Santa Cookies

Since Santa is coming early so that Dylan could be here to open his presents, we HAD to make his cookies tonight. It couldn't wait a minute longer... at least according to my children. I know I should have made the cookies from scratch like Tammy... but I'm not nearly the mom that she is. I used a box. Such shame.....

Anyway, we did roll out the dough, cut out the shapes, cook, and iced the cookies, so I guess that I'm not all that bad. After I iced them (I learned my lesson with letting them have frosting last night), Brennan and Dylan decorated them with sprinkles and sugar. All the while, Nolan ate cookie after cookie while watching them decorate theirs. I think that he thought he was getting the better end of the deal.

The Grinch ICE!

One nice thing about Nashville is that the Grand Ole Opry is only about 15 minutes away and they have some of the coolest things in their theaters. When Tammy and I went to the Grand Ole Opry, they had some advertisements for ICE! Now, I didn't know exactly what it was other than the Grinch and that LOTS of kids at Brennan's school had gone. Going on that information, Don and I decided to surprise the kids by taking them to see the Grinch.

ICE is exactly what it says it is... Everything is made out of ICE! In order to keep the ice from melting, it was only 9 degrees inside the building... Brrrrrrrr.... I can't say that it was what I expected or we would've worn more winter clothes. As it was, the boys just had their coats on, I had a light jacket, and Don didn't have anything. Luckily, they plan on it being much colder than the outdoor temperature, so they have heavy coats to put on over your coat. THANK HEAVENS! There was so much cool (punny....) stuff to see inside. Who-ville, Cindy Lou Who, the Grinch.... there was even the roast beast. The best part of the ice land were the slides made out of ice. The boys just loved them... though they only got to go down a couple of times because of the lines and how cold it was.

At the very end, they had the real nativity carved out of ice with a gigantic angel watching over the baby Jesus. Now that was really cool!

After nearly freezing to death, we went to meet the Grinch. Luckily, he was in a warm building just up the street. When we walked in, Brennan and Dylan both knew who he was and gave him hugs and high fives. Nolan, not knowing anything about him, thought he was the neatest thing he'd ever seen. I expected him to run away screaming, but Nolan kept running up to him, laughing and smiling, then running back to us. Back and Forth, back and forth. Such a crazy kid! We had the Grinch all to ourselves for about ten minutes to take pictures and be silly. The Grinch even danced with Brennan and Dylan.

You'll notice in the pictures that Nolan is holding an ICE sippy cup that has hot chocolate in it... bad idea when you want to take a cute picture. He would not let that cup go!

Although it was a little expensive, I'm glad that we took the boys out to have some fun. It's times like this that they'll remember and want to show their kids.

Gingerbread Trains

Yesterday, Don flew in from Tulsa with Dylan. The boys were so happy to see each other... they played for hours. It's good to have our complete family here!

To celebrate Christmas, we decided to decorate Gingerbread Houses... but Target was out of the houses, so instead of driving around hoping to find houses, we bought what they did have... TRAINS!

Decorating Gingerbread Trains turned out to be just as fun the boys as decorating houses... and just as MESSY! And just in case you're curious... they are missing the shirts because of the messy they kept making.

73 Degrees in December?

On Friday December 19th, Nashville recorded a record high of 73. Unbelievable! It's the middle of December.... you know, that month that is supposed to be insanely cold... and wet... and white. Well, we have NONE of that going on here. In fact, Friday was so nice, the boys played outside until it got dark... and even then, it was only in the 50's. Crazy!

I've come to the conclusion that I have the clumsiest boys in the world. Brennan can barely walk 50 feet without tripping all over his two left feet and I fear that Nolan has inherited the same trait. While we were outside, Nolan constantly kept falling down and hitting his head... so when you see pictures of the following days, he has this huge goose egg from falling and hitting it a dozen or so times in the same place. I promise I'm not beating my baby!

Brennan Update

This past month and a half has been a zoo! Constantly coming and going... not necessarily knowing exactly where... I feel like my head is about to explode! While it has been a lot of running around, it has done wonders for Brennan, so I am glad that he is getting something out of my insanity!



Karate Update: Brennan has earned his white belt and has earned a strip toward his gold belt. His Seance (teacher) called me yesterday to let me know how well Brennan is doing. He said that Brennan was a very polite boy (I was shocked!) who was taking his lessons very seriously and that he was proud of what he had accomplished.


Swimming Update: Brennan has completed his swimming lessons for the quarter. He has passed his minnow test, so now he can start taking the next level, though that won't be until the spring when Basketball is over.


Basketball Update: Brennan continues to practice with his team. While basketball may not quite be his thing (he doesn't really understand the game) he is enjoying playing with the other boys. Brennan's first game is the second Saturday in January. Pictures will follow!


Boy Scout Update: Brennan has come quite a long way in Tiger Scouts. This past pack meeting, he was awarded his swimming belt loop (he was the 1st in his pack to earn a belt loop) and a popcorn sale patch. He only has 2 beads left to complete with his den to finish his Tiger Badge. The picture is Brennan with his den leader Ms. Amy.


On a side note, I was also presented with an award at the last pack meeting. I was awarded a Cub Scout key chain and a ribbon to wear to meetings for being such an involved parent (I got it because I was the parent who logged on to the scouting website the most and logged all of Brennan's requirements/electives). So Yippee to Me!


This is a picture of Brennan performing "I caught a baby bumble bee" at their pack meeting. The scouts LOVE that song!

Update on the Elves

Last night, Brennan and I were picking up the house when Brennan asked me about elves again.

Brennan: How can Santa be everywhere at once?
Me: He isn't... he has elves watching you wherever you go.
Brennan: Someone in my class said that elves live in the cupboards. Is that true?
Me: Well, they have to live somewhere...closets, cupboards, under beds.
Brennan: Well, I don't think they live in our cupboards... there is too much stuff in them for the elves to fit too!

Just as a side note: Brennan has been ACTIVELY looking for elves everywhere we are/go. I'm thinking of leaving "elf scraps/poop" somewhere for him to find. Any ideas/suggestions for what to leave?

Santa's Little Helper

Nolan helping to put out Christmas Decorations.

Projects

So usually I post about my super (crazy) kids or my hubby, but this post is going to be about me (and my projects). I rarely get to toot my own horn, but I think that the projects I've been working on for Christmas are super good~ at least for me. They would probably drive my mother crazy because they aren't perfectly square or centered, but I think that for doing them all by myself, they turned out pretty well!

Over the last couple of weeks I have embroidered 58 kitchen towels (for Fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas), 19 bathroom towels, 7 winter hats, 3 white Dr. coats, and 2 baby blankets along with sewing 5 baby blankets, a soft baby book, and a big Razorback blanket for Don.

Here are a few of my favorite:

These are Stephanie's Christmas present (and yes she's seen them). I really like the way the colors go together and how everything lined up so well.

These are the Halloween Towels~ Super cute!

These are Nolan's new blankets for his new toddler bed. They were supposed to be one blanket, but they wouldn't sew together straight, so they became two instead!

"I want to be an Elf"

Interesting morning we've had here...

Brennan was full of questions about Santa~ how old is he? is he magic? how do you get to go work for him?

That led to his new fascination- ELVES! Are they real? Why are they so little? Are the my age? How can they be so old and so small?

I answered the best I could based on the movies (sad, I know) that I know he's seen and could compare them to. I think he seemed content with the answers I gave.

Then, as I was making him put on his coat, hat and gloves to catch the bus, he said the funniest thing..."I want to be an Elf." He walks over to me with his beanie tucked behind his ears, making his ears all pointy! "I'm going to be an Elf today." He was so proud that he'd figured out how to make himself look like an elf that I just smiled and nodded and sent him on his way.

Such sweet childlike faith...I want to be an Elf too!!!

I'm A Big Kid Now!

This past weekend, we purchased Nolan a toddler bed to try and transition him from the crib before the new baby (still un-named) arrives. When we were setting it up, Nolan was having a blast climbing all over it. You could tell that he was loving the fact that there was actually a bed in the house that he could get on himself! We found a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse bed set (his absolute favorite thing in the world...it's ever surpassed Baby Mozart!) to put on his bed and I even finished the blankets that I bought to make for him months ago. We assumed that everything was ready....

I know, I know... don't assume anything. The first night was insane. He cried for over an hour! Eventually, he figured out that we weren't coming in to play with him and he fell asleep on the floor next to the bed. So Close! Nap time the next day was worse. Since there was light, he could play with the few items we left in the room (blankets, diapers, wipes, books, the garbage). When I went to check on him after about 15 minutes, he had dumped out the garbage, knocked over the lamp, pulled out all of the blankets, opened all of the dresser drawers and tipped over the dresser. Luckily, he wasn't hurt, although he did manage to get out all the creams that were in his top drawers and line them up on the end of his bed. I should have taken a picture of his face when I walked in and found him in such a state. He looked at me and looked around and said (in the sweetest little voice) "Uh, oh." After a quick clean-up, Nolan spent the rest of his nap time in the crib.

The last three nights have been good though- After Don fixed the dresser by adding the drawer stops/latches, Nolan really hasn't done any damage to anything. When we put him to bed, he cries for about 5-10 minutes in front of the gate by his door and then crawls back into his bed and goes to sleep. It's been kind of nice- the only new issue is that Brennan isn't getting as much sleep as he should, but hopefully, the worst is over.

I had to throw in this other picture of Nolan. He is really into stacking and lining things up lately. Usually, it's the biggest on the bottom, but lately he's figured out that you can stack them from smallest to largest. I think he's getting too smart~ If only he would start really talking!

Them Crazy Cousins!

Brennan and Nolan loved having their cousins come to visit for Thanksgiving.

While Nolan was a little reserved at first, he soon took to Marissa and would follow her around the house playing. Nolan was even affectionate with Marissa, giving her hugs and kisses and just sitting with her watching TV~ not acting at all like my little stinker! It took a couple of days, but he also took to playing with Micaela.

Back in the day, many moons ago, Brennan and Marissa used to fight like cats and dogs over everything. I'm extremely grateful that they have both outgrown that stage of their lives, because now they play like best friends! They spent the weekend playing on the play set, shooting hoops, playing air-hockey, playing boardgames and just messing around. One of their favorite games was to pull each other around the house on a blanket. This game eventually evolved into wrapping each other up like a mummy- doesn't Brennan look so silly?

While we may not live close, it is wonderful to have such fun cousins!

Happy Thanksgiving!

or should I say "over-abundance of turkey" day?

This year, instead of driving to Little Rock or farther beyond, we decided that we were going to host dinner at our house, so we invited Heidi and her family to come to visit and eat, and eat, and eat! When she arrived Wednesday night, we got right to work making pies- 1 apple, 1 cherry, and 4 pumpkin pies. It was VERY reminiscent of growing up.... except that I was missing about 10 more pies! After having a few issues with the apple pie (too much filling) and the cherry pie (not enough filling) and a few trips to Kroger, we finally got everything figured out.

Thursday morning went great... I've decided that I love my double oven! The turkey went in at 8, the homemade rolls went in at 11, followed by the ham at noon. The mashed potatoes, cranberries, salad, and sweet potatoes were done at 1- the only issue came when we were trying to make the glaze for the ham and the gravy at the same time. It took about 15 minutes longer than anticipated, but dinner was ready and on the table by 1:30. All of that work for 20 minutes of eating! But it was really, really good!

The funny thing is, I cook like my mother... way too much food for one meal! We had leftovers Thursday night, Friday afternoon and evening, Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. Even as I am writing this, there is still a bag of Turkey and 2 Pumpkin pies sitting in my fridge right now! Oh well, as my mother used to say "Better to have too much than not to have enough!"

So, I would have to say that for my fist attempt at cooking a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner, it was quite successful!