Tree Is Up!

Today at church Booker made this Christmas wreath and couldn't wait to get home and hang it on his door. I'm not quite sure why Bodey opted out of making one at church, but he wanted to make one as soon as we got home.

And here is Bodey's!

Then the boys were begging to put up the Christmas tree. I really wanted to also, but I needed Dusty's help getting everything down from the loft. And... he has pneumonia AGAIN so I didn't want to push him. Finally, after the Chiefs game (which they won!) and after dinner, we decorated the tree. Dusty's mom got him a Hallmark Christmas ornament every year while he was growing up and then gave them to us when we got together. We have decorated with them every year since. But, now that we have kids she has been getting the boys one each year, and so have I, so this year we decorated with all their ornaments.

Sleeping Innocence

Every night before bed, I sneak into each of the boys' rooms to just watch them sleep. It is my favorite part of the day... just staring at their precious little sleepy faces. I always go to bed with a smile on my face. I always wonder how long I'll continue this. I would prefer until the day they leave my house... but I guess it might be a little creepy to be checking on and watching an 18-year old sleep. Only time will tell.

Some nights when I stand there I am just amazed at how fast they are growing up. I can't believe how much of their beds they are taking up. I've glanced at them every night and have seen them go from barely making a dent in the crib to sprawled out in their big boy beds. And the sad thing is by looking at them every day, you don't even notice they've grown.



On Thanksgiving the boys spent the night at my parents' house. My dad checked on the boys while they were sleeping and noticed how differently they sleep. It always cracks me up too. Booker goes to bed and doesn't move one time until he wakes up in the morning. Bodey, on the other hand, touches every square inch of that bed, in every possible position. That would be the reason that Nana has finally put an end to them sleeping in her bed with her. Bodey is a little much to handle. He sleeps just fine, but no one else does.

Kerby's Pumpkin Patch (A Little Late)

This year Kerby's added a zipline. At first I wasn't sure if the boys were big enough, but they proved me wrong. At first the guy running it held them both all the way down. After a couple tries, they were on their own, even the dismount!

Bodey's classic "cheese" is getting a little old.

Ugh

I've ruined my blog background and hate Blogger's new (actually not that new but I've tried to avoid it) template thingy. I'm going to bed. Stupid thing.

My Little Basketball Star

We just finished our 3-week session of Bitty Basketball. Booker didn't really care much for practice. He always asked when we were going home and when basketball was going to be over. However, when it came to the games, it was his time to shine. He was on a mission. Get the ball. And he did, almost so much that I felt like he was a ball hog and the other parents probably hated us. But then I realized that Booker had no clue he was hogging the ball... and neither did any of the other kids. I laughed the entire time watching his games. In case you can't find him in the video, he's the little white kid with the bright orange shorts!

Creating Memories Through Shutterfly

Christmas is a very exciting time of year for my family. It always brings back memories from when I was little, and I try to carry some of my childhood traditions forward. I do have certain events around the holidays that I remember very vividly, but my other memories stem from the fact that we have pictures that captured those memories. The only thing that can freeze time and keep our children little is a picture.

I love pictures. Well, I love taking pictures, not necessarily being in them. My husband calls me a picture geek because I rarely leave home without my camera. But, there is a reason for my madness. It amazes me how fast my kids grow, right in front of me, but I don’t notice day to day. But I do notice when I look back at my blog and see how much they really have grown.

This year, Shutterfly is offering me 50 free Holiday cards (for promotion click here). In exchange, I am going to share a little about them on my blog. Christmas is pretty much the only time of the year that I pull out my address book and actually send a picture card to nearly every name in it. I love that Shutterfly allows me to do very little work, with very little creativity, and come out with an awesome, personalized Christmas card. On the other end of sending picture cards, I love to receive them from my friends. My refrigerator is covered with picture cards year round. I can’t wait to get my family pictures back so that I can go to Shutterfly’s website and start the process of creating the perfect Christmas 2010 memory.

Halloween 2010

This year for Halloween we decided to go to Fam Fest at Westside. It was quite a production. They had a ton of blow up jumpy things, blow up slides, a few small carnival rides, a train ride, and much more. The boys had a blast. I was shocked that they both went down those huge slides by themselves. Even scaredy cat Bodey!

Bodey was a vampire, which he kept getting confused with a pirate. He told everyone he was going to be a pirate for Halloween. It wasn't that he wanted to be a pirate and got stuck with a vampire, he just honestly gets them confused. What do you think of a black-haired Bodey? Many trick-or-treaters asked him if he was Harry Potter... I guess because of the glasses?

I didn't get a picture of just my boys together, which I'm really bummed about, but here was our little group of trick-or-treaters. This year we went to Nana & Papa's neighborhood. It was awesome. So many people, so many houses, and so much candy!

We were well prepared for pokey Bodey to be about a mile behind speedy Booker. This was not the case at all though. Ada, Bodey and Booker all sprinted from door to door, and poor little PeyPey was the pokey one this year. Next year Peyton!

I was kind of embarrassed at the first few houses. I forgot to teach trick-or-treating etiquette, and Bodey just marched right up and would either state the number of pieces of candy he wanted, or just reach in the bowl and get it himself. Aye. As the night went on, he did get better.