Visiting Santa

Took the kids to see Santa the other night - Grace and Santa had a good chat before we added Adam to his lap. But there is no way that I could've captured the shot of Adam and Santa this way if I wanted to - it was pure luck!

Busy Weekend

We have been preparing for the holidays and celebrating birthdays this weekend.

Saturday started with our annual outing to find a Christmas tree. Grace and Adam picked out the perfect one and then they stole Santa's sleigh for a joyride :)

After that we went to Cannon's Boot Camp birthday party. Grace played army and seemed to enjoy it. How do you respond when your six-year-old little girl says "Mom where's my gun"??

Of course the weekend wasn't complete until we celebrated Grace's 6th birthday. Sunday was her day! We opened presents, watched her new movie, went out to dinner and had cake. Hard to believe she's 6!

Grace's Birthday Party

We celebrated Grace's 6th birthday last night with 22 of her friends at Build a Bear. It was a fun night complete with Little Caesar's Pizza and cake from Nona's Sweets. All the kids made a friend - most were bears - to take home and seemed to have a great time. Hopefully they all slept really well for their parents!

9 Years!

Do you remember where you were nine years ago? I do. I was saying "I do" to the love of my life. It's hard to believe how much time has passed since we were celebrating in NJ. My dad claims people are still talking about how much fun they had at our wedding. Can't wait to continue the tradition of watching our video tonight - not the real one, the out takes version compliments of my Uncle Pete. He caught all the good stuff!

Sick Baby????

Adam has an ear infection in both ears but does he look sick?? We spent the morning together stuffing envelopes (work stuff) and practicing our milestones. Hard to believe he will be ten months tomorrow!

I'm in Trouble

I got an email from my mom today that told me I hadn't updated the blog in a while and here I am, 37 years old following my mom's orders - you know I love you!

So what happened in the month of October

• Adam and I participated in the Out of the Darkness walk to benefit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.


• The whole family went to Disney on Ice for the celebrations show.


• I got to visit Victory Lane (again) for the Charlotte race.


• Adam had his nine month check up and all is well. He's 21 lbs and allowed to try table food.


• And of course the two of them had a ball for Halloween; although Adam just stayed at the house and watched

I promsie to get better about updating this blog. It's just that this is the busiest time of year for me at work. Thanks for keeping me straight mom!!

September Update

Once again I have slacked off with my updates. It's hard to believe that today is the last day of September. My how time has flown. We started off with a trip to NJ for Labor Day weekend. This was sort of the last hurrah before we slid into a normal routine (even though school had already started).

Grace has adapted well to kindergarten. She loves P.E. and Library time. We are reading lots of books. She is also enjoying this year's dance class (ballet and tap). The only problem is that her class is Monday night at 6 p.m. and without her two-hour nap, she's dragging by the end. I'm sure as the year continues it will get easier. Adam is progressing nicely in child care; he's always so happy - even at 2 a.m. I still can't believe that he is 8 months old. He's crawling and pulling up and eating a lot! Let's see what October brings.

First day of kindergarten

Although she has been in a "school" since she was 12 weeks old, I still found myself crying when I dropped Grace off for her first day of kindergarten. We took Adam to school, then went to Chick-Fil-A for breakfast. While eating she asked me if I was going to cry "happy tears" when I took her to school. I said "of course I will, you're growing up". After that we came home to gather her things and take pictures. It's her friend Reagan's first day at private school, so she came over to say hello. Then Grace and I walked to class. She chattered all the way there. Of course I was thinking about how fast time has passed since she was born. She was the first one there in her class and was ready to go. Her teacher, Mrs. Tyson, happily posed for a picture before she led Grace into the next phase of her life.

Grace's Graduation

Hard to believe but our little girl is growing up. Friday night, Grace "graduated" from preschool. The evening started with a musical of sorts. Her entire class sang a few songs before taking a break to allow the kids, who will start kindergarten, a chance to change into their caps and gowns. They looked so cute!

Grace led the class in one of their songs - check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZDfNzt60ag

Girl's Day

This past Saturday, Grace and I began what I hope will become an annual back to school tradition - Girl's Day. We got manicures, went shopping for clothes and picked up dinner. Of course her attention span was more focused on when we were heading to the next activity but she seemed to enjoy it. My favorite quote of hers during her first ever manicure was "this is taking forever". I explained to her that one day, she would want it to take forever so she can escape from the world. She gave me a perplexed look - someday she will understand that statement LOL!!

Catching Up

Things are so busy with two kids, we never have time to stop, even in summer. However we were able to break away for a few days in the middle of the month for a stop at the beach. Here's a couple shots of the kids having some fun! We're just a few short weeks away from the start of school - can you believe it???

Sick Children

I didn't want to believe the stories but yep they're true - one gets sick, the other gets sick shortly thereafter. It all started back on May 19 at Adam's four month check up. The doctor discovered that he was getting an ear infection. So she put him on an antibiotic and we scheduled a follow up for a couple weeks later. June 8 - the day before Adam's appointment - Grace had a temp and her throat hurt; strep throat and her own antibiotic. Back to the doctor the next day for Adam's follow up, all's clear. Then June 18 he gets sent home with a temp along with a new Cabarrus County policy - if a child has a 99 degree temp, he must be sent home for 7-10 days unless the child has a note from a doctor stating a specific diagnosis - thanks to the H1N1 virus. So of course I have to take him back to the doctor and behold - ear infection #2 but this is in the other ear. So round two of antibiotics. Now Adam has had two rounds of antibiotics and his insides are all messed up so needless to say his diapers are an adventure. Friday night (7/10) he was crabby and didn't sleep well. The next morning he just wasn't himself and felt warm so I called the doctor, got the last appointment they had and surprise ear infection #3. This one is in the first ear that had one. So round three of antibiotics. And I bet you can guess what happened next. Grace got sick - but she's got a 24 hour stomach bug, so there's no need to head back to the doctor :-) But the best part of the sick kid adventure is that we are going on vacation this week. I love it!!!

4th of July Weekend

What a weekend! Grace was able to conquer her biggest fears within two days - the pool, dogs and fireworks. Of course now all she wants to do is swim and pet every dog she sees. We're trying to make sure she understands that you don't pet a dog you don't know without asking first. As for Adam, he's just hanging out. He was moved up to the older baby room at school, which means pretty soon he will be mobile.

Grace the model

Today was a fun day. Grace participated in a photo shoot for the Little Posh Princess website. They have some adorable clothes! The pictures haven't yet been uploaded to that website but you can get a preview at www.amberherlockerblog.com.

Welcome

Since our family and friends occupy a variety of places, we felt it was time to keep you up to date on our happenings without having to bog you down with numerous emails. So welcome to our blog!