::tutu and boots::

besides her snow white dress, this is cailyn’s other favorite outfit that she always asks to put on: her tutu and rain boots! i finally took some pictures of her in it! she would wear this every where if we would let her!

asher ::2 months::

Happy 2 months, Asher Cade!

You are smiling and “cooing” and trying so hard these days to communicate with us! Your big sister makes you smile the most; she loves you so very much! We all do; and we are so thankful for the past two months with you! We are all wondering if that red hair of yours is going to stick around?! So far, you don’t have the typical red hair temper.. you are one laid back dude. Very rarely are you upset… if we can just get you to sleep through the night! you are still waking up every three hours to eat and you def put the weight on. We went to the dr yesterday for your shots, and you now weigh 12 lbs 4 oz, which is in the 75% of babies your age! You are 22 1/2 inches long! We love you sweet boy!

hi. i’m new here.

well, pretty new. he will be two months tomorrow!!

feeling better.

whew. i cant believe it is already the middle of January!! i know I say this all the time, but time is just flying. last week, cailyn came down with a horrible stomach virus which made for an incredibly trying week. poor thing couldn’t keep anything in her stomach and just did not understand what was going on. she wanted to be held and cuddled, which was so wonderful because she is Miss Independent these days and rarely wants help with anything.. but at the same time, incredibly difficult to balance also taking care of little Asher. Asher is still waking up every three hours for feedings; so we were just exhausted! i was so easily frustrated and so tired and then I read this blog post from McMama.  it was a perfect reminder to me to take a deep breath, not worry so much about the mess in the house, and just thank God for the precious time I get to spend taking care of these two. It is a wonderful post. I encourage any young mom to read it. It is def one that I am going to go back to time and again! Thankfully, I’m also blessed with a pretty amazing husband, who is incredibly hands on, and as a team we made it through the week. Of course, on Friday once cailyn was finally starting to feel a little better, I woke up with the virus! It was just awful feeling so sick and then not being able to really care for either of the kids. We really did not want Asher to get it! Thankfully, shauns parents let Shaun and the kids hang out their house most of the weekend and I was able to sleep it off. Needless to say, my camera was not out much last week! But here are a few catch up shots of what has been going on around our house! cailyn is still LOVING her dress up clothes and shoes. she is so creative. I love seeing her little imagination at work! she is also still such a great big sister to Asher. Every morning when she wakes up, the first thing she says is, “is Asher up??” she is constantly trying to teach and show him new things! and asher has been smiling so much lately. and he is def putting on some weight! quite the chunker! and these pictures are from our sweet friends doug & alexa’s little girls birthday party! it was a princess party, so of course cailyn LOVED it! she got to dress up as cinderella, have tea with cinderella, get make up on AND get her finger nails painted for the first time!! she was so cute as they walked down the cat walk, she def struck her pose! she knew just what to do!!

{nEw YeArS eVe}

this new years we headed out to dads. the guys had some fireworks left over from july 4th, so they had a lot of fun launching those off; and cailyn was super excited to get to play with harlie again! we had a great time, even though both shaun and I were asleep way before midnight!!!

we are really looking forward to 2010!! i love fresh starts and new beginnings!

::cousin photo shoot::

i’ve been dying to post these pictures, but they were a surprise for my dad & deb for christmas! these kids are so special. cailyn adores harlie and looks forward to any time she gets to spend with her! thse were taken a day before thanksgiving..so asher was still too small to try to throw into the madness!! we will get him in there next time though! and next time, i will have better ideas about how to arrange them all! i wish i would have done it a little differently!

::christmas day::

what a full, blessed day we had!! i really fell down on my job of taking pictures.. .but here are the few i did take! christmas morning was spent just us four, eating yummy breakfast and playing with the things Santa brought cailyn and asher! cailyn was so excited to see the train set {her favorite at barnes & nobles and papaw’s house!}! she also got a new tea set; a cinderella fishing pole; and a few other little movies and things! she took a look at her things and then remembered her snow white dress.. so the dress went back on! her and shaun spent most of the morning with the trains!
asher in his little christmas sweater! ha!! about 10:00, we headed over to the penny’s!! cailyn loves being at  momos and pawpaws! i did horrible at pictures here.. i didnt even get a group shot! but we had a wonderful time spending time together; enjoying each others company and opening presents. we also had  a very delicious lunch!! cailyn was most excited about her stick horse and they also gave cailyn and asher a new wagon! they have a cute little wooden nativity scene- i loved seeing cailyn play with this.. and also the santa that reads the night before christmas outloud. it is so special to have these same traditions every year! we then headed out to christmas at my dads! when we got there, everyone was outside watching caden & coop driving the big gift for all the grandkids- a new go cart! it was a beautiful day!! we also had a wonderful time out here as nearly everyone was there {we were just missing little Reed}. it is so special for all the kids to be together; especially cailyn & harlie. they play SO well together. i think the cutest thing was the matching tutus they got with the matching silver shoes! they were so excited to be “princesses’”. we also enjoyed an amazing traditional christmas dinner together; we are so very blessed to be surrounded by so many people that love and support us.  free for all with the gifts. as soon as one is passed out; the kids are opening it! i couldnt keep up with the camera!
think cailyn had a pretty amazing day. she was so excited. what an amazing gift this little girl is!and we ended the day with an “asher” sandwich before we all headed to bed. so very thankful for everything:the gift of grace; of family and of love.

{christmas EVE}

we spent christmas eve with my mom; we always have so much fun together! some of my favorite memories of the day at grammys: all the yummy snack food; stockings with lottery tickets ; cailyn unwrapping all of her dress up clothes– {she has been in a snow white dress and high heels with a purse ever since!}; eggnog; playing pictionary man {courts polish?!} and sweet asher still sleping through it all! after all the fun, we headed home; played for a little bit and finally convinced cailyn to get out of the snow white dress and into her p.j.s! we read the christmas story and we let cailyn open up one gift! we left out cookies for santa and put the little ones to bed!some of my favorite memories of christmas season at our house this year: cailyn singing christmas songs- especially “we wish you a merry christmas” and she would constantly break out with “its the most wonderful time of the year” {but that was the only line of the song she knew!} ; she also loved jingle bells and did little hand motions to “away in a manager”. she would constantly want to show anything she was excited about to asher “look asher!” “see this, asher”. she is very independent so reading books to her is hard this year; but she would get them out of our little book basket and read them out loud to us. drinking hot chocolate/coffee around a fire with all the decorations up!!

december {20-23}

days of spending endless hours with my three favorite people have come to an end. shaun is back to work and cailyn starts school tomorrow. i am so sad, but it has been such a wonderful time! and i apologize for neglecting our little blog but i took some time away from the computer to enjoy the last of our break!! we are so very blessed and we fit so much in to the two weeks or so we had! i will try to do a few quick posts to catch us back up we had our annual christmas cookie baking day with my mom and sister! cailyn joined in the fun this year; although she made it a little harder to get many cookies baked {we only made about a third of what we normally do!} it was so much fun to have her there! and i am on the search to find her the perfect little matching apron for next year! my dearest friend, vanessa, also came in for two days to meet Asher! what a blessing she was; it was really nice to have some extra hands to help play with cailyn and to hold asher- and it was equally refreshing to have some time for girl talk i dont think we left the house but once! we just played and ate we love you aunt ness and are so very thankful for you. p.s.- so very excited for all her wedding activities starting this month!!sweet friends from high school, annie and jamie came by also to meet asher!annie is an incredible preschool teacher and luck for us, she was here when we decided to do the gingerbread house! cailyn was LOVING having all the attention from annie and ness! here are some pictures of our gingerbread house, or “christmas house” as cailyn called it this year!after vanessa left; molly and gentry arrived in town- so cailyn went and spent the night with grammy and the girls! shaun and i were very thankful as we did all of our last minute shopping and wrapping! mom sent me a picture of the cute little reindeer cupcakes they made while she was there!

:: mErRy ChRiStMaS ::

wishing everyone a very merry christmas!!!