Atlanta

After C recovered from his virus, we finally made our way to Atlanta on Friday afternoon!!

The girls spent Saturday morning at the mall, which if you know me you know I do.not.like going to the mall, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be!  Gigi treated S to some jewelry, we visited the American Girl store(and will hopefully return next time with one of S's dolls - although they are not American Girl dolls I am hoping she won't notice! - for lunch!), rode the carousel two times with Gigi and had lunch before heading back home to hang out with the guys!  The afternoon was filled with dressing up, puppet shows and a visit from Uncle Bobby.  M and I were able to go out for a date night on Saturday night!!!!  It was FREEZING and we even saw a few snow flurries while we were walking to the restaurant!  It was a great evening until we both ended up with a touch of food poisoning putting a bit of a damper on an otherwise awesome day!

Sunday we were a bit slow to get moving after having been up all night with upset stomachs:(  But, by lunchtime we were feeling much much better!!!  Thank goodness!  We met up with my cousin, Kim, and her two girls at Monkey Joe's and the kids played together and had an absolute blast together!!  The 4 of them got along amazingly:) 

Today after getting most of our stuff packed up to drive home, we took a walk down the walking trail next to my parents' house!  Usually my dad is the one to take the kids down to the creek to throw rocks in and the kids look forward to it and talk about it every time we go to Atlanta!!  My dad had taken them on Sunday for a bit, but it was soooo cold that they didn't last long at all.  The weather today was much nicer and we all joined the walk!  My dad was glad to have a few extra adults around to wrangle the kids and it was a wonderful walk and chance to get some fresh air before driving home! 

The kids both cried when we left because they didn't want to leave, causing me and Gigi to also cry(softies!!!), and we are looking forward to going back again in the spring!

**Notice S's eye!  She fell down the stairs(C fell down the stairs at Cousin Will's house just a few days earlier and still has a bruise on his cheek!!) on Friday when we got there and ended up with a black eye that is just now looking normal! 

When...

all the toys have been opened, the food has been eaten, the celebrations have ended... what do you do?? 

Well, last year we went to the playground and about froze:)

This year, it was rainy, rainy, rainy so we hung around the house and the kids got creative! 

Then... tonight... after the kids were in bed... and the house was peaceful and quiet... as I'm packing to leave for Atlanta in the morning...

wait for it...

are you on the edge of your seat yet?...

it doesn't get much better than this...

C-man pukes:(  Bleh!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!!

I was so excited about Christmas that I tossed and turned all night in anticipation of the morning with the kids!!

We received an early wake up call from the boy this morning around 6am!  Not sure why, but he woke up so M and I proceeded to shower and get ready before getting both kids out of bed at 6:45am!!

S could hardly wait as she bolted into the living room and went straight for her new baby doll!  C wasn't quite sure what to expect and I think he was somewhat overwhelmed by all the presents but made his way to the Thomas the Train that Santa had left set up for him.  S tore through her gifts in record time while C was not one bit interested in opening any of his gifts(what!?!?) and preferred for Mommy and Daddy to open his up and then let him see what was inside each.  We set up and played with new toys all morning intermixed with eating breakfast, cooking and cleaning.  Time flew by and before we knew it, it was time to go to Grandmamma and Granddaddy's for lunch!

We enjoyed lunch with all the cousins and family!!  This year there were five little ones, up from three last year!  The family is growing, growing, growing!:)  After a gluttonous lunch, we opened more presents, C got a tractor ride, M took the kids fishing and we ended the day with more eating!

Christmas 2012 was a very memorable one and I am so thankful for all our many blessings!!

Christmas Eve

This afternoon, we went to an early 3pm Christmas Eve service at church(since C doesn't nap much anymore, it makes it possible for us to do this!).  C went to the nursery area, but S sat with us in "big church" and was very excited when a friend sat next to us!  The girls were impressively well-behaved and we enjoyed celebrating the day with a reminder of Baby Jesus!

After dinner, we made cookies for Santa, spread "reindeer food"(thanks, Amanda and Darcy!!) full of sprinkles and glitter outside so that the reindeer would spot our house from way up above, read The Night Before Christmas and tracked Santa's progress through NORAD watching as he made his deliveries in Egypt, France and Switzerland. 

It was a fun, exciting evening and the kids went to bed with visions of sugarplum fairies dancing in their heads!:)

 

 

Elf Antics Final

Boy has sure enjoyed himself this last week here at our house!  He has been a bit  more creative this week I guess since he knows he will be gone until next year!

Here are some of the things he's been up to:

1.  Taking a "bubble" bath in cotton balls.
2.  No pictures from this day but Boy continually moved around this day and both kids were so excited when they would find him in a new place!
3.  Exercising with dumbbells.
4.  Counting down the days until Christmas!
5.  Building a snowman.
6.  Making Jesus a birthday cake!

When we got home from Christmas Eve service, we found that Boy had returned to the North Pole until next year.  He didn't leave, though, without a good-bye letter and a scrumptious "elf snack"! 

We can't wait to see our little elf friend again in December 2013!!

 

 

Tiny Town Christmas Lights

This evening we went to "Tiny Town" to check out the awesome Christmas lights display armed with hot chocolate and marshmallows for the ride!  Now, don't get me wrong, it is extremely red neck, but it is amazing and fun nonetheless! M and I took S here for her first Christmas so she was all of about 2 months old and we finally decided it was time to visit again. It did not disappoint!

This place is set up with tons of "mini scenes" scattered around the yard. There are dolls and trucks and nativities and McDonald's toys and pretty much everything else you can imagine set up in tiny little houses or displays. The larger lots of dolls are displayed in the house where hot chocolate and coffee are served! The large fire pit rounds out a perfect, red-neck light display that we all enjoyed immensely - to the point that C-man cried for a good portion of the way home because he didn't want to leave!

  I suppose this will be an annual event now that we know they like it so much!:)