a summer strawberry smile

O enjoyed strawberries after swimming at Gigi & Poppy's on the 4th of July.

Smart Sully

For ages (3 years) Sullivan Thurmond has reigned as our hairiest, smelliest, and smartest baby. With Ollie now taking the lead, its only fitting that I post a tribute to Sully. I've always been the night owl, working late on graduate school projects, paperwork, and now a part-time venture into the world of pediatric speech language pathology, as well as getting lost in Pinterest or amazing blogs that catch my eye. Sullivan has loyally laid by my feet through every late night, keeping me company, and my toes warm. He waits and waits, then trudges up the stairs behind me and escorts me to my room to make sure that I'm safe at night. He never fails. He is the most precious, gentle, protective friend. He is also extremely smart, and is able to read prosodic features! Please enjoy this example. Make sure your sound is turned up pretty high around 28-30 seconds for a funny surprise!!

laughing baby ollie!

this is my gift to you!

Merry Christmas!

We celebrated Christmas early this year, on Christmas Eve morning. Santa was good to Oliver. He brought Ollie a fire truck, a xylophone for the bathtub, a few books, a Lion Bead/maze toy, and a light up ball.

Ollie had fun opening his first presents from Santa!

After gifts, we enjoyed some yummy whole wheat pancakes. Ollie and mama laid down for Ollie's nap (a treat for mama- she likes cuddling, but we usually have to be disciplined and put baby ollie in his bed), and dad left for the two Christmas eve services at Summit Church.

Ollie and mama, opening books.

Playing the xylophone with dad. It floats in the bathtub!

Beautiful Purl.

She likes dressing up for the holidays.

Ollie says, "I love Christmas time!"

Last night we celebrated with extended family, including great great aunts and uncles and great great grandpas. So fun. Ollie showed off just a little and said "mama" & "dada" when we asked him to, and also answered the questions "what does a puppy do?" by sticking out his tongue and panting, and "what does a fishy do?" by smacking his lips. Needless to say we were very proud first-time parents. We like to pretend no one has ever seen a baby say his first words or take his first steps.

This evening we will celebrate with our more immediate family, parents, sister, aunts and uncles, cousins, grandparents, great grandparents... and Ollie's Great Great Grandma Nita, 94 years young. It is a very special Christmas.

Christmas day we will head to Dallas to see Nick's side of the family, with a few little ones. Should be lots of fun!!

We wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Happy birthday, Jesus!

Love, The Thurmonds

Nick, Taylor, Oliver, Sullivan, and Purl

introducing...

i'm baaack!

will be attempting to catch you up on my little man's life... and maybe prettify the blog a bit. it's in need of a makeover... we've got some news also! YEAH! life is getting settled and surprising us at the same time! we like it that way. one thing i can say is that we're not boring.

it's not too late!

please enjoy this video of some great local artists/really nice people.

not sure why it's cutting off the right side of the video... sorry. click to watch it on youtube.

*side note: in one of my weird preggo dreams, Brine Webb (featured singer) may have assisted in a spontaneous C-section for Ollie. he may have.