Movin on up

A few weeks ago we made the big transition to big girl bed for Meredith! I was a little nervous the day of, because the night before, Neal and I worked diligently to clean out the extra bedroom to make room for Meredith's old baby furniture. When she woke up and walked past the room she was a bit disturbed to find all of the things that used to be there gone. But after a quick explanation, the transition was relatively easy. She napped well the first day and didn't protest at all the first night. Since then, we have lots of requests for us to sleep in her bed and she has figured out that she can open her door without getting out of bed if she doesn't agree that it is quite bedtime yet - we are just hoping she is this easy at adjusting to all the changes she is about to experience.

And best of all, she has seemed to actually like that her old stuff is now in Jillian's room. We are still working hard to get the new nursery all put together - I bought her some new bedding on a great sale, so now I am just looking for the perfect accessories like I worked so hard to find for Meredith - hopefully I will have pictures to show of her room soon!

Meredith's big girl bed, which can be a trundle, so perfect for little girl sleep overs! I kept the same decor in the room as she had in her nursery because I liked it so much. All I had to do was get new bedding, which thanks to Gigi and her fantastic shopping skills, we were able to find this comforter that is almost identical to the toddler blanket that we had orignally, so it looks great with everything else, too!

I looked hard to find some furniture that had a desk to match so that she could use this furniture as she grows - I am thinking we might need to get a bigger chair before then, I guess!

I am really happy with how it is turning out, now I just need to rearrange some of the things on the walls to get them centered over the new furniture, but I'll get to that sooner or later!

A little "big girl" all snuggled up in her bed!

Our Little Gymnast

Meredith has been going to Little Gym for about a year now and has learned so much! She loves to go, especially to see her favorite teacher, Mr. Jeremy. He helped her really come out of her shell with all the equipment and now loves to walk on the balance beam without even needing our help, swing from the uneven bars, tumble on the mats, and play in the parachute. And the biggest achievement with Mr. Jeremy was getting over her fear of the "tumble track" (a really big inflatable mat that the kids LOVE to bounce on, but made too much of a noise for Meredith to want to join in.)

Last night was the last session of Little Gym, and to celebrate all their hard work, the kids got medals. I had to miss the class, so when I got home, I got to hear all about the struggle Daddy had with trying to get her to go to bed without the medal. Even after he would take it from her, she would sneak out of bed and put it back on. He finally won the little battle, but first thing the next morning, she had it right back on and came running in to proudly show it to me. She kept it on all day today and couldn't wait until we got to Aunt Sandy's to show it to her and then of course, Uncle Perry, too!

Running through the living room so happy to be with her "menal."
Practicing her Olympic Gold Medal kiss.
A common sight today - Meredith playing, medal still around her neck.

Happy Belated Birthday Landon!

A week ago we got to wish our sweet nephew, Landon a happy first birthday and then got to celebrate with a fun pajama birthday party complete with great waffles to eat!

Meredith loved "helping" Landon unwrap his presents and definitely enjoyed the chance to have a cupcake around breakfast time. Of course Landon LOVED his cake - we weren't sure he would ever get enough!

Happy Birthday sweet boy!

Our Alabama Christmas

Our last stop for celebrating Christmas was in Alabama with Neal's extended family. We typically try to go see them around Easter each year, but this year, Jillian should be making her debut around that time, so we decided to push up the trip a bit. We stayed with Neal's grandma who we call Granny Annie to Meredith, but when she says it, it sounds like Anny Annie, and it is so cute! We had a Christmas dinner with both of Neal's uncles came with each of their kids. Winston is just about 5 months older than Meredith so they had a ball!

All of Anny Annie's grands...Jessica is 13, Winston will be 3 in March. I think it is so fun that even though the cousin's ages (since Neal is the oldest at 30) is a bit spread that our kids are going to be close to Winston growing up!

Meredith somewhat reluctantly shared her books and chair with Winston for story time.\

The two little ones loved playing in Meredith's pack-n-play. They would pretend to be different animals and then they would wrestle. Sometimes the adults were a little worried about how rough the wresting was, but neither Winston or Meredith seemed to mind it at all!

Cuddling in Anny Annie's lap with a good book.

One afternoon we went to go visit Neal's other Aunt and Uncle (on the Hanks side). They live in a beautiful home with a pond right behind the house. We went out to check out the ducks and geese and Meredith picked a few flowers for Bubbie and Aunt Kathie while we were there.

Playing at the park down the street from Anny Annie's house. Neal used to play at this park when he would visit her as a little boy - there is even some of the same toys there that he remembered!

Meredith's favorite thing to do with Anny Annie was to feed her birds - she did this every day we were there and it was definitely the highlight of the trip. I am thinking the birds miss her now that we are home since there is probably a little less found on the ground.

Santa visits the Geurin house

After a nap to recover from Christmas with Bubbie, we headed back to my parent's house because we heard Santa had visited there and left a few things for our sweet little girl.

Meredith cruising in the "Blue Car" that she kept asking for from Santa. I was very hesitant to allow Santa to bring something like this since we had already talked to him about bringing other things, but he insisted when he found this one. She has loved it - especially because it comes with tools which she uses to "fix" the car every few feet or so...

Aunt Katie and Uncle Neil's dog, Winnie, was staying with my parents while they visited Katie's parents, so Meredith enjoyed the very nice day with Winnie, in the backyard.

Meredith loves to watch Winnie (who is a retired Greyhound racer) do laps in the backyard

Christmas Brunch with Bubbie and Grandad

Our first stop on Christmas morning was to visit Bubbie and Grandad for our traditional brunch. Bubbie made a great egg casserole which we were able to eat before opening presents (somehow I am thinking that next year she might not let that happen again!)

Posing with the tree and the presents at Bubbie's!

Meredith and Bubbie looking through the toy book that has been at Bubbie's for awhile. They have a nice routine of "reading" this together and finding certain toys.

Christmas Morning at Home

Neal and I were very excited for Christmas morning because we knew how hard Santa had worked to find just the right gifts for Meredith this year. She has loved a small train set she got for her birthday and we heard that Santa got a great deal on an expanded version on Black Friday. Daddy was especially happy about this because he loves playing trains with her! We also hinted to Santa that Meredith would be very surprised to get her own makeup set, so we think he found another great deal so she got to get both! She must have been such a good girl!

Santa's handy work by our fireplace. Neal said it looks like we have a boy and a girl in our house!

When Meredith woke up, we had to remind her that Santa had visited. She was a little hesitant that he might still be lurking, but as soon as she saw her "Choo Choo Twaaaiiin!" she was no longer too concerned. The only problem came when she saw that Santa had actually eaten her cookies. She still acts very sad when she remembers that he ate them all!

Even though she shouted the loudest about the train, she ran immediately to her vanity and started to work on her hair. She loves putting on makeup with me, so I knew she would enjoy that part of the vanity, but so far she has been much more interestedin doing her hair. She loves her hair dryer and putting in curls!

Meredith testing out the train. She and daddy have had so much fun with this!

Showing off some candy from her stocking.

Before we headed out to the rest of our Christmas day stops, we opened a few presents that were from us to Meredith, including a doll house that she loves. She almost immediately lost the pink baby, which was very hard on her until Daddy found it tonight (after we had torn the house apart). She has named the big sister Sarah and the blue baby, Wally (or really, I am guessing Wall-E from the Disney movie.) Maybe now the pink baby will get a name!

So happy to be testing out her doll house!

Merry Christmas - Christmas Eve with the Geurin Family

This is a week belated, but I finally have a few minutes to post some fun pictures and stories of Christmas with Meredith!

We kicked off Christmas as usual with Christmas Eve service with my family at our church. I was very hopeful to get to see the whole thing for the first time in the past few years (since it is a little long for the little ones!) We made it much further than normal, but Landon taking a break to go hang out in the lobby sent Meredith to tears wanting to see him. So we followed behind Uncle Neil and got to play with Meredith's best friends Sarah and Rachel until it was time to light the candles. I convinced Meredith she would love the pretty lights and we were able to finish out the evening with everyone else.

We headed back to my parent's house for dinner and then lots of fun with the family. Meredith had helped Gigi with adding lots and lots of bows to everyone's presents, which made them even more festive!

Meredith and Landon in their best Christmas duds - Meredith shows Landon how to rip into the presents!

Meredith and Landon cuddling with Gigi - the little ones are comfy in their jammies now, plus Meredith has added a princess dress from Gigi and Papa on top!

As soon as we got home, we made a plate of cookies for Santa and were off to bed. Meredith was still not too sure what to think of Santa visiting our house, but anytime there are cookies involved in an activity, Meredith is all for it!