Sad Goodbyes, and Daddy's homecoming!

Friday afternoon J.David and I said goodbye or "so long" (b/c they will be back to visit) to our friends Kara and Maren. They are moving next week. Kara and I met when we were around 5 months pregnant with the babies. I was working at the Closet Factory at the time and in the process of designing her closet when we discovered we had the same due date! Maren was actually born 3 weeks before J.David, but we thought it was a pretty wierd coincidence. It has been such a blessing to have them in our lives over this last year+ and we are really going to miss them! Here are some pics from our last playdate with them living here.

Grace, Asher, Maren, J.David, and Grady

Asher and J.David. (i think we have one of them exactly like this at 4 months!)

On to more positive news. Morgan is FINALLY home!! I am not allowed to post when he is out of town so now that he is back i can share. He has been gone since what feels like since the beginning of November. Between the trip to Egypt and this recent project it has been nearly 5-6 weeks that he has been gone. Tonight he came home for 2 weeks of vacation and we couldn't be more excited!! Although he would get to come home most weekends, it was obvious how much J.David missed him daily. We are so thankful to have him home for the holidays! We love you Morgan!!

Pics!

Here are my WAY over due pics. The first ones are of the day we worked on the tree and mantle.

This was J.David all weekend at Breakfast with Santa and the family reunion. ALL OVER!! he really enjoyed the santa breakfast b/c he had nearly an entire cafeteria to walk around. He loved it!!

This was at dinner with my Dad on Friday for our annual holiday shopping/dinner. The past two years we have gone to CPK, there's nothing like finishing off a pizza all by yourself!

Family reunion on Sunday. And Santa came....ha ha ha. I think our Santa weekend is going to need a post of its own so i will save those pics for later this week.
This is my fave!! The weekend after Thanksgiving we played Rock Band at my parents' house. J.David watched and quickly learned how to use a microphone. Today he found this princess flashlight of mine and thought it was a microphone. It was sooo cute!! He can't sing of course, but he says "Go, Go, Go" and holds the "O" part for just a second longer than normal. So we think he believes that he is singing. I love it!!

Update now with pics to come....

Ok, what a crazy last few weeks we have had!! Morgan has been in and out town since early November (gone during the week home for most weekends) and we sure do miss him. He is coming home tonight and we are ready for some good quality Daddy time! I don't realize how much I count on him in the evenings until he leaves again. He is such a great dad!
In addition to that were able to go to Morgan cousin's wedding last weekend in AR and see almost the entire Morgan side of the family!! It was such a special weekend since it is so rare that we are all in one place at one time. Sadly i didn't get any photos! I am really mad at myself for this one b/c there were so many kiddos there and they were so cute playing together. j.david even got tackled for the very first time by his cousin 4 months older!! I realized quickly that JD will probably be more of a baseball player like his daddy and will not be joining Houston on the football field! he proved to not be quite as tough as I gave him credit for. ha ha ha. I know Leslie felt badly about in the incident, but I thought it was quite funny. ha ha ha. The only negative of the entire weekend was coming home with colds. J.David and i both came home with nice little colds that have seemed to linger throughout the week. I just hope they go away before Christmas and don't turn into anything more.
J.David is officially walking...EVERYWHERE!! we called it official the day he turned 13 months and he is so funny to watch. I need to post some video, i know. He is also trying to mimic everything i do and it is so cute!! (i have to keep blowing my nose, so he grabs the tissues and wipes his nose and then throws the tissue in the kitchen through the gate. so funny). I will post some pics this weekend. We are going to enjoy a day of shopping with Pap-pa (my dad)today so i better get ready! Have a great weekend!!