Mia is walking!

This baby is walking!!!!  Mia has always had strong little legs, but I never thought that she would start walking at 10 months!  It seems like I just had her yesterday, and now she is running around everywhere!  Words cannot begin to express how much we LOVE this little girl and how proud we are of her!

(That is her bow in her mouth.  She's not a big fan of keeping it in these days.)

10 months was a big milestone for Mia.  Here are a few of the things she is doing...

- Walking

- She understands a lot of what we say (except the word "no") haha

- bringing us things that she wants (her cheerios cup...for more cheerios, bottle, books to read, etc!)

- "talks" on her play phone while walking around

- climbs in and out of her car by herself

- signs "more" and "all done"

- waves goodbye

- throws EVERYTHING out of her crib.  (kind of cute...kind of not)

- points at stuff for us to look at (or stuff that she wants)

- feeds her baby its bottle

- gives kisses!

- growls, makes an elephant noise, and tries to meow like our cat

- pretends to give us something, then pulls it back to herself and laughs! :)

- sits and "reads" books for a long time.  It is so cute to watch her look at the pics and jibber jabber. :)

- ties her shoes 

- changes her own diaper

- washes dishes

Haha...okay, the last three haven't come yet, but we are having so much fun watching her discover new things.  We are thankful, thankful, thankful for our Mia Jubilee!  Enjoy this last picture!

She was so COLD and tired of taking pictures.  This is the sweetest baby in the world! :)  We're totally smitten and IN LOVE with her!

Caroline's Birthday

We celebrated my niece, Caroline's, 2nd birthday over Thanksgiving.  I love being "Tia" to these sweet girls...

Here comes the big sister with the cupcakes! 

We were singing to her...

Can you tell how excited she was?!!!  She LOVES monkeys AND the color pink!

More of her birthday dress up clothes!

This is one of my favorites!  Look at those beautiful eyelashes!

So girly! 

The sock monkey looks pretty happy too!

Susannah...wearing Grandma's glasses.

Aunt Meghan is such a good aunt!

Bless her heart.  They all love her so much!!!

Choices...

On this Black Friday when so many of my friends' heads are hitting their pillows (after a full morning of shopping), I am sitting in my cozy house, Mia is sleeping, Caleb is at the gym with a friend, and I have a choice:  I can clean my house, get the Christmas decorations down, or post on the blog.  So I've decided to try to tackle all three.  First, the blog!

My sister and sweet nieces are in town for Thanksgiving.  Check out a few pics of them.  More to come, but ya know...I still have to get this house cleaned!!!! :)

My sister made their cute turkey shirts!!!  

SOOOOO Thankful...

Does your family have any Thanksgiving traditions?  Growing up, my family had a few:

1. We (mainly just me) always start the day off by watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.
2. puzzles
3. basketball games in the driveway (My Granny actually did a REAL "granny shot" one year! haha)
4. black olives! (on all 10 fingers)
5. FAMILY, family, and more family!!!!
6. soccer games
7. folding the table napkins in unique ways
8. yummy, not so healthy, stomach filling food!!!!! (with a little pumpkin pie to top it off)
9. games and/or movies
10. sharing what you're thankful for while sitting around the table

Even though you know AT LEAST 3 people will ask you what you are thankful for during this season, you're still never REALLY prepared to answer.  Most people say the first thing that pops into their mind: God, family, food, a house, etc...  These are all things I am very thankful for, but there is SO MUCH more!  So, in an effort to become more aware of all the great things in my life, I have started an "I am thankful for...." list.  Wanna know what's on it?  I thought you would, so I started to write one on here, but quickly realized I felt like people were looking into my life.  haha!  So I think I'll keep it private for now.  But go ahead and start your own!  It doesn't have to be a Thanksgiving only list...keep it going all year long!  And extend it to others.  Choose someone in your life and tell them at least 5 reasons why you are thankful for them. :)  Then...choose someone else and do the same thing!

Enjoy this season!  And try to make it GREAT for someone else!

uh oh!

I mean seriously...how could you not just adore this little bundle of joy!

She is a pro at using this little contraption. I can't believe she is getting so big!!!

Gracie and I went to get Mia up from her nap.  You see who she is pointing to. :)  Mia LOVES our cat.

The tree in our front yard had AMAZING leaves.  They dropped in about 3 days though.

SO GLAD Caleb is back from Haiti!

I wish you could hear her elephant noise.  It is so cute!

Trying to type while Daddy works...

No no, Mia!

She can always get his attention :)

He is so good to her. :)

Hopefully these pictures made you smile a bit!  Have a GREAT day!

Natalie

Stay-cation Time!

One day we'll be able to travel all over the world, but due to our new little addition to the family we decided to send Mia to her grandparents house for the night, stay close, and enjoy some time in our own downtown area for our 2 yr anniversary.  Can I just tell you what an AMAZING place we live in?!!!  If we could afford it, Caleb and I would totally live within walking distance of downtown.  Check it out...

Front entrance of our hotel

Leaving our hotel...

Our hotel

Saturday Farmers' Market

We went to Mary's Restaurant for brunch.  I love eating here! :) 

Our view while eating

My handsome husband!

Caleb took this pic.  I love it!

Great food!

Another view of our hotel

We're going to stay here next time!  It is crazy nice inside!

We had an AMAZING stay-cation and can't wait to do it again!