They are JOY!!!

Ahh...Where do I start?  Since our last post, we have been extremely busy.  I really do want to be a better blogger so that others can watch our kiddos grow, and I must admit I want my children to have some sort of record of their childhood since I have no baby books or folders.  I think I can just have these blog pages as my record keeping attempt.  Surely they will appreciate that it is in digital form:)

Watching our children grow is the most incredible blessing we are given.  Since our last post we have celebrated holidays; traveled; Vada had a cast; Sully continues to grow at unbelievable rates and we are in the process of possibly building a house!  I will try to capture as much as I can in this post.

Our day to day joys are what really make this parenting thing amazing.  Some highlights are watching the daily interaction between V and Sully.  Every morning Vada loves to hug and kiss on her brother, but is usually in tears within 5 minutes because he has a hand full of her hair.  She really likes to help mix his baby food and oatmeal, dance around to make him giggle and claim all of his toys as her own.  She has several names for him that include Sullivan Douglas, SUL, Sully, brother and buddy.  If she is in the room Sully can't eat or concentrate because he doesn't want to miss anything she might be doing.  They really enjoy taking baths together lately too.  Our days are so packed with meals, cleaning up meals, play dates, naps, playing etc that it is easy to get caught up in the routine and craziness.  We really try to sit back and enjoy the chaos because soon it will all be over and we will be sitting on our porch wishing we were giving baths and reading bedtime books.  These truly are the times of our life and we are trying to take it all in!

I recently bought a "Quote Book" in hopes of documenting some of the wonderful things our children will say over the next 20 years.  Our first entry will look something like this...
Vada:  "How old is Santa?"
Dad:  "He is older than Papaw!"
Vada:  With no pause and complete disbelief "Shut the front door!"
I guess mom needs to watch the "front door" comment.  But the best part is now when singing 1,2 Buckle my shoes; 3,4 Shut the FRONT door...YIKES!

Other big news at our house is over this past weekend, Sully has started to crawl and just got his first tooth (look at me documenting these big moments:)  Look out world, he is going to be destructive!  He is 7.5 months now and has the most joyful personality.  When he smiles, it lights up his entire face.  He really enjoys eating...that might be an understatement!  Last week he weighed 24.6lbs and is wearing 18-24 mo clothing.  He is just darling with all of his rolls and chunky thighs.  He wears mostly one-piece outfits (actually, always) because jeans and regular pants don't fit very well.  He is really a momma's boy and is working on the whole sleeping thing.

Vada is the funniest person at our house by far.  She sings.  She dances.  She loves and giggles nonstop.  While being obsessed with media, her cartoon of choice currently is Dora and Diego.  This winter she loves playing in the snow, but more importantly loves building snowmen decked out with hat, gloves and scarf.  Floor puzzles, baby dolls and cutting up fake food take up a large portion of her playtime.  V sported a cast in November for about 5 weeks after tripping over a transition while in KY with my parents.  Of course it was a pink cast, but at a follow up appointment she convinced the doctor it needed to be orange.  She healed quickly and was back on the move in early December.  We are really thankful to have happy and healthy children!

For Christmas this year, we stayed in Indy for the first time as a family.  It was very precious time spent watching our children open gifts and starting traditions.  Between Christmas and New Year's we were able to get to Colorado to spend time with the Riegle and Booth family.  As always we enjoyed time with everyone and making memories at the family mountain house!  We were able to see most of my family either before Christmas or as everyone was making their way to or from Greenville.  The holidays are always so hustle bustle, but definitely do get better once children are involved:)

We are really enjoying our MOPS group where the kids play for 2 hours while mom gets some quality adult time with other mommies every other week.  The group is such a blessing to me and I have met so many amazing women in the same season of life who are also trying to raise children in this crazy world.  In other big news, Lance's parents have moved into an apartment on the north side of Indy.  Gary took a new job that has him working in Fishers.  We are so proud that he is now leading a company and we are excited to watch him grow in his new role.  LaJeanne gets to spend more time in Indy as a result, and we are thrilled to be seeing more of them.

We have been looking to move to Columbus, IN for quite some time now, with not much luck...until now!  We are currently in negotiating stages of building a home on 9 acres just north of Columbus.  We are so excited, thrilled, anxious, scared and nauseous as we prepare of this huge project.  We continue to pray that God can help direct us as we make some big decisions.

Ok, enough rambling...I know you just clicked on our link to see pictures of our darling little people:)

Enjoy!
XOXO