Christmas catch-up

Side note: I'm writing this so I can look back and remember what we did for Christmas 2010. Some of the details probably won't interest you. So, this post may seem long and boring, but the pictures are fun to look at!

We had a great Christmas this year. As I mentioned before, we spent time with my family in Dallas the weekend before Christmas. Then we did a little yo-yo-ing back and forth between Austin and back to DFW after that. It was worth it, and the boys did great with the traveling and going house to house.

We were home in Austin for the week of Christmas, just the four of us, which was a nice, laid back way to celebrate Christmas. This year we decided to get each other gifts, so Eli and Jed got to pick out gifts to give to each other and to John and I instead of just receiving all the gifts. I think it worked out well. I liked seeing what they chose for others. For example, Eli chose some water bottles for John (for his P90X workouts). I thought that was thoughtful of him. We did our little traditions: setting out the milk and cookies for Santa (this year it was a brownie we had leftover from our dinner co-op b/c I forgot to make cookies), the reading of The Night Before Christmas and the birth of Jesus from the bible, and coffee cake and breakfast casserole, too. It doesn't feel like Christmas without those! This year, Eli got a police pick-up truck from Santa, just like he asked, and Jed got a wooden train set from Santa.





A couple days after Christmas, it was back up to Ft. Worth to hang out with John's family. Everyone (all four siblings and families) were there together, which doesn't happen that often. It was good to see everyone as usual. Eli and Jed had fun playing with their cousins, Will and Alex (same age as Eli), who they don't get to see much since they live in Denver. Here's some pics of our time in FW:

























After a few days in FW, we were off to Dallas to see some good friends, Lane & Erin and Bcat & Amy, from college for the evening. However, Bcat was sick and couldn't go, which was a bummer since he lives in Denver and we don't get to see him and Amy much. We missed seeing you, Bcat!

Then, we hung out with my family a few days. Mammy took the boys to see a train exhibit that they had at Northpark mall. They had tons of miniature trains set up there with all kinds of things to look at. Jed loved it and could have stayed in there much longer than we did. He spotted a Thomas train in there right at his level and would say, "Thomas, yoo hoo, where are you?" every time the train went through the tunnel. So cute! John and Eli liked it okay, but they get overwhelmed when there are big crowds of people (and there were a lot of people packed into a small space in there), so they decided to walk around outside the exhibit while they waited for us. Plus, Eli and John aren't big fans of malls, which made them feel more overwhelmed, I think. Like father like son!
























For New Year's we went to Whitney and Reed's house (more friends from college), and Bubba and Anna met us there as well. They are all good friends who feel like family, so it's always a good time seeing them. Somehow, we stayed up until 2:30 am just chatting and having a good time, but when the kids woke up a little before 7:00 am, we remembered that we're not in our twenties anymore! It was a good time nonetheless! I got one picture of me and Whitney's boys. If you want to see more pictures of our time there, you can look on my Facebook profile. I couldn't figure out how to post them here.

Merry Christmas!

Here is Jed's rendition of Jingle Bells as well as a mash-up version of Jingle Bells and Nanny Nanny Boo Boo. Listen closely!


And this is Eli singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Did you know Rudolph has a smiley nose?


Here are the pictures from our Christmas card along with some others we took. John's co-worker's girlfriend took them for us, and we did them in our backyard. We decided to do a cheesy one with Christmas sweaters and even some with our chickens, just to be goofy. I don't think the sweaters were cheesy enough, though. Maybe I'll find some cheesier ones for next year. We had a good time taking those!
The first three pictures were the ones that were in our Christmas card.

Christmas with Family

Last weekend, we got to celebrate Christmas with my family in Dallas a week early. We had Christmas with my mom (Mammy)on Saturday, and then spent Sunday with my Dad and Cindy (Grandpa and Gramma Ninny) along with my aunt and uncle and my cousin and her family, and of course my sister, Brynn, and her family both days. We had fun doing presents and eating good food, but the best part was just hanging out and being together. I am thankful that I like hanging out with my family. We laugh, relax, and just have a good time. Thanks for being my family!

One highlight was when Mammy made Christmas cookies with all four of her grandsons. It's been a tradition since I was little to make cookies with my mom. We do it all, from rolling out the dough and cutting out shapes to decorating with the icing and sprinkles. I like the decorating, but my favorite part is giving them out to friends...well eating them is fun too! I took some of the undecorated cookies home and the boys and I decorated them and passed them out to our neighbors and friends here. Fun for everyone!

Eli's Christmas program

Eli's preschool put on a Christmas program, and it was the cutest thing I've ever seen! The kids did a great job. They had so many songs to sing for us!

John and I got there late (b/c we were waiting for Eli to put on his shoes, but that's a whole different story!), so we had to sit in the back row. They performed in the sanctuary of the church, and it was packed! I ended up standing on the side in the front against the wall so that I could get some good pictures.

First, the four year-olds sang, then the three year-olds came out and then the two year-olds came out to sing. Some of the two year-olds looked smaller than Jed. So cute! I'm sure we'll get to see Jed do a Christmas program at Faith Preschool in the future!

The kids all had glittery hats that they helped make, which made the performance even cuter. After the program, everyone got to enjoy punch and cookies and a visit from Santa in their classroom. We also got to see Eli's artwork displayed on the walls.

As you can see in the picture where the boys are in Santa's lap, Eli is not happy. When we were waiting in line to see Santa, Eli thought it was his turn to go, but there was a kid in front of him who went up there the same time Eli did. Eli got embarrassed b/c the kid's mom told him it wasn't his turn yet (in a nice way). Eli tends to get mad and cry when he's embarrassed. So, that's the story behind the grumpy face with Santa.

























The program started with the kids singing Go Tell It on the Mountain as they walked in. Eli walks in at the beginning of the video. He's wearing a black shirt, right next to his friend, James, who is wearing a green shirt. He's walking right in front of his teacher, Mrs. Bass, the lady in the red shirt. Sorry, the videos are pretty wobbly. That's probably b/c I was standing and waving to Eli while holding the camera.


This is one of the songs that Eli's class did. Each class took turns standing in the front to sing some songs.


Here are some other songs all the kids sang. They had a lot of cute ones, but I'm sure you'll recognize these. Eli is toward the left. Again, sorry for the wobbly camera work.






And I just like this song. Did you notice the girl sitting in front of Eli to the right? So cute! I think Eli's getting a little bored in this one...ha!

Our Christmas Tree

Here's us decorating the tree. We did that the weekend after Christmas, but I'm just now getting around to some posts. I love our tree this year because it's filled with ornaments that I had and made when I was a kid and now some that Eli and Jed have made. The boys enjoyed helping hang the ornaments this year. I only had to move a few around so that they weren't all at the bottom of the tree. I love our little Charlie Brown tree.

Thanksgiving

We went to Ft. Worth this year and stayed with Grama and Grandad (John's parents) for 5 days. It was nice to see them. We hadn't seen them since last spring! It was also nice to stay in one place rather than traveling to Dallas and trying to see all of my family...way less stress! John's sister Courtney and her family were there in Ft. Worth, too. It's always good to see them, especially now since they are moving to Virginia. Courtney brought some cookie dough for the kids to help make cookies. Yum! She also made an amazing turkey carcass soup, much better than it sounds!




















This was taken at the Science Musem. The boys loved the kids area...cool place!
















Jed really enjoyed playing with the Busy Town toy set during our visit. It's old school! John used to play with it as a kid, which is cool. A tried and true toy!















We went to Decatur to see Nana, as usual, on Thanksgiving day. She was great with the boys and enjoyed chatting with them and taking interest in the toys that Jed kept showing her. Doesn't she look great at 94?
























Special time with Grama and Grandad and cousin Vivian.

Fun November stuff

Only one post in November? How did that happen? I guess nothing extra special was going on, just the usual boys being boys! So here are some pictures for you to enjoy!
Here are some of Eli's last soccer game. Uncle Steve and Aunt Laura came, and I regret that we didn't get a picture of them with Eli. Eli's team had a little medal ceremony after the game, too.

















Jed loves my headbands















It's Boone!
























Those last ones are of the boys at the park...I got some good ones! And we also decorated the tree after we got back from Thanksgiving. The boys really got into decorating this year.

Camping Trip

The day before Halloween, we went with several friends to Bastrop State Park to go camping. We got there Saturday afternoon and left Sunday morning, so it was a short and sweet time there. I think it was the only available time back when we were booking the camp sites over the summer. I'm not too keen on camping, but I thought it would be a fun time to hang out with friends. I have a feeling I'm going to have to learn to like camping more since I live with three males! We all had fun and the weather was perfect...sunny, nice and cool during the day and cold at night. The boys did great sleeping in the tent, too. It helped that they were extremely tired from playing with their friends all day. I don't think we'll try and fit in a camping trip right before Halloween again, though. Too much going on in a short amount of time! Lots of memories made, nonetheless!