Thanksgiving Break

I have a confession to make... I was sort of dreading the boys having a week off of school for Thanksgiving.  I envisioned non-stop fighting and whining, and the house getting trashed. But it actually turned out to be a pretty nice week of fun for the whole family. It really helped that John only had to work Monday and Tuesday. I survived those days with outings for lunch where the boys could get a lot of their energy out on a playground. Then on Wednesday, we went to check out the Dallas Arboretum...

It was beautiful, of course, and there were lots of fun things for the kids to do. It was the last day of their fall exhibit - a Cinderella theme with awesome pumpkin displays. I hope this makes up for the fact that we never made it to a pumpkin patch for Halloween this year :)

 There was also a big castle to play in...

As part of their regular exhibits, they have a little Pioneer town for kids to explore. They loved it!

It was a great day, and there were only a few flower casualties (not bad for 3 kids on the loose!)...

Thanksgiving Day was spent at my parents' house. It was just our little family and Granny & Pops for dinner, but the boys made sure to keep us all on our toes. They were thrilled when their cousins arrived a little later. Apparently, us old folks are boring. They had a ball playing together and I was too stuffed from our feast to take any pictures.

The next day, John took the boys hiking at McGee Creek State Park in Oklahoma. Our boys LOVE the outdoors, so they were in heaven...

John said they hiked at least 4 miles that day...they came home good and tired!

While the boys were away, Sadie and I were busy decking the halls for Christmas - hooray!

  

The next day, our elf on the shelf, Kringle, arrived back at our house to report on the kids' behavior to Santa. He brought a letter and a little treat/toy for each of the kids, and a yummy breakfast from the North Pole...

The kids love to see where Kringle is perched each morning after he returns from the North Pole each night...

And mom and dad love to remind the kids that Kringle is watching whenever they start to fight or whine...it's like magic! Now it's back to our regular routine, but the countdown to Christmas is on!

Our Jolly Holiday

One of my resolutions for the new year is to keep up with the blog better. So here comes a GIANT Christmas post to get us up to date!

After we all recovered from the puke bug, we were able to have lots of fun. We took the boys bowling on Christmas Eve. Mo was so excited every time it was his turn...he'd start jumping and yelling before the ball even hit the pins...

 

Later that night, we headed over to have dinner with Dan & Bree. We read the nativity story and "Eve the Elf" left packages on the doorstep for all the kiddos... new jammies!

Claire, Matt Mo, Luke, Stella, and Ben (Sadie was sick at home with John)

We couldn't resist checking to see where Santa was on his route before we went home to go to bed - I think he was in Brazil...

Santa finally made it to Texas when the boys were fast asleep. I was pretty sure he was just going to leave a couple lumps of coal, but he came through in the end...

I loved seeing their faces light up when they came out on Christmas morning. They went straight for their stockings and the candy...

Nothing like a sugar rush first thing in the morning to add to all the excitement. Time to open some presents!

Stinky the Garbage Truck was on the top of Mo's list

Sad this came out blurry, but Ben was so excited about this present...a combination of his favorite things - trucks, trailers, and the color orange.

They couldn't wait to try out the stomp rocket later that day...so much fun!

I don't think Sadie knew what to think about her first Christmas. It didn't help that she had a nasty cold and wasn't feeling well. She seemed unimpressed with her presents, but really liked the wrapping paper and bows...

Now that she feels better, she loves to ride her pony and gives the biggest smile whenever she gets on it.

A little later, we packed up and went to Granny & Pops' house for round 2 of presents...

The boys got a Creepy Crawlers Bug Maker

And extra bug-making goop  and molds for hours of fun!

They couldn't wait to try it out so Pops helped them make their first batch of bugs while Granny was busy making her yummy waffles...

This is MY favorite part of Christmas morning...YUM!

After a morning nap, Sadie was feeling a little better, and looking pretty darn cute if I say so myself...

Somehow, my sister's sweet new baby, Sawyer, managed to sleep through all the craziness...

He makes Sadie look like a giant...I guess a lot changes in 7 months!

You know it's been a good Christmas when your house looks like this at the end of the day (and possibly the rest of the week)...

We are so blessed! Hope all our friends and family had a very merry Christmas too!

The Week Before Christmas = Parties & Puking

The week before Christmas was full of parties... preschool, kindergarten, and an adult only white elephant exchange. Unfortunately, Ben came down with a stomach bug the day of his party and had to come home from school. He was sad to miss it, but thanks to a sweet neighbor who stopped by his classroom for me, he was able to enjoy his goodies once he was feeling better. Luckily, John was able to come home for lunch and hang out with the sicko so I could go party with Matt Mo at preschool...

We made this graham cracker (gingerbread) house together. Well, truthfully, I did most of the work while he ate the candy. They also got to make another shirt like they did at Thanksgiving... so cute!

The next night was the annual white elephant party hosted by some friends in our ward. We ate yummy food and laughed the whole night long. This year I made a redneck "brief"case to give away...

And I filled it with all your redneck essentials...

A Slim Jim, "Totally Ripped Abs" body spray, Cheese Whiz, duct tape, sunflower seeds, a bandana, and a wife-beater.

And the lucky recipient...

Here are a couple other favorites that night...

Curt and Shandi's sweet Christmas's past photo album. It came with the stipulation that whoever got it has to add their old pictures and re-gift it next year!

Brianna got a hilarious CTR, ahem, "slingshot".  Enough said.

Good thing we got to live it up that night because the next day, John and I were both hit with whatever bug Ben had and we were pretty miserable. At least we weren't sick on Christmas day though!

Dickens of a Christmas

The weekend after Thanksgiving we took the kids to the old downtown square for the "Dickens of a Christmas" celebration...

They had so much fun with all the different activities. They won some treats on the "cake walk", rode the carousel, and took a train ride around the square...

I think their favorite part was the petting zoo...

The goats were the friendliest, but there was a little baby piglet that was so cute I wanted to take it home. It didn't compare to my own cute little piglet though...