Christmas 2013

Christmas Eve morning we always head over to my parents house for a big breakfast. On our way, we made a quick stop at Cracker Barrel to pick up a large order of hash brown casserole to go with the breakfast my mom and Brandy were cooking. Once we arrived, breakfast was was just about ready. The kids were so excited to see everyone, especially little Hunter. Breakfast was absolutely delicious. One thing I know for certain, my kids will eat breakfast food anytime of the day. (They are picky eaters) When all else fails, give them a sausage and biscuit and some bacon. :)

Not long after breakfast, we opened presents. I took a ton of pictures like I normally do, but I just grabbed a few to put on my blog.

A boy is so so easy to buy for. Landon kept himself busy the rest of the afternoon.

Landon LOVES Despicable Me. So he got Despicable Me 2 and we have only watched it 532,421 times since Christmas. :)

We ordered the rails to transform Adalyn's bed from a toddler bed into a full size bed but they are considered a "special order", which means can take up to 12 weeks to arrive! We ordered them back in November and are still waiting on them. But, my parents got her new bedding for when her bed is ready! It's killing me that everything is still in bags, I'm dying to re-arrange and decorate! 

(she loves her smocked dresses as much as I do :)

When we were finished opening presents, we played and rested the rest of the afternoon. We watched Despicable Me and The Little Mermaid, took naps, then got ready to head to Church for our Christmas Eve service. They didn't have childcare so that meant we needed to try to keep Landon (somewhat) quiet for 1 hour. We sat in the very back and he went back and forth between Jerry, Nancy, Christopher, Brandy, my mom and dad, and Adam and myself. He did fairly well, just wanted to keep busy. Typical for a 2 year old boy. :) Adam assisted in serving The Lord's Supper again this year so that is always special for us. 

After the service, we went home, unloaded all the gifts, gave the kids a bath and put them in their Christmas pajamas, ate supper, and watched a Christmas show on TV. Adalyn was so so excited about Santa coming. Landon was excited because Adalyn was excited. lol. She squeals, he squeals. :) 

We got our Santa Clause plate down, loaded it up with cookies and a banana, poured a glass of milk, and sat it out on the end table in the living room. 

Landon kept trying to eat the cookies...

Again, they were SO excited they were yelling "Santa!!!" when I took the picture.

They were both promptly in bed at 8:00. Adam and I watched TV for a bit before we started getting everything out and put by the tree. 

With the kids birthdays falling so close to Christmas, it's hard to figure out what to get them! Adalyn is our artistic child. She loves coloring, painting, drawing, etc. I wanted an easel that would look more like furniture to fit in her room decor so we chose this wood easel. The picture makes it look like black wood, but it isn't.  It's more of an espresso color. It has a chalk board on one side, dry erase board on the other, and the roll of paper to bring down to paint or just to color on it. This has been a hit with her. I can't wait until the warmer months get here so we can bring it outside for her to paint her little heart out. For now, we bring it in the kitchen for her to paint. 

Anytime you asked Landon what he wanted for Christmas, he would quickly say, "Tractors and Diggers!" So, that is exactly what he got. He was in Heaven. They loved looking through their stockings, too. 

Adam and I set our alarm for Christmas morning at 6:00 AM. We wanted to watch the kids walk down the hall to see their reaction. Landon gets up around 6:30 and he climbs out of his bed on his own and comes into our bedroom and wakes me up with him tapping on my back saying, "Momma, I want my milk". So, with him getting out of his room in the mornings anyway, knowing him, he would stop and start playing with the toys and we would have no idea he was even awake. So as painful as it was, we set the alarm for 6:00 and Adam and I sat on the couch and waited on one of them to wake up. Their doors are closed and by 6:15,  Landon turned on his lamp. (He always turns on his lamp before he walks out. I asked him why he did that one morning and he replied, "I can't see the door". Smart kid ;) We met him down the hall and then we opened Adalyn's door to wake her up, too. She quickly remembered that Santa came so both kids were eager to go into the living room. 

I got in front of them and snapped their picture. 

SO excited!

Adalyn kept going from on thing to the other, while Landon rolled all of his tractors and dump truck back and forth. We let them play while Adam and I got ready for our busy day ahead. Our first stop was Jerry and Nancy's for a big breakfast and presents. We arrived around 8:15. Once we were all full from breakfast, we opened presents.

They have such good big cousins!

A boy can never have too many diggers!

I have no clue who La La Loopsey is, but this mermaid is so neat. She is able to go in the bath tub and her hair turns purple when wet- Adalyn loves it!

 I can say "Tangled" is my new favorite Disney movie right now. (Well, besides Frozen. I cannot wait until that one comes out!)

 Landon loves Tangled, too. Most mornings he will ask to watch "Rapunzel" as soon as he wakes up.

We left around 12:30 and headed to Hillsboro for the rest of the day/evening. For Christmas, we always do a bunch of finger type foods as opposed to ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, etc. I love that we do this. I love eating on different dips and snacking on "stuff" all day long. My mom also cooked homemade chicken fingers just like my Grandmother always did. Delicious. 

We played with toys, ate, and rested the entire day. The guys stayed outside most of the afternoon and shot their guns. This was the first Christmas without my Granddaddy and of course, he and my Grandmother were missed so much. We left maybe around 8:00 that night and headed home. Autumn gave them a bath and we put them in their pajamas before we left. They slept the whole way home and we put them straight into bed once we got home. 

We had a wonderful (and busy!) two days with family and good food! 

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas.

Here is our Christmas card this year.

(I need to remember to add the year!)

2013

1st snow of 2014

Adam and I were due to go back to work today but thanks to all the ice, snow, and freezing temperatures, we were blessed with a snow day! Our last day of work was Friday, December 20- and we only went for a little over 2 hours! Christmas break has been awesome and I have to say, I absolutely LOVE the fact that we both work for the school system and that we are on the same schedule! I will blog about our Christmas festivities soon, but for today, I want to share pictures of my snow babies. Even though it was 9 degrees outside, we all bundled up and braved the cold so the kids could play! We didn't stay out long, maybe 20 minutes. After we played, we came inside and I fixed lunch for everyone and we settled into the living room for a picnic and Tangled. (my new favorite movie by the way) Now, the kids are napping and I'll be going to the couch as soon as I finish this post. :)

Adalyn attempting a snow angel on our completely covered in ice driveway.

The cold didn't phase this girl one bit!

Landon wouldn't keep his gloves on- so typical!

Adam trying to warm up his hands.

I love this one of her!

My little gymnast

Adalyn and Landon- 1st snow of 2014

A look back at past snow days!

Here's to getting more snow this Winter!! 

Christmas Program at pre-school

Tuesday was Adalyn's Christmas program at pre-school. She was so excited and sang her heart out all weekend long practicing her songs. They told everyone to arrive at 12:00, because if you were late, you would miss it. lol. The gym was full of family members there to watch their child sing. It was so sweet to see all of those little faces! Adam and I both left work to watch, my mom was able to come and Nancy brought Landon, too. So Adalyn had a pretty big fan club!  Some of my pictures turned out blurry since I was sitting so far away from the stage. After the classes sang their songs, we all went to her class Christmas party. 

Adalyn in her classroom by their Christmas Tree

See the presents? These were gifts each child made for their parents. Adalyn has been telling me they have been working on a present for us but surprisingly said it was a secret. Totally shocked she didn't tell me! They even got to help wrap the gift with their teacher.

Just LOOK at this sweet ornament! Ah! I will treasure this ornament forever. Now I know how my mom felt when I brought home hand-made Christmas ornaments from school. 

I am so proud of it!

Just some random pictures from the party-

Now Adalyn will get to enjoy Christmas break with Adam and I. Her pre-school schedule is the same as our work schedule which is great.  Can't wait to get all the festivities started!

Adalyn's 1st Movie

Saturday afternoon, mom, Adam and I took Adalyn to see "Frozen" at the movie theatre in Murfreesboro. She was SO excited about going as she has been talking about that movie since the previews came on TV. I was just as excited to take her since this was her very first trip to a movie theatre. We went to see the 4:15 movie at the theatre on Cason Lane. My mom and Adalyn go stand in line for popcorn and snacks while Adam and I wait to buy the tickets. The place was packed full of people, just as I expected. It never occurred to me that that certain time would be sold out though! ugh! Wouldn't you know, as we were standing in line, almost to the window to purchase, the people diagonal to us bought the last tickets for that show time. We heard the worker tell them that. Soooo, now what?! We got out of line to find my mom and Adalyn. We secretly told her it was sold out. While we were telling her that, Adalyn looks up at us and says, "I'm so excited! This is my first time at a movie theatre!" Ahhhh! So, a quick change of plans. We tell Adalyn we accidentally went to the wrong movie theatre and that we needed to get in the car and go to a different one. Thankfully, she didn't question us and it didn't even phase her. Adam called the other theatre in Murfreesboro and the next show time was at 4:55- whew! We lucked out! So we high-tailed it over there and purchased tickets for "Frozen".  I was so relieved- I was scared they might be sold out there as well. I asked a guy to take a quick picture of us before we went in to find out seats. It's dark and blurry but I will always treasure it as it will remind us of Adalyn's first trip to the movie theatre!

After the picture, we stood in line for popcorn. We got a big bucket of popcorn, M&M's, gummie snacks, and a drink. Adam got a wild hair and wanted to walk over to Toot's to get an order of fried dill pickles. I'm so glad he did because they are SO good! Before the movie, I took a picture of Adalyn. She held the bucket of popcorn almost the entire movie (until I took it away). 

I can honestly say she ate half the bucket by herself.

(The flash was so bright!)

I have to say, "Frozen" was just about the cutest movie I have seen! Every single person in the theatre laughed just about the entire time- it was great! I can't wait until it comes out on DVD so we can add it to our collection!

After the movie, we made a pit-stop at Sam's before heading home. You might be wondering where Landon was during this time? My dad was in charge of him. :) Adalyn went home with my mom so Adam and I went home and plopped down on the couch and watched HGTV. Sunday morning, we woke up at 8:10. Which is LATE to us! It was so nice. We got ourselves ready to headed to Church. We were so glad to see our kiddos! Sunday afternoon consisted of naps! Again, I love love love a quiet afternoon! Sunday night we went back to Church for the Christmas musical and of course, it was amazing. So blessed  to be apart of our Church family!