Busy Weekend!

We all had a very busy, but also very fun, weekend. Amelia started out performing in "Bugsy Malone" on Friday night... the show was great! On Saturday morning we got to go and bring Jake home with us! He is so cute and everyone in the house is getting used to his presence (even Callie, our cat!). He has only had a few accidents and us really doing very well with going outside to go to the bathroom. He is also very sleepy at night and only wakes up once to go outside (sounds sort of like starting out with another baby!). We have all had so much fun with him so far! Saturday afternoon Mitchell and Amelia both had basketball games and Amelia performed again Saturday night and Sunday afternoon... so pretty much a revolver door here! I will pretty much be staying around the house this week to let Jake get used to things (and to train him), so hopefully it will be a little bit more relaxing!

Fun news!

We just got back from a fun family outing... we are getting a new puppy! On the way home from work on Tuesday morning I made my usual stop at Starbucks and saw a flyer with the cutest puppies on it... but one really stood out to me-- the chocolate and white one! I showed the pictures to Dave and he agreed to go and see the puppy. We totally surprised Mitchell and Amelia (they thought that we were just going out to eat) and didn't tell them until we pulled up to the house. We all fell in love with him there and will be able to pick him up on Saturday! We discussed names over dinner after that and came up with a great one... Jake! We are all so excited!

A Star Is Born... Again!!

Amelia is rehearsing a lot this week for her upcoming musical "Bugsy Malone"... another performance with the Oconee Youth Playhouse. This will be Amelia's 6th musical with them! Amelia is in the Show Biz Kids cast with about 15 other girls her age... they have so much fun being together in the dressing room! These pictures are of the first dress rehearsal yesterday... parents are not allowed to watch, so I will post some pictures of them on stage if we get any good ones this weekend. Aren't they cute!!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Today is Grandma's BIG day... although we won't tell how many years!! We helped her celebrate at our house a few nights ago and had lots of fun. We wanted to make sure that we said a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY on the real day!!

Going to the American Girl store!!

Today Amelia got to make her first trip to the American Girl store in Atlanta (along with Mommy and Grandma) to spend her gift cards that she got for Christmas from Santa and Aunt Debbie. She went thinking that she was just going to buy some clothes for her two dolls, but ended up leaving the store with a new doll (Mia) and a ton of stuff that go along with that doll! We also recently scored some reservations and got to have lunch at the Bistro there! The dolls had there own chairs at the table and menus! The food was great! As Amelia described it, it was "an awesome day!"

Mitchell also got to have some fun hanging out with Granddad today. They made a early morning trip to Target to let Mitchell buy a "Ripstik" that he wanted (sort of like a skateboard). Then they had lunch at Dairy Queen and saw the movie "The Water Horse" which they both loved!

A great day for everyone! (Oh... except for poor Dave who had to go to the dentist!)

GO TIGERS!!!

Happy New Year's Eve to everyone! Just wanted to let everyone know to cheer for the CLEMSON Tigers tonight (since it's tiger vs. tiger in the Chic-Fil-A bowl). We were lucky enough to run into the Clemson Tiger mascots yesterday at the GA Aquarium and get a picture with Mitchell and Amelia.... what fun!

Trip To Atlanta... part 2

On Sunday morning we headed to the Georgia Aquarium... what an amazing place! We really enjoyed seeing all of the different displays and learned a lot! Mitchell's favorite things to see were the different kinds of whales and sharks and Amelia's favorite were the otters. What a great visit... we highly recommend it!

Our Trip To Atlanta... part 1

We decided to take an overnight trip to Atlanta to have some fun! On Saturday morning we drove to Atlanta and started the fun in Centennial Park which was built for the 1996 Olympic Games. Mitchell and Amelia had been there once before a few years ago but didn't remember that trip. They had so much fun running around the park and reading the names on the bricks. They were thrilled when they were able to find the brick of their grandparents and other family! Luckily we had beautiful weather for this day! We then went and toured the World of Coke. Mitchell and Amelia's favorite part of that was the tasting room where you get to taste Coke products from all over the world... some of them were really gross! We ended Saturday with dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, which was a fun new experience for Mitchell and Amelia. They thought that it was a "really cool" place! (I will have to add that picture to my next post... I forgot to add it to this one).

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

We had a wonderful Christmas time here just relaxing and being lazy! After going to Christmas Eve service at our church we had a quiet family dinner and watched "Elf" the movie. Then we made sure to make Santa cookies before going to bed! Mitchell and Amelia kept up with Santa's travels on the NASA website to make sure that they got to sleep on time. Christmas morning was a lot of fun with lots of presents and a good breakfast together. We all got lots of nice gifts! Later, my parents came to visit and had dinner with us to complete the great day. We can't wait till next year!

Lunch is served!

This morning we got a little surprise from Amelia... she would be serving us all lunch. She gave us all a menu which we could order from and then she got to work! At about 12:30 we went to "Lola's Buffet" and were served a wonderful lunch by "Melissa". There were even a few surprises (hot chocolate for Mitchell)! Amelia did a wonderful job and it made lunch today a lot more fun!

Visiting Santa!

Friday night we made our annual trip to Phipps Plaza in Atlanta to see Santa. We have been going to this same Santa since Mitchell was 6 months old... so for 11 years! It's become a fun yearly tradition for our family... who knows how long it will go on? We had a great visit with Santa, had a nice dinner at Silver Spoon Cafe and then saw the movie "Alvin and the Chipmunks". It was so funny! Then of course we got a treat at Starbucks before heading home... what a wonderful night!

Christmas in NC

Last weekend we traveled to NC to have Christmas with Dave's parents and my sister's family. We all got some early presents and had some great quality time with family!

I Need A Little Christmas Vacation!

Mitchell and his principal, Mrs. Varela
Mitchell's homeroom teacher, Mr. Julian

This past Tuesday night we all went to see Mitchell in the 5th grade musical at the Oconee Co. Civic Center. What talent! We are always amazed at how one music teacher can coordinate 180 students at one time. The kids has all worked very hard and put on a great show for us! They made a bunch of parents very proud!

Christmas at church

Last Wednesday night we got to enjoy the Christmas program and banquet at our church. We always look forward to this every year because everyone is in such good spirits with the holiday and we get to see all of our wonderful children perform in their play. Mitchell and Amelia both had some lines in the play this year and worked very hard learning them... it showed! The program was great and even had a rap in it (hence, the sunglasses)! Christmas is getting closer, and this night definitely helped us remember the true reason for the season!

O Christmas Tree!

This entry is a little delayed... it's harder to keep this thing up than I thought! Hopefully I will get better at it soon. We had a wonderful evening recently putting up our inside Christmas tree and decorating it... with a few good snacks and Christmas music to go along with it! I really enjoy watching Mitchell and Amelia find the perfect place for each of their ornaments. Each year they get a new ornament that tells a little bit about their year. This year Mitchell got a golf bag ornament (he really enjoyed playing golf several times this summer, including a few small tournaments!) and Amelia got a "Beauty and the Beast" ornament since she was in that production this fall (she was a teacup in the "Be Our Guest" scene). The tree looks beautiful! Then a couple of days later we went to Jack's Creek tree farm to cut down our tree for the front porch. Bailey even enjoyed going to help us pick out our tree! Of course I forgot to take the camera with us, so the pictures of that tree are taken here at home. We are now totally decorated for Christmas... I love it!!

Christmas card pictures

I don't know about the rest of you, but the pictures that go out with our yearly Christmas card can be a little deceiving. If only you could catch the whole story surrounding that picture you would know just how much it means that you see an updated picture of Mitchell and Amelia each year. We had "picture day" recently and I have to say that it did go pretty well. We only got a few moans and groans about the number of pictures (and yes, Amelia kept an accurate count and didn't hesitate to tell everyone what it was), the detailed instructions such as "Mitchell, now you put your arm around Amelia... "you are brother and sister, act like you love each other!"... and "try to make your smiles look natural, not like you are in pain!"... I'm sure you all get the picture. But as you can see we managed to get some really great pictures of our beautiful children... the hard part is picking out which one to put on the Christmas card! Hopefully you will all get the card pretty soon and see first hand just how blessed we really are. And the picture is not really all that deceiving... Mitchell and Amelia really love each other and are great friends (at least 90% of the time)!

Thanksgiving in NC

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday time visiting with family in Greensboro and Winston Salem, NC. Mitchell and Amelia had a blast playing with their cousins... something they don't get to do very often. The neat thing is that it doesn't matter how long it has been since their last visit... they seem to pick up right where they left off! Plus, the kids are all old enough to play together without constant parental supervision so the adults were able to get some quality time in also! We are so blessed to have such a close family!