Ringing in the New Year!

What 1 1/2 year old wouldn't want to ring in the new year with snow on the ground outside- and sliding and splashing in the largest indoor water park!!!!


We hope this is a reflection of good things to come in 2011!!

(that's us in the middle of the stairs in the middle of the picture!)

Picture Overload

We got a White Christmas this year... after opening presents we played outside with my sis-in-law, Amber.









Here is Chatham Christmas morning with some of his loot.

The Elmo towel was definitely a hit!!

This is Tilman, our Elf on a Shelf. I think Chatham will really like this next year!

I have a million more pictures that might or might not get posted depending on how much time I can find between now and going back to work.

Christmas Play

As you may remember Chatham was a snowman in the infant class Christmas Play at school.
Well this year the class was planning on doing "Jingle Babies", a book they'd been reading and practicing for several weeks. BUT- a bug swept through the toddler class and only 5 kids were present the evening of the play. So Chatham had to retire the reindeer suit before he ever got to wear it. Although he is VERY cute letting everyone know that the reindeer says "Jingle, Jingle"!
So the four tots that were still kickin' put on snowmen suits and walked in with the infant class.

Chatham must have remembered the plan from last year, because he was one MIGHTY FINE snowman if I do say so myself!!!!

Christmas with the Chatham's

This weekend was Christmas with my family- and the boys were a mess!!!!

*poor quality of pcitures* PRESENTS

Merry Christmas From Newton-Conover City Schools!!!!

I love Christmas, and I love getting festive at work! We had wreaths on the doors, and a tree decorated with student-made ornaments!

This year we did a dirty Santa exchange and each person had to make/buy a gift (less than $5) that started with the same letter as their first name. Example.... I, Carrie, gave a Country Christmas CD- and I received, from John, a batch of his homemade Jamacian Jerk Sauce and a bottle of homemade Jam!

Here are all the gifts ready to be rolled into the party.

And these are gifts I received from my secret pal and another co-worker. I LOVE the jewelery box- she said the people reminded her of Chatham and Me!!!!

And the Scarf was from my Secret Pal- can you believe a MAN thought about monogramming- Way To Go Dayne!!!!

I LOVE THE HOLIDAYS!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS YA'LL!

Snow Day/Ice Day

So this morning my school system is closed due to "inclement weather"- Devin gets out of bed to look outside and said "Snow Day for Newton".....Chatham immediately shimmies off the bed to take a look at the "Sow"- but was sadly disappointed that all there is to see is ice.

Kid's Christmas Party

Every year my sister has a Christmas Party (pictures to come). This weekend we made our way to Raleigh to celebrate- but someone wasn't really in the Christmas spirit (gotta love 2 year molars!)

But once we saw Thomas (and friends) we perked right up!


The boys looked so sweet all spiffed up!


Thomas REALLY knows how to throw a party- they colored Christmas pictures, had fruit snacks, vanilla wafers, and goldfish- as well as apple juice and maybe a few cookies from the big people table too.

The boys REALLY played together this visit. It was SO neat to see them hug and hold hands as they ran laps around the house and played with the train around the tree. Chatham has asked "Where Hummas?" all day today.... I can't wait for them to come see us next weekend for more Christmas partying!!!

What's a that say??

Chatham had decided that cars and trucks say VROOM!

But ride on toys say WEEEEEEE!

walking in her shoes...

I guess Chatham wanted to see what it was like to walk in my shoes for a while....

I hope he enjoyed it.....

At least they matched his outfit....hahaha

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I love decorating for Christmas... here is a little peek into what our living room looks like during December.... I didn't get a picture of the nativity or the snowmen, but here are the stockings- hung with care


And the tree, with presents already wrapped- it makes me look like I have it all together this year!! haha


MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

It's been a while...

so blogging has had to take a back seat this week- as there hasn't been any good news to share. But I can tell you all about my boys three (count them THREE) boo-boos last week!

First, last Monday, as I'm picking up Chatham from school Ms. Jessica lets me know that Chatham tripped and his chin got a little carpet burn on it. I look at his little face and don't really see anything from his lower lip to point of chin- so I sign the accident report and bundle him up to go out to the car. As I am lifting him in the car seat he looks up to point something out and OH MY LORD!!!!! The ENTIRE bottom part of his chin is red and raw- bless his heart!!!

Fast Forward to Friday, I have dropped Chatham off at school and headed to work, it's nearing 9 AM and my phone rings- it's Ms. Jessica, very calm, very sweet.... "Hey, Carrie- we just needed to call to let you know that Chatham had a little accident, he was running with a truck and ran into the door." (ok, nothing major I thought) "You are going to need to come look at it, we can't get it to stop bleeding and it's right on his head." OH MY LORD!!!!! I am picturing his forehead cut in two with skull and brain exposed (yes, I AM that dramatic!) So I rush to daycare and go running down the hall to his room. As I open the door Ms. Jessica is holding a very calm, very sweet Chatham who says "ouchie head, Mommy"- haha! I can't even see blood- THANK THE LORD! So, Ms. Jessica shows me the scrap on the tip top of his little scalp- still bleeding, but not gushing. We decided since it has been bleeding for a while now and won't stop I should take him to the doctor to check it out. No stitches, No staples, just glue....really...you are going to GLUE my kid back together??? But they did, just a bit of Dermabond and we were good to go. No hat for 24 hours, and no scrubbing of the scalp for 72 hours. So Chatham spent the rest of the day at home with Daddy. That night we went to get our Christmas Tree and even went to eat Mexican with Gram and Poppy.
BUT......

Saturday night, while eating dinner, Chatham proceeds to play the drums on the table with his fork and spoon. We take them away, tell him no, but he is still learning how to use them, so as we give the fork back he is flicking it back and forth before stabbing his meat and eating it. Again, I tell him to not flick his fork, just use it to eat. And with one final flick while saying "no mommy".... that's right, you guessed it- He stabbed himself in the forehead with the fork.

Now before you go calling DSS on me because I let my kid have a fork sharp enough to stab himself with....I want you to know it IS a kids fork- plastic handle but metal rounded prongs.
But leave it to my kid to manage to draw blood with it. Two perfect little bloody dots, smack in the middle of his forehead.

Last day of November

Where has the year gone!?!? I feel like while time has flown by this year, we crammed A LOT of fun into our months.

Here are the last two Thanksgiving pictures- Harrison and Chatham sported matching turkey shirts at the daycare turkey lunch.

Chatham was SO excited that both Mama AND Daddy were able to attend this year (although Daddy didn't make it in any pictures!)

In no particular order

Turkey's are outta here- SANTA is coming!!!

Practicing our wave before going downtown to see Santa come to Newton and light up the square.

The Dad's!

Chatham was in heaven there were ten trackers in town taking kids on hayrides around the square to see the lights.

Chatham saw Santa and waved his "big wave"

In other news:

We went to Raleigh to see Thomas (and his lawn mower) all Chatham does at Thomas' house is do laps around the house with the lawn mower....and then when Thomas wants a turn-

he whines until it's his turn again.

Chatham also loves to put his Elmo rain boots on before PJ Time and run around the house.

It's SO cute!

Survey Says....

So maybe I didn't survey 100 people- BUT I did try 100 ways to get my son to eat. Snacking isn't a problem....It's sitting down at the table to eat when he pitches fits and usually ends up only eatting two or three bits (usually of fruit) before declaring ALL DONE!

So what is the final verdict..... It wasn't that he wanted food off our plates, or more milk, or ketchup on EVERYTHING...... all this big boy wanted

Was a big spoon- a REAL spoon, just like mama and daddy's.

Well Chatham- consider it done- and Happy Dining!!!!!

Leftovers....

So here is out turkey leftover post....

Family picture at Nana's house



Chatham helped Nana make some casseroles



Chatham had quite an appetite that day. He ate tons of sweet potatoes, rolls, and cranberry-apple casserole



Then after some coloring he went outside to see the new puppies. (NO we're NOT taking one home!!!!)

Happy Turkey Day

We've been trying to teach Chatham as much about Thanksgiving as you can with a 21 month old. We tried to teach him to say Happy Thanksgiving- but settled with "gobble-gobble"! Which surprisingly has gone over well- all the parents at daycare loved it today when he we waved and said gobble gobble when leaving the gym at lunchtime.

Speaking of daycare....

Can someone explain to me how they do those CUTE arts and crafts with ALL the students????

Here is the craft Chatham and I did (with Nana's help) on the kitchen floor one night.....

This took a lot more work and patience than I expected.

and then just a few days later THIS comes home from daycare.....

Really- you successfully did this with 12 kids (probably in the same amount of time it took me to do my 1) How do they do it?!!?!?

Well, anyway- Happy Thanksgiving from the Donley's! Devin and I are running the Lake Norman Turkey Trot 5k in the morning (so we can eat more turkey that afternoon)

Progress......

Chatham is learning to count.....a month ago counting meant

Mama: Chatham lets count
Chatham: NO
M: One
C: No, One
M: Two
C: No, Two
and so on and so on until 10.

Now, Chatham counts everything!
Three, Three, Three, Four, Five, Sits, Seben, Eight, Nine, TEN
And TEN- is SHOUTED at the end, followed by giggles and clapping! It is one of the cutest things I've seen.
Also, he can say his ABC's- it's just repeating B, F, M and P about 5 times- then he says "again" and he's done. What a hoot this kiddo is!

Christmas Cards

So I also spend WEEKS searching for the best Christmas Card... We got our pictures taken this weekend, so I started looking for card ideas and came across a GREAT deal with shutterfly.

We've used shutterfly before for our Valentine Cards this year and other invitations. But check out the selection of Christmas Cards! http://www.shutterfly.com


This one is DEFINITELY my favorite!

The best part about this blog is that Shutterfly is going to send me 50 free Christmas cards for letting ya'll know about their promotion!!!

Go Here to get your own!!!! SHUTTERFLY CHRISTMAS CARD FORM

4 day weekend

What a great "vacation" I had from work with FOUR days off.
It started with Veteran's Day, the School System was closed, but daycare was open! So Chatham went to school, Devin went to work, and I went at it- haha- doing laundry, running errands and working on Chatham's year 2 scrapbook. It is really coming together!
Friday morning i picked up Suzy and Amanda and we headed to Greensboro to the Women of Faith conference with our church- what an experience that was! I had an AMAZING time, with AMAZING women! Blair from the Facts of Life (Lise Whelchel) was one of the speakers, Anita Renfroe was AMAZINGLY hilarious, and a woman name Patsy Clairmont captured my heart with her words!!!! Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth sang and spoke about their lose and strength and hope and while there wasn't a dry eye in the house I was amazed at just how much I cried!!!
While I was in Greensboro, Devin and Chatham had some Father/Son time....fixing my carport storage closet door, fixing the busted pipes and broken vent under the house, and running errands in between. While Chatham was SO SO happy to see his Mama again I can tell he is becoming more of a daddy's boy.
Today we ventured to Charlotte to have family pictures taken- we did them at Freedom Park, which is where I had my maternity pictures taken. I can't wait to see Chatham now (almost 20 months) at the same place as me 8 months pregnant.

I have tons of pictures from this weekend that I will post as soon as I get them uploaded.

My boys