Dating Anniversary Weekend

Can you believe I met Travis 10 years ago as of last Friday?! 

Every year we celebrate our "meeting" anniversary by having dinner at our first date spot, Alexander Michael's...and this year was no different!

This year was a bit different though. We had to have an early (and somewhat rushed) dinner, because we had ticket to the UNC vs. Davidson basketball game! They were playing in Charlotte, so we didn't even have to drive to Chapel Hill to watch our favorite basketball players! 

But, surprise! We got a MAJOR upgrade and had court-side seats!!!! I've never sat court-side for anything, let alone a basketball game to see the defending National Champions! Trav was on cloud 9, and I was pretty excited about it, too! 

Roy is my favorite. Ever. 

My parents said they saw us on ESPN, and you can kind of see the backs of our heads...I took this from the jumbotron! 

What an amazing experience and a great way to celebrate knowing Travis for a whole decade!!

The next night, we continued our little anniversary celebration by going to Trav's work Christmas party!

{side note: babysitters do not always make the best photographers 😉}

When we got to the party (after attacking the sushi buffet--from this place....omg it was so good!), we had one of Trav's coworkers take a better pic of us! 

Then it was time for the performer! They always get great people to perform at this Christmas party! Last year was T.I., 2 years ago was Jason Derulo, 3 years ago was T Pain....

{here we are waiting for the performer...in the corner on a couch like the old people we are!}

...this year it was 2 Chainz!

He was great! Except that I didn't know any of his songs. #IAMOLD. 

After a late night Saturday, I rallied and made it to church at 9:30 Sunday morning with this sweet girl.

We had to do a reading and helped hang some greens (holly and ivy) as part of our Wednesday morning story time group!

After naps, Santa was at our neighborhood clubhouse, so we had to go see him!

Ella did some crafts while she waited. Lucas tried to run away.

Ella was all about Santa this year, but Lucas? Not so much.

Bless his poor heart (and Santa's, too!). He hated all 32 seconds I made him sit on Santa's lap.

Ella couldn't think of what exactly she wanted for Christmas...but she managed to come up with a few things that, of course, I did not buy for her. Isn't that always how it works?!

A fun holiday weekend in the books! Next weekend we have even more Christmas stuff planned...I'm excited! 

Want, Need, Wear, Read

I got a little out of control with presents for my kids last Christmas. So this year, I decided to reign myself in and only buy them 4 presents each (well, kind of...you'll see in a second): something they want, something they need, something they'll wear and something to read. 

I finished shopping for them on Monday (thanks for all of the sales, Cyber Monday!), and here's a look at what they are getting:

Want: Puppet Theater | Farm Puppets | Palace Puppets

Ella loves to put on shows and has been begging for some puppets, so I thought this would make a great gift for her! Confession: what she REALLY wants is more Paw Patrol stuff, but I refuse to buy anymore of it! I'm a mean mom, I guess. Leaving it to the grandparents to get her that stuff 😉

Need: Pocket Chart

#YouKnowYourMomWasATeacherWhen... Yes Ella really wanted this! One of her little friends has it, so of course Ella needs it too.

Wear: Rain boots

....because she wants to jump in "muddy puddles," just like Peppa Pig!

Read: Princess Bedtime Devotional

Ella has been really into reading her Storybook Bible before bed, and we have read almost all of the stories in it. This book was highly recommended by some friends, so I think it will be a great thing to read every night!

Want: Balance bike

Now clearly an 18 month old can't really say what they want, but Lucas loves anything with wheels and LOVES being outside. So this was an obvious choice for him this year. 

Need: Puddle jumper | Stacking boats | Magnetic boats | Fishing set

Bless Lucas's heart, he's gotten stuck with all of his sister's old bath toys. And over the years, most of those have gotten moldy (and been thrown away immediately when I see that mold! Yuck!). So this guy needed some new bath toys desperately. I tried to get ones where the reviews specifically said "does not mold!" I also threw in the puddle jumper as part of this, because, water. And he will really need that next summer (plus if we go to the indoor pool at the Y before then)! 

Wear: Romper

I swear, there are no more one-piece rompers after size 18 months! I love these things because they are so dang easy to throw on him in the mornings. I found this one an Amazon, but I am hunting for one or two more to give him!

Read: Little Blue Truck Leads the Way

Lucas is Little Blue Truck OBSESSED right now! We read Little Blue Truck (and Little Blue Truck's Christmas) every. single. night. So we need to add another book to the mix!

If you need more gift ideas for kids of these ages (3.5 years and 18 months), you can check out Ella's Amazon wish list here, and Lucas's here. 

As for me? I want: healthy kids. Always. I need: a new car. Ha! I can dream, right?! Wear? Ugh no idea...more Lilly stuff I guess?! And read...who has time to read these days, haha. 

Linking up (a day late) with Momfessionals for Show and Tell Tuesday...on a Wednesday. Whoops!

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Thanksgiving 2017

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving this year, and hope you did, too!

We started our day taking some pictures out front before the kids' clothes got messed up!

My parents had just gotten back form their vacation to New Zealand, so we opened the presents they had brought back while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade!

This one was quite a little stinker! He figured out how to climb onto the kitchen table...he did it about 20482 times on Thanksgiving. He also decided to spill the pretzels out everywhere! He is lucky he's so cute! ;)

We had the simplest table ever, mainly because I totally forgot to buy flowers! Whoops. Please notice Ella's candle in the middle there. She made it at preschool and it HAD to be our centerpiece! She was very proud. 

Travis and I made the majority of the food, but his sister helped out a lot when she got off of work (she's a chef)! 

We had:

-deep fried turkey (made by my father-in-law!)

-broccoli salad

-lobster mac & cheese

-jalapeno cornbread

-collard greens

-green beans

-smoked gouda mashed potatoes

-salad

Plus dessert! We had SO much food!!

Lucas loved EVERYTHING and ate a ton! Ella, as predicted, only ate a little bit of cornbread. 

After dinner, Ella decided to lead everyone in singing all of her songs from preschool. 

And we took more pictures of everyone!

My mom and I decided to go to Target that night to see if they had any good sales.

They didn't really, but I did get a new coffee maker for 50% off! 

We also hit up the mall the next day and found some good deals there!

After we got back from the mall, Trav and I took the kids to the mountains to pick out our Christmas tree!

Ella wanted to get this big tree! She loved measuring all of the trees with her pole.

They couldn't find our tree (it was SUPER crowded), so we got to go for a ride on one of their tractors to look for it! 

They eventually found it, and we made it back to Charlotte with our tree by 4 PM! A busy day for sure, but so much fun with my little family! 

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Lucas William {18 months}

Dear Lucas,

Another six months have flown by yet again! I feel like your first birthday was just yesterday, and we were bringing you home from the hospital like a few weeks ago! Time is just flying by way too quickly...can you promise me you won't get any older for a while?! Pretty please?!

We have your 18 month check up tomorrow, so I'll update your height and weight after that. I have no clue how big you are at this point! You are mostly in 18 month clothes, but some of those are starting to get a little short on you! The longall you are wearing in these pictures is 18-24 months, and its a little big. So I'd say you are in between sizes right now, and gosh is it frustrating getting you dressed some mornings! But you can rock anything, too big or too small, and look super cute in it! 😉 You are still in size 4 diapers but I'm thinking we will go up to size 5s soon.

You receptive language has really taken off over the last few months, and you continue to amaze us with your news tricks. If we ask you to bring us something, 9 times out of 10 you will go get whatever it is and bring it to us. You know Daddy is the remote king around here, so you are always trying to hand the remote to him. And when you want to go outside, no matter what time or the weather, you go get your shoes and chase us around the house, begging us to put them on. 😊 

You LOVE being outside. You could look out the window for HOURS. Last week, we had some trees taken out and you were pretty much mesmerized the entire 8 hours they were here working! You also don't mind getting muddy or dirty one bit either. Such a boy!! Another super boy thing that you LOVE? Watching football with Daddy! It is the cutest thing. You climb right up next to him on the couch and just sit there with him and your snacks. If we say "Touchdown," you say, "GO!" and raise both of your hands up like the refs do when there's a touchdown. 

You're not talking as much as Ella did at this age, but I'm convinced its because you're a boy, and Ella pretty much does all the talking for you (we are working with her on not doing that as much)! 😉 You do say "Mama," "Dada," "Ella" (sounds more like "Aye-yuh"), "go," "some," "shoes," "up," "this," "that," and "baby." You point to anything and everything and say "dis? dis? dat?." You nod your head yes and shake your head no...both are equally hilarious and entertaining to all of us who are watching you! You can also make the animal noises for dogs, snakes, monkeys and cows. 

Speaking of dogs, they are your most favorite thing EVER. You loooove doggies!!!!! Anytime you see one, you make your woof woof sound and get so excited. If there's a dog on tv, you go running up to the tv and point to it excitedly! And I can get you to come to wherever I am in the house if I yell, "Look Lucas! A doggie!" 

You are constantly on the move and do not like to be constrained. I put you in the stroller the other day and you just about lost your mind. The only exception to the stroller-hating is if you are in it outside....like if I am running with you in the BOB (you love to wave at the cars!) or if we walk up to the park. You love to run, jump, climb...and give me a heart-attack at playgrounds everywhere when you climb up somewhere super high and then dangle over the edge! You have absolutely no fear, and when you do fall down (which is often because you're a crazy little daredevil!), you cry for .2 seconds before you're up and back at it! 

You have recently discovered Elmo and Mickey Mouse, and you are obsessed with both of them. If you see them anywhere, you start yelling and pointing! You just discovered Elmo is on some of your diapers, so every diaper change now results in you waving the stack of diapers around, trying to pick out the ones with Elmo. Ella has also gotten you hooked on Paw Patrol (UGHHHH) and I'm hoping your obsession is not as intense or long-lasting as hers is. I think she's brainwashed you ;) 

You still enjoy books like no tomorrow, but we can only give you board books because you've ripped up quite a few paperbacks. Whoops! We read Dear Zoo and Little Blue Truck just about every night. You can't get enough of those 2 books right now! 

You continue to eat and sleep like a champ! I'm forever thankful that we called that sleep consultant back in February...best money I've ever spent! As for eating...well, you are a boy. You are constantly going to the fridge and/or the pantry, grabbing stuff out of it, and asking us to open it for you. It's not rare to see you walking around the house with the entire container of animal crackers. Since Ella doesn't eat anything unless its fruit snacks or mac & cheese, I'm enjoying your big appetite for now...you gladly eat all of the food she doesn't want! 

Sweetest joy boy, I can't believe we are halfway through your second year already!!! You are my best little guy and I couldn't ask for a sweeter, happier boy than you! We love you more than you know!