Hello 2014.

I love New Years more than Christmas. (not really, but almost). 

I love the newness of January, the possibilities, the cleaning and organizing of all.the.things. I love the purging that I've been putting off since last year, and how it just feels like there is a never ending supply of energy and willpower! New calendars and new found clarity about what I want my life to be about. my purpose.

We stopped doing new years resolutions a few years ago. we tried calling them goals one year, then one year we picked a word to focus on. everything gets forgotten. everything gets pushed aside for the regular responsibilities of life. I'm not sure how to keep the things that feel like THE MOST IMPORTANT GOAL EVER in January - still alive in June.

What I know is... 2013 was an awesome year. we had our fair share of hard times (like Chris traveling with work for weeks on end, and my dad being gone on the trail and my drivers license getting suspended) but many many many more amazing times. times with family and friends that sting tears in my eyes while I sit here and type this. an amazing year of blessings: watching my best friends daughter be born, praying over our boy before he went under anesthesia to get his tongue clipped, visiting my dad on the trail, trips to the beach and the mountains with our little family of three. and all of the days in between that make your heart swell. what I know is... that I would be blessed to have another year like 2013. that all I really need to focus on is God and my relationship with Him and that everything else will be what it will be. according to His plans and not mine (unfortunately. haha.) and that is all I know.

so there will be no 'loose 20 pounds' or 'stop drinking coke' or  'blog 4 times a week' or 'get more organized' or 'read the bible in a year' resolutions from me this year. we'll see how it goes. bring on 2014.

Happy New Year!

Durham turns two

I have been neglecting this place. Life is busy and I just haven't been making it a priority. it bums me out when I realized that it has been months since I've put down memories...

Durham turns two today. two. two. I need to keep saying it to make it real because it just does not seem possible that two years has gone by. we were forever changed when our little bundle came into the world and we can hardly remember life before him. I feel so incredibly blessed to be his momma and humbled that God chose this amazing kid for us to raise. he is such a joy!

Dear Durham,

Happy Birthday sweet boy. We love you so much and we can not wait to celebrate your special day at the aquarium today. I know you are going to squeeee over the 'popins' (penguins) and the 'sharhhh' (sharks) the most. This has been such an amazing year with you and we really really enjoyed you being 'one'... I know that TWO will be even better. kinda. haha.

We have lots of favorite memories with you this year... some of the big ones are swim lessons, when we went to visit grampy on the Appalachian trail, going to play on the school buses, our week at the beach, watching cole become one of your best buddies, halloween, and our trip to the mountains where you and dada played in the creek all weekend. You are SO FUN and we love doing things with you.

Some of our favorite things you do: hands down mommas favorite is when you ask for 'a song' at night. I know you are just stalling bedtime but I melt into a puddle. I usually sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow because that is what my momma sang to me, but sometimes church hymns and recently we are into Christmas songs. We love the way you talk. no really, you have the cutest accent, cutest phrases, cutest mannerisms, and a way of repeating your self that almost never gets annoying. My favorite things you say are 'yeah mam', 'a kisshh', 'i love you tooo'. We love how you love our people. your grandparents (meme, pawpaw & grangran, peepee), your babies (lena and baby eveee), your best buddy Jackson. You ask about them all the time and get SO EXCITED when you see them. It really warms my heart to watch you love so big. We love the way you pray. ok, not really pray, but when we pray you fold your hands and at the end you say AMEN like you totally got what we were saying the whole time. We love how innocent you are... you do naughty things sometimes but YOUR FACE!! How can we ever get mad at your face. and usually we have to hold back our laughs because you tell us you did it 'purpose'. (ie: did you just pee your pants? yah-mam. was it an accident? purpose.)


we love you so much buddy! We hope you have an amazing birthday and we are so excited to see what TWO has in store for you. xoxoxoxo, dada and momma.


stats and favorites:

weight: 29 lbs
height: 35'
teeth: 20

favorite foods: green beans, banana, apple sauce, chicken, cheese, almonds, and raisins.
favorite books: ABCs of me, and the opposites book.
favorite toys: TRAINS, balls and basketball hoop.
favorite shows: bubble guppies and veggie tails.
nicknames: we call you dbo, d, buddy, mommas baby, dur-dum (that's what you call yourself)

Four Years

four awesome years I should say. 

this weekend we celebrated four years of marriage, and 7 years of love. I am so thankful for this man and I can't wait to spend 60 more anniversary's with him. Our parents each babysat d one night over the past 2 weeks and we've been out TWICE to celebrate. we are so lucky! (thanks to grandma and grampy and meme and pawpaw for that!!) also, kinda funny that we pretty much bought each other the same card. (and I'm wearing the same mustard cardi as last year, whateves).

twenty months

durham,

today you are twenty months. crazy. over dinner tonight we talked about how fast it is going by. how much we absolutely love and adore you. we talked about our favorite things you do. (our favorites far far outweigh our not.so.favorites like throwing a tantrum in the middle of chick-fil-a, and peeing on the floor right after you said you didn't need to go.) yeah we pretty much love everything else about you.

twenty months is kinda toddler-ish. yeah. I said the t-word. You have an opinion (and aren't afraid to share it), you are on the go all day, and you are doing way more big boy things than baby things these days. You now sit in a booster seat instead of your highchair for meals, you no longer get a sippy before nap, we had to buy you a bigger pair of crocs, you totally get how timeout works and we started potty training. you are so vocal. you can say around 50 words, but my favorites are 'helicopter',  'yes mam', and 'all better' after we kiss a boo-boo. you just started saying your version of 'i love you' which sounds more like ya-yuv-you but I'll take it any way you wanna say it. daddy loves how you say 'yeah' to anything we ask you. (you wanna eat rocks for dinner? yeah. are you a sassy baby? yeah.) your favorite show is bubble guppies, and your favorite toys are trains (choo-choo's) and things that stack like blocks and cubes. your favorite foods are peas, chicken, mango, and cheese-its.

you love to help in the kitchen and ride on the lawnmower with daddy. you love cole so much! he is the first person you ask for when you wake up in the morning and the first one you look for when we get home. lucky dog. daddy taught you to put your hands up to catch a ball. it is the cutest thing ever. you get a mini-m&m if you tee-tee or poo-poo in the potty. you don't ever let us forget about it either. it has been such an amazing summer with you, my sweet boy. I just don't want it to end.

I know I say this every month. but twenty months is by far my favorite age. we love you times a million. xoxoxo momma & dada

the beach 2013

we are lucky. chris's parents own a condo in Panama City Beach and they let us stay there every summer. I blogged about last years beach trip here, when d was just 6 months old. this years trip was a BLAST! we had so much fun and made some amazing memories as a family.

we had a great car ride down to florida. we bought d a dvd player for the car and downloaded a bunch of his favorite shows on a thumb drive. I sat in the back with him to keep him entertained and we played with flashcards and stickers and ate snacks. it went surprisingly smooth on the way there and the way back. the week we went down there were some awful storms. in fact, it rained on our entire drive down and that night. but every day after that we had nothing but sunshine.

we kept d on a similar routine. they are an hour behind us so we pushed bedtime later so he wouldn't be up so early. it worked. we would get up around 8am, eat breakfast at the condo, pack our cooler and beach supplies and walk down to the sand. d loved the water, the sand, the birds, everything! he especially loved snacks. I was worried with how active he was being that he wasn't getting enough to eat/drink so anytime he asked for something I jumped at the chance to fuel him. we hung out at the beach each day till after lunch, then came back to the condo to clean up and take a nap. sometimes we went out to the pool after nap time, and a couple of times we went out. we went to the big dog track, we walked the huge pier, went shopping and went out to eat. back home for bed around 8/8:30 every night. 

one of my favorite things was when chris took us to an arcade that he went to as a kid. his parents bought the condo when he was 8 years old, so he has a ton of memories 'growing up' at the beach in the summers. it was so sweet watching him try to show d how to play skeeball. hahahaha!

after our week at the condo, we headed to visit our friends in st. pete. I wont post a ton of pictures of their sweet baby girl since I didn't ask them if I could but let me tell you... she is the sweetest little thing! d loved her and kept trying to give her hugs and show us where her 'eyes' were. the guys played golf and the girls hung out with the babies all morning. swapping mommy stories and sharing advice. it was a much needed time with great friends.