Thanksgiving In Charlotte!

We are so blessed to have family relatively close by and the ability to spend holidays with them. We made our annual trip to Charlotte to spend the holidays with Justins family. The trip over was met by rush hour holiday traffic in Memphis and an unexpected detour on HWY 40 when we should have gotten off on 26. Oops.. Damn Navigon.
On Thursday we went to Charlotte for the Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was a bit chillier than last year but the ride on the train (LYNX) for Riley made up for the lack of candy thrown out at the parade. So sad that my baby only cared about the candy. Our new niece Stephanie(Jasons wife) was in the parade with her grandfather (who is the Mayor of Pineville). After Stephanie made her appearance we got back on the train and headed back to Justins sister and BIL's house for dinner and football (not that I care about it, but it was sad watching the LIONS get totally spanked by the TITANS--from MI live in TN ! :) )
Dinner was amazing as always and we had a great day.

We got to spend several days with Granny and Gramps, Dustin, Gwen, Ed, Jason, Steph and our exchange student 'niece' Teresa.

Happy 4th Birthday Riley!!!

Rileys 4th Birthday party was held today at the Bowling alley in M'boro. Some of his friends came to his party to bowl, eat pizza and cake and have fun. The kids had a ball bowling--very interesting watching 3 and 4 year olds if you never have.

The cake Riley had to have. :)

Riley opening presents with Megan and Seth

Some of the kids at Rileys party. L-R Chidozia, Kendall, Riley and Chibuke. Not pictured, Kolton, Lydia and Caleb.

Halloween 2008

Gearing up for Trick or Treating on the Square.

Riley on the Square.... He had a good time following all the kids around.

Daddy and Riley on the Square

Arghhhhhhhhhh

We took Riley out last night to celebrate Halloween. He was so excited. We first took him to Murfreesboro where they trick or treat on the Square. There were a lot of kids out there. It was so nice to see all the shops owners handing out candy. It's amazing how many stores are downtown that we didn't realize were there. We also went to the hospital to see "mommies friends" and then onto the mall. After all the Halloween magic, went up to Nashville to see Meg and Seth (oh and my brother in law Jim was here with us on the trick or treating journey), Jay and Jodi too. We had a really nice time and made it home just after midnight (had a late night stop at the video store and Walmart for milk.) Riley passed out in the car (big surprise) and mommy wasn't far behind... We had a fantastic night with the cutest pirate in the world. :)