Our 8th Anniversary!

Phil and I are celebrating our 8th anniversary today!  We met 12 years ago working at Paradigm Coffee Shop.  We had made a tradition of celebrating our anniversaries at The Front Street Inn in Wilmington, the same place we went right after our wedding ... this year we're laying low and celebrating at home with our kiddos.  Excited to think that this time next year we'll be celebrating in our brand new house!  I love you, babe* 

SAS Winter Party, Cary, NC 2003

Bootcamp Graduation, San Antonio, TX 2005

Living in Monterey, CA 2006

Visiting friends in Los Angeles, CA 2006

Huntington Beach, CA (my homeland!) 2006

On base at the DLI, Monterey, CA 2007

Shepherd AFB, TX 2007

Raleigh, NC 20??

Merry Christmas!

We have had a wonderful day filled with love and laughter, good food and great company!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jennifer's class had a Thanksgiving Social last week - they each said what they were thankful for (Jennifer is thankful for her friends!) and sang Thanksgiving/turkey themed songs.  It was adorable!

"Chirping Bird"

Happy First Birthday, Zachary Mitchell!

Zach turned one on Friday and I still can't believe how quickly his whole first year went by!  At one year old, Zachary is 19 lbs 14 oz and 29 1/2" ... he's standing and taking a couple steps but not really walking yet.  He loves playing with his big sister and trying to keep up with everything she does!

We had a little party for him at the park on Saturday and Zach had a great time eating his cake, playing at the park with friends, and opening presents! 

Big Birthday Boy!

Getting some help opening his gift from Great Granny

The look of a one year old*

Zach's Where The Wild Things Are cake!

Singing Happy Birthday

Everyone pitching in to help get those presents unwrapped!

All those new toys and he chooses the box

Too much fun!

King of the Wild Things

Cake time!

Santa!

We met some friends for a cupcake and a visit with Santa this afternoon ... We had the whole place to ourselves so the kiddos got to hang out with Santa, jump around in a bouncy house, make an ornament and dress up like elves! It was a crazy fun afternoon in honor of Chloe's fifth birthday!

Wee Tots

Zachary and I have been going to a class at the community center called Wee Tots.  It's a lot like the Little Movers and Shakers class that I used to take Jennifer to.  He loves it and it's a great way for him to have some play time with other babies!  I realized after taking him to class the first time that he always plays with big kids, and it was funny to see him with other babies because he always loves playing with Jennifer, Liam, and Lucas but he wasn't interested in playing with the other babies at all!  He also doesn't like to sit on the mat and listen to the teacher sing songs .... he crawls far, far away as soon as he hears "twinkle, twinkle ..."

Halloween!

I just realized I didn't post any pictures of Jennifer and Zachary in their costumes!  Jennifer has such a collection of dress-up clothes, she kept changing her mind as to which costume to wear on Halloween ... it was really cold out so I'm glad she decided to be Super Girl on Halloween night, it was a lot warmer than her original pick of Wonder Woman.  I borrowed a super cute lion costume from my friend Lisa for Zach, I wish I would have taken more pictures of him wearing it!  Maybe I'll borrow it again one day just to take pictures because it's so stinkin' cute ......

We went to a Halloween party that a little boy in Jennifer's class had at his house, it was super fun!  All the kids wore their costumes and had a blast!

11 months old!

It's hard to believe Zachary was 11 months old on the 7th!  He's such a happy little guy .... he's always smiling and loves playing with his big sis!  He's been practicing standing but hasn't taken any steps yet. Jennifer walked on her 1st birthday, we'll see if little brother follows in her footsteps.

At 11 months old, Zach loves petting Amae and Chester, and tries his hardest to catch Posey.  He likes to try to copy our words and actions, it's like having a little parrot around!  He still doesn't have any teeth but that doesn't stop him from eating, he likes watermelon, shredded carrots, peas, broccoli and bananas and isn't a picky eater at all.  He's so much fun, I can't believe we'll be celebrating his birthday next month!!

At Crowder Park for our Friday play date with Liam and Lucas

Jennifer and Liam at the park

He loves exploring!

He also loves his food!

Jennifer and I love giving him crazy hairdos during bathtime

Had to add a naked shot : )

Anything that slides across the floor becomes a walker

Giving kisses to his favorite person!

Halloween fun!

Halloween is still a couple days away, but we've been celebrating for at least a week so far .... Jennifer had a pumpkin carving project to do for her preschool and we all got in on the fun of cleaning out and carving the pumpkin...

Zach loves doing everything he sees big sis doing!

They had fun cleaning out the gooey pumpkin 

Jennifer and her Cookie Monster pumpkin

This past weekend we meet Jennifer's friend Chloe for some trick-or-treating in downtown Fuquay-Varina.  The girls had a lot of fun collecting candy together and checking out the other costumes!  (And I had fun checking out the cute shops- there is some seriously good shopping in downtown F-V)

Hello Kitty and Sleeping Beauty!

A couple weekends ago we helped celebrate our friend Lucas's second birthday and had lots of fun at his super cool pirate party, complete with pirate dress up clothes and a pirate ship!

Party animal! 

Ahoy mateys!

 October has been a fun-filled month so far!  November will be even better because Phil will be starting a new job with no more traveling!!!  That's right, he'll actually come home from work every night and we can't wait!