More Christmas decorating!

Like I said earlier, we decided to put up Rhyan and Mack's tree's pretty early this year! And they enjoyed it SO much! So I decided to go ahead and put up all our decorations! And it was the best decision!

I'm always complaining to Lindsay and Angela (my bff's) that i'm just NOT creative. At all. And both of them are! So this year, Lindsay called me up and invited me to a wreath making party! Inspiration from Pinterst. I couldnt resist! So we headed to her friends house and after I used an ungodly amount of burlap (SORRY!), I had roughly created this... it wasnt finished, but was a great start!

Rhyan and I went to Hobby Lobby where she just insisted that we go with this candy cane ribbon to finish it out. Bless her heart, I just couldnt do it. Its just not my style!

But I did find a bow, and even a couple more cute decorations! So here was my finished product! Almost as big as my whole door, lol! But i LOVE it! I've never had a christmas wreath that i've loved, but now i do!

We went ahead and put up the tree, too. I was so sad when Jeff brought it upstairs (from the basement) and saw that about half of the pre lit lights werent working. Such a bummer! I love the shape of our tree and the size, so I decided to put on it what lights I had available. But next year i'll for sure need to buy some more!

And for the first time in 4 years, I brought back out our village. I love that Jeff made some shelving for me to fit the fireplace and I can put it on 3 levels! This village was my Mommie's and I have so many fond memories of decorating with it at home growing up :-) I was so grateful that she passed it on to me when Jeff and I married and have been missing it these last few years (the kids were too little to leave it alone). It was SO nice this year to have all of my decorations up EARLY and just enjoy them through the holidays!

Random November

November was so full of so many fun outings and get together's and memory making! Starting with some of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen. This was taken as I drove home one evening from praise team practice, with my iphone, and no filter. Amazing.

I fried up some chicken for the first time ever... for our small group! Turns out, I had no clue as to how to make MOIST fried chicken. It was very dry and sad. But very pretty :-) Turns out, I should have cooked it in a covered pan to keep the moisture in. Live and learn.

I enjoyed some cuddle time with my sweet, sick again, boy.

And we soaked up those beautiful days that lingered! Fall is such a beautiful season! Nice temps and no pollen!!! The kids were working their Daddy by insisting that he pull them up and down this hill! HA!

Is there a better seat in the house than ON Daddy? Love these two boys!!!

My kiddo's decided one evening they wanted to make a "fort". I told them it was fine and to build away. Turns out, their idea of a fort was really just a massive pillow pile that they were falling onto over and over!

Rhyan had more homework... she had to decorate a turkey feather! Like I said in a previous post, I dont ever give much guidance to these things other than to sit with her and offer options. This is HERS!

While Hebron (Rhyan's school) hosted the Ga baptist convention, her school hours were slightly different for a few days. Which gave Mack and I the opportunity to have lunch with Daddy at his school!

I also decided that my face is showing its age (sadly) and put some $$ into some Mary Kay. I really, really  like the retinol that you put on twice a day and the eye cream and the cleanser and the nightly cream. The only thing i DONT like is the daily sunscreen. Its too thick and just feels sticky no matter how well i rub it in. And my face is really really dry so for something to stay sticky (and make my makeup clump) is bad. Other than that, I loved it and will be buying some of the products individually!

And out came the Christmas puzzle that my Mom got for Rhyan last year. They had a great time putting it together over and over again!

This fella needed a haircut! Its so funny to me that he used to SCREAM and cry during a hair cut (which is BAD when you have a boy and prefer short hair!) and now he just makes strange faces in the mirror :-)

He's also showing signs of being a klepto! Here, he's stealing pennies from my mom's house ;-) Smart!

My babies LOVE to wrestle around. Especially at night before bedtime (a way to delay bedtime??). Its so funny b/c mack is so much shorter than Rhyan right now and so he grabs her waist and just pulls and pulls till he tackles her. They both laugh and laugh. I keep waiting for them to fall in a way that lands someones knee in the other one's face, but so far so good ;-)

And last but not least, Rhyan has become quite the puppeteer! Look at this! She made these little faces and GLUED them to her mittens. Yeah, so we had a chat about the glue sticks and that we can only use them WITH mommy and daddy. But really, props for creativity! And she wont let us take them off ;-) HA!

Rhyan and I did some early Christmas shopping and I wore the girl out! She always loves to go shopping with me and at her age, she can skip a nap a couple of days a week and be fine (in fact, she does rest time each day but probably only sleeps 4 days? and those days it can be a battle to get her to go to bed at night. I'm not loving this phase! ha!). So i used shopping as a way to spend time one on one this Christmas season and keep her occupied as we lost the ability to play outside as much :-)

And last but not least... Mack has started exploring his funny side. "Mommy! I got a boogie!" Oh lord.

Gymboree Fun

Mid November, Liz called and invited us to attend Gymboree's open house play time. Avery goes there for a mommy and me class each week and she was allowed to invite friends to this little get together! Mack was dealing with his 2nd case of bronchitis for the season and was needing his breathing treatments every 4 hours, but luckily our van has a plug in so he just took his meds (like a champ) on the way to the event!

When we got there, Jeff immediately looked around and was like "why am i here?!". He was the only guy there! For the moment, at least. More showed up though! I promise! haha! Rhyan was honestly a bit old for the play area but she LOVED being a big helper to her little cousin "Baby Avery" :-) She's so sweet with her!

Mack ran around like a wild man :-) He had a great time hiding in any hole he could find, climbing on anything he could and sliding down any slides or ramps available!

They even got a taste of "bowling"!

Mack, hacking his head off. I'm sure everyone thought he was contagious and that we were terrible parents or something. But when you kid practically lives with bronchitis, its go out anyways (knowing they are NOT spreading anything) or live indoors. No fun. So we opt for letting people think we are horrible ;-)

Jason showed up after the Gymboree time was over and met us for dinner! Liz had brought Avery's little car stroller and it was ADORABLE! The only issue was that Mack wanted to ride it, too! HA!

We headed to the food court for some dinner with everyone who came (Avery had lots of friends join her!).  Then, we surprised the kids with letting them ride the carousel! They all loved it!

One of Liz and Jason's friends spoiled all the kids with a cookie after their ride, and then we were off to the DISNEY store! My kids could live in that place! They love everything and want everything. Free entertainment! HA! Of course mack had hijacked Avery's stroller and she didnt know quiet what to think!

So, they compromised by Avery riding and Mack driving. SCARY!

We let the kids look around in the disney store for a bit before heading home for the night. We love getting to hang out with our family anytime we can and fun outings like this are great! Quality time :-)

Showing Thanks

With the kids getting older, I want to take some opportunities to teach them simple ways to show gratitude to others! And what better season to do that in than the season of Thanksgiving!?!

Knowing my own personality, I know that its not feasible to think that we could plan to do something daily or even really organize it all that well. I made a list (with the kids input) of a few things we could do for others. We didnt schedule it all out but decided that on days that we could, we would put effort into doing the things we had talked about.

The first thing we decided to do was to take cinnamon rolls to our local firemen! The kids dont know what a fireman is or what they do, so I thought it would be a great way to show appreciation AND teach the kids about emergency situations! The kids were excited, and so was I!

Headed to the fire station!

The kids helped color a card for the firemen! I traced their hands and Rhyan wrote "thank you" (with help spelling from me) and then their names. I'm not sure who the 8 armed fella is ;-)

And she wanted to draw on the front a house that was on fire and a fireman coming to help a scared/sad person stuck in the house (obviously we talked at home a good bit about what a fireman does!). I thought she did a GREAT job on drawing the burning house. I helped her with the fireman and she did the rest! She noted that the fireman was a "helper" and the person stuck was "Sad".

The kids helped me ice the cinnamon rolls... and Rhyan insisted on putting pink sprinkles on them. Manly!

The fireman were so awesome! They offered to take the kids on a tour of their firetruck, which they both LOVED! Mack, especially, was very excited!

The guys even suggested I get the kids pics on the front of the truck! How nice!

And of course I wanted one of the kids WITH our local hero's!

The guys asked Rhyan if she knew what to do if there was ever a fire. She didnt (i know, terrible parenting... i realized that day how much we needed to go over safety procedures with her and we've made huge improvements!). So they briefly talked about getting close to the ground and crawling out and going to a neighbor's house. It provoked lots of questions, for sure!

And they were sure to give the kids a couple of coloring books, bracelets and stickers!

When we came home we started talking a good bit (daily) about 1. What is an emergency 2. What number do we call for an emergency (911 and/or Daddy) 3. Our street address (so we can tell people who can help where we live!) 4. How to leave the house if there ever is a fire (close to the floor as we can be if there is smoke) and run to a neighbors house and ask them to call 911 for us.

We had a great time! Rhyan especially learned a lot (and i learned just how much we need to be talking with her about emergencies!) and I think the guys appreciated the distraction and food :-)