Christmas...already??

Two truths about my life right now.  First, my camera broke this summer so I have been VERY bad about taking pictures.  Second, I really like my the way my house looks at Christmas time.  The colors are Christmas-y in nature, so when you add the stockings, tree, Poinsettias..., it just all comes together. 

I feel like I haven't posted in quite a while because I have been so bad about taking pictures (because I don't have a camera...did I mention that?  grrr.  We have been so busy lately that I feel like I haven't been able to catch my breath.  But in a good way.  Doing lots of Christmas-y things!  Last weekend we went to a Christmas in California wine party with some dear old friends and had a great time.  The kids and I have been doing fun Christmas crafts, we got to see the lighting of the Christmas tree and Santa's arrival on Marietta Square, its been a busy month!  Amongst all this, Lance has been working a lot and fighting some stomach problems.  He is starting to feel better, but the verdict is still out on the exact cause.  Its made for quite the holiday season and has made me sit back everyday and remember to be truly thankful for all of the important things in life...my family and friends!

I guess if I'm documenting the season, it should start with the arrival of the Christmas tree!  We picked it up the weekend after Thanksgiving, and what a beautiful tree we found!  It smells heavenly and I think its one of the prettiest that we've had so far!  Harrison was Daddy's big helper and helped us decorate it so beautifully.  He would pick one or two branches and put all of his ornaments on those branches.  I love it!  This beautiful tree has character!  This is the other helper that we have and here is his favorite thing to do...everyday:

Lance has had quite a few days of working at home over the past month due to his stomach, so when he is not sleeping, Harrison has been loving it!  You can tell how much he loves to be by his daddy...and you can also see why Lance doesn't work from home too often!  I was working while Davis was sleeping one afternoon and I came in the family room to check on Harrison and this is what I found:

He put his chair in front of Lance and took all of the pillows off of my bed and made a fort around Lance so he couldn't move.  It was pretty cute, I have to say.  He was in heaven.  Harrison that is.  Although, I think Lance secretly loved it too! ;)

As I said earlier, we made it up to Marietta Square to see the lighting of the tree this year.  I have always wanted to do that so we met a few friends and had a great time.  It was pretty crowded so it was a little overwhelming, but I think the kids had fun.  I tried so hard to get some good pics of the boys but it just wasn't happening.  I loved this one though...Davis is trying so hard to move the bell!

And, "Don't worry Mary, I won't let you get lost.  I will show you the way"...

I think I inherited a love for these types of pictures from my mom!  I have so many of my sisters and I, and Lance and I like this.

I found this super cute idea for a door decoration that I thought the kids would love so I set out one day to create Frosty the Doorman, as we like to call him...

Next up was Harrison's "recital" at church.  He has been going to choir at church for the past few months and they had a show for us at our church dinner last week.  It was so fun to watch him up there with his little friends just singing their hearts out.

This last week I had a gingerbread house party for Harrison's playgroup and we had a fun morning.  The big kids decorated houses (ie - ate the decorations) and the little kids had fun playing with all the trains and cars while the big kids were distracted!  Did I take a single picture?  Of course not!  Why would I have thought to do that??

We have been so fortunate lately to have such beautiful weather.  It has been in the 60's and low 70's - absolutely perfect!  I have been trying to take advantage of every second by letting the kids get outside and play.  On Wednesday afternoon, I took Harrison and Davis to their favorite park.  We stayed there for about 2 hours just running and sliding and swinging and enjoying the day.  We then headed up to Chick Fila and waited until Lance could get off of work.  A friend of mine had told us about a Christmas light display, so we drove the boys over to see it.  It is a house that is covered and lights and they have a 30 minute light show, all timed to music.  It was quite incredible but unfortunately we only stayed for about 5 minutes because Harrison crashed as soon as we pulled up.  I guess there is such thing as too much fun in one day!

Today we FINALLY went to go see Santa.  We wrote down the list of what Harrison (and Davis) wanted in case they got shy once we arrived.  I was surprised at how well Harrison did.  I could tell he was a little nervous, but he did great.  Davis had a death grip on my shirt, so here is the picture we got right before Davis started screaming...

The other major part of our holiday season has been Mungojerrie, our Elf.  He has been so much fun and has been showing up in the craziest places so he is going to get his own post in about a week.
I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season as much as we are!

A Turkey Day Celebration

Harrison's class had a Thanksgiving party at school last week so Davis and I got to join Harrison in his classroom for a little while.  Harrison (and Davis) were just getting over the stomach virus so I was nervous that he might not be able to go to school today.  He woke up this morning saying that his stomach still hurt. I couldn't tell if he really meant it or if he just wanted to stay home.  It always seems that when he misses a day or two of school, he starts to not want to go to school, but would rather stay home with me.  I convinced him that he needed to go to school to say happy birthday to his friend Nathan, so off he went.  When we arrived to the classroom, the kids were still at their music class.  When the kids filed into the classroom, Harrison got the biggest smile when he saw me standing there, which just made my heart melt.  The teacher then had the kids sing a few songs for us...super cute!

They had a "feast" on their placemats that they made and they all wore their t-shirts that we got to help make.  I think Chief Harrison was having a good time.  I do have to tell a funny story.  Every night at dinner when we bless the food, Harrison is very adamant that we say the "God our Father" prayer.  If you try to do a different blessing, or if you mix up the words to be silly, he gets very upset.  When Mrs. Sandy got ready to say the blessing that day, she specifically pointed out that much to Harrison's dismay we would not be saying the "God our Father" prayer. She said that Harrison wants to say it everyday at school so she had to make it "God our Father" Thursday's so that they can say other prayers on Monday's and Tuesday's.  Hilarious.

Chief Harrison and Chief Nathan - they have been in the same class 2 years in a row and have become little buddies.  We saw Nathan at the grocery store last week and you would have thought it was a movie star with how excited he got!

I had to get a picture of Harrison with his teachers.  They do a tremendous job and Harrison loves them so much.
Harrison and Mrs. Christy

Harrison and Mrs. Sandy

Happy Halloween

I am so confused because I could swear that I already wrote up a post on Halloween, but it isn't showing up anywhere.  Anywho, this is a little late, but I had to include some pics of the boys.  We were a little rushed because we drove back from Cincinnati the day before, but it was worth it since we had such a fun camping trip! 
Our neighborhood always has a pizza party right before trick or treating so we headed up there  to join in the excitement of the evening.  Harrison had been telling me for months that he wanted to be a ghost so I had been working on his costume for months.  I couldn’t figure out how to get it to stay put and it drove him crazy so after about 20 costume revisions, we had a last minute costume change.  Thankfully his pirate costume from last year still fit, so a pirate he was.  I should note that he didn’t end up being a pirate last year b/c at the last minute he didn’t want to wear it.  We put on his Alabama football jersey , gave him a football to carry and made him an impromptu UofA football player.  Hopefully this yearly costume change will end this year!  I had to get one picture though of the ghost before he retired for the evening…

So my pirate and Toy Story dinosaur set out to get some candy.  I told Harrison that he had to teach Davis how to trick or treat and he was so helpful.  Davis was funny b/c once he would get candy from a house, he would just stand there.  I think he was wondering why on earth we would leave a house when they had more candy to give??

Lance and I both wanted to watch the boys trick or treat since it was Davis’ first real Halloween where he could walk up and get candy.   We took the wagon so Davis could ride in it, but it ended up just being the candy wagon.  Harrison thought his basket started getting too heavy, so he would dump his candy into the wagon in between houses. 
Davis also loved looking at all of the decorations.  He would stop and point and say “ooooh!”.  It just gives you t he goosebumps watching them experience something like this for the first time.

Harrison made it to about half of the houses that I thought we would do when he decided he was done.  It did get pretty chilly towards the end so I can’t blame him.  His little legs got tired, I think I sometimes forget how much harder they have to work to keep up with us.

We had a wonderful night and believe it or not, had both kids in bed before 7:30 because they were so tired.  It made for a nice relaxing evening for us!
One last thing – we usually visit a pumpkin patch and have a night of pumpkin carving and roasting pumpkin seeds, but since we have had such a busy fall and were out of town right before Halloween, Lance carved a pumpkin for Harrison the night before.  He let Harrison choose between Buzz Lightyear and Lightning McQueen…here is what he chose…

Happy belated Halloween!

Camping Trip and Fall Fun in Cincinnati

My dad called me a few months ago and asked if he could take my boys camping in October, so this past week, we made the trek to Cincinnati for a week of fun.  Growing up, every year around Halloween, we always went on a father daughter camp-out with my dad and some of our family friends, so I was excited for the chance to let Harrison experience camping!  I feel like we have been gone a lot this fall so we haven't been able to do all of the fun fall things that I always look forward to, so we spent the week in Cincinnati, knocking them out.
First up, was Berger's farm for the pumpkin patch.  During the week, they only do tours for big groups, so we had to be there bright and early to go with all the day care groups.  Harrison had so much fun running through the corn maze...(he was running so fast I couldn't get a clear photo)

and Davis loved the Burger Farm train...

Next up was the puppet show hosted by Mr. Burger, who Harrison kept calling "Mr. Hamburger".  It was really cute and Harrison got really into it.

They handed out popcorn and juice to all the kids (and adults), sang songs and had a really interactive, fun show.
After the puppet show, we loaded up for a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch.  Everyone got a free small pumpkin that was included in our tour, so we all got to pick out a pumpkin once we got to the patch.

Harrison was on a mission once we got there, he jumped out of the hay ride, ran to the patch as fast as he could and he picked out his pumpkin...then tried filling his bag with more.  Davis was just watching us like we were crazy.
It was such a bright day so getting pictures was a little difficult...

We spent most of the week just relaxing at my parents house and playing with granddaddy's trains.  For some reason, after the first few days, Davis started having a hard time sleeping at night so Grandmommy got some rare cuddle time with my little man...

Julie came in town on Thursday night with her boys so Friday, we headed out for the campsite.  Harrison always gets so excited to see his cousins, so he was a happy camper (pardon the pun). 
Jack drove in my car with Harrison and I and he kept talking about how excited he was to "go to the forest", so when we got there, he made sure to tell his mom that he couldn't take his medicine in the car, he needed to take his medicine in the forest.

Excited about their first camp-out...

We took a little hike in the woods, set up the tents, built a fort, made dinner over the fire, roasted smores and by that point, we were all exhausted so we all went to bed.  I knew Harrison would love everything, but I was nervous about the going to bed part.  We had two tents set up and the original arrangement was that my dad was going to sleep in one tent with the boys and my sisters and I would sleep in the other.  Harrison got really upset when everyone was laying down and didn't want to go to bed.  I'm pretty sure it was because he was nervous and scared so I was able to get him to calm down by getting him to sleep in my tent with me.  Julie then moved to the "boys tent" and I think we all had a rough time sleeping that night.  It was really cold outside and despite our warm sleeping bags, it was hard to stay warm.  But, we all made it through the night and I think the boys really enjoyed it!

Aunt Liz, Granddaddy and Harrison

Slumber party!

Mission accomplished!

Believe it or not, the fun wasn't over yet.  The day that we got back from camping, we went to my Uncle Jay's for a family halloween party.  They spent a lot of time decorating their house and they did a beautiful job...here were a few of my favorite decorations...

I love these lanterns...I'm thinking you could transform regular lanterns for halloween to imitate these...

Davis hanging out with the big kids, watching Wall-E.  It was a fun night and was nice to get to spend some time with my aunts & uncles!
Thanks mom and dad for hosting us, we had a great week and I know Harrison will be talking about his camping trip for months to come!

Weekend of Fall Festivals

What a weekend!  Since Lance was out of town, I was originally thinking it was going to be a low key weekend without much to do...boy was I wrong!  It started on Friday morning, we had a fun play date at a friend's new house.  It was a beautiful house and it was the first time in a long time that we had our entire group back together!  I only thought to take one picture, of Davis and his little buddy, Kate, who were born 2 days apart...I think they make a cute couple, don't you??

That evening, we went to the Pumpkin Trails and Tales festival in downtown Kennesaw with my friend Renee and her two cuties, Reese and Sam.  The kids had a blast and again, thanks to my broken camera, I didn't get too many pictures.  It was a perfect little festival for the kids - it had the playground that they love, puppet shows, costume contests, a few jumping castles, and candy, candy, and more candy!  I feel like we don't go to too many festivals because they can be kind of overwhelming trying to keep track of the kids when there are so many people.  It felt like it was our own little festival because there were not very many people there at all...bad for Kennesaw, I'm sure, but great for us moms!

I brought the kids costumes b/c Harrison has been begging to wear his all week.  Of course, Harrison didn't want to wear it once we got there, but Davis had so much fun toddling around as Rex from Toy Story.

Harrison loves this playground in particular because it is right next to the train tracks so you can watch the trains when you play.  The last few times we have gone there, we haven't seen too many trains, but the kids got their fair share last night!  I think about 4-5 trains came in the few hours that we were there!
Davis' favorite part by far was the Dum-Dum that he got from one of the baskets.  He had never had a lollipop before, but as soon as he reached for it, he went to town figuring out how to get the wrapper off so he could eat it.  He did a great job but was covered in sticky lollipop druel by the time he was done with it.  He was a man on a mission and didn't make a peep until he was finished!

Davis won "Cutest Costume" in the costume contest that night...I'm pretty sure just about every kid who was in it won some type of award, but we were excited nonetheless!  I definitely think he was the cutest, but I guess I am a little biased!

The next morning was Harrison's school's fall festival.  He has been looking forward to this for a while and was extra excited that his grandma was going to come with us.  Thankfully Renee warned us about how long the face painting line can get so we made sure to head there as soon as we got there...Harrison loved his spider web that he picked out!

As soon as he finished his face painting, it was time for the kids to sing the songs they have been practicing.  Harrison was especially excited because one of the songs that they were singing for us, is a song that his grandma taught him a little over a year ago.  It has always been his favorite, so he was all over it!  He got a little stage fright when it was go-time, but thankfully Ms. Christy was there to the rescue to calm him down and get him in the mix.  I was able to get a video of the song - he is right in the front middle...

They had a ton of jumping castles set up, little carnival games, a hay ride and a petting zoo.  Harrison loved everything, but spent the most time in the petting zoo.  They even let him pick up a bunny!

Davis liked looking at the animals but did not want to get too close!

Harrison did just about every activity there was to do, but his favorite part was, by far, the cotton candy and the candy that he would get for doing each activity.  He was so funny, this morning, he made sure to tell me that they were going to have candy at the festival so he would need to bring his pumpkin trick or treat basket.  When he would finish each game, and the workers would tell him to pick out a treat, he would first run to get his basket before picking out any candy to put in it.

After the festival we came home so Davis could nap and then we headed over to Grandma's to eat dinner and take some pictures at their neighbor's house.  They have a neighbor who gets really into Halloween and puts up some great decorations.  The kids always love looking at everything they have, so we thought we would attempt to get pictures with the kids in their costumes...again, Davis was the trouper, but Harrison was not interested in dressing up.  He has been telling me for months that he wants to be a ghost, but I think the costume is hard for him to keep straight...I am playing trial and error trying to figure out the best way to get this costume to fit right.  I feel like everyday I am tweaking some part of it.  Hopefully I will get it right by next week!
I had to start by showing a video of Davis walking in his costume...He just looks so cute waddling around in his dinosaur costume!  (If you listen closely, you can hear him say "dog", his first word.

One of the coolest things they had was this machine that was a mix between a bubble machine and a fog machine...it made white bubbles that were full of fog, so when they popped, it looked like they turned into smoke!  I need to find one, the kids loved it.  Here is a short video to try to show how they work...

Harrison and the spider...

Boo!

Its been a fun-filled weekend full of outside Fall activities.  This is my very favorite time of year and I'm glad that I have been able to enjoy the beautiful weather with my little pumpkins!

What a week

After our fun weekend in Tuscaloosa for Alabama's homecoming, I asked my parents if they wanted to come spend a few days with us in Atlanta since they drove down.  Not wanting to miss an opportunity to spend time with their grandbabies, they jumped at the offer.  So, we had a fun, impromptu week!  Harrison always gets so excited, partly, because he loves spending time with all of his grandparents, but also because that means he gets to spend the night in  mommy & daddys' room!  My parents were a little under the weather so we didn't do anything too exciting, but we had so much fun just visiting and spending time together.  We hit up all of their favorite stops while here, including The Whistle Stop.  We have always loved this restaurant, but Harrison and Davis especially love it because of the train that runs around the restaurant.  We always have to make sure we are sitting close to the button that starts the train!  For some reason the day we went, Davis decided that he was going to be a fireman and wore this hat all morning!

Davis' new favorite thing to do is to read books.  He has a basket in his room and as soon as he wakes up in the morning and after naps, he heads straight for his basket.  I caught a cute picture of him playing the other morning...

I wasn't great at taking pictures this week, but we did get a cute video of the boys playing.  I put their chairs on either side of the TV so that they would be out of the way and who knew this would turn into a fun game.  I took a video because it is easier to see the fun than try to explain it!  This was a big hit and they are still enjoying it, as we speak!

We finished up the week going to yogli mogli and watching the bama game at Lance's parents house and overall we had a great week and a fun visit!  We are heading up to Cincinnati soon so Harrison didn't have as hard of a time as usual when it came time for Grandmommy & Granddaddy to leave. 

I had to include one other picture from today.  I went outside this afternoon around 4 to bring in our recycling bin and to get the mail.  I asked the boys several times if they wanted to come help (they usually do!), but no answer, and when I came back in, I found them here:

Playing together and having so much fun in the "fort", ie, the dining room table.  They have been playing nicely for about 1.5 hrs, I think this is a record!!  It is a beautiful evening, but I didn't want to spoil the fun!  I think, as a parent, one of the most fun things to see, is your kids playing together!  I just hope that as the years go on, they continue to be buddies!

The Pledge of Allegiance

We were driving home from the park this afternoon, and while stopped at a light I read Harrison's letter from his teacher describing what he did this week at school. It mentioned that they began to learn the Pledge to the Bible. When I asked him about this he said, "Yeah, we said that but I didn't want to say the Pledge of Allegiance today", so I said, "do you know the Pledge of Allegiance???" and here is what he said...

It's always so funny to me to think of all the things they do at school that you don't know about!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Roll Tide Roll!

 

This past weekend was Alabama’s homecoming, so we took the boys over for the weekend.  My entire family was there, including my little sister and her new husband, so it was fun to get to see everyone!  We made it there a little bit later than planned on Friday night, but we were able to make it for the tail end of the bon fire.  Every year, they do a pep rally and then light a huge bonfire on the center of the quad.  Harrison was really excited and I think a little nervous at the same time, when I told him we were going to get  to see a bonfire in the middle of the quad!

The next day we headed out around 11 to watch the parade.  The boys always have so much fun out there, and this year was no exception.                         

After the parade we headed over to see all of the lawn decorations on sorority row.  They have a competition every year and of course, the A.D.Pi house did  not disappoint!

I thought it was fun to see that the A.D.Pi’s were paired up with Lance’s fraternity (the betas) this year.

Our sorority is getting a  new house sometime in the next year or two, which is going to be amazing, but it makes me so sentimental about the house that I lived in for 3 years in college.  So we walked through the house and took a few pictures…here is a picture of us right where Lance and I met , a little over 13 years ago.  That just sounds crazy to say!!  It’s a fun story, but a little long for this…

We stopped on our way to the house by the stadium and got the sweetest picture of Harrison with my mom…

We spent the rest of the afternoon on the quad.  Both boys missed their afternoon naps, which I was really nervous about for Davis, but they did amazing!  I could tell that they were both exhausted and of course, they fell asleep as soon as we got to the car, but we all had a great time…Davis spent most of the day carrying around this football -

There were a few boys that were right next to our tailgate and Davis wanted to play with them so badly.  He kept walking right through the middle of their game, just laughing away with no fear of being tackled!

Harrison got to play on some of the jumpees with his daddy and then they all played for a little while before Lance headed into the game…

I took the boys back with my mom and had a nice evening “watching” the game…and by watching, I mean chasing kids and glimpsing at the tv every 30 minutes or so.

I guess I should mention that Alabama did win the game, although they did not play as well as I think everyone has hoped.

The next morning, Davis took a little spill off of the couch which was so sad, but the silver lining was that I was able to get him to cuddle in my arms and take a nap.  I honestly can’t remember the last time he just sat still with me because he is such a wiggle worm, so I enjoyed every minute of it.

It was a great weekend, filled with family and fun and it always goes too quickly!