Last Christmas Before Our Move

So it's the last Christmas in our current house and it's kind of sad!  Starting next week, we are going to be packing up our house a little each day until we move at the end of the month.  We are getting more and more exciting about our new home and the additional space and decorating to be done!

This post is just going to focus on our Christmas events at home... the next post will be pics from the grandparents' houses.

Due to circumstances of having a house on the market (only for 6 days though!) and then the pressure of house hunting, Christmas was not done the way I would have liked.  I have a little guilt about it but I know that things were just hectic this year and there wasn't much that could be done about it.

We decorated our tree right after Thanksgiving.  AR was really into it and super serious about hanging ornaments... W just thought they were balls to be thrown.

We had a little fun too!

 

Hanging my grandparents' angel tree topper.

The finished product and you can see that our elf came back this year.  AR really doesn't stick to names when it comes to giving them to dolls or elves apparently, so we still just call her elf.  This year she brought the kids their own pillowcase that they got to use throughout the Christmas season.  She'll take them back to Santa and bring them again next year.

 

I love that this picture captures how intrigued W is with his older sister... he always looks at her before copying whatever it is she's doing... good OR bad!

 We visited Santa at a local Chick-fil-A.  AR was great about sitting with him and telling him what she wanted (aka: a baby doll bunk bed with a place to hang her clothes on it).  W LOVED Santa... from a distance!

Our last visit with our neighborhood Santa:

 

The night before Santa came, we swapped family gifts. 

W loving his new guitar from his sissy.

Santa came:

 

2nd Annual Cinnamon Roll Christmas Tree

 Trying to eat after opening presents might not have been the best idea:

 

Other pics from December:

As you can see, W no longer needs assistance climbing onto his sister's bed - moved that chair all by himself!

We kept a friend's little girl earlier this month and AR was just loving it!  She kept kissing her, giving her blankets and toys, and just staring at her.  She wants a sister something fierce!

 

Thanksgiving 2014

We had a great time at Mimi and Papa's house for Thanksgiving and enjoying getting to spend lots of time with Uncle Andrew and Aunt Sarah, who we don't get to see that often.

This was in no way planned nor were the shirts even the same brand!!  Too funny!

 The kids enjoyed their time playing with their cousins!

There is never a dull moment with Uncle Andrew around!

Friday, we headed out to take our Christmas pictures... well, we tried.  I knew it was going to be a challenge with W, but we managed to get a semi-decent one.  I didn't include that pic (or the Hayes' pics) on this post since I'm paying good money to send them in the mail, you can just wait to receive yours then!  :)  Don't want to ruin the surprise!  ha!

The first MAJOR distraction were these turkeys.  I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that my child would have jumped on one of these if he'd gotten to them!

Here is how the grandchildren picture session went!!

Uncle Andrew managed to get them all to sit down... just not looking the right way!

He might be 101% boy and always on the go, but he sure is the cutest thing!

Love my boys!

Mimi and the big cousins put on a little show for us and it was precious!

W got really into the music and dancing... and by really, I mean REALLY!  Need to find some video of it to share!

If AR doesn't go into some sort of motivational speaking or lead women's bible studies, I will be surprised!  At least she's not critical of what her visitors show up wearing to church!!  :)  (or not wearing)

I didn't even realize I caught this on my camera.. right before knocking AC completely backwards.  He can be a bit of a bully!

 We tailgated and watch the Clemson/USC game at Grandmama's house.  AR also helped decorated Grandmama's Christmas tree.

 

Thanks for putting us all up, Mimi and Papa!  We also cherish our time there with all the family!

November (Pre-Thanksgiving) and Some Half Bday Updates!

We've been busy this month mostly trying to get our house ready to go on the market!  Let's just say we have a LOT of stuff and little space so we are de-clutterling like crazy to make it look as though we don't use every square inch of this house... which we do!  More on that later though!  For now, he are some random pics of the kids from this month and a little of what our days look like as well as a little update on our precious little ones!

W got his 1st real hair cut... he'd had a little trim off the back before but nothing like this.  So we went from a 1 yr old to a 4 yr old in all about 30 minutes!  It was quite a job trying to get him to sit long enough but with the help of the Kindle and a sucker, we managed!  Daddy just earned a new job of cutting his hair!

 

I just love watching this relationship develop!

We made a Thanksgiving treat to share with the cousins!  And somehow we managed this will W awake and up... that boy doesn't give us much of a break!

AR is now over 3.5 years old and she's sure to let you know that's just how old she is now!  I can't believe she'll be four next April!!!

We've been doing her K3 stuff at home this year and she just loves it and would do it everyday if mama was up for it!  We think she's pretty darn smart, but we may be a little biased!  We are currently up to letter Ii and number 6 and have been learning lots of Bible stories, verses, songs, poems, among other things.  I don't know that I could manage all this without the help of ABCJesusLovesMe.com and pinterest!

A little update on AR:
-favorite toys are her baby dolls
-she loves to dance, sing, and "preach" (and y'all it's just like out of some way out country church... we don't know where she gets it!)
-is currently wearing most all 4T but we managed to get another year out of a few dresses and jackets
-loves to draw, paint, play play-dough, and pretty much any "art" activity
-favorite shows/movies are Little Princess, Mulan, Frozen (of course), and Little Bear
-loves her brother so much it literally hurts him at times!
-her invisible friend "Nannie" comes around some but "Kayla" is the one she's usually playing with
-is totally and 100% all girl and loves all things princess, pink and purple
-continues to have a bit of a strong will, but after reading this blog post, my entire attitude and approach on it has changed (well, for the most part!)
-blesses us daily with her little personality

Here she is in "me time" last week hanging up her doll clothes and making a "house" in her room:

Then there's our little (well, big) 18 month old:

 A little update on W:
-just figured our peg puzzles and loves them!
-absolutely loves horses among other animals
-talks mostly in animal noises
-some of his newest, most understandable words are shoes and fish... not talking a ton but finally says mama when actually referring to me!
-wants to be just like his big sis
-loves to play with blocks and Mr. Potato Head
-favorite shows:  Little Bear and Blues Clues
-gets in to EVERYTHING
-is on the go most all the time, but does like to sit in our laps to watch tv or read a book
-loves for us to read him books now and a few favs are:  Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?, any Spot books, any books with farm animals, and many more
-would live outside if we let him
-thinks Tucker is the best thing ever... we maybe not better than his sister
-wears mostly 24m clothes but some 18m and some 2t too
-weighs about 30lbs (we are off schedule for appts so don't go until Jan.)
-understands far more than I think he does and continues to prove that to me
-has been moved to one naps usually from about 12-3pm each afternoon
-sleeps through the night but proves to be an early riser (which keeps reminding me that I am to die to myself daily!)
-is starting to show himself to be strong willed child #2... which means he will accomplish great things (refer to post above)
-brightens all of our days in more ways than we can even begin to count!

The Lord has given us such beautiful gifts in these two and we look forward to watching them grow into all that He's planned for them to be!