A gorgeous weekend, and a celebration for Caroline!

What an awesome weekend! We are finally almost finished with all our house projects, and just in time, because the weather has been AMAZING! The trees and flowers are starting to bloom here, and we're taking every chance we can to be outside. Yesterday we spent the whole afternoon at our new favorite park. Here are some sweet pics of Sam, who cannot get enough of sliding!

The best thing about this park is that it's right by the Ortega River, so there's plenty of boat-watching to do when we get tired of playing.
Sam loved watching the boats go by. What a cute little man :)
After our park adventure, we got some ice cream!

Last night, Mom got together with all her favorite Jacksonville girls for dinner and a "sprinkle" (not a shower...just a sprinkle :) for Caroline. The girls sprinkled Caroline with all kinds of adorable girlie things and some great practical things...cute pink outfits, pjs, blankets, bows, socks, a pink diaper pail (when you have two kids in diapers, you need one for each kid's room!), one of those cute bottle-drying racks that looks like grass, and a huge box full of baby wipes! They even gave Sam a book about becoming a big brother! It was so much fun to have a chance to get out for dinner and see all the girls, and SO exciting to start celebrating Caroline's upcoming arrival!

Today was another gorgeous day. Sam looked like such a big boy when we got dressed for church this morning that I HAD to snap a picture of him. He was not happy about having to pose for me :)

Today we went to Big Talbot Island for one of our favorite nature walks through the maritime forest and a brief walk on the disappearing beach as the tide came in. Here's a picture of Miss Caroline at T minus 8 weeks!
There wasn't much beach to play on by the time we got there, but Sam had fun picking up shells amidst the driftwood and the weird rock/sand formations.
As we walked back through the trail to our car, Sam plopped down in the dirt and started playing. He got pretty dirty...
...and then dirtier...
....AND dirtier!
Ahhh, this is the life :)
Hope y'all had a great weekend!

BIG BOY!

Well, if you've been wondering what we've been up to on our weekends the past month, it's basically been one of two things:

(1) Moving furniture/rooms around in our house; or

(2) Getting out and enjoying the warmer weather!

Starting about a month ago, we started the process of moving Sam into his BIG BOY room! We moved the guest furniture to a new room, had Sam's room painted, then had fun moving Sam's furniture into his room. Sam tried out his new chair and gave it a thumbs up!

This was a multi-step process, including moving furniture into Caroline's room while we moved Sam's old furniture out. In the meantime, Sam was a big help using the dustbuster to get up all the old dust bunnies hiding behind his crib!

Moving the new furniture into Caroline's room...

When we put down the rug in his new room, Sam got so excited! He ran around in circles, enjoying the big new space for him to play in!

We were a little unsure of how this transition would go, but Sam has been so great! He slept well from day one and is happy as a clam in his new digs. We're happy because we have more space to store his toys...and he's happy because he has more space to destroy!

Unfortunately, we don't have any "after" shots yet. We've made a lot more progress since then, but all of these rooms are still works in progress. We've put together Caroline's furniture, gotten Sam's room partially decorated, and we're making progress in the guest room and our room...but we'll probably need a couple more weeks. We are so proud of our progress and loving how our house is coming together :)

The second (and MUCH more exciting) thing we've been up to is enjoying being outdoors in this warm(er) weather! We've had high 50s/low 60s pretty regularly, and we've been taking advantage of it! We've been up to Fort Caroline, been to the park lots and lots, and taken many long walks in the neighborhood.

The weather was gorgeous last weekend, and after a morning of making more progress in Sam's room, we decided to head to the beach for the afternoon. Sam walked and walked and walked, and picked up half the shells on the beach singlehandedly :)

We crashed at Chip and Phy's house overnight, and Sam had a great time playing with his grandparents while Mom and Dad went out for a nice dinner at Medure. We're trying to use the rest of our Teal Deals before they expire, so we've had a couple delicious date night dinners lately!

In the morning, we woke up and took another great walk on the beach. Sam walked some more...and picked up some more shells. What a sweet little man :)

The weather wasn't quite as warm this weekend since we've had rain the last couple of days, but it was clear enough and warm enough to spend the afternoon at the Zoo! Sam had so much fun!

This kid LOVES animals, so he was in heaven the moment we arrived. We would pick him up at each exhibit so he could see over the fence, and when we would finally put him down after a few minutes of watching (and making lots of animal noises and/or repeating the name of the animal we were looking at over and over), he would start walking off toward the next exhibit, saying "MORE! ANIMALS!" It was unbelievably cute.

Here were a few of his favorites from the Africa exhibit...

A highlight of the day -- Sam got to feed a giraffe!

He thought this was really hilarious :)

Clay's favorite -- the Jaguars exhibit. Clay tried to pose with Sam, but Sam was much more interested in watching the Jaguars!

Another Sam favorite -- the Kangaroos in the Australia exhibit! We didn't get any great pictures of Sam with the kangaroos, but Clay snapped this cute one of a very happy Sam :)

And here's a new shot of Caroline in my quickly-growing tummy. I'm feeling REALLY big these days...and only about 10 weeks to go!

But the BIGGEST highlight of the day was the TRAIN! Sam kept hearing the "Choo-Choo" sound as we walked around the zoo and got more and more excited about riding the train, but we saved it for last because we were afraid that we might never get him off once we got on :) Needless to say, Sam absolutely LOVED riding on a REAL choo-choo train. I think this was the happiest day of his life :)

As we passed by the animals, Sam and another little girl on the train had fun making animal noises at them (and at each other). What a great day!

We promise more cute Sam pics and some pictures of our finished Big Boy room and nursery to come soon. In the meantime, lots of love to all and hope everyone's doing well :)

Baby Girl's Blog Debut (sort of...)

Some of you have been asking for a belly pic, and it occurred to me that I actually haven't shared one at all in the past 6 months. So this is baby girl's blog debut! This sweet thing is sitting a lot lower than Sam did (her favorite position is smack on top of my bladder!), and she's definitely moving all around now. Can't believe she'll be here in about 3 1/2 months!

Anyway, here I am, at 25 weeks, during our adventure to Fort Caroline this weekend.

AND, it's appropriate that her blog debut take place from Fort Caroline, because that's what her name will be!

We both just love this name, and we figure that if her name is so close to "Carolina" then hopefully her heart will be too :)

We've also chosen the middle name Ray, which is very special for three reasons. First, it was my grandfather's (my mom's dad's) name. Second, it was Clay's mom's middle name. And third, we also think it is a nice way to remember her Aunt Kati, whose last name was Bray. If she takes after these three very special people, then she will be gentle, generous, joyful, strong, and dedicated to her family. Who wouldn't want that namesake?

Just 15 more weeks until we get to meet her... Caroline Ray Tousey :)

Our Perfect Weekend

After a Fall full of travel and the busy holiday season, a fun weekend at home was soooo nice!

Part of the weekend was dedicated to preparing for Baby Girl Tousey! We went to get her furniture on Saturday morning, and we spent the better part of Sunday afternoon starting to move rooms around (Clay room becomes guest room, guest room becomes Sam's big boy room, and Sam's room becomes the new nursery...I am so excited to get it all ready, but we have a lot of work ahead of us!).

The best part of the weekend, though, was our trip to Fort Caroline. Sam loves going on adventures! He had a great time exploring the fort itself...

...and then taking the nature walk ("nay-nay walk"). He walked the mile-long trail like a trooper, and stopped to pick up plenty of shells and rocks and sticks along the way. I told him straying off the trail was a no-no, and he kept stopping and pointing into the woods, saying, "no-no-no!" Hilarious :)

We stopped in Mayport on the way home for some fresh shrimp, which Clay whipped into an awesome seafood pasta for dinner, which we ate while watching some football. It was such an awesome day.

Before church the next morning, I decided it was time to do something I'd been threatening for a while... I gave Sam a HAIRCUT! Clay did NOT want Sam's hair cut, but we were at full-on mullet status, and I couldn't take it anymore. Here's our "before" shot - judge for yourselves!

Once Clay gave in, he somehow convinced me it was better to do it myself than take Sam to a professional. After running away...

...Sam was so good and sat relatively still while I trimmed away. No more mullet!

We're not closing down bars anymore, but these days we think this is just about as perfect as a weekend can get :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas! We were blessed to be able to spend lots of time with both of our families both here in Jacksonville and back in North Carolina. Christmas was so much fun this year, since Sam was big enough to understand that Santa was coming and was able to tear open all his own gifts. We've come a long way from just eating wrapping paper last year!

As much fun as he had with the presents, I think Sam's favorite part of the holidays has been having so much family around to play with all the time. Sam and I have had almost two and a half full weeks together, which has been so awesome, and he got to spend extra time with Nana and Papa, Chip and Phy, Auntie Meredith, Uncle David, and lots of extended family too. He's relished all the company and all the extra playmates and attention!

Our celebration kicked off the weekend before Christmas at Chip and Phy's house, where we spent the night and woke up to have a "Christmas morning" complete with stockings, gifts, and a TRACTOR! Unfortunately I couldn't upload any tractor photos for this post, but I'll see if I can get some and post them later. Sam's tractor roots run very deep. Not only was a tractor his Chip's favorite Christmas present ever, but both his great-grandPapas, Papa Ray and Papa Hal, would be proud to see him driving a tractor just like they did!

Sam got a stocking full of "choo-choos" and he has not stopped playing with them since!

"CHOO-CHOO!"
After our first Christmas celebration, all the McCullys arrived at Chip and Phy's house for a big family celebration. Sam had a great time eating at the kids' table and eating his weight in pulled pork (I was so proud!).

Then Sam and Annie and I left straight from McCully Christmas to drive to North Carolina. One pregnant lady, one toddler, one dog, and an 8-hour drive in rainy weather... it all went well, but let's just say I probably won't do that alone again anytime soon!

Sam and I got to spend a FULL WEEK at Nana and Papa's house, which was really special to us. Despite the freezing cold and the strong winds, Sam wanted to spend every morning and afternoon walking around outside, especially in the fields behind Nana and Papa's house. He had the best time! He would just run and run and run, laughing the whole time. We picked up rocks, watched some big trucks, helped Papa pick up pinecones, and had a blast. Sam wore himself out doing this, and one morning he literally collapsed and fell asleep in the front foyer as soon as he walked in the door. How cute is this?

But he had fun!!!!

And in a rare moment of Tousey Family Blog history, we are actually including some pictures of people other than Sam! Now that David is in Boston and we are in Jacksonville, it's not as easy as it used to be to get all the Stricklands together in one place...but it's very special when we do! It was so great to be together and have so much time to catch up.

And look - it's unprecedented since Sam's birth, but we have a photo with BOTH mom and dad in it at the same time :)

On Christmas Eve morning, my mom's family all came over. Sam had fun playing with his second cousins, Chloe and Cameron.

And on Christmas Eve night, he left some graham crackers (rather than cookies, since graham crackers are Sam's favorite!) for Santa. Sam really loves Santa. He had fun helping Nana place all of her Santa figurines all over the house in the week before Christmas, and every time he saw one, he would say, "Saan-ta! Saan-ta!" I think he's going to be very sad when everyone takes down their decorations and stops talking about Santa during the next 11 months.

And then it was CHRISTMAS MORNING! Sam slept a little later than usual for the occasion (all the way to 6:45!) so he'd have plenty of energy to open presents and play with his toys!

Uncle David helped put together Sam's new golf bag while Sam used his club to hit a ball off his new teeball tee :) He was not a big fan of the baseball bat, but he loves those golf clubs!

Usually we save stockings for last, but when Sam spotted his stocking, he really wanted to dig right in!

Sam loves his new basketball net, golf clubs, and teeball set. He seems to have the games a little confused (the baseball usually goes through the basketball hoop, and he keeps swinging that golf club at the tee), but he's having so much fun with them!

Sam got lots of new books, and he wanted to stop and read each one before we moved on to another present. Here he is with Papa, reading about Lightning and the other Cars...

He also liked it when OTHER PEOPLE received new books, and he tried to read all of those, too. :) He sat right down with Papa's new political theory book and started flipping pages!

And then there was the awesome Charlie Brown's Christmas book, which plays lots of music. Sam LOVES books that play music. He stands up and starts dancing around the room (which usually means spinning in a circle and stomping his feet) :)
Uncle David gave him a Red Sox hat, which he tried on while he played with all his new vehicles - helicopters, trucks, trains, and fire trucks!

Papa got a rooster weathervane for his yard, to remind him of the weathervane on the roof of the boathouse at the Cabin, and Sam loved playing with it too!

This room is getting a little FULL!

Nana and Papa waited until a little later (once it had warmed up a LITTLE BIT!) to give Sam his big present from them...a TRICYCLE! Sam had so much fun on this thing - we had a very hard time getting him to come back inside for lunch. Initially he just loved getting pushed and riding along, but Nana and Clay taught him to put his feet on the pedals, so he was sort of figuring out how to ride it by the time we went inside. Once his legs are just a little bit longer, he'll be able to do it all by himself. We won't be able to keep him off of this!

We finally got him inside by letting him bring the tricycle back inside with him :)

One of Sam's gifts was a new backpack with trucks and trains and planes on it. He loved wearing it around the house. With his new crayons, doesn't he look ready to go back to school?

And here he is posing in his new Red Sox cap :)

The snow came on Christmas night, and by the time we were ready to get together with the whole Strickland clan on Sunday morning, Eastern NC was a winter wonderland! About 8 or s0 inches fell in Greenville, and we had a bit of a treacherous drive to get to Smithfield that morning to see the rest of the family. It was really gorgeous, though, and Sam just loved the snow. I'm so glad we were there for the snowstorm!

We drove home that night and have been spending the past week unpacking and playing with ALL THOSE TOYS! It was an incredible Christmas, and it just reminded us how grateful we are to be blessed with such wonderful families and friends. We are so lucky.

As we look ahead to what we know will be a very exciting year for our family, we wish each of you a 2011 full of love, joy, hope, and peace. HAPPY NEW YEAR!