Aunt Julie's House

The boys had the exciting adventure of staying with their Aunt and Uncle and cousins while Mommy and Daddy went to New York for a few days. They had so much fun and seem to behave themselves!

Gracie and Bob-O took my hubbie and I to New York for our Christmas present and an early birthday present for me... I'm about to hit the big 3-0! We had so much fun and saw everything that we could possibly see in 3 days. The crowds were amazing since it was close to New Year's Eve. We ate fabulous food, saw the Rockettes and the Lion King and walked a lot. We had so much fun riding the double decker buses and seeing all the sights. We saw the Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry which was really neat and went up in Rockefeller Center at night and saw the whole city. It was the trip of a lifetime and we had a blast! It was the perfect present and I will never forget it... I am so blessed to have such generous and thoughtful parents!

Meanwhile, back in Georgia, the boys were having fun of their own. N must have learned a lot about Spiderman because he has been obsessed ever since! M kept his aunt giggling over his enthusiasm over food and his loud sound effects while snacking! N has been talking about his cousins a lot since then and always refers to them as "those two boys." When I ask him, he says their names, but in regular conversation when he talks about them he says "those two boys..." He cracks me up with things he comes up with!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

The boys had a fabulous Christmas! N woke to find that Santa had left him a Spiderman bike and M found a motorized little bike of his own. They were both very excited. It was so fun to watch them open each gift because they loved all of it. They were just as excited about a little toy as a big one and the whole experience was such a joy! Both of the boys were probably the most thrilled when they found out what they received from Mommy and Daddy... a spring cowboy horse. N also got a pair of chaps and M a belt and holster set as well as a cowboy hat. They were both so excited and loved riding their horse!

N picked out his Daddy's present all by himself... Between us, I think his Daddy was a little disappointed that he didn't have a cape too!

The sad news of the day was that our Grandfather, Pop, fell Christmas morning and broke his hip. Thankfully, he is doing well and made it through surgery fine, but will still face a long road of rehab and recovery... Alhtough this put a bit of a damper on the holiday mood, we all gathered as planned and celebrated Christmas together with Daddy's side of the family. The boys were so excited to get their gifts from Monniemoo and Pop. They got a train table and lots of Thomas toys to go along with it. Believe me when I say that this will provide hours of entertainment. They love trains!

After MM and Pop's house, we came back to Gracie and Bob-O's and had a nice, quiet dinner and Baby Jesus birthday cake for dessert. N was particularly fond of this part and had insisted from the beginning of the season that we have a cake for baby Jesus.

Overall, the day was a success filled with laughter, a few tantrums, lots of sugar and food, overstimulation, short naps, lots of thank you's, kisses, hugs, oohs and aahs, and fun family time celebrating Jesus' birthday!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Christmas Eve's Eve

We all met at Aunt Julie's house for Christmas with Daddy's side of the family tonight and had a fun time. The boys opened a lot of Superman toys and got a Thomas blow up ball pit. I know they will love that and have a great time. They had so much fun playing with their cousins and we had a great time seeing everyone. We really appreciate spending time with family now that we live so far away!

Cookies with Gracie!

One of my favorite memories of growing up is making Christmas cookies with my mom. We always had so much fun! Of course, my mom wanted to do this with N while we were home and I think she had a memorable bonding experience of her own. He had a lot of fun, but I think she soon realized that N was much more into having fun than actual baking! He loved to roll the dough and cut out the shapes. Perhaps the most fun for him was putting on the sprinkles... He would put more sprinkles on the cookie than there was dough!

Road Trip

Yesterday, we took another memorable 12 hour trip back home to Georgia. Overall, it was pretty smooth... N has learned that he does not have to stop every 30 minutes to use the bathroom and now is on a more regular schedule.
We had to take Lucy, our dog along which was an adventure in itself. She wanted to sit in between the boys, which is really sweet, but there really isn't any room for her so she constantly fidgets and squirms. She also tries to eat the boys snacks and food and sits right where they have a hard time seeing the DVD player (which is like life support on these long trips!)
Other than the vomiting... didn't I mention the vomiting? About halfway through our trip, we stopped and picked up some fast food. I noticed that M was not eating like normal, but thought maybe he had just eaten a lot at school that day. All of a sudden out of nowhere, he just starts vomiting... ALL over the place. It happened twice, right in the middle of rush hour traffic in Mississippi... It was a little chaotic to say the least, but then cleared right up. The only thing I can think of is that they had their Christmas parties at Mother's Morning Out that morning and maybe he had eaten a lot of junk and then got a little car sick.
We are so thankful to be back "home" in Georgia and with our families... and, SO thankful that we don't have the stomach bug!

The perfect picture

Now that almost all of my Christmas cards are out, I thought it would be fun to show some of the more typical pictures that I have. Yes, I am still living in the film age, so I had A LOT of "priceless" pictures to keep and smile over... We took 2 separate trips to the park to take pictures. One with Daddy and one where I lost my mind and thought that it would be really easy to do by myself!... guess which one made the card? Ha Ha... It was definitely a memory!

"Baby" Dedication

I put "Baby" in quotations for the obvious... M is no longer a baby. However, since we moved while he was so tiny and then it took a while to find a church, we realized that we had better hurry up and have our "baby" dedicated. We kept trying to figure out a time where we could do the dedication when some family would be in town, but unfortunately, it has not worked out. Our church only does it each quarter and since it is so large, you have to sign up a few months ahead of time. One time this summer, my mother in law was in town and they had a dedication, but we had not realized and did not sign up in time... this would have been a perfect chance, but when I called to get the next spot... it was the December dedication. J and I decided to go ahead and do it as he was already 18 months old!

M was dedicated on 12/16/07 and did very well. Daddy had a supply of snacks in his pockets that kept M occupied. He was really busy before the ceremony and was running all through the waiting room and the halls. Of course, all of the other babies were sleeping or laying around! Once we got up on stage though, M was awestruck and was very well behaved! It was a sweet ceremony and although we did not have any extended family there, it was still special. After all, the commitment is between the parents and the Lord anyway, so that's what counts! Our pastor sent us this picture and also a video of the dedication which I am trying to figure out how to put in the blog...

Giving vs. Getting

J and I decided that it was important to teach the boys that Christmas is not just about getting presents, but also about giving presents. We have been talking to N a lot about this, but we also thought of a neat way to have him participate. The firestations here were having a toy drive, so we decided to take the boys on Saturday to the firestation and let them take a toy to donate. In addition, they would also get to see the firestation and the firetruck as an added incentive.
The present that we picked out to donate was a blue bike. N was very excited about going to the firestation and giving the bike... until we actually got there. We met the fireman and although M was all smiles and hopped right into the firetruck, N wanted no part of it. He was very content and happy to look on from the safety of our arms. He was fine with giving the bike, but then decided that he also wanted a bike like that and talked about it for quite a few days. I kept reminding him that we were giving the bike to a child who was less fortunate than him and that Santa was going to bring him something special of his very own. The whole concept confused him a little bit, but I think we finally resolved it. He kept asking me how Santa would get the present from the firemen and I think we finally figured out that the firemen were Santa's helpers and helped collect presents for the children who didn't have mommy's and daddys since Santa was so busy in his workshop... whew!
N then told me: "Mommy, Santa is so bizzy cuz he makin my toys!"
Oh well, hopefully the "giving" concept sunk in somewhere in his little head!

Shy

We definitely have the Christmas fever bug around here! This year has been a lot of fun because it is really the first year that N understands about Christmas. As a mother, I have really been trying to emphasize the true meaning of Christmas this year and not just focus on Santa Claus and presents... This of course does not mean that N isn't excited about presents! He has a hefty list and we are trying to focus on just a few things.

N's list this year is:

Spiderman bike

Spiderman toy

Thomas toys

A cowboy horse

These are the things that he lists off, but of course he has told me about a thousand other things as well!
The funny thing about N is that he has cried... no, bawled the past 2 visits to Santa, so we have been talking to him about the whole experience and going over what he would do and say. Yesterday, I helped host a Santa event at our church and J brought the boys. N was very excited and of course M was all smiles. However, when it came time for N to shine and tell the big man his much rehearsed list, he froze up. He did not cry, he just got shy. When he got down, he ran to his Daddy and told him that he wanted his Daddy to go back and tell Santa his list. Since we were at church, and it was very laid back, N's wonderful Daddy went back and let Santa know what N wanted for Christmas... just in case he did not know already! :-)
It was really cute... N was "berry pwoud of my daddy for tawkin to Santa Cwause dor me!"

Gingerbread Houses

We had a fantastic surprise the other day as we received a huge box in the mail from my Aunt Sissy. She always sends the neatest gifts and this year was no exception. She sent the boys a Train Gingerbread House! Tuesday morning, I told N that when he got home from school, we would put M down for a nap and he and I would decorate the train together. He was so excited and told his teachers all about it! Now, those of you who know me well know that I have a few perfectionist OCD tendencies... so, I had already talked myself into the fact that I would put the train together and do most of the icing, but that I would let my 3 1/2 year old go to town with the decorating. However, I soon found out... N may be a clone of his daddy, but he is my child after all!!!

N was very organized with the decorating. He put all of the same kind of candies in rows. He put all the candy canes in the corners, he even studied the box very intently to see what he thought it should look like... (which is exactly what I would have done!) Now, it's not perfect, but it is pretty organized for a 3 1/2 year old genius!

*Notice the smudge of green icing on his lip!

We taste tested as we decorated!

-This pictures is after a little nibbling by the boys!