Ryan and Casey plus 2

Whit's Christmas program was adorable!!  She practiced at school and even sang her songs at home but nothing compared to seeing her up there with her friends singing away.   She was quite the ham up there and even had people laughing and commenting on how much she loved being on stage!  I think she enjoyed the fact that she had such a big audience as Ryan, myself, Mamaw, Papaw, Aunt Kelley and Mike all came to see the show!  Her teacher had to keep telling her to move back but it was inevitable, she would scoot out and make herself front and center during every song. Love seeing her thrive in this environment, especially since she was having such a hard time being away from me this year!

We spent Christmas morning at our house opening presents and enjoying all of our new toys.  Crazy how exciting Christmas is once you have kids.  I think I woke up several times in anticipation of Whitney waking up and running down the steps:).  Santa brought her the infamous doc mobile that I searched high and low for but the gift she was most thrilled about was her erasers!  haha!!  She asked Santa to bring her Halloween erasers but those could not be found, so she ended up getting a variety pack of 500 mini erasers.  Funny how that got the most attention Christmas morning.....erasers....ha! After our family time in the morning we made the short drive (yay for living so close now) to Mamaw and Papaw's house.  Aunt Kelley, Uncle Caleb, Aunt Meg, Mamaw and Papaw were anxiously awaiting our arrival and were so excited to see the girls!  Everyone took turns trying to pacify little Mere who was super tired and just wanted to be home -- doesn't sh...

Its our tradition to go to Christmas Eve Mass with the Skeldon family and then head back to Gammy and Papaw's house for presents and dinner.  We used to have games and go well into the night with our festivities but now with so many grandchildren, we spend most of our time opening presents and playing!!!  It is so nice seeing the kids get along so well and enjoy playing together.   This year was a little different because we were missing Aunt Elaine.  She was at home with her new bundle of joy, baby Matthew...far far away from germs:)  Its hard to believe though that Matthew will be a year old next year and Meredith will be 18 months!  And as always we were all spoiled with piles of presents, yummy food and great company!

Uncle Caleb and Aunt Megan live in Colorado so it is a treat when they get to come and visit.  Whitney was very excited to spend time with them and loved every minute of their time together.  Starting December 1st, Caleb and Megan sent an activity a day for Whit to do as sort of a countdown until their visit.  We enjoyed opening our craft each day and the time we spent together doing each one.  It took a lot of time and effort to prepare 21 days worth of Christmas crafts but we are so thankful for that; not only was it fun to do something new and exciting each day, it also got us pumped up even more for their visit! We had a great time with them.  Playing all day at Mamaw and Papaw's house, family pictures, dinner and awaited one day. Then time together on Christmas day and brunch the next day gave us a lot of time to spend with each other.  Its hard to say goodbye and know that it will be several more months until we see them but it sure was great mak...

Its like a milestone a day around here with Meredith.  One day she cannot sit up and the next she doesn't need support to sit for a minute on her own.  The next day I turn around and she is rolling over to her belly!!  I am loving all of this growth and watching her explore and change before our eyes!!  She is awake so much now and is really interacting with us, although she is super quiet.  She does cry and that gets loud but goodness even her laugh/smiling is silent.  She is more into watching and smiling at her big sister to do much of anything else:)

I knew the girls would be close but probably didn't think that it would happen so soon.  I figured Whitney would get tired of the fact that Meredith only sits there and doesn't interact with her but that is so far from the truth.  Whitney LOVES her sister and vice versa.  They are just so very cute together.  Meredith cannot take her eyes off of her sister and Whitney loves the attention.  I cannot count the number of songs and dance numbers she performs on a given day for us!!  I can't help but snap a pic, or ten, of them together everyday because it just warms my heart!  

Aunt Elaine and Uncle Jay have a tradition where they give the kids Christmas Pjs on Christmas Eve; this year however they have a new bundle of joy set to arrive on Christmas day -- or sooner -- so they wanted to make sure the kids had their jammies before the special event! Pizza, jammies, popcorn and a movie (frozen of course) were on the agenda and the kids had a blast! I think we may just have to start a new tradition:)  I love that these guys are all so close and get to spend such quality time together.  Yay for cousin love!

First snow fall of the year happened in November and whit was so excited to go out and play in it.  However, her Mommy didn't plan well and her snow pants were capri and her snow boots didn't even fit!!!  So she had some pretty freezing cold shins!!!  haha!!  She had fun anyway  though.  But I think her favorite part was that her friends were off school and they came over and played for a few hours.  These girls are too sweet (8 and 13 years old) and just include Whit in everything they do.  They tell me that Whitney isn't like most three year olds in that she "gets their conversations" and can play right along with them :)  They had a picnic lunch in the basement and played baby dolls/house all afternoon!! That evening Meredith tried food for the first time.  She didn't know what to think at first but then she LOVED it.  It took her a few weeks to not push out the entire spoonful of food but she obviously liked the taste of the ...