Random Pics from Christmas Break

Happy New Year!! It's a fresh start!

Here are some after Christmas pictures that I wanted to plop on the ole blog!

Long bike rides 

Mills took the prime rib bone right out of the microwave! I was heating it up to let him have it anyway but this was funny! Then he ran with it and I screamed at him!! He gave it back after I had to pry his mouth open. Then I held the bone and he chewed off of it. 

To the beach we went. The King!


Molly Anne got the genius square game for Christmas and she has loved it. Grady loves playing too! So good for their brains. 


Playing at the ocean isle playground!


We got to watch SpaceX take off. We had an awesome view from our back porch. 

You can see the booster just came off. 


Back to the playground with Mills this time. 


Riding Maggie and Greer's new scooter. Grady got on it and no one knew if he understood how to stop. So he was flying down their street straight to the canal. Oh boy. I sprinted after him and he was like I know how to stop. It was a circus!


Early morning walks on the beach. My fav. 


We took the dogs down to the east end to run around. They loved it!










Bourbon slushes 


And a driveway fire. 


Good times!

End of Year Review

This is always a fun post to do each year. It's good to recap the year and see what our highlights were!

And let me tell you, most of this blog is a highlight reel. Life is not full of sunshine, beach and roses all of the time. In fact, this year hasn't been great in a lot of ways. It's been tough with some family and friends that are like family fighting big things. It also hasn't been perfect under our roof. Always growing. And work hasn't been easy this year for either of us. But we keep pushing through. 

Most days I see a lot of light. Every day is a good day and every year is a good year. But bad things happen in those days and years. There is always hope. Find the good in every day. There is always something positive if you look for it! Sometimes you really gotta look!

Okay here are my happy highlights:

January - we had a really nice weekend in OIB and Pawleys. I remember this being very fun!

February - Turks and Caicos trip to Beaches with our friends

March - a Charlotte weekend celebrating Hilary's birthday and Grady's teeball 

April - a Maryland Easter and an OIB spring break 

May - Grady is 5 and a boat 

June - Hawaii and Swim Team

July - Molly Anne is 8, Asheville wedding and good news on Mills

August - Grady learned how to ride his bike in Maryland (and hasn't stopped since) and first days of kindergarten and 3rd grade

September - a great OIB weekend 

October - Fall weekending 

November - Greenbrier for our friend's 40th and Thanksgiving with family 

December - Santa Brunch, Day Uptown, Christmas Day

See you back here in 2024! I'm looking forward to my 15th year of blogging (whoa!) and hope to grow in this space more! 

Gingerbread House

So one day the week before Christmas, Molly Anne got this 3 year old gingerbread house out of the pantry and built it. Then waited for Grady to decorate. Didn't it turn out so cute?! I couldn't believe she was able to build it on her own. Actually I should know better because she loves to build legos etc. May I tell you how glad I was that I didn't have to build that thing?! I'm terrible at them! Anyway, wanted to capture this memory! I love that they decorated it together!

Christmas Day

We had to wake Grady up at 7:30 on Christmas morning! He has been so tired with all of the excitement!

Molly Anne's first look!

I think she was more excited for Grady than anything. Her big gift from my parents and us was a desk. And that was big in every way. So she didn't have a ton under the tree but she's getting to that age. She isn't as into toys and she's more into THINGS so to speak. 

Santa did leave her an AG basketball court. 


This was her face when we told her that the big box in the garage was a desk for her!






Stockings were good this year. Santa spent a lot of time deciding specifically what to do for each. I was glad about that!




A drum set. Sorta!


Grady and Dad loved making a fire. They did this several times. Grady would go and get more wood and loved putting it by the fire. 

Kevin's family came over later in the afternoon for a bit. The kids loved showing them all of their new things!

Even got mom to stir the cream of crab soup. 

PBK didn't ship the hutch by accident so that is coming next week!


Molly Anne and I surely got our mileage out of the Festive shirts via Lilly!









They always love reading together. This time an engineering book that Ms. Julie gave her!


Always good times and glad my parents were able to join! And then...about 9:30pm, we took the tree out!! Goodbye tree! Over it ha!!

Christmas Eve Eve and Eve

Christmas Eve Eve is always a good time and this year too fun! We always go to our neighbors for appetizer night.

The kids run wild with excitement!


Christmas Eve we went to lunch with Kevin's parents and brother and his friend at Burtons. It was fun! My kids don't even know how lucky they are that they have all four grandparents!


Walks and bike rides with Poppa was a popular thing every day during the break!

A tired little boy waiting for Christmas Eve dinner!


Mom stirring the cream sauce for creamed spinach. Good to see her in the kitchen a bit!


The chef!


Molly Anne made the biscuits by herself and they were perfect!


The burgundy mushrooms were a hit. Grady ate three of the potatoes. 




Sprinkling reindeer food out front. Then we headed to look for Rudolph's nose. Grady was super into that this year and we saw a couple flashes of his nose. Molly Anne liked it too but was a bit more low key about it. 


Reading Twas the Night Before Christmas of course!

And to all a good night!