North Carolina Christmas

We celebrated Christmas over the New Year's weekend with my family in Durham. The little ones had so much fun together. It's fun to watch them. Here the littlest of the big kids (youngest) is having some fun too! ;)

Tea time with Claire.

They love to climb into the toy box.
It's just barely big enough for Eli and Claire to fit in together!

Wyatt and Claire opening their present from us.

"Christmas morning," or rather New Year's morning, Eli and Mama getting ready to open Eli's presents from Grandma and Grandpa!

Eli and Dada enjoying a book.

The whole fam!

Another shot....there were many....it's very hard to get 3 little ones all kind of looking and holding still at the same time!

Grandpa and Grandma with their grandbabies!

Sweet picture of Claire!

Grand-Mutti and Grand-Vati :)
aka: The Eakrights!

The Renfrows!

One of the reasons for so many pictures! Heehee!

The Gwinns!

One of my favorite moments of the weekend. Claire and Eli standing in the kitchen by themselves just laughing over and over again and playing with the little toys in their hands. It was hilarious to watch! :)


Another of my favorite moments with Claire and Eli. This video cracks me up! Aren't they too cute!!!

Horsie Ral. Yee haw!!!

the growing belly

Some of you may have been waiting for more belly pics, well, here you go! Finally! :)
Just a few pics to show the growth of our second little bundle of joy!

Preggo bellies!
In this picture I'm 14 weeks and my friend, Libby, is 24 weeks! It's been easy to remember how far along she is, because it's exactly 10 weeks ahead of me!

20 weeks! Half way there!

Another shot of Libby and me. She is 34 weeks here and I am 24 weeks! We also happened to capture Luke (27 months) and Eli (16 months) in our self-timed picture! :)

About 24.5 weeks!

About 25.5 weeks. As you can see Eli enjoys being in the belly pictures too! :)

Disc Golf and Ice Skating

On the 28th we busted out the frisbee golf discs, that I got for Christmas, at Stumpy Creek in Mooresville. We pulled Eli in his wagon and he loved it. He called the discs plates and would scream and cheer when we would throw them. We were worried about him calling them plates, thinking that the next meal we ate his plate would go flying, thankfully it did not. We all had a good time!

Eli and Mama on the trail.

Eli holding a "plate".

On New Years Eve we were in Durham with Andrea's parents and were able to go ice skating with some friends. I really wanted to take Eli skating but he had to nap, and Andrea didn't skate because of the risk of a fall. I really enjoy ice skating and miss the days in Maine, skating on the lake...

Walter, me, and Heather (hiding behind the seam in the glass).

Crazy face of some kind...

Jeremy in the lead.

The whole group: Jeremy and Abbey Hawkins,
Andrea, Walter and Heather Miller, and me.

Kentucky Christmas Part 3

We had a great Christmas in Kentucky. Eli loved seeing my parents dog, Daisy. He learned her name very quickly, Day-Deet :-) As I said before we played some games. One night we played Texas Hold'em and I got schooled, but I redeemed myself another night at Tripoly. Hopefully it won't be too long before we see my parents again....

Eli in his new wagon! He calls it a Choo-choo.

The wagon has a 200lb weight limit so Andrea,
Eli and Baby #2 decided to test it out together!

Eli also got a few animal crackers :-)

Eli and Dada opening a present.

Eli and Aunt Jill opening a present.

Grandma getting into the action.
Notice the dog begging for a stomach rub.

Eli opening a sand and water table....
he will love it because he is nuts about wa-wa.

Eli coloring.

The Gwinn boys.

Pops and Eli.

Adorable.

Family pic.

Another family pic.

First outdoor wagon ride.

Eli and a wooden spoon, he loves to carry spoons around.

Away we go....

Mmm.... pudding!

Kentucky Christmas Part 2

We have all been to Mammoth Cave multiple times but this was Eli's first trip and our first trip with a NPS Passport :-) We took the shortest tour we could just incase Eli and the dark dark cave did not get along. Eli was great, he didn't even bat an eyelash. In fact the only issue was that about halfway through the tour he wanted to walk. We let him walk, but he obviously was not as fast as the group. We saw a bat on the roof of the cave as we were leaving and a bunch of deer above ground.

The historic entrance.

A mining area. I cannot remember exactly what they were mining but the area was used by Native Americans and European settlers. It is quite the operation.

The whole gang. Notice Eli has a nice cut on his forehead,
this is a sipie cup accident...(not from the cave).

Eli and Dada in the cave.

Aunt Jill, Mama, and Eli walking during the tour.

Early tour guides would write their names or their
tourists' names on the cave walls in candle smoke.

They cored out whole Tulip Poplars and created a
pipe system within the cave for the mining operations.

The obligatory entrance sign picture :-)