Hopelessly Devoted

This sweet child is obsessed with books and trucks. When you put the two together it's a deadly combination! He will sneak out of his bed to get his favorite truck book. This is how I found him when I went in to get him from his nap. Could be worse!! :)

The Dangers

Apparently, if you leave your boots in the playroom you are in great danger of them turning into toy storage! :)

Death by Cabin Fever

Today is day 4 of being shut in because of 6 inches of snow and ice. I have osculated between being ok with it all and wanting to run through my icy streets screaming because I just can't handle being in this house one more second! I try to remind myself how beyond thankful I am that we have not lost power. When I can keep that perspective it helps me have a better attitude!

Monday morning when we woke up everything was covered in soft beautiful snow. We got the boys out to just walk around and my neighbors grandchildren were coming out and building a ramp on their front steps. They were so kind to invite Nolan over to play. He had an absolute blast!

Notice the fancy pink boots?? I tried to buy some rain boots on Sunday and every shelf in Greenville was wiped clean! My sweet friend Emily came to our rescue and Nolan just loves that he is wearing Annie's boots- he could care less about the color! I am learning that snow is just going to be a part of our lives a few days a year and I need to go ahead and invest in the equipment.


Elliott was happy to just sit in the wagon and watch Nolan sled. Jerel works from home, so even though we were shut in he had to still work. Thankfully he took some time on Monday to play with us.

So, we have survived, but I am READY to get out of here! So are the boys. Next week should be much better!! Here's to hoping!

A Sad Day

Today we had to say goodbye to Rocky- and it has been a sad day. The doctors felt like his organs would begin to shut down by this weekend, so we decided to put him down before he began to suffer. We have been trying to fight this auto-immune battle for the past 7 months and finally lost. We are so thankful for each day we had with him.

Right after Jerel and I married (July 2006) we talked about wanting a dog, but really didn't know what to get. At the time I was working in Atlanta and he was working in Raleigh and we were just gone way to much for a dog. In the meantime I had met my friends David and Meg's dog Bocci- who was a Wheaten Terrier and loved him. Jerel also randomly met Bocci and thought he was so cool. We researched the breed and were interested but had heard that they are not always great with children. We knew that we wanted children and because of traveling we were still in no place to get a dog.

In February 2007 we found out that we were pregnant (oops!!). Jerel had been planning on taking me to New York for Valentines day. Our first morning there we were getting ready to explore the city and I had on the movie Rocky III while we were getting ready (I love the Rocky movies). As we were leaving the hotel my friend David called me. I also worked with David and figured if it was a work-related phone call I was unavailable. I listened to his message and called him back immediately. He and Meg had been fostering another Wheaten Terrier for the weekend through their vet and was looking to find this sweet dog a good home. Because I was newly pregnant I 1)knew that my travel schedule was going to drastically change and 2) was a little nervous that this dog would not be great with babies. Good news- David and Meg had a new baby and this dog so gentle and licking their baby's feet. The vet said that I could come down to Athens and take the dog for a 2 week trail if I would like. As we are walking through the streets of NY and I am on the phone, I ask the name and am told that his name is Rocky. Since we were watching the movie 5 minutes earlier we took it as a sign and told him we would come take the dog the next weekend. 25 minutes into my 2 week trial with Rocky I knew he was our dog! A week later I found out that I was miscarrying the baby and sweet Rocky was some of the balm that helped heal my broken heart.

Sadly, I don't know if we will ever be able to replace him. He was AMAZING with our children. He did not shed, hardly ever barked, never chewed on the kids toys, and only ever had two accidents in our house (which were actually our fault). We would take him down town with us every weekend and he was famous. He loved to greet people and people loved to pet him. He will be missed by many!

White Christmas

Starting on Monday the forecasters were predicting snow for Christmas. My response- "I'll believe it when I see it." Lets just say, I am now a believer! :) We have had a very full and beautiful weekend.

Friday night before the Christmas Eve service (which, by the way, is CRAZY when you have two small children and it's a family service. I basically hung out in the hall with the other moms and dads of pre-two year old children. Elliott was not to be contained!) our former neighbors who love Nolan and Elliott as their own grandchildren, came over to do gifts. They know of Nolan's passion for all things John Deere.

He was so excited when he woke up from his nap to find this waiting for him. We are now the proud owners of a 6 ft. tractor and trailer. Jerel is counting down the days until it is warm enough to get this out of our play room. :) Nolan talks to it like it's human.


I thought that I had a picture of Elliott int he trailer. I will have to put one up later.

Our sweet Rocky- who has been really sick with chronic anemia- may be our last Christmas with him.

Nolan got a kitchen from my parents

Elliott got the cutest retro rocket from my parents. As you can tell, he is pumped!

This morning we were able to get out in the snow!

My little man started walking this past week!

He fell over, but was so cute down there that I had to get a picture!

Two seconds later he burst out in tears! He had enough!

We had a great time celebrating the birth of Christ. We made a coffee cake Saturday morning and put candles in it to sing happy birthday to Jesus. I confess, before I had children and I had other friends that did this, I thought it was really dumb! However, I want Nolan to begin to learn that Christmas is not all about the presents we open but about the true gift that Christ gave us when He came to this earth to become the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. THAT is what I look forward to teaching my boys in Christmases to come.

Hope you are your family had a great weekend as well!!

POP

Most 14 month old babies try to get OUT of their cribs...

Not mine...

He tries to get IN...

Because he knows these are in there...

This is Raffi and Pop and Elliott is totally in love....

Too bad buddy, they have to stay IN your crib!!

Love,
Your Mean Mama!

Baby, it's cold outside!!

I have been a bad blogger lately. The truth is- it's been so cold out that we have gone nowhere, we have done nothing. So unless I post pictures of me and the boys in the playroom, there's just not much to talk about. However, we did go cut down our tree which we always try to do Thanksgiving weekend. It was a gorgious and very bright day, which is enjoyable, but bad for pictures. Above is Nolan being blinded by the sun.

My men cutting down our very cute tree.

Elliott watching their every move.

Bad, shadowed, two-year-old-not-looking-at-the-camera, family picture.

This is in front of one my neighbors house. Their yard is currently a BIG part of our lives. Nolan is fairly obsessed with the light display. The mailbox behind him is a faux mailbox that opens and closes when it's on. They turn the lights on around 5:30 and I swear Nolan knows the second it happens because he starts begging me to go see the mailbox. Many nights we drive down to see them because it is just so dang cold. The whole time he will say, "Oh Mommy, I am pretty excited!" How cute is that?? Today, however, it was warm enough the put layers and layers on and walk down. We were all so glad to get out. It is a trick to put mittens on small children/babies. I said about 236 swear words (in my head) as I was putting them on the boys. I think that's partly why we haven't gone out much. Once I have the socks, shoes, coats, vests, gloves and hats all on I am totally carnal. Maybe I need to work on that!! :)

Right now my mom is totally freaked out that I don't have their coats zipped up to their noses. Don't worry Mom, they were fine!! :)