Rounding Out January

A few more January things...

1. Gehrig spent the night with all the Bourne cousins after we celebrated our extended family Christmas with them. Yes, we drove 2.5 hours home without him. It was so sad for me, but he had a blast! He stayed up WAY past his bedtime and rode home with Clark & Chris. We don't have all the pictures yet, but here is one of him sleeping on a football beanbag next to Jacob and Ryan's bed. He didn't want it to end!

2. Chaney and Ansley turned 4! Which means that Gehrig will turn 4 soon. (Deep breath.) We enjoyed celebrating with them! It was also Greer's first day wearing a hairbow! (I know...seems silly, but it has been 15 long months of waiting for enough hair to grow!!!)

3. Though we see the Links daily, we rarely go "out" together. Our normal get-togethers are at each other's houses or at restaurants that are super kid-friendly. To celebrate the end of a crazy work month for me and the start of fun weekend for our families, we met each other out to dinner at yummy Rae's. We didn't even know that we had these sweaters and would've never guessed that we would've accessorized so similarly! How funny!

4. Our sweet friends, Garrett & Traci visited and treated us to a yummy dinner. It was wonderful to see them again and have some time together.

January album is on the right!

MLK Weekend

B had a baseball clinic in Atlanta on Friday, so we got to stay at Bebe's Thursday night. We enjoyed the evening with her before having a long night with Greer. She has been teething like we have never seen. I don't remember it ever being so tough for Gehrig! Throw in a little cold and there wasn't much happening in the sleep department for her. Or me.

Finally, in the wee hours of the morning, I put her in bed with me and we were able to sleep for awhile. Honestly, I was a little surprised that worked since we haven't done much of the co-sleeping thing and Gehrig was never interested in doing anything but playing unless he was in his own space. But, it worked for a little while and gave me enough rest to make it through the day Friday without falling asleep. We enjoyed a lunch visit from my friend Susie (who I must note is so fun with my kids!), got to see Bebe when she got home and then headed up to Chattanooga for our annual MLK weekend visit.

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The Owens met us at the Coopers for dinner. These families are amazing friends to us. We love them dearly and I cannot possibly express how much fun Gehrig has with Clay & Katelyn. We are entering a different stage of parenting where the kids go and play for hours at a time with no thoughts of their parents. It is both sad and wonderful! We would go every so often to check on them and always found them playing so well together and only sometimes being a little mischevious. (This usually involved climbing and jumping on furniture...G would be doing this non-stop if we let him!) We loved visiting and watching the babies play.

Saturday, we went to an indoor play area since it was so cold. We all had a great time there...

For lunch, we met up with Eric & Mandy. Mandy and I used to work together in Atlanta and they moved to Chattanooga after they married a few years ago. It was great to see them and meet their adorable Anna Claire.

Gehrig and Clay got their own booth, ate lunch and went to play on the play area. Big.

We got to see a good bit of snow Saturday and enjoyed hanging out playing games and eating pizza. Gehrig took so long to fall asleep that night, knowing that we'd be leaving the next morning. He said, "Mom, I wish we could stay here forever." It is so sweet to see how much friends love each other even at age 3!

Cute Bo.

Sunday, we drove up to Nashville to visit our friends, the Zopfs and my brother, Britt. Danielle and I were best buds when we both lived in Atlanta and it has (sadly!) been almost 2 years since we've seen each other. She was my first close friend to become a mommy and I still remember the first time I saw and held baby Ava. It is impossible to believe that she is now almost 7! Their Abby is 4 and all three bigger kids enjoyed being together while B & I caught up with Dave & Danielle. We miss them!

Later on, we got to spend some time with Britt. We had a lot of fun just being with him and going to see where he and Margaret plan to live when they get married in May. (We love it, Marg!) We were excited to see that there will be room for us to stay when we come to visit them! :) After a fun dinner together, we headed back to Chattanooga.

Now, Greer had been doing great since Friday. She had two normal great nights of sleep at the Coopers and had been pretty happy. Still not eating well because of her teeth, but going with the flow pretty well considering all the traveling and her not feeling well. About 30-45 minutes outside of Chattanooga Sunday night, she hit a wall. Couple that with the fact that she doesn't have her paci anymore and well, it was not fun. We were just glad to make it to the Owens! After getting the (happy-to-be-out-of-the-car) kiddos in bed, we enjoyed some game playing and visiting with Chad & Kelli (thanks for your ear, Kel) and turned in for a good night's rest before heading home.

It was not to be.

Baby girl was over the pack-n-play. She was done with not feeling great and seemed a little mad at us for something. So, we took turns not sleeping Sunday night and she finally crashed for some good sleep about 7:30am. This is a child who came home from the hospital sleeping 4-6 hours at a time and started sleeping through the night at 5 weeks. It was easily the hardest night we have had with her! Maybe we should rethink the paci thing???

Anyway, somehow we made it home Monday...thanks to B and the grace of God (I was no help). Girlfriend Greer has made up for lost time and has slept more than she's been awake since we've been home. She seems to feel much better and that means that the rest of the family does too! Whew.

(One more pic...G and his Kiki before we left Monday morning.)

Sooooo, summary...we are so grateful for the fun times that we had with everyone and so grateful to have Greer home and feeling better! AND we wish that we could live in the same place with all of our friends and family...like a commune or something. Okay with everyone??

Around the House

Greer loves to walk around in Mommy's shoes.

Gehrig, finishing the floor puzzle by himself!

So glad to have Madi home again!

She has learned the drill when the camera is on her. We have our hands full! :)

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!

A picture of happiness.

Visitin'

Last weekend, we enjoyed a quick visit with my best friend from college, Emlee and her family. We have the best time just being together. She makes me smile. :) Her little boy, Evan, is a little bit older than Greer and played so well with both Gs. It has been great to see them more frequently now that they live only a couple of hours away. Here are a few shots of the kids...

A New Year

One of our favorite traditions is spending new year's with our precious friends, the Dormans! Here are some pics of the first few hours of 2009.

Gehrig and Chaney snuggled in the morning. :)

Sweet girl played in her p-pays.

Somehow B continued to sleep while Gehrig, Chaney, Greer & Darcey piled in the bed with him to watch some playtime disney!

Ansley & Gehrig cruised around in the girls' escalade.

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Chaney took Greer for a fun spin too!

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We had a great time! Looking forward to seeing y'all again soon for the girls' birthdays!!!

Christmas Recap

We are so thankful to have had a wonderful Christmas season with our family and friends...celebrating our Lord Jesus and enjoying time together. There are too many pictures to choose from for the space here, so please see the album on the right side for the story of our December. We praise God for the countless ways that He has blessed us and look forward to a wonderful 2009!

Lights of the South

Since we missed out on Christmas tree shopping together this year, we were so glad to have a fun Christmas evening with the Links (we missed Matt!). Jenn, Madi, Pat & Joyce came to move some of their things back to Augusta (yay!) and spent the night with us. We went to see Christmas lights on a hayride and opened presents together. In this season and always, we are so grateful for them!

The Christmas spirit.

Waiting in line for the hayride.

We loved how they used John 3:16 to tell the Christmas story.

Hayride!

Joyce, Madi & Jenn.

Playing on the wooden train afterwards.

Siblings as far as they know.

Gehrig named Matt's dad 'Pops' and his mom 'Grandma.' He loves them!