Everyone knows that doing anything with kids in tow, or around for that matter, is tricky.  The differences are small in the choices you make but are great in number.  For example, the tree has no ornaments on it, not even shatterproof ones, because I didn’t want to bother with picking ornaments up and replacing them on the tree.  It has lights and is decorated, just not with stuff Heidi can reach to remove.  It’s a ”Low Energy” tree.  You get it; an undecorated tree takes up less of my energy!  I even put the presents out of reach instead of under the tree.  I’m no fun; I know.  It’s self-preservation.  The tree is still pretty and Heidi had great fun exploring the light strands before and after 🙂 they went on the tree! 

Pheasant feathers, ribbon and wild grasses. OH MY!

So, Heidi got into everything, which was adorable!  Seriously, she did this on her own!  Maybe she has a future in jewelry design.  Girl can make a necklace out of anything!

Wyatt did NOT get into everything, which was equally adorable!

Wyatt’s looks too cute in his camo hoodie.  I’m sure he’s thinking if he is really still Heidi won’t see him.

 

But alas, she can!

Heidi has always been a “shoe girl” and is beginning to be the same with clothes, especially if they are as soft as this outfit.  Besides the fact it is so soft, she looks like a cupcake piled high with icing! 

Cute little legs.  I wish she could stay like this forever.  Marvels at everything, copies what I say and do, mispronounces words, small enough to curl into a ball in my lap, snuggles with her hand at my neck……..NEEDS me.

The most ordinary things, such as the basket where the throws are kept, make the best playthings.

Can you feel me swell with pride at this photo?  Heidi is a multitasker of the highest caliber!  She can talk on two phones at once!

Cuteness.

Sweetness.  Daddy and Wyatt holdin’ hands.

You’ve got to love kids for the funny stuff they do.  Everything is funny.  I mean, come on, a laundry basket on your head?  That is funny stuff.  Put one on your head and see if you can keep from laughing!

Our precious son’s adoption was finalized in court December 10th.  What a happy day!  We adopted two children in 17 months and are humbled by it.  Blessed are we.  Wyatt looked so dapper in his outfit that day.  🙂

Did y’all know there was a lunar eclipse? 

Amateurish at best, I know.  Still cool.

Christmas is next!

 

Heidi has loved her watercolor toy she recieved from Cousins Julie Ann, Doug, Sally and Trey.  Not only is she making beautiful art, she is showing an interest in body painting.  As an added bonus, the paints taste good!  All joking aside, my little artist loves it and so do we!

Christmas in Valdosta…I can only remember one Christmas as a child that we were out of town.  Other than that, unless before my memory, I have been in Valdosta for every Christmas my entire life.  It’s great.  I grew up on 60 acres, which my parents still live on, so Heidi can run around without one of us on her heels.  The street is far enough away that she’d never make it even if she got a serious head start.  Plenty of space to roam and explore for a city-girl like Heidi.  Woods are different from beaches and creeks.  Much like Charleston, you never know what you will get weather-wise.  It could be hot, cold, rainy or on a rare occasion, snowing.  It is usually the only time of year all of the Moritz cousins and their families are together, so that is alot of fun.  Aside from this, friends I don’t get to see often who either live in or out of Valdosta are around and have free time so we are able to get together.  Friends I have had since preschool age, some of them.  Now that Keira is back on the east coast, she is usually there and Kim usually drives down with her family.  Basically, it is like everyone else’s Christmas.  Friends, family, food, etc.  Here’s how it went….

Sunset out of my bedroom window.

The men-folk relaxin’ on the couch.  One is snoring.

That’s a whole lotta snuggly in Aunt Keira’s arms!  That’s four VIPs in this pic…Heidi, Wyatt, Keira and Little Bunny!

Wyatt was a little difficult to wake Christmas morning…

Grandy and YaYa gave Heidi a rocking horse that neighs, gallops, shakes its head and swishes it’s tail. 

Santa delivered her Sit and Spin to Valdosta, but saved the rest of her stuff for home.  The red spot on her head?  One of four goose eggs she got over Christmas.                  Heidi – 0               Floor (x2), brick step, tub – 4

Wyatt got into his stocking once he woke up!

Magic flashlight…it’s a toss up who likes it better…the adults or Heidi.

Is this a “nanny-nanny-boo-boo-my present-is bigger-than-yours”  face?  Or just an “I look cute” face?

I think this qualifies as over-accessorized.

Shorty get low, low, low, low, low, low low…

Is it nap time yet?

My bright and shining star…

Blue skies
Smiling at me
Nothing but blue skies
Do I see

Christmas night…kids galore!

Heidi wouldn’t sit for a picture with YaYa but Wyatt was game!

Samantha, Kim’s daughter, is becoming a lady, a fashionable one to be exact, right before our eyes. 

Future dentist?

Jud and Anna’s son, Wilkin, was thrilled with Wyatt and asked to hold him over and over.  It was too cute and he was very good at baby-holding!

All of my cousins’ children, Heidi, Wyatt, and my niece, Samantha

How many pictures do you have to take to get one good one of every single person in the picture?  I don’t know.  😉

Adrian, Beth and Mark’s oldest, holding Wyatt.  He was all smiles, as usual.

Sally, Julia Ann and Doug’s daughter, took a turn also.  Cutie patooties!

When everyone left, Heidi made a beeline for her bed and Wyatt tuckered out in Keira’s arms. 

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

We went to pick a tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.  I wasn’t lookin’ too swift so Wyatt and I chose to hide behind the camera.  Well, I chose to hide; he chose to sleep.  Any show the two of us were putting on paled in comparison to Heidi.  She took her job very seriously!  “feeeeeeee?!” (tree) 

Buh-Bye!  Let’s go!

More December and Christmas to follow.  Stay tuned…

For our Christmas cards, I was going to use one of our fantastic pictures from our shoot with Banner when Wyatt was born and Heidi turned one but both children, Wyatt especially, changed so much since the Fall.  So, we went on the cheap (Portrait Innovations) for Wyatt’s and Heidi’s 3.5 mos and 17.5 mos pictures, respectively.  It was also the day Wyatt’s adoption was finalized in court, which is one of the main reasons we went for pictures.  This time I actually did succeed in getting out of there cheaply quite simply because not many of the pictures were good of both children.  Michael has never been there and asked “Do you really want me to go?”  I replied, “Um, YES!  That’s why I planned it for this day, at a time when you could go, because I can’t wrangle two kids, one wild-woman and one lap-baby, and manage to get them dressed at the studio, so their clothes aren’t wrinkled for the pictures.”  Mike, “Oh, okay.”  We had a photographer and an assistant in the room with us and it took four adults an hour to get a few decent pics!  In fact, all of us adults called it at the end of the hour.  None of us, including the children, could have handled anymore.  When I look back at the pics from the disc, it is PDF (pretty damn funny).    Hope you get a chuckle too.  Next time, Banner here we come!

THE WINNER