Christmas Cheer

We're getting close to Christmas and we have been soaking in as much Christmas spirit as we possibly can.  I promised myself this year that I would slow down to enjoy the holiday season and not stress over unnecessary things, and while I don't feel like I've slowed down, I have been finding ways to make the season festive for the kids.  It started out by picking out a Christmas tree a few weeks ago.  This is the first year that Harrison has been really excited about decorating for Christmas and once Thanksgiving was over, Harrison asked every day, at least 5 times a day, when we were going to get our Christmas tree.  We ended up going on Nov. 30th and met Lance after work at a local Home Depot.  These guys were such great helpers (and in an especially good mood after the sales associate gave them both lollipops!)

We picked out an 8-9 ft tree which is a little bigger than normal, but it was a beautiful tree so we decided to go with it.  Once we got home, the boys got their tools out to help Lance set it up in the tree stand.

Lance is a little obsessive about the lights, so he put up the lights that evening while the boys were sleeping and we decorated it the next day.  Here is Harrison putting the first ornament on the tree...

Lance got a surprise phone call that morning that his friend couldn't go to the SEC Championship game that evening b/c he caught the flu, so Lance headed out early to get the tickets and head down to the game.  The boys and I listened to Christmas music and decorated the tree and enjoyed the morning.  My bestie, Teresa, and her family came in for the game as well, so I watched her two sweet girls while she and her hubby, Lance, went to the game.  Teresa's daughters, Madeline and Paxton, are fairly close in age to my boys, so they played happily all day.  I only had to intervene a few times, so it worked to my advantage, where the kids played so I could watch the game.  I guess I should add a 'Roll Tide!!' since we won the game!  The kids thought I had lost my mind since I was screaming at the tv during the last quarter!
Paxton loved playing with the chalk table...

Little buddies hugging it out...

Davis came in to help me cheer on the Tide and snuggle for a few minutes (very rare these days - this 2 year old is on the go!)  He loves to say 'Roll Tide'.  He likes to play in his bed before he goes to sleep and after he wakes up, and I always hear him saying this to himself through the monitor.  It always makes me smile.

The kids enjoying a cookie snack

That Sunday, Harrison sang in church for the first time, but it was so crowded, I couldn't get a good picture.  He goes to choir every Wednesday and it has become one of the highlights of his week.  The kids go to choir and then we all eat church dinner with some of our friends.  Its so sweet to hear him singing all the songs he learns.  Thankfully, he also sang this past Wednesday at church dinner...you can tell by the outfits, which class was told about the kids singing at dinner and which wasn't!  Oops!  (Harrison is in the front on the far right)

bummer - the video won't load, so here is a picture...

I made Christmas pj's for the boys a few weeks ago, so I had to get a quick picture of the boys sitting by the tree in their new jammies.

Of course, sometimes dog boots and a Thomas helmet are necessary accessories...

Harrison and I have had quite a few projects and here are a few of them:
A few months ago, I had seen a blog post on using cabinet doors to hang your kids' art work (http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/2011/11/basement-progress-playroom-art-display.html).  I have never had a good place to showcase all of the masterpieces that are sent home from school and this seemed like a great way to hang it, especially when space is an issue.
I happened to run across 4 mismatched cabinet doors at a thrift store, so I felt like it was a sign that I HAD to do the project.  It was fun and easy, it just took a few days for the layers of paint to dry.  It was also perfect timing for all of the holiday pictures we have been getting!

Harrison also helped me make some art work for our front hallway...I have been saying for about 3 weeks now that I am actually going to hang it up...we'll see if it actually happens before Christmas!  (these were fun, quick and easy by the way!)

In the spirit of Christmas, we have also been having fun with a little elf who visits our house named Mungojerrie...he has been quite entertaining this year and here are a few highlights so far...

This past weekend, we drove over to Alabama to spend the weekend with family and to visit Santa.  The Junior League of Tuscaloosa was having a breakfast with Santa in Alabama's stadium so we bought tickets and headed over.  Harrison is always talking about wanting to go to a football game so I thought this would be a fun opportunity for him to see the stadium when it isn't so crazy.  

The boys get excited for any opportunity to see their grandparents and cousins, so they were pumped when I told them where we were going.

We got to Tuscaloosa on Friday evening and the boys had a little time to run around before they went to bed.  My parents are still unpacking/rearranging furniture, so the boys were sooo excited when they happened to run across Granddaddy's train!  This has always been their favorite part of my parents' house.  They are either playing with the trains or begging to play with the trains.

The breakfast with Santa was in a part of the stadium called The Zone, which aside from the skyboxes, is the best place to sit for the games (although I wouldn't really know).  If you pay lots of $$$, you can get Zone seats, where you get seats in the endzone, but you also have access to this big indoor area with food and drinks and air conditioning, so you can also watch the game from inside!  It was beautiful!

We got the picture with Santa first (it will be mailed in a few days)...Harrison was excited...Davis...not so much!  I can't wait to see it!  After we got our picture taken, we headed upstairs to the breakfast.

Davis was in awe!

The kids got to make reindeer food, which was a hit

Harrison forgot to tell Santa about a few of the gifts that he wanted, so when Santa made one last stop upstairs to say goodbye to all of the kids, he made sure to tell him his last few requests...

 One last picture in the stadium

The boys also had a great time playing on the docks and hanging with Trey and Jack...

Harrison and Jack playing on the deck...

Granddaddy also bought a new tractor when they got the house and we got to test it out for the first time.  I think these smiles say it all!

What a fun weekend, thank you Grandmommy, Granddaddy, Aunt Julie and Uncle Walt!  We had a great time!!

This week is all about trying to wrap presents and finish up a few gifts.  Next week is the boys' school play and we still have some holiday baking to get done.  Time isn't slowing down, but we will soak in as much as we can!  Happy holidays everyone!

Fun In The Month Of November

I keep thinking about how quickly the last few months have gone and I didn't quite realize why until I sat down to blog about Thanksgiving!  November was about so much more than Thanksgiving for us, which sent us into a tailspin, in a fun, busy sort of way.  It was definitely a month filled with family and friends!
The month started with a me going on a much needed weekend away with some sweet friends from our Sunday School class.  A friend of mine has an aunt with a house in the mountains in NC so she invited a few of us for a fun weekend away from everything.  Of course, it went way to quickly and of course, all of us moms were still up by about 7:30 everyday, but it was nice to get to wake up on our own and just sit with some beautiful views, coffee and friends.  We spent the weekend talking, checking out the mountain and stables and we went to the local winery.  I wouldn't mind waking up to these views everyday:

The winery was beautiful and I would love to go back for one of their festivals one year!

Next up were the boys' Thanksgiving parties at school.  I am the co-room mom for Harrison's class so I was in charge of his party.  I put together a cute scarecrow craft for the kids to do and we had a mini-feast for the kids.  Unfortunately, I was so busy making sure everything was set that I forgot to take pictures with my buddy. In the chaos of that, I also forgot to bring a snack to Davis' class.  Thankfully, I did remember to get a picture of Davis!  They made Turkey legs with cheese balls inside.  Davis loved it, but was mostly interested in taking it apart so he could eat the cheese balls!

Next up was Harrison's first dentist appointment!  I have been meaning to setup the appt all year and I finally got around to it!  I didn't tell him ahead of time because I didn't want him to get nervous about it.  He was a little timid all morning once I told him where we were going.  I told him it was okay to be nervous about things that you've never done before.  Mommies and daddies get nervous sometimes too, but this visit to the dentist was going to be fun and he was going to get treats.  That seemed to settle him down and he marched on in fairly excited.  He looked like such a big boy sitting in the chair and following all of the hygienist's directions!

He was very excited about his new tooth brush!

Super cool kid in his super cool new tie-dye t-shirt!

 And of course, after you get home, you have to find a fun game to play, while wearing your mom's boots...

The kids had the entire week of Thanksgiving off of school, so my sister made a visit with her boys for a few days.  The main thing on our agenda was to visit Lego Land!  Of course, all of the boys were so excited!  I didn't tell Harrison that Jack and Trey were coming, so when they rang the doorbell, I told Harrison that I thought it was daddy and asked him to open the door.  I think he was in a state of shock when he realized it was two of his favorite people on the planet!  He asks me every week if he can see them, so he was in Heaven!
Jack was excited to see Oakley - they were buddies all weekend!

  The boys had a fantastic time at Lego Land, especially Jack and Trey!

Jack and Trey loved building Lego towers, but Harrison and Davis were mostly interested in playing in driving their Lego cars that they built, down the ramps and playing in the big play structure. 

As my sister and her boys were leaving, Lance's sister, Jennifer and her family were arriving for the week. On Tuesday, we headed down with everyone to Stone Mountain. We had a picnic and then climbed the mountain.  I climbed it with Mama Randolph, Jennifer, Anna and Harrison.  Poor Harrison had the shortest legs and wanted desperately to keep up with Anna, but he just couldn't. I was so proud of both Anna and Harrison though.  We made it up to the top in about 30-40 minutes, all with energy to spare!  We rode down the mountain to save some time and then had dinner at the Randolphs.  The kids had so much fun spending time together and being silly.  Davis was a big helper making sure Laurel had her paci!

On Wednesady, we met daddy for some BBQ (HJR wanted to pose with the pig)

 and then we headed over to a local yogurt place for some frozen yogurt.  This is one of the kids' favorite things to do!  (HJR was apparently now over posing for pictures)

Thanksgiving finally came and I started the day off running the Gobble Jog.  I saw a few friends that made it even more fun!

Since our oven was broken, Lance took the boys to his parents' house to bake our casseroles before our marathon day of eating.  I finished my race, went home to change and then met Lance at his parents' house.  We all headed over to Bill's house for lunch with the Eley side of the family.  Its a fun, wild and crazy bunch which makes me feel at home, as that is how I grew up.  The kids played outside they whole time and had fun building leaf piles and jumping in them, and throwing them.

He has a target in mind...

 

getting closer...

Watch out Sam!

The other favorite activity at Bill's is playing with the big tree out front

Come on guys!!  Let me up!

Go Anna!

Harrison's turn

 Say cheese!

Enter at your own risk Grandma!  (I told HJR to go tackle Grandma...I didn't think he was going to take me seriously!  Oops!)

The boys had fun playing football for a while.  I just love watching them having fun together!

 

After lunch, we headed back to Lance's parents (after changing into comfy clothes!) and had dinner with the Randolph side of the family.  The kids gave the dinner a thumbs up!

 After dinner, it was time for some sherbet.  Davis is allergic to milk so Grandma is so nice to stock up on sherbert for the boys.  They all got so excited about dessert that they started dancing. I had to take a video b/c they danced for a good 10-15 minutes!

 

It was a beautiful Thanksgiving and I am so thankful for my family and the amazing family that I married into!

The weekend after Thanksgiving was the weekend of the Alabama vs. Auburn game.  We headed to Tuscaloosa and were planning on taking the boys to tailgating.  My parents were gone for the weekend but were generous enough to let us stay at their house with Oakley.  Unfortunately, Harrison got sick on Friday night so I ended up staying at the house with the boys on Saturday.  We had fun, but I think Oakley had the most fun!  This was her first visit to my parents' house and it was like dog torture when I took her down to the gazebo on the lake.

This is what you get when you try to get two boys and a dog to pose with no one to help.

 

Oakley had so much fun all weekend, just sniffing around.  She was such a good listener and stayed by me the whole time.  She loves to swim, so I was so afraid she was going to try to get into the lake.  Of course, at one point, I forgot about her and when I called her name, she had found the lake and was walking around in it up to her stomach.  Needless to say, she got a bath!  They lowered the lake for the month so the home owners can work on their docks, so it was a little muddy.

The boys and I spent the day playing outside, watching the football game and getting lunch.  Harrison was so tired from his rough night that he took a 3 hour nap during the game.  It was a fun weekend, we were just sad that grandmommy and granddaddy weren't there!

It was a fun month, and these were the highlights (that I can remember anyway!)  Happy  belated Thanksgiving to everyone!

October 2012

The month of October came and went before I even realized it was here!  I figure since we just celebrated Thanksgiving, I better get in some October pics before I post Thanksgiving pics!
The month started off with a last minute spontaneous visit from my good friend Maria Rafalco and her sweet daughter Eliana.  Maria and I used to work together and I miss her dearly, so I was pumped when she had a few free Delta tickets that she had to use before they expired.  I quickly convinced her to come visit and we had a fun few days together catching up and letting the kids play.  We hit up a playground, hung around the house and went to our old favorite restaurant, The Fickle Pickle.  Davis and Eliana had fun playing, she could definitely hold her own with the big boys...

We had such a fun visit, but it went way too fast and of course, I didn't take near enough pics!  Thanks Maria for coming to visit!  I SWEAR I WILL make it to your house sometime soon!!

The weekend after Maria left, I had high hopes of making it to a pumpkin patch.  Lance had promised a friend that he would help him move, so instead we just planned on going to a local biscuit restaurant and then I was going to drive Lance down to help his friend.  We ran into our friends, The Nesmiths', and they were heading to a pumpkin patch and so generously invited my boys and I to join them.  We took their offer and hijacked their family day. :)  Unfortunately I was completely unprepared and my kids looked a little mismatched, but we had a great time anyway!  Harrison wanted the biggest pumpkin that he could find...

 but since I didn't have Lance to help, we settled with a more manageable sized pumpkin.  Thankfully Davis was content with this pumpkin...

 

Davis and James had fun on the swings and Mary was such a big helper, pushing Davis for me!

Since Lance had been gone a lot recently, we made sure to take a family day down to Stone Mountain's halloween festival.  

The boys had a blast and I think the ropes course was the highlight of the day for Harrison!

 

I couldn't believe how well Harrison did with these obstacles, especially this one...

He also love swinging across the zipline!  I think he did this one 6-7 times!

Davis had fun here for a few minutes...

 The kids also did a scavenger hunt, played in a big sandbox, and played in the Great Barn.

Harrison's tennis lessons started back up and he has been doing great at learning to play this sport!  He can whop that ball across the net!  This video isn't all that great, but you can see him hit it...

We also made a trip to Tuscaloosa for the Homecoming game.  We had a bunch of family in town for the game so it was such a fun weekend!

We got to Tuscaloosa just in time for the bonfire on Friday night.  Trey had come down with pnemonia, so he had to sit it out, but Jack, Harrison and Davis had fun playing football on the quad, chasing each other, and watching the big fire.  Both of mine were a little frightened by the enormous flame, but had fun nonetheless!

Sweet cousins!

The next afternoon, we went out to watch the parade.  Jack and Harrison loved it!

Davis had fun too, but had more fun with his balloon gun! The boys were dancing to the music from the parade so it was hard to catch a good picture!

Davis had fun playing with  baby Isabela...

And since I stayed home during the game, I got some fun snuggle time with the princess!

Jack and Trey made sure to setup some comfy seats to watch the game and made sure to set one up for Harrison too.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of my Aunt Nancy, Uncle Kim, cousin Emily, mom & dad or Elizabeth!  

Next up was Halloweeen!

I didn't get very many great pictures of this either, but we did have a great time!  Our neighborhood always has a pizza party before trick or treating, so we went up for pizza, which the boys loved!  They had fun playing on the neighborhood playground while we ate, and it took a lot of convincing them to leave!  You would think getting candy would have had them running!  Grandma and Granddaddy Randolph came to help out as well!  Harrison spent most of the night running to the next house, while Davis insisted on riding in the wagon in between houses.  I did get them to walk together for a few houses...

 Come on, hold my hand big brother!!

It was a fun month, but just went by way too fast!  We are getting a new camera for Christmas so hopefully next year will be better documented with non-blurry pictures!

Davis' Big Boy Bed

This past Saturday, was a big day in the Randolph household...well, it was the day when we realized a big change was about to happen.  Davis was napping, I was cooking and Harrison was playing trains, when I heard Davis wake up.  Harrison said he was going to run upstairs to keep Davis company until I could come get him.  I finished what I was doing in the kitchen and as I turned the corner to go upstairs, I saw our little buddy standing on the steps with a big smile on his face.  Harrison said, "Mom!  Davis climbed out of his crib all by himself and I saw him do it!! Can you believe it!?!  He is getting so big!"....a little too big if you ask me!  I knew this time was coming, but I had convinced myself that Davis, being my little wild man, would have a difficult time with this transition, so I have avoided it as long as I could!    The Alabama vs. LSU game was that night, so we went to Lance's parents house that evening.  Since we were out late, we waited until the next morning to turn his bed into a toddler bed.  For some reason, Harrison was really upset that we were changing it.  He kept saying, "But Davis has to stay in his crib when he is 2 and when he turns 4, like me, he can sleep in my bed with me".  I thought it was so sweet, but I told him it had to be done so he didn't get hurt.
They both thought it was fun and silly, watching me take the front of the crib off and put the toddler railing on.  Davis didn't know what to think at first, and wouldn't climb in because he thought we were trying to make him go to bed.  Once he saw Harrison climbing in though, he was okay with it.  Of course, my little monkey, was able to climb in and out of the front, but this is what he insisted on doing...

For his nap that afternoon, he did much better than I had anticipated.  He laid right down and fussed for maybe 5 seconds, and then fell asleep and stayed in his bed until I came upstairs and told him he could get up.

Unfortunately, that night, right after his bath, he got sick and he threw up all night.  He did great with his bed and I just put a towel down and would change it when he got sick.  I ended up sleeping next to him that night, but overall he did great. 
I hate to jinx myself, but the process is going much smoother than anticipated.  I think this picture from this afternoon, sums up how relaxed and comfortable he is in his big boy bed!

I kept the towels down in case he got sick again, but he has been his normal, wild and crazy self today, so I think it was just a short-lived bug.  Such a big boy, growing up too fast!

Busss! Bussss!

Davis has been slightly behind in learning to talk, but he has an amazing preschool teacher who has really been helping him in this area.  In the last few weeks, I have noticed a huge improvement in the number of words that he says, or tries to say.  He has even been singing some of the words to his favorite songs.  There are few things that compare to the pure joy a parent feels when their children pick up a new skill or learn something new.  My favorite new word that he says is "bus".  For the longest time,he has referred to buses, trains, and trucks as a "buh".  He just figured how to put the 's' sound at the end of words, so now all of these things are referred to as "bus". He says it with a slight lisp, which hopefully will go away eventually, but I think it is the sweetest sound right now.  He gets a big smile on his face when I praise him for picking up a new word and I can just see in his face how proud of himself he is.  I took a quick video of him saying it so I wouldn't forget this sweet sound...