New York City!

After Christmas Britton, Q, Di Di, Paps, and Kim all drove up to New Jersey to see Kim's grandmother. It was the first time both B and Q had met her. It was a loooooong drive, 855 miles and @ 14 hours in the car, but we all survived and Q did remarkably well! Praise God for the van's DVD player! It was a trip of many firsts for both B and Q. We first went to the Jersey Shore (they don't call it the beach for some weird reason, and you have to pay to actually go onto the sand) and walked on the boardwalk.
Q loved looking at the water and walking on the boardwalk! Here we are with Kim's grandmother. How crazy that in this picture there are four generation of Middleton (Kim's mother's madden name) women represented. P.S. She was trying to push Grandma's wheelchair!

It was B's first time being north of Baltimore, so we took the chance to visit New York City one day. It was so much fun! We took a tour of Yankee Stadium, which is something I would highly recommend for anyone to do if they are up there within the next year (because it is the last year the stadium will be open). We went to monument park, on the field, sat in the dugout, in the locker room, and in the press box. It was simply awesome.
The rest of the day was spend hitting the streets, and subways, of the Big Apple. We went to Time Square, Rockefeller Center, Ground Zero, Battery Park to see the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, and a bunch of other places. This is the cross the was down at Ground Zero after 9/11.
Q even got into the action and met us there later... check her out riding the subway!
In front of the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. B isn't too pumped because he has been carrying Q through about a billion people by this point!
All in all, it was a fantastic trip and we were so ready to be home and in our beds by the time it was over.

Christmas fun!

So, as you can see it has been a while since my last post and a lot has happened in our world. We had a fun, crazy Christmas this year, I can only pray that through it all Q understood the true meaning behind the holiday. I do have to say that every time we past a manger scene she always pointed out baby Jesus! We got to spent time in Macon with family and then back in Gwinnett with the other side of our family. There was food, gifts, and love in abundance, what more could you ask for! Here are just a few (I promise) pictures from our time. Here is Q with some of her cousins before church... what a cute bunch! Loving her red table and chair set from Grammy and Pop Pop! Christmas morning opening her stocking with Daddy. Who would have guessed a vacuum cleaner would be her favorite gift! I can only hope this fascination continues when she is big enough to use a real one! Pushing Cole on his new toy... she tried to steal it, but we are working hard on teaching her to share.

Christmas Dress

Yes, you are actually reading the words dress in the title. I guess I am living my girly side out through my daughter because we know I am know living int out through me! Anyway, I just had to show you all this dress on Q, who knows she may still fit into it next year, the little pipsqueak.

Picture with Santa

So you would think by the way Q talks about Santa ("Ho Ho") that she would have a great time sitting on his lap for a picture... well guess again. We went to the mall with Q's other cousins and they were all very excited about him when they were in line. As soon as Q saw him she was saying "hello Ho Ho" and waving her hands like crazy. Here is a shot of them waiting in line. Things were all fine and dandy until I set her on his lap, then all heck broke loose. She was screaming on one knee, Cole was crying on the other, Kallie didn't even make the picture because she was in hysterics on the floor, and Luke was in his glory to be sitting next to Santa (the only one). Don't worry, as soon as Britton took her off his lap she was all smiles again wanting to talk to "Ho Ho". Well, I guess there's always next year!

Like her mother...

So, Q has the same disease as her mother... check out below. Yes, it is much cuter to see this in an 18 month old than a grown woman and for that I apologize! I guess we should invest in a belt!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

As a result of this blog you all now know what I do when I am supposed to be working on my portfolio that is due on Monday, blog!! Hey its' already 89 pages long (no joke), so I figured I earned the right.
Let me tell you how excited we are for this Christmas season. Q loves our tree, Santa (she calls him Ho Ho), Snowmen, and Christmas lights. Knock on wood, she still hasn't broken an ornament.
She's in her "Ho, Ho Dress".
This was the second choice picture for our Christmas card, so it had to make the blog.
I have been quite impressed with her, all she does is touch the ornaments and tell them they are "pitty" (pretty), but she still has yet to take them off the tree (knock on wood again).

Yesterday we went to "Christmas on the Corner" at Hebron with Heather, James, and Harris, and besides being extremely cold it was a wonderful experience. James at his finest.
A cute group shot.

They had train rides, a live nativity, Christmas caroling, marshmallow roasting, and great animal characters. Q talked a big game when it came time to ride the train, but as soon as she got on she was telling me no! We managed the ride and after all was said and done I think she had fun.
An action shot of riding the train, it wasn't that long, but it was all Q could handle.

We also tried to get her picture taken with Rudolph, but all she could do was say "no, no, no" when we were standing next to him. Notice her face, her lips are poking out because she is screaming "No" at him!

When B tried again with the Christmas Mouse it was even worse. All in all it was a great time and I pray that all who were there got the massage that Christmas is about more than presents, but about the birth of Jesus (I'll get off my soapbox now).

On a sad note our favorite neighbors ever moved to Nashville this week. It was a great opportunity for Chris as a youth minister, but we are going to miss them and their new little baby Mary Lindsey is going to have in February. Q would go over to visit ML's every day, so here is a little glimpse of them with the rascal before they left.
She really does love them even though the picture shows otherwise.

Q decided she would share Mary Lindsey's oranges with her.

For those of you who endured and made it to the bottom of this post, congrats, and here is a recent family picture and a funny site in which we "elfed" ourselves (B is not a huge fan of this because his elf has boobies!) Check it out, Q can do a mean robot! http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1220147290

Ride the What??

So Q calls this "ride the horsey", but take a look at these pictures and you decide for yourself what you think she is doing. All I can say is DEAR LORD please do not let this be a glimpse into her future career! Enjoy and pray for us!





On a lighter note we got a slide this past weekend from Grammy and Pop Pop's house and she loves it. She stands at the bottom of the stairs to the bonus room saying "WEE" (in a rather high pitch voice) until we give in and let her upstairs! I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but her nose is quite red from going down on her belly and skidding on her face!

Thanksgivig Extravaganza 2007

Well it wasn't really an extravaganza per say, but it sure was a whole lot of fun packed into a couple days. For all of you who are interested (humor me if you aren't) then here's a little about our week. We got to spend time with the Hutcheson side of the family on Wednesday for a healthy feeding on pizza (I know, now your traditional Thanksgiving dinner), and as always it was quite fun and rather loud. Thanksgiving morning Brandon, Kristy, and I decided we were going to run the Atlanta 1/2 Marathon. Mind you, we had been training and we were all very excited when we awoke at 5:00am to shorts and t-shirt weather! Unfortunately our excitement quickly faded as we were approaching the start line and the heavens opened. As an Atlantan experiencing one of the worst droughts in history it was hard for me to be sad about the rain, but when your running shoes are filled with water even before you hit the 1/2 mile mark you know you are in for it. Luckily, Kristy was the voice of sanity and we decided that once we hit the first Marta station we were out of there. It would have been about the least fun 13.1 miles of our lives; it was raining so hard that we couldn't look up without the rain pelting our eyes. Needless to say, we woke up at 5:00 to get in a quick 2.5 mile run in... good thing we got our shirts the day before!! I do have to give props to Brandon because he finished the race and in quite an impressive time I might add! I only wish I had a picture to show you all how drenched we were, and it wasn't from sweat.
The rest of our weekend was filled with fun and food in excess! We had two dinners on Thanksgiving, and got to hang out in Macon for a couple days before returning to ATL. Q had so much fun playing with her cousins and getting spoiled by family.
Q and MC playing kitchen!

H and Q playing bumper cars...she would run him into things.

Tickle Me Uncle Britt! (Catch the spoof on Tickle Me Elmo???)

It was also the first time I ever got up to go shopping the Friday after Thanksgiving. You might think that I'm crazy, but I left the Lockhart's house at 7:30 and returned with my spoils (a great Christmas tree that was $280 off at JCPenny) by 7:55... good old Centerville Mall! There will be pictures to come, even when B saw it he said, "boy that looks like a real tree"... success! B got to practe his barbering skills yet again, he cut Nate's, Pop Pop's, and his own hair in a matter of about an hour. I'm telling you, he's for hire!
I think I had more hair on me than Nate did when all was said and done.

He thought cutting Uncle Brit's hair has a blast, yes, he is really cutting it! Only B trusts a 3 year old with clippers!
The finished product. How handsome!

And to top it all off B got to go to the UGA/GT game with his bro, bro-in-law, and pops. Fun was had by all (well maybe not so much for Brandon since his Jackets lost). Here is a great picture I found from the game!

Well Here's The Latest...

I know that I am a couple of weeks behind on my posts so I thought that I would give you all an update as to what has been happening in our world. I also have felt a slight tinge of guilt seeing that I am pressuring Heather to write an update and because Jamie, a blogging rookie, is about to catch up with me on her number of posts.

First off we are getting so excited about the holidays coming up. I can't wait to see how much fun Q is going to have this year, I can hardly wait. She was so little last year I'm sure she had no clue what was going on. We had a blast at the UGA/Auburn game with good friends and a great Blackout!


I have never heard that stadium so loud in all of my time going to UGA games.

Our good friends Julie and Michael were able to come down for the game and we had a blast tailgating with them. I was so proud of Julie for wearing jeans and a t-shirt to the game, holla!
Yes if you are wondering that is Grape Fanta. Honestly who drinks Grape Fanta? Well none other than our Jules, yummy! Another note about these pictures is notice how only Julie is wearing a parka type jacket... she lives in Cape Cod and thought it was freezing, and she had two other layers beneath this jacket! Britton worked so hard getting the tailgate ready and cooking for all of us that he decided to nap during a portion of it. He must have been pretty tired because we did have the TV going at fill volume! Other than that things are about the same around these parts... I am trying to finish up all of my junk for this semester of class and BL is working like a dog to support my endeavors. Q is just as fun and crazy as ever. She is talking up a storm and has developed quite the personality over these past couple of months... On that note, I think that when people tell you your child has "quite the personality" it is a nice way telling you that she is stubborn and can have a temper... you see, I'm learning!

Yeah, she is weraing my shoes and thinks that she is something special. I can already tell that she is going to be a shoe girl, what out Daddy!