This week in review. . .

Wow, what a week. It has been a whirlwind, for sure. The Friday before Christmas started our official family Christmas gatherings. We had my Dad, step-Mom, little sister Hannah, my niece & nephew, Sam & Mary, and Christine, Jesse and their new baby Anderson over for Christmas dinner and gift giving. It was a great time of fellowship. Christine became a part of our family her junior year of high school and is truly a sister to me. My step-Mom made wonderful food, all I had to do was rolls and dessert. One of their gifts to the boys was Webkinz. Finley is a little young for it, but they knew he would want what Avery was getting. We had fun playing with it this morning, but I'm going to need my little sister to come over and really show them how to do it! Christine made me some awesome biscotti that I have been enjoying with my coffee in the mornings. I didn't take many pictures, but my dad took a bunch with his new camera, so I'm hoping to be getting some good ones soon. AJ and I stayed up late that night packing and cleaning up. While we were gone my friend Jackie and her family stayed here. It was nice to know our house wasn't sitting empty for a week!
On Saturday morning we left for Kansas to AJ's parents. We crammed a 5 1/2 hour trip into 9 1/2 hours. It was rough. The boys were real troopers. But, it was hard to spend hours going 20 miles an hour through a snow storm. We spent about an hour sitting completely still on a bridge in Wichita. I was a little nervous about the weight limit of that bridge as I was looking at all the semi trucks we were stuck on the bridge with. You better believe I was planning an exit strategy in my head! When we finally made it to Inman (population 1000) and were 4 minutes from AJ's parents, we got stopped by a police officer. Our break light was out....apparently it had a short. To make matters worse, AJ's license was expired (which we did not realize). He was kind of a jerk and kept us there for 20 minutes. He mentioned arresting AJ 3 or 4 times, and said his DL picture didn't look like him. He kept acting very suspicious like we were up to something. He kept asking where we were going. I wanted to say, "We're actually going on a drug run, we just like to take our 2 kids and a back seat full of Christmas presents along for fun."
Anyhow, we finally got back on the snowy road, and made it to AJ's parents. We stayed almost a week. It was really fun. There were a few bumps with half the family getting stomach flu and other sicknesses, but all in all, it was a great week. I really love sitting at a huge table full of people. There were 12 of us all together. It really makes me want to have a big family. I want to look around my table one day and see it full of faces. Some highlights were, going wedding dress shopping with Jill, playing Settlers of Cataan and Hand and Foot, sitting in the hot tub while it was snowing, visiting Grandmas and Aunts and Uncles, and Cousins, and of course, celebrating our Savior's birth. AJ's family is so great, we always look forward to time there.
We came back on Friday and had a much smoother trip. Saturday night we celebrated Christmas with my Mom and David. My mom cooked a great meal and we sat around the fire place to open presents. My mom gave the boys some really thoughtful gifts, including a huge pop-up tunnel that they have had a blast playing with. David made us a new desk for Christmas. It is beautiful and I can't wait to get it here! He is an amazing craftsman and does excellent work. He made two really nice file drawers which I desperately needed. You don't even want to know how sad my filing "system" (and I use that term loosely) is right now.
We are now just trying to unwind from the craziness of the holidays and hopefully enjoy a relaxing New Years Day as a family.

Here are the 3 boys in Kansas: Cousin Drew, Finley & Avery ---They had a BLAST together. They played so hard from the moment they were awake until their head hit the pillow.
Here is our little family on Christmas morning...ignore our hair, we just woke up. ;)

I hope you all have a Happy New Year!

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Merry Christmas

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The Window is Filling Up . . .

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May Your Days Be Merry and Bright. . .

Sorry, I've been really bad about posting. We have been BUSY, BUSY, BUSY. I started Christmas shopping in August, you'd think I'd be done by now. Well, technically I'm done with the actual shopping part, except for a few more things for AJ's stocking. But there is just so much other stuff to be done. We (well, mostly me with some "help" from Avery & Finley) have been doing a lot of baking. I have been making tons of banana pecan bread and am now working on peppermint bark and will try to get to some candy making later today...we'll see how that works out. :)
Here's some Chocolate Caramel Pretzel Sticks and Banana Pecan Bread we've been working on:

On Friday night we got to take the boys to see the play Peter Pan at the Walton Arts Center. The tickets were a Christmas present from my mom. It was AMAZING. It was even better than we imagined. First we took the boys to a sandwich shop down on Dickson and then walked over (in the freezing rain) to the Arts Center. The play had 3 acts and the boys were glued to it the entire time. I think it helped that we had great seats. We were on the front row so we were close enough to see Captain Hook spit. I wasn't sure if Finley would get wiggly or antsy, but both boys sat perfectly still on our laps and were just mesmerized. The sets were very elaborate and Peter Pan and the kids were flying high over our heads. The orchestra was right in front of us so the boys would peer over and watch them during intermission. It was the most fun family event we've probably ever done. Thanks Grammy!! :)

Sunday was our 7th wedding anniversary. Jill & Chris were here so they watched the boys so we could go out. It was so great. We ate at Noodles and I had Lemon Chicken Scallopini. It was awesome . . .if you live around here, you need to try that. Then we went and saw I am Legend with Will Smith. Sooo Good. I keep thinking about it and I want to watch it again. I will say that it wasn't what I expected and was very scary....but still very good. I would like to watch it this time without my eyes covered. I covered my eyes for a good chunk of the movie. AJ said, "At one point, I looked over and you were gone." There was a really scary part and I had slid down in my seat...I guess I was trying to get away from it!

We had a wonderful anniversary. I love spending time with my husband!

Here we are 7 years ago:

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Livin' the Good Life

First of all, I want to say "I'm sorry" to Chris Tomlin for my annoyance at him in a previous post. AJ informed me that it was part of a compilation cd of U2 covers for aid to Africa. I take it back....worthy cause indeed.

Now on to my exciting life in a house with 2 preschoolers.....
I made the boys Christmas aprons this year. I had made several to sell at our open house. There weren't any left, so I decided to make the boys each their own that they could wear every year when we do Christmas baking. They L-O-V-E helping in the kitchen. They even more love their new Christmas aprons...especially Avery. He runs and puts it on every time I'm in the kitchen. I want to take a really cute picture of the boys in their aprons making Christmas cookies, but that hasn't happened yet. Here we are...me and my two little helpers, making biscuits. Yes, Finley is stuffing a whole banana into his mouth.

On Friday night we got to go on another date night. AJ got tickets for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. We went out with some friends of ours to dinner at Outback (Yum) and then to the play and then to get coffee. It was so fun. Before we left Avery got to try to take a picture of us again. Here we are from a 4 year old's view:

Even though I really like Avery being able to get some pictures that we wouldn't otherwise have...it's starting to be a bad thing. He thinks it's his camera now. He also took a picture of the cat, the wall, a couple pictures of the floor and a few pictures of the table. Oh well! :)

By the way, does anyone know how to keep a cat out of a Christmas tree?? Spraying him with water only sparks his need for a challenge. I'm asking for all kinds of help lately.....

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Please Help

I need some stain removal advice. Finley found a black sharpie right before we were leaving for church the other day. He decided to decorate his shirt and brand new courds. Just a note, it was the first time he'd worn those pants. Yep. Thanks buddy.

Things I have tried:
*hair spray
*nail polish remover
*alcohol
*oxi-clean
*shout spray

So if any one out there has any other ideas, please let me know!!! Pin It

I'm Famous

Yesterday I was in the mall with the boys. We went to what the boys call the "thomas store"...... b/c there's a train table to play with. The local news was there and wanted to ask me a few questions. I resisted at first, but as many of you know, I'm very bad at saying "no." Before I knew it I had a microphone on and a camera in my face. He just wanted to ask me a few questions about the toy recalls. Luckily neither of the boys ran away while this was taking place, which was my main fear. Anyway, the boys and I were on the morning news. I'm pretty sure they twisted my words around. And by the way, I hadn't taken a shower yesterday and my hair is in a pony tail and I'm holding 3 coats, 2 books, and a chic-fil-a cup. But, whatever, I'm famous.

Click here and go down to "local video news" and click on "buying safe toys for Christmas." Pin It

Singin' With Santa

We had a fun & full weekend. About once a week, usually on the weekend, we have a "picnic" in the living room. We put a blanket out on the floor & eat dinner & watch some sort of kid friendly movie or show. Polar Express came on Friday night (ABC comes in just fine w/ no cable!) so we got Marlo's Taco Shack and had a picnic. The boys LOVE having a picnic. It's really fun family time. By the way, Marlo's Taco Shack is bueno. You can get 6 tacos, a large cheese dip & chips for $10. That's my kind of fun. :) The boys hadn't seen Polar Express since last winter so it was really fun. I don't think Finley even remembered it.

This year I wanted to start a tradition of doing an Advent Calendar. I really want to put our boys' focus on the real meaning of Christmas. I realized that I am going to have to work to make that happen. So I bought a simple Advent Calendar. Eventually I want to get a really pretty wooden one w/ the little doors, but this one will do for now. It has a window to open for each day until Christmas Eve. On the inside of the window is a verse and a picture showing part of the Christmas story. I really like it because it gives the boys a visual of how far away Christmas is and focuses us each morning on the Christmas story. Saturday was Dec. 1st so the boys got to open the first window. I just love this picture of them looking at the Advent Calendar.

On Saturday morning I went to Rachel's baby shower. It was a great time. It was so good to see some of my "siloam girls" and my best friend from college, Jackie. Then I met AJ & the boys at the train station. We got tickets for the Christmas train ride. The boys loved it. Santa & Mrs. Claus were on the train as well. They had the inside of the train all decorated for Christmas. They gave out jingle bells and snacks. We got to sing Christmas carols w/ Santa. Then afterwards the boys got their faces painted and got treat bags. This was really fun after just watching Polar Express the night before.

Sat. night was AJ's work Christmas party. It was fun to get all dressed up & go on a date w/ my husband. There was a silent auction, a very nice sit down dinner and dancing. They took our picture there, but before we left, Avery wanted to take a picture of us. Okay, so AJ's head is cut off, but it's pretty good for a 4 year old! I think he was just being artistic.

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Bono Did it Better

I need to get this off my chest. So, I was listening to the Christian radio station this afternoon and this is what I hear: "Coming up next is Chris Tomlin with Where the Streets Have No Name." What? Why?? Please tell me you're joking. I proceeded to listen to it b/c I just had to ...kind of like a train wreck. No one needs to cover U2. . . EVER. There are some great Christian artists out there. But, it is a huge pet peeve of mine when country or Christian artists cover other artists' songs. It always sounds ridiculous and you just wish you could hear the real artist singing it. That's all, I feel better now. Pin It

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree. . .

Well, it is Christmas time at our house! Oh, how I love the Christmas season. Thursday night we started taking down the fall decorations and started putting up the Christmas ones. We finally got everything done today. Well, by "we," I mean "I." AJ and the boys put up the tree and strung the lights. The boys helped me arrange the ornaments. When they weren't looking, I moved them around. Otherwise, our tree would have fallen over with all the ornaments on the bottom foot of the tree. Thankfully, they didn't notice. They were just excited to get to handle all the shiny ornaments!

Here they are, proud as can be of the tree. :)
Avery had been asking to make paper chains. So, yesterday we made Christmas paper chains to hang in his room & the office.

AJ says (jokingly) that it looks like Santa threw up on our front porch. Thanks honey. :) I love it by the way. I have always wanted a little tree for the front porch. They're so cheap the day after thanksgiving, I pretty much had no choice but to get one.

This is the window that I decorate for each season. I will put all the Christmas cards we receive throughout the season around the edges.

Back door wreath...

We even did a little tree for the boys' bathroom. This was really fun. We picked out a little mini tree at hobby lobby (again cheap, day after thanksgiving). They picked out some small blue ornaments as well. Then we came home and decorated it together. I already had the little bucket in their bathroom w/ Q-tips it. So we just stuck the tree down in it (minus the Q-tips). I had some marabou left over from hair bows so we wound that around it to look like snow. The boys (and me too) had so much fun with this. They were so proud. When AJ got home from work, Avery came running out of the bathroom with it, saying, "look, look what we did!" So cute!

Avery and Finley are constantly singing "Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree." We watched Swiss Family Robinson as a family last week and they have been singing it ever since then. I think Avery knows more words from it than I do!

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Christmas Parade, Fayetteville Style

Last Saturday night was the Fayetteville Christmas parade and lighting of the square. The Square all lit up is beautiful, by the way. There are so many lights. So the parade was . . . interesting. I have to say, growing up in Siloam Springs, we had the best Christmas parade. Although, I don't think I appreciated it as much then as I do now. I used to LOVE going to the Christmas parade. All the businesses would open up and serve hot chocolate and snacks. There were tons of creative floats and of course several marching bands and hometown beauty queens. So this parade...was a bit different. It was somewhat disappointing for A.J. and I but not at all for the boys, they don't know any different. It does make me miss a small town though. Anyhow, back to the parade. So, when we first get there, we see these:
There were about 5 or 6 of these 12 feet tall "people" dancing around. Were they left over from the Marti Gras parade? Ummm....why? Only in Fayetteville. By the way, they kept coming up to the boys, who did not appreciate them!

Pretty soon they lit the square which was great and then the parade started. It was half Christmas parade, and half "go hogs" parade. Seriously...they called the hogs. Yep. There was maybe two "real" floats. The other things were businesses advertising by driving their business vehicle with snowflake window clings. Also there was a razorback shaped car that drove by calling the hogs. The boys were actually pretty fascinated by that. I mean, who wouldn't be fascinated by a car shaped like a giant red pig?

So, here is how Finley view the parade:
After the parade we walked around the square. There were lots of vendors to look at. We will probably go back to the square on a nice night. They will have carriage rides, pony rides, and Santa all through the season.
Here are me & the boys...sorry about all the red eye....

AJ's turn...

The boys got to sit in Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. This was the highlight of the evening. There was a really short line so that helped. The Santa was so sweet to them and took the time to listen to what they wanted. Also Bedford was taking photos for free & we just have to go pick them up sometime. Avery told Santa that he wanted a toy gun (great) and Finley told him he wanted a baseball. Finley says that every time. So funny. By the by, does the Santa look a little albino to anyone else??

Telling Santa what they want . . .

The "elf" gave them each a Christmas tree Little Debbie. Here they are enjoying their treat!

So, back to reality...tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I'm cooking the turkey! I will let you know how it turns out! To all my faithful readers, have a wonderful Thanksgivng!

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Fall Pictures, part deux

Last weekend we went to the park and then played around throwing rocks in the creek, hiking around the trees, and finding pretty leaves. Fall in Arkansas is just so beautiful. The trees are bright, vibrant shades of red, orange, & yellow. It has been fun collecting the colorful leaves with the boys. It's such an easy way to teach about God's handiwork. Here are a few pictures of our morning.
Avery leading Finley into the "woods." Finley had to find a walking stick. :)

My sweet boys....

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Christmas Open House

This morning Emily and I and some other ladies had a Christmas Open House. It was a lot of fun. This was our last "craft show" for the season. It was so much fun that we have definitely decided to do it again in the spring. We have had 4 craft shows this fall alone so we have been busy! It has been fun but we are both ready for a rest. It is time to focus on some other things. Especially Christmas! I need to spend my spare time making Christmas presents and tending to my house that has been pretty neglected lately.

Reasons I like the Open House as compared to the traditional craft show:
1. the hours: the Open house was 9-1 today, as compared to all weekend long.
2. sitting around all morning drinking coffee & eating yummy snacks
3. sitting around all morning talking with other ladies
4. profitable

So here are some pictures....
This is the food buffet. We had coffee, spiced tea, spinach dip in a bread bowl, pretzel sticks, fancy chex mix, pumpkin roll, marinated olives, pumpkin dip w/ ginger snaps for dipping, poppy seed straws, & sausage balls. YUM-O.
Here is the table with Christmas items...

Scrapbooks, nap mats, burp cloths...

my hair bows....

more burp cloths....

various items, including my taggies...

Thanks to everyone who came, it was great to visit! Also, thanks to my sweet husband for a great morning off, and also to the Kennedy's for taking care of Finley for awhile!

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A Pirate's Life for Me, YO HO!

First of all I want to say that Avery read his first 2 books this morning!! I have been working on "preschool" stuff with him on and off for a couple of years. I have to say that lately I have not been very consistent with it. Last year I had a great routine going where I did preschool with him every morning. In fact, when Finley was born, I started doing "preschool" with Avery while Finley took his morning nap. I kept it up pretty good until this past summer hit, we totally quit doing anything and I have had the hardest time picking it back up. Avery loves to do it, but somehow, it just gets crowded out. I have been trying desperately to get back in the groove....which means I have been doing it about once or twice a week. We have been doing letters and their sounds for a while now so I decided to see if we could put it together and start reading. I got some Bob books from the library. So this morning Avery read the first two books! He did really well and was excited that he was reading. I let him put stickers on this reading log we have. I know we are definitely going to have to keep practicing so he doesn't forget how to do it. It's really all on me, how disciplined I am to take the time to sit down and help him. I struggle so much with consistency. I hate that. I feel so much better when we are in a groove with a schedule, and I just can't seem to get it together lately.

In other news...about a month ago I picked up some pirate "costumes" at the Dollar tree. They're pretty cheapo but I knew the boys would have fun with them. I was saving them for the right time. So, Sunday night we got them out. The boys were SOOO excited. They had so much fun dressing up and playing pirates. They've pretty much worn them every moment we've been home since then. Avery wanted to sleep with his sword yesterday. I think AJ had almost as much fun as they did, playing with the fake earring. I wish I had a picture of it. Every time I looked at him, he had the earring in a different spot. . . his ear, his nose, his lip...he thought he was pretty funny.

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Woo Pig Sooie!!

We had another weekend full of family fun. On Friday night we went to the Razorback basketball game. AJ called me at almost 5:00 and told me he got seats in Arvest's box for the Razorback game. Arvest is such a great company and has been such a blessing for AJ to work for. It is wonderful to see AJ actually enjoy his work and be home at night and on weekends as well! Anyhow, the lady that had the box seats couldn't go, so she gave the 4 tickets to AJ. It was really fun. They had food and drinks provided so that was nice. The boys really enjoyed yelling "Go Hogs!" They also loved calling the hogs with the fans, although,it was a little loud for Finley, he kept covering his ears. Avery loved watching the cheerleaders. When he found out there were boy cheerleaders he was very excited. He said, "When I get tall as daddy, I'm gonna be a cheerleader." Hmm....I will remind him of that someday.

Here are the boys calling the hogs!

We also got tickets to go to another game in a couple of weeks...this time it will be just AJ and I...if we can find a babysitter on the Saturday after thanksgiving! Any takers??!! :)

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Spidey & Rock Star

So I am SOOOOO glad that Halloween is over. It really is a useless holiday and I just really hate it. I am so glad that stores are getting rid of all the ghosts, goblins, & witches. If I never see another scream mask, it will be too soon. However my kids did dress up...THREE times. They had dress up days twice at Kids Day Out. Then on Halloween, my good friend Karen and her husband, Bill, had a party at their house. It was good to hang out with them and drink some hot cocoa. They had a constant stream of kids trick or treating. The kids absolutely loved handing out candy to them. I was amazed at what some people dress their children as. There was one boy dressed up as a beer keg. Seriously. We thought it was a tin man at first, but no, he was a beer keg. Super.

So I never could convince Finley to be a "rock and roll star," so I had one cutie patootie spider man and one blue haired rock star.


Here are my boys on their first dress up day. No, Finley cannot see out of the eye mask.

"Rock On, Dude"...is what Avery constantly said...do not know where he learned it.

Spiderman in galoshes. I cut the eyeholes of his mask some more, so he can actually see out.

Here are the boys at Karen's party. They mostly hovered around the candy trunk. Yep, a trunk filled to the brim with candy. The boys really didn't know what to do with themselves.

Finley is so excited that people are handing him candy...and he has no idea why.

Digging through the candy bags...

I'm glad the boys had fun...now lets move on to Thanksgiving, a real holiday!

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