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December 28, 2011
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December 23, 2011
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December 30, 2011
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December 2011
~On December 3, we drove up to Nashville for a fun overnight trip. We saw
the Radio City Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rockettes on Saturday
morning. We met Mama, Papa, Uncle Tim, Aunt Stacie, GiGi, and GiJo there.
Kate and Anna LOVED the show! They were both excited to see the dancers,
and they did not disappoint! Nathan was thrilled when the show began. He
was sitting in Mommy's lap and immediately started jumping up and down when
the singing and dancing began. After a few songs, he became tired and fell
asleep (and slept through the rest of the show). After the show, we all
went to Cracker Barrel for lunch, and then we said goodbye to everybody
else. We went to check in to our hotel and let the girls swim in the indoor
pool for a bit. Then it was time to shower and dress to go see all of the
beautiful lights at the Opryland Hotel. We saw lots of pretty lights, ate
pizza and gelato, and even got to ride a boat through the Delta Atrium. It
was a lot of fun, and we stayed out much past everyone's bedtime. After
breakfast on Sunday, Kate wanted to do something "fun." Daddy's idea of
"fun" was to go to Bass Pro Shop. The girls thought it was fun, especially
when we walked in the store and they were able to ride a merry go round
immediately. They played a few other fun games, and then it was time to go.
After a filling lunch at Buca di Beppo, we made our way home. Fun times!
~Anna had her preschool Christmas program on Wednesday, December 7. Mommy
and Daddy were excited to see Anna perform! Nathan was awesome that
morning, and he slept from the time Mommy dropped Anna off at school at 9 AM
(in the pouring rain) until after the show started at 11. After he woke up,
he sat quietly in his carseat and ate Cheerios. Anna's 3-year-old class
came out and sang three songs: 1) The Baby was a Boy, 2) Gotta Jump/Shh!, 3)
Does the Baby Need a Blanket? Then they sat down and sang along with the
younger classes. Anna did an awesome job on her performance! She sang all
of the words, and she did all of the hand motions. We were so proud of our
big girl!
~Saturday, December 10 was a fun day. That morning, we went to SciQuest
for the kids' Christmas party for Daddy's work. We had donuts for
breakfast, and then the girls got to see Santa Claus (Nathan was asleep),
get a holiday gift, and play with the science exhibits. After lunch, we
took the kids to see The Dance Company's Honors Ballet perform excerpts from
The Nutcracker. Once of Kate's teachers was performing, and we all enjoyed
seeing the big girls do ballet. That evening, Jason, Heather, Jack, and
Carter came over for our annual Christmas dinner together. It was great to
visit and catch up with them since it seems like our schedules are so busy
now that our kids are getting older!
~Kate's class Christmas party at school was on Wednesday, December 14.
Since Mommy is one of the Room Mom's for Kate's class, I got to help plan
the party. I also had Duty Free Lunch (once a week, one parent is
responsible for taking the whole class to recess and lunch, thus giving the
teacher a one-hour break) that morning, so I got to school around 10:30.
After lunch was over, we had about an hour before the party started, so I
went in the classroom to help Miss Chandler. The kids were able to make a
candy cane craft using beads and pipe cleaners. Then they watched a Magic
School Bus movie as they anxiously waited for the party to start. Daddy
even surprised Kate by coming to her party. During the party, the kids ate
lots of yummy food provided by the parents, and they made a wreath/picture
frame craft. Miss Chandler even brought reindeer food for the kids to take
home to put out on Christmas Eve. It was a really fun party! Miss Chandler
even gave me a bag of reindeer food to bring home to Anna, which she
absolutely loved.
~Anna's last day of school was Friday, December 16. Kate had her last day
of school on Tuesday, December 20. After Kate's last day of school, we went
to Chick-fil-a for lunch to celebrate the beginning of Christmas break.
During the first couple days of Christmas break, we were uncertain of the
state of everyone's health. Anna had a slight cold, and Nathan woke up that
Monday morning with cold symptoms and a fever. The fever broke after a
couple days, but the cold symptoms got a little worse. Finally, on Friday,
I took Nathan to the doctor. Turns out our sweet baby boy had his very
first ear infection. I guess that explains why he was sleeping terribly and
very cranky. Of course, it did make for a couple of difficult days getting
ready for Christmas. But I'm just thankful the antibiotics did the trick and
he's feeling better now!
~Gramma, Grampa, and Aunt Julie came down to celebrate Christmas with us on
Friday, December 23. After Mommy got home from the doctor with Nathan, we
all went to Nothing But Noodles for lunch. After lunch, we came home and
opened gifts before it was time for everybody to head back home. The
favorite gift from Gramma and Grampa was definitely the magna-tiles. Look
them up - they're awesome!
~Mama, Papa, Uncle Tim, Aunt Stacie, GiGi, and GiJo arrived at our house on
Christmas Eve morning. We all went to the 4:00 Christmas Eve service at our
church. The service was beautiful, and it was a great way to set the tone
for Christmas. After church, we came home and had our typical Christmas Eve
dinner of heavy hors d'oevers. Kate and Anna were very excited about Santa
Claus coming the next day, and they went to bed quite well. Before going to
bed, though, they put out their reindeer food, cookies and milk for Santa,
and they wrote Santa a note. And of course they had to say goodbye to
Freddie, our Elf on the Shelf. Kate said she was sad to see Christmas come
because that meant that Freddie had to go away until next year. The girls
have really loved our mischievous elf this year!
~Kate and Anna both woke up around 7:15 on Christmas morning. Since we had
a houseful of company, all three kids slept in our bedroom that night.
After Nathan woke up, we told the girls they could come out and see if Santa
left them anything. They were so surprised and excited to see all of the
gifts under the tree! We divided up our gifts and brought them into the
living room to start opening. Kate and Anna opened all of their gifts
first. Kate asked Santa for a basketball, and he did not disappoint. Her
big surprise gift from Santa was a real camera, which she has been wanting
for quite some time. Kate also got lots of craft stuff, so that will keep
her very busy in the weeks to come! Anna didn't ask Santa for anything, and
she couldn't really think of anything she wanted. Santa surprised her with
a special Pottery Barn Kids baby doll named Ashleigh. She got lots of
clothes and accessories to go with her new big-girl doll. Nathan's first
Christmas was good, although he still wasn't quite feeling 100% back to
normal. He opened some of his gifts, but he needed lots of help from his
big sisters. His big gift was a rocking chair with his name on it. He also
got lots of little boy toys (cars, trains, balls, etc.). After the kids
opened their gifts, it was time to take a break and eat breakfast. We had
breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls, and fresh fruit. The adults got to
open their gifts after breakfast, which made for a rather long Christmas
morning (as usual, and we wouldn't have it any other way!).
~We ate Christmas dinner around 5:00. In addition to all of our family,
Ryan, Terrie, Lexi, and Blake joined us for Christmas dinner as well. We
had lots of delicious food. Terrie brought a coconut shrimp appetizer. For
dinner, we had beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole,
mixed veggies, corn, stuffed mushrooms, ambrosia, cranberry relish, and
rolls. Yum! And you can't forget dessert. We had a festive jello ribbon,
cherry cheesecake, chocolate pie, and a coconut cake for Jesus' birthday.
We even took the time to put candles in the cake and sing Happy Birthday to
Jesus to help us remember the true reason for celebrating. After dessert,
it was time to play Rock Band. Lots of laughs and lots of fun!!
~Aunt Kellie and Uncle Justin arrived on Monday morning after Christmas.
We all spent the day together and played with lots of new toys. That
evening we went out to dinner at Olive Garden before it was time for
everybody to head home.
~Since Daddy had the whole week off after Christmas, we decided to try to
plan some fun things to do together. On Tuesday afternoon, we went to
Cathedral Caverns. This is a large cave about 45 minutes from us. We did
the 2:00 tour and saw lots of stalagtites and stalagmites. It was a 1.3
mile round trip walking tour, so there was a bit of complaining by two
little girls at the beginning. But they were real troopers and walked most
of the time and ended up having a lot of fun! I think a highlight was when
the tour guide turned off the lights deep in the cave and it was pitch black
in there.
~The next day we went to The Play Place near our house. Mommy was going to
take the kids before Christmas, but I didn't want to expose them to any more
germs since they already had mild colds. We purchased an all-day pass, and
they played there for hours! We went home and ate lunch, and then Daddy
took them back that afternoon for more playtime. It was a lot of fun!
~On Thursday, we took the kids to Birmingham to go to the McWane Center.
We left the house around 8 AM. The girls were so excited when we told them
we were going to this science museum; we had gone several months ago with
Gramma and Grampa and they loved it! The McWane Center changes their entire
fourth floor exhibit every few months, and this time they featured Winter
Wonderland and Model Trains. Kate played in the "snow" in the Winter
Wonderland area. Anna chose not to because the protective shoe covers were
too big for her feet. Kate also loved going on the zip line, and Mommy even
rode it this time too! Anna's favorite thing to do was to play in the
newsroom on the computers they had set up there. She and Kate also both
tried typing on a real typewriter. We ended up staying at the McWane Center
until they closed at 5 PM. We stopped at Waffle House for dinner and
finally made our way back home.
~New Year's Eve was exciting in our house this year. We had our typical
fondue dinner, complete with cheese, main course, and chocolate. Ryan,
Terrie, Lexi, and Blake came over to help us ring in the new year. Ryan
even brought a homemade pinata, which we took outside after dinner. The
kids all had a good whack at it and then Kate busted it open. They were
thrilled to see all of the silly bands, glow bracelets, candy, etc. that
Ryan had filled it with. We finally got to our dessert fondue around 10:00
(we were too stuffed to eat it earlier). It was obviously getting late and
the kids were getting silly. Kate and Anna decided that it would be
hilarious to paint their faces with the chocolate fondue. Anna's face was
COVERED with chocolate. Kate took the more stylish approach and painted her
eyebrows, nose, lips, etc. They had a lot of fun, and they were too cute to
get in trouble this time too! :) We watched the ball drop at 11 PM, and
then we said goodbye to our friends and put the girls to bed (Nathan went to
bed at normal time and somehow managed to sleep despite all the noise).
~Nathan continues to grow at an amazing rate! He now has seven teeth in his
mouth (four on the top, three on the bottom). He is quite fast at crawling.
He can cruise around holding onto something. He loves to push his walker
around the room. He's beginning to learn how to stand on his own, and he'll
be walking everywhere before we know it! He is finally sleeping through the
night on a consistent basis. He loves to eat anything and everything! I
guess that's why he was up to 19 pounds, 4 ounces at his doctor's
appointment a few days ago. He adores his big sisters and loves to play
with them. 2011 has been a year of many blessings, and we look forward to
all that 2012 has in store for our family!
P.S.-In the picture above, Anna has a band-aid on her chin. This really is no cause for concern. She scraped her chin while playing outside one day.
Now, when she looks in the mirror and sees her chin, it reminds her that it hurts, and she needs to put a band-aid on. She got a box of band-aids in her stocking for Christmas, and she only has about two left in the box now!
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