Merry Christmas

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Back to Work

I'm going back to work. 

As I type the words I'm excited and sad. 

Excited because the Lord provided the perfect job for me.  I couldn't have imagined a better job.  I am teaching Kindergarten and 1st Grade part-time at a private school in Knoxville.  I will be teaching math, science, and social studies for 3 hours a day.

Sad because I have loved being home with Cole full time these past few months.

I am thankful that the Lord provided just exactly what we needed when we needed it.  He is always faithful.  He never forgets or forsakes us.  I have been constantly reminded of this the past few months.

So tomorrow starts my new schedule of hanging with Cole all morning and working all afternoon.  Maybe I'll finally start getting up early... maybe...

Santa came early...

and brought me an iphone 4s. 

Source

Lots of playing going on over here!


p.s.  Ray thinks it's his and is secretly hoping I'll say oh why don't you just take it! 

New Niece

A few weeks ago we celebrated my sister-in-law at a baby shower!

 Little Helpers

  And the weekend after Thanksgiving baby girl was born!  

We are so happy to have another niece in the family! I can't wait to met her this weekend!

Anouk Eloise Barnes

November 27, 2011

 Proud Daddy!

Cousins and more cousins.

This month we have been traveling a lot - (or maybe it just feels like a lot since I am going out of town again next week).  But we are having tons of fun with our families.  And Cole has been having lots of fun with his cousins. 

I spent a week with my sister, Laura, helping her take care of the twins and Kate. 
Cole loves his cousin Kate.  He just smiles when he sees her and she always is acting silly so he just laughs and laughs at her.  She loves playing with Cole and teaching him things. 

Ray took Cole down to North Augusta to celebrate Brody's 1st birthday!  I think Cole enjoyed playing with Brody's toys!

Over the Thanksgiving weekend we got to enjoy our cousins again.  Cole like to tackle Brody.  Brody is so sweet and calm and mostly just lets him.  I believe I have a wild little boy.

Brody, get out of my way. 

The Parrish Men

We enjoyed visiting with my cousins from Kentucky and grabbing a quick picture of almost all my Grandmama's great - grandchildren.

Clapping

Cole finally learned to clap yesterday.  I have to say I was a little worried that it was taking him so long to learn to clap.  But he did it for the first time last night and today he has just been clapping all day long!

9 months

Cole is 9 months old.  (or was several weeks ago and i'm just now getting around to writing this).

He is such a blessing and such a fun little guy!  He is doing so much now and continues to learn more and more each day.  He is at such a fun, busy and tiring stage.

He is crawling all over the place.  fast.  He is into everything.
He definitely understand what "No" means but thinks its ok to do it again if he gives me a sweet smile after.
He is pulling up and cruising around the room holding onto the furniture and everything else he can get to.
He can stand without holding onto something for a pretty long time - like 8 -10 seconds or so.
He took his first steps!  Although they aren't very steady, he is not afraid to do it at all.  We will see how long it takes for him to get more stable with walking.


He is definitely keeping me busy and making me tired daily but I'm so thankful for him and we love him so much!

Little LIon

We didn't do much for Halloween.  But we did dress Cole up and try to take pictures. He wasn't really happy about it. 

Especially when I took his passy.

Pumpkin Patch and Farm

My mom came to visit last weekend so we decided to take Cole to the pumpkin patch at Deep Well Farm.   It was a lot of fun.

Where have we been?

It's been a crazy few weeks around here...

We moved into a new apartment/townhouse 2 weekends ago.  With the help of some awesome new friends we have all our stuff back and out of storage.  We're slowly but surely getting settled...

Then...

Ray and I went on a cruise to the Bahamas with some friends.  It was relaxing, refreshing, and awesome to get to spend some time together. 

But we came back to a sick little baby boy :(  Sweet Cole got croup while we were gone.  So this past week we stayed in the house and focused on getting well.  (Ray ended up sick too!) 

We had a great weekend this past weekend when my mom (Mimi) came to visit.  (More on that to come) and we are ready for a busy week as we're headed down to SC soon to stay with my sister and help her with the babies and visit Ray's family and celebrate cousin Brody's 1st birthday...


I think in January life slows down... maybe...

My Little Gamecock

8 months

This post is a little late BUT my boy is 8 months old.  I can't believe he is growing up.  (I think I say that every month!)  He is crawling everywhere now but he definitely prefers to stand.  He is pulling up on everything.  It is so fun watching him grow and discover new things. 

Egg in the Hole

Normally I sleep until Cole wakes up (between 7 and 8) but have decided that I need to start getting up early and get the day started before he wakes up.  I also want to help my husband in the mornings since he works so hard so that I can stay home with Cole.  I made myself get up this morning and I made Ray breakfast before he left for work (around 6:30 am)

I made him Egg in the Hole because I knew he would love it. 

And he did.  He even tweeted about it. 

(And of course we needed coffee at 6 am)

And since I was in a cooking mood today and because my sweet friend Carrie was joining us for dinner I made this AHHH-MAZING Chicken for dinner.  The sauce was so great that I saved some to marinate some more chicken in this weekend.  Yummy day here!

p.s.  tomorrow is moving day!  The POD is coming. The POD is coming! yay!

Sunday Afternoon

hike with Cole in the new pack!

Announcing..

 ...the birth of my new nephews on October 6th!

Asher Everett Putnam

6 lbs 6 oz ~ 19.5 in.

 

Noah Pierce Putnam

6 lbs 12 oz. ~ 20 in. 

Everyone is doing great and these boys are so sweet!  

Praise God for his faithfulness.