Christmas Lights 2021

We had the day after Christmas to spend as a family of 4 as well, so we planned our Christmas light adventure that evening. We decided not to go to Hollywild again this year because they were not having the petting zoo again. Instead, our zoo had their first ever Christmas light display. It was so much fun! We got to enjoy the lights and see most of the animals (the lions were awake and very active, something we rarely see in the dayime). Afterwards, we drove around to a few spots we knew had a lot of lights. The girls had a blast and we loved watching their joy at the lights.

Christmas 2021 - Part 2

We celebrated our Christmas at our house on Christmas Day. It was a nice, low-key day at home that included opening gifts, a big breakfast (with cinnamon rolls, the highlight of the meal) and watching Charlie Brown’s Christmas. I did start the day out with an attempt at some portraits in front of the tree in their Christmas pj’s…as you can see, Zoe was not a fan of this plan.

I love that the girls are both old enough now to pick out what they want to give each other for Christmas. Ava was so excited to get Zoe the JJ doll, from Cocomelon. Zoe picked out a book for Ava through the Scholastic book club at her school but we knew it wouldn’t arrive in time. So, I took her to Target to pick out a small gift for Ava to be able to open. After much searching, she picked a BFF necklace and some hair ties for Ava.

As usual, we did our 3 categories of gifts plus something for them to give. This year, they actually ended up giving multiple gifts. We made our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes as usual. Zoe’s dance studio also collected gift cards for the Greenville Foster Parent Association and we let the girls each pick out a gift card to give. Then I got an email from a friend who is a missionary in India. She said that she and some friends there were working to create shoeboxes for the slum kids. Because India is a closed country, OCC can’t deliver shoeboxes as a Christian organization. So, these ladies wanted to do something for the slum kids for Christmas. We had each of our girls donate the suggested amount to create a box. The report from my friend was that they over-budgeted what it would cost to create a box for the kids and were able to actually give them blankets and a meal on top of the fun backpack/box! We love teaching our girls that Christmas is not just about getting presents and that there are many people around the world that are much less fortunate than they are. We hope that these little gestures will help them as they grow up to care for the less fortunate.

For the girls’ first gift from us, we did something they needed. Ava needed larger ice skates and was so excited to get new ones. Unfortunately, her foot is growing so fast the new ones were too small so we had to order a different pair. Zoe was super excited about her new lunch box, thermos and bento box. She loves staying late on Fridays at school and eating her lunch there. She’s been using an old lunch bag of mine so now she has her own like a big girl.

As always, both girls got a few books featuring brown skinned characters as their something to read gift.

Their final gift was something they wanted. Ava had been asking for Disney Princess barbie style dolls and was so happy to get them. Zoe is our little architect/engineer so we got her a Princess lego set. We never ventured into legos with Ava but Zoe is in love with them!

Both girls loved searching their stockings for the little surprises in them. One of the favorites was a craft box that DJ and I found at the Indie Craft Parade Pop Up Shop. They are from Re-Craft Greenville that uses all recycled items to create crafts. They were old cigar boxes that included stamps, maps, random magazine pages and mod podge that you could use to decorate the box any way you want. The girls loved putting them together and it was a fun Christmas weekend craft.

We had a really nice Christmas day as a family. These 2 girls didn’t get a gift this year (sorry pups) but they loved being with us and both looked so cute in front of the tree that I had to get their pictures too (Kate was hiding somewhere as usual).

Christmas Eve 2021 - Portraits

I convinced the girls to wear their matching outfits for the Christmas Eve service and to take some portraits before we left. Well, I didn’t have to convince Zoe to match Ava but Ava is not a fan of matching her little sister anymore. I told her, at least for this year, Christmas is one time that I do really want you to match. We’ll see how much longer I can pull that off…probably not even next year. I hadn’t planned on making the girls any clothes for Christmas but Zoe convinced me to go to Joann with her and pick out some Christmas fabric after she was looking through my fabric scraps. I found this fabric that matched the shirts I had already bought them so it ended up being a super cute and super easy project. And I really do not know what these crazy girls were doing during these pictures. After pictures, we headed to the Christmas Eve service at our church with my mom and DJ’s parents, where Ava was so excited to hold her own candle for the first time. It was so nice to be able to attend the service in person this year!

Christmas 2021 - Part 1

This year we enjoyed celebrating Christmas with our families! We spent a couple days before Christmas with my side of the family and then a couple days after Christmas with DJ’s family. Unfortunately, due to a new job (which is exciting), my brother wasn’t able to come up for Christmas this year. We hated not being able to see him this year but were very happy to get to spend some time with Jenn, Piper and Ana, their exchange student from Spain. We spent some time with them at my mom’s house and the girls loved playing with the big girls. We loved meeting Ana and getting to know her and hear all about her time in the States. And thanks to Ana, we actually got a full group picture!

After having our Christmas with my mom, we were able to celebrate our Christmas with my dad’s side of the family. Due to my mom and grandmother’s recent surgeries, they couldn’t travel to my aunt and uncle’s house so we offered to host. It was so fun being able to have my whole family at our house for the first time. We are thankful we have the space to host family gatherings now. Sadly, little Lucy ended up with a cold so she and Will weren’t able to come over. The girls were bummed they couldn’t play with Lucy but they loved meeting their newest cousin, Olivia and playing with Ana, Piper and Blake. The “girl gang” had a blast together and we all loved watching them play. It was such a special day together as a family but we were all missing 3 men who would have loved being there with everyone, my Grampie, my dad and my cousin Ryan. Family gatherings are just not the same without those guys.

Christmas Cookies 2021

As usual, the girls and I made gingerbread men for Christmas this year. We typically make them early in December to have for Christmas gifts for teachers but decided not to do that again this year with COVID. And as you can see in the pictures, we made the cookies in typical 2021 fashion….Zoe had a little cough so to be safe, she wore her mask while helping. We didn’t want to add any germs to the cookies, just LOTS of sprinkles. Maybe next year we can go back to more normal life and give cookies out to our teachers/friends. But, even if not, we will still enjoy making them!

Random Phone Photo Dump

Here are some random pictures from my phone from the past few weeks.

Kate is loving our screened in porch these days! She asks to go out all the time.

Zoe wanted to try on my Derby hat….she looks super cute in it!

Winnie wasn’t thrilled with the girls playing dress up with her.

When Zoe asks me to take her picture, I happily oblige.

Ava had some fun dress up days the last 3 Friday's before Christmas break. I only got a picture on the first day - Wacky Christmas Day

Free hair day before having it braided again by Ms. Tiffany

Zoe’s last day of school before Christmas break was the day she’s been waiting for all year - PJ day!!

Twinkle Bear Tree

Zoe’s dance studio was asked to sponsor a Christmas tree at the Hyatt this year. They had each of the dancers decorate Twinkle Bear ornaments during class that they put on the tree. We made sure to take the girls to see Zoe’s tree and all the other fun trees. We just love our dance studio!

Zoe’s Dance Costume

I convinced Zoe to let me take some portraits of her in her recital costume….well, in part of it at least. She looked so cute dressed as a penguin during her dance. She didn’t want to wear all the accessories in the pictures so I worked with what she was willing to do. And of course, in true Zoe fashion, she got super silly during the pictures. We love our little penguin dancer!

Zoe’s Winter Showcase 2021

Zoe had her dance recital the first Saturday in December. This was her first real recital on a big stage because of COVID. The recital was at Furman and we were so excited to be able to share this special event with family. This was the first time Ava and grandparents were able to come see Zoe perform live, again because of COVID. The dance studio was so excited to finally be able to put on this showcase and it was such a fun event, especially with the surprise guest, Anna! Zoe did such a great job during her dance. I wasn’t able to take pictures during the performance but we will get professional photos in a few weeks, hopefully. We are so proud of our little dancer!

Christmas Tree 2021

After almost not being able to cut our own tree last year, we decided to go get our tree a week early this year. We headed out the day after Thanksgiving to cut our tree this year. We drove past a farm in Greenville but they didn’t have many trees and the parking lot was packed. So, we headed on to the farm we went to 2 years ago (and tried to go to last year) near Liberty. Thankfully, this farm had tons of beautiful trees and we were able to pick out a great tree. We love cutting our tree down each year and the girls had a blast picking it out and then decorating that afternoon (with the dogs’ help).

Family Portraits 2021

We had our family portraits taken again this fall and our friend, Katelyn, did a great job capturing our family as usual! There are just too many good ones to share….

Basketball

This fall we entered a new world…the world of team sports. Ava started playing on her very first sports team this fall, the Trinity Blue Angels 7-9 year old girls basketball team. We were not pursuing basketball but our pastor’s wife texted one day asking if Ava would like to play on her team. She was coaching her daughter’s team through a different church and needed some more players. We asked Ava if she was interested and she said she was. She was super nervous the first couple of practices and the first game but she quickly fell in love with the game. And apparently we ended up with a great team - their first game was a major shut out and they are currently undefeated! It is fun to watch her play and DJ is super excited to have a basketball buddy.

Occupational Therapy

The Monday before Thanksgiving was a big day for Ava. It was her last day in Occupational Therapy! She started OT when she was 3 years old and has been going weekly since then (with a short break when things shut down because of COVID). Over the years she’s worked with several different OTs - Miss Lauren, Miss Nikki, Mrs. Gayle, Mrs. Sarah, Mrs. Regan and Miss Blaire. I think she saw almost every single OT that worked in the clinic at some point when her regular OT was out. And for a few years she was also in PT, working with Mrs. Lisa (and the other Mrs. Lauren when Lisa was out). Needless to say, the people at ATS Kids have become like family. We are so thankful for all the time they poured into Ava’s life over the past 6 years. It was hard to say goodbye to them but we knew it was time for Ava to move on. She learned so much (as did DJ and I) from these ladies and we are forever grateful to them! Her last day she actually got to spend time with her very first OT, Miss Lauren, and her last OT, Miss Blaire. We are so thankful for ATS Kids and so proud of how far Ava has come in the past 6 years!

Preschool Portraits

Zoe’s preschool had fall portraits taken this year. The photographer captured some great shots of Zoe! Cannot believe this girl will be in big girl school next year!

Halloween 2021

Halloween this year was pretty low key again, due to COVID. We did not want to go trick or treating again this year with COVID starting to surge again so we opted for a friend’s outdoor party instead. Our friends, the Scogins, invited us to their chili dinner/book swap/smores party. It was a really fun evening and a chance to catch up with several friends we hadn’t seen in a long time (again thanks to COVID). The girls had a great time and especially loved their smores. Zoe decided to be Mira the Royal Detective this year and Ava dressed up as a unicorn. Zoe even got to wear her costume 3 times this year - once at dance, once at school and on Halloween. I didn’t get great pictures of the girls (little one didn’t want to take any) but thankfully we got a couple on our phones for the memories.

Apple Picking Through The Years

And of course, I have to compare pictures of the girls picking apples through the years. I love it but it is also torture. They are growing too fast!

Skytop 2021

We were excited to take our annual trip up to Skytop to pick apples this year. We took advantage of Ava’s fall break and went on a Monday morning. It was amazingly not crowded at all when we got there, which was so nice. We had heard that the orchards didn’t have as many apples this year due to a late freeze in the spring so we prepped the girls on the fact that we may not be able to pick apples. Well, we decided to get our donuts first thing and while we were waiting in line for them to open up we watched an employee erase the chalkboard that had info about pick your own apples. A few minutes later, a lady came to the board and started writing a note that u-pick was closed for the season. Thankfully, they had plenty of apples in the fruit stand so we were able to enjoy our donuts, apple cider and bring home a big bag of Pink Lady apples. We also enjoyed playing on the playground, walking around the orchard, going through the bamboo forest and seeing the animals. We especially loved the gorgeous peacocks. It was a fun day in the mountains!

Zoe is 4 and a half!

I cannot believe I am writing this update. I do not want to admit that Zoe is halfway to 5. But, I know that even if I am in denial, she is actually four and a half. She is just growing up way too fast and I really wish I could slow down time. Zoe has grown and changed so much the past 6 months. She’s had a lot of big firsts as well so it has been a busy 6 months for this little girl.

Zoe is now 41.25” tall. She is wearing mostly size 4T clothes. She can wear a few 5T tops but they are hand me downs so it is hard to know if they are actually true to size. She is wearing size 9 shoes. She is actually able to still wear a lot of the clothes she wore last fall. I even found a picture of her wearing a dress 2 falls ago that she was wearing just the other day. She is growing but is still so petite.

One big event that happened during the past 6 months was having her tooth pulled. The tooth she chipped back at the beginning of quarantine (right before her 3rd birthday) ended up getting infected. We think she hit it again when she and Ava were playing. She had been complaining about it hurting and thankfully had a dentist appointment coming up. The dentist noticed a bulge in her gums right above the tooth and said it was probably infected and needed to come out. We scheduled an appointment for that a few weeks later but 2 days later she started running a fever with no other symptoms. Thankfully, DJ had the thought that it could be the tooth, which it was. They put her on an antibiotic and moved her appointment up. The process of having the tooth pulled was very traumatic for DJ and I but Zoe doesn’t remember a thing. She was so out of it and doesn’t remember screaming (wanting to get out of the straps they had her in to keep her still). We are so thankful she doesn’t remember it! She looks super cute with her gap tooth smile too!

Another big event from the past 6 months was Zoe’s first dance recital. This happened just 2 days after she started the fever for the tooth. We were nervous she would have to miss the recital until we realized what was actually causing the fever. We were so thankful she didn't have to miss it because she had worked so hard all semester learning her dances and was super excited to perform. She got to perform with her hip hop class to “Party Rock Anthem'' and with her ballet class to “Tomorrow” from Annie. She was a little nervous the day of the performance but she did great! We were so proud of how well she did. Over the summer she did 2 different dance camps and we got to go watch her dance on the last day of each camp. Now this fall, she is still doing her hip hop class. She looks forward to hip hop every week. She loves the dancing but also loves the tumbling part of the class. She has really perfected her bridge and her forward roll. They are just now making plans and starting choreography for their Christmas recital and we can’t wait to watch her perform again.

And perhaps the biggest change in the past 6 months is that Zoe started preschool. She goes to preschool Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings. Those might be her favorite days of the week. She loves feeling like a big kid getting dropped off in car line and walking right into school. Zoe loves her teacher, Mrs. Sharpe. She is also making some sweet friends. I think her best friend is a little girl named Chloe. Every day she and Chloe play with either legos or baby dolls. Each week they have a different letter and different theme they are learning about. Zoe is getting really great at recognizing her letters. She is also really good at writing them. She is such a little perfectionist so when she wants to learn how to write a letter she will work on it over and over until she gets it right (and sometimes gets very frustrated when she can’t figure it out). This girl loves learning and was made for school!

One area that hasn’t changed a ton in the past 6 months is the food she’s eating. She still eats like a bird most meals but she appears to be full and she’s growing so we don’t push her to eat too much. A new favorite food is grits. She loves to eat grits with butter for lunch. For a couple of weeks that was pretty much all she ate for lunch. She still loves her carbs and prefers to just eat bread and plain pasta. She also still loves fruit and avocado. She’s been big into smoothies lately, which is a great way to get veggies in her diet. One of her favorite snacks is pretzels dipped in peanut butter. She still eats her yogurt and applesauce pouches every morning for breakfast. 

Zoe’s favorites in other areas haven’t changed a ton in the past 6 months either. She still loves music and prefers Disney music to anything else (especially Disney Jr music like Mira the Royal Detective). Speaking of Mira, that is one of her favorite TV shows now. She also still loves Vampirina, Yoohoo to the Rescue, Puppy Dog Pals, and Gabby’s Dollhouse. But, her all time favorite TV show right now is Cocomelon. If she has a chance to watch TV without Ava (like during hair time or when I need to get a little work done), she always chooses Cocomelon. She is beyond excited for some new episodes to come out this week (as are we since we are a little tired of hearing the same songs over and over). 

Zoe’s favorite toys these days are anything she can build with. She has become obsessed with magnatiles. She will spend so much time building different houses/structures for her Little People princesses. She also loves to build with the waffle blocks and mega blocks. Like I said before, she says almost every day after school that she played with Legos. It is fun to watch her little engineering brain work as she creates these buildings. Maybe she will be an architect when she grows up! She also still loves her baby dolls. She went through a phase of not really playing with them but recently has been playing with them almost daily. She is a sweet little mama to her babies. But, the toy she is still completely attached to is Eeyore. She carries him everywhere, changes his clothes daily and sleeps with him every night. 

Zoe still loves to read books and loves to go to the library to pick out new books. Some new favorites from the library are the Click, Clack, Moo books. She loves these and thinks they are so funny. She also still loves any book about Winnie the Pooh (and of course Eeyore). Some other series she likes are Clifford, Angelina Ballerina, Fancy Nancy and any Disney princess books. She really loves any books with animals or babies in them and that is what she tries to find when we go to the library.

Zoe is still our little social butterfly. She is so happy now that we feel more comfortable going out and being around people (COVID has been hard for her little extroverted self). She loves going to church to see her friends and play on the new playground. She loves being with her dance friends. And she especially loves being at school and being around people. She gets so keyed up when we are around people and usually gets super silly. Sometimes it seems like she might be a little nervous around a crowd so she gets extra silly with one of us. But then she settles down and runs off to play. Speaking of silly, she still loves to make us laugh and is always trying to be funny (as you can see in some of these pictures). She makes us smile all the time with her smile that lights up the room. She does still have her attitude and gets very frustrated (especially when things don’t work the way she wants them to) but can usually calm down easily and use her words.

Zoe is still just such a joy to us and our family. We love her so much and are so thankful to have the privilege of watching her grow. But, as I’ve said before, we know someone very special is missing out on that privilege every day and we know how hard that is for her. We do not take any of this lightly and we think about Zoe’s birth mama all the time. We are so blessed to have her as part of our lives!

Happy half birthday, Zoe girl!! We love you to the moon and back!!

Biltmore Visit

Fall is always a super busy time for me with portrait sessions. So, on our last free weekend before the busy season started, we decided to go to Biltmore for the day. We stayed in the winery area and the girls loved playing on the playground, seeing the stickworks maze, checking out the animals and watching a sheepdog demonstration. It was a fun day away together before my Saturdays are booked with portrait sessions.

Recital Photos

We got back the professional photos from Zoe’s recital and the photographer got some amazing shots of Zoe and her dance friends!