christmas at cheekwood

We had a pretty fantabulous Christmas this year that I need to post about, but I have over 300 pictures that I have to go through first! So today I've got pictures from our visit to Cheekwood. We went a few weeks ago and we had such a great time. Caleb declared it "the best day ever"! There was cookie decorating and different crafts for the kids to do - they just love that kind of thing (and I do too!), so we really enjoyed doing all of that together. We got to see some actual reindeer - they were absolutely beautiful! Seeing them just reminded me of what an awesome and creative God we have! The kids were very curious about them and their antlers. And of course we made a visit to see Santa, who was by far the best Santa we've ever seen.  Not that he's not the same Santa every year.  He just looked a little more real and was a little more friendly than he was last year.  

a snow day.....sort of

|they are in mid-dance in this picture|

I know that people in other parts of the country laugh at what we call a snow day around here, but we had our first one of the season last week.  It was more like a light dusting, but it was enough to make the schools close and make the kids happy, so it was good enough for me!  (We just wish it had been enough to keep daddy home from work!)  By the time we got up and dressed and out the door, it was practically gone.  But the kids still had fun running around, making footprints, and putting on a little dance routine.

Caleb thought that the snow meant that it was Christmas day already, so we had to go look at the calendar and have a little talk!  He now has it all figured out and he lets me know how many days are left every morning when he gets up.  Today has us at the seven day mark!

thanksgiving

Ok, before we jump into full-on Christmas mode let's do a quick recap of our Thanksgiving.  I have come to terms with the fact that I am awful at taking pictures during actual holidays.  I guess I am too caught up in all of the action and that whole "living in the moment" thing that I forget to pick up the camera.  So, what you see is all I got!

Despite our lack of pictures, we really did have a wonderful one.  Since both sides of our families are local, we started celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas on separate days instead of trying to see everyone on the big day.  It's actually turned out to be one of my favorite traditions of ours because it means double the fun and double the food!  So the Sunday before Thanksgiving we had dinner at our house with Bobby's side of the family.  So yummy, and the kids had loads of fun playing with their cousins all day.  (Too bad I don't have a picture of that!)  Then on Thanksgiving day we headed over to my parent's house and played and ate some more.

We did a thankful tree this year with the kids for the first time.  I just put a big paper tree up on the pantry door so we could see it from the kitchen table - it made a great conversation piece during dinner.  They loved it and we loved seeing what they came up with all on their own.   Of course we loved when they named the more important ones like our home, family members, church, and Jesus.  But it was also fun to see the silly ones that they thought of.  Some of my favorites were popcorn, chicken & honey mustard, and dinosaurs.  This will definitely be a yearly tradition for us.

|give thanks printable here|

she is three

|i love Caleb's face in this|

|love.them.|

|daddy putting on some lipstick while he gets his blood pressure checked.  this picture cracks.me.up.|

|Batman made an appearance about halfway through and decided to stick around for awhile|

Yes, she went and turned three on us last week.  We had a wonderful little celebration for her with some family and it was so much fun to watch her this year.  She definitely realized that we were all there for her and that she was the star of the day.  Big brother was so happy for her - he loved watching her open her gifts and was more excited than she was half the time.  

The kids immediately began to perform check-ups on us with her new doctor's kit.  Makayla took Bobby's blood pressure and told him that it was 3.  She said that he needed to sit down for the rest of the day and watch football, but I'm pretty sure that idea was not entirely her own.  

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My sweet baby girl,

You are three! You weren't too excited about three at first, you kept telling us "No, I just want to be two. I just like two!" But you've come around and have embraced your threeness! 

You are such a sweet little girl and are such a joy to be around! You are very smart and bright - it makes you seem much older than you really are. You love to talk all the time - you know all sorts of words and sayings that I'm sure we never taught you but you have just picked up along the way. Lately, if you don't know a word we say you will ask us what it means and you are not satisfied until you understand it completely.  You are very feisty and a bit stubborn, which can be quite exhausting at times for your daddy and me, but we know that these traits are giftings from God and can be great attributes as you continue to grow.  You are a wonderful leader and like to be the "mama hen" of the group.  This gets a little sticky with your brother at times - you all are either getting along well or fighting just as well!  But it's obvious that the two of you adore each other and have that special bond that only siblings can have.  You love to sing and dance and are incredibly silly - you keep us laughing all the time.

I am sure that I don't deserve to be your mommy, but I sure am grateful that God chose me to be anyways.  

I love you bunches and bunches!

Love,

Mommy

Happy birthday baby girl!

they cancelled halloween

So one of our traditions every year has been to paint pumpkins.  The kids look forward to it and this year was no exception.  This time we had some friends over and the kids all painted together.  We had so much fun and I'm thinking we'll have to do that again next year.

Our Halloween night was a little bit different this year.  They were predicting some pretty crazy weather, so they actually called off trick-or-treating and scheduled it for the next night.  Well, we have a certain 5-year-old who was not gonna let that fly.  We decided we would just have our own fun instead!  We headed over to my parent's house and had a big chili and cornbread dinner - the perfect dinner for a stormy night as far as I'm concerned!  Then we sent the kids on a little scavenger hunt.  I made up a treasure map for them, and they had so much fun looking at the clues and finding their little goodies together.  

The night turned out to be a lot of fun, and I don't think they missed the actual trick-or-treating at all!