Dancing KING!

Have I mentioned just how much this boy of ours likes to sing and dance? We've always known he's had a love of music, but lately he's been quite the performer! The only problem is that he doesn't stand still long enough for me to get any good camera shots, so the pictures below are all "action shots" of Whit singing and dancing (in his diaper nonetheless)!

We were singing "This Little Light of Mine" today and he looked at me, stuck his hand out in the shape of a "1" and said, "No, Mommy. I sing it." I guess he is more of a solo artist than a group performer! Ha!

 

 

The performer and his proud Mama (looks like we're both "neked" here but of course we're not - he's almost in just a diaper but I have on a tank top that you can't see in the picture)!

 

Early December

It's the most WONDERFUL time of the year!

The semester is wrapping up, Christmas programs are next week at Whit's preschools, we have Christmas parties and gatherings galore, our house is looking more festive every day, and I'm about 75% finished with my Christmas shopping!

At 2 1/2, Whit is starting to understand a little bit of Christmas and LOVES to sing "Jingle Bells" and see Christmas decorations everywhere we go!

 We are in the process of converting the guest bedroom into Whit's playroom, and still have to get some organizational shelving, etc. but it's definitely coming along! Our goal is to have all of his toys organized (and put away any "baby" toys) before the new load of Christmas surprises come!

 Here are some fun pictures from putting up and decorating the Christmas tree (thank you to Pop and Nana for helping us put up our tree!), decorating the mantle, and hanging the stockings...

After the tree was decorated and Whit was in his pajamas, it was time to explore this new thing in our living room!

 

"Hey Mom, you said there would be presents under here!?!?!"

Almost every night since the tree has been up, he's crawled up underneath it, laid on his back and stared up at the lights and ornaments in awe and amazement! I know in the picture below it looks like he's messing with the light socket, but rest assured, this is just the angle - we of course don't let him play with that part of the tree! :)

Early November Fun

It's so hard to believe that Whit is almost 2 1/2 years old! He's as funny as ever and has never met a stranger. He absolutely loves Barney and Sesame Street DVD's and sings and dances constantly. He's learning how to dress and undress himself and is talking in sentences most of the time. He still eats and sleeps wonderfully and we pray that never changes! We are really looking forward to Thanksgiving with family, especially since Uncle Robert is coming home from Oklahoma!  It's been 3 months since we've seen him!

Here are a few things we've been up to the first part of this month...

Fun times in the bathtub! Bath time continues to be one of Whit's favorite times and he loves to lay his head all the way back in the tub and sing. In this picture he's singing "If You're Happy and You Know It".

This next picture is just funny to me! He loves to go around the house without a shirt on. On this day it was even warm enough for him to have on shorts! I have no idea how his pants got down (he does like to practice taking off and putting on his clothes so that could be to blame). This will be good "first date" material to really embarrass him in front of his girlfriends! Ha!

On November 11, my good friend Lori and her husband, Brent, welcomed their second son, Matthew Ellett! After a difficult pregnancy, we all breathed a sigh of relief that Ellett was finally here and that Mommy & baby are healthy and happy!

On November 14, we celebrated my friend Amy's son, Blake's, 4th birthday at Bounce U in Lewisville. We went there over the summer and Whit was a little bit timid, but it's amazing just how much difference a few months can make because this time he just jumped right into the fun! Here's a picture of Whit and Conner (Ellett's big brother) playing.

On November 19, we celebrated Thanksgiving at Hillsdale Baptist Preschool with their annual Thanksgiving Feast. We dined on chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, green beans, and some of the best desserts in town! I went to help set-up which was the first time I was able to go volunteer at Whit's preschool. The children paraded in as either pilgrims or Indians and it's amazing that I got this picture of Whit with his Indian hat on because he's not a fan of hats at all!

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving next week and to having a few days off of work and school!  We have so many things to be thankful for this year!

Halloween Festivities

Although the weather at the Halloween Eve Weenie Roast was perfect, the weather for Halloween today was not so ideal!  It misted/rained all day - in fact, Kevin's rain gauge said we got over 2 inches of rain this weekend!  Our Halloween started out with something very special at Old Salem in the morning (more details to come - this is part of a Christmas gift to some who read our blog so I can't yet say too much!!). Thankfully it wasn't really raining at that point, just foggy and misting, which was perfectly fine for our "project"!  Kevin then had to go to work for a little while (he's still in the middle of corn season), so Whit and I came home and enjoyed lunch and a nap. After a 2 1/2 hour nap, we headed to Advance Pediatrics to get Whit's seasonal flu vaccination and then to Walgreens to put the finishing touches on our trick-or-treat goodie bags for Whit's cousins!  They had all of the Halloween stuff marked down 50% which my wallet greatly appreciated!  Daddy met up with us at home and we got Whit into his spider costume and the adventure began! We headed to "G" and Papa's house first, where Whit got a wonderful goodie bag of treats! Here is Whit walking up to the stoop at G and Papa's house.

Thanks again to my best friend, Amy, for letting us borrow the very cute Pottery Barn Kids spider costume from her son, Blake! After visiting with G and Papa for a little bit, we headed to Mocksville to see some of Whit's cousins, Morgan and J.T.  Morgan dressed up as "a neon green lady" (for lack of a better description - Kevin and I laughed that her costume resembled Lady Gaga!) and J.T. was a ninja. Here's a group picture of the Robertson/Bumgarner cousins:

We then headed back to Advance to Covington Creek to visit some of Whit's other cousins, Emily, Jack & Addie. Emily was dressed up as a bumble bee, Jack was a turtle, and Addie was a pink poodle! Don't you just love Uncle Blake's cooler attached to the stroller? Ha!

Our last stop of the evening was at Jason & Page's house in Oak Valley, where about 25 of our friends and their little ghosts and goblins were celebrating! Jason and Page had tons of trick-or-treaters, so we had a blast answering the doorbell, eating, and chatting!  We ended up leaving a big bowl of candy at our doorstep for trick-or-treaters, and thankfully all of it was gone by the time we got home! Here's a shot of Whit and Joe clowning around and then a picture of the group's littlest goblin, Harper, who is 4 months old and her grandmother Marie!

 

 

Here's a family shot from the evening, taken on Blake and Erica's beautifully-decorated front porch.

We're so grateful that Halloween this year was only about the fun of dressing up as a "pider" (that's how Whit says "spider") and visiting family and friends...and NOT yet about the candy!  We know we'll have plenty of years to come where Whit will need to see just how full his Halloween bucket can get and subsequently gorge himself on candy, but for now, we all enjoyed the simplicity of the holiday this year! Happy November everyone!

Halloween Eve

Tonight we celebrated Halloween a day early at a fun weenie roast at Suzanne and Jeremy's house in Wallburg. The fire pit was burning, the kids were playing, and the weather was perfect for a fall celebration!  Here are our hosts, Suz and Jeremy, dressed up like Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers!

Kevin and I dressed up as spider webs to compliment our itsy, bitsy spider, Whit! Here I am with our little spider and Little Red Riding Hood (a.k.a., Sanna), Suz & Jeremy's daughter!

I made a dessert for the shindig that was inspired by a Rainbow Cake on MckMama's blog seen here. I wanted to make it festive for the season (and not quite so tall!) so I went with a three-layered cake in the colors of candy corn. Here are pictures of the outside and inside of my cake!

 

 

 

 

Lunch Date with Daddy

Today Whit was out of preschool (and I don't work on Thursdays), so we spent the best part of the morning trying to decide how to spend this beautiful fall day. Then, suddenly Whit asked, "Where's Daddy?" and it hit me like a bolt of lightening...let's go see him! This was a great idea today because: (1) it's been a while since Whit's been to the Grain Mill where Kevin works, (2) Kevin's been working late hours lately because corn is in season, and (3) it was an absolutely beautiful day to do anything outdoors! We quickly got dressed and headed up to Jonesville. Daddy was so happy to see us!

Just as we pulled in, a big loader truck pulled in to pick up some soy beans. Whit loves "big trucks" and loved even better getting up close and personal with one! His face in this picture is priceless!

He wanted very badly to "drive" the truck, but with all of those buttons and gears and such inside, we didn't think it was a good idea (although the truck driver, James, said he could sit in there). I just felt like that just might be a disaster waiting to happen! We walked around the rest of the mill and saw the brand-new grain bin that was installed recently. It's 80-feet high and holds 80,000 bushels. Here are some other pictures.

 

Whit is of course very "hands-on" these days and had so much fun touching things and playing in this wheelbarrow full of a corn/grain mixture.

After visiting the grain mill, we went to eat at Basin Creek Country Store in Elkin. When my parents had a house up at High Meadows we rarely made a trip up the mountain without either first stopping there or stopping on the way home. Whit slept for a little while in the car on the way home, and we had such a great morning visiting Daddy at work!

B O O M E R ---- S O O N E R !

How cute are these shoes???

Whit has been sporting them all football season in hopes to bring a win to the

Oklahoma Sooners (for Uncle Robert)

and the NC State Wolfpack (for Daddy)!

So far Oklahoma is 3-3 and NCSU is 3-4.

Hopefully the shoes will bring better luck to both teams in November and December!

P.S. The shoes even squeak each time Whit walks!