.....And A Happy New Year!

The day after Christmas my Mom treated all of us to a trip to the Georgia Aquarium. It is a huge place that puts the Charleston Aquarium to shame! We spent several hours wondering around seeing all the cool tanks. Our favorite was the huge glass tunnel that you walk underneath and all the fish swim around above you. The giant Whale Sharks were Noah's favorite.

It was so funny to watch Noah looking at all the animals - he looked like this the whole time...

Noah also enjoyed seeing the penguins, the otters, the turtles and much more. He was also a little weary of the crowds so he was happy to find a less crowded area around one of the empty tanks where he climbed around on all the fake rocks and posed for some family pics.

And of course, my sister and I had to pose in front of the empty Beluga Whale tanks...

...But, where did the Beloooogaas go?

So, after a good weekend we headed home on Sunday...kid free! At the last minute my Mom and sister offered to keep Noah for a few days and then bring him back when they come to town on Wednesday. Wes are getting lots done and enjoying some time alone together. Although, I will admit, I will be very excited to see my little guy when he comes back tomorrow!

I hope that everybody had a wonderful holiday and that you enjoy a Happy New Year!

We Wish You A Merry Christmas.....

Wow, Christmas sure blew by in a hurry! We had a whirlwind week of family activities and now it is almost the new year!

Before we headed to my Mom's in Atlanta last week, we spent Tuesday evening having Christmas with the Shealy family. Noah had a blast opening all his presents with Nana, Pops, Aunt Carissa, and Uncle Cy.

He also entertained/scared the crap out of all of us when he decided to take a cannonball type leap onto his new Cars sleeping bag. It doesn't sound so bad except that the sleeping bag was on the hardwood floor and he literally jumped about 5 feet in the air, tucked his legs perfectly underneath himself, and landed on his kneecaps! He is crazy with a capital C!

Early Thursday morning (read 4am, we are Shealys after all) we got in the car to drive to Atlanta. We got there in plenty of time to hang out before heading to Christmas Eve church services. Noah even got to help Bebe decorate the cookies he was going to leave out for Santa.

And here he is putting them out right before bed...

I love how he is posing in this picture!

We woke up Christmas morning at around 7:00 and Noah excitedly headed downstairs to see if Santa had found us. He was very excited to see that the cookies were gone and even more excited to turn around and see his new Cars bicycle!

We spent the day relaxing, eating, and watching Noah play with all his new loot. All in all, it was a very fun day.

Congrats Aunt J!

This weekend Wes and I headed to the booming metropolis of Rock Hill, SC to see my sister graduate from Winthrop University. As much as Noah loves his Aunt J, we decided to leave him at home with Nana and Pops because I just didn't see him sitting through the ceremony. He was kind of mad at us though because we stayed with Julie and Devin in Charlotte on Friday night and he was bummed that he didn't get to see them (or their dog Maggie!)

Here we are at dinner on Friday night. It was a very yummy meal and we had a lot of fun!

Saturday morning we went and watched Jessie get her diploma and walk across the stage looking like "a character from a Harry Potter movie" - her description, not mine!

Congrats Aunt J! We are very proud of you and excited to see what you do next!

Christmas Fun at Preschool

I have been way behind on my blog updates. Sorry folks, I will try to do better!

We have have been enjoying all sorts of fun Christmas activities lately. Last week Noah had several fun days at school. His Christmas party was on Thursday and I got to help host it. The kids were all very cute and seemed to really enjoy their party.

Noah's favorite part was, of course, the reindeer cupcakes. He waited while all the other kids ate their chicken nuggets and fruit and just keeping eyeing the cupcake platter. Needless to say, he was very excited when we finally started passing out dessert. Afterwards they all played for awhile. It was fun to get to a part of his day in the classroom and see him with all his friends.

Here is Noah playing trains with some buddies. The little blond boy to the left of him is his best pal, Ryan. What's funny is that they look exactly alike and are the same size and Noah's teacher informed me that she is the only one on staff who can tell them apart!

The next day, Friday, was the annual Christmas program. This year's theme was Take Your Hats Off to Jesus (or something to that effect) and it was pretty cute. Noah was a towns person and was in the very back so I couldn't see him at all. I did manage to snap some pictures as he exited at the end with his class.

Noah is the one in the baseball hat.

Now Noah is all done with school for the holidays. We are here until Thursday morning and then we head to Atlanta for Christmas with my Mom and sister. Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

"But I Don't Want A Brother!"

These were the words that Noah screamed in the waiting room of my Ob/Gyn yesterday after our 22 week ultrasound. Yes folks, that means we are having...another boy!

Poor Noah had his heart set on a little sister. Over the past several weeks he has become extremely adamant that we have a girl baby. (And also increasingly opposed to the idea of a boy baby.) Well, needless to say he was not happy about the news we received yesterday, and may still be in denial as he refuses to talk about it when we bring it up with him. He simply states, "But I don't want a brother" and then proceeds to change the subject. It's all pretty funny!

Wes and I are very excited. We were really fine with it either way, but we think it will be so much fun to have another (crazy?) little boy running around the house. I love being a Mom to a boy and, despite his protestations, I think it will be fun to watch Noah bond with a brother. So, that's about it for now. I wish I had a supercool ultrasound picture to post but I don't. In fact we were lucky we even got a glimpse of our baby's "junk" at all. The kid is still in a breech position and apparently that makes it really hard to get a good view of anything. We didn't even get any good face pictures - just a 2 second flash of penis that ruined Noah's day!