Girls' Trip and some Christmas festivities

 Weekend before last some of my girlfriends and I took a much needed girls' trip to Navarre Beach, FL. Although it wasn't hot enough to go to the beach (70), we still relaxed in the condo, ate great food, watched scary movies, and did some Christmas shopping at the outlet mall in Destin.

Our view from the condo

 All the girls getting ready to go out one night

 When I got back, Andy had put our Christmas lights on the house. I love Christmas lights. They put me in the Christmas spirit!

 This past weekend, we went to a Christmas party and had a blast! The weather was nice enough that we could dance hang out outside in their backyard.

All the girls

 Yesterday, LG participated in our church's 1st grade Christmas program. She was the star. Literally~she was the North Star. :)

 Afterwards, there was a reception and all the 1st graders received a Bible with their names in them.

 LG and Peppi

LG and a couple of her church friends.

I love this time of year! So many parties and gatherings with friends and family. More to come...

The usual and more...

 We had a fun, family, activity-filled Thanksgiving weekend. 

It started Tuesday night when a friend gave LG a Christmas tree. We put it up in her room. She is so proud of it.

 LG, Peppi, and I were all out of school on Wednesday so we spent some time together and went to LG's favorite restaurant~Steak n Shake~for lunch. Anywhere that serves mac n cheese is her favorite restaurant. :)

Again, with the crazy-eyed look. LOL!

 Thursday morning, Carson we got up early. I started cooking and Andy entertained the kids.

 Later that morning, Andy ran an errand with our friend, Bill. He brought his daughter over to play with LG while they were gone. These girls love to play school and dress-up. They are a mess!

 We had Thanksgiving lunch with Andy's family at his mom's house and then came home and roasted marshmallows outside.

 Our elves, Punkin (LG's elf) and the "yet to be named elf," which is Carson's, returned Thursday night. They rolled our guest bathroom and wrote a note on the mirror that read, "We're back! Be good!"

 Friday morning my cousin Missy and I went black Friday shopping. We left at 4:30 AM and were completely done at 7 AM. All the crazy people went out on Thursday night so there were no people in the stores on Friday morning. It was fabulous! Then, Andy, LG, and I set out to decorate the house. (Carson went to daycare because he would've have hindered the process :). We went to Cedar Hill Farm and picked the tree. It was already completely pruned. It is beautiful. It's 9 1/2 feet tall. 

Here LG and I are at Walmart on Black Friday afternoon trying to pick out bows for outside. Yes, it was packed. :)

 Here's our tree

Saturday, LG, Peppi, and I went to Aberdeen, MS to visit Mamee.

 Sunday night LG performed in our church's Hanging of the Green program. She is in the 1st grade choir. Afterwards we decorated cookies and ornaments and watched the Live Nativity. It was such a special time together.

We have so many fun things planned over the next few weeks. Stay tuned...

A birthday and a check up

Oh my, it is killing me that Carson is growing up so fast. I spent the first two years of Lilley Grace's life trying to get to the next stage. I spent the first two years of Carson's life trying to prevent the next stage. I realized with LG that most problematic behaviors were just a phase and that I needed to stop wishing the time away. Carson has gotten the full benefit of that. I hold him more (which is difficult because he's been HUGE since about 2 months), am more tolerant of not so good behaviors :), I lay with him at night to get him settled to sleep, I rock him more, I cuddle him when he's sad, mad, or hurt, I rock him when he'll let me~all things I didn't do with LG because this certain book I read, Babywise, scared me into thinking that if I did all these things, she would never be able to sleep on her own or be independent of me. I envied people who could just roll with the situations because I was always so anxious that I would be screwing her up by providing what this book calls "props." When in reality I was taking away from both her and my experience of the years when they will let you hold them, rock them, kiss them, sleep with them, etc.  I am determined to do it differently with Carson!

Don't get me wrong, I am still a scheduler and a proponent of setting limits and feeding/sleeping schedules but not all babies are the same and can be explained in one book.

Anyway, back to the reason for the post. Carson turned 3 this past Saturday. It is so hard to believe that he went from this little bitty baby to this big boy in the blink of an eye.

We had his b-day party at our house this year. We invited some friends and family over for donuts and juice. The plan was to let the kids play outside but it was very cold that morning so we moved the bounce house into the garage. We also let the kids paint and use chalk in the garage. Here are some pics from the party:

Carson and Shisha (Alisha)

 Carson kissing Kenzie Jo. He is so ready for her to come out. He keeps telling Alisha to take her out and let him see her.

 Painting in the garage

 All Carson wanted for his b-day was "purple." So we got him a purple cake (made by cousin Missy), purple donut shaped cookies, purple balloons, purple everything. If you'll notice above, he chose the purple piece of butcher paper to paint on. :)

Purple cake complete with purple #3

 Missy, Linda, and I

 Michael, Peppi, and Dan (photobombing)

 Dan and DeeDee

 Carson (Me) opening his presents. LG and Liam wanted to open everything and Carson was not concerned with anything after he opened the present with balls.

 

 From the party on, he has been obsessed with the footballs. Even though he got baseballs and soccer balls and a tricycle and cars, he sleeps with the football and holds the football constantly.

 

 It warmed up a little as the party was winding down so everybody went outside to play with the balls. We had a blast out there! So thankful for our big backyard.

Andy took Carson to his 3 year check-up yesterday. He is doing very well developmentally, verbally, he's about 80% potty-trained, meaning he still wears pull-ups but goes to the potty most of the day and still wears diapers at night~work in progress. Again, I am not letting that stress me out like I did with LG. Eventually, he will get it. 

Stats:

Weight: 40 lbs (95th percentile)

Height: 40 inches (90th percentile)

Precious as precious can be! He has an attitude right now~crying and yelling when things don't go his way. I remember thinking 3 was much worse with LG than 2 and that has held true with Carson as well but I am enjoying every minute of it because this too shall pass and I'll be sad to see it go.

The busy social life of Lilley Grace

 Lilley Grace has a busy life to be 6. She wants to do everything. She wants to be going all the time...don't know where she gets that from. ;) The last couple of weeks have been extra busy and I know it will only get busier with the holidays coming.

My mom and I had Veterans' Day off but Desoto Co. schools were in so we went and had lunch with her. I'm not sure why she makes this face in the majority of her pics but it is comical.

 She wanted to have her picture made with her teachers~Ms. Rhonda is the assistant and shes' wearing the blue sweater. Mrs. Robertson (in the black) is the teacher. LG loves her. I love her too. I am so happy with LG's current school.

 LG has wanted to play basketball since she was 18 months old. For her 2nd Christmas we got her a Little Tykes basketball goal and she played with it until her b-day this year, when we bought her a full-sized b-ball goal. She slept with a full sized b-ball for a few months when she was 18 months. She has always had a thing for it. She is tall so that works out in her favor if this continues to be her sport of choice.

She had her first practice on a rec b-ball league at 2nd Presbyterian (our church). When I received the schedule of the games, I immediately looked for the play-off dates...where's the play-off dates???!!! Apparently at age 6 they're "not competing, they're just having fun." WHAT?! When I questioned Andy about this he told me to settle down, she's 6...OK...

 Learning to bounce pass

 Learning how to hold the ball and shoot from your arm and not your hand

 Lay-up

I see this being a very interesting season for both of us. ;)

LG had her Thanksgiving program at school. It was so sweet. They sang and played instruments. She had a little one-line speaking part.

Please note this was right after b-ball practice, hence the a-little-crazier-than-usual hair. :)

Last but not least, I leave you with a selfie taken by master photographer, Carson. Have a great week before Thanksgiving! Carson's b-day post to come!

Halloween weekend

Our weekends are so busy, add a holiday in there and whew, it'll wear you out! Needless to say, we had fun with family and friends ALL weekend. We are so blessed to have such good people to spend time with! Here are a few pics (I didn't take nearly enough) of our week leading up to Halloween and the weekend.

 We started off at the Halloween store. LG (and Andy) had to try on all the masks at the check-out counter.

 This was Carson on the way to his Halloween party at daycare. His bucket obviously works better as a hat...

 Friday night we trick or treated in our neighborhood with Andy's cousin, Becca's, family and then we went to a Halloween party in a neighboring subdivision at our friend, Renay's, house. The kids went on a hayride in their neighborhood and got tons of candy, a ridiculous amount actually. :) You're probably saying, "I know this is not the only picture you got on Halloween night!" but...sigh...it is.

 LG was a vampire and Carson was her victim. One guess whose idea that was. Hint~she has curly hair...

 Saturday Carson we woke up early and went to get coffee and donuts and visit with my mom. I knew this was coming but there are no words to describe my excitement when the red holiday cups come out at Starbucks. A little holiday light turns on inside me. It's one of my most favorite things in the world!!!

 LG learned how to stick a spoon to her nose. She said I "wouldn't be able to do it probably because my nose was so pointy"...really??? OK...

 Saturday afternoon LG and I went to see my little cousin Kennedy compete in the Regional cheerleading competition with Desoto Central Middle School. I haven't been to a competition like that since I cheered. Oh my, it brought back some memories! Things have not changed at all.

LG and Bryson waiting for Kennedy to come out and perform

Here she is doing a scale! She's on top. She did such a great job. We were so proud of her!

Jennifer, LG, and Aunt Penny outside the Landers Center after the competition

Lastly, and this probably deserves it's own post, but we are in the middle of trying to potty train Carson. He is so stubborn (like all most men). This particular day last week, he tee-teed in the potty 6 times!!

That was huge. He is so much harder to train than LG. Once she figured out she could go in the potty, she did...every time, without fail, went to the potty. Carson on the other hand, doesn't care to go in the potty unless he feels like it. So he may one day or one time and may not the next. We've tried candy, the big boy underwear tactic, watch everybody else go and then go tactic (which I always thought was creepy but whatever works, right?) It's a bit frustrating but I promised myself I was not going to get all worked up over this potty training business but boy am I being tested! 

We have got a lot going on over the next couple of months and I am SO excited! Let the holiday season begin!!!