Thanksgiving Break

We have had an exciting Thanksgiving break so far.

Saturday we had errands that needed to be taken care of and then had friends over that evening for dinner.

Sunday was a rainy day so after church we took it easy at home. The kids had been begging to get Christmas decorations out after our friends on Saturday night told them they had already decorated. So Lance caved and said we would get the tree put together.  Well, unfortunately, when we started putting it together we realized the lights were not all working. Last year when we put it out there was a strand of lights that would occasionally blink so we wrapped an extra set of lights around the tree and took care of that problem. We talked about buying a new, bigger tree for the family room but wanted to wait a year or two so we stuck it out with the one we had. Before we went to all the work of fluffing the tree we put it all together to see what lights were and were not working. It turned out we had a “zebra tree” as the kids called it.

We decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and buy a new one. We knew mostly what we wanted because we did a lot of research on them last year. So that night we placed our order. Since the kids were disappointed with our zebra tree we decided to let them go ahead and get their trees put up in their rooms.

Sam and Hayes both have a 4’ green tree. The one in Hayes’ room is the one that Lance and I bought for our apartment when we were first married. It has been in Reese’s room for the last several years. It is on its last leg so we will probably have to get him a new one next year. We decided not to put any ornaments on his this year because they will just end up all over the floor or broken.

Sam’s has a mish mash of ornaments on it but he loves it so much. I think they each just love the soft glow and twinkle of the lights in their rooms. I need to figure out some kind of tree skirt for their trees.

Reese’s tree is my favorite. Several years ago I saw a white tree with ornaments put on in a rainbow pattern. I showed it to her and she loved it. We never found a white 4’ tree last year so we didn’t get to do it but this year I was randomly at Walmart and they had one (before Halloween) so I grabbed it for her. She was thrilled and we both love how it turned out. This picture doesn’t do it much justice but it is really pretty. Her star is glittery pink and then the ornaments go backwards down the rainbow to red on the bottom.

Meanwhile, the sun started coming out right at dusk and it created the most beautiful light around our house. I couldn’t even get a good enough picture to capture it. It was a beautiful orange glow.

Knowing that the kids didn’t have school the next morning we ran to Target for a few things and then back home for a late bed time.

Monday morning Hayes decided to wake up early so I pulled him in to my bed but he never really went back to sleep. The big kids woke up shortly after that and went downstairs to play. Around 7:15, Hayes and I were still snuggling in my bed so I turned on GMA and figured I would enjoy the slow pace of our morning. Around 7:45ish Reese starts crying and I could tell it was a real cry, not her normal dramatic kind of cry. I ran downstairs to check on her and she was laying on the floor in the foyer. She had been riding our little roller coaster and was not riding it correctly. I asked her if she was ok and she said no. I asked what hurt and she said her chin. Once she stood up and let me see it, I realized our morning was not going to be so lazy anymore. I walked her upstairs, told her not to freak out but that I thought she was going to need stitches. Her chin was not bleeding but it was definitely spilt open. I FaceTimed Leah and had her take a look and she said that we should head to the ER for stitches. We ended up just going to an Urgent Care and left with six stitches in her chin.

She was so brave. She hates getting shots and will scream bloody murder when it is time for them. Getting her stitches there was definitely some crying but it wasn’t the dramatic, over the top response that she has to shots.

The boys were so good too. We were there for about an hour and a half. Sam was really worried about Reese and was closing his ears (afraid she was going to scream) and had tears in his eyes. He kept asking if he could go in the hallway to wait but I wouldn’t let him because it was kind of busy there that morning. Once it was all over, I promised them a trip to Target and a special gift from the dollar spot for being so good. Luckily we were done with all of this before the rest of our plans for the day.

After Target we met my aunt and cousin for lunch. We were supposed to ride horses with them that morning but because of the rain from Sunday we couldn’t do that. I did not get one picture but we had a great visit with them.

While we were at Target one of Sam’s friends asked him to come over for a play date. Sam is super shy about going to other people’s houses alone and this friend has several dogs so I asked if he would want to come to our house instead. He lives in Hallie’s neighborhood so I quickly texted Anna and asked if Hallie could come over too. She was available so I picked them both up after lunch and headed back home. It was a gorgeous day so I put Hayes down for a nap (3.5 hours since he woke up so early) and took the other four outside to play. They all played so well together and I think it kept Reese’s mind off of her chin.

Tuesday we had plans with more friends. We decided to meet at the mountain to go for a walk. It was the perfect fall day and I loved watching the kids run through the woods and walk along the path with leaves crunching under their feet. Even the babies got to run with the big kids for a while. About halfway through we stopped along the path to eat the lunch we packed. We ended up being there for a little over three hours.

When we got home from the mountain I pull up to our garage and our Christmas tree had arrived. I was so surprised because it was less than 48 hours since we had ordered it. I thought for sure it wouldn’t arrive until next week after we had already decorated everything else. So last night we got to work putting it together and getting it all fluffed.

It was a big undertaking because we decided to go with a 9’ tree. Last year when we first started talking about a new tree we said we wanted a 12’…(I’m glad we did not do that).

So we pulled out the tape measure and realized that was ridiculously too big for us. So we measured 10’ and that still felt too big so we decided to stick with 9 feet.

And it is perfect. I love the height of it and the width of it.

This morning when the kids came downstairs they were in awe. They loved it and can’t wait to decorate it. I think we are still going to wait until Friday to do that but I love having the glow of the lights on.

Now today has been a pretty lazy day for the kids. I am slowly getting things done around the house. We are hosting Lance’s family here tomorrow so I need to tidy up a bit and get started on some of the food. Hopefully the rest of our week can be pretty uneventful, peaceful, and full of thanksgiving.

Shooting for a Christmas Card

I took the kids out last week to try and get some pictures for our Christmas card. Unfortunately I don’t think I got any that will work for our card. It was an extra cloudy day so the color doesn’t look great. At least not good enough to use for Christmas cards but definitely good enough to share a few on here. I will keep some secret in case I can give them a little boost in the color department.

I love pictures of them holding hands…

Hayes wanted nothing to do with taking pictures. We did a lot of promising of things to get him to smile…it didn’t work too well.

We were next to the train tracks and he kept asking about the train. He was way more interested in the train than in taking pictures.

I was tired of trying to get Hayes to smile so they just played for a while. They ran down the hill a bunch of times, played on the playground, and then we walked through the train tunnel.

Again with the hand holding…

As we were walking back to the car a train finally came. Hayes wouldn’t climb up on the rail with the big kids but I just love this picture for some reason!

We also have a friend who is starting her own photography business so we had her take some pictures of our family. We haven’t seen those but hopefully there was at least one good one to use for a Christmas card.

Sam is FIVE

For months I have been telling Sam that I want him to stay four. I love him at four. But he was having nothing to do with it. He was counting down the days until he was five. Yesterday I told him I had cancelled his birthday and that he would stay four forever. At 6:30 this morning I heard his little feet running across the floor to our room. He climbed in our bed and said, “Mommy, it’s my birthday!” He was so happy that his “birthday wasn’t cancelled after all!”. When Reese came in to our room at 7:00 it was time to open presents! He couldn’t wait any longer.

He didn’t even care that I had wrapped his presents in Thomas the Train Christmas wrapping paper…

And he even let Reese open one of his gifts…

He loved all of his gifts…he is awesome like that! He will immediately start playing with them all.

After church, we had his birthday party. We don’t do many birthday parties in this family. Only on the big birthdays. And FIVE is a big birthday. I have a hard time with them turning five. I think it officially means they are growing up. They are no longer babies or toddlers. He will start kindergarten at this age!!

He chose to have his birthday party at Sky Zone. It was crazy there but the kids had a blast!

They played and jumped hard for an hour. We didn’t get too many good still pictures while they were playing. Lance took several really funny slo-mo videos though.

After jumping it was time for pizza and cake in the party room. Sam was so shy while every one was singing.

After cake he quickly opened his presents and it was all over. He had a blast and we had fun celebrating him!

Hayes is TWO

I can’t believe my baby is two. It is weird to think that I am out of being the mommy of a baby forever.

He loves to “cheese”. If I ask him if I can take his picture, he says yes and “cheese”. If I am done, he will ask “more cheese?”.

He was a monkey for Halloween. That evening I was telling a neighbor about his personality and he called him the perfect “Curious George”. That is about right. He loves to explore and play and occasionally get himself in to trouble.

During soccer and baseball season, he was permanently stuck in the stroller. He will quickly wander off so I knew I didn’t have a choice. One of our friends dad said he was “in time out for life”. That works for me. Ha!

Most days there is absolutely no point in cleaning up around the house. If I am in one room cleaning he is making twice the mess in another room. I might as well just follow him around and clean up his messes.

He loves to snuggle with me and he loves Thomas the Train. That is our perfect snuggle time. When we get home from dropping Sam off at school, Hayes will run to the couch, pat his hand on it and say, ”Mama”, and then point at the TV and say, “choo-choo”. If I don’t sit with him, he will pull me to the couch. Once I am sitting, he moves my arm around his shoulders and leans in or will tuck his arm around my back.

He loves to rock and have me sing to him. When he knows it is nap time, he points to the rocking chair and says “Bus” because “The Wheels on the Bus” is his favorite song for me to sing.

For his birthday we gave him the Little People bus. When he heard it sing his favorite song he got a big smile on his face. He loves to get Reese from the bus. Most days he is napping though. When we see busses on the road he will yell “Hey Eese” or “more bus”.

It is kind of weird how he knows where we are when driving down the road. There is a railroad bridge that we go under and he has only ever seen the train on there once. But every time we go under the bridge he says, “Bye-bye choo-choo”. He also knows when we go by Reese’s school and where our Publix is. If I say we are going to the store and pass by that Publix, he will yell out “this” as if to tell me I passed it.

He is learning new words often but still not talking as much as the other two did at his age. He sure makes a lot of noise though.

He calls Sam “Bubba” and Reese “Eese”.

Lance is still his favorite person, I think. And he is still a Man’s Man. He loves to hang out with the men and boys around. On Halloween night, he was running around with the big boys and having a blast.

Pretty often he wakes up with a dry diaper so I will ask him if he wants to go tee-tee on the potty. He thinks that is so funny and I always reward him with an m&m. However, I am not ready to potty train him. Hopefully I am not missing a big opportunity.

We have his well visit in a couple of weeks. However, I know he is at least 35” because he was tall enough to ride Goofy’s Barnstormer at Disney. That is the height requirement and they are strict with that requirement. The man even slid a credit card type card between Hayes’s head and the pole to make sure there was not any space. His head was touching the pole.

People love his hair! The last time we got it cut, the girl cut it way too short. We are going to let it grow out for now and see how it looks a little longer. His hair is going to have to be basically shaved or long. In between is not really an option.

He loves Reese and Sam. He loves to do what they are doing and gets so sad in the afternoons when they run over to a friends house to play. He misses them when they are at school and often asks about them.

He and Sam know how to push each others buttons. They can play really well together and argue really well together.

He is so fun and really makes me laugh out loud on a daily basis. He loves life and goes full force. I pray that we can foster his traits in to positive and beneficial traits for his life.

Halloween 2014

This year we had so much fun on Halloween. I decided it would be fun to have a chili cook-off in our cul-de-sac since Halloween fell on a Friday night this year.

After running around like a crazy person all day gathering the last of the things we needed, it was time for fun.

I wish I could post all of the pictures that were taken while trying to capture the “perfect” picture of all three kids. But, we would be here all day so these are the “perfect” ones. And this is the most accurate one of our lives right now…

We started setting up around 5:30. It was so fun seeing everyone roll in with their crockpots full of chili. Everyone’s chili was different and so good.

We even had everyone come up with a creative Halloween themed name for their chili. Our chili was named “Creepy Cream Cheese Chicken Chili”.

The kids had a blast running around playing while waiting to go Trick-or-Treating. Unfortunately, right as they were about to head out it started pouring down rain and rained on and off all evening. We quickly popped some tents up over the tables, the moms set up chairs under the tents, and the dad’s took the kids out.

After about ten houses, my little snuggle bug, Sam, came back home with feet soaking wet. He was done. He stayed with me in the cold, windy, wet air. Lance, Reese, and Hayes toughed it out for a while longer. At one point one of the mom’s jumped in her car to go find our husbands and kids to see if they wanted a ride back home. She came back with an empty car.

Once everyone was back home, I brought the kids in to warm up and put Hayes to bed. The other two and our neighbor watched Charlie Brown while we cleaned every thing up outside.

I think everyone had a lot of fun and we can’t wait to do it again next year!!

Happy Birthday Hayes!

I can't believe Hayes is two! These two years have flown by! He is such a fun little guy to have around. So grateful we get to raise this cutie!





- Posted from my iPhone