December 6

You're in trouble now, Joseph Frosty!

 

 

Another event and opportunity to see Santa tonight (with my other office). This is the first time Neylan has had the opportunity to really see Santa and sit in his lap (we never made it last year). He followed Grayson right up to him and hopped on the other knee. And then they both just smiled so I could get some really cute pictures!

 

I missed the first couple seconds of Santa asking Grayson what he wanted, but you can hear his answer. And then Neylan didn't speak up enough for Santa to understand what he said, so Neylan may not get anything becuase his presents are going to Ben instead!

 

December 5

Oops!!

 

December 4

Joseph Frosty roasted a marshmallow today. He must be making s'mores!

 

December 3

After a busy weekend, the boys asked if they could stay at home today. So, we did, as long as we could. We decided it would be fun to make gingerbread houses.

 

 

A great way to use leftover Halloween candy!

 

Tonight we went to an event to see Santa with one of my offices

 

We waited outside for him to arrive on his cyber sleigh. I've never seen it before. He came down the street with the bass blasting Christmas music and then pulled in the parking lot.

 

He pulled to a stop in front of all the kids, got out, then waved his hand and his lights turned off (this made an impression on Grayson). I had another event tonight so we didn't get to stay to talk to Santa. They had fun though and got to do a few activities while waiting.

 

Joseph Frosty was found in this little predicament this morning! Ouch!

 

 

December 2

Hanging on for dear life! Please don't turn the fan on today!!

 

December 1

We hosted the dessert portion of a progressive dinner tonight. It was a beautiful day, so the boys played outside a lot while we cleaned and decorated. After a few minutes inside, I came out to find another little decorater hard at work. Not what I had in mind!

 

 

 

November 30

Today, Joseph Frosty was found leading a parade of vehicles

 

 

Tonight, a bunch of girls and I got together to do a "Meaningful Christmas" ornament exchange. We were each assigned a specific ornament and made 24 of that same ornament. Tonight all 24 of us brought our ornaments together and exchanged to get a full set, one ornament for the first 24 days of December. These ornaments tell the whole story from the beginning of time (Alpha and Omega) to the end (the Lamb of God) and correspond to a short devotional designed to do with your kids each day during December. How cool!! We start tomorrow!

 

While talking to our neighbors recently, Adam was told that "everyone" in the neighborhood puts lights on their house. We've never done that before, so Adam went out, bought lights, and decorated the front of the house today. So far, we are the only house in the culdesac with lights! I'm pleased with it!

November 29

After the stress he caused yesterday, Joseph Frosty chose to hang out on the sidelines today!

 

November 28

Joseph Frosty took it upon himself to babysit Baby Jesus today!

 

I'm sure this was helpful to Mary and Joseph, but it sure stirred up trouble at our house. Grayson started crying because he wanted to play with Baby Jesus so bad, but knew if he touched him and Joseph Frosty, it would not be good. So, he tried so hard to resist. Thank goodness today was a school day and they weren't home much.

 

So, on the way home from church, Grayson still very concerned about baby Jesus asks, "Mom, do you think Joseph Frosty will put Baby Jesus back in the manger safely where he found him?" I assured him that he probably would, but if he was really concerned he should tell our elf when he got home. So, he did! He went right up to him, bent over, and said, "Joseph Frosty, please be very careful with Baby Jesus when you put him back tonight."

 

November 27

This morning Joseph Frosty was found in the tree next to our new ornament for the year

 

 

Since Daddy is in class on Tuesday nights, the boys and I usually take it easy, which means bath night. I got Neylan out first and while I was getting him dressed, someone else was adding LOTS of soap to the tub while the jets were on!!

 

This is what you call the ultimate bubble bath!

 

After bath, I treated the boys to hot chocolate, popcorn, and their first Christmas movie of the season

 

We had a fun little date night. Just mommy and the boys!

November 26

Joseph Frosty came back to our house this morning and was found sitting on the mantle

 

November 25

Tonight we sat down to let the boys watch the Elf on the Shelf movie

 

 

and then we read the book (after it was delivered to our front porch! The boys were so excited to hear the doorbell ring and then find the elf on the porch. (just like in the movie))

 

Since our Elf was named "Shelf" last year, I was curious if the boys would remember his name or if they might want to choose a new name. Grayson asked to call him Mary, but I told him that wouldn't work becuase our elf is a boy. So, he said we could call him Joseph. Neylan chose the name Frosty. So, this year our elf's new name is "Joseph Frosty"!

November 24

Homeward bound! I would say this is our most creative packing trip yet. Adam felt the need to buy a much larger tv (because it was such a good deal :/)  and I bought a new Christmas tree. So, we put Neylan in the very back row by himself and Grayson in the middle row by himself and piled stuff all around them.

 

 

Every so often we would yell back to Neylan to make sure he was ok. He would then give us a thumbs up! We made it home just fine!

November 23

Today, we are back to our Thanksgiving tradition of Black Friday shopping. The girls were up and out the door by 5 this morning to drive over an hour back to the big city (Nashville) for some good outlet shopping

 

 

I think we made out ok!

 

After our long shopping trip in Nashville we went back to Tullahoma to pack up and get the boys, and then drove back to Nasvhille for another night with Kristi, Jeremy, and Eli.

 

 

November 22

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

YUM!!

 

Our family has so much to be thankful for

 

 

Ok, lunch is done, so we are on to our Christmas festivities! I don't think my family can make it through a holiday anymore without having someone make a fool of themselves for the sake of a goofy picture and some great memories!

 

 

This year our activity was to create Santa out of red tissue paper, black construction paper, and batting. Each team had 10 minutes to get Santa dressed for the fashion show.

 

There was even a Christmas tree in place

 

We did our traditional white elephant gift exchange and then the boys got a few presents.

 

And that's how you combine Thanksgiving and Christmas into two days!

 

November 21

We spent the night last night with my best friend from college, who I haven't gotten to see in a year and a half (she arrived in KC 9 hrs after Neylan came home and I haven't seen her since). Her little guy, Eli, is 5 months older than Grayson and these boys had a blast together. Silliness was everywhere!

 

 

We had a family photo shoot this morning. We captured lots of cute moments of the boys together and Kristi got lots of fabulous family pictures for us (I'll have to post those later)

 

This afternoon we drove a little bit further to meet up with my family for a couple days.

 

The weather is so warm that we had time to play outside. Grayson really wanted to play football with anyone that would play. Granddad was a good sport with Grayson's "football rules"

 

 

"hike"

 

After dinner the boys made turkey cupcakes

 

And we ended the night with several rounds of Christmas bingo (we aren't going to be able to get together at Christmas, so we had a lot of holiday activities to squeeze in one trip)