Christmas 2009

Here are a few highlights from our Christmas! We had the best Christmas and spent some great time with family!

The fun started on Christmas Eve. We went to a Christmas Eve service at our church with my parents, brother, and my aunt and cousin. McLean even sat through most of it! He loved singing the songs! We went out to dinner afterwards and then headed home to get ready for Santa. McLean was so excited about leaving cookies for Santa. However, after we put him to bed, he began screaming and crying because he didn't want Santa coming into his room while he was sleeping. It was so sad. I was the same way when I was little. I didn't want the tooth fairy flying into my room while I was sleeping. Finally, by 10:30 he got settled down and went to sleep!

McLean wearing his new Lightning McQueen slippers!

Uncle Brian worked so hard on his gift for McLean. He made him a wooden box. It was really neat! He put a wooden alphabet floor puzzle inside it. Oh, as you can see in the picture, McLean insisted on wearing his snow boots Christmas day.

The highlight for McLean was getting Woody and Buzz from Toy Story. Woody has already gone everywhere with us, and has not been put down yet!!!!

After his nap, McLean wanted to put on his Woody costume from Halloween! He wore it the rest of the day! Christmas was very magical seeing it through McLean's eyes this year! We loved all the time we got to spend with family and celebrating Christ's brith!

White Christmas

We woke up to a huge snowfall on our first day of Christmas Break!!! It was so much fun to bundle McLean up and let him go play in the snow. We started the morning off by braving the storm and going to eat breakfast with Mimi and Papa. Then we headed to get McLean some snow gear: boots and a snow suit! The snow continued through Saturday and we finally got back out on Sunday. McLean was battling a bad cough/cold, so he really didn't get to play out in the snow very much. We just finished having our "Christmas" with Mike and Sarah. It was a lot of fun. It's hard to believe that tomorrow is Christmas Eve. We are so excited to celebrate our Savior's birth!

Give Thanks!

The Family
Just the 2 of us! (3 if you count Claire)

This picture captures exactly how I remember my Uncle Greg when I was little. He was always so much fun! McLean loves seeing him!

Pre-Thanksgiving Festivities

We kicked off our holiday season by going to visit Kevin's family this past weekend in Greensboro, Summerfield, and Madison. We got to see a lot of people in a short amount of time. It was so fun and a great start to the holidays! McLean did great traveling and loved seeing everyone. We stayed with Kevin's brother Mike and his wife Sarah. Unfortunately, I set my camera out and never got a picture of the fabulous meal we had with Sarah's family. Sarah is an incredible cook and we left town with full tummies! We also got to see Blair, Kory, and Millie. The highlight of the weekend was telling Kevin's "adopted" gramma that we will be naming our little girl Claire after her! McLean told her as soon as we walked in and it will be a moment I will never forget. She has done so much for Kevin and we are so excited to honor her in that way!

McLean with Gramma and PopMcLean loved playing cars on the kitchen floor with Gramma. He cried when it was time to go!

Surprise! A picture of the 3 of us. This never happens!

McLean wanted to "hold" Millie.
Grove Park Inn with Mommy and Daddy



Happy Thanksgiving! We are heading to Hickory tomorrow to be with my family and we are really looking forward to it!

Big Boy Bed!

Last night we started on a big adventure with McLean. When Kevin got home from work last night, he and "Woody", disassembled the crib. It made me a little sad to see it come apart, but excited to know that it won't be long and Claire will use it. We were prepared for a long night, however, McLean did great!! We snuggled up with him in the bed and read a story, prayed, and sang, and then when we turned the light out he told us to go get in our bed! We were quite surprised! He stayed in it until 5:30 when he called out for us. Kevin went and told him it was still night time and he went back to sleep until 7:30. Then, we heard the sweet sound of "footed pajama footsteps" coming into our room. We were so proud of him! As of now, he is asleep in the bed for his nap. What a big boy! We still have to paint his room and do new window treatments, but we wanted to go ahead and get him in the big bed!

Kevin and "Woody" taking the crib apart.

All snuggled in and ready to go to sleep!

Nap time today!

It's a.....

GIRL!!!!!!

We were so excited to find out on Friday that we are having a girl! Everything looked great! Thoughts of pink have already started running through my mind. McLean is very excited to have a sister. He has referred to the baby the whole time as "she" or "her". Maybe he knew!?! We have also had such a fun Halloween weekend. Saturday was rainy and yucky, so they moved our church's big "Hoopla" even inside. It was absolutely packed. McLean really had a good time, and he enjoyed the music and the clogging the most. He is still wearing his Woody costume today. We have really gotten our use out of it.

Surprise! And, a Halloween Preview

McLean was "bundled up" at Owen's birthday party!
We love our pumpkins! It is so hard to get him still long enough for a picture though.

Here is Woody and the Chick-Fil-A cow. They had family night and dress-up night on Tuesday. It was really fun and McLean is really enjoying his Woody costume. Our other exciting news is that we are having the ultrasound on Friday! We will know soon if a boy or girl will be joining us this March!!!

new pictures!

Nothing much new to report. But, in keeping up with my committment to update more frequently, I have just added some pictures.

This is McLean and his friend Sam playing out in Sam's yard. They had so much fun, and were so busy running and playing that it was nearly impossible to get a picture of both of them looking! We are ready for the rain to stop so we can get out and play more.

5 in 2

This is McLean and his teacher Ms.Jodi on the hayride. She is the best teacher and person I have ever met and we just love her!

This is the fifth post in the last two weeks! But, who is counting? I am! I am really trying to be better about updating. Last Friday was Farm Day at school. McLean really enjoyed it. He loved riding the pony, but did not want my hand supporting him on it. He told me to take my hand away, that he could do it. Mr. Independent! Check back for more updates soon--I am on a roll!

Birthday Party

We celebrated McLean's party yet again and for the last time this year! It has been a month full of celebration due to Kevin being gone to Nepal for 2 weeks. McLean had his party at Hands On Children's Museum in downtown Hendersonville on Main Street. It was so much fun. We started the morning out by having McLean's favorite breakfast--strawberry muffins.

Jamie, Janet, Tricia, and I

Uncle Brian and Porter Ann made a special trip for the party

The guys/dads building their own cars to race down the ramp: Kevin, Wesley, and David--notice Bennett helping too!

McLean, Sara Margaret, and Sam playing in the rice table

McLean and Bennett pretending to eat apple pie

McLean eating with Mimi and Papa

McLean and Daddy sharing some pie

Cupcake Time

At the waterfall

Brian, Porter Ann, Mimi, and Papa--the best help in the world!!