11th Anniversary Trip!

This year to celebrate our anniversary, Dustin and I spent a long weekend in DC!  It was an honor to see so much of our country's history all in one city, even though we don't agree (not sure that's a strong enough word for our dislike) with the current administration....  ;)

The White House was HUGE!  It actually has 5 stories, even though it doesn't look like that, the bottom stories are underground! 

Every state has 2 statues in the Capitol Building.  On our tour of the Capitol, we found Mississippi's statue of Jefferson Davis!

The Capitol Building

Dustin feeding one of MANY squirrel friends he met in DC!

Union Station

A bell in front of Union Station.  Yes, Dustin even rang the bell!  I'm sure that was not allowed!

The Washington Monument from across the Tidal Basin

You can see the bottom 1/3 is a different color.  Funds ran out during the construction process and it wasn't finished for many years, 100 years, I think.

The Jefferson Memorial

Arlington National Cemetary

While visiting Arlington, we had the honor of witnessing a military buriel with a 21 gun salute, a military fly over and a bag pipe player.  The casket was drapped in a flag and pulled by four white horses on an antique wooden wagon.  There are 27 funerals per day at Arlington, 5 days a week, although, not all with ceremonies like this special hero was given.  This pulled many heartstrings for both of us!

View of the Washington Monument from Robert E. Lee's home at the top of Arlington.  During the war, the Lee's were forced from their home and they returned to find the grounds around their home had been turned into a burial ground for the troops so they never lived their again.

Another one of Dustin's friends outside the American Indian Museum!  Dustin remembered to stick a bag of nuts in his pocket before we left the hotel.

The Koren War Memorial

This wall is beside the Koren Memorial and has depictions of soldiers in the war.

View of the Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial.

The Vietmam Wall

Another emotional monument for this military family!  I'm fairly sure this is the first vacation we have both shead tears several times on.

And Dustin's last friend, this one drew blood, and our squirrel feedings came to an end!

The Mississippi Monument in the WWII Memorial

Entering the White House for their "Holiday Tour"

Christmas Trees and the antique Nativity Scene in the East Room of the White House  (The Obama's actually tried to have the nativity scene removed in 2009 for a White House Luncheon, but it has been a tradition since 1967 and thankfully tradition won that argument!!)

It looks like people are just rambling around, but this was actually VERY strict security this close to the White House.  This was when we exited our tour and we were being herded out to gates at the front.  We had been trough a background check, 2 id checks, a bomb sniffing dog and a metal detector before we were even allowed this close!  Not to mention the armed Secret Service in every nook and cranny of the White House.  Hummm, Mr. President, if you are pushing so hard for gun control, why do you need this much armed security???  It might be a better idea to have this type of security in our schools!



Christmas PJs are FUN!!

They love each other sooo much!!!  Alec got this airplane from Adam and Mandi as a Christmas present over the weekend and he didn't put it down!!  He says, "I've always wanted an airplane like this!"

Kaleigh watching the wresting match!

Kaleigh cheering on the "War for Santa!"

Kaleigh played a little copy cat with cousin Will!

Hopping like FROGS!

Will didn't like tug o war nearly as much as Alec did!

Believe it or not, there is over 2 years difference between Alec and Will and only 9 months between Kaleigh and Will but it looks like it should be the other way around!

Sweet time with Dad!

Grandmother hosted a REALLY fun birthday party for Dustin and Aunt Sissie!

Cutest Christmas picture ever!!

Advent Season!

This is by far my FAVORITE time of the year!! We are really getting into the Advent Season, even though it's 75 degrees outside.

Santa sent a sweet elf, that we named Jedo to our house last week!!  He's enjoyed a marshmellow bubble bath and drank nearly a whole bottle of syrup so far!!  Kaleigh and Alec love to see who can find him first every morning!  Sis giggles and points at him when she finds him!

Alec and Kaleigh made and painted salt dough Christmas ornaments to give our family this year!

Kaleigh thought it was more fun to paint her hands!

Saturday morning, Dustin had drill and I took the kids to the Hattieburg Christmas parade.  The kids were beyond thrilled when they saw Santa in the parade!!  He even threw Kaleigh a stuffed animal!  (And I made this Christmas dress too!)

After the parade, we had family day at drill so we headed over to Dad's office!  We picked Dad up and went to the his unit's Christmas Party at the Hattiesburg Cultural Center.

Kaleigh got in Mr. Billy's lap so she could have a better view of SANTA!  She likes Santa ONLY from a distance!!

Dad and Mr. Clyde checking out all of the goodies that Santa brought for Alec!

Kaleigh, Mrs. Leigh and Peyton looking at her toys from Santa!

Dad even got to participate in the program!  He presented all kids of soldiers with special awards!  We were pretty impressed with Dad's presentation!

After all of our fun on Saturday, I woke up with a HORRIBLE crick in my neck from carrying Kaleigh all day.  We'd already planned to go get our tree that we had picked out after church and Alec had a friends birthday party Sunday afternoon.  I'm pretty impressed that Dad took Kaleigh and the tree home while Alec and I went to the party.  He even got it in the stand and the floor vaccummed with his little helper!  Then he took Kaleigh to Laurel with him for a few hours too!  Go DAD!!

So sweet, my little helpers decorating the tree!

Happy One and a Half Sister!

I really cannot believe that our sweet little baby is one and a half!!  She’s such a joy, especially when she gets her way! :)  I’m not sure but I think she had a pretty good case of the “princess syndrome”.  Help, we need a cure FAST!!

Helping put up Christmas lights!

She is getting into lots of trouble these days, last week, I put vicks on her nose before bedtime because she’s got a little cold.  Well, about 15 minutes later, she comes back in the living room like this..  Apparently she didn’t think I’d put enough Vicks on!!  Back to bed we went.  About 20 minutes later, (around 9) Alec comes running into the kitchen saying, “Sis woke me up in the middle of the night!”  She had decided she wanted to go play cars in brothers room instead of going to sleep!!  Kaleigh really keeps us on our toes!!

OH SISTER!!

Bedtime cookies and milk with Alec is one of her favorite things!!

Kaleigh can communicate MUCH better than I remember Alec communicating at this age! I think her favorite word is “Cookie”!! ha!  She also says yes so funny, it’s “YASSS” when she says it.  We pass Papa’s work on the way to school every day and most mornings she’ll say “Papa” when we pass it! 

Wearing her Christmas outfit that Nana and Aunt Patty made her!  She also wore this last year, I think the pretty princess is going to be pretty small like her brother! 

HUUMMM, There's something wrong with this picture, sweet sister has a very cute Toddler Bed that she refuses to sleep in. She instead sleeps on the old twin bed that I've had in there when Alec and Kaleigh were babies in case I needed to sleep with them.  She's been sleeping in it for a few weeks and believe it or not, she hasn't fallen out yet.  Whatever gets her to sleep through the night, right?!?  She hasn't woken me up in the middle of the night since she started sleeping in it!  Altough, we're gonna have to work on her wake up time a little, 6:30 is a tiny but too early for this momma!  Guess we'll soon be converting the crib, yet again, to a full sized bed!

She weighs 21 pounds and wears size 12 month or 18 month clothes.  She LOVES to sing, her favorite songs are Deep and Wide, Twinkle Twinkle, This Little Light of Mine, and the Bedtime Wiggle Song on Nick!  Sometimes I can understand what she's singing and sometimes, I have to ask her teachers at school for help!  I would have never figured out Deep and Wide with out Mrs. Nikki!!  She also LOVES to eat!!  I'm pretty sure she's addicted to candy already!  But she will eat ANYTHING!  We're so blessed that our kids aren't picky eaters!  Right now, I can't even think of a food that she doesn't like!  Her favorite foods are bananas, toast sticks, nerds, cookies, chicken, pasta and pizza.   And, she LOVES to take a shower, I can't hardly get in the shower by myself anymore!  She spreads shaving cream all over herself, the door and the walls in the shower!  If she knows we are going somewhere, she thinks she has to climb in the car by herself and "drive" for a minute before she lets me buckle her in!  Don't try and carry her to the car, that just won't work!  She's such a big girl and is growing up WAY to fast for mom!  Kaleigh also LOVES animals just as much as Alec does!  One of them is bound to do something working with animals in their future!

She's kinda in LOVE with Santa!!

A Day at the Tree Farm!

After church today, we went with the Parker's on our annual trip to the Christmas Tree Farm!  We're getting much faster at picking a tree, we found the perfect ones pretty quick!  After we found the trees, we posed for some pics, hoping to get a good one for our Christmas card!

Christmas 2012 

Kaleigh had fun running in between all of the trees!

The animals at the Christmas tree farm were pretty fun too!

We may have bribed him with ice cream for these good smiles!

Helping sis see the horses!

Three little monkeys on the fence

Worn out after all the tree hunting!

Ice cream for lots of sweet smiles!!