It's Christmas at Bass Pro Shop!

One of our very favorite Christmas activities each year is taking the boys to enjoy all the fun at Bass Pro Shop.  Bass Pro really goes the extra mile when it comes to entertaining kiddos at Christmas time!

Waiting in line to see Santa Claus!

This is the first year the boys did not cry when they sat in Santa's lap.  YAY!  They gave him a very long list of cars from the Cars movie that they want for Christmas..."Shu, Lewis,  Sally, Snotrod, Flo, Wingo, DJ, Red, Ramone, Doc..."  That sweet Santa let them carry on with their list for quite a while!

 More toys to play with...

Color Pages too!  With all those crayons and fun colors to choose from, our boys colored their whole picture with pencil.  Neat.

RACE CARS!!  Woo hoo!

And if that wasn't enough fun for one evening, a reindeer carousel to top it off!  I asked Jordan what the name of his reindeer was and he told me it was "Cupid...ummmm...no...Mommy, it's Donner."

So incredible to experience the Christmas season with young children.  No wonder Jesus said, "Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all." - Mark 10:15  They believe.  Kids believe with big hearts.  The boys have completely fallen in love with the Baby Jesus and the story of his birth.  Much of that we have to thank our darling preschool program at church and at school.  They love to sing "Away in a Manger" and talk about the angels, the shepherds, Mary and Joseph, and the Wise Men.  It is just precious to see their eyes completely light up with wonder and amazement every time they hear the story.  It is my deepest prayer that our boys will continue to grow and fall in love with our Savior.  How sweet it is that we have the freedom to celebrate his birth at this special time of year!

My Two Little Wise Men

Nater-Tot and Jordy had their very first preschool program this week.  It was the most precious thing ever.

We got the show we expected from our boys. Jordan knew every word and motion to every song (even the other classes songs) and was quite the dedicated performer! Nathan, not so much.  He took off  his headpiece, sang a few words, pulled at his collar, turned around, sang a few words, put his jingle bell on the ground, kicked the jingle bell, sang a few words...I bet you get the picture! HA!

Nathan's in purple and Jordan's in yellow...see?....I'm not kidding.   How can two boys born two minutes apart and have the same life experiences be so different?!  The Lord created such distinct personalities in our boys...totally cracks me up!

Big hugs from Mommy after the show!

 What a special day!  These boys of mine are getting too big too fast.

Blog Hiatus Must Be OVER.

Woo!  I'm back! My last post was dated on November 12...that is almost one month ago and I'm pretty sure it might be the longest pause in blog entries from me.

There was no Thanksgiving post because we spent our Thanksgiving Break potty training the boys.  YEP! Bryan, Nathan, Jordan, and I spent about 7 straight days within a 12 foot radius of each other.  No kidding.  The result - no pull-ups and two potty trained boys!!!  YAY!  Well, Jordy is still a little scared to go #2 in the potty but we are still making great progress.  So, there were no Thanksgiving pictures to record our Thanksgiving.  Kind of hard to take pictures when your running to the potty with two two-year-olds the whole time, cleaning tinkle off the floor, or doing 5 loads of laundry a day.  However, it was a great time!  In between running to the potty, we played cars and watched movies and had great quality family time too!

It's Christmas at our house!  All the decorations are up and we are ready to celebrate our most favorite time of the year!  The boys are so excited about Baby Jesus, Rudolph, Santa Claus, Christmas lights, Frosty the Snowman, and all sorts of Christmas fun.

Our little Elf friend, Charlie, visits every morning and his pose reveals his mischief from the night before...

I sure do love being able to say "Let's make a good choice.  Charlie the Elf will go talk to Santa Claus again tonight."  It works every time!

Jordan and Nathan had their very first taste of hot chocolate this weekend.  Don't you love the looks on their faces?!  You can tell they thought it was heavenly.  They even got to drink it out of a real mug...that never happens at our house.  It must be CHRISTMAS!

Now we're counting down to Christmas break at our house...only 8 more school days.

Family Pictures 2011

Thanks to Ashley Bell at Ashley Lauren Photography, we have some pictures that have captured the sweetest memories of my 2 year old boys.  I am so appreciative of the time she spent with our family on a Saturday morning at the farm.

Can't talk...literally.

* I wrote this blog entry on Thursday...finally getting around to posting it...

Try teaching 83 fifth grade kiddos without making a sound!  I have completely lost my voice, thanks to these fall allergies.  My kids at school were actually pretty amazing today.  They were so quiet and I have never seen them be so independant and helpful to each other.  What a blessing!  I have been drinking a ton of hot tea with lemon and honey to help conquer this silly sore throat.  I even made two visits down to the nurse's office to gargle with salt water.  No luck to get my voice back today.  Maybe tomorrow.  I did have one of my darling students give me this picture....She totally warmed my heart today.  (especially since she made me really skinny with really long eyelashes!)



Goodbyes are the pits.

My sister and her little family of 4 got on a plane this morning headed all the way to California.  Jason's job has relocated them a three- day-car-ride away from here.  It has been such a whirlwind!  Their house sold in about 2 days.  I am so sad and it is so weird that they will live so far away.  You know, we lived on the same street for a couple of years and I'm pretty sure I cried when they moved two streets over.  Now, it's like THIRTY HOURS to their new house! 

We ate supper at my Mom and Dad's house all together on Wednesday night for the last time until they come back for Christmas. Jordan, Nathan, Georgia, and Vivi played in MeMe's dress-up trunk all evening!

 I held Vivi and Georgia so tight and just hugged and kissed them like crazy.  I can't stand it. I gave Jenn big hugs too with tear filled eyes.  Jenn is one of my dearest friends in all the world.  She definitely helps to keep me in style and I'm not sure what I will do without her to give me an opinion on everything that requires an artistic eye.  I guess she will be getting a lot of text messages from me! I might have to send her a picture of my outfit every day at 5:30 in the morning so she can make sure I don't look like a dork.  HA! 

I had the chance to sit down with Vivi the other night and look through an entire A.merican G.irl magazine page by page.  We talked together about every dress and every girl's cute hair and all of their princess qualities.  I cherished every minute of that little conversation.  I just love that little girl.  She is pretty amazing.  Vivi is growing so fast and will have a birthday before Christmas.  Oh goodness, Jenn better put a brick on her head to keep her from growing too much before I see her again.

Baby Georgia is just the most darling little thing.  She has the biggest "cheeky" smile you have every seen!  She just waddles around the house following the big kids.  She cracks me up!  I sure will miss that punkin. 

I'm excited for Jason and his career and I know that this move was best for their family.  My hope and prayer is that they will jump into their new community and find friends, a church, a school, and good shopping.  I want for Vivi to meet other 4 year old princesses that love to paint, read, play school with stuffed animals, and watch princess movies too.  I pray they get settled in their house quickly and it soon feels like home. 

I also pray that Christmas comes real quick!!!  Can't wait to hug their necks again!  I miss them already.

Trick or Treat!

On Halloween Night we walked the boys and their cousins around the neighborhood for their very first TRICK OR TREAT!  They caught on really quick.  Pretty soon they were running up the sidewalks saying "Trick or Treat.  Thank you very much!"  So funny.  Jordan would say "More candy please?!"  They were the most excited about the bag of popcorn they got from one house.  Out of all the things in their pumpkin bucket  they chose to eat later that night...popcorn.  Oh goodness, they crack me up! 

Nathan was already so excited about his "chocolate!"  It was nearly impossible to keep them still for a picture.

Showing off their dinosaur tails!

As if the candy was not enough surprise for the night, MeMe got the boys a new dinosaur book!  What a special treat!

The boys and their adorable cousins!  Vivi was a beautiful Dorothy and sweet little Georgia was Glinda the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz.  So cute!

Oh, and can you guess who carved MeMe and Grandad's pumpkin?! Yep, my sister, artist and princess-extraordinaire.  It's Princess Ariel, seashells and all!  Ha!

Of course, I told Bryan that we are total loser parents because we did not carve our pumpkin.  At least Nathan and Jordan don't quite know what they missed out on yet.  Next year, we will be carving a pumpkin.