Christmas Happenings

We have had a busy first half of the month full of Christmas activities. I can't believe the month is halfway over already. We love Christmas around here! Here's what we have been up to:

1) I know a lot of people do Elf on the Shelf (which is great and I have nothing against it) but I just didn't want to do that and put more focus on Santa. I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it was perfect. The three wise men travel around our house each night following the star that leads them to Jesus, and then E finds them in the morning. She has had fun looking for them each morning.

They built a "snowman"

2) We saw Frosty the Snowman at Casa Mañana last Friday with our MOPS group. It was super fun and E enjoyed it. J even enjoyed and was flapping his arms and happy screaming with some of the music numbers!





3) Our HOA does a Breakfast with Santa for our neighborhood each year and I was able to get tickets this year! E was excited about seeing him, but then didn't want to sit on his lap once we were able to visit with him. She did tell him what she wanted for Christmas - an umbrella!!

Eating her pumpkin muffin

4) One of the towns close by us has a Christmas parade each year. Last year we went and decided we wanted to make it a tradition. E was so excited for the lights and the parade and was jumping up and down waiting for it to come down the road. J enjoyed it too =)

5) E's friend threw a Christmas cookie party last Sunday. They did a little craft and decorated Christmas cookies. It was a good time for everyone.

She loves the glitter glue

6) On Monday, we went to ICE at the Gaylord. I really wanted to go this year because the theme was Christmas Around the World. I do love traveling so I was excited to see what they did. E loved it but I think her favorite part was the ice slide. J enjoyed being snuggled in the parka with me, and I'm sure next year he will be chasing E in his own little parka.

P.S. If you go to this, go during the week around 4 - there is no line and we could take our time.

7) Another town near us was having Storytime at the Station this week and I took E because she loves fire trucks. She had a great time with one of her friends.

She wanted to get her picture by the Grinch. I thought she would be scared of him, but she asked for me to take her picture with him!

8) E made a gingerbread house with her daddy. She has been talking about doing this for weeks and they finally did it on Thursday. There may have been some frosting and candy eating during the making of the house, but I'll never tell.

 He was just a spectator this year 

9) And then.....sickness hit our house. I had it earlier in the week but just pushed through it and thought it was no biggie. E started throwing up Friday afternoon, and then J joined her today. It is so sad to watch your little love bugs be sick. Praying they feel better soon.

Thanksgiving 2015

We had Thanksgiving at our house last week. Jason's mom, sister, brother and his family all came into town for the festivities. It was great to see all the family! It was a busy couple of days with everyone here but I loved it. I know that E loved hanging out with her cousins.

Ok this is the day before Thanksgiving but I could't pass up this cute little photo op!

Aunt Minette came into town and got to meet J for the first time!

The actual Thanksgiving day I didn't get many pictures because I was busy cooking. Jason cooked the turkey and I cooked all the sides. I love to cook. It brings me great joy to cook for people and try new recipes. Now the clean up - someone else can do that - ha! I  even forgot to get a picture of my kids together in their cute Thanksgiving outfits so I plan on putting them in the outfits at a later date just to take a pic =).

A cute pic of the cousins 

Aunt Minette and E coloring on the tablecloth at dinner that night. I found this tablecloth at Target for $3 and you could color on it!! Score! I must find one of these for Christmas. It was so fun.


We watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving together as a family together that night. I love Charlie Brown HOWEVER I didn't realize that they use the word stupid A LOT in the show so that will be the last time we watch that together for a long time. (We are having some discipline issues with that word - just keeping it real)

On Friday, Jason's grandmother, who had also come into town, came to see her great grandkids. His aunt also came as well. J was in his Doc Band today because his bite that became infected on his head was FINALLY healed after two weeks. Hopefully we are almost done with it!

GG with the grands and great grands (photobomb courtesy of Lucye)

Minette with her brothers before she left town on Friday

We opened presents from the cousins and MawMaw. 

 

E and J with their MawMaw

Jason's mom left on Saturday morning and Jason had to work the hospital so I took the kids to Cabela's to get out of the house on this cold windy day. 

On Sunday, we went to church and then had a low key afternoon. I made these pumpkin muffins for Thanksgiving breakfast that were vegan and gluten free. They turned out pretty good, but I think I will try a different gluten free flour next time to see if I can change the texture. E LOVED them! She asked for them for every breakfast and snack time all weekend. 

Post nap and pumpkin muffin face 

Hope your Thanksgiving was filled with love and family!!

Homecoming 2015

*OMG y'all - this has literally sat in my draft box all week. It took me an entire week to finally finish this post. I'm hanging my head in shame. *

This past weekend was my 10 year college reunion and homecoming at my alma mater. We left Friday morning during the downpour of rain in DFW, and got to the hotel mid afternoon.We went to dinner that night for the reunion and I got to hang out with one my good friends from college. It was great catching up. We left early to get the kids to bed. 

The next morning we went to the university and we walked around a bit and then went to Posse Kids. E had a blast. She loved riding the horses, watching the dancers, and playing the games.

J had fun hanging out with Mommy watching everything. Next year, he will be running all over the place.

We went to lunch with some of my friends

We did fun selfies. 

J enjoyed playing on the floor of the hotel. Isn't he just precious??

We had so much fun going to homecoming. We are planning to go next year. Got to start the brainwashing of going to my alma mater early - Ha!

4 months!

Ok so this is 2 weeks late but I'm working on getting better. =)

Dear J,
You are 4 months old!! A third of your first year is over and I can't believe its gone by so fast. We are so thankful for you!

You wake up between 6:30-7:30 every morning and go to bed between 7-8 most nights. You are not a napper. You get one nap in the morning that lasts anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and then you won't go back to sleep until around 12-12:30. You will have a long nap while E has her rest time and then maybe a very short nap before dinner. I have to hold you for all naps so you spend time in my boba or wrap during the day. You just like your snuggles. You still need to be held a majority of the night but I have put you back in your pack and play several times and you have slept for an hour or two after that.

You laughed for the first time this month! September 8 to be exact. You laughed at your sister. You pretty much think she is the funniest thing ever and she can make you laugh the most. You have laughed with your daddy and me, but you laugh the most when your sister is doing something silly. You love tummy time for about 10-15 minutes at a time. You will try to eat the blanket that is underneath you and everything in your hands immediately goes into your mouth. You are getting better at gripping things in your hands. Your favorite toy right now is a little lion that has a blanket on the end of it. You will just sit there and chew on it and it makes you happy in the car. You will now be content in your car seat for about 10 minutes if you have that toy before you start crying/screaming.

You rolled from your back to your tummy on September 17. You are on the move now. I put you down on your blanket about a week after you started rolling onto your tummy, and I left the room to grab a new change of clothes for you. When I came back you were about 2 feet away from your blanket just chilling. Slow down!! You are going to keep me on my toes. It won't be long before you are following your sister everywhere. You can sit up if I support your back and are now tolerating the little bebo seat for a few minutes before you are ready to get out of it. For the most part you are such a happy baby. You scream, talk, and smile all day long.

You had your 4 month check up and weigh officially 15 pounds 5 ounces and are 25 inches long. You wear size 1 diapers in disposable and are starting to wear cloth diapers. You wear 3 month clothing with a couple of 3-6 month clothes thrown in there.

We love you sweet boy!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy