Category — Everyday Life

Will and I are in a club. It’s an “I Love Taco Bell” club because it’s our favorite place to eat. (Well, Will has recently taken an affection towards McDonald’s but I’m sure it’s just a phase.) In Nashville we ate at Taco Bell about once a week but we haven’t been eating there as much lately. So, this week we thought it was about time to initiate Thomas into our “I Love Taco Bell” club.

I ordered Thomas a cheese roll up and at first he wasn’t sure what he was suppose to do with it.

Will gave him a little coaching and encouragement.

Thomas quickly got the gist of eating a taco.

And proceeded to eat every.single.bite.

A couple of months ago we started a new “good behavior program” at our house. I bought a bag of marbles at the dollar store and cleaned out a cherry jar and let Will know that when he filled the jar with marbles he would earn a reward. This time his reward was a trip to Chuck E. Cheese!

Will earned his last marble at the first of the year. He can earn marbles by obeying without complaining, feeding the dog, putting up his dirty clothes, being nice to his brother, being cooperative at the grocery store and sometimes just for being cute.

Will was SO proud of earning all his marbles! There are 50 marbles in the bag and it took him the better part of 2 months to earn them all. Some days he lost more marbles than he earned!

Typical Will.

PawPaw and Nonny met us at Chuck E. Cheese for the festivities. {And Will somehow convinced them that they should take us to eat at Ichiban!}

This backhoe ride is Will’s absolute favorite thing at Chuck E. Cheese – he probably spend half of his tokens at this ride!

Thomas took a ride on Clifford.

He had this really amused look on his face the entire ride. It was like he was really having a good time but wasn’t quite sure what exactly was going on.

It was a fun morning for all of us! We can’t wait for Will to earn all of his marbles again

Moving is hard. Some days are harder than others. So many people have said, “Aren’t you so glad to be back home” and they are sincere and glad that we’re here but the hard thing to explain is that moving to Chattanooga did not feel like a move home. For the past {almost} 10 years our home has been in Jackson, New York City and Nashville. When we left Chattanooga we were kids and now we’re not only adults but parents!

So, it feels like we have moved to a new city. And with that comes figuring out a new routine, finding a new church and making new friends. And some days it is easier to sit at home and mope about not having a routine, church and friends! This past week was especially hard for some reason. I think it irrationally had something to do with the fact that we have sold our house! Great news! But as we move towards closing my very last “tie” to Nashville is going away. In my mind the fact that I still owned a house there made it feel like I really hadn’t permanently moved. It is taking some adjustment but I think for the most part we are all doing ok. {I may be having the hardest time!}

It is amazing that we have family so close! I have taken advantage of dropping one or both boys with grandparents or great-grandparents in order to run errands quickly, take one to the doctor or go out to eat. It has given me a little flexibility in what I am able to pursue just for fun – for instance, on Tuesday afternoons my Mom and Dad come over and watch the boys until Bill gets home so I can leave and go to clogging class. {Side Note: I graduated from the beginners class!}

Will has quickly learned that he can now ask his grandparents “Can I come play at your house?” Can I spend the night with you?” and they usually agree. He thinks it’s the best!

So, as we enter this new chapter in Chattanooga I am looking forward to this new routine {which includes lots of fun things like gymnastics, running and clogging}, investing in our new church through a small group, Bible study and Awana and hopefully making some new friends! And of course, spending a lot of quality time with our families because you never know when you might move again!

Did you have a big party to celebrate the new year? We did. If by clean the playroom, organize the attic and fall asleep before midnight is what you mean by big party!

This week I started thinking about what I would like to work on and accomplish in 2012 and the list could go on and on and on. Then I took a look back at my 2011 Goals. And seriously, I didn’t do all that great. But I probably did better than I would have if I hadn’t made a list.

My goal for 2012 is a little different – I only have one. BE INTENTIONAL. I feel like a lot of days I am just going through the motions and none of it really matters, registers, or makes a difference. So this year I am going to strive to be intentional every day – from being in the Word to being present when listening to Will talk and talk and talk.

It’s going to be a hard task but I’m ready for the challenge!

Have you made any goals or resolutions for 2012?

Will was not very cooperative at our last photo shoot (Thomas’ 9 month pictures) and I had been  hoping to get a couple of picture of just him to mark his third year. So, after Christmas our friend Ryan came over and took some pictures of Will playing with his favorite things. It was the perfect way to capture who Will is as a 3 year old! If you’re in Chattanooga and looking for a good family photographer give Ryan a try – Ruby Photography: rubyphotos (at) hotmail (dot) com

It only took me 6 weeks to “reveal” Thomas’ 9 month pictures! So without further ado………………..

Our new house has A LOT of trees in the backyard and 3 in the front yard so we had A LOT of leaves! A few weekends ago PawPaw brought his lawn mower over to get all the leaves up and Will was a big helper.

Thomas has started crawling.

Thomas has cut 4 new top teeth- bringing him to a grand total of 6 teeth. Lucky him, it was just in time for Thanksgiving where he enjoyed turkey and broccoli.

Thomas has started pulling up onto his knees.

He started doing all of these things in the past 3 weeks! And last but not least Thomas has started sleeping all night long and taking great naps!