Happy Thanksgiving

We are thankful for so many things! My parents arrived on Wednesday and we celebrated Thanksgiving in Columbia with lots of family, friends and delicious food (Thanks to Mimi and everyone else that helped prepare the food!). Hope everyone enjoyed the day as much as we did.

Two big reasons to be thankful...

Mimi, Grace and Nana

Elizabeth loves her cousin Lily! Maybe a little too much :)....

We predict they will be BFF's one day.

Coloring Turkeys

Grace had lots of fun playing with her second cousin Sloan.

She just loves the big girls.

They had a blast pretending to be lots of different animals.

Here is Grace the monkey...

Two Little Turkeys

The turkey cupcakes were a hit with the kids.

Daddy's Birthday Weekend

We really enjoyed a relaxing weekend at home for Brooks' birthday. Saturday morning Lily woke up with a fever and was a little fussy, so Brooks took Grace out for a daddy/daughter breakfast date. That afternoon while the girls napped, we also took a nap. Brooks says that he should get a nap every year for his birthday and I totally agree!
Lily seemed to feel better that night, so we went out to dinner as a family and the girls did really well. After dinner we went to the Towne Centre to see the Christmas tree and Santa Claus. Grace was a little nervous about actually seeing Santa, but really wanted to tell him what she wanted: A Dopey doll and a Baby Doll. I had to hold her, but she managed to tell Santa that she wanted a Dopey. We will have to visit him again before Christmas or write a letter to let him know about the Baby Doll....
Lily loved listening to the Christmas music.Happy Birthday Brooks!!! We love you and appreciate all you do for us! Hope you enjoyed your birthday weekend. Oh yeah - Brooks also had to rescue Lily on Sunday. I took her to Target while Grace was napping and accidentally locked the keys in the car along with her. Not only was I panicked that my one-year was locked in the car, but my cell phone would not work. I stopped a girl in the parking lot and left Brooks a message about our situation. While the nice girl tried to get in touch with AAA, I ran inside to use the phone and of course they weren't working. Luckily I finally got in touch with Brooks and he was already on the way! I think the whole situation was much harder on me than Lily, but I will definitely be paranoid every time I close the doors on our new mini van!

Grace's Dance

Parent Watch

Grace has really been enjoying her tap/ballet class that she takes at school. On Monday, we were invited to watch her dance practice. This of course was the same Monday that my school was getting observed for our Palmetto's Finest visit, so I had to get special permission to leave. I felt a little guilty for skipping out during the day, but I wouldn't have missed this for anything! She did a great job dancing and I was just so proud when she answered a question for her teacher. About half way through the performance Grace's tooth started to hurt - She just so happened to get one of her pre-molars that same day and her gums were bleeding (poor thing)! We have a great video of her, but I can seem to get it on the blog. I will keep trying...

Our Little Shirley Temple

When we took Grace up to get something for her tooth, guess who walked in the door? Lily was so surprised and excited to see us. I know she was confused when I didn't takes her with me.

Gorgeous Gamecocks

I wonder if all the Gamecock gear we wore on Saturday had anything to do with the big win? Even if it didn't, I had fun dressing them up...

Birthday Fun

We were invited to two birthday celebrations over the weekend. On Saturday night we celebrated Kevin's birthday. We had lots of fun eating oysters and hanging out with great friends. Grace helped Kevin open his present and had a great time despite the fact that there were no cupcakes at Kevin's party.

On Sunday we went to Addie's birthday party. This was Grace's first birthday party for a friend from school. She had so much fun seeing her friends outside of school and it great to watch her interact with them.

Ellie and Grace are BF's at school...

Grace was happy to hear that this

birthday party did indeed have cupcakes!

Lily's 12 Month Stats

We finally had Lily's well visit last week. She had a good report and continues to be much higher than Grace was in her percentiles. At 12 months Grace was only in the 7th percentile for her height and weight. It look like little sis might one day out grow her big sis!

Weight: 21lbs. 4oz. (60th percentile)

Length: 29 3/4 inches (70th percentile)

Head: 44.7 cm (40th percentile)

Lily is definitely keeping us on the move. Life around here has been a little more hectic now that she is running around! I tried to get a cute birthday shot of her similar to the one we have of Grace, but she just doesn't like to sit still for too long...

Football Fun

We headed to Columbia this weekend to watch the Gamecocks play. Brooks and I were very excited about tailgating and going to our first game of the season (and probably the only one). We bundled up and (despite the loss) had a great time!

The girls had fun playing at Mimi's house and racing each other.

Thanks for watching them Mimi (and Becky)!

We enjoyed spending time with family on Sunday.

Elizabeth is getting so big and almost as tall as Grace!

Lily loves playing with the big girls and wants to do everything they do.

We can't wait to them all again soon...