Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

I was expecting to get in a few posts by now but it just didn't happen.  We have had such a fun holiday season and there hasn't been a dull moment!  We were so blessed to get to spend the holiday with both sets of grandparents.  My parents drove in for a quick trip to hit up all of their grand kids' Christmas plays.  They stopped off in T-town for a few days and then made it to Kennesaw for Harrison's school Christmas play.  Harrison did such a great job and his teacher was so great to let us know which side of the stage he would be on, so we got great seats and were able to see him really well.  Davis moved around quite a bit but finally settled in to grandmommy's lap to watch his big brother...

 After the play we had a little party with Harrison's class.

We had such a nice visit and decided to open presents with my parents while they were in town.  I know they enjoyed getting to watch the boys open their presents and it was nice to break it up a little and give them a few days to play with some new toys before opening others.
Thank you Grandmommy!!

Davis being silly with Granddaddy...

The same day that my parents left, Lance's sister and her girls flew into town, so we spent the majority of the rest of the week hanging out with them.  These two were two peas in a pod all week...say hello to Mr and Mrs Claus...

We tried to get a picture of all of the grandkids in their new Christmas pj's...this was the best we could get...

Sweet middle sister Emily and her baby sis, Laurel...

Lance came over to his parents house after work one night to visit with everyone wearing, you know, his typical work attire...

We played around all week and then on Christmas eve we went to our church's 3:00 service.  The church has quite a few services to choose from and this was one of the children's services, so I thought it would be fun for Harrison.  The kids all dress up and get to go to the front of the church at different parts of the service.  I thought Harrison would love it b/c he is such a ham but he had absolutely no interest in partaking in any of the festivities.  I will say that he did really well sitting throughout the service (thankfully it was only a 30 min service) but maybe next year he will come around.  Anna, Mrs Randolph and Chris joined us b/c poor baby Laurel came down with a fever.
We got Anna to dress up but she wanted to stay in the pew with us...

After church we headed to Lance's Aunt Jane's house to celebrate with his mom's side of the family.  It was a nice evening full of kids, laughter, fun and delicious chili (an Eley tradition).  Of course the family Christmas cookies were involved and I even tried out a decent gluten free recipe for Lance!  Poor Laurel was just not feeling well but her big cousin was there to rescue her...Davis was so cute, bringing all of Laurel's blankets and lovies to her

We made it home early so the kids could get to bed and Santa could get to work.  Davis was the first to wake up in the morning so I had Lance go in and wake Harrison up so we could all walk downstairs together.  Santa had a few toys set up in the family room and all of the other presents under the tree.  The kids woke up around 7:30 but we didn't finish opening presents until after 11!  I tried to make it a little less overwhelming by letting them play with each toy that they would open for a while before moving on to the next.
About a month before Christmas, Harrison went shopping with me for the families that our Sunday School class was sponsoring for Christmas this year.  I thought it would be a great opportunity to explain to him how it is nice to help others who might not have any presents to open on Christmas morning.  He was a big helper, but once he found this Thomas the Train set with the "wiggly bridge", he did not want to put it down.  I told him it would be a great gift for the little boy in the family and that if he wanted it, he could tell Santa when we went to sit on his lap.  I honestly thought he would forget about it, but every time anyone would ask him what he wanted for Christmas, this was the only toy he would mention.  Thankfully Santa listened to him and he was so excited on Christmas morning when he opened it.

As a parent, it is just so fun to see the look of excitement on their faces...

Playing with their matching trucks...thankfully Santa knows how easily fights break out over toys!

Snuggling with my baby on Christmas morning...

Are you sure these books are for reading, because I'm pretty sure they make excellent hats! (you could say its a little bit of an obsession with him lately)

 I love my daddy!

We hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!

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!