New York City!

After Christmas Britton, Q, Di Di, Paps, and Kim all drove up to New Jersey to see Kim's grandmother. It was the first time both B and Q had met her. It was a loooooong drive, 855 miles and @ 14 hours in the car, but we all survived and Q did remarkably well! Praise God for the van's DVD player! It was a trip of many firsts for both B and Q. We first went to the Jersey Shore (they don't call it the beach for some weird reason, and you have to pay to actually go onto the sand) and walked on the boardwalk.
Q loved looking at the water and walking on the boardwalk! Here we are with Kim's grandmother. How crazy that in this picture there are four generation of Middleton (Kim's mother's madden name) women represented. P.S. She was trying to push Grandma's wheelchair!

It was B's first time being north of Baltimore, so we took the chance to visit New York City one day. It was so much fun! We took a tour of Yankee Stadium, which is something I would highly recommend for anyone to do if they are up there within the next year (because it is the last year the stadium will be open). We went to monument park, on the field, sat in the dugout, in the locker room, and in the press box. It was simply awesome.
The rest of the day was spend hitting the streets, and subways, of the Big Apple. We went to Time Square, Rockefeller Center, Ground Zero, Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, and a bunch of other places. This is the cross the was down at Ground Zero after 9/11.
Q even got into the action and met us there later... check her out riding the subway!
In front of the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. B isn't too pumped because he has been carrying Q through about a billion people by this point!
All in all, it was a fantastic trip and we were so ready to be home and in our beds by the time it was over.

Christmas fun!

So, as you can see it has been a while since my last post and a lot has happened in our world. We had a fun, crazy Christmas this year, I can only pray that through it all Q understood the true meaning behind the holiday. I do have to say that every time we past a manger scene she always pointed out baby Jesus! We got to spent time in Macon with family and then back in Gwinnett with the other side of our family. There was food, gifts, and love in abundance, what more could you ask for! Here are just a few (I promise) pictures from our time. Here is Q with some of her cousins before church... what a cute bunch! Loving her red table and chair set from Grammy and Pop Pop! Christmas morning opening her stocking with Daddy. Who would have guessed a vacuum cleaner would be her favorite gift! I can only hope this fascination continues when she is big enough to use a real one! Pushing Cole on his new toy... she tried to steal it, but we are working hard on teaching her to share.

Christmas Dress

Yes, you are actually reading the words dress in the title. I guess I am living my girly side out through my daughter because we know I am know living int out through me! Anyway, I just had to show you all this dress on Q, who knows she may still fit into it next year, the little pipsqueak.

Picture with Santa

So you would think by the way Q talks about Santa ("Ho Ho") that she would have a great time sitting on his lap for a picture... well guess again. We went to the mall with Q's other cousins and they were all very excited about him when they were in line. As soon as Q saw him she was saying "hello Ho Ho" and waving her hands like crazy. Here is a shot of them waiting in line. Things were all fine and dandy until I set her on his lap, then all heck broke loose. She was screaming on one knee, Cole was crying on the other, Kallie didn't even make the picture because she was in hysterics on the floor, and Luke was in his glory to be sitting next to Santa (the only one). Don't worry, as soon as Britton took her off his lap she was all smiles again wanting to talk to "Ho Ho". Well, I guess there's always next year!

Like her mother...

So, Q has the same disease as her mother... check out below. Yes, it is much cuter to see this in an 18 month old than a grown woman and for that I apologize! I guess we should invest in a belt!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

As a result of this blog you all now know what I do when I am supposed to be working on my portfolio that is due on Monday, blog!! Hey its' already 89 pages long (no joke), so I figured I earned the right.
Let me tell you how excited we are for this Christmas season. Q loves our tree, Santa (she calls him Ho Ho), Snowmen, and Christmas lights. Knock on wood, she still hasn't broken an ornament.
She's in her "Ho, Ho Dress".
This was the second choice picture for our Christmas card, so it had to make the blog.
I have been quite impressed with her, all she does is touch the ornaments and tell them they are "pitty" (pretty), but she still has yet to take them off the tree (knock on wood again).

Yesterday we went to "Christmas on the Corner" at Hebron with Heather, James, and Harris, and besides being extremely cold it was a wonderful experience. James at his finest.
A cute group shot.

They had train rides, a live nativity, Christmas caroling, marshmallow roasting, and great animal characters. Q talked a big game when it came time to ride the train, but as soon as she got on she was telling me no! We managed the ride and after all was said and done I think she had fun.
An action shot of riding the train, it wasn't that long, but it was all Q could handle.

We also tried to get her picture taken with Rudolph, but all she could do was say "no, no, no" when we were standing next to him. Notice her face, her lips are poking out because she is screaming "No" at him!

When B tried again with the Christmas Mouse it was even worse. All in all it was a great time and I pray that all who were there got the massage that Christmas is about more than presents, but about the birth of Jesus (I'll get off my soapbox now).

On a sad note our favorite neighbors ever moved to Nashville this week. It was a great opportunity for Chris as a youth minister, but we are going to miss them and their new little baby Mary Lindsey is going to have in February. Q would go over to visit ML's every day, so here is a little glimpse of them with the rascal before they left.
She really does love them even though the picture shows otherwise.

Q decided she would share Mary Lindsey's oranges with her.

For those of you who endured and made it to the bottom of this post, congrats, and here is a recent family picture and a funny site in which we "elfed" ourselves (B is not a huge fan of this because his elf has boobies!) Check it out, Q can do a mean robot! http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1220147290