a wicked good time

This past Saturday it snowed around 2-4 inches here at the house. Usually we don't go out in it if it's gloomy and wet, but it was actually a day that the sky was brilliantly blue, and the snow was powdery soft. Evan built a snow man on the deck with Papi. Luckily for us, Matt's work closed their office because of the snow, so he was able to enjoy the day with the boys. Then we took Joel out for some photo opts. It was a really nice snow, but by the next day most of it had melted about just in time for Valentine's day. That night Matt watched the boys so Mima and I could go out to eat together. We enjoyed some awesome wings at Wild Wing Cafe in downtown Greenville. Then we hopped next door for some Italian gelato which was to die for!
Mima was kind of enough to once again keep the boys for us so we could enjoy a night on the town. We enjoyed a yummy dinner at P.F. Changs, and then were made our way downtown to see "Wicked" at the Peace Center. It was a great show, and really entertaining. This week we will celebrate our year anniversary in South Carolina. It's been a really good year for us, but I can't believe it's coming to an end already!

a move is in our future...yes, again!

So Matt found out that he was accepted into the Pediatric Dental Residency at Uab in Birmingham, Alabama. He starts on July 1st, and the program lasts for two years. Let me just say how proud I am of him and all the work it's taken to get to this next step in our lives. It won't be easy, but it'll be worth it.
The boys and I have really enjoyed our time here in Easley, South Carolina. The people, the ideal location. It's been such a nice change to Florida. We'll most likely be moving sometime in June. We are currently looking for a home to rent in Birmingham. Matt and I drove to Birmingham last weekend for a quick 24 hour trip, sans the kiddos. Mima is in town and was able to care for them. We drove around all morning trying to find a real estate office that was open. It was getting tiring, and out hope was slowly fading. At last, we ran smack dab into the middle of one off of Hollywood...Relfe-Welden. There was one lone agent...Lisa Holmes. She was the typical Birmingham bred resident. The perfect person to talk too, ya'll! So far she's gone above and beyond trying to help us find a place to rent. Her favorite words are cute, darlin, and precious...as is she.

Here are some photos that we took of the boys last week. They were having a good time before bed!


I forgot to mention that we had a major milestone happen last week...poopy in the potty (twice). We have been slowly trying to encourage Evan to potty train. We keep him in diapers most of the time, and he's been going to the potty a couple of times a day. M&M's have been quite encouraging!

photos and party for our pumpkin...joel

Visit the site below to see Joel's pictures from our shoot last week. Go to the "Client" page and type in the text box "daphne0313" where it says, "Enter Password" to see the pictures. Grandmas...you can order from this site too.

http://www.susanbrewerphotography.com/index2.php?v=v1

We were able to celebrate Joel's birthday with family and dear friends on January 16th at Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza. We had such a great time! Joel really enjoyed himself with his smash cake...dare I say, he had a smashing time! Hahahaha. I know it's cheesy, but that's just another example of why Matt and I make a wonderful pair!
The photos below are of the party, Joel's birthday morning opening presents at home, and eating lunch at Chik fil-a with Papi (aka daddy).

build-a-bear firsts

so today we took the boys to the haywood mall to get their picture taken with santa. evan was super excited while standing in line to see santa. he kept yelling santa's name. unfortantly, that was short lived. no, he didn't cry like last year. he just sat there in santa's lap facing forward. he didn't even look at him. i think he was scared or embarrassed to turn around. after all these crazy adults were calling his name, ringing jiggle bells, and taking photos. who really blames him. joel was not fazed one bit by meeting santa for the first time. he looked at us and smiled for the photos, but then he's look over at santa. he was like, who's this guy in the red suit? as soon as we were done meeting santa we felt a sense of relief and accomplishment. another thing marked off of the holiday checklist. next, is driving through the roper mountain lights display.
while we were at the mall we finally got to take the boys to the build-a-bear workshop. from the time when we first found out we were pregnant with evan we've wanted to make a bear. we had some much fun making a panda bear for evan and a tiger for joel. evan picked out the panda bear. they both watched the bears get filled with stuffing with amazement and wonder. joel lit up when we showed him his tiger, and evan now has a new favorite bear. he wanted to bring him into the bath with him tonight. he even put a diaper on it. i did allow the panda bear to join us for dinner at the table. needless to say, we all had a great time making them.

transitions

this week was a week of growth. evan grew out of his crib, and into a toddler bed! joel is now eating a lot more solids, like toasted breads. we have also been slowly working with evan and the potty. slow is the key word. taking care of joel makes it harder to give my full attention to potty training. they are both growing like weeds. one of the best parts of this week is that matt got back from his interview for the uf naples pediatric program, and the worst part of the week was the gator loss. :(
we still don't know what happened! we were all in our gator gear cheering on the team. evan still says, "go gators" and "tim tebow" when asked who the quarterback for the gators is.
when matt got back he still had two whole days off, so he was able to take evan to school and join joel and i at kindermusik. matt was surprised at the amount of dancing in the class. i only got him to dance once!
i will be taking evan to some preview classes in december. i really hope to restart kindermusik with evan. he started it in gainesville when he was six months old.
we've been cooped up in the house for the last couple of days. it has been very cold, and tomorrow we will be here again. we are supposed to get sleet/rain. on the bright side it has allowed me to keep up with the house work!
enjoy the photos from our past week...

a month of turkey fun

*evan is the one directly in the center of the photo.
the month of november whirled by for us. we spent much of the month traveling to visit family in florida and then in georgia. evan had a thanksgiving parade at his school. the two year old classes dressed up as scarecrows. the wore a flannel shirt, a straw hat, jeans, and a painted black nose. they were all so cute, and we were blessed that pipo and mima were able to be here for his very first parade! at the end of his parade we returned to evan's classroom to pick him up, and take more pictures. the last photo in this series is of evan and his two teachers, mrs. kim and mrs. tammi.


following tradition we spent our thanksgiving with our family in ellijay, georgia at the coosawatee river resort. we had an amazing dinner! matt and i both thought it was one of the best ever. kudos to the cooks...jeff, dino, and nicole! all the kids had so much fun hovering over evan, and fighting over who got to hold joel.

cribs are not for chomping

we got a surprise package in the mail...a crib wrap! i had given up hope on finding anything that worked to protect the crib from joel's chompers. as mima says, you can find anything on the internet, and she did. after going through the typical plastic rail protectors from babies "r" us, which evan figured out were easy to remove himself. these are fleece and tie onto the crib. they are super soft too! i am very excited and had to share. my mom found them on amazon, but here's the direct website for them.

http://www.cribwrap.com/

the wiggles & hugs all around

I was able to get out of the house today with Evan while Papi was at work. We had a date to see the Wiggles "Go Bananas" in concert at the BI-LO in downtown Greenville. Gabby our babysitter stayed with Joel for me. At first Evan was a bit scared of the lights and loud music. I was surprised because I took him to see Elmo last year when he was 14 months old and he was fine. Eventually, he calmed down and sang, and clapped with The Wiggles. He even said, "Hi Wiggles". He watches them on the Sprout channel every morning. When we got back Papi was home from work. Evan must have missed his brother because he just wanted to give him hug after hug. So sweet. They are playing together in the playroom right now.

kitchen views

I have been meaning to capture a photo from our kitchen window. So, here it is. Each time I look out the window I am filled with the refreshed feeling of Fall. Since this our first Fall outside of Florida we are really enjoying it. Fall is magical, and I am so glad to be able to finally experience it.


Here's Joel just hanging around after trick or treating on Halloween. He's now trying stage 3 foods, and Gerber graduates.

that's a wrap...a candy one

Evan was a horse, and Joel was a chicken for his first Halloween.
We made it inbetween the rain drops to one house to go trick-or-treating. Evan really liked going, and didn't want to stop. He really liked it when our doorbell rang. He's the one who said "trick-or-treat". As usual, Joel played along just great. He actually cried when we took off his costume.
We want to wish a Happy First Halloween to all of our new little pumpkin friends in the patch...
Sophia Koagel
Lauren Berry
Christina Manuel
Christina Magdusian
Gabriella Farah
William Wignall