AS USUAL...

As usual, Tom and I tried the "self-portrait" (aka - hold the camera out in front of you) and, as usual, we didn't get it quite right so...sissy stepped in and helped us out :0)  Thanks for the help Boo!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING...

So incredibly thankful, for the beautiful, wonderful family God has given me. Thankful for the home we have, the food we get to eat, the clothes we wear. Thankful for our health and our safety. Thankful for the sunshine outside today and the furnace that keeps us warm inside.

Missing YiaYia, Popo and "the boys" today so... also very thankful for Skype :0)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Brother and Sissy had a "falling out" before
this picture, which is why Boo isn't sitting closer in... haha

AND SOME VIDEO...

Should have attached these with the last post, but I figured the 20+ photos were enough..haha :0)

Birthday videos; my high pitched mommy voice included  :0)

BIRTHDAY ACTIVITIES...

Brandon got a kick out of his birthday cake and gifts!  Funny enough... I went out and bought him a birthday balloon, so we had some "decorations" and I did not get one picture or section of video with his balloon.  Silly mama :0)

For sissy, sharing the spotlight is still a bit tough on her...but she was genuinely excited for him and enjoyed the cake (and presents) just as much as he did :0)

Big hit of the night, the Disney block train that YiaYia and Popo sent... our little man LOVED it.

The frosting was his favorite part; he gets that from his YiaYia :0)

 
 

He also got a remote control car, which he thought
was pretty cool....

once daddy showed him how it worked :0)

TWO YEARS OLD....

How is it possible... our little man is already two years old!  I can't believe just how fast these past two years have gone by.  Much, much too quickly.  Seems like yesterday his tiny little bottom fit in half of my hand.  Brandon Elijah has grown and changed; what a miracle he is to us.

Our little man is now 34" tall and weighs 27lbs; that puts him right about 50% on the growth charts.  He is silly, happy, emotional, high energy, full of loves, smart and completely adorable.  He is physically very strong; climbing onto and over everything.  He loves going to the park, but does NOT like the static electricity on the slides.  The first time this happened to him, I said "oh look, you have some static cling"...now he'll look at me and ask "cling?" before going down a slide and if he gets some, I have to go down with him the next time :0) His vocabulary continues to grow and I am amazed by some of the things he'll say.  I LOVE the fact that since he's only turning two, anything he says is in this cute baby voice/pronunciation...like "okay", he says it "otay" :0)  Our little man loves books, trucks and Mickey Mouse on Disney Jr.  He loves his daddy and sissy and is still a mama's boy (which melts my heart).  HUGE fan of food and actually does a little "happy dance" when he sees something that he really loves :0)

Happy birthday little man.  Love you, love you, love you.... simply could not love you more.

Yes.. my tree is already up.
Don't judge me :0)

NOVEMBER 14TH, 1998...

"This day I will marry my friend, the one I laugh with, love for, dream with, love."

Happy Anniversary Babe.  Wow... 15 years.  I thought I was so "old" back then, not getting married until 27 but goodness...look how young we look! I'm sure we'll look back on year 15 at year 25 and think "man, weren't we young?" :0)

Our journey has been one of ups and downs but...I am so thankful for you. These past 15 years have brought me so many wonderful blessings.  You know that cliche, chick-movie, saying "you complete me"?  Well, in our case, it really is true.  If you'd ask either of us, I think we'd both agree...in so many ways, we are nothing alike.  But this is how you complete me.  You balance me.  You provide different perspectives and you bring different emotions.  You run with the ball, when I drop it.  And you have blessed me with two wonderful, beautiful, amazing children.  I can't imagine traveling this journey with anyone else.

Happy Anniversary Babe.  I adore you.

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS...

is my two front teeth :0)

Yep... lost another one last night! The tooth fairy sure has been busy at our house this year :0)

CRY BABY...

I took this video back in July, but realized that I forgot to post it.  No, he's not really crying...our little man is fake crying.  What's so funny, is he started doing this...because his sister is soooo dramatic, that she "cries" all the time; I guess he figured that he should join in.  Funny thing about this video, is I'm cracking up and I'm pretty sure the people in the market, thought I was the meanest mommy ever :0)

HOLY AUTUMN!!...

Mass picture alert!!

This weekend we took advantage of the BEAUTIFUL fall weather and got a chance to once again see God display His glory...His nature is amazing!  These pictures were taken at Tallulah Gorge Falls State Park.  Three words.  Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful.

We pulled into the parking lot and knew that we were in for a treat...

Entrance to the visitor's center...

Baby backpack was a MUST for this trip!

Say "cheese" buddy :0)

Sweet girl...

This weekend, the kayakers had permits to run the falls.
Crazy nuts...

Sissy grabbed the camera and quickly yelled,  "say cheese!"
Daddy wasn't quick enough ...haha :0)

PRE-TREAT...

Before trick-or-treating, I had the kids pose for me in the front yard. Considering my last attempt at getting them (okay...him) to stay still and smile, this time around went much better! :0)  Here are my two sweet miracles:

This one cracks me up... :0)

Yeah, I have NO idea what they are both looking at
(I did not ask them to look down).
Figured I'd have some fun with the editing software :0)

HALLOWEEN 2013...

Last night, our family (minus daddy who, unfortunately, was still at work) ventured out with some friends for some fun trick-or-treating.  Boo LOVES this activity and the competitive side of her came out because before we knew it, we were running from house to house.  Now, this was a bit tricky seeing as how baby brother figured if she got to trick-or-treat, then he should get to trick-or-treat, which of course meant getting him out of his little car (with the camera slug around my neck) and trying to hold his hand (I say "trying" as Mr. Independent wanted to do everything on his own...including trying to walk up and down some of the steep steps going up to these homes).

For Halloween, Bailey wanted to be a "princess robot".  Where did that come from, you might ask?  I. Have. No. Idea.  So...I did my best to make a "princess robot" costume (unfortunately you can't really see all the glitter on the box in the photos below).  This costume however, made it very difficult for her to hold her candy bag, so for the first half of our hour trip, I was holding her bag...her brother's bag...the car...the camera... and the baby :0)  Boo then decided that she no longer wanted to wear the costume and asked me to carry it.  Hmmm... "how will I do that?", I asked her.  "With your other hand", my sweet one said :0)  Lucky for her, this neighborhood had a couple of new homes being built and the contractors had a large dumpster in one of the yards so... away went the box.

Thankfully, there was no rain...the weather outside was perfect....and the kids had a lot of fun.  This particular neighborhood goes all out, with a lot of the homes decorated (some were a bit spooky for Boo) and tons of candy (see pic below).  Brandon LOVED going up to EACH house (next year, I'm not carrying a camera or pushing a little car) and he got a kick out of reaching into the containers and picking out a piece of candy.  If the homeowner put the candy in his little bag, he would stand there until he got to pick one and put it in his bag... in his mind, that was trick-or-treating :0)

Eating his chicken form dinner...

Every house we went to agreed...
he IS wickedly handsome :0)

Thrilled that the box was off :0)

Oh my gosh...really, from one hour of trick-or-treating?
These are gallon zip bags...all chocolate on the left with
candy only on the right.