It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We have been busy putting away our fall decorations and putting the Christmas decorations up.  I love Christmas time and this year Meredith is really getting into it.  Kyle put the tree up this weekend.  On Tuesday Wes came over.  He and Meredith "helped" me put ornaments on the tree.  They put about 90% of the ornaments in one spot on the tree! 

In other news, we are crazy about Elf on the Shelf around here!  We recorded the Elf on a Shelf movie and Meredith watches it about 3 times a day.  Our elf, Ooddle, came about a week ago.  We love Ooddle.  If you are not familiar with Elf on the Shelf let me tell you about him.

Santa sent us our elf last year and now he is back.  Each day Ooddle watches Meredith and Charlotte to make sure they are being good.  At night when we are asleep Ooddle flies to the North Pole to report to Santa how M & C's day was.  Then he flies back and sits in a new spot for the next day.  Every morning the first thing Meredith does is look for Ooddle.  The crazy guy has been all over the house.  If you come to our house this time of year please follow one rule...do not touch Ooddle.  If you touch him he will lose his magic!  That is Santa's rule that comes with the elf.  Here are some of the places we have found Ooddle.

Day 1

 Here he is the first day he came to our house.  Do you see him?

There he is!

Day 2

Day 3

I'm sure Ooddle was relieved to discover these weren't reindeer antlers!

Day 4...and 5

Ooddle was in the dinning room on day 4, then a funny thing happened.  When Meredith woke up on day 5 much to every one's surprise he was in the same spot.  We figured he liked the spot so much he went back to it!

Day 6

Day7

Hanging on the curtain rod in Meredith's room.

Day 8

Do you see him?

There he is.  This has been Meredith's favorite place to find Oddle.

We really love Ooddle. I wonder where he will be tomorrow? 

Quality time with Meredith

Kyle and I try to schedule quality time with Meredith whenever we can.  We don't want her to ever feel like we are spending all our time with Charlotte.  She has been an amazing big sister! She is very patient when we have to rock, feed, change and carry Charlotte all the time.  There have only been a few times that she has told us to put Charlotte down.  Kyle and I are so proud of her.  We know things could be much harder managing two kids!

A few weeks ago Kyle took the day off so we could take Meredith to the zoo.  Charlotte stayed home with Teresa so it was just "Meredith time".  She loved the zoo.  The elephants were one of her favorite animals.  There were two baby elephants splashing in the water and throwing hay around.

When we got to the giraffes she got a huge surprise.  She got to feed the giraffes!  The zookeepers gave her lettuce to feed them.  She held the lettuce out and the giraffes ate it right out of her hand!  She absolutely loved it!

When we were leaving we passed the gift shop.  Meredith said she thought she "needed" a stuffed giraffe because she got to feed a real giraffe.  How could we say no to that?  She played with it for five minutes in the car.

Then she fell asleep! She still sleeps with her giraffe.

Last week Kyle took another day off.  We took Meredith to the children's museum and then out to lunch.  She loved spending time with us doing just "Meredith things" no errands!





Charlotte has some big news!

Hmmm ... something feels funny.

What!?!?!

I have two teeth!

Summer 2011

It has been a busy and wonderful summer for us.  Here are a few pictures of our summer.

Meredith's third birthday



Charlotte joined our family!

Fun at the Children"s Museum!

At Hank and Wes' baseball game.

Now it is Fall, which means football is back!

Charlotte Conley Leonard

On Monday, July 18th at 8:34 am our precious daughter, Charlotte Conley, was born.  She weighed 8 pounds and 4 ounces and was 20 inches long.  We are so blessed to have her!  She is such a sweet baby.

Proud Daddy!

Meredith was so excited to meet her little sister!  She picked out her big sister shirt months before Charlotte was here and she could not wait to wear it.  Here she is at the hospital when she first saw her.

Meredith loves being a big sister.  We were told by several people that when you bring a new baby home the older child has trouble adjusting.  I am happy to say that Meredith has not had any issues with Charlotte.  She is always hugging and kissing her and she loves to help do things for "her baby". 

Charlotte wore home the same dress I wore home from the hospital.  Meredith also wore this dress when we brought her home.  It was hand made by Flo.  She made several dress for Jennifer and me.  I am so happy my mom kept them.  Hopefully one day my granddaughter will wear this dress home from the hospital as well.

Here are a few more pictures of our precious Charlotte.

One week old

Sleeping in daddy's arms.

I love sleeping babies!

6 weeks old!

Watching football with daddy!

My good friend Joslyn Paris is a photographer.  She took Charlotte's newborn pictures.

Meredith is 3!!!

On Saturday, July 2nd, Meredith turned 3!  We had her friend birthday party back in May.  On Saturday we had her family party. G' Daddy, Gigi, Papa, Granna, Aunt Sissy, Uncle Ryan, Aunt Lucy, Uncle Kevin and all the cousins came over to help celebrate.  She loved opening presents (big surprise!).

For the last two weeks Meredith has been very in to Strawberry Shortcake...or as she calls it Strawberry Cupcake!  Kyle and I gave her some Strawberry Shortcake dolls and a club house and she loves them.  G' Daddy and Gigi gave her lots of awesome toys and a special baby doll.  G' Daddy always picks a special baby for his only granddaughter and Meredith loves it.  Granna gave her the game Pretty Pretty Princess which she loves.  I love watching Kyle play it with her and put on jewelry.  He is a great daddy!  Every Christmas and birthday Papa gives Meredith a Limoges box.  I love this tradition.  It will be something Meredith will always have and love.  This year he gave her a beautiful box with a bear holding balloons on it.  It is perfect for a third birthday. Aunt Lucy, Uncle Kevin and Audrey gave her a princess book and princess dolls.  We spend a lot of time playing with the princess doll.  The Hall's gave her giant building blocks which are awesome.  She will play with those for hours!

Her cake was a Strawberry Shortcake cake.  It has a tone of red, pink and green frosting!  She loved it!  Our friends Joslyn, Jack and Evy came over to enjoy cake with us.  I think sweet Luke liked the cake the best!

It was a fantastic day!