January so far...

An advantage of working for the government is the holiday time and January is a good month for that!  With that being said, I'm enjoying my extra days with my family and our good friends.

Backing up to the January 1, Charlie had his first mustache.  

We had a good visit with the McGreevy's.   This is the only picture I took of Charlie and Hailee while they were enjoying their dessert.

We also got to hang out with the Hamrick's.

It was really cute to see Charlie and Wyatt throwing a football back and forth to one another.

Charlie has been a great helper these days; he's really into helping in the kitchen unloading the dishwasher,

filling Wally's food bowl, and cooking with one of us.  We made individual pizzas.  He took a lot of pride in making his own pizza.  We told him we were having a pizza party, which then reminded Matt of a commercial for a game called Pizza Party back in the 80's.  Matt looked it up on You Tube.  Charlie loved it and really jammed out to it.

Charlie is obsessed with watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse these days.  It's turned into a little bit of a struggle.  Every morning he wakes up and first thing he says to me is that he wants to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  This morning, he waited a whole 2 minutes before he asked.  He likes to get in our bed and watch it though and I do like being able to lay with my sweet boy in the bed and snuggle before having to get up.

We had a nice weekend.  I actually left from work to go see my friend Diane who lives in Durham, NC.  Diane was my roomie during pharmacy school.  It was a very quick trip but we made the most of it and stayed up until 1 am.  I told Matt and he was shocked that I made it up that late.  Those who know me, know I like to go to bed early.  I also slept until 9 am.  I am pretty sure it's been exactly 2 years and 8 months since I slept that late.  :-)  Diane took me out and showed me a little bit of Durham but the weather was not really cooperating with us doing too much which was fine with us.  We didn't stop talking the whole time we were around each other. We went to Parker and Otis and then had to stay a little longer than we planned due to a tornado warning.  It was pretty crazy for about 5 minutes. Luckily, I'm not sure that there was any tornado that touched down.  Anyways, I really liked that store and the food was delicious.  They had some fun things for me to get for Charlie.  I brought him a new place-mat home.  I started using them with him at the table when he turned 1 and he's a little obsessed.  I also brought him a wind up dinosaur which was a big hit. I also got a few other gifts that I'm going to give sometime later when I need a little something.  I left to go home that day and I was fortunate to not have any weather issues on my drive.  I didn't take a single picture of my trip but it was a lot of fun.

 Matt and Charlie had some time at home.  Matt is such a good Dad.  He took Charlie to get a doughnut and to the Children's Museum so Charlie definitely had a good time.  It's hard not to feel a little guilty when I leave home but I know they are both fine.  Matt is so sweet though; he told me he was glad to keep Charlie and was glad I got to go.  

Charlie is obsessed with trains and we had a train filled day.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

 

We did manage to get outside and got to go to the park.

Charlie told us today a couple of times that he didn't feel good.  When asked what hurt.  He told me his body hurt.  I then asked him about his different body parts.  I was able to rule out that his fingers, hands, and arms did not hurt.  However, his tummy, ears, legs and feet did hurt.  I'm not sure what that was all about.  He also complained of being hot so he took his shirt off to cool down.

I recorded a video tonight and it's evidence that poor Wally is the most patient dog and so sweet to Charlie who aggravates him all.the.time.  I'm sorry about the quality of the video.

Christmas 2013 Recap

It's the 4th Sunday of Advent and the 12th day of Christmas and what a Christmas we've had.  Oh my!  Our decorations are down.  Charlie was just asking me today where the tree went.  He thought it was in "Mim's bedrooms closet" (i.e. the closet our guest bedroom).  I told him it was in the attic.  He told me we would go up there later and get it down!  He has also asked about Santa a lot.  We told him that he was on vacation so he now says "Santa is at the beach"!

After work, we traveled to Grundy on Friday, December 20th.  The drive was perfect other than it being late and us being a little tired.  Charlie did not fuss a single time.  He was so happy.  It was his best car trip to date and that's saying a lot because he's a pretty good traveler.  We got there late and Charlie woke up and was so excited.  He just had to stay up and visit for a little while.  :-)

Saturday morning, we went to the local park.  It was unseasonably warm.  Too warm for December in my opinon but a great excuse to spend a part of the morning at the Poplar Gap Park.

 

We came home and took a nap so we could be ready to PARTY!

We had a our Christmas with my folks and I don't normally do this but I thought I should take a picture of this table.  It was so pretty!

 

My Uncle Rob and Aunt Susan came along with my sister and her boyfriend and we had such a great time with everyone.  Charlie did great unwrapping all of his presents.

Sunday, we went to church and then Charlie got to come home and play with his new gifts.  He went to the movie theatre and visited Santa.  Meredith, Matt and I stayed to see Anchorman 2.  Charlie went home to get some one on one time with his Pops and Mim.  My mom cooked all weekend and we had good food.  That night, we had a delicious dinner.  We watched Home Alone that night with Dad.  It's a family favorite!

On Monday, we got up and headed on back to Richmond.  We were all ready to get out of the car but the drive was uneventful.  We managed to get home, get unpacked, and play with some toys.

Tuesday was Christmas Eve!  We had such a fun morning playing with toys.  Daddo made Charlie a special breakfast.  We had a couple of last minute errands to make which didn't take long.  Then we headed over to Aunt Knee-knee's house.  We've gone over to her house the last couple of Christmas Eve's and we just enjoy a little bit of time over there.  This year, we made cookies for Santa

and reindeer food while we were at her house.

 Charlie taste tested the dough and thought Santa would approve of his cookies.

We came home and took a nap. (Whenever I say we took a nap, I mean Charlie!  I only wish I was taking a nap!!!)  Our church has a wonderful family Christmas Eve service at 4 so we headed out for that.  Charlie woke up on the wrong side of the bed so he wasn't in the mood for pictures.  It's too bad because we all looked so nice even if Charlie wasn't feeling the church clothes.  (He had a complete meltdown over this outfit!)  

We came home and had a nice family dinner.  Matt and I are pretty sure that it was our 2nd best meal of 2013 (steaks, mashed potatoes, and roasted brussel sprouts) which is pretty hard contest. 

We put our food out for the reindeer.

 

When we were ready for bed, we got our plate ready for Santa.

We put a couple of carrots out for the reindeer and of course the cookies and milk for Santa.  Matt and I read Charlie the Christmas story in the Bible.  Honestly, Charlie wasn't feeling it but he has a book that is more toddler friendly on Jesus' birth so we read that one too.  Charlie read that book a lot this year.  After that, we read Twas the Night Before Christmas.

 

We told Charlie that he needed to go to bed and he had to stay asleep in order for Santa to come and he couldn't wake up until it was light outside.  About 11pm, Charlie woke up and we were worried it was going to be a long night.  Luckily, Matt went in a said he had to go back to sleep until the morning and Charlie did.

Christmas Day

What a day!  We woke up and first stop was to go downstairs and see what Santa brought.  I had already snuck down to get a peek and take a couple of pictures.

 

I got up at the crack of dawn (seriously)!  I wanted to have a shower and be fully ready and not miss a minute.  I'm a morning person anyways so that was fine.  I got ready, put my pjs back on (cuz you have to take pictures in your pjs on Christmas morning) and was ready and waiting for Charlie to wake up when he got up about 6:45.  Charlie's big gift was the train table.  He also loved his new microphone and the Mickey Mouse train.

 

 We opened a few presents that were from us.

 

Then, Grammie, Papa and Knee-knee joined us for brunch and more presents.

 

Charlie got a little tired before it was all said and done so we laid down on his chair and opened his presents.

 

That afternoon, we headed over to Grammie and Papa's house to veg out, take naps (ok, this time I did fall asleep) and just some good family time.  Charlie played with a couple of his new toys and worked his new puzzle.

 

That night, we got to see a few of the houses that were all decked out with lights.    It was a little frigid!  We got out and walked around but didn't take any pictures.

Thursday, the day after was rough on us all.  We had to go to work and daycare.  It was a hard morning!  Poor Charlie wasn't feeling daycare.  I understood because I wasn't feeling work either but it is what it is and we survived.  That night, we got to celebrate with the Hamricks.

I'm sad that I didn't get a picture of Baby Noah.  I love these sweet boys.

They are best friends but already fuss like brothers over anything and everything.  They are toddlers afterall!  Ali got Charlie a guitar!!  He loves it!!

Friday we all headed back to daycare and work.  That night, we all needed a break and we just spent some time playing with all the new toys and had a few moments of quality family time.  

Saturday, December 28th, we spent some time outside and just hanging out at home.  We actually did a little yard work.

 

I felt like Charlie need to try to get outdoors an he loved his "gloves with fingers" thanks to Mim!

Later that day, we headed to Virginia Beach to celebrate Christmas at the Saunders home.

Lisa made the best white chicken chili so we ate more rich food.

Yum!  The kids get presents.  Charlie was just fine to sit with Katie for more surprises.

Charlie got a drum and symbols to go with his microphone and guitar so we have a band.

What a wonderful holiday.  New Year's Eve, we spent the time at home.  It was nice a low key.  Sadly, Matt and I didn't make it until midnight.  New Year's Day, Charlie played with Papa and Grammie while Matt and I took the decorations down, cleaned up the toys, and got everything to the attic.  Later that day, we all went over and some of our first bit of 2014 with our friends.