Visiting Santa

Over the weekend we went for our annual trip to see Santa at the Enchanted Gardens. It's a nursery that we love all throughout the year -- Will because they have goats and other farm animals on site, Todd and I because they have awesome plants and even more important for us, excellent planting advice. But for this trip we took advantage of Santa being on site and their cute gift shop for a little Christmas shopping. :)

Will did great with Santa -- he doesn't ever like to sit on his lap, but he likes to sit right next to him and have a little chat. He wouldn't tell us what he was going to tell him that he wanted...but hopefully with a little help from some elves that were listening we will have a successful Christmas morning. :)

Hey, stop listening Mom! This is between us...



Um, let's see, did I remember to tell you everything??



Poor Bellamy -- we interrupted her very much loved nap time and she was crashed out hard in the car when we got there to see Santa. Add that to the fact that she's fighting a cold this weekend...she was not so sure what all the excitement was about and her normal smiley self was a little absent for the photo op. But she grabbed on tight to Santa's beard and hung out with him while her big brother gave him a few suggestions to bring her too. :)



Snacking on a cookie from Daddy!



Merry Christmas everyone!

Just follow the blue dot...

Um, so Christmas is next week. And I am just now talking about Thanksgiving...oh well.

The week of Thanksgiving we took our first road trip as a family of four. I was very nervous about traveling with two -- 1000 miles is a long way for anyone, much less the littlest ones! But luckily we have been blessed with great traveling children -- I guess if we're going to live so far away at least everyone travels well. :)

Along the way Will noticed that Todd and I kept checking the GPS maps on our phones and wanted to know what it was. We showed him how there is a green dot where you start, a red one where you finish, and the blue dot is where you are currently. He became fascinated with the dots the rest of the trip. When he was hanging out with his friend Brody in Kansas City he asked him if he wanted to come over to his house. Then he preceded to tell Brody -- "you can come over, just tell your dad to follow the blue dot." :) We did a LOT of car traveling that week -- stopping in Kansas City, Omaha, Farnam, back to Omaha, Dallas, and then home. But the kids were troopers and all we heard from Will was, "where is the red dot today???"

It was a great trip -- we were able to see so many people and Will always has such a good time. Here he is checking out the tractors...



Thanksgiving day we were in Farnam at the annual Bellamy family luncheon. It was great to get to see so many people in one place and give Will an opportunity to have some quality time with the rough and tumble Bellamy boys. At one point he came in with grass in his hair and dirt in his teeth SO proud of himself! A little tackle football among the under 10 group never hurt anyone, right??

In the meantime, the little lady was busy trying out peas for the first time...Thanksgiving seemed like an appropriate day to give solid foods a chance. :)



And it wouldn't be Thanksgiving in Nebraska without a little football watching...go Huskers!



Every year the Friday after Thanksgiving the shopping area by Jess's house has a great Christmas parade. We decided to go and check it out this year and enjoy a little time with Uncle Bob and the crew. It was a little rainy and a little cold, but not too shabby for this time of year. It was Will's first experience with fireworks and his expressions were priceless!





During some of our many hours in the car I got the brilliant idea to play a thankful abc game. We would each come up with things we were thankful for that started with different letters and I kept track of them on my phone. It's funny to think back to what we said and how it was definitely a testament to how the trip was going. There were times that Will was thankful for airplanes...probably definitely ready to get out of the car (around the same time Todd said he was thankful for alcohol...) Most of the time he was thankful for whatever animal he could think of or the names of his friends we had just seen or he missed from school. But he was also thankful for Daddy -- as we all were as he drove us across the country. :) It was wonderful to get to spend time with so many people that we love and we look forward to next time -- but ready for people to come to us!

Goodbye October

Geez! The second half of October certainly came and went quickly! It really didn't feel like we had been doing anything all that interesting, but then I downloaded pictures off my camera and...over 100 later I realized it was definitely time for a blog post. So here is a little update on the last few weeks of our world.

First of all, the big kids. This picture sums things up pretty well -- Elyse and Will are such good friends and we always joke that they don't realize that they aren't actually related because most of the time they are either loving each other or fighting like siblings. I love this picture because I feel like it's a glimpse at what they will look like as big kids. Not that I'm rushing it.:)



And the little lady. She is now 4 months old -- and 5 months is creeping up on us! She's a great baby, with a beautiful smile and pretty easygoing personality. She still loves to talk -- so that will be fun later, right? :) Here is our sweet girl, showing off for the camera.



With her big 4 month birthday came the introduction to a little cereal for the little one too. As you can see, she is loving joining the table!



Will has been anxiously awaiting Bellamy being able to eat things -- he keeps asking if he can make her some vegetables. So needless to say, he wasn't missing out on the first cereal eating -- and he wanted to feed her too. Looks like they make a pretty good team...



One of Will's favorite parts of the month of October is the pumpkin patch at church. We have to go out and explore them every Sunday after church - he loves it! Must be that farmer gene in him...

We always have to try and take pictures while we are in the pumpkins, but it is definitely harder to pin him down than it used to be! I would have loved to get pictures with both kids, or us as a family, or anything close to any of that, but it totally didn't happen. Here's a glimpse of what we do have...

The little people hanging out in the pumpkins...



And the bigger little people!



Will also decided that we had to make a jack-o-lantern this year, so he and Todd picked out a pumpkin to bring home and carve. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, but either way they both had a great time. It is the one part of Halloween that Will does seem to like and it was so fun to watch them work on their "face" together.





Every year our church has a big Trunk Treat celebration that we have been a part of since Will was born. It's a great chance for the kids to hang out in their costumes, get some candy, and better yet -- have the whole thing over in an hour. :) Will actually has not developed much of a love of the holiday (I swear I try not to influence him on that one!) so we really have to talk him into dressing up, but he does love to go and see his friends. He told us this year that he wasn't wearing a costume, but that he would wear his cowboy clothes. Not sure the difference, but it made him happy and got us out the door. :)

Todd took Will a few weeks ago to get "real" cowboy boots so he has been wearing them non-stop lately. Pair them with his jeans that "have the leather on the back" (wranglers) and you have a cowboy costume. He actually has a hat and lasso, and at some point in the night starting chewing on a sucker stick to complete the outfit. So here's our little Marlboro man as Todd called him. :)



And, thanks to AJ, Bellamy had a few dress up worthy items herself. I added some football legwarmers and she was all set! WIll called her a football fairy princess. :)



This past weekend we took advantage of the good weather and checked out Dewberry Farms. It's a great attraction for little kids that is only open for a short time each year. And since our guy is such a fan of all things farm related, we had to check it out.

Doesn't he look like a natural?



Enjoying the tractor train with Daddy!



Checking out the pig races...



It's been a great fall! I can't believe that the holiday season is right around the corner -- but it does mean we are that much closer to spending time with many of you!

Happy Fall!

Blessed

It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway -- we are so blessed. We have such wonderful people in our lives, near and far, and we are always reminded of that at times like this weekend. We celebrated Bellamy's baptism with some of the most important people in our lives and it was so fun to have all of them together! Thanks to Aunt B (as always) we have a few pictures to document this important day.

Here we are -- this may be the first picture of us as a family of four?!?



And my guys hanging out before the ceremony...:)



Will settling in with Grandma before the service -- we weren't sure how he would do sitting in traditional church, on the front row, for the whole service. He did great! We asked him if he wanted to leave after the baptism so he could go play, and he said he wanted to stay. He started to get kind of antsy towards the end, but I was SO impressed. What a guy. :)



Our little lady in her big moment. Of course she had to make her presence known a few times, but overall, she was great. She was so interested in what Chuck was saying -- she doesn't miss a thing!



It is a double blessing to be able to have Bellamy baptized by Chuck Simmons. As well as being a fantastic pastor, we are also lucky enough to consider him a good friend. It takes an already significant moment and magnifies it. Thank you Chuck.



And then there's these two. They could not wait to take pictures together at the altar. Cheese!!



Afterwards we had everyone over to our house for lunch and a little time to celebrate with those we love. We were so lucky to have my sister and mom in town along with Todd's family and many of our close friends with us for this special occasion. Our normally sleepy, nap loving little one stayed up all afternoon to party with her admirers. It was a truly wonderful day!

Hey there!

Another month has come and gone and well...it's still hot. Like crazy hot for September. And I like warm weather, but this is getting ridiculous! Looking forward to, oh I don't know, fall???

Anyway...we haven't been up to much yet stayed incredibly busy all at the same time this past month. We have gotten into a good groove with school and Bellamy has transitioned to Miss Wanda's like a champ. Of course it's hard not to when she loves on you like she does. Miss Wanda is such a blessing in our lives! Mainly because our kids always come home from her house looking like this...



There are a whole lot of babies in our lives right now! It will be so fun to see all of these kids growing up together -- and little Miss Bellamy is the only girl in a land of a lot of boys these days! Here she is with one of her many boyfriends, Jackson. This picture cracked me up -- they are totally checking each other out. :)



Will is still so in love with Bellamy -- and she is finally reciprocating by laughing and smiling at him, which he's been trying to get out of her since birth. He loves to talk to her and get her to laugh -- which is precious to watch because she pretty much cracks up as soon as he talks to her.



A little basketball game for everyone...



And of course it's football season so we have to deck out in our Husker gear, courtesy of AJ. :)



And we can't forget our middle child. She's been feeling pretty neglected because her position as running partner has been temporarily sidelined -- I can't exactly maneuver the jogging stroller AND the leash...so this is the look I get when I put on my running shoes these days.



So that's the story around here these days...we are entering the season of football game duty, preschool birthday parties, and before long, the holidays! See you soon everyone!

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First day of school and 2 months old!

Geez -- what a big day around here! Today Bellamy turned two months old, which unfortunately for her just meant a dr.'s appt with lots of shots. :( But it was also Will's first day of preschool!

First - our little lady. She's doing great! She's continuing to go up the growth chart and hit all her milestones. We still do a lot of this...


But we are also doing a lot more of this!



And, my personal favorite, we see a lot more of these! :)



And the big man on campus -- or around our house anyway -- Will! He has been so excited to start preschool and the day finally came today. He was up SO early! I was planning on trying to take a couple pictures of him at school, but as soon as we got there he took off and was gone playing before I could even come close to taking a pic. Luckily I had taken a couple before we left the house. He looks so cute in his little uniform!



Here he is with his Primrose backpack...all ready to fill up with fun stuff at school!



And this is my favorite one -- Bellamy is looking at us as if saying, "seriously, do you not see that it is still dark outside?? What are you so excited about??"



So another school year (which is really how we measure years in this house!) has started and we are all settling in to our new routines. Todd has started as an AP at Elsik this year, Will is at Primrose, Bellamy has met (and begun to be spoiled by) Miss Wanda, and I am going back to work at Kerr. We are ready for a new year filled with lots of exciting milestones -- all the way around! Happy new year everyone. :)

July?

Is it seriously already August? I feel like Bellamy in this picture -- completely oblivious to the world around me. :)



I can't believe that the entire month of July has come and gone! We had lots of fun visitors and adventures, and I virtually captured none of it on film. :( I think I was kind of in a haze most of the month and now that I woke up and found out it was August, I am vowing to do better! But here are some highlights of our month, not all with visuals to aid the story, but updates nonetheless. :)

Mom was here for a week, and Will was soooo happy! I think he wore her out, but Todd and I sure did appreciate having someone else around to have the joy of an early morning wake up call and a constant barrage of "why???" When she wasn't chasing him around playing hide and seek (and sometimes even when she was) she spent a lot of time snuggling with our little lady. This is literally the ONLY picture I have of her visit...so sad. I'm really not making a case for that new camera, am I?:)



Then the next week was a whirlwind of activity as Will went to VBS at our church and finished up his swim lessons at Houston Swim Club. He loved VBS and we are still listening to the CD of bible songs in the car -- we have the love of Jesus down in our hearts around here! It was a nice preview of how he is going to do going to "school" in the fall -- and I think he will love it! Poor Bellamy suffered from the curse of the second child for the whole week as we spent a ton of time in the car carting Mr. Will around to all his activities. Luckily it doesn't appear that she minded much...



Surprisingly, he also loved swim lessons. He's never been much of a fish at the pool, but after a few weeks with Mr. Cody, he can't get enough of the water. Here he is proudly showing off his certificate -- graduating from the guppies! He liked it so much that he is taking a few more classes through the month of August.



And of course we had to celebrate with ice cream!



We've even braved the heat a little to try out Will's birthday skates! All of the sudden he just had to get out and skate, so we've taken a few short trips up and down the street as he figures them out.




Along the way Bellamy turned one month old! She is following in her brother's footsteps and staying at the high end of the growth chart, although not quite as close to the top as he did. :) At one month she is in the 75th percentile for both height(?) and weight, weighing about 10 1/2 lbs. She is already showing signs of being an early mover -- she's already managed to flip herself over to her stomach a couple times and her legs are constantly moving when she is awake. If you've been around her at all you also know that she talks ALL the time! She is constantly cooing or yelping or something...and according to the dr. she does "2 month coos"??? Not so sure what that is, but I know she is making sure we always know where she is. :) We've also seen a few genuine smiles -- so cute! But for the most part, we're still doing a lot of eating and sleeping around here, which is probably why we look like this. :)



Then Amber came to visit! I have absolutely zero pictures of her trip, but I can say that she was definitely Will's buddy the whole time. He is still talking about her and wanting to go visit her -- we've already had to Skype with her. :) We had a great time and the visit was much too short...

In closing, a few words from the proud big brother...