The person behind you in a parking lot honks for you to move (and you are waiting in a line and cannot) and your three year old's hands go up in the air while the little precious voice says, "What the hell, Mommy?" (November 20)
Your little angel is playing with connecting blocks and says, out of the blue, "Penguins have nuts like Daddy has nuts, Mommy." (December 6)
The beauty in my life insists upon wearing her Belle costume from Halloween as she watches Beauty and the Beast and she twirls around your living room singing, "Tale as old as time. Song as old as rhyme. Beauty and the Beast." (December 6)
Really...what do you say?!
For Thanksgiving this year, we drove to PA in my Durango. And as you can see by the odometer, I rolled 99,998 miles when we stopped in West Virginia. I am proud to say that I got to 100,000 (and beyond) in my little silver Durango! Keep going! You're almost paid off!!
November 24--First stop, Erie, PA to visit Great Grandpa McCaslin. Lauren was hesitant at first, but you'd never know it by this picture! Too sweet! It was when visiting Great Grandpa McCaslin in September that Lauren acquired her cat Caslin.
Good-bye, Gramps! Love you! (Gramps was telling us that the Thursday before he said he had a dream where his "little blonde, curly haired angel was suspended in the air like an angel in the corner of his room saying, 'Hi, Grandpa. I love you!'" Gave us chills.)
Happy Thanksgiving...COUSIN!!! Evie and Lauren were tickled pink to see one another again! Lauren and Evie adore one another and had just released from a slightly death-defying hug!
Funny how everyone says Lauren looks like me, but when you put her side-by-side with her little Wade cousin, they look just alike!
Jon say, "Oh, no you don't! Get back here, Lauren!"
Lauren thought it would be fun to sit in the big box in the closet...she had thrown all of the toys except a few into the living room.
Missy's 31st birthday was N ovember 26, so we celebrated a day early.
The girls went into the guest room upstairs. I couldn't find them but heard them talking under the blanket. They destroyed a perfectly made bed, but it was too funny to fuss at them. They were plotting against monsters.
AHH! Lauren is the lump under the blanket. She popped up for a second and went down when she saw me!
After our Wade dinner, we went in to see my parents. Lauren went right to my mom for snuggles! Mom was only too happy to comply!
November 26--Lauren insisted that "Grandma Wade sleep with me, Mommy" the night before. Lauren was crashed out at 9:00 when we got up. (Grandma Wade was really awake, but she knows how much I like my photo opportunities!)
Lauren crawled out to the back room where the pellet stove was going...and saw SNOW!! She was so excited she bundled up, right then and there, pajamas and all, to go out with Grandpa Wade! After the picture, Grandpa put snow on Lauren's nose and she was DONE with the outdoors! (That's my girl!!)
Since we will be staying in North Carolina for Christmas this year, we did our Wade gift exchange. Lauren loved to play Santa, but she loved that the majority of the gifts were hers!
Lauren giving Aunt Sherry a hug! Uncle Luke smiling in the background!
Lauren LOVED her Loving Family mini-van. She plays with it EVERY night!!
Beep, beep!
We went to see Santa at Tractor Supply. Lauren wasn't about to sit on a strange man's lap, so Great Grandma Williams showed Lauren that Santa isn't too scary.
It didn't work. So after 15 minutes of coaxing, this was as good at the Santa picture got for us!
4 generations--Grandma Williams, Grandma Wade, Lauren, Daddy
November 29--We had a LOOOONG drive back to NC on Sunday. It took us 13 hours rather than our usual 8-10. We stopped to visit our friends the Miles in Pittsburgh and they served us a FANTASTIC brunch! Lauren and Jacob played a bit...but only after we got home, I realized how weird it was of me not to have taken a single picture!!
Anyway, back to the long drive home. Lauren did wonderfully through both trips, letting us know when she was hungry and when she had to potty. She had NO accidents on either trip up or back! We were so proud! However, she watched movies the entire time, so movie detox began. Here was Lauren when we were trying to get her up to go to school. She wasn't having it! (Note the big creamy stuffty to her right. That's Shawn the Sheep, from Grandma Wade, who has slept with Lauren every night since being given to her! He's bigger than she is!)
We promised Lauren we would decorate the tree. Lauren was super excited that her first new ornament of the year would be a Belle ornament! It was the first one on the tree this year. Each day, Lauren goes by to talk to Belle and to give her a kiss! It's the most adorable thing to watch!
December 4--We had been decorating the Christmas tree more and were listening to Christmas music as we did so (part of our tradition). Lauren wanted to dance so we did! Very strange that Paul would say, "Where is my camera?" and snap a picture of us! We have videos, too, so maybe I'll be savvy over break (don't hold your breath) and try to post videos again.
We will be staying in NC this Christmas. We are excited not to have to travel in the snow this year. Lauren watches each day to see if more gifts appear under the tree. We did some shopping on Dec. 4 and had SNOW here in NC in the middle of it all! Since Lauren cannot identify what Paul's big gift is this year, she tells him "It's a surprise, Daddy. I can't tell you!"
