Jolly Old St. Nick

 Moses' face when he saw Santa!

The first time we went to the brunch with Santa, I knew I would never set foot in a mall again to meet him!  The State Club does such a great job!  This year the entire family came.  Moses is so aware this year and his face says it all when he first saw the big guy!  Sutton was a little unsure, but he generally likes everyone!

 Can you see the extreme adoration here?  He couldn't even talk he was so excited.  This guy is just like his mommy when he gets excited.  Doesn't eat and gets a nervous tummy!  Santa went around the room and spoke to every table and then went to his big chair in the foyer.  I love that special touch!

 Moses voted that Sutton would go first.  We snapped a few pictures with him and then quickly moved Moses in and that's went Sutton...

 looked up and realized...

 that this was not for him!

After that Moses just wanted to give him a hug and get his special cookie.  We went back to the table and ate dessert.  Afterwards, we went on a sleigh ride around the property.  Love it!  Just the looks on those boy's faces was priceless and pure joy.  Things are starting to get real now!  Christmas is only a few days away!

Cold rides

It's starting to get a little cold here. I think I am over doing it a bit with the layers!

OH Christmas Tree!

Oh Christmas tree....not like the song...as in DARN YOU Tree!

This tree my children are decorating, is not the current tree in my house.  The Sunday after Thanksgiving, we went to Food Lion and purchased a tree.  We've done this in years past and had not problems at all.  We took the tree home, cut off the bottom and placed it in a large bucket of water for twenty four hours.  Put the tree up and decorated it.  Moses loved it!  He was so excited.

A week went by, and the tree never drank any water.  Brett took all the decorations off, cut off the bottom again, and drilled a hole in it.  Two more days go by and still no drinking.  At this point if you looked at this tree wrong it would shed its needles!  Brett went to Food Lion and told them what happened.  They offered him a refund or a new tree.  After checking out what was leftover he took his money and left!

After all of that, we went to the farmer's market where our sob story landed us a discount on the most beautiful Christmas tree we've ever had.  Before Brett could go to the ATM and get the man his cash, he had cut off the bottom and tied it to our truck.  I'm a farmer's market tree buyer FOR LIFE!  Now, anytime anyone mentions our tree, Moses will ask me to tell them the story of our two trees.  Yes sweet boys, we loved you so much that we decorated two trees for you this year!

Eight Months Old!

My nudie cutie is eight months old!  SO much has been going on in the last month and as per usual I'm about a week late writing this!  This guy is still my peanut!  He is weighing in at 17lbs.  They did not take his height the last sick appointment we had, so I am not sure about that.  He is very sturdy though.  Check out those thigh muscles!  My little bug is all over the place as far as clothes.  Some 3-6 months, some six months, and some 9 months!  He is still wearing size two diapers.

Sutton is crawling like a mad man on all fours.  If you really want to see him move, just open the back door and he will make really good time trying to get out!  He is also much sturdier standing when he has pulled up.  He lets go with one had and some times with two.  He is not afraid to try to pull up on anything!  We've moved the coffee table out of the den, but he still gets a really good bump or two every day.

Sutton has also started babbling.  Lots of dadas, babas, bubas, and a mama thrown in too.  I swear he is saying his name sometimes.  My favorite thing he is doing now is "dancing" when he hears any music. He sits and bops along and holds out his hands.  I think he is trying to clap too.

As far as food goes, he is getting four bottles a day (sometimes five).  An eight ounce in the morning and six ounces for the others.  We have also started real solids.  I so hate baby food so we are weaning off as soon as possible!  So far he has tried green beans, carrots, cheerios, and toast.  The only one he did not care for was the toast.  It has helped that the bottom teeth are completely in and the top ones have broken through and are hopefully almost done coming down.

My sweet boy also had another ear infection last Friday.  Two days before his tube surgery!  Luckily they still go ahead with the surgery, even if there is an infection.  So, bright and early Monday morning, we took Sutton to a surgical center and checked in.  Sutton was happy in the waiting room and content for the most part in preop.  He started to get fussy as time went on, so I held him tight and he fell asleep.  Dr. Boice came in and spoke to us softly so Sutton wouldn't wake up.  Then he asked if he could pray with us before they took him back.  I nearly boohooed right there!  I was grateful he was our surgeon!  We prayed and he gently took Sutton in his arms (still asleep) and walked him back to surgery.  We returned to the waiting room and in five minutes they called us back to recovery.  He was fussing when we got back there, but within a few minutes calmed down and drank his bottle.  Apparently, he never woke from his nap until post surgery!  We brought him home and he was fine!  If you are ever in need of an ENT I really recommend Raleigh ENT.  Everyone but Moses in our family has been a patient there!

Sutton bug we are gearing up for your first Christmas.  You are very interested in all the decorations and excitement.  You pretty much slept through Thanksgiving, but I have a feeling you will be much more involved for this holiday.  I can't wait!

Photo Comparison

 Here are my boys around the same ages.  Sutton is SO my little peanut.  I love that for the most part he is right at or just a few weeks behind what Moses was doing at his age.  The funny part is, he is so much smaller so it is amazing to me that he is strong enough to do these things!  There is no slowing him down!

Thanksgiving and Cuteness

 Mommy fail.  I did not take a single photo on Thanksgiving day.  So I will post these completely unrelated cute photos of my children.  We did have a nice Thanksgiving.  Everyone came to us and we had a relaxing meal.  Moses went home for the weekend with his Nana and Pops and the rest of us participated in some Thanksgiving and Black Friday shopping.  I think everyone really enjoyed it!

We ended up taking Sutton with us to the football game on Saturday and he was an ANGEL.  He slept the first half and watched the crowd during the second half.  He literally lasted the entire game and did not cry once!  One thing is for certain, he missed his big brother!  I loved how excited he was to have him home.  Moses would probably not tell you, but he missed his brother too!

Sutton at Seven Months

Watch out world!  Here he comes!  Whew, what a difference a month makes.  Sutton went from barely being able to sit up to pushing himself up to a sitting position, army crawling like a mad man and pulling himself up to his knees.  Apparently sitting up and seeing what was out there was all of the inspiration he needed to take off.  He is crazy mobile!  Brett and are taking over under bets on if he will be walking with out assistance at Christmas.  (For the record he will be 9 1/2 months, around the same age Moses was when he took his first steps).

Sutton is also getting three solid meals a day.  Veggies are really not his favorite.  He makes the worst faces and gags when I feed them to him.  He has become tolerable of sweet potatoes and green peas are growing on him.  He will finish a stage 2 container of fruit or breakfast blend and 1/2 to 1/3 when I give him veggies.  His favorites are bananas, apples or pears.

Sleeping is getting better.  The time change threw us off some, but typically he will go down for the night around 6:30.  He might wake up between 4am-5am and want his morning bottle but he will go back to sleep until brother wakes up or sometime after.  He takes a morning nap around 9:30am.  The afternoon naps are trickier but he will usually take one after lunch as well (sometimes two if they are short).  We are trying to drop the "pre dinner" 5pm nap, but sometimes he's so unhappy he needs that 30 minutes to compose himself!  Moses never took this nap, but it's great because it gives me a chance to work on dinner.

Everyone comments on how happy Sutton is.  He is always smiling and so sweet.  His laughs and giggles are heard all day!  And what do we see when he grins?  His two new bottom teeth!  Sutton spends most of the day crawling around seeing what he can find.  We have to make sure Moses' toys are on the coffee table when he is playing on the floor.  Sutton is currently obsessed with shoes.  He loves to untie them and play with laces or put them in his mouth.

Health wise, we are getting thing straightened out.  Sutton's tummy troubles are a distant memory.
We are planning on having tubes put in in December.  He constantly has fluid in is ears and hopefully this will solve that issue.

Our little Sutton-bug is growing so fast!  Let's see what another month will bring!

Trick or Treat!

 Moses was SO excited this year about Halloween and trick or treating.  If this is any indication of how his excitement level is going to be with Christmas we are in trouble!   The boys actually had two Halloween costumes.  I bought them all at the consignment sale and probably spent a total of $15 for them.  So, we played dress up all day! (Really we've been playing dress up for weeks!)  We went to see some friends in the afternoon and Moses was spiderman and Sutton was a pumpkin.

 And here are my two dragons ready to go trick or treating!  It was a cold and rainy night and Sutton was fighting a slight cold so conditions were not ideal.  We put them in the car and drove to a few houses and then Sutton and I went home.  Brett and Moses hit up several houses in the neighborhood and came home with a bucket full of candy.

I think he's had about 6 pieces of this candy in the last week or so.  I think just thought of it made him excited!  It was the first year he got the complete picture of what fun Halloween was all about.  Sutton was fine in his pumpkin but I think the dragon costume was a bit much for him.  He was happy to come home have his bottle and go to bed.  I know Moses is already thinking about trick or treating next year!

When Did...

 ...my sweet baby...

 start growing up...

 So fast?

Don't blink!  He might grow an inch more!

A Love "Affair"

 The theme for this year's fair was "A Love Affair."  I think that sounds just about perfect for me!  I can't believe this the FOURTH time we have taken Moses to the fair.  It was one of the first major outings we had as a family.

 We have several traditions we always try to keep.  The first is having a ham biscuit for breakfast.  YUM!  Great stat to fair food.

 Moses was really into riding the rides.  Luckily we bought the ticket booklets in advance which saved us a lot of money!  He loved anything that went fast.

 Our traditional corn photo!

 Stopping for some hotdogs and refreshments 

 If you ask Moses what his favorite thing at the fair was he will tell you "crashing cars."  He loved riding the bumper cars with papa.  

 We ended the day with a deep fried treat and...

brought home a Spiderman.  I am already looking forward to next year.  Sutton will be able to do (and eat) more!  So long sweet fair, see you next year!

Teeth!

Can you see them? We are getting bottom teeth!

Prospective and Prayer

Today was a doozy.  Sutton is getting his first teeth and not sleeping well.  It has been a challenge to get anything done and I feel like the house is a wreck.  I'm still struggling with potty training (#2) with Moses.  He is also in to everything and so impulsive.  I dropped a roll of toilet paper in the potty and a full jar of baby food...which splattered on the floor, wall, and windows.

I didn't scream, fuss, or yell why me.  Not once.  Because today, I have a sweet friend who is wishing she was cleaning up a mess and dealing with everyday little boy problems.  This mommy has lost one of her precious sons.  He is with Jesus and joyous in heaven, but his family is missing him so.  I can't imagine losing a child and my heart breaks for them.  If you read this blog would you say a prayer for them?  Pray for their strength and healing and for to joy to return to their home.

Tomorrow, we will go to bible study and do our best to praise God and lift them up in prayer.  Tomorrow, they will hold a celebration of his life and embrace friends and family.  Tomorrow, I will have more maddening mommy moments and I pray I will remember what is important in this life and the next.

Staycation

We are having a staycation at the beach. I will write more later, but for now here is a photo to wish everyone a happy Friday!

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears...

 We went to the zoo!  The NC Zoo is in Asheboro, which is only about and hour and forty minutes from our house.  I didn't realize it was so close.  It was a really easy drive and Moses was very excited to meet up with Nana and Pops.

 Moses enjoyed all the animals, real and fake.  The zoo is really beautiful, and I loved all of the walking trails between the Africa and North America areas.

Moses did have one little freak out because of our friend pictured above.  All of the gorillas were sitting with their backs to the plexiglass.  Moses was directly behind him.  Our gorilla friend turned around when Moses was not expecting it and he quickly turned around and ran to mommy.  He was done with them after that.

 Apparently he realized what he had done, and immediately put himself in time out.  How funny does he look just sitting on this log!

 Sutton did a great job too.  He didn't really notice too much, but enjoyed the extra attention and time outside.

 Here are Moses' favorite animals at the zoo.  The giraffes were really beautiful in person.  They were just so elegant.

If you haven't visited the zoo, this is the time of year to do it.  It was not crowded at all and the weather was perfect.  The earlier you can arrive the better.  Not only are the animals more active, the day will go smoother for you as well.  I think 3pm at the zoo (and probably at most amusement parks) is melt down time.  All the kids are tired and the adults are too!  It takes several hours to walk and see everything.  I would start in Africa and see the more fun animals while everyone is still excited.

Now that we know how easy it was to get there, I think we will go back again soon.  Watch out gorillas, we are coming back to see you!

Family Football!

 There was a time not too long ago when football was our life.  Brett and I NEVER missed a game.  We tailgated for hours before and hung out afterwards.  We lived for these games.  Then we had Moses, and Brett never missed a game!  Now with two kids, and a team that's not having a great season, we have begun to revisit our priorities.  We still bought our season tickets, but we have sold a lot of them.  We did promise Moses that he would get to go to a game.  At first Brett was going to take him and sell the other ticket to a friend.  When that didn't work out, we decided to get brave and take the entire family.  Yep, we're crazy!

 It was honestly not bad at all!  Moses was very interested in what was going on during the first half.  he loved the band and the "fire in the sky" (fireworks) when the team ran on.  It was all very exciting.  We also picked a perfect game.  It was warm, and since we were playing a team that was not well known, the stands were not as packed or as rowdy.

 We were also able to see the new American Idol, Scotty.  I really don't watch American Idol, but I do think this kid is pretty sweet and it's very cool he lives about 10 minutes from our house.  Let me tell you the Scotty patrol was fierce!  I only had my small lens on so I could not zoom in.  He is on the field with the white shirt and red hat.  All the orange to the right?  That was the press that followed him around all day.  Had to be close to twenty people.  If you lost sight of him all you had to do was look for the orange vests or the girls screaming for him.  It was insane.

This is what Sutton did for most of the first half.  He would like to thank his Auntie Lindsey for his sun hat.  It was very useful!  He did not wake up until it got quiet during half time!  Moses watched the game some and spent a lot of time socializing with the people who sit around us, especially a group of preteen girls a few rows back.  SUCH a flirt!  He also convinced a little boy to play cars with him on the bleachers.  Sutton and I did some walking after half time and by the end of third quarter we decided to leave.  I was really happy they did so well.  A Wolfpack win and worn out kids makes for a great day!