Thanksgiving 2013

Happy Thanksgiving from our littlest turkey! Will isn't still long enough to be in pictures.

This was a busy holiday for us this year! We managed to see 3 out of 4 families in 1 day. We ate a lot and traveled some.

On Wednesday we went to Gram and Gramps house because some family would be there that had not yet met Evie. We had dinner with Gram, Gramps, Mama, Poppa, Aunt Cricket, Uncle Jimmy, Brandon, Monica, Kyle, and Leslie. Aunt Cricket had Evie almost laughing. Evie loved being held by Monica and Leslie. Will decided Poppa was his new playmate and we heard Will yelling "Watch Poppa!" for about 2 hours straight.

Thursday morning we started the day early with NeeNee and Jon at our house for breakfast. NeeNee then went to Aunt Julia's, so Jon tagged along with us for the big lunch at Gram's.

Gram's house had a crowd as usual.

Evie was passed around and loved on by so many people. Her favorite was sweet Hannah. Will was extremely social! I don't think there was anyone there that avoided interaction with him. He played football, ran around outside, and showed off his counting skills. I enjoyed my time in the kitchen teaching my "sisters" how to make Mama's rolls.

Leslie, Monica, and I make a great team!

After a big lunch and yummy desserts, it was time to head to Chattanooga. Evie and Will both slept the entire ride to Pop's house. Jon met us there and we got to see the whole crew. Evie met her aunts and uncles for the first time. This was our first meeting with Savannah. Big announcement - Traci Jo and Jimmy are having a baby! Yay for another cousin! This family has grown a lot just this past year and we are so excited that it is continuing to grow.

We stayed at Pop's for the weekend. Kristen brought Tripp and Savannah over on Friday. Will and Tripp played together a little bit. They liked chasing each other. Nonna had a cute idea for the kiddos for Christmas, so we made Santa ornaments from all of their hand prints. Evie was the easiest because she was asleep and didn't have any idea what we were doing. Will took longer and lots of convincing to create 5 hand prints. We had to tell him silly things like "this is for Dixie" and "show Woof Woof how to make a hand print". We got it done though and they turned out so cute! Will spent a lot of Friday hanging out with Pops, Jon, and JT. They were out in the yard cutting bushes and trees, and Will wanted to "help". He stayed out with them for a while and had a blast!

After all of that work, Uncle Jon and Pops had some quality time with Evie.

A rare pic of Jon because he is usually the one taking the pictures.

Pops and Evie

We are so thankful for all of our family and all of our many blessings!

Happy Fall Y'all!

Pumpkin Patch

Gram and Gramps wanted to take Will to a Pumpkin Patch. So we went to Lucky Ladd Farms one Saturday afternoon. It was so fun! There was a petting zoo, hayride, huge slides, corn maze, and of course a pumpkin patch.

Will loved the petting zoo! I thought this lamb might come home with us.

It was lots of fun! We will definitely go back next year!

Halloween 2012

Pumpkin carving:
Will was completely uninterested. He preferred to play with the ladder, lawn mower, and other objects in the garage. When JT finished the first pumpkin, I gave Will a flashlight to hold inside of it. It lit up, and so did Will's face!

I requested a "WILL" pumpkin and JT did such a great job on it. So proud!

Costume:
I had a couple different ideas for his costume this year. Options were:
The old man from the movie "Up" - Mom found this costume on pinterest and it is absolutely the cutest.
Alligator - He loves the song that Karen sings to him about monkeys and alligators. He was a monkey last year.
Pirate - He likes the Disney show Jake and the Neverland Pirates.
Skeleton - Gramps bought Will a skeleton balloon at Publix that we named "Bones" and Will loves it! He plays "head and shoulders, knees, and toes" with it.
So then I started looking for costumes and the skeleton one was so cute! The little boy model even looked like Will.

So time for my confession of my "Mom FAIL" moment...
I washed Will's costume in the washing machine. The tag clearly said "hand wash only", but I thought that was simply a suggestion, not an instruction. So I opened the washing machine to a polyester/applique mess. Good grief! It took 30 minutes and 20 pieces of lint roll paper, but I finally got it all looking pretty again. It's just a little fuzzy now.

I had to work Halloween night, so JT was in charge of Will. He got him dressed in his costume, but Will refused to wear the hat. Our old neighbors came by to Trick-or-Treat in our neighborhood, so Will got to play with Maddy. JT said Will made it to a few houses, but he didn't really get the concept yet. Next year will be much more fun!

Happy 4th of July!

We spent the morning with NeeNee and then went to Gram and Gramp's house for dinner. No fireworks this year because of the extreme dryness in the area. Will sure looked cute though!

Will's 1st Birthday Party

We celebrated the big day on 4/14 so that we could have the party on a Saturday. JT and I were completely overwhelmed at all of the people that came to celebrate with us - family, friends, and neighbors! It was a great party and a wonderful day!

Planning:
It took me a while to decide what kind of party to have. Everything seems to be theme-based now, but Will doesn't have anything that is really a "favorite", except for Maggie and other dogs of course. I kept going back to a safari theme since he has tons of monkey and giraffe toys, but that is because that is what we buy him, not necessarily because he likes it! So just in case he wants to do safari at a another party, I decided on no safari party this year. Then a friend of mine suggested a red wagon themed party since Will has 2 red wagons. Super cute idea, but again I may want to save it for next year. I knew there wouldn't be many kids attending this party, so I decided a them wasn't necessary and I planned everything around some light blue and chocolate brown patterns and "1". I don't know why I decided to take a creative path with this, but it all worked out. I made the invitations, a birthday banner, monthly picture banner, and even some cupcake toppers. Gram made a wreath for the front door (an idea from Pinterest).

Banner of Will's monthly photos. Can't believe how much he has changed when looking at all of them together!

The Big Day:
Will's birthday outfit was an early birthday present from our sweet neighbors - The Ellers. Scott and Kate have a 3 year old daughter named Maddy (you will see more of her later on, she and "Baby Will" are crazy about each other) and twin 6 months old girls. Here is Will and his best buddies Max and Grant hanging out in the back yard.

 Will played with Gram, Gramps, and MAO.

 

JT and I worried a lot about how Will was going to handle all of these people. He isn't comfortable with just anybody, and most of these people he doesn't see too often. Hope came in and you could see a huge wave of relief sweep over him. He loves sweet Hope! She has been Will's nanny since he was 3 months old. He is crazy about her! Oh, and she's pretty crazy about him too!

A couple of pics of us with our lil' man.

Cake time! We had cupcakes for all of the guests and Will had his own smash cake. Publix decorated it but didn't put a "1" on it, so Lauren fixed that for us.

He wasn't too sure about getting his hands in there. He would just get a little icing and then smear it on his face. Fine by me, I prefer this to having cake thrown all over my walls!

We pulled up a chair for Maddy to see if she could show him how it was done.

Maddy to the rescue. Does it get any cuter than having you girlfriend feed you some of your 1st birthday cake?!?!

After cake time we were ready to open presents, but we were told to come outside for a minute. NeeNee and Aunt Julia were leaving, so I assumed that we were going to take a picture. Boy was I wrong. We walked outside and everyone followed.

I am expecting a Little Tikes car or truck...

WHOA! A Cadillac Escalade from Rob, Andi, Bubba, and Jill! I was absolutely shocked! Hope they plan on coming back and supplying the gift for the 16th birthday party!

Will says, "Check it out Maddy. I can ride down to your house and pick you up. Oh wait, no I can't reach the pedals. Maybe you can come over and drive me around then!"

Replaced the girl with Max and Grant, and Will lost it.

 Back inside for some presents.

All this stuff and you can see he is still playing with the remote control.

Hat and matching dinosaur stuffed animal made by Brandon's girlfriend Monica.

A few of the many presents - "Willie Bug" growth chart handmade by Gram's friend. Blue chair from me and JT. See the GIANT teddy bear from Max and Grant!

Cracker Barrell rocking chair from MAO - just Will's size!

 Favors:

Cake pops made by Gram. I made a tag that said "Thanks for poppin' by" that sweet Aunt Julia took the time to put on them all for me.

After everyone left, Will continued to sit in his truck. It moved to our dining room and he drank his bottles in there. Did I mention that it has a working radio? Will can turn it on and he dances away!

THANK YOU to everyone that came to celebrate this wonderful day! And a million thank-yous to NeeNee, Aunt Julia, Gram, and Lauren for helping me get this all set up.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY WILL!!!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving 2011

Will had a very busy 1st Thanksgiving! He traveled and met so many new people over the long weekend.

We started off with lunch on Thursday at Gram and Gramps house - a lunch with 42 people! NeeNee, Uncle Jon, and Ashley even joined in the celebration. It was great to have everyone all together! My favorite part of the day was that Mama was feeling better this year, so there was no pressure for making those perfect rolls (refer to last year's Thanksgiving post)!

On Friday morning we headed to West TN. When we got to MAO's house, Great-Grandmother finally got her hands on Will. Uncle Anthony, Aunt Tina, and cousins Taylor and Teagan were there too. This was the first time that MAO had all of his grandbabies together - that is something to be thankful for! We enjoyed spending time with Jayme, Madyson, Kristi, and even met Uncle Tim for a minute.


Then we were off to Adamsville so JT could go watch his high school football team play for a chance at the state championships. Will got to meet lots of JT's high school friends and got a tour of Adamsville.

We came home Saturday afternoon and were ready to rest! Will was such a trooper through the whole weekend! He was a great traveler and was almost always in a good mood. Sunday he was clinging to me more than usual, but I have to admit that I enjoyed that! He was so exhausted and glad to be back home.

As always, we are so thankful for our family and friends! JT and I both thank God every single day for our precious Will! He is the greatest gift we have ever received!

Halloween 2011

Happy 1st Halloween Will!

I knew this Halloween wouldn't be a really big deal because I had to work and JT was going to be in Memphis. It didn't really bother me since Will isn't going to remember this one anyway. Publix was having Trick-or-Treating at the store from 4-7, so the plan was for Gram to dress him up and bring him to work so I could see him. Little man decided to get his first illness though, so we didn't want him to get outside and around a bunch of people. Will and Gram had a few of the neighborhood kids Trick-or-Treat at our house, so he got to see a few people. Gram said he wasn't too interested though.

Luckily we got a picture of Will in his costume on Sunday. Pops and Nonna came to visit and brought a cute little monkey costume along with a banana candy bag. So cute! I dressed him up and off to Karen and Jamey's we went. Thank goodness they were prepared with candy since we were a day early!

That was so much fun, we decided to ring our own doorbell for Daddy to answer! (No candy at this house though.)

Happy Halloween to our little monkey!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy FIRST Father's Day to JT! We had a great weekend just all hanging out together.

JT can never deny Will since he looks just like him! From hair color to birthmark, they are two of a kind! Will changes everyday, but his dominant features are clearly from JT. I think he is going to have those beautiful blue eyes too.

Will loves his daddy! As soon as Will hears him talking in the morning he starts looking for him, eyes searching the room. And then when he sees JT, he gets the biggest smile on his face (and milk usually pours out of his mouth because I am usually giving him a bottle at this time). They love to play together, but the best time is the bedtime cuddling. (I did not pose this picture. They are sleeping in the same position).


Will loves you very much JT! You have been such an awesome dad the past 2 months, and it brings such joy to my heart when I watch you with him!

The Eater Bunny came to see Will

Will was 1 week old for his first Easter. And to start off the first of many traditions, Gram and Uncle Brandon made Will an Easter Bunny cake. This was a cake that my great-grandmother used to make. He also got a little Easter Basket of goodies.


We had a wonderful Easter with some of our family. Gram and Gramps were there along with NeeNee. And Uncle Brandon, Uncle Kyle, and Leslie came to meet Will and spend the day with us.