Baby playdate

Caroline & Kennedy-playdate without the older kids!

Happy 1st Birthday Taylor!

Harper & Caroline
The big kids

Taking it all in with daddy

CAKE!

sweet birthday girl

showing Taylor how to play babies

What I'm thankful for...

my sweet girls
watching the t'giving day parade

BFF's-Garrett & Claire

sweet babies-Caroline & Harper

precious friends-Garrett, Caroline, Taylor & Claire

trying to entertain the kiddos with a movie while we played a card game-last a few rounds!

happy 1st birthday sweet birthday girl!

We had a GREAT thanksgiving meal with our Knoxville family. We are truly blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives! We are very thankful to be loved and supported by a special group of friends. It was delicious food and a fun t'giving memory!

Bible Lesson for Cat

Claire loves reading her bible! We decided to keep it at the table so we could read it during meals. She and daddy read a story every morning during their cheerios breakfast and then we normally read something at dinner time. So Cat was having his breakfast and getting a little lesson about Joseph.

3 girls & a cable guy

Oh how my Monday was definitely a Monday....

I helped out a friend and kept her little girl yesterday and didn't plan to have a cable guy with us the entire day too! Both big Caroline and the DISH TV guy showed up by 8 am and the entire day was a little nuts around here.

Claire of course loved having a playmate and baby Caroline thought it was great having another little person running around to watch. It was fun having another little girl in the house and listening/watching them play together showed me a glimpse of my future! With 2 daughters there will be constant playing of babies, house, dress up and make believe in the playroom! We played, painted, made jello and had only one incident where baby Caroline was fed a baby calico critter (no worries, she's OK)! But I have to say I LOVE LITTLE GIRLS! Oh what fun :)

Doing a little painting....
Making grape jello...

And finally after 9 hours of a stranger being in my house we got our new cable system installed, hook up and working! Claire called him the badge guy (have no idea where she got that), big Caroline was oblivious to the fact that he was even here and not supposed to be and baby Caroline was tired of having to hide under my cover to eat every 3 hours! Then after Caroline left and all was quite with napping children I was stuck with no cable or Internet and couldn't even nap or shower due to this lovely apparently clueless man fumbling around the house! I decided to be productive and clean out our office desk :)

I am going to admit that the thing that bothered me the most was the fact that he asked to use the restroom (which I totally understand and didnt mind at all) but watched him walk right out of the bathroom without washing his hands and then kept touching everything in my house....uuugghhh!! Anyone who knows me, knows that hand washing is a must in my book and hello dude, it's flu season....a little common courtesy! I have 3 small children in the house with you...wash your nasty germs!!

Then thank goodness Daddy came home early and rescued us! We got out and enjoyed a walk & some fresh air. Then to top our evening off I decided I didn't have the energy to cook so we had a healthy East TN dinner of take out hot dogs, a happy meal and a $6 bottle of vino! Yes we were those people last night :)

Thanks for listening to my small grip session but hope it provided a small laugh or two with picturing my CRAZY Monday :)

'And Be Thankful'

Claire and I went to church this morning while Chris and Caroline stayed home....he was feeling a little under the weather and I left Caroline so she could enjoy her morning nap in her crib (which NEVER happens!).

It was a great sermon on being Thankful and really tuned my heart for the upcoming holiday week. Here is a quick summary but wanted to share what I hope will turn your heart into true thankfulness as we celebrate Thanksgiving!

Col 3:12-17

*Let the PEACE of God rule your heart. Seek to make peace with any struggling relationship-Recognize the power of grace-Offer it and work with God to make an enemy a friend.

*Let the WORD of Christ dwell in you. The Gospel is like living water-The word of Christ is wisdom-Its who we are-Eat and drink it deeply to live whole according to him-Its the language of your life.

*Do EVERYTHING in the name of the Lord. Dream, invest, live in his promise-Go & make disciples wherever you go-Give thanks through Him and do it with hearts of THANKSGIVING.

AMEN!!!


We didn't get Thanksgiving cards out this year, so this is our official wish for our friends, family and faithful blog followers to have a very blessed and spiritually full day with your families. God Bless and enjoy your yummy turkey meals :)

Claire will make you jump, jump

Mary Taylor's 3rd birthday party

Why buy when you can play for free?

Who loves cake??!!

Happy birthday to the best daddy in the world!

What will the chocolate hangover look like??!!

I'm pretty sure I could gum that??!!

Life as we know it

making corn bread muffins
watching baby Einstein (neither of them moved for the entire 20 minute video!)

4 months old

Our sweet little Caroline at 4 months old

updates:

12 lbs/13 oz & 25 inches long

took her shots like a champ and made her big sister cry when she got them

still eating and sleeping like a dream (12 hours at night!)

loves to laugh, talk and play with her toys

can hold her rattles in her hand

loves to sit up and be a part of the group but content to sit back and observe too

her favorite things are her ba ba, her lovie to sleep with and of course anything she can do with Claire!

Picnic in the Park

Enjoying a beautiful fall day at the park with Grandma & Grandpa and a picnic lunch

Reading, Crafts and lots of books!

Story hour with the Andersons

We're a musical family

This picture barely captures this precious moment...at the end of each class we do a quiet song with the lights off and she plays stars on the sky to twinkle twinkle. all the kids lay in the floor and watch the stars and get loved on by their mommies or daddies. today Claire asked if Caroline could lay with her and it was the sweetest few minutes of my week! not to mention, Caroline loved it!

Blogging for the soul...

OK, I have failed beyond failed at making blogging a priority and the sad part is I really love it and seem to never have the time to do it! So I am sharing my hour of solitude while both girls are napping with my blog followers....you should be honored :) Time is precious around here! ha!

I have decided several things over the last few weeks....

1. I LOVE fall in East TN! Its beautiful! This time last year it was monsoon central and things were gray & ugly....but this year we have had gorgeous sunshine filled days with great fall temps! Thank goodness for sunshine, fresh air and blowing leaves...sometimes that is what gets me through the day!

2. Life with 2 is crazy, busy, chaotic, never ending, stressful but the most amazing & wonderful thing in the world! I love that we have created these 2 humans that are so much the same and then complete opposites!

3. My husband is pretty mind blowing with how he balances a stressful and busy job to come home to my previous reference of CHAOS and dives right in with a smile on his face at the most difficult time of the day! Dinner, clean up, quick play time, bath time, and then the bedtime routine....jammies, stories, books, songs and then finally, hopefully 2 peaceful sleeping girls!

I am so thankful that over the last few weeks we have conquered the first round of sinus infections, Halloween festivities, family pictures, daylight savings time and a second round of sneezing, coughing, & snot.

So here we go with some simple but hopefully pleasurable reading....

My girls: how in the world are we 5 months away from having a 3 year old??!! And better yet, somehow my newborn will be 4 months old on Sunday! I'm not sure which ones blows my mind more! Things speed up with every child and the phases pass by like blinks.

I am so amazed at how different they really are and how much of that I can see in such a short amount of time with having 2 kids.

Claire: independent, fast, constant, smart, busy, always moving, always thinking, always processing. LOVES school and everything that comes with it. Caroline: LAID BACK, patient, loving, smiling, content, happy. LOVES milk and everything that comes with it! HA :) I know it seems that I'm posing negative over positive here, but that is undoubtedly the fact that Claire is 2 1/2 and trying to come into her own! And they say the teen years are the hardest...heaven help us!

Claire really has become her own little person lately and it is so hard to watch her manage these new emotions and feelings and try to learn what to do with them. At the same time starting preschool and realizing this exciting and fun new sister isn't going anywhere anytime soon! She is definitely reteaching Chris and I patience all the while trying to learn it herself! She really does love her sister and gives her the best love a sister could give. Sometimes at the same time pinching her just to see if she does actually cry! She sings to her, consoles her, reads to her and never wants to leave home without her! She is beyond a shadow of a doubt our first born, type A, extrovert, independent, driven child. At least for now!

Then there is sweet baby Caroline who could not want for anything in the world. She is so relaxed, go with the flow, smile takes up her entire face, never cries, patient second child. She LOVES her sister so much and no one can get a better smile, laugh or cry out of her like Claire! She hears her and her face lights up, she will follow her around a room with her eyes and is blown away at what she can do! She will definitely be the tag along little sister who admires her big sister! I can also tell she will talk, walk, run and learn just as fast if not faster than Claire because she isn't going to want to be left behind!

It is quite remarkable how you can love 2 people so much and so differently. You love them with your whole heart but at the same time you love them for who they are, what they mean to you, and what they bring to your life. Right now, Claire brings the laughter, fun, fast, and crazy while Caroline gives us peace, smiles, calm and of course infant snuggling!

Back to the love of my life....I know my days are hard and long and there truly can not be a harder job than a stay at home mom, but I also have to give credit where credit is due! Chris has been BUSY beyond BUSY at work and still seems to come home with a refreshing smile (even if some days its fake!) :) to put bags down, put on comfy clothes and dive in with both hands. Its so sweet to see him go to each girl and give them their own, unique and special daddy love! And each of them respond back in their own precious, "hi daddy!" way. He is the best at getting Claire to be creative with her toys (really cute to see him playing fairies!), making Caroline smile ear to ear just by walking in the room, playing mermaids at bath time and he might have been a hair dresser in a previous life! The man knows how to operate a blow dryer and round brush like no other! Sorry babe, promised I would keep our secrets, but you deserve credit!

I also have to give a shout out to the fact that his name and case were on the front page of the newspaper four times! He has been super busy with this case and its always good to see your even small tedious tasks that make your days long seem worth it!

Now a few laughs and quotes from the Lucado household:

Chris sighed as I came down the steps Sunday night after a long, tiring weekend of being home bound with cold weather and sick kids: "Whew, did we make it??!!" I responded, "barely!"

One night last week as we passed each other in the hall, switching crying kids and giving each other the look of "OK, hang in there we can do this!" I smiled and said, "this is why people drink!"

Claire on why she didn't have school last Tuesday due to election day...I told her, "you don't have school today because people have to go and vote." On the way to school that Thursday, "mommy, I'm glad people aren't going to the boat today!"

On the way to church to Wed night dinner she asks, "mommy are we going to my class today or your class? Oh OK, does that mean we get to take the eligator?" (aka the elevator)!

Caroline talking in her crib and Claire says, "mommy I think Caroline is awake, but I checked on her and told her it's not time to get up, just go back to sleep!"

On trying to explain what Thanksgiving is to a 2 yr old..."mommy I'm thankful for you!" oh...melt my heart!

And if you get the honor of visiting our household in the near future, prepare yourself for make shift boats, cars, school rooms, nurseries, music classes, grocery stores and parks set up around our house as every animal, creature, fairy, princess, baby and sometimes even gabby, Caroline or Chris and I are put into their own position, spot and place not to be moved, questioned, looked at funny and absolutely not touched! As Claire is busy using her imagination! :)

Happy November and may you feel blessed, loved and full this Thanksgiving season!!

Jump! Jump!

taking it all in....
ok this might be fun....

yeah, i'm having fun!

My blessings

UT Gardens-2010 Family Pics

Claire 2 1/2 years
Caroline 3 1/2 months

http://anceletphotography.blogspot.com/2010/11/sisters.html