Celebrating in Winston Salem

The week before Christmas was spent with Daniel's family in Winston Salem. We tend to only be there once or twice a year (because Daniel's parents visit us often in GA), so it is always nice to go back to Daniel's hometown.

Delia is incredibly afraid of being left behind. Once the luggage comes out she goes into panic mode. This is her traditional place in the luggage stack.

Playing outside with Daddy.

He really loves this hat. He likes to randomly wear it in the house.

Clearly everything is a potential toy...

There was a lot of celebrating going on-- Christmas and Carver's 2nd birthday. It was an eventful few days.

On the way to Winston we dropped in for a quick visit with Ellen, Terry and Emerson. It was much too short but so worth it :) I totally failed to document the visit with pictures.

Their favorite spot at Nana and Papa's house. The girls kind of like each other.

While in Winston we hurriedly put the finishing touches on Carver's first 2-year-old birthday party. This one had a sports theme and was really fun. I think he had a great time and we loved seeing some of Daniel's extended family whom we love so much and only get to see about once a year. (Thanks to Carver's Nana and Papa for helping so much with party preparations.)

The food and company were perfect. I just love celebrating the life of this boy!

During the night we placed balloons all over Carver's floor so that he would wake up to them on the morning of his birthday! Thanks to Ellen for the super cute idea, and Daniel for blowing up all of the balloons. We'll probably make this a tradition. Note to self: we probably need about triple the amount of balloons in future.

On Wednesday morning before heading home we celebrated Christmas with Carver's Nana and Papa.

I am especially grateful for, and in love with, this beautiful Crestridge t-shirt quilt made for me by Daniels' mom. Isn't it beautiful? I just adore it.



I am so thankful for our time in Winston. Thankful that Carver has such fabulous grandparents on both sides of his family tree. It is always such a joy to me to watch our extended family love on Carver. So far we have been able to see both of our families every year for Christmas. I know that one of these years we will want to start establishing Christmas morning in our home, but for now, I really like being able to see everyone each year for the holidays.

In celebration of Carver turning 2 we turned his car seat around to forward facing!! I didn't know if we would meet the 2-year recommendation for keeping babies rear-facing but we did it!!! Glad to see his sweet face in the car, finally :) But, safety first.