A CHRISTMAS DADDY DAUGHTER GETAWAY

This past weekend Kenny took Elle on a Daddy Daughter Christmas date to Memphis. She loves staying in a hotel and so he thought it would be fun to take her for a day and night and do lots of fun Christmas activities that we are used to doing every year from living there and let me and Walker relax, bond and check some things off my to do list. It was so incredibly sweet how excited they both were to set off on their adventure.  Kenny did not tell her everything he had planned.

Leaving bright and early for their trip.

Once they arrived they went straight to Enchanted Forest at the Pink Palace Musuem. This is one of our favorite things to do in Memphis during the holidays.  They have all these decorated trees that the businesses do, old timey mechanical displays and trains and then a fantastic Santa!

We stop and take a picture with this snowman every year.  He is right in the front of one portion of the display.  I had to go back and put the pictures together of course and send the picture to Kenny.  It made us both want to cry.  Stop time!

Stinky skunk!

Seeing Santa! She remembered to tell him what she wanted this time.  A pink car.

Once they were done with Enchanted Forest they decided to hit up another one of their favorite haunts.  Memphis Pizza Company.  For a while when Elle was little she was obsessed with pizza and Kenny would take her there all the time.

Look at how happy she is.

After lunch they did a little light shopping. They stopped in my favorite local bookstore (has a great restaurant/brunch spot too.) I used to take Elle to story time here once a week with friends or we would come and let the kids play at the train table.  Elle claimed she remembered coming to story time here.  I am not so sure.  We do stop in this bookstore a fair amount when we are in town so I am sure that is what she remembers the most.

These are the risers for story time. A picture for old times sake.

Had the train table all to herself. A rare occurrence.

After checking into the hotel and taking a little rest it was time for the main event.  Starry Nights at Shelby Farms! It is this fantastic light show that you drive through.  We've taken Elle in the past years in our car and last year she fell asleep before we even got into the park.  Traffic can be really terrible sometimes and it makes the wait really long.  Kenny wanted to take her on a carriage ride.  We called to make a reservation and told the guy on the phone that she was a 3 year old little girl and he said he had just the thing! PS: The best part about the carriage is she get to bypass all traffic and the very long wait.

Kenny knew he wanted the Cinderella carriage but this one was even Frozen themed.  Elle was absolutely thrilled.  She even got her serious face on at the beginning.  Any time she gets serious we know she is loving something! She eventually snapped out of it and Kenny and Elle just had the best time looking at all the beautiful lights.  Elle was also loving it because people were rolling down their windows and taking pictures of them in the carriage and telling them Merry Christmas.  I think Elle thought she was a celebrity for a little bit!

Getting ready to head out in the carriage.

A white horse like Cinderella's pulling the carriage.

It was a pretty chilly night.  I sent them with a blanket and hand warmers and the carriage had some blankets too.  They didn't seem to mind too much. 

Sweet pictures with Daddy.

After Starry Nights they stopped by a bakery to buy some Christmas cookies and went back to the hotel to snuggle in and watch Christmas movies on TV.  They FaceTimed me at that point to tell me all about the night and Elle had a gingerbread cookie as big as her head eating it in bed.  It was way past her bedtime at this point too!

They had the best weekend and I am so lucky to have a husband who truly wants to create these memories with our children. I can only hope Elle looks back and realizes what an amazing man her Daddy is!

DISNEY ON ICE

Last week we took Elle to see Disney on Ice: Treasure Trove in Tupelo. We left Walker at home with our good family friend Ava. It was a win win.  We were hesitant to leave him with just anyone and Ava has been coming by a good bit for baby snuggles anyway and jumped at the chance to get to keep him an extended period of time.

We took Elle to another Disney on Ice show around this same time last year and she loved it so we were all excited to go again! It did not disappoint! Elle loved seeing the Peter Pan portion of the show along with all the princesses. It was a great morning spent just with Elle.

Mother and daughter selfie.

Alice and Wonderland

Cuddling with Daddy during the show.

Family picture during the Little Mermaid number.  They had all these blacklights on.

THE FIRST MONTH OF WALKER-ON MY DUE DATE!

Today is my official due date.  December 9.  And we have had Walker with us for a full month now.  He is 1 month old!  Most people marvel at how quickly the time goes by.  Honestly it seems a lot longer to me.  These weeks and days have been long.  We are very tired but I am just so grateful to have him here with us and healthy. And to not have to STILL be pregnant is just the icing on the cake.  My body feels so much better this go around after the delivery and even though I am tired I still feel so much better physically than I did when I was pregnant.  I can go up stairs! Or as Elle likes to say "you can run now mommy!" or "you can bend over now mommy!"

Walker so far has slept through most of his time here. That is how Elle was too.  Sleep sleep sleep and then eat.  We have been trying to draw his feedings out at night and he is having none of that.  Sometimes he is waking up before the three hour mark to eat.  We have upped his ounce intake but he is still a hungry boy.  At least when it is the second go around you know that they will eventually sleep and it isn't as stressful as the first time.

Elle is absolutely the best big sister.  She is so loving and affectionate with him.  She mother hens to death and mimics the things I say and the pet names I call him.  Our main ones being Walker-boo and Buddy. 

So since he is one month old I thought I would do a photo dump of some of my favorite pictures from the last few weeks.  I have posted a lot of these on other posts but I wanted to put them all in one place.

Happy 1 Month Walker! We love you! 

STARKVILLE CHRISTMAS PARADE

I did not get great pictures from the annual Christmas parade but I still wanted to do a short post about it.  Mainly because the Starkville Christmas Parade is one of the main things that makes me realize how small and wonderful our town is.  The parade is nothing special but is still so fun.  I love that you it requires no fuss to attend and the kids still love it! 

The night of the parade we ate an early dinner and then headed downtown.  The weather that day was crazy warm. I hate it when it is hot during December.  So we did not have a lot of layers on.  Once we got there the wind started blowing and I suppose a front was coming in because the temperature dropped A LOT and we were freezing.  I was wearing Walker in a sling and was happy my body heat was keeping him warm.  We met some friends on one of the main route corners and Elle had so much hanging out with her friends.  Kenny and I had fun visiting too!

Kenny, Walker and me!

Elle with her friends Audrey and Elle and their older brother Holden.

Here comes Santa!

As we were walking back to the car we asked Elle what her favorite part had been thinking she would say Santa.  Nope.  It was seeing some high school kids from a theatre group dressed up as Anna and Elsa from Frozen.  She thought they were the real girls.  Only adding fuel to Kenny's argument that we have got to get to Disney!

FAMILY THANKSGIVING IN STARKVILLE

We planend to host Thanksgiving from the beginning because I planned to be very pregnant and we did not want to do any traveling.  It was a bonus to have Walker to celebrate Thanksgiving with us.  Kenny's parents and my mom and sister all arrived Wednesday evening.  We just ordered pizzas for dinner that night and relaxed!

Elle ran into the corner of our island and immediately had a black eye.  This was right after it happened and it only got worse as the time went by.  Its been almost a week and we are still sporting a little black eye.

Thanksgiving morning I got dressed and then made a big breakfast for us all to eat while we watched the parade.  We usually make a good breakfast and then snack on dips throughout the day and then do the big meal for dinner. The Macy's Thanksgivng Day parade is my second most favorite thing about the holiday after the food.  I was a little sad because Elle wasn't too into it yet.  But I will convert her in the coming years.  I did however get lots of Walker snuggles.  He did not watch too much of either.

My sister's friend made all the NICU babies these hats and made one for Walker too.  It was so cute!  

Walker with his CeCe.

Nannee getting in on the niece and nephew love. I love how Elle is looking at Walker in this one.

Kenny snoozing with Walker. 

Gramma with Elle and Walker on Thanksgiving morning.

That evening we were ready for the big meal! Although I hosted my mom did most of the cooking.  I only had to make the mashed potatoes and the green bean casserole.  My mom handled the turkey and the stuffing and the gravy and my sister always does the pies.

The table all ready for the meal.

My dining room having an identity crisis.  I went ahead and put our trees up the day before thanksgiving to have it done.

We had a great Thanksgiving and were so happy to be able to spend it with both of our families.  I feel like we are already full throttle into Christmas.  Christmas tree and decorations post to come soon!

COOKIES WITH SANTA

Starkville hosted a Cookies with Santa event one Sunday morning that coincided with all of Starkville's little shop's Open Houses.  The weather was pretty yucky that morning but we were bound and determined to see Santa and get out and about.

Once I had everyone dressed for Santa we had to take a picture and I could just die from the adoration and love I feel for these two. Elle was excited to see Santa but she was just as excited to take a sweet picture with her brother.

Elle almost 4 and Walker two weeks (for memories sake)

Waiting in line to see Santa

And our meeting went well.  Elle got a little nervous to tell him what she wanted but she did talk to him and smiled for the picture.  Walker slept through the entire thing but still looked perfect for the picture. This is the one we took from our phone. Will add the professional one to our collection of Santa pictures that are displayed with our Christmas decorations.

Elle pleased with her cookie from Santa.  It was pretty tasty.

Walker snoozing at brunch after all the Santa commotion.  I had to go buy this sweet gown the week before because we did not anticipate him being here for Cookies with Santa. We were so happy to have him there though!

LIFE AS OF LATE

Before I start our holiday oriented posts because I think we will have plenty of those I thought I would do a photo dump post of the lat couple weeks.  We have adjusted to having Walker home pretty well.  He sleeps a lot making it easy enough.  We are waking him up every three hours to feed him and that has us tired but we are managing and we all adore him!  

So here are some pictures!

  

Kenny had to do a road show for a sleep line that he carries.  He rented a U Haul to carry the product and travel all over the state and Elle was so excited about the idea of Kenny's rental truck.  She just thought the idea of him driving that big old thing was hilarious and was just dying to ride in it.  The first night he had it he got home late but we had promised her a ride and she seriously asked about it all day.  So when he finally got home they headed out for a cruise around the neighborhood.  He even let her drive.  Don't tell the police!

Our family dressed in the appropriate colors on Walker's first Maroon Friday.  I love this picture.

I'm going to call any picture I take like this of Walker with me a snuggle selfie.  Like I have said before I wouldn't be in a lot of pictures without taking them of myself with my children so selfies will have to do! 

Walker had to fight off a pretty serious case of jaundice.  We were extremely close to being admitted but after four days with the billi light we were were good to go. We still managed to get all of the snuggles even with the blanket and cords!

Proud big sister.  She is seriously so attentive and gentle with him.  

Hanging out in Elle's room taking a nap while we played princess. 

The Friday before Elle had the week off for Thanksgiving they hosted a Thanksgiving lunch for the parents.  We are always excited to join Elle at school.  It is so fun to see her with her friends.  She was also excited t show off her new little brother.

Getting ready to dig in. Daddy was on bottle duty.

I look so tired in this picture I realize now. Have to prove I was there though!

Elle and some of her friends performing Let It Go on the gym stage.