Longwood Christmas

We visited Longwood Gardens today to see the Christmas decorations and hopefully get a couple good pictures for our Christmas cards.  The decorations in the Conservatory were BEAUTIFUL.  We didn't stay to see the lights outside because it was so cold and windy.  Hopefully we will make it back with either more layers or milder weather.  Anyway, here are a couple of pictures from today.  I left some of the best ones out since you will be receiving them in the mail in a couple weeks!



This one cracks me up!  There were people walking by and talking to Matty and Gracie.  Matty got all protective of his baby sister!




Look who drove us home!  Just kidding :)  Little Miss was throwing a FIT in her car seat so we stopped to take a breather.  She ended up happy as a clam on Daddy's lap while wearing Matty's hat...  She certainly is the boss in this family!



Thankful...

...for a sweet baby girl who squeals at the top of her lungs so much that her throat must be sore.  Thankful for a just-as-sweet little boy who wipes my kisses off his face and laughs his butt off while doing it.  Thankful for a wonderful husband who happens to be an amazing daddy.  Thankful for loving family who make for great fun and company.  Thankful for all of our precious blessings!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Here are a few highlights from our day!

One of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions... the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

Gracie Girl deciding whether she wants to take on the challenge of crawling through the tunnel!

And she's off...

Looking back for some encouragement...

She made it!

Yay for Gracie!

Matty and Gracie's homemade Thanksgiving cards.

Our homemade Thanksgiving treats!

I walked into the dining room to find Matty alone on his THIRD pilgrim hat cookie!

Yummy!

A Working Man

Matty was up bright and early this morning to go spend the day at Nanny and Pa's house.  The first thing he told me when he got up is, "I need tie today."  I just laughed and thought he was kidding.  Then he told me again.  I explanied to Matty that we don't have a tie that matches the shirt he was wearing.  He said, "Yes, I do.  Tie in my room!"  So, Daddy went and dug out his tie from Easter, and you can see in the pictures below what a fashion maven Matty is today.  He tells us, "I gotta go work.  I a working man."  Haha!  And of course the bag he is holding is his bag of tools which he takes along wherever we go. 

Delaware Girl

Just a couple of cute pictures of Gracie Girl showing her support for Mommy & Daddy's alma mater!

I was cleaning up my memory card and laughed when I saw this picture.  The little antennas on Matty's robot in the background are in just the right spot :)

Gracie is EIGHT Months Old!

What?!  When did that happen?  She is getting so big and independent!  She is working really hard on her army crawl, but has no desire to get up on her hands and knees yet.  She pretty much just rolls around to get to where she wants to be which is too cute.

Gracie learned how to clap when we were at the Dolphin Show during our visit to the Aquarium, and she hasn't stopped clapping since. 

Gracie can also say "mama" and "dada" although she doesn't associate the words with us yet, it is still a big milestone!

She is still working her way through new foods... we have to be really careful because of Matty and my food allergies.  Matty is teaching Gracie how to eat puffs, and she is really digging them!

She is sleeping 11 - 12 hours at night, but isn't the greatest napper.  She has too much to do during the day like play with Matty's trucks, chew on everything she can get a hold of, and drop things off the side of her highchair!

Gracie is still the sweetest little girl with a contagious smile that lights up the room.

This is Sophie the Giraffe - one of Gracie's favorite toys to chew on.  Brady also LOVES Sophie which is a huge pain to me, but Gracie thinks its funny when Brady comes running at Sophie's every squeak!

This is what happens when Matty is napping...

Gone Fishin'

Daddy took the day off and we headed down to Baltimore to visit the National Aquarium.  It was Matty and Gracie's first visit to an aquarium.  I don't know what Matty liked better - the fish or all the escalators and moving ramps. 

Huge shark jaws!

Here's the crew at the Dolphin Show.

I was a little worried about Gracie sitting through the Dolphin Show since she is a wiggle worm.  But once the show started, she was enthralled and squealing everytime the crowd cheered!

This is Chespeake the Dolphin who came right up to where we were sitting!

Bubbles!

Pretty Gracie Girl

After the aquarium, we had lunch and walked around the Inner Harbor.

Matty loved the boats, but was really disappointed that they weren't all moving :)