Choir Kid!

Yesterday evening, on Facetime with Grandmommy and Grandmommy you gave an impromptu concert of all of your choir songs (with some interesting interpretations). Afterwards, mommy got you to repeat some of it on this video. I might be biased, but I think you're a pretty advanced singer for 2.5 years old!

T.I.S.O fight tigers, fight tigers, fight, fight, fight!

The cheer in the title is your interpretation of the Clemson football cheer. You sang it loud and proud at your first football game on October 11th and still sing it all around the house.  It was a great day of tailgating with Uncle Mitch and Aunt Stacey. You were an absolute angel except for a one hour span in the afternoon when you refused to nap and went off the deep end. Mommy and Daddy were not happy campers, and all we can say is thank goodness for Aunt Stacey! Once we got into the game you slept on Daddy for a while and then were in a great mood after that!!

It's Fall ya'll (well almost)

We are back in the swing of things again with Mommy back at work and you back in daycare. You are almost fully potty trained as you just wear pull-ups at nap and nighttime. You are in the 2 year old choir at church and sing the songs all the time ( especially Hallelu Hallelu!)

With Fall has come football season and you are practicing cheering on the Dawgs and Tigers at home. We will take you to your first game in a couple of weeks and will post pics of that then. We are very excited to have you experience tailgating and game day with us!

Here are the things we want to remember about right now:

1. Your nighttime prayers. You say thank you for anything and everything including the beach, the park, Grandmommy and Grandaddy, Grammy, Aunt Stacey and Uncle Mitch, Mommy, Daddy, your bicycle, etc. Also, just recently you've started replacing "Amen" with "The End" and it's precious!

2. Your singing (as documented on the video below). You love to sing and are pretty good at it too!

3. Your creative play. You take all your toys in the living room and line them up in shapes on the floor. You say you are creating castles. You also pack a bag and get in your car and go to various places such as work, the beach, and the park and pretend to be at each place. It is so fun to watch you be creative!

4. That you scream and shout and get excited every time you see our church (even if we are just driving by and not going in) We hope that you always get this excited about church! 

Here are the things that you are doing right now that we might try to forget (not really as these are still precious parts of you)

1. Terrible two tantrums. You want to do everything for yourself and there are some things that you just can't. You scream and cry and pout when this happens. Thank goodness this isn't too typical for you.  Although you do love to say "No, you no (insert anything here) I (insert same anything here again!) everyday!! For example today you said "No, you no sing that song, I sing that song!)

2. The fact that you are getting so big so quickly. We wish we could slow down time and keep you a little baby forever!

Best.Summer.Ever.

This was the summer of many small trips for us. You were at the perfect age for this kind of traveling and we had an absolute blast! Here are the highlights:

Trip#1: Grandmommy and Grandaddy's house in Flordia
- being chased by the garden hose by Grandmommy
-hiking to see pretty waterfalls
- ate your weight in eggs,bacon, ribs, and ketchup
- wouldn't touch ice cream
- obsessed with babies and changing their diapers
- "fwimming" with floaties and nobody holding you and jumping in on your own
-repeated everything you heard: I'm silly, smart, and scrumptious, mama Mia, oh my goodness, no you silly,etc.

Trip#2 and 3: Aunt Stacey and Uncle Mitch's house in South Carolina (the first was with mom and dad and the second was while mom and dad celebrated our 5th anniversary at the beach and you stayed with Aunt Stacey and Uncle Mitch all by yourself)
-"fwinging" on the dock and "fwimming" in the pool
- riding in the boat and watching Lily and Kayden tube
-trying to do everything Kayden and Lily did
- playing with Rocky and giving him kisses
- learned a new game and asked to play often " play keckers me mommy?"' (Checkers).
- going to the zoo and seeing the animals (and getting Gerry Giraffe at the gift store).

Trip# 4: Hilton Head Island
- you loved the ocean and beach and "boogie boarded" in the waves and splashed around
- we rode bikes and you loved being on the back of daddy's bike! You fell asleep during one bike ride and had a nice long nap!
- you saw your first fireworks and loved them! You clapped your hands and said " they sound like this. More!!!"

Trip #5: Florence, Sc to see Grammy and Grandpa Tom
-playing with Bella every possible second
- reading lots of books with Grammy and playing in the room with her big girl bed and putting kitty cat and Elmo to sleep
- playing at Kayden and Lily's house and asking every five minutes if we knew them too like you were shocked by the coincidence: "You know them? You love them too?"
-exploring Grammy's house and looking for Bella's nose under the door
- taking a walk around the block with Grammy and running all over the place
- rocking in the little rocker in Grammy's kitchen

Two years old!

We celebrated your second birthday last weekend with a puppy dog party! It was so much fun. Two years have flown by, but you have made them the best two years of our lives! We love you sweet girl!

Thank you for being you!

Dearest Madison,

We recently lost one class act when my grandmother "Mama" passed away. You have been such a joy through this situation to everyone who is mourning, but especially to my mom, your Grandmommy. It brings me such joy to see her a bit happier from seeing you smile, you holding her hand or hugging and kissing her, or just saying something cute and silly to make her laugh instead of cry. Thank you for that! I pray that you always take joy in making others happy.  I also pray that you inherit Mama's love of reading, her love of nature, her peaceful demeanor, classic taste, and strong mind. This is one of my favorite photos that I will cherish always and hope you will too:

photo and video dump- your personality lately

I've been terrible about posting lately, but there are so many things we want to remember about your personality at this age (almost two). Here are the photos and videos from my phone lately to play catch up:

Snowpocalypse 2014

Well, we survived Snowpocalypse 2014! We thought you might look back on this story and chuckle (especially if you end up living somewhere that gets snow more than once every few years). Snow was predicted this past Tuesday and the city of Atlanta decided it wasn't that big of a deal. So, imagine everyone's surprise when it started snowing pretty hard and actually sticking mid-morning on Tuesday.  Still, everyone waited thinking it wouldn't be that bad. And then all at once the entire city (including the major school districts and most businesses) decided that it was urgent to get home immediately. Therefore, 5 million people hit the roads at the same time. I left at 1:45 since daycare was trying to close early and dad left shortly thereafter.  By 5:30 we still hadn't reached you. Thankfully, our friend from church had abandoned her car and walked to daycare to pick up her kids and called to say she would get you as well. They started walking towards their house and I finally made it to their house and started walking to meet you guys.  We walked home (still snowing by the way) and then Dad had run to meet us, but we ended up able to bypass the bad traffic and make it home the back way. We were so stressed and upset, but quickly realized how lucky we were since some people were still stuck in their cars on the freeways the next day!!!

After we calmed down, warmed up, and got a good night's sleep, we enjoyed the snow and the two days off together!