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

SURPRISE!!!!

I have always wanted to pull off a surprise party-

but anytime I've tried the person finds out before the party. But not this time!

I got all of Suzy's friends and family (that were in town) to come to the Tap Room last night

Chatham and Cara were SO happy to see each other! It had been two whole days after all!

I think everyone had a really good time! And as always GREAT food

Paul made a book cake and I got the world's most obnoxious candles. I wanted to get the trick candles and couldn't find them- so I settled with sparkler candles- and the last WAY longer than any trick candle I've seen in my life. The down fall was the we smoked up the ENTIRE restaurant.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUZ!!!!!!!!!

Trick or Treat!

We took our little golfer to Granny Hokies first..

Uncle Al was there and Chatham got a dump truck!

Then it was off to Gram and Poppy's....

Amidst the tootsie pops (for other trick or treaters) Chatham got a slue of Elmo gear, and snoopy (hasses ("glasses")

The Cadwallader's stopped by for some loot to.

Chatham was so in love with the new tractor Gram and Poppy got him he just sat on it to open his treats from his friends.

I think all in all Chatham loved Halloween this year. He helped Poppy handout suckers to all the kids who can to the door, and only held on to Poppy's leg (for dear life) a few times.