Two Classics:

Two classics for you this December morning: Our Sixty's Era Kitchen, and a little boy eating a candycane at Christmas time:
A catch-up post is on it's way!

Tres Meses-Nina Style and Jibber Jabber

'Sweet Girl' hit her three month mark last week! That a girl, keep those ankles together!

We are excited for you too, Miss Nina Lane!
I think I am most excited about her little leg rolls. She was so thin when she was born- I never thought I would be so proud of her chuncks! She is now smiling, cooing, all the things that a healthy, growing, beautiful baby girl should be doing- and we could not be more blessed. Except for her little to no tolerance for car rides..that is a whole other post.

But anyway, her brother is growing right before my eyes, too.For some reason this really hit me yesterday when he he ran into the den saying: "I built a trash truck with blocks mama, I built a trash truck!" First of all, who taught him to build things with blocks? Secondly, since when do we have these long sentences slewing out of his mouth? What happened to my baby?
He motioned for me to follow him into his room and sat proudly next to a trash truck (pre-built) full of blocks. Ha! I asked if he wanted me to take a picture of it and he said "Yes!"
After fiddling with my cell phone camera a few times, I told him I had to go find our real camera.
He sat so tall and so proud

And soo patient

Tah-dah! You are the sweetest!
Despite his newly found grown up talk (sniff sniff) - every now and then he will revert back to his old ways. Here's a video of what I thought was going to be a shot of him dancing- but instead I got this: So glad I got this jibber jabber on video! Oh, and if you can't understand him, don't worry, neither can we!

They warned me about this

When I was first pregnant with Rhett, my cousin Ross and his wife Sarah gave me their only tidbit of parenting advice: Never eat after your children. They told tales of their experiences and described being sick at the same time as your child as H.E.L.L.

Sarah and Ross at Cousin Laurel's wedding Summer '09

Now I am not sure who ended up eating off of who, but if H.E.L.L. is anything like sharing the stomach bug with your toddler until the wee hours of the morning while your husband rushes in between consoling the sick, wiping up messes, and mopping up floors while tiptoeing around your sleeping newborn- we all better get right with Jesus ;)

Sarah and Rhett '09
Thanks Croley's. I promise to heed your warnings next time!

So where do I start?

I am happy to report that our Miss Nina Lane has graced her momma and her daddy with some looong stretches of sleep at night (I could even use the phrase "sleeping through the night," but I don't want to jinx it), a somewhat of a wakeful pattern during the day, and lots of little smiles and personality in between- Whew!

Nina is also growing like a weed- at her two month appointment she was 10 1/2 pounds (what Rhett was at two weeks-ha!)which puts her just under the "normal" range, but she is as long as the next guy- already average! The doctor didn't expect her to have these ranges until her first birthday! Hooray! (Rhettster on the other hand is off the charts for height and at the bottom of the barrel for weight- poor guy).

The kiddos at their checkups:

She is definitely an easy going baby, but definitely lets her needs be known-as you can see from this picture. I think I saw Rhett shed a tear maybe once or twice during his first six months of life- our daughter, on the other hand, can turn on the faucet at the drop of a hat or if we are a second off schedule. But she is easily appeased and back to being our sweetie.

Rhett showing Nina 'how to play with her toys':

September brought a slieu of family visitors. The Davis/Banks side was here for a weekend and then Porter's parents came to get in all the grand baby love they could muster in 10 days. Here are a few of our favorite moments:

Rhett then turned TWO! WHAT! I can't believe I even wrote that. This is what his second birthday has brought to our Rhetty: Two means new words just spill out of his mouth everyday. He totally digs sports of all kinds, loves to see his dad play the "gih-tar", affectionately refers to his mom as "Ma," and now asks for his sister to kiss his boo-boos'. He even went on his first father/son canoe outing with Porter in their new canoe. Wow, TWO years came TOO fast!

We did a family birthday celebration in Fort Worth since he shares a birthday with his cousin and uncle. The trip was a blast- we spent a whole day at a pumpkin farm where we hit up a tractor ride and a HUGE treehouse. We definetly will make a tradition out of this!

Rhett insisted on reading up on tractors (?) as we were on the tractor ride... in case there was an exam a the end...? It was too cute!

For some reason Porter and I thought that in addition to his family festivities, Rhett needed a second celebration, you know, for his local crew..? It sounded like a good in theory, but we were pooped by the time his little party at the local train museum rolled around. The kids had a good time and Rhett was in hog heaven having the whole place to himself. In fact, his was the very first birthday party to be had there! (We even got a note in the mail from the director thanking us for such a great example of sweet children!).

Then came Halloween- Rhett was a fireman (sounds more gentle than 'firefighter', right?). He was so proud of his little outfit, often insisting on wearing the fireman's hat like a baseball cap around the house. His preschool had a dress up day and then we hit our old hood with our friends for some trick or treating. Porter wheeled him around from house to house in his firetruck. It was hysterical- Rhett was ALL business. No time to chit-chat, "Trick or Treat, thank you!" Nina was wrapped in gauze as a "mummy":

So if all that wasn't enough- we ended our October with a family camping trip. Yes, sounds crazy, but I was totally itching for a change of scenery and the fall weather had begun to stick around. Our little SUV was filled to the brim with all kinds of a camping knick-knacks ( a word you don't use often until you have kids), but the trip was so worth it. And let me just clarify: I use the term "camping" loosely here. For example: We rented a "shelter" instead of a tent, slept on an air mattress instead of the ground, and toted an ice-chest full of goodies. We did have a few hitches during our stay- Porter and I had visions of sipping hot cider (me) and bourbon (him) around the campfire while are kids slept soundly by our sides. But a few skunks started lurking around our digs and our son was so overly tired, it took every song porter and I could think of to to get him to fall asleep. I felt like apologizing to the campers within a mile radius of us for the meltdowns from our toddler and the out-of-tune acapella music that followed :) But all in all- the camp food was good (if I do say so myself) and the views from our hikes were breathtaking- it was a great first family campout! I know there will be many more.

Our Camper of the weekend: ...And the "needs improvment" award...


I'm gonna end this mile long post with mentioning a few of the little phrases our toddler has been pulling together. His words have quickly turned into sentences and he is cracking me up with each one!

After coming home from church with dad, as Nina and I rested at home, Rhett walks through the back door: "Hey Ma-I missed ya Peach!"

Walking throught the den one day, Rhett stops to see a golf tournoment that was on t.v. After one of the golfers hits a long drive Rhett says "Niiice!" and then walks away.

After breakfast the other morning, Rhett asked to get down from the table. I noticed he had a couple of bites of eggs left on his plate so I asked if he was sure that he was done eating. He replies, "Yes ma'm. Can I have a box please?"

At a restaurant the other night Rhett asked if I would hold him as we walked to playground. I whispered in his ear that he should introduce himself to the other kids. By the time we got the swing-set Rhett proclaims to the boys and girls in a loud voice: " I'm Rhett. I got a haircut!"

Okay, I promise I'm done blogging now.

THE END! EL FIN! ES TODO! NO MAS! ADIOS!