12.27.2010

A North Carolina Christmas

Whew!  I guess Christmas is in the books for another year!  We had so much fun celebrating with our families and watching what a magical time it is for Emmy Cate.  I know it will get better and better each year as she understands the holiday and her excitement level grows for Santa to visit. 

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In the few days leading up to the holiday, we spent much of our time playing with Macy and Makayla.  The girls had their first sleepover at their Aunt Mandy’s and Uncle Gary’s house and I think they thought that was pretty cool (at least their parents did!)  It worked out pretty well for them to all bunk up together, but there certainly was a lot of talking and not as much sleeping!  They did great though and woke up in giggles the next morning.  The parents were lucky enough to enjoy a night on the town thanks to their grandparents for keeping the three little monkeys.  The thoughts of waking up to three little tornados in the morning definitely cuts down on the nighttime shenanigans!!

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We celebrated Christmas on the eve of Christmas Eve since we would be leaving out on Christmas Eve night.  The girls got dressed up, we ate a big fried chicken dinner (courtesy of Mamaw), and opened WAY too many gifts!  Emmy Cate got a playhouse for the backyard, plenty of Elmo toys, a Jojo hide and seek game, tons of clothes, her very own “kapooter”, a Mickey Mouse guitar, and even a bible as she astutely pointed out to me before I had half of the paper torn off!!

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The girls had a blast running around with all of their new toys, playing in a pop-up tent with tunnels and balls, and horsing on the ground with Papaw! 

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The next night, we headed to the annual Christmas Eve get together with the Smith Family at Eunice’s house.  I think Emmy Cate must have made the loop of the house at a full speed run 100 times!!  Jumping up and down over the step out to the sunroom was also a favorite activity.  Seems like just yesterday that we had her in the walker zooming around the floor! 

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We attempted a picture of the girls on the same spot on the couch as last year, but as one would imagine, it was impossible to get them all to sit still in one spot.  This was the best we ended up getting:

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…. compared to these little tykes from last year …. what a difference a year makes!!

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12.25.2010

Discovery Place Kids

We headed up to North Carolina to visit Nathan’s family this past week.  We were all excited to get the cousins together and let them play now that they are a great age for interacting.  The first morning we were there we took them to Discovery Place Kids, a new children’s museum and learning center that is brand new.  It was such a great place!  They had so much for the kids to see and do so we barely made it to half of the stuff!  There was a play cafe, grocery store, doctor’s office with an ambulance, a firetruck, airplane, nascar car, a huge climbing structure, a puppet stage, craft area, sports area, a water play area, and much, much more!!

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The girls had a blast, but I think their favorite part was holding hands on the way out!  They are such sweethearts together!!!

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Some other girl tried to edge EC out of driving the ambulance and she wasn’t very pleased!  She looks like such a big girl in this picture!!

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The girls also had their first sleepover together and they had SO MUCH FUN!!  More on that later …

12.22.2010

Mt. Pisgah Donuts with Santa

We visited Emmy Cate’s school a couple of weeks ago to have donuts with santa.  After her first performance with the famous Santa at Phipps, we figured we’d try another shot at getting a good picture.  Take 1 with Santa at Phipps:

santa cropped Unfortunately, the second try went over about as well as the first.  She just didn’t like the fat guy in red!

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So I even tried joining her on Santa’s lap and she STILL was not having any of it!!

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So we gave up on getting a good shot and moved on to the other fun crafts and activities!  A nice clown made us her favorite {balloon} animal – a puppy! 

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We had a good time, but her Papaw would have had an even better time – all they served were Krispy Kreme donuts and chocolate milk!  For 3 people without a sweet tooth, it was a lot of sugar!!

12.10.2010

The Pink Pig

Let me just say that I think we are all in agreement that I am overwhelmingly behind in posting!!  Work has been unbelievably busy but has resulted in great things, so I can’t complain too much.  So weeks ago ….

We ventured out to a famous Atlanta tradition, the Pink Pig at Macy’s at Lenox.  Emmy Cate had a great time, loved every minute of the ride, and SCREAMED when it was time to leave and she realized she wasn’t going to ride again!

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She was in a major saying “hello” phase at the time, so it was “Hello Pink Pig” over and over again! 

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