Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Merry Christmas Day

This Christmas was filled with joy & blessings! It was the 1st year in 6 that Jason & I stayed at our own house Christmas Eve night. We usually spend the night at my mom's where she & my step-dad still "played" Santa. The real deal sneaking presents out under the tree in the middle of the night filling stockings while we slept and even addressing some of our presents "from Santa." If you ask me or my sisters we still "believe" in Santa. This was the 1st year that our presents were actually wrapped under my mom's tree before Christmas day. But it was ok to leave that tradition behind...after all we are all grown adults with our own children now.

But this year with Jake getting older and knowing more about Christmas we thought it was time we spent Christmas Eve night at our own house. It was so fun "being" Santa in our own home this year. Getting all the gifts out for Jake and putting together the BIG toy. And then of course Jason eating the Santa cookie. But the biggest joy was Jake coming down the stairs Christmas morning and saying "yook, pessents" as soon as he saw them. And then as he rushed to the tree he passed the Santa plate and stopped saying, "Santa eat my cookies." He was so excited about those. He immediately went over and began playing with his work bench and saying he was "fising" everything. It was so much fun watching him and the excitement on his face as he opened each gift. Taking time to thoroughly check out what each one was. Then pushing buttons if it had any and then it was on to the next.

It was even more fun for me as I opened the best present of all my Bright red Kitchenaid mixer from my amazingly wonderful hubby. But then Jake was so excited for me too and said "daddy & my bought that for you." He was so excited for me to open my gift that he & Jason had picked out for me. So after all it seemed that even with all the things he received this year we are still building a heart of giving in our sweet little boy. (side note: with my mixer I also got $60 Khols cash (did I mention I have an amazing husband) but while Jake & I were at Khols looking at what I was going to buy he saw the mixers and said "yook, daddy & my bought for you." )

All in all we had a wonderful Christmas!! Enjoy some pictures from our Christmas day.









The after math...huge mess, but so much fun!!

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas Part 1

Christmas Eve we spent the afternoon with Jason's parents and enjoyed a yummy lunch. It was great being able to spend time with them and Jake really enjoyed playing with "mawmaw & papa Jack." After leaving there we headed to Christmas Eve service at church. It really made this Christmas super special being able to attend the church service. Because my nephew's were going to only be at my mom's that night we headed there after church. So the boys could all be together for a little while that night & open presents from Nana & PawPaw.






Happy Birthday Jesus

I invited my nephews over for some cookie decorating and to celebrate Jesus' birthday. Thanks to the great Happy Birthday Jesus kit that lifeway put out. We had some fun decorations, plates & napkins Caleb & Jake also took a little break to watch part of a Mickey Mouse Christmas movie. I think everyone had fun decorating(making a mess) their sugar cookies. And we all enjoyed singing Happy Birthday to Jesus and eating "jisis cake" as Jake called it. Funny: the next day we went to a wedding and Jake kept calling the wedding cake "jisis cake" too.





Thursday, December 17, 2009

Ho-Ho-Ho

Jake loves telling us that Santa says "ho, ho, ho." He also will tell you all about the "cany can" santa gave him or sitting on Santa's "yap." And for some reason every time Jake bumps a body part or makes up a "boo-boo" for me to kiss when I ask him what happened he says "Santa, hurt me." No idea why he thinks Santa hurts,but since Santa is his new favorite thing to talk about Santa also gets all the pretend blame.

Yes, we invite Santa to our Christmas. I know lots of people who don't "do" the Santa stuff. He isn't the center of our focus, but he does come to our house and bring presents. There is just something so magical about believing in Santa. And I think as long as we are teaching Jake the true meaning of Christmas that it is the day we celebrate the birth of our savior the greatest gift ever given!!! Then there is no harm in believing in a jolly man who brings good cheer and kindness to all...as well as some presents too ;)

Last year we started the tradition of having Jake's picture taken with Santa along with his cousin who is 4 months older then him. Last years picture both boys were crying and totally freaked out by the jolly man. This year I thought would be even worse. Jake is all about talking about Santa and telling us what Santa says. But if the Santa talks or makes any kind of motion he is terrified. So I thought once the real Santa started talking to him he would be over it. But this Santa was so great and gave him a candy cane and then Jake just sat on his lap. He looks scared to death, but he is sitting on his lap. My nephew was crying, but nothing like last year.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Gingerbread House

Have I mentioned before how amazing Jake's Sunday Praiseland teachers are? If not...they are! They are a husband & wife who do such an amazing job teaching Jake's class. We are so blessed to have them in our life.

Along with teaching on Sundays they also set up other things outside of church for the parents to get together or craft days. This past week Kaye-Kaye put together a gingerbread house party. Several of us mom's got together and "helped" our kids make a gingerbread house. A lot of the kids were more interested in eating the candy then making the house. Surprisingly Jake didn't catch on to the eating until we started using skittles. We all had a great time and talking and decorating. And the kids enjoyed their sugar high too!!!







Thursday, December 10, 2009

Beautiful Star

Every year since Jake was tiny...(not even 2 months old for the 1st one...yes, I shed a few tears when I was putting the collage together...he was so tiny!!) Jason has held him up to the tree to "help" put our star on top. Just thought you might want to take a trip down memory lane. And have a glimpse of our sweet boy growing up over the years. Ugh...still can't get over that 1st Christmas picture...he was so tiny!!!


O' Christmas Tree

We decorated our most perfect tree the other day. It was fun doing it all together as a family. Of course I am always the photographer so it doesn't seem like I was helping, but really I did. Jake loved taking each ornament out of the box and handing it to Jason. He didn't care so much about putting them on the tree. I was worried that since we let him help decorate the tree he would constantly be taking ornaments off the tree. But he hasn't touched any of the ornaments since we decorated. I am sure now that I mentioned this I will spend all day tomorrow telling him to leave the tree alone.




Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Real vs Fake

We picked out our tree on Sunday after only going to 2 places. We always start at either Home Depot or Lowes because they have the cheapest tree. Most years we are able to find a decent one and walk away spending $40 or so.

However, my favorite place to get trees is Pike Nursery. Obviously you can see that I am no rugged outdoor girl I get my Christmas tree from a store. But I have never experienced cutting down our own tree...I could like that too. But for now Pike is my favorite place. Have you ever been? They hang all of their trees from the ceiling just a tiny bit above the ground. When you are walking through you can't really tell if they are touching or not. But the are really just floating there. Rows & Rows of floating trees. If you give them a slight touch they spin around. Because the trees are floating from the ceiling and not just thrown in a pile you can tell the fullness and shape immediately. There isn't that whole wait a couple of days for the tree to "fall." Needless to say I love Pike and every year secretly wish we could just go there. But most years the price stops us and we find a good tree somewhere else.

This year after heading to Lowe's as our first stop and dear sweet hubby picking up at least 20 or more trees. Both of us agreed we didn't like any of them. So it would be off to Home Depot to try them. But instead my wonderful hubby took me to the greatest tree place on earth PIKE!!! We walked in and it was like tree wonderfulness. Of course we were able to find the most perfect tree in only a few minutes. The tree was $10 more then at Lowe's, but it was so worth the prettyness and fun of walking through and spinning the floating trees.

But this is where the fake comes in and I can't even believe I am talking about this or the thought has even crossed my mind. I have always said that we would have a REAL tree forever. The smell & the fun of picking out a tree could never be replaced by a fake tree. And I am sorry, but those candles that say Christmas tree scent they have nothing on the smell of a real tree.

Do you have a real tree or fake tree? Have you ever had the opposite of what you have now? What do you love about your type of tree? Please tell me in the comments I would love to know.

After leaving Lowes with no tree. I (yes, me) actually asked my hubby what he thought of getting a fake tree at the end of this season. You know when they all go on sale for really cheap. We could get a t $200 tree for fairly inexpensive at the end of the year. And just think if we used it for 10 years that would only cost us $20 a year. Plus we could just pull it out of the attic each year and know that it would be whatever height and fullness we wanted. Plus they have trees with lights on them. We wouldn't have to put the lights on and take them off each year. And really fake is better for the environment. Think of all the trees we could save. But really they would still be cut down waiting at the store for someone else to buy...right? A fake tree really sounded like a kind of good idea. For next year of course. I was already on the mission for my real tree.

Once we went to the beloved Pike and picked out our wonderful tree...the thought of fake quickly faded. We both agreed this was our best tree in a couple of years. (probably since we went to Pike 4 years ago)

Could I really do a fake tree? Oh the smell each morning as I am walking down my stairs and it hits me so fresh and Christmasy. I love it and just don't know if I can give it up. I might look at some when they go on sale, but don't hold your breath....I am sure real is still in our future. And I guess the hunt for just the right tree is part of the fun too.

But really let me know what you think of your tree.




Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Iowa wrap up!

I had some pictures that didn't make it into a named post so I thought I would just post all those here.

To sum it up...we had a great time in Iowa spending time with my Dad, brother & Michele. Jake is still asking about each of them on a regular basis. Now that he knows they are real people and not just pictures we look at with names...I really hope it won't be 5 years before he sees them again.




This is the face when you realize that Love is a
cinnamon crunch bagel and hazlenut cream cheese

Bowling...more Iowa

So bowling is a pretty big deal in Iowa. I can say that I don't know anyone here in Georgia who is on a bowling league, but it seemed pretty big there. My dad is on a league, my brother is on a league and then my brother and dad are on a league together. Both are pretty good bowlers...my dad has now bowled two 300 games (in case you don't know that is a perfect bowling score)...WOW!!!

But while we were in Iowa we went to watch the parent/child league and of course eat some yummy bowling alley french fries. Although, Michele(my step-mom) hates just about everything about a bowling alley she so graciously came and hung out with us too. As well as ran around with the boys who were bored pretty quickly of watching.

But then we went back another day to all play together. Even Jake & Caleb bowled. They didn't have shoes small enough for their feet, but they did get their own balls and a fun ramp to push the ball down so it would make it all the way down the lane. Do you remember that I said my dad has bowled a 300? Well apparently Heather & I didn't get any of that bowling gene Heather bowled like a 40 something and I bowled a 60 something. Umm...that would equal to TERRIBLE!!! But we all had so much fun throwing the ball down the lane. That the score didn't really matter. Even the boys loved it. Bowling in at their high scores of Jake- 37 Caleb-54(but I am thinking he might have had a little help with that). The boys might have had just as much fun hanging out in the game area with Michele. Thankfully they have no idea you put money in the machine and it does stuff. They just had fun pushing buttons and looking in the machines that they didn't care they weren't doing anything.


Every time someone threw the ball Jake would clap. He would only push his ball down the ramp with his pointer fingers. As soon as the ball was off he was clapping. He was so excited for himself.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Finally...Iowa

So I did a quick recap when we got home, but I haven't shared any pictures.

Friday we flew to Iowa(actually IL and then drove to Iowa) to surprise my dad for his birthday! It was so great to get there and see everyone. This was both Jake & my nephew's 1st trip on a plane. I was more nervous about getting through the Atlanta airport then the actual flight. Really, have you been to Hartsfield it is way TOO big and can be a little confusing. Not to mention that the TSA people are not very friendly or into answering any of your questions. But we made it through the airport no problem and then had to wait at our gate for a while since we were so early. Both boys did great on the airplane. We brought lots of snacks, books, & one of the biggest hits play-doh. Neither of the boys slept for the majority of our 2 hour flight. Caleb fell asleep about 45 minutes before we landed and of course Jake fell asleep as the plane started to land. By the time we got to our gate he had probably only been asleep for 10 minutes. But we did have an hour and a half ride to my dad's from the airport.

Of course my Dad was super surprised when we came walking in his house. He had no idea we were coming. I can't believe my step-mom was able to keep us a secret for 2 months. Heather & I talked about the trip almost every day from the day we had the tickets.

Saturday was the big day for Birthday celebration. We were able to spend a little bit of time with our Grandma, Aunts, Uncles, & cousins at the party. It was nice to see everyone. Some of them we hadn't seen in 11 years and a few were able to come to GA for my wedding 5 years ago. But still too long. Then of course there were some of my dad's friends there too. With lots of yummy snacks and hanging out.

Saturday morning we also had a mishap with my dad's sweet(umm...maybe not really so sweet) dog Penny. While the boys were watching tv Penny jumped up next to them. The dog bit Jake on his cheek. Yes, you read that right. A bite. See picture. Yes, the dog is easily excited and doesn't do too well with small children in her house. She hated it every time my dad, brother or step-mom would pick up one of the boys and of course the boys are boys and like running around and being noisy. This too would lead to more barking, and growling. But the not so sweet dog even snapped at Jake when he was nicely petting her and I was sitting right there with him. This didn't really change Jake, he still like petting her and wanted to try and play with her. I will admit that after the biting incident I was ready to kick the dog out or get out myself. (sorry dad & Michele if you are reading this). But thankfully the dog incident didn't ruin our trip. We had a great time at my Dad's party on Saturday!!! And enjoyed our stay and spending time with our family!
Can you see his right cheek?
The infamous dog, Penny!
My dad, me & my sister
As soon as the cake arrived the boys kept checking it out and asking to eat it
Finally enjoying their cake

Ok, I still have more to post about our great trip to Iowa, but this post is long enough as it is. Stay tuned for more Iowa pictures.