Dora the Explorer outfit

Libby's most treasured gift of the year....a Dora outfit from Grand'om Marsha

We hope you had a Merry Christmas!

Margaret and Libby with Santa at Lenox, 2010.  Libby loved him this year, and still trying to determine if precious Mags was a fan.  Ha, not so much.  She was fine at the Ritz sitting in his lap, but this mall santa was not her favorite.  It was hilarious!!  Poor baby.  We enjoyed a great day at Lenox with the Keys!  All eight of their children made the trek from Griffin.  Love them!
IMG_1720.JPG, originally uploaded by matthewcertain.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!!

What an amazing Christmas it has been.......we have had the very best Christmas day.  We started the day relatively early (but not as early as I anticipate future years when both girls are squealing running down the hall!) and it took Libby about eight minutes to open 250 presents.....she was all over the place!  Santa Claus brought her some wonderful gifts, baby dolls, strollers, a grocery cart, books, Tag Junior, clothes, shoes, and much more.  Margaret was excited to open gifts and play with the boxes and tape and paper, and what was inside was not the important thing for her this year!  She got a baby doll, some sweet animal toys, blocks and some books.  The den was full of little girls and little girl things! We were loving it!

We laid around, ate the traditional breakfast casserole, watched some tv, played with toys, napped, and looked outside and it was snowing.  Snow on Christmas hasn't happened in Atlanta since 1882 I think?  It was soooo beautiful and made an already special day even more special.  Thank you Lord for the gift of your Son, and may we always remember the true meaning of Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

Family Vacation at Reynold's Plantation

The Ritz-Carlton at Reynold's Plantation as we pulled in. 

This past weekend, we headed to the Ritz-Carlton at Reynold's Plantation for little family vacation. Friday night we headed to out from Decatur and headed down I-20 for the one hour drive to Greensboro, Georgia. Luckily, its just a short drive down the road to one of our favorite vacation spots. The Ritz-Carlton at Reynold's Plantation holds a special place in our heart, as this is the place Matt and I got engaged (five) seven years ago. 

Margaret after a short drive from Atlanta.

The girls took no time touring the life-size gingerbread house.

Libby seeing Santa for the first time.

This is the view from our table. 

Libby giving Santa a hug.

The girls got to tell Santa everything they wanted from him.

Margaret looks a little confused. 

On Saturday afternoon, we decorated a gingerbread house.
Here is the starting product.

Libby eyes the ingredients for her palette. 

Libby adds the exact amount of candy corn to the roof.

Putting the finishing touches on the gingerbread house. 

The family poses for the final product. 

Our own little Red Roof Inn. 

As you can see, Libby had a blast and was flat worn out. 

Atlanta Botanical Gardens

Margaret enjoys staying warm in her reindeer snuggie. 

The girls with their Daddy.

Libby eyes some of the amazing plants. 

Margaret smiling, as usual.

BFF's

Libby invited her best friend over on Friday night for pizza and cookies, and of course a bath. It was really fun. It's a good thing Brooke's mom and I are also great friends b/c I have a feeling Libby and Brooke will be friends for life. "Libby Dibby" and "Brookie Cookie" are what they call each other. Little Margaret was totally the tag along little sister for the night, which was pretty funny. :)

Libby at 29 months

tomorrow libby will be 29 months old.  that is very close to being a three year old.  Three years old, really??  What? how? when did she grow so much?  where have i been?? i feel like it has happened in the blink of an eye.  and it has.  my libby is growing so much into such a big girl - she is tall and her hair is SO long, when it's wet it's down her back, but the curls are still there in full force!!   some of her favorite things to do are paint, color, read pinkalicious and other silly girl books.  she loves playing with her dolls.  loves strollers, loves them.  loves purses.  loves make up, loves it when we paint each other's nails.  loves to have tea parties, we have ten every day i think.  she plays in the bathroom and puts water in her cups a lot.  she is starting to have conversations with me that sound like two adults talking.....she is very aware of things as she always has been.  it's just crazy to see it happening so quickly.  is it weird to be so sad about it?  don't get me wrong, i love having a healthy, thriving, amazingly brilliant two year old, but i wonder if everyone feels so nostalgic?  my mom and dad always tell me that when they look at her they see me as if it were yesterday....i wonder if that really is how our parents feel.....as if it were yesterday that we were their babies? 

and we love watching lib become such a great big sister to margaret. the little monkey had us for two years all to herself, and then bam, here comes another baby. she has done really well even though yes, there have been rough moments. but for the most part her sweet spirit and sensitive little self has grown up by leaps and bounds and really does love mags. tonight i gave them baths together and libby helped me wash her hair....ahh i could go on and on. :)

libby's favorite things to watch are word world, little einsteins, mickey mouse clubhouse, and dora.  

her favorite foods are grilled cheese sandwiches, pizza, spaghetti and meatballs that her daddy makes especially for her, skittles (pee pee/poo poo in the potty treats), m&ms (another treat), and recently she is loving bagels.  i'm doing the deceptively delicious recipes for her, so everything i cook for her has hidden veggies in them, so far, so good.  tonight i made sloppy joes (turkey meat, butternut squash, and carrots pureed in them) and she loved them, all on a wheat bun.  if she could, though, she'd eat grilled cheese sandwiches while watching one of the above tv shows.  oh, last night we watched toy story three, SO GOOD!  she and i laid on the couch together after sissy and matt went to bed.  love my big girl nights with libby.  she has such a huge, special place in my heart and i love her more than i can ever, ever express.  

"i am so happy i'm terrified.  no one ever gets everything they want" - charlotte york, sex and the city movie

Best Part of the Day

Today, so far, has been watching Libby and Margaret interact!  It's HILARIOUS!  When I say interact, what I really mean is.....Libby is playing with her dolls and her toys and Margaret crawls to her and Libby says, "no, go away Sissy" and then Libby will go to her room and shut the door, then immediately come out with more toys and dolls for Mags to play with.    She ends up sharing but it definitely takes a few minutes.

This morning Libby helped me water the Christmas tree.  She is SO excited about Christmas.  SO excited.  I am so happy this Christmas season, she really is getting it!  Birch brings her gifts and she knows Santa is watching.  Oh, the joys of the season!

I am working on teaching them both early the true meaning of Christmas, so Matt and I are "adopting" a family and we're buying gifts for the needy, which is a great lesson to teach our two daughters!

Love love love to all of you!  I am working on posting more pix from the weekend, we were really busy and Libby's BFF came over Friday night for a pizza date and gingerbread cookie decorating.  LOVED it.

Mags is a busy bee too - watching and learning from big sister.  She loves to crawl, I am shocked because I wasn't prepared for her to do it this soon!  Seven months in a few weeks.  WOW!

Merry Christmas everyone!

happy thanksgiving 2010!

thanksgiving was a great day for us in atlanta! we got up super early (well, mags and i are always up around 5 AM) but matt was up way early to hop on marta for the ING half marathon. libby was running in the drumstick dash at 9.30 AM so we headed downtown to turner stadium around 8 AM to make sure we saw him finish. and did we ever! matt amazes me with his ability to finish these runs in record time. he always beats his goal and i am really proud of him everytime he crosses a finish line. i cried yet again at this run. WHY DO MARATHONS MAKE ME CRY?? i mean, seriously?!? every single time i go to one, i cry. i think it's because these people train so hard and consistently and i just have so much respect for them all.....regardless, i cry. i am so not a runner, don't want to be, never will be, but i do have respect for all those who do it! give me a yoga mat and a nice dvd to do my pilates alongside in my den any day! :)

here are some pix from the race and thanksgiving. happy turkey day to everyone. love to our friends and family!

six month check up

we had margaret's six month check up and she got a great report! she weighs 18.5 pounds and is 27.5 inches long. all 95% for her size...she's gonna be tall like her daddy!

libby was really sweet to her, even held her hand while she got her shots. after the doctor we met libby and margaret's buddies fulton and campbell at michaels craft store, then lunch at chic fil a. today was the first day that libby made it all the way to the top of the chic fil a playground, a big accomplishment to our little princess, since it's a hard one to climb. also today was the first time someone asked when her birthday was, and she responded, "my birthday is july seventh" - of course making this mama cry.

big things for margaret at six months...let's see.....she is sitting up, and SCOOTING ACROSS THE FLOOR! she is crawling when she's ready to get something in a hurry. i cannot believe it. we got some video of her doing it and it's happening way faster than i thought. (enter happy/sad face here!). she laughs SO loud at libby, and she totally knows what is funny...if that makes any sense. she laughs at all the right times, thus making us all laugh. hahaha. :) such a fun baby girl. she is awesome. they both are. thankful, thankful, thankful.

margaret is eating great (still nursing exclusively) and she loves peas, butternut squash, carrots, and squash. she sort of likes bananas, and not quite a fan of applesauce yet. soon i'll be mixing things together to give her lots of new tastes for her to try!

other milestones...she can now have ibuprofen, yay, which means i can too if i need any for a headache or something. six months is a big deal for a baby - so we are happy that she is growing healthy and happy. oh boy, is she happy. soooo sweet.

our daughters are showing signs of being besties, libby totally looks out for margaret and i am so proud to see her taking care of her. we are working on sharing our toys with little m though, sometimes that's hard for little libbers but she'll get it. :)

love them both more than words.

Happy Thursday!