What's the great news???

Merry Christmas!

I haven't managed to get around to sending (or even ordering) Christmas cards this year, but here's a little Christmas greeting from the kids. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and remembers what a wonderful gift God gave us 2,000 years ago in that little baby boy!

I'm still here.....

Hello all! Just wanted everyone to know that I'm still alive. It's been a long time since I've posted anything (again), so I thought I should send out a little update. It's been a busy fall. Emma was an adorable Princess Jasmine for Halloween, and Everett was Aladdin's monkey, Abu. Too cute! My computer is out of commission right now, or I would post pictures. Emma is doing great in preschool and we are almost completely potty trained. Everett is already six months old (GASP!) and is looking to be a LOT more active than his big sister. I'm enjoying this last little bit of time before he figures out crawling because I think he's about to take off and never look back! We celebrated Mom's birthday in mid-November with a trip to Disney's Animal Kingdom. Mom, Allison, the kids and I went and spent the night and got up to have breakfast with the various characters and went on to have a wonderful day at the park. I can't believe how little we actually got to see, but when you've got two small kids you just can't do as much. But I think we all still had a great time. Mom's been dying to go ever since it opened, so I'm glad she finally got the chance. Now it's Christmastime and I can't seem to get everything together, although getting my tree up and decorated finally helped me start to feel festive. We've been busy practicing for our Christmas musical at church that is finally coming this weekend. I love it this year - it's got some serious soul to it! Come on out Saturday or Sunday at 7PM if you want to get into the spirit! This is such a busy time of year, but I'm trying my best not to get overwhelmed and keep my focus on the reason we celebrate in the first place. What a gift God gave in that little tiny baby who grew up to give himself up for me! I am truly blessed to have such wonderful family, friends and coworkers. I hope you all enjoy this Christmas season and have a wonderful start to the New Year! (I'm sure it will be at least that long before I post anything again, but you can always find me on facebook!)

Guess Who?

Everett is starting to look more like Emma did when she was a baby each day. At first I didn't think they looked anything alike, but when I look back at pictures of her at 4 months, it's unbelievable! Cody says he has no DNA. We went to the Pumpkin Patch last week - more pics from that trip coming soon!

Mauldin Great Grandkids

Rebekah and Sophie are visiting so we got the kids together for lunch and a quick photo shoot. It's Emma (2 1/2), Granger (5 1/2 mos), Sophie (4 mos) & Everett (3 1/2 mos). They did pretty well, except for a little defiance on Emma's part, and we had a nice lunch together with Grandmother and Grandpa. Thanks to Steve and Uncle Carlton for the pictures!

Mauldin Family

The whole group of us in front of Steve and Mollie's house

Emma's Princess Lunch

Last week we took a trip to Chick-fil-A for a princess lunch with Emma's friend SaraGrace who had just turned two. SaraGrace wasn't too sure of the cow, but Emma loved him and wouldn't stop following him around. The girls also got their faces painted, and I think they had a fun time before Emma crashed on the way home. In case you didn't know, Chick-fil-A has family nights every Tuesday and they do all sorts of fun activities for the kids (maybe only over the summer - I'm not sure). Emma's tiara and wand came from an earlier princess party there and she also got to paint a ceiling tile for the 4th of July. She really enjoys it when we go.

Everett July/August

Cody's Birthday/River Pics

Cody turned 33 this year, and I helped Emma bake him a cake.

Cody about to go down the slip and slide at the sandbar, doing his best Ron Burgundy imitation ('CANNONBALL!!')

Playing in the pool at the cabin on Cody's birthday

My little stud muffin!

Emma got a pretty good shiner at Cody's birthday party when she fell off the steps under the cabin, but as you can see it didn't slow her down any!

Emma with her friend Layla, my friend Jess's little girl. They are only three months apart and will go to school together in a few years.

It looks like he's going to have blue eyes like me and his sister.

Napping on the boat after a long day.

Beach Trip - July 4th

My cousin Katie, about to be a freshman at UNC this fall, is our 'Gymboree fairy' who showed up at the beach with some adorable clothes for the kids. She was a great help with the kids on the trip - Everett's favorite place to nap was on her shoulder!















Cody usually despises the beach, but something possessed him to take a shot at the boogie board one afternoon, so I had to get it on film.















Despite our attempts to keep Everett out of the sun (see below), we managed to let him burn one side of his face. But he survived, and here they are with their holiday outfits on.















The kids under an umbrella out on the beach on the 4th. Emma had a blast, and Everett slept that way the whole day (hence the sunburn above).














Daddy and Emma in the pool practicing swimming skills learned in the spring.

What a Summer!

I'm finally back at the office where I have a decent internet connection so I can catch you up on what's been going on with our family. I've had a WONDERFUL couple of months at home with my kids and I wouldn't trade it for anything. It made me sad to think that's probably the last time I'll get to spend any significant time at home with them for the next several years, but I do count myself blessed to have a job right now in such an economy. We've had a great summer spending time with our friends and family. We went to the beach in early July, celebrated Cody's birthday at the end of July, had a visit from my Granny in August, and have enjoyed a few weekends at the river. Emma is changing so much becoming much more verbal, imaginative, and energetic. Everett seems to change every day and is smiling, gurgling, and trying his best to sit up any chance he gets. We pulled out the Bumbo seat the other day and can sit in it and hold his head up pretty well. I'll post a few shots from the various events shortly, as well as some random other pics. Soon I'll have copies of some pictures we took yesterday with the four Mauldin family great-grandkids that I can't wait to see - Emma, two month old Everett, three month old Sophie, and four month old Granger!

Everett William

Everett & Emma














Everett's second week










One month old

Well, I'm sure most of you know by now that Everett is here. It only took me a month to finally blog about him! We've had a fun and exciting first month. He was born with a nice, quick labor at 3:12 AM on May 25. He started out at 6 lbs 11 oz, and then went down to 6 lbs 1 oz due to some feeding issues (stressful to say the least!). Now he is eating like a champ and at his one month checkup today he weighed 8 lbs 12 oz! He's also grown three inches in length since he was born (now 22 in). We're all adjusting to life as a family of four very well, with some greatly appreciated help from my mom. Emma enjoys being a big sister. She has her moments, but overall she is very sweet and gentle with Everett and loves to tickle and kiss him. We are now trying to potty train her and that is going pretty well so far. We head off to the beach for vacation next Thursday and I can't wait. This will be the first time I've gotten to go on the full family vacation in probably 10 years or more. Cody is going to come for the weekends and I'm staying with the kids through the week. I probably won't post again for a while, so I hope everyone has a wonderful summer and I'll post some new pictures when I can!

Daddy & Emma

They were goofing around the other night and I tried to get a picture without them knowing, but they busted me and this is what I ended up with. I can't complain!

Trip to Butterfly Rainforest

Emma's Grandma took she and I and her Aunt Tracy to the Butterfly Rainforest on campus this weekend. She had a great time, and one even landed on her head at one point. It will be fun to take her back when she's a little older and she can try and identify the different plants and butterflies. Other than me locking the keys in the car (second time in two weeks - can you say pregnant brain?!?) and having to call AAA (who thankfully was there and done in 5 minutes) we had a fun girls day out together.

Garden Update

Things are coming along nicely in the garden. Other than the need for some serious weeding and grass pulling, everything is growing well and we even have some baby squash and tomatoes showing up. Everything else is putting on flowers so we should see some more things soon. We're so excited that we haven't screwed anything up yet!

More Emma & Granger

Emma got to hold Granger when he came down to visit the other day. Can you tell she was excited? I can't for her to hold Everett, and she can't either!

And his name is.......

Everett William Banner

We finally settled on his name. I don't know why it took so long, but I'm excited that we finally know what we'll be calling him. And it's so cute to hear Emma say it!

Swim Lessons

For the last few weeks Emma's been going to swimming lessons at the YMCA. It turns out she doesn't really learn how to swim, but she's had fun just the same. Cody's done it with her for the most part, but I gave him the night off one time and took her. She really enjoys it and gets to kick, move her arms, climb in and out of the pool, and sing songs (her favorite part). Next week is the last week, and then her Daddy will continue her lessons at the river!

Emma & Granger

Emma and her new cousin Granger ( 2 wks old). Too cute!

Garden Update

We planted our garden the Sunday before Easter and this Sunday all our seeds sprouted. We're pretty excited so far. We started small, but packed as much in there as we could. We've got squash, zucchini, carrots, grape tomatoes, tomatoes, basil, bell peppers, corn and green beans. We had to replace the ones we had already planted in the liners because we had a little cold spell that got them, but we had plenty to switch out. We'll see how it goes from here. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but I can't help but be excited!

Easter Goodies

Emma helped me make some desserts for our Easter meal with the family, and then she enjoyed trying them out to make sure we had done a good job. We had fun and I found something simple she could help me with that she really enjoyed (rice crispy treat 'bird nests' with candy eggs). Special thanks to Wrenda for the apron! We had a great Easter weekend with church, friends, and family. God is so good and we are truly blessed!

Emma's Birthday