep, as much as I love having your warm little body next to mine, Mommy does not sleep so well when worried about you...not to mention you have inherited the bed hog gene from your big brother. You love to eat and I get tickled watching you get excited when you know the milk is near. You continue to endear yourself to big brother, he laughs when you make noises and you enjoy getting kisses from him even if he is a little rough at times. We went to the doctor today for your check-up and shots and you handled it like a champ. As suspected, you are a big 'un, you are in the 75th percentile in height, weight and head circumference.

Your stats:
Height 23.5 inches
Weight 13 lbs ozs
Head 41 cm

Again, you continue to enrich our lives in ways we never predicted.


We love you and look forward to the days, months and years ahead.

My absolute favorite picture of you this month,
that smile just takes my breath away every time.

My little chunker...

TEXAS comes to BAMA

This past weekend our very best friends from TEXAS came to visit us in our new Alabama home. We had a wonderful time going to the park, visiting the Space and Rocket Museum, eating fondue and hosting our first ever Shrimp Boil. Thanks Ronny & Nicki for making the long trek to see us, we had a blast and are so glad the we all got to spend some time with you guys!

Uncle Ronny offered to carry Matt in his favorite method of transportation,
Matthew was thrilled as you can see.

Gig' Em and Red Raider lessons.

Deep Thoughts....

Leaf Eaters

Just had to share some pictures of my little redheads in the gorgeous leaves in our yard that have provided hours of entertainment in recent weeks.

This last one was taken by my budding little photographer, Matthew.

A belated TRICK or TREAT

Happy Halloween!

This was Matthew's 3rd actual Halloween but the first one that he dressed up for and boy did he dress up. He dressed up for German class, for a carnival hosted by my mom's group and then again on Halloween night. Kimber got in on the action too...though he snoozed through most of it.

I spent Halloween night with the most adorable DOG and the most huggable tiger (you didn't know tigers could be huggable, did ya). We trick or treated around our neighborhood and then came back and introduced Matthew to his first Tootsie Roll among other candies.

This was Matthew's first trick-or-treating experience and he has a bit hesitant at first but by the third house he had figured out the gig and would hop right out of his push car and wait patiently for his candy.....I am afraid next year the patience level might diminish?!

At the carnival with his buddies, EK & KK and of course the mommies.

At the Halloween carnival

That huggable tiger I was talkin' about.

Thrilled that Nana was helping him open and consume candy!

Gravel anyone?

This is a post from September I forgot to publish.....

A few weeks ago we had 26 tons....yes you read that right....26 tons of gravel delivered to our humble abode to finish a few projects we had started. Matthew had quite a time climbing and sliding down the gravel and we burned many calories spreading said gravel. We had awesome weather, a little rain and are very happy with the progress that we made. We installed two sets of walkways, one through our vegetable garden and one through our cutting garden/patio area. Here are some before and after shots as well as a few fun ones I could not resist.

Checking out the gravel pile....

About to slide....tummy first.

Prepping the veggie garden - GRASS REMOVAL!!

Raking......

Almost ready for gravel!

Progress....

Holding down the gravel....such a good little helper!

Muppet riding on the skid steer.

Mommy-Love

The cutting garden/patio....before gravel!