North Carolina, Revisited

Grant and I are thankfully back home in Alabama. We missed Ron terribly and we both were so relieved to be back in our own bed/crib, (goodbye and good riddens pack-and-play.) After two weeks and two thousand miles we arrived safely back home one day early after leaving Charlotte in the middle of the night. Grant awoke at 3am on Thursday morning and refused to go back to sleep. What's a burnout/tired/frustrated Mom to do? Pack up the car, set off your sister-in-laws alarm and make the long drive back across four states to reach your final destination. I did take a three hour break at Ikea in Atlanta and fell in love. I could stay in that place forever and now will make it a stop on all of my trips. I wanted to share with you the last week of our trip in NC, the majority of our time was spent with my parents in Clinton. We had many visitors and enjoyed not being on a schedule, sleeping in and brainstorming about my brother's upcoming wedding in June.

Grant's Aunts came to visit and we cooked out to celebrate the occasion. Aunt Jean, My Mom (always in her apron, of course,) Aunt Susan and Aunt Sue Ellen

Aunt Sue Ellen brought her newest addition, Susie Q, she is just the sweetest and tiniest little thing I've ever seen. Grant loved her as well, she is just his size.
Uncle Jeffrey and his fiance, Kristie came to visit as well

We also spent some time with Grant's Godmother, Jessica and her son Sammy. Here is Grant with Sammy and his cousins, Garrison and Clara Glynn...

Jessica and I having our picture made by her four-year-old nephew, Garrison

Dog, dog! Grant was obsessed with Riley and Sally. He would not stay out of their dog bowls, he loved splashing the water and dumping their dog food out.

Grant loves his Grandmama and Granddaddy Tew!

My parents are lucky enough to live on a lake. Grant loved feeding the ducks and screaming, "DUCK, DUCK!"

The beautiful white one is definitely a pet store duck that someone raised and then put in the lake later in life. When the ducks become spooked and fly off, they leave this beauty in the water all by himself, he can't fly.

Loving the outdoors and feeding the ducks

What do ducks eat? Grant's favorite of course, cheerios!

We broke up our drive by spending the night in Charlotte. While there, we visited my great friend and sorority sister, Rikki and her two girls.

Rikki and six month old, Berkley

Grant loved playing with Caden and Caden loved showing off her toys to Grant. Her favorite is her Dora doll she's carrying that sings and dances. She also put on her tutu while we were there! :)

The highlight of our play date was when Grant landed a HUGE smooch on Caden for his first official kiss!

Pucker up Grant! Of all times for my camera to fail me and become out of focus, ugh!

We loved meeting Caden and Berkley and visiting their beautiful home, it made our trip home that much sweeter!

Now, I'm adjusting to life again as a stay-at-home Mom, for the time being anyways. I've had days of laundry, unpacking, reorganizing and unwinding to keep me busy. Grant and I loved every leg of our trip and are thankful to our wonderful family and friends for hosting us. We miss you all already!

What a Busy Week!

Grant and I are still enjoying our extended vacation in North Carolina. Last Thursday, we reluctantly left Grandma and Grandpa Wendt, Mimi and Poppy and our favorite cousins in Mt. Airy after a wonderful relaxing visit!

On the way to Clinton we met up with Aunt Jessie and Grant's BFF, Sammy in Raleigh. These two have both grown by leaps and bounds since the last time they saw each other. Sammy is such a happy and sweet baby it was a pleasure reuniting with he and his Mommy if only for a short while.
Since our arrival in Clinton, Grant has had many visitors, he's also stayed extremely busy. His Grandmama Tew's best friends, Ms. Connie and Ms. Pam came by to say "hello!"
and Grant enjoyed doing some yard work with Granddaddy Tew.

"Sticks and pine cones? Piece of cake!"

All week, Grant and I looked forward to getting together with some of my best girlfriends Saturday night in Raleigh for a sleepover! This was the first time the kiddos were invited and they all did beautifully except for Grant around 4am... I did NOT get much sleep at all.

Grant loved giving kisses and hugs to all the beautiful little girls,

Harper,(13 Months) Ivy,(21 Months) Maggie,(18 Months) and Grant(16 Months)

Maggie loving on Grant

Taking a break from watching the Miss America Pageant... Thank you Jackie for hosting our gathering, we had so much fun eating a fabulous dinner and sharing stories over wine. I miss these girls soooo much!

Are you tired yet? I sure am. Trip's not even over...

Snow Day

We have been anticipating snow for a couple of days now since returning to NC. I was super excited because I have not seen snow since this post and all of my friends and family have been receiving an abundance of snow the past couple of weeks here. George and Grant made a run to the hardware store and purchased a sled to use if and when it snowed!

They also helped Mimi fill up the bird house with birdseed for the birds and squirrels that would be searching for food in this winter weather

And finally it snowed... George and Grant were thrilled to wake up to a winter wonderland on Tuesday morning!

They couldn't wait to get out, play in the snow and put that sled to good use!

Weeee!

Now it's George's turn to pull Grant in the sled

Oops! Not too fast, George!

Grant didn't know what to think. He wasn't in love with the snow nor was he cranky about being cold and wet. He was kind of indifferent and inmobile.

We did build a snowman which is styling in Grant's shades!

Frosty sighting in Mt. Airy!

A Match Made in Heaven

Toy Heaven that is. Meet Melissa and Doug. Sorry for those of my blog followers that aren't yet parents and not familiar with these particular brand of toys...

I was lucky enough to attend an engagement party oyster roast in their honor Saturday night in Charlotte. I was thrilled I actually was able to go to this party since I miss out on so many of them regularly living so far far away. Melissa and I are sorority sisters and now she and her husband-to-be are hot shot attorneys in the big city!

I had a wonderful night out sans baby Grant thanks to my sister and brother-in-law and enjoyed reuniting with these beautiful ladies!

College gal pals, Becky and I

ADPi ladies!

Monica and Sarah. Sarah is the Mom of cute little Ben you met in my last post!

This is usually how it goes when we get together, sheer craziness. We were in hysterics all night. We had the best time catching up with each other and reliving college memories.

On a more serious note, I'm excited to attend Melissa and Doug's nuptials in Oriental, NC June 2011! Thanks for a fabulous evening!

We Made It!

Grant and I survived our first trip to North Carolina by car solo! We began our trip last Thursday and drove 3.5 hours to Auburn, (now the home of the National Football Champions, War Eagle I might add) and spent the night with some good friends of ours there. The next morning we began the five hour trek to Charlotte where I was lucky enough to meet this pretty little lady, Betty

Grant loved seeing Betty again as well
Love that little face, I am one proud Aunt!

We stayed in Charlotte two nights and accompanied Grant's cousin George to two birthday parties which were both at bouncy house places, they had a blast and Lesley and I were worn out! Grant loved walking around in this bouncy house he could explore

There's cousin George behind Grant on the alligator

Sweet little Betty has enjoyed watching the boys play the past couple of days.

Grant loves to play with the mobiles on her swing. He has also now included a new word to his vocabulary, baby!

George and Grant now play beautifully together, Grant loves to emuliate George's every move and I guess his sense of style as well

Sunday morning we packed up and headed to Mt. Airy. Before I left town, I swung by my friend Sarah's for I had another little baby to meet, Benjamin Nicholas

Such a handsome little fellow

We've settled into a relaxing routine here in Mt. Airy but of course there's a lot of cutting up going on around here

I guess boys will be boys!

Birthdays and a Change of Plans

Last weekend we celebrated the first birthday of Grant's best bud, Luke! Luke had a monkey themed bash and we had a blast "hanging out" with the Lowery's.

My family of three with Drew, Laurie and Luke
It didn't take long for Grant to gather all of the balloons that were strategically placed for the party for his own enjoyment. He went around the house screaming, "BALLOON, BALLOON!"

Grant had a blast "monkeying" around at Luke's first birthday!

We also celebrated Henry's 3rd birthday and everything was BLUE!

Henry had a jumpy house and Grant loved running around and climbing in and out of it (of course, when the bigger kids would allow it!)

Yipee!

Henry's younger brother, Benton and Grant are just a few months apart and always enjoy playing together. Benton loves to give Grant big bear hugs!

On another note, sadly the store I have been managing since last May closed for business on Saturday leaving me and my staff unemployed. Blame it on the economy or the oil spill, tragically, my store isn't the only one in this shopping centre closing. I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and I'm embracing this opportunity to stay at home with Grant for a little while until the next great opportunity comes along. I've spent the past two days packing up all of the merchandise, bags, boxes and fixtures to be shipped out to other locations and had my official last day today.

I'm excited for all that 2011 has in store for the Yaeger clan! First things first, I'm dying to get back to NC for a visit and now I have the time. I have a niece I'm just dying to meet... stay tuned!