dear santa

Yeah…not too into writing a letter and convincing Santa how good she's been this year. Straight to the point.

Over the weekend the playroom got out of control. I was trying to take the dogs out and Hannah and Joseph had set up barricades of various toys. In my typical fashion, I mentioned we should get rid of some of these toys (I might have said "this junk"), especially if we wanted to make room for the new toys we might get for Christmas. To which Hannah quickly responded, "I'm not getting a new toy… I'm just getting an Anna costume and a brother that doesn't whine." Well, that would be nice…

For tradition's sake, I thought I'd post our wishes for this year. Truly we don't need anything, but there are several things we would like and enjoy. :)  The kids aren't really talking about anything except Hannah mentioning letter c below, but I know my babies well and things that would make them very happy. {As usual by the time I do this post, most of these things have been taken care of.}


For Hannah Monkey:

{a} Doc McStuffins nightshirt. {b} art supplies. {c} Frozen's Anna, coronation gown…has to be the coronation one. {d} accessories like this hat from Old Navy and this headband from Children's Place (they have lots of pretty ones we like). {e} Nod bean bag chair. {f} Dollhouse. {g} Minnetonka boots like her pink ones in Dusty Brown. {h} kids picnic table for the backyard, a wood one with an umbrella like this would be perfect! {i} Sofia DVD. {j} cozy slippers.

For Josey:

{a.} lantern. {b} Nod bean bag chair. {c} Team Umizoomi DVD. {d} construction equipment like this wheel barrow and excavator. {e} boots. {f} trailer for the tractor. {g} slippers. {h} vacuum, a real one (what can I say?). {i} wet floor sign (seriously, a favorite thing when we go out). {j} superhero capes (both kids would love these). {k} umbrella.

As always, Joe is exceptionally hard to buy for as he rarely ask for anything. I struggle to come up with a collage each year for him…never happened last year.

For Joe:

{a} trip to the New York Marathon…his running goal for 2015. {b} sunglasses. {c} Wahoo KICKR bike trainer. {d} casual shoes for work and play. {e} reflective socks like these from ICNY. {f} knuckle lights. (Notice the theme? We want him to be seen, and be able to see, while running in the dark of morning.)

And for me:

{a.} herringbone Toms. {b.} this cuff. {c.} these earrings (they were on here last year, too!). {d.} Cinda b Vacationer II duffle. {e.} Keurig 2.0. {f.} boots. {g.} this handbag. {h.} gift cards are always wise (Athleta, Zappos, Ballard…). {i.} Fiesta 9" luncheon plates (turquoise, poppy, tangerine, peacock, scarlet) for kids to use. {j.} these earrings.

And that's that.

I am pretty organized this year and have my shopping finished, save for a few small things. Decorations are up and around the house. Presents are wrapped and under the trees (yes, plural…we have 4 total).

We have been reading our Advent storybook and following along our Advent calendar and "lighting 'em up" (an idea made popular by blogger/author Courtney DeFeo), that is, sharing God's love with others through big and small acts of kindness. We try never to walk past a ringing bell without dropping in a little something.

We are filling up our Sparkle Box. Do you know about this book? It is so, so good. All about teaching children the true meaning of Christmas and doing for others and presenting that as a present to Jesus on His birthday. Joseph is a little young, but he's picking up on it. Hannah is crazy about it… She so enjoyed helping me at the DFACS foster children's Christmas party on Thursday.

Heart of gold, that girl.

So, while the "wishes" above are exciting and fun, we are trying to keep in mind the reason for the season. Hope you had a great weekend. Blessings to you and yours!

(…and GO NAVY!!!)

lights of the south

Last Sunday night we surprised the kids with a trip to Lights of the South in Grovetown. It was cold!

We stood in line for a hayride through a fun light display. {We were pulled by a tractor which, of course, Joseph loved.} The pictures are certainly not great, but it'll give you an idea.

That was possibly the largest flag I've ever seen and it was all made of lights. We rode through the castle made of lights…

…and then we had to run back down and play inside of it afterwards.

We roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. Then it was time to hop in the (warm!) car and drive home. A nice family night of Christmas fun.

thanksgiving

I have been so busy sending out Christmas cards, decorating, shopping, and catching up from being gone, that I haven't had the chance to sit down and blog about our Thanksgiving. It was wonderful!! We were gone for a whole week - and spent nights in three different places - but the kids did great.

We left that Saturday morning and drove to Auburn (with a pit stop at Lane Packing) to take Hannah and Joseph to their first game at Jordan-Hare. 

We did Tiger Walk and saw the cheerleaders, dance team and band at the alumni tent:

The game was a little chilly, rained off and on, but we had a blast! Thankfully, our seats were lower level and close to the overhang. We actually didn't get that wet. Hannah and Joseph cheered their little heads off… 

Sunday morning we drove over to Atlanta to attend worship at Passion City Church - something Joe and I have wanted to do for a long time. Louie Giglio is the pastor and he lead 7:22 at North Point on Tuesday nights back when I was in college. Amazing. 

Chloe Puppy-the-Monkey and Raffie navigated us through the ATL…and, later on, I obliged when Joseph wanted to take pictures.

We spent Sunday with my sweet friend (and sorority big sis) Julie and her precious family. So much fun to catch up and watch our children play together. They had a ball! {I cannot believe I didn't take a single picture. So sad!!!}

On Monday we had breakfast with Auntie Jen and her girls. We got to see their new house and play for a little bit. {Again, no pictures. Shame on me!} 

We left Atlanta in our rear-view and headed to Highlands and the beautiful mountains of North Carolina where we spent the week. I don't think I've ever used the words "Thanksgiving" and "relaxing" in the same sentence, but boy was it! We lounged in front of the fire, played games, snacked, strolled around downtown, slept in (well, I did), took long bubble baths, and watched movies. It. was. wonderful.

Meme joined us for a few nights and we met Aunt Kristie, Aunt Trudie, Uncle Marc and Jackson for pizza one night.

Sour lemon faces:

The kids' first time watching Home Alone was priceless. They laughed hysterically.

And we woke up to a white Thanksgiving Day!

We bundled up and went to church, then threw snowballs at each other and made a little (tiny) snowman.

Thanksgiving dinner was just us four. We had smoked turkey, squash casserole, butter beans, sweet potato casserole, salad, rolls and of course cranberry sauce out of a can. Delish!

We packed up (quite a process) and headed back towards reality. First a photo op with our little snowman:

He lost some of his size as the temperature rose above freezing on Friday, but we still needed to document the experience of building a Thanksgiving snowman.

On our way down the mountain, we stopped at the tubing slope where our cousins work for lunch at Annie's Cafe. Aunt Trudie hooked us up with free passes so Hannah could take a couple trips down the slope.

I went with her the first time down and it was a blast - much faster than I thought it would be. Joe filmed from afar (first video, that's Hannah and me on the right), and then after lunch he took Monkey down. Such a cutie, that girl.

There is a little slope/mound for smaller children and for those that want to practice. They both enjoyed that, though Joseph was a little hesitant at first. He felt safe enough with Daddy.

What a super fun way to end a great week!