Projects with RaRa and PePaw

While mom and dad are here we always get all sorts of projects done!

Like mounting our TV...

Decorating for Christmas...

Finishing our Christmas shopping, cleaning out the attic, swapping out winter/summer clothes, and fixing odd and ends projects.

So thankful they are willing to do the dirty work with us! : 0 Thanks, Mom and Dad!!

Someone Got Their Ears Pierced

Today was such an exciting day for Emma Claire. She got her ears pierced!!

We told her back at her 4th birthday that we would allow her to get her ears pierced whenever she was ready but she would have NOTHING to do with it! Emma Claire is terrified of needles so the thought of them piercing her ears with a needle was out of the question. She told us that she would get them pierced when she was old. : ) BUT, after the ordeal of her flu shot she completely did a 360.  She decided that since the flu shot didn't hurt at all then she wanted to get her ears pierced right away! The only problem was that Benjamin was out of town. I talked her into waiting until he got home and RaRa and PePaw were here for Thanksgiving. I told her that I needed someone else to hold the camera because I wanted a video of her experience. After that she talked about it for days and days and days!! We even pulled up Claire's website and she picked out the perfect pair of earrings for her big day. She could. not. wait. until the day she got to get them pierced.

Once mom and dad arrived for Thanksgiving we planned to take her after church on Sunday to Claire's. On the way to the mall she all of a sudden decided that she wanted to change her mind! She said that it was going to hurt and she didn't want to go through with it. We talked back and forth about it for a minute until I told her that if she didn't do it now then we were gonna wait a while before we talked about it again. It's just too far for us to drive to change our mind at the last minute. It was very funny because the minute I told her she would have to wait her demeanor completely changed and she was ready to go!

Once we got inside the mall and I got the paperwork filled out she jumped right up in that chair like a big girl!

It took them a few minutes to make sure everything was straight and then she was ready to go!

I could not believe how brave she was. When the ladies were getting ready to put the earrings in I reach for Emma Claire's hands and asked her if she wanted to hold my hands while they did it and her reply was, "No, I don't want anybody to touch me." This girl cracks me up! She sat there so prim and proper the whole time with her legs crossed.

When the time came to actually pierce her ears they counted to three and then shot the little guns. I expected this big scream or tears but I got nothing! She flinched a bit, gave me a hug, and then was ready to go pick out a new pair of earrings for Christmas.

Aren't they so cute?!? Click Here to watch the video.

Do you think she was a little proud of her new earrings?! 

 

















After she was done picking out her earrings we got another special treat by visiting Santa at the mall! We don't do Santa at our house but it's still a treat to go see the 'man dressed up in the red suit'. : 0

It sure was a treat for Emma Claire but not so much for Camp.... He is scared to death of anything dressed up in a suit. I tried sitting in the picture with him but he kept pushing Santa'ts hand off my shoulder. I guess we will be putting Disney off for a while! : )

Benjamin caught this cute picture on the right of Emma Claire whispering to Santa what she would like to get from Mommy and Daddy for Christmas.

What a fun day!

Fun Saturday's

We were so excited this morning that we were all finally well enough to get to meet little CJ Sledge. Charlie and Tracy have been great friends of ours since we began serving at Holly Grove almost 6 years ago. Little CJ is such a miracle and we are so thankful to be a small part of his life.

Can you tell how excited the kids were?! We love you, friends! So thankful that you brought your little man by to see us!

I spent the rest of the day cleaning out the attic and when I came outside this is what I found. Emma Claire had set up a yard sale and was doing her best to promote it. Click Here to watch her sales pitch.

 She was doing her best to sell me this hat for $46. She was a take it or leave it kinda girl. Absolutely no bargaining!

Black Friday

Two words....BLACK FRIDAY!!! Mom and I headed out with all the other crazy's at 10:00pm the night before and it was just plain chaos. People were absolutely out of control and were getting hurt left and right! We walked in Wal-Mart, made a loop, and just walked right out. I love a good deal just as much as anyone but that, my friends, is not for me. We then went to Kohls and watched the line of 1,600 people outside quickly rush in almost trampling over each other. Next we drove by Target where the people were lined up across the front of the store, down the side, and all the way back to Bojangles. Is there even room for that many people in Target?!? We quickly decided that we had no shame in going back home, grabbing a couple hours of sleep, and then heading back out. After sleeping, we arrived at Target about 5:00 am and found everything we needed! They said that by 2:00 am the store was completely empty and they had already restocked. There was absolutely no one in there and they had plenty of everything. We found the same to be true with every other store we went to; empty and restocked. What a blessing! It made Black Friday shopping so much fun!

After hours and hours of shopping we headed back home with a car load of goodies and Bojangles for lunch. What a wonderful Mother/Daughter day! Thanks Mom!

Thanksgiving 2011

It has been such a blessing that for the past couple of years mom and dad have been able to come up and visit with us for Thanksgiving since we can't travel home. They arrived last night and we started cooking first thing this morning! Even though it was just the six of us we still had to go all out for our meal. It's just not Thanksgiving without all of this yumminess right?!

Just look at this delicous layout of food. Yummo!

 Right: It's always fun when Uncle Bruce gets to come visit too!

After our yummy meal, while we were all recooping from the long day of cooking, this is where the kids enjoyed ending their day.

We have so many things to be thankful for this year! God has been so faithful and merciful to us in ways that we definitly don't deserve. Happy Thanksgiving 2011!!

Emma Claire's Thanksgiving Feast

I can't say enough how much I love that I get to go to work each week with my kids. I awesome is it that I get to be with them everyday!?! This week Benjamin and I got to celebrate Thanksgiving with Emma Claire and the rest of the 4 year old classes. Each class did a little performance and then we got to enjoy a wonderful meal together.

Aren't their Mayflower's adorable!?! They also had made place mats for us to use. I love that Emma Claire put that she was thankful for God at the top!

 

Our Little Indian!!

Bottom Left: I caught this cute picture of Emma Claire during the prayer.

Can you believe all this yummy food!? It was all super yummy and we loved getting to spend this one on one time with our favorite 4 year old. We are thankful for you, Emma Claire Quinn.

Click Here to watch the video of her class performance. The loudest one singing, yea, that's Emma Claire. : )

Our Star Student

Guess who the Star Student is this week!!

Emma Claire was so excited to finally be chosen to be the star student. It really hasn't been that long, but for a 4 year old of course it seemed like an eternity. When you are chosen to be the star student you have certain responsibilities during the week. First of all you have to be the line leader all week long and you also have special projects to complete.

On Tuesday, she was to chose her favorite stuffed animal and book to bring to class. Her stuffed kitty is extra special because she received it when she was born at the hospital. The Carolina Hurricanes mascot was at the hospital delivering stuffed Build-a-Bears to the pediatric patients and, since we were on that floor because of overflow in labor and delivery, she received one, too!

On Thursday, she and I were to create a craft together that was "All About Me".  We chose to glue pictures on her black piece of card stock of her family and then write things on the back about her. She was so excited to tell everyone in her class about the pictures.

 Here is the line leader in action!

On Friday, she was to bring in her favorite snack to share with her friends. You can tell that she is our child because the snack of her choice was brownies!

How can you make brownies and not lick the bowl?!

So proud of my star student this week! And I think she might be proud of those brownies!