Christmas 2010 Wrap Up

Our sweet Caroline had her first Christmas and it was twice as nice this year for us Wheat's.  Hectic! But nice!  Keeping up with our two instead of one takes a lot more energy.  

Here is how our holiday season went this year....

Cannon enjoyed his very first preschool Christmas party straight from his daddy's lap while Miss Elizabeth read The Night Before Christmas story to all the sweet toddlers.

Caroline enjoyed the story too. 

Just needed something to keep those teeth happy!

It even snowed at the party...yay!!

It wouldn't be the holiday's without the annual Bluffton Christmas Parade!

Look who got a front row seat!

And look at our Bluffton Bobcats football team who were state runner ups this year.

The parade day isn't complete without getting to spend time with KatieLeigh and the Pinckney's.

Aaron thought he was a kid enjoying the beautiful day of the parade too and decided to test his skills on the thing I want to call a skateboard but it doesn't have four wheels......he soon found that out too!

Special gifts from Texas came that needed to be opened right away.....

......so they could be enjoyed a little longer than a couple of days.

The Christmas skirt acted as a soft blanket to curl up to while mommy decorated the tree.

Oh the lovely Christmas pictures we try to capture....

....yep, we captured Caroline never seeing a Christmas ornament before and thinking it was maybe a shinny green apple!

Oh but wait....Cannon gives her a shinny red one now....

....so we removed Cannon and all the shinny ornaments and got to take a very precious picture of just one of our children looking at the camera and smiling.

And we captured cute moments in our winter accessories!

Cannon said good morning (EVERYDAY) to Joseph....

...Mary....

....and baby Jesus!  Seriously, every morning when we walked into his school!

I didn't think Christmas was ever going to get here but it did and we were ready.....

Look what Santa dropped off for a very special boy and girl at our house?

This year our two-year old knew just what to do to his gifts....

...and Caroline got her first pony to ride!

Champ was Cannon's new best buddy.....

....but got pushed aside when a Spider Man spin tooth brush came alive!

And look who liked their new play tent?

Oh look, big enough for two!

Champ joined Cannon at the table for some breakfast.

The day after Christmas was fun too!  Got to start reading our books.....

....and playing in our tent with lots of toys and without a baby sister around.

 

And the best gift of all?  The love we got this year from all of our family and friends.  From Texas to Maryland, down to Florida and up to Pennsylvania.  Christmas is not about how many gifts we get but the love that is given and received.  After all....isn't that the best gift we got?  The birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!

Thank you to all for making our Christmas so special!



8 Months of Sweetness

Look who is 8 months old already?

And still full of all her sweetness!

Caroline, where has the time gone?

You are growing up so fast but I will take every bit of all the wonderful things you have brought into our lives.  You are so independent compared to your big brother.  Maybe you knew from the beginning that you would need to make your own way.  Or maybe you will be the little sister that is a second mommy to your big brother?  Thank you for being you and for being our Sweet Caroline!

My Favorite Christmas Gift

We traveled down to Florida for a very quick 24 hour trip to see the cousins.  While there, Pamela (our family photographer) offered to snap some Christmas pictures of the kids.  What a great gift this was for me and a wonderful memory I will cherish forever in pictures.

Take 1 of the Wheat cousins......

Take 2....

Give Up!

Look At Me Momma!

Our baby girl is growing up and wanting to STAND up!  While she was busy playing with toys on the FLOOR (so I thought), I was not busy watching her and tending to dirty dishes in the kitchen. Here is how I found her once I did take my eyes off of plates and cups and back on my sweet Miss Caroline.

Here is her beautiful smile and her excitement knowing she just did something for the first time and momma caught her in action!  I love seeing you learning new things Caroline.  It's what life should always be about!

A Family Thanksgiving!

I love the Thanksgiving holidays.  Some of my fondest memories of a child are remembering how my cousins and I would get tossed out of the kitchen area while the "adults" would cook.  And how my Papaw would sometimes smoke the turkey in his big "Texas" size silver smoker out in the driveway.  Awwww....I can still remember that smell too of the delicious turkey we would get to eat.  I thank God for my family and now since I'm the adult, there are so many new things to be thankful for. 

This year we headed north for the holidays to show off our new baby girl to her great grandmothers.....and of course experience much cooler weather.  Yes, the top of the list of thankfulness is that my kids have four great grandmothers in their lives.  So this trip we got to see great grandma Wheat and great grandma Santilli.

The trip started out bright and early since we were flying and needed extra time to board the plane.  The plane trip to Maryland was uneventful with the kids....thank goodness!  I had been so anxious leading up to the plane ride and sometimes those are the moments I want to go back and relive because I spend so much time worrying about things that I don't get to enjoy the moment and the memories made with my family.

Did I mention how cold Maryland weather was to us?  Oh my gosh!  Anything under 60 degrees is cold to this Texas girl and I don't think the daytime temperature got over 50 degrees all the days we were there.  The memory of the cold weather though will be that I FORGOT my jacket back in South Carolina!!  See I told you my anxiety had gotten the best of me before leaving and this was my punishment.

Other than leaving my jacket back home, the trip couldn't have been anymore perfect.  Everyday was filled spending time with cousins, cousins and more cousins.  Grandma Wheat came over to spend the night so we got to enjoy her a little longer than we normally do when we are visiting.  At one point there were a lot of people in the house and I thought Cannon would retreat to being his shy self but his cousins played with him and loved on him so much.  He cried when one would have to leave.  You can only imagine how much that broke my heart.  We have no family where we live and to see Cannon (and Caroline) warm up to their cousins was such a great feeling.

While we were there, Grandma W. let us borrow her car and we took a four hour road trip even more north to Pittsburgh, PA.  My 98 year-old grandmother is such a blessing in my life.  She acts like she is 50 with all the energy she has cooking, cleaning and taking care of my two uncles but she complains like she is 100.  She has the right to complain.  We all should be taking care of her, cooking all the meals at holidays and cleaning her house but she insists that she does it because nobody can do it better than her.  Well, she is right.  Nobody I will ever meet can come close to the delicious Italian meals she cooks.  All my life, she has been cooking all her own pasta, sauce, breads and Italian cookies.  Aaron wishes I had her skills but this girl has none!  Grandma Santilli was so happy to see us.  She loved on Cannon and got a kick out of Caroline's independent personality.  I think she gets it from her!  Ha!

This Thanksgiving couldn't have been any sweeter.  The blessings make my heart smile.  Caroline is here and healthy, Cannon is a sweet little boy, Aaron is a wonderful husband and daddy and our family is so loved by the ones we love so much.  It is hard being away from family but we pray they stay close in our hearts and we ask that God keep us all safe until we are together again.

Cannon got to experience sleeping in a big bed

Great-Grandma Wheat and Caroline meeting for the first time

Where Cannon goes, his books go too!

Hey Cannon....did any of the pudding make it in your mouth?

Sweet Caroline on her 1st Thanksgiving

The Wheat's - Thanksgiving 2010

Four generations of Wheat's (Aaron's dad missing)

Four generations of Santilli's (my dad is missing)

Caroline giving love to her great grandma!

Two beautiful girls!

Uncle Scott

Cousin Lindsey

Aunt Blanche

Cousin Kelly

Cousins Jake & Megan

Uncle George & Aunt Nancy

Aunt Barbara & Uncle Bruce

Cousins!!!!

Cannon having fun with the flight attendant button...opps!

This is the sweet pilot that helped us off the plane. 

He said that he was missing his daughters for Thanksgiving and asked if he could hold Caroline while we gathered all our stuff.  I heart nice people!