'Twas the Night Before Christmas and....

the boys would NOT GO TO SLEEP!!!!

Austin kept saying that he was too excited and I guess Jacskson was too. 

He would just look up and smile and say "Momma". 

This was after Nana tried to rock him for about an hour!! 

But they are finally asleep and Santa was able to come in and do his thing. 

He blew out in the wind that is whipping around the house!! 

What a nasty night for Santa to be out doing his thing!

Now to hit the bed so those sugar plums can dance in our heads!!!

Merry Christmas

from our house to yours

NOW the stockings are hung!!

I picked up the boys stockings today!!  They are hanging on the mantel just waiting for Santa to come and fill them up!!!  They have the cutest little pockets on them.  One for a letter for Santa and one from Santa.  The boys need to get busy on their letters!! I personally know that Santa's letters are on their way-- from the North Pole itself!!!

And here are their bags for Santa to put all of their loot in!  I had planned on getting the bags from Pottery Barn but found these at Under the Christmas Tree this year and decided they would be perfect!!

So, now we are just waiting for Santa to arrive.  Russell the Elf is keeping a close eye on the boys.  It is so funny to ask Jackson "Where's Russell?" and off he goes looking for him, high and low!  I didn't think that he would have caught on to that this year, but he has. 

The Stockings Were Hung by The Chimney with Care

Well....the stockings are just about the only thing left!  The tree is up and the Village is out and most importantly, ALL of the boxes have been put away!!!

Austin is getting excited!  He told me yesterday that the only thing that would make the tree look better is a few presents wrapped and put under there...I think I might wrap everyone elses but his and see what he says...I can be such a Scrooge!!!

Here's the tree-- minus the bow-- I can't find the silver ribbon to make a bow for the top.  I need to add that to my list...

Here is the village across the top of the Entertainment Center-- also notice that Russell has decided that was a good place to watch over the boys today, I wonder where he'll wind up tomorrow??

Some more of the Village on top of the China Cabinet

Main Street across the Buffet

The Farm in the Entry way...

And here is what I came up with for the Front Door...

I have been wanting a new wreath for the door for a couple of years and would look and look and just couldn't find exactly what I wanted or was willing to pay.  So this year I decided I would just do it myself.

I need to get some little trees to put in the pots and add a little bow to the top of them or maybe a bow on the lights??  Not sure what else I'll put out there but we'll just have to see.

Well, like I said the stockings are about the only thing left.  I bought the cutest bags for the boys to put their toys from Santa in...they look like Santa's face and I had thier names embroideried on the white fur of Santa's hat...they are going to look pretty cute stuffed with all of their goodies from Santa.  I'd like to find some stockings that match them but we'll just have to see what I can come up with. 

The cards have been ordered and as soon as they come in I plan on cranking those babies out and putting them in the mail...the Christmas Parade is this Thursday and the holiday's are OFFICIALLY underway!!!!

Hope you all enjoy this holiday season spending time with your family and loved ones!!!

Thanksgiving 2009

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Scott's Mom and Dad's this year.  Jackie and her family were able to come home this year and help us eat all that turkey!!  We spent Sunday at Mama and Papa's and then hung out at Uncle Jeff and Aunt Ann's for some cake and coffee on Monday night.  Austin had to go back to school on Tuesday and then we hung out at the house all day Wednesday.

Thursday brought the Turkey and the dressing!!! YUM!!!

And then today we all met at Greenbrier for some Hushpuppies and then came back to the house to watch the Iron Bowl.  Although the game did not turn out in our favor, the Tigers at least gave them a run for their money!!!  So win or loose we LOVE our Tigers!!!!

Check out this little turkey...he has had a busy week!!

Jackie also took a picture of us for our Christmas cards while she was here.  Of course it had to be the COLDEST day we have had in a looooonnnngggg time, and the wind-- it was the WORST!!!

Bur we got one pretty good shot and luckily that is all it takes.

So the cards have been ordered and they should be on their way....check that off my list!!

Russell the Elf has made his appearance at the house and we are having fun watching to see where he "hides" each day!  Austin named him because he likes to go to Russell Stover for ice cream cones, so that is how we came up with his name.  You can even ask Jackson "Where's Russell?" and he'll go looking for him.  It's pretty cute.  Ausitn is having fun with it too.

The Snow Villages have been put out and tonight we put the tree up and will get it decorated tomorrow and hopefully put the boxes back upstairs and out of the way.  Then it's on to some wrapping and getting the last minute shopping done!! 

The blog has had it's holiday makeover and hopefully I'll get the rest of the decorating done tomorrow and can put a few pictures up of that.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and also hope Jackie, Rick and Jeremy have a safe trip home.

Christmas Tree Lighthing at Bridge Street

Last night we took the boys to Bridge Street for the lighting of the Christmas Tree!

We ate dinner at Red Robin (yummmm) and then headed outside to see the tree lighting.  They even had snow machines set up so there were flakes drifting through the air.

We shopped for a little while and then headed home.  I enjoyed the evening, but I'm not so sure about the boys.  I lost all three of them when I said I wanted to stop in a few stores...

It was a nice evening out with family.

Owl Puke! YUCK!!

Let's just say I am glad that I did not volunteer in Science lab yesterday!!! 
Austin had some "bones" that needed to come home with him.  I asked him where they came from and his response was
"You DON'T want to know"

Guess what....he was right!!!

They disected Owl Pellets AKA "Owl PUKE!"

GROSS!!!!!





Their job was to look through and see what they could find.  Austin has to take the bones that he found and glue them to some paper to see if he can figure out what kind of animal the nasty little thing ate!!!

THIS IS SOOOOO GROSS!!!!!!

Sittin' on Santa's Knee

Guess where we went today!!!  Jackson just walked right up and said "Heeeyyyyy"

We had a hard time getting him to look at the camera though-- he wanted to look at Santa and all of the decorations that were around.

I had it all planned out-- we would get there and get our picture made first thing this morning.  That way he wouldn't be tired or hungry or grumpy.  I walked up and there was no one else in line.  Hee Hee!  SCORE!

I pulled him out of his stroller and he walked right over to him.  Santa asked if he would give him 5 and Jackson just turned and slapped him some skin!!  He first sat in a child sized rocking chair sitting beside Santa.  I guess that is for the little ones who won't get on Santa's lap (AUSTIN).  Then I picked him up and sat him right on Santa's knee and he just smiled and laughed!  He was a very good boy!

Merry Christmas

2009

He Knows If You've Been Bad or Good!!!

This year Santa sent a helper to our house to watch over the little boys that live here.  The Elf on the Shelf is going to help Santa and watch over Austin and Jackson and report straight to the North Pole on the happenings around our house from now until Christmas.

I wonder what he'll have to say?!?

We are gearing up for the holidays!! Shopping has begun and the decorating might even get started this week!  I might need to clean off the layer of funk around here before I put out the holiday decor but it's getting closer. 

Austin is a little worried this year about the tree.  He thinks that we will find Jackson climbing it at least three or four times before Santa comes to see us...he's probably right!!!  It's a good thing that I have not updated my tree yet-- I don't think nice glass ornaments and Jackson are a good combination!

But it is going to be a wonderful Christmas!

Are you ready???

Look What I can do!!!

Jackson has figured out how to climb in chairs!!  I seem to remember that Ausitn did this much sooner but Jackson is just now figuring it out! 

No chair can escape him-- except for the couch-- it's a little too tall...

Nothing is off limits now....I'm in trouble!!!

Proud Moments

Please allow me to take a moment to brag!!

Did your school picture ever turn out like this??

Not mine!!!

I know I'm his momma but I think he is one handsome little boy!!

He also recieved a special invitation this week...

He also got straight A's on his report card.

Yep, we are pretty proud of the little guy!

Now back to reality-- he has about 5,000 nerf gun darts to pick up, dirty clothes all over the floor and he is annoying the stew out of Jackson....we now return to our regularlly scheduled life!!!

Happy Halloween From the Boys!!!

Happy Halloween

Here are our two little spooks!! All dressed up and ready to go.

I finally got a quick snap shot of them on the porch with the pumpkins and the mums.

If you are the observant type, you'll notice that these mums are different from the mums I first posted.

They Died!! or should I say I killed them!!!

Jackson just couldn't understand why Austin was wearing that mask!! He would just look at him and giggle!!

Nana and her boys!

Also known as the "Mum Fairy"

She bought these beautiful yellow and orange mums to replace the dead ones that

greated her last Tuesday!

Here is Jackson all dressed up.   He kept reaching for Austin's sword and would not look at the camera so we let him have it in an attempt to get a quick shot!

Here is Austin all dressed as a Shadow Night.
He was ready for battle with his Ice Sword!

Have you ever wondered???

Have you ever wondered if when your kids clothing says "Flame Retardant" if it really is?
Well-- we have the answer....
This is Austin's favorite coat.  He loves this coat.  He asks to wear it the second it cools off here.  We bought it one year (I think when he was in the 2nd grade) before the Christmas Parade so he wouldn't freeze to death.  It has always been too big and thick and cumbersome but he LOVES it. 
Friday afternoon we were getting him all packed and ready for his camping trip and we were bringing out all the warm clothes,  and finding out which ones were too small...the coat was almost there.  I told him we were going to have to start looking for a new coat cause it was on the verge of being too small.  He was a little upset...for some reason he gets really attached to certain peices of clothing.  You would expect that with a girl, but he does...I don't know... just one of those things I guess.  He didn't really want to consider having to look for a new coat....but....

This sealed the deal!!!!

One coat + Camp Heater = New Coat for Austin

Austin had to get up in the night to go to the bathroom and when they got back he said he was cold.  Scott laid his coat over his feet on top of the sleeping bag.  You know they say "Hind sight is 20/20" well, Scott said thinking back that he should have put the coat around his feet inside the sleeping bag but he didn't.  Austin twists and turns in his sleep and kicked it off and onto the heater.  Austin apparantly heard (or felt) it fall onto the floor and saw it hit the heater.  By the time he got Scott awake it had melted and fallen off the heater.

It left a pretty BIG hole in the sleeve of the coat, but it NEVER caught on fire...just melted.  Which I guess if you child was wearing it would not be good but was happy that the thing did not just burst into flames!  Scott said he was impressed that the fluffy lining inside didn't catch fire either.  I guess these people really do know how to make kids clothes!

Other than the coat incident they had a really good time.  Scott said he did not freeze to death so all is well!  This was Austin's last year to go to Cub Haunted and he was pumped to go on the Haunted Hayride and the Haunted Trail.  He had been too scared in the past years to do it, but he said that since this was his last year, he was going to be brave and accept the challenge.  He and Andrew stuck together and did them both!!  He was very proud of himslef.  Scott said he even tried the Rock Climbing Wall.  Austin is not very athletic and this had never appealed to him but in the spirit of "do it while you can" he took it on and made it to the top.
Austin got out of the car a little down because his favorite coat was now trash, but we stopped after church yesterday and found him a new one.  It looks almost like this one except it is blue and gray.  He seems happy.  We also found him a new leather jacket so he thought it was a pretty good shopping trip.

Well I am off to clean out Austin's closet of all the clothes we realzied will no longer fit!!  We just did this in August trying to prepare for school, but he has grown since then and shirts that fit in August, are now too short in the sleeves and are too short in the body as well.  These growing boy...time is just moving way too fast!!!!!

Pig Flu Strikes AGAIN!!!

Poor Little Jackson
Has Pig Flu
We go from happy one minute
to totally BLUE

Pigs, Fun, and Monsters too!!

Pitiful huh?  This is how Austin spent his weekend.  He didn't feel well at all.  He had a high fever on Saturday night and then just ran enough of one to be miserable the rest of the weekend.  He is still home today because he was running a touch of fever yesterday morning and he has to be fever free for 24 hours before going back to school.  Also, there were 11 out of his class alone yesterday.  So I decided that 1/2 the class sick + being sick all weekend = Ausitn staying home again!

Look at Jackson's new trick!  He has figured out how to push his chair up to the couch and climb up.  He has also figured out how to out smart the "child safety latches" on the cabinet drawers-- so much for child safety!!!

The other night in his high chair Jackson got tickled about something and every time we would say the word Peanut Butter he would bust out laughing.

May have been because he was eating Peanut Butter and wasn't suppose to be!

(That's what Dr. P said yesterday at our check up)

He said he shouldn't try Peanut Butter until he is 2 and I kinda grinned and he said "unless he's already had some" so we confessed!! He laughed and said that was OK-- if he was going to have an allergy to PB it would have happend immediately so if he didn't then he was in the clear!!

We decided that we might need to try on our costume before the big Halloween bash!  Isn't he the cutest little moster you have ever seen!  He was pretty funny.  He would toddle back and forth to his room and let out this low growl with every step.  It was too funny!

We had our 18 month check up yesterday!  So here is how things measured up....

Height:  34" -- he's in the 95th  percentile

Weight:  27 lbs. -- he's in the 75th percentile

(we are a little unsure about this one-- I laid him on the scale and it read 26lbs.  and the nurse went to write it on his chart and she said "WAIT-- that can't be right" so we sat him up on the scale and it read 27 Lbs.  She said that made her feel better-- he had weighed almost 29 lbs at his year check up.

But, when he is awake, HE NEVER STOPS!! So we thought he had lost a little weight.

He got 2 shots and a clean bill of health.  He was amazed that Jackson has hardly been in for any sick visits in his 18 months of life.  Other than his fights with RSV last November and Bronchitis last August he has only seen Dr. Parmer for well check ups-- but guess what

We woke up this morning with a FEVER!!!! I knew he would jinks us when he said that yesterday!!!

Now we just don't know if it is from the shots or if he has caught what Austin has had over the weekend.

4 M's and a little "Boo" who....

Molars Make Me Miserable

Poor Litle Jackson is pretty miserable right now.  He is cutting all 4 of his molars at the same time.  We have been at this for a while.  Dr. P said that he could tell they were starting when we were there in July!  He would walk up to me the other day and pat his mouth as he gave me the most pitiful little pout.  Needless to say Tylenol is our best friend.  He doesn't sleep well when he is cutting teeth so that is also a dead give away for when his teeth are at the peak of popping through.

The rain let up here for a little while yesterday so I started painting my little pots for the front porch.  I need to hurry up and get them done before I kill the mums that I bought to put in them in the first place. 

Sad, I know!!!

Jackson has a Halloween costume!  His tooth-y attitude lately has made him a little monster so I thought this costume might be appropriate....

Which I am going to have to take back tomorrow because I just realized that they are now on SALE!!!  Ugh!!  I hate it when that happens!!

I do think he is going to be pretty cute!  We are getting all geared up for the BIG Haloween Party!!

A friend of ours has a party every year with lots of families at church and we all eat lots of soups and yummy goodies and then all of the little kiddo's head out in the neighborhood and trick or treat until they can't hold any more candy.  It is always such a great time to spend with friends and family!

I am getting excited for Halloween!  Scott is going to get the pumpkins down tomorrow so I'll decorate up the porch.  I have also looked at a bunch of "front door fall decor" on the internet and have some ideas for next year.  I may wait until after Halloween to buy some of the stuff half-price.
 I also gave the blog a little "Boo-tification"

Do you like it... hope so

Well, Ausitn and I are watching "Meet the Robinson's" on Disney so I better go.  We might head out tomorrow and see if we can finalize his Halloween costume and work on getting my little treat bags together!!

So much fun, so little time!!!!

Getting Ready for Fall

I stopped by Lowe's today to see what they had in the way of mums and found these huge pots with nice white mums and these pretty ferns planted in the middle...so I picked up a couple. I am planning on putting the ones with ferns in the big pots in front and placing them back on their little square pedestals (that you can't see behind the mums) and then I have some smaller pots that I am going to spray paint a dark brown to match the big pots and put the little mums in there and then put my pumpkins in and around them all and get ready for Halloween. I am going to bring up my fall wreath and put it on the door this week, but I thought I might actually wait until the first day of fall! Hopefully I can keep these watered and looking pretty for a while. I'll post a picture when I get them all decorated and done-- hopefully with two cute little boys in there too! My favortie time of the year is almost here...Happy Fall Ya'll!!

Austin and his Cub Scout Den went on a hike at the Rails to Trails area north of  Athens today. The boys identified many different trees that are native to our area in order to earn their Forrester Activity Pins. They hiked 3 miles after school and had a great time together.

We packed snacks for along the trial and Jackson even went along-- he rode in his jogging stroller and was as happy as a clam.

Here is Austin with one of the fruits or nuts that was on one of the trees they were identifying

Here is a view down the trail

Here are all the boys taking a break at the covered bridge

Here are all the boys with Mr. Tim tring to find out what kind of tree they are looking at.

They had a really good time and got some good exercise to boot!