A little red and white

Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent Thanksgiving Day in Meridian. The boys had a great time playing outside with their cousins and then taking a ride thru the woods with Wilson and me. We even did a little "hunting" - for Wilson's missing arrow, that is! We found it, too.

Here are the boys "pretend" riding the John Deere Gator!

Off he goes, this was the only picture of both the boys smiling!

Andrew riding with cousin Chian - holding on tight!

The day after Thanksgiving with MSU Santa t-shirts on.

Later in the weekend we had lots of fun celebrating May-May's birthday. We had a great lunch, delicious cheesecake for dessert and spent the afternoon decorating the Christmas tree together!! What fun!

Andrew LOVES this giant snowglobe at May-May and Bubby's house!

A cute "Bratley" picture! I love my sweet family.

Rebecca took this picture of me and Wilson. :)


The Bratleys again, plus the GRANDsons!

Andrew helping May-May blowout her candles! He sang Happy Birthday to May-May this year - that was his first person to be able to sing Happy Birthday to! It was very special for him and for her!

Elizabeth, me and the boys
Mom bought these cute Santa t-shirts for me and Liz, and we didn't plan to wear them. How funny that we both had them on!

Not far behind...

So I mentioned in my last post about Andrew growing up. I really feel like Forrest is not far behind. Clapping, crawling, eating, pulling up, "talking", playing with toys (especially whatever Andrew plays with) ... what a big boy! Here are a few pictures of my sweet boy from the last few weeks.

pulling up on EVERYTHING! and smiling lots, too, of course!

He loves playing at Andrew's train table!

Andrew is having to learn to share - it's a hard lesson. :)
This morning I kept hearing... "Mama, Torrest pulling my train apart!" "Mama, Torrest pulling track apart!" Hearing Andrew talk about it is the cutest thing to me. I guess it's not so cute to him, it's serious business!

This is from a few weeks ago. The first time I found him pulled up in his crib after a nap. I'm sure to pull the side up from now on!

Loving his food! He's also loving his puffs and other finger foods.

Growing up

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Andrew is looking so much older to me lately. I don't know how much longer he'll let me dress him in a longall. I wanted to take a few pictures even though he really wasn't interested. Love this boy!

8 months!

Forrest is growing up so fast! In the last 2 weeks, he has begun crawling and pulling up - and as Wilson said, "just in time for the holidays!" No longer are the presents under our tree safe. The few that I wrapped last week have already been unwrapped by our little fellow. Funny that I thought Andrew might be extra curious about the presents under the tree this year and try to unwrap them. It didn't even occur to me that Forrest would be the one causing trouble. :) Maybe it was those presents that really motivated his crawling!

He's already quickly disappearing down halls, into rooms, and under tables. He's definitely got us on our toes! I had forgotten how this stage calls for you to be extra, extra attentive! Between him getting around fast, pulling up and wanting to put EVERYTHING in his mouth, I'm constantly pulling things out of his hand or mouth or picking stuff up off the floor before he can get it there. The dog food, Andrew's toys, the door stop thingys, paper, magazines... whew - the list is endless!

Forrest has also begun talking more the past few weeks. It's really cute to hear him and Andrew "talk" back and forth. It amazes me how many of their sounds and especially their laughs sound so much alike! So cute! He's also learned to clap. This is really one of my favorite things to see - a smiling Forrest, clapping!

It's going to be such a fun Christmas with these two!

Yee Haw!

Our niece, Alexa, celebrated her 4th birthday with a Horse & Hayride party! We had a great time, and of course, Andrew loved riding the pony. He was able to have a lot of turns so he was a happy boy!

The Birthday Girl!

He was serious about riding the pony - no smiling for the camera. :)

Forrest looked like he was right at home and ready to go! Don't worry - we just took a couple of pictures and then he was off.

Forrest did have some fun quality time with Uncle Greg!

Enjoying the party! Wilson, Forrest, Andrew, and Papaw

A few fall photos

It's been a fun fall with the boys. Andrew has been feeling SO much better - praise God! After he had his tonsils and adenoids removed and started his allergy medications, he's only been sick once and that was when he had pneumonia. That was not a fun week, but since then he's been well! He's also been sleeping good. Every morning when he wakes up, one of the very first things out of his mouth is "Mama/Dada, I sleep good." Bless his heart. Wilson and I really think that this is the best he's felt in his 2 years of life. Thank the Lord that he is finally feeling well and sleeping at night.

The fall has been full of lots of activities and fun. These are a few things that I have missed in previous posts...

• Making Turkey cookies for "school". Andrew LOVES going to "school". He is so active and loves going to play with his friends. He's also starting to really enjoy helping me in the kitchen. He was all about the sprinkles for these cookies!
  

• Playing in the leaves! Our sweet neighbor, Caroline, came over to play with us one afternoon. She showed Andrew how to gather the leaves and throw them in the air. Forrest loved watching what they were doing and playing with the leaves himself.
  

• Freedom Fest. We love Madison and the great things it offers for families. Every October we enjoy Freedom Fest. It was fun to watch Andrew enjoy more activities this year. His favorite was definitely the pony ride. He was thrilled to ride the pony and cried when he had to get off! He also loved walking around with John Keil. We saw our friend Lemly there, too!
  

Kathryn's wedding

How great is a wedding?!! I just love them! Seeing a dear friend get married to a wonderful guy... spending time with sweet friends... reflecting on fun memories... we had a great time celebrating Kathryn's wedding a couple of weekends ago in Nashville. Kathryn is a precious friend and was my college roommate - I am so happy for her and Charlie!!

At the Bridesmaids luncheon - the girls: Ellie, Mary Austin, Me, Kathryn, Mary Katherine, Kristi

Before the wedding - Kathryn looked gorgeous!

The reception was at the Hermitage Hotel and it was wonderful. The boys came for a little while. My mom, dad, and Rebecca came for the wedding so they took the boys home from the reception early so that Wilson and I could stay. Thanks y'all!

Fun in Nashville

We had lots of fun while we were in Nashville for Kathryn's wedding. We left a day early to "spread out" the driving time. It worked out great because we had time to do some fun things in addition to all of the wedding activities.

One morning we went to the Opryland hotel and looked at the Christmas decorations. It's always fun to see! We went on the boat ride thru the hotel and the boys loved it!




We also went to the ICE exhibit. This is quite a site - everything is carved from ice. This year's theme was the Grinch. You put on these huge blue coats because it's freezing in the exhibit - of course it has to be, to keep the ice sculptures from melting. :) The sculptures are huge. The Grinch exhibit was very fun and whimsical. They color the ice, too, as you can see from the pics.

This picture is of Wilson going down the ice slide! He was trying to convince Andrew to do it. He went first, but Andrew never went. I thought the one of Wilson sliding was worthy of posting!


At the end of the exhibit is a carving of the nativity. It's worth going to the exhibit just to see this - Beautiful!


This is just a cute picture of Forrest playing in the hotel room.


We took the boys on a stroll downtown one day. We were staying downtown so we enjoyed walking down to the river and seeing some sights. Really just being out and about in a big city is fun for Andrew - and for us!

And have I ever mentioned how much we love our double stroller? WE LOVE IT! There are so many times we have said that we don't know what we would have done without it. It's a Baby Trend, jogging stroller. I highly recommend it.




I wish that I had some pictures of the day that Wilson took Andrew and Forrest BY HIMSELF to the Oprymills Mall. Yes, he did it all on his own! He said they had a great time. I think they spent the majority of the time in Bass Pro Shop... by the way if you have a little one, Bass Pro Shop is definitely a fun place to take them. There is so much to see - great, free entertainment! Of course, Wilson enjoyed it as much as the boys did and he even bought Andrew a cute, new coat. I was so proud of them for fending for themselves for the day so I could spend time with the girls! I think he was pretty proud too. He said he got lots of comments from other shoppers about how good he was doing. :)

It was a great weekend. We love Nashville!

Outside Time

My last post tonight...
A couple of cute pictures that Wilson took of Andrew. You can see that Wilson dressed Andrew this day, too. :)

7 months old & Brothers

Forrest is 7 months old! In the last month he has become so much more mobile! He can definitely get around and manages to scoot over, pick up, and put in his mouth whatever he sees and wants! Last weekend we were in Nashville for Kathryn's wedding (pics to come). I'd put Forrest in the middle of the hotel room floor - where I thought he was far enough away from what he shouldn't be playing with. Before I knew it, he'd have somehow gotten to the shoes, the trash can, Wilson's computer cords, etc... At that point it was more of a process for him to get stuff. In the last day or so, he's starting to actually crawl a little on hands and knees. It's about to get really busy over here!

Forrest also has his 4 top teeth now - that makes 6 in all! His hair is growing nice and thick. He's super fun and sweet as he's always been. He's eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and he's on a great schedule for eating and napping - very predictable which is oh, so nice. Of course, it will probably change tomorrow since I've said that! :) Probably the most fun thing to have watched in the last month is how Forrest and Andrew have begun interacting more. They are so, so cute together. They giggle and laugh at each other - by the way, they laugh the same way - it's hilarious! Is this true of all siblings?!? They are having lots of fun together and it's just been too cute to see.

Here are a few pictures I took of the boys looking at books before bedtime the other night...