Mr. and Miss. Hollywood!!

My former coworker Amy always called her kids "Miss Hollywood" or "Mr. Hollywood" if they had sunglasses on, and so we picked it up.  Charlotte will even say: "look at me, I'm Miss. Hollywood!" or shriek: "HEY, MISSSSER HOLLYWOODDDD!!" (misspellings meant to sound out how she is laughing hysterically and can't say it right while doing so)

How the kids are getting snacks..

See that reddish colored basket right above Charlotte's left hand?  Yeah...that is the snack basket.  This is what I turned around (from washing breakfast cups in the sink) to see after I heard Charlotte announce: "me and buddy are gonna have some fruit snacks."  Hey, now if she could open the little plastic packages as well, I wouldn't have to do a thing! haha just kidding.  We did have a nice chat about doing this only when mommy or daddy is with her..we'll see how that works out..

Sleeping Beauty

Not only is she currently obsessed with Sleeping Beauty (or Aurora, or Briar Rose...the princess with the most monikers by far!!), but she is one, isn't she?  We have dropped the afternoon nap..but she can't quite make it every day until bed time.  (trust me, a sleepy-right-before-bedtime three year old is much nicer than a grumpy-after-naptime-and-for-the-next-two-hours three year old..)

What a stinkin' cutie pie!! (I meant in the background..Charlotte is beautiful)

New Shoes!!

We were at the mall early (see last post) to pick up some new kicks!  Mine were all hopped out, and the kind I wear were on sale, 20% off!!  As we were walking by I saw a clearance sale at Stride Rite, so I used some of C's birthday money to get her a pair.  Not Even Thinking at the time that we were ending up with twinsy shoes! haha!  Guess this will be the year of the silver/berry athletic shoe for the ladies of the house...

What we do with 75 cents when we get to the mall at 9:50 am...

A little Winter trampoline time :)

Liam is actually pretty good at staying upright these days!!  "Keeping up with Miss C" is the name of his game.. :)

Git Ona Binch! (Dana Carvey impersonating Ross Perot)

yep, this is the shot you go with before someone falls off the bench..besides, we wouldn't have any pictures of them if we waited for both to simultaneously smile at the camera with their eyes open and hands in their laps, right?

Liam decided to put his "Game Face" on...

3rd Birthday!!

We celebrated Charlotte's 3rd birthday with family and friends from the neighborhood, small group, and life in general at the Greensboro Children's Museum on January 23rd!  Wouldn't you know, the birthday girl had already had a stomach bug the previous Tuesday, and even though she recovered quickly from that, she woke up from her nap (last one, by the way) the day of the party feeling pretty crummy... I think she still had a blast and was so excited everyone came out and loved on her.  All week long before the big day, she kept saying: "and all the peoples are coming to my party" and then naming every person she knows. Super Sweet.

 It was a Tinkerbell themed affair, so she got all dressed up in her "jeggings", sparkly shoes, and Tinkerbell shirt/hoodie.  (yes it was huge, the smallest Tinkerbell shirt within 25 miles of our house was a girls XS..

 Sitting pretty with Nana.  (clearly not feeling great, though)

 "Room B" at the museum.. my advice would be to call early and spring for the private room instead of A/B with only partitions dividing 2 parties..

 Tink cake courtesy of Wal-Mart.  (Er, I mean, I made that...)

 Finally! Some energy and a smile!

 "Theater" area...can you believe she wanted to play dress up with princess clothes!?!

 Blowing out the candles.. (I actually did it..not b/c I wanted to be controlling, but just in case she was coming down with something, I didn't want her blowing cold germs all over the cake)..

 Sweet Neighbors!!! LOVE them!!

 Book Club and Small Group friends  (yes these are our friends, but they are the kids she hangs out with by default..so we end up with matching friend groups!)

 More Small Group friends and some family and high school friends!

 Liam and Poppy sharing some cake. (sharing implies Liam shared with Dad, which I'm not sure happened..but just go with it).. Sweet Memaw and Papa in the background. LOVE THEM!!

 Me and my sweet, gorgeous, hilarious, smarter than I'll ever be, Tinkerbell-loving 3 year old!!

 Brandon and Drew are so good with Liam.  He basically loves it. (and them)

 See how far the children are from Charlotte?  This changed 5 minutes later.  Picture those gift bags trading places with the kids. :)

Charlotte and her friend Alaina from Small Group.  Trust me when I say these two LOVE to read!!

Thanks to everyone who made her day(s, because she celebrated all day on her actual birthday, too!) soo special!! (and thank you all for your generosity!! Josh and I were de-packaging toys late into the evening when we got home.  Let's just say we'll be doing a charity-donation gift thing, or no gifts next time! lol)

Brynlee Grace Hall! January 12, 2011

Our niece Brynlee was born just after 1-11-11 at 12:53am (I think) on the 12th. She was just shy of 2 weeks early, and she entered the world at a whopping 6lb, 3oz.. I think Charlotte and Liam were that size around 6 or7 months gestation!! lol :) She is soo precious and sweet. We love you, Brynlee!! (I think Liam is actually In Love with her. I'll have to clarify the cousin thing for him later. He is obsessed!)

Here she is at her first birthday party!! (see next post for further details..haha)

Christmas!!

When Josh asked if I'd like to spend Christmas Eve & morning at my parent's house, it didn't take me 2 seconds to say yes!!  It was soo fun, and really helped us make it through a fun but long Christmas day since we didn't have to make a round trip in one day! On Christmas Eve, we brought back a family tradition from long ago of making milkshakes! (who needs milk and cookies!?) Needless to say, both kids LOVED it. Charlotte wouldn't let anyone near hers..guess she was thinking we were going to try to steal a bite...we would never..uh, ever..do something like that... mm hmm.. Liam was being fed from both sides and keeping up with the double-bite pace!  Christmas morning was awesome!! We brought our presents to the kids down with us, since we weren't going to have time at home before we needed to head over to Josh's parents house.  We had a great time with them and a wonderful night with that side of the family!! Alas, no pictures though.  I have to confess I stole all of these (every post today, actually) from a memory card my parents had!  Our camera is still missing!  Therefore, we didn't take a single picture once we got back to Winston Salem!  If anyone has pictures of Christmas afternoon or night, please let me know and I'll add them to this post!

 yum, yum, gimme some.

 Cheese!

 this is for me?!?  (thank you, craigslist!)

 look at this real screwdriver, Daddy!

 OH MY GOSH...Tinkerbell Fairies!!

Belated Merry Christmas from the Halls!

Christmas 2010: Nana's Side!

 Enjoying an awesome dump truck from Uncle Eddie!

 Cousins!! Reunited!! (Garrett is the world..er..country traveler of the fam!)

Charlotte in Love with the ladybug outfit from Aunt Wanda (no that isn't my mom...strong and good lookin' gene pool, though huh?) and Uncle Ron! We had to put in on right away before continuing the present opening!

Stewart Christmas!

(Liam in high chair, Wyatt standing by table next to his brother Hunter, Sam, Charlotte, Sam's twin younger sisters Kayla and Kinzie ~Scott & Jamie, forgive me if I misspelled).

We had a low-key and super-fun (hyphenating, anyone?)  Christmas get together with my Dad's side of the family.  Between my three cousins and myself we have added 7 children to the family in the past 4 1/2 years. (I'm saying 4 1/2 because surely Sam cannot be 5 already!)  For some reason, probably an excessive amount of caffeine, I couldn't hold the camera still all night..here is the best (using that term loosely) shot of all the youngest generation!!

Disney On Ice...again..

Just a couple quick shots of our sweeties during the visit to Disney On Ice: Princess Classics!

Thanksgiving Tree Trip 2010

We always go up to Boone/Blowing Rock after Thanksgiving for a big meal at Dan'l Boone Inn and cut a Christmas tree!  This year was a little different..

We enjoyed several parks around Boone/Blowing Rock, and a stroll around Moses Cone Lake with Nana and Poppy the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  We moved our traditional Friday trip around a bit this year due to weather!  This day, the weather was Gorgeous and we had such a great time!  Too bad it was freezing cold and windy the Saturday after Thanksgiving when we went with the Halls :( (Well, most of them..unfortunately we were never able to quite catch up with Jared and Lindsay even though we were all within 20 minutes from each other! lol)

Here are some pictures from the McGraw visit to the mountains (the Hall trip was too cold to pause for any pictures!! :( Next Year for sure we'll have better weather, right?!)

 We Love Swinging!!

 Rock Climber Extraordinaire!

 Boys Club!

 Cheese!!

 Nana and Poppy!

 Practicing a lil' stone skipping!

 Git on a bridge!!

 Umm, this is for babies!

Cutie Pie Boy!