Adventures with Flat Stanley!

For the last several months, we have had a visitor in our home... His name is Flat Stanley, and he was quite a lovely house guest. Robby's cousin, Michael, who is in the third grade, asked us to show Flat Stanley around Charlottesville, as part of his third grade class project. Stanley just travelled back to Michael's classroom with a whole report on his time here...including pictures, postcards, and mementos!

Stanley learned about Monticello, Ash Lawn, The Rotunda, UVA, Michie Tavern (yum!), and even banking at Suntrust! He also helped me keep an eye on Kate, and he also liked hanging out with Ivy.

While Stanley was here, we were also able to meet Ryan Zimmerman, a professional baseball player with the Washington Nationals. Even I was excited about that one! ;)

Below are a few of the pictures from our various adventures!

Stanley at Monticello (he is the very small speck on the 2nd column)

Picture with Ryan Zimmerman (I was trying to play it cool...looks like I failed!)

A UVA fan

A day at work with Robby

At monticello...what good looking hats! ;)

Michie Tavern

Relaxing with Ivy! Come back and visit anytime, Stanley!

Books, Blocks, Babies and a Girl's Best Friend!

Yesterday, Kate turned 16 months old!

Kate is acting more and more like a little girl, and we can't believe how quickly she is growing and changing! She has a lot of new words this month (some of which you can understand, and many of which you cannot). She is absolutely adamant about what she likes (AND especially what she doesn't), so it is in everyone's best interest to try to figure out what she is saying! :)

She LOVES books, blocks, her babies, and especially her "dog dog"! Poor Ivy is getting smothered with hugs (of the body slamming variety), kisses and is never safe while taking a nap! Luckily, Kate makes it up to Ivy with lots of food (she recently started feeding Ivy with a fork from her highchair) and she has even learned to throw the ball for Ivy.

Below are a few pictures of Kate's loves:

Baby Love

Book Love

Party love... just kidding this is actually a scratch and sniff book! :)

Puppy love...she even shares her fork with Ivy (grandparents, close your eyes!)

Our little love!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2011 from our family (jazz hands and all!) to you and yours!

Four Christmases

Merry Christmas, family and friends!

Hold onto your hats, folks, this is a long one! We are blessed to have a huge family, and thus celebrated Christmas four times. First, with my Dad and Amy, then with my Mom's family, then with just the three of us, and last but not least, with Robby's family!

We had so much fun watching Kate soak it all in! She is in awe of the lights and Christmas trees, loves opening presents and likes to play with the boxes as much as her toys, played with her favorite four legged friends, and mostly enjoyed all of the extra attention.

Christmas One in Raleigh:

Kate and her Granddaddy

On this trip, Kate discovered that she has quite a bit in common with Dad and Amy's new puppy, Charlie! She likes his "house"...

And he likes her pacifier... he even knows how to hold it the right way (what talent!)

Kate's new pony from her Granddaddy and Amy.

Christmas Two: Gigi and Family on Christmas Eve

Gigi cooked an incredible meal for us all. Kate is giving the master chef a little advice! ;)

After all, Gigi gave her a kitchen of her own, so this girl is becoming a pro! She LOVES it!

After dinner picture of the girls (Aunt Cam, me and Gigi)

A Christmas high five for Great Granddaddy Jack

Christmas Three: Christmas morning with our little family

A hug for Kate's new baby and a pile of presents from Santa!

This is so fun!

And Funny!

Me and my girl

A kiss for Ivy

And a hug too!

What Christmas celebration would be complete without a little song by the piano?

Christmas Four: Christmas afternoon and dinner with Robby's Family

Life is good when you get to eat a delicious lunch, see your family, and snuggle your lovey at the same time (the girl's got talent)!

Opening presents with Dada

Happy girl!

Fun time with Aunt Veronica

What a beautiful tree!

Whew! What a day!

SNOW!

Today, we had our first real snow of the season in Charlottesville.

All day long, Kate has been pointing to the window and saying "Snow" (sounds like "nos"). Robby came home from work early, and we took her outside to experience the "nos" for herself! We did a little sledding, touched the snow and Kate even tasted it! She LOVED it, and we loved watching her take it all in!

Ready to go!

Walking was a little tough but she managed

Sledding is so fun! Look at her grin!

Sledding with Mama!

Our little snow dog had almost as much fun as Kate!

We like the white stuff!

Tasting snow for the first time...what a face!

Our girl sledding all by herself!

Christmas Cookies!

This week, we decided to make Christmas cookies. Kate's friends, Turner and Colin (and their mama, Katherine!), came over to join in the fun. And let me just say that we had FUN! After all, what could be more fun than sugar, cookies and more sugar!?!

And while we baked a lot of cookies, we do not have very many decorated cookies to show for our efforts. Most were licked, broken, fed to Ivy, etc! :)

A few pictures from our Christmas cookie party are below:

Getting the cookies ready for our little cookie monsters...

The master decorators! They were not too sure about the icing on their hands!

It turns out that these cookies are pretty delicious!

This might be the best one... look at that icing!

Delicious!

Ivy got her fair share of cookies too!

This one cracks me up..look at how far Kate's feet are from the ground! Please note, that she also has Turner's snack cup (her first priority whenever she sees Turner is to take that cup). Sorry, Turner!

Colin watched over the Kate and Turner's sippy cups--a very important task indeed!

The only two cookies that we have to show for our efforts! :)

A goodbye kiss...

And one more, for good measure!