SANTA!

I decided to take the kids to the mall to see Santa. They discovered him pretty early this season when I hung the stockings. At first they called him "melmo" (Elmo) - which makes sense because he is big, red and furry. But I told them that was Santa, and they just accepted that. So everytime we have seen a Santa anywhere, they love to wave hi and bye to him. I thought they were ready for the real deal. So my mom came with us, as this was not one of those things I wanted to take on alone. We got to the mall at 9:15am when it opened at 9 - we still had to wait for 45 minutes!! My mom was able to take them to play while I waited in the line - they are a handful and they do not wait well. When Price caught a glimpse of Santa though, it was on. He tried to run to him immediately and I had to hold him back until it was our turn. Charis was not so interested. But when it was finally our turn, Price went right up to him and Charis kept her distance. Price hopped right up in his lap! I tried to coax Charis and she wanted no part of it. I finally took her in my own lap and sat down with Santa, thus, mommy got to be part of the pic too!

a REAL tree...

I love Thanksgiving for many reasons, not the least of which is that I get to put up the tree and start listening to Christmas music. On the tree I bought at Micheal's last year, 2 strands of the lights went out before the season was over, so I took it back...kind of like rent-a-tree. So we had to get a new one this year. We loaded up the kids and headed to Lowe's - because we had a coupon. The kids were wide-eyed in there, loving the lights and the life-sized Santa on display. It was cute. We picked our tree and were so excited to put it up. Well Chris unpacked it and it had colored lights. We returned it to find that there were none left of the tree we wanted with clear lights. So, we moved on to Home Depot, picked another tree, Chris put it up and a strand of those lights did not work. Yes, I was quite aggravated - I was pretty much done with fake trees for this year. And Chris said hey let's go get a real one. So we went and picked out out. It is a totally different experience having a real tree. It smells so pretty, and since Chris did the lights for me, I didn't even mind. I hadn't had a real tree since college! The kids have been surprisingly good, not messing with anything too much. I think the only downside is that now that we have had it for like 3 weeks, it is beginning to droop a little. But we are on the countdown to Christmas day, so I guess that's okay!

The first haircut

(top left is before, and bottom right is after)

So the weekend after Thanksgiving I broke down and got Price's hair cut. I just didn't think I could take another holiday and all the pics that go along with that with his hair so crazy. So we went to Fun-N-Cuts; when we walked in, I knew we had chosen the right place. There is a big play area for kids, the "chair" he was in was a race car and each station has a little TV with videos. So he got to watch Baby Einstein while the haircut was happening. He was excited at first to be in the race car and watching the video. But as the haircut began you could just see his face drop. He went from unsure to just sad to just melting down. So the majority of the haircut he was flailing about as she tried to give him some type of a style! All things considered, I thought the lady did a great job! But I think I might even be ready to take the plunge and cut it short...a little more like Daddy's, since I have faced the reality that he did not get any of my curls.

Happy Turkey Day!!

I love Thanksgiving, especially when it is at my house! Our family all pitches in; all I had to do was the turkey and gravy. It makes it really easy that way, but we were a little sad the next day when we didn't have any leftovers... Anyway, everyone was back for Turkey day and it was a blast. All the kids did great, and the adults did too! We had 9 adults and 4 kids. I was proud of my pretty table, but hope someday we have a house to accommodate a long table like that in one room (that was 2 tables spread across 2 rooms!). Matching chairs would be nice too, but those are the little things, right? When bedtime was getting close, Charis realized she was pretty much the star of the show and started hamming it up. I said "I cannot believe a child of mine could be a ham!" But she is - making sure all eyes are on her, runs in circles, hollers "touchdown!" just whatever she can think of to entertain. When Price realizes all the attention she is getting, he will join in a little, but is generally content to hang back in my lap (no complaints here!) So...this Thanksgiving I am most thankful for my family - fitting, right? But I just think of the days of us longing for kids - and here they are! It is more of a blessing than I could have imagined. And to have my wonderful husband to share it all with is even more than I could have hoped for. I am truly blessed.

Pre-Thanksgiving dinner

I got the big idea that since Thanksgiving dinner would be at our house, we might as well have everyone over for tacos the night before, just to see how things would go. I was told by more than one person, that this idea was "crazy" - and it was, but so fun! Charis and Price love their big cousins, Jax and Savanna. It is so cute seeing all the kids together. And we were so glad to have Grandma here with us, and she is doing really well.

Say "Cheeeese"

One of the cutest things that the kids are doing now is responding when I have the camera in their faces! I love it! We have so many more smiling pictures now. And they really do say "cheee....ah", which I assume will transition into "cheese" eventually. This is them at breakfast eating their favorite - berries of any sort, along with a waffle. They are so cute in the mornings, and I am lucky to have Chris' help with them every morning before he has to go in to work. Charis will put her hands together, reminding us to pray, and they both say "Amen" even if it is way before the prayer is over! They have also started saying "All done" which I am not sure where they picked up because I don't think I really say that - but who knows?!

Adults' halloween

We were so sad to miss our hometeam halloween party this year, because it is always such a fun time. But we were out of town and it was just unavoidable. But upon our arrival home, we saw the wreckage from a halloween party night prank... on us!

The following weekend did get to go to a halloween party at the Miller's and it was lots of fun.