The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

What a wonderful few days we have had!  I have done my best to enjoy every minute and I KNOW the boys have :)  I feel so blessed.  Hope you have all had a wonderful CHRISTMAS!!

Mrs. Donna's Christmas Party

I know I am a little partial, but I think Mrs. Donna's class Christmas party this morning was a HUGE success!  When I found out today was going to be Polar Express day and the kids would be in their jammies, I thought it would be cute for the kids to have a breakfast party in the morning.  (AND, selfishly I was hoping they could NAP this afternoon....) So, first thing this morning we started off with an ornament craft that I think turned out well.  The HIGHLIGHT of the party came next:  Elf Snowflake came all the way from the North Pole to read "Elf on the Shelf" and "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bell"  (P's fav) to the kids. Snowflake also handed out goodie bags and took last minute requests to Santa.  Lastly, the kids enjoyed their party fare and were ready to watch the Polar Express when I left.  Preston gave me a HUGE kiss on the cheek when it was time for me to go--don't get these that much anymore--so I think that means he had fun.  Many thanks to Nana for coming to help out and to April McGuirt for coordinating "Snowflake."  More Christmas fun later....don't blow away!

Let the celebrations begin!

Well our Christmas celebrations have officially begun!  We got together with Resa this afternoon/evening to enjoy some family time and holiday cheer.  Resa took us to the "Taffeta Christmas" performance at the Strauss this afternoon and I am proud to say the boys made it to the intermission :)  My favorite part of the show was the piano solos...beautiful!  We then headed to the mall for Preston to ride on the carousel and to go see Santa.  He was all about the carousel--but, Santa not so much.  There was a long line and he was just not interested.  Fine with me!  So we all just looked around the mall for a bit then headed to Olive Garden for another EARLY dinner.  John Cole must be going through a growth spurt or something because by about 4:30nowadays he is usually STARVING. So, we were back home by 6 or so and opened our gifts to each other.  The pic of P in his #WEARELATECH sunglasses Resa got him may just be my fav pic of him ever.....

More later.....

Fun Friday

I have had just the best Friday with my little guys!  John Cole and I had a great day at home and out and about...he even let me hold him while I got my eyebrows waxed!!!  Now, that's a good baby :)  After we picked P up from school we headed home for a change into festive attire and then attended the press conference for Tech's new head coach.  I was not able to hear the entire thing--because John Cole was quite talkative so I had to walk out with him--but what I do know is that some people were sort of giving him a hard time being that we hired him after he was fired by another University.  My thoughts on that are this--we've got to get behind him and look forward!  Go DAWGS!  We said goodbye to Daddy then as he was heading to MerRouge.

After that my two main squeezes accompanied me to Wendy's for a quick (EARLY, ha!) dinner then we headed to Railroad Park to hear the LPECC sing Christmas songs.  It was sprinkling and we parked pretty far away so it was an adventure but so much fun.  Preston did a great job and was really into it--sometimes I could hear just his little voice in the sea of all of these children.  John Cole very much enjoyed the performance and was entertaining the audience with his stroller rocking to the beat.  Love this picture of Preston and his friends Remy and Max.  I got this picture by bribing Preston with candy.  Yep, I did that.....

Hope you all have a great weekend!  

Breakfast with Santa 2012

Well, I am the only person awake around here right now after getting home from what has become a yearly tradition--Breakfast with Santa at Squire Creek!  Mommy and Daddy went out with some friends last night and the boys stayed with their Grandfather and Gran-Gran (THANKS!) so after this fun morning we are all pretty tired...but it is so worth it to make these precious memories!!

Santa was running a little late this morning so my plan of being WAY early (shocker!!) kinda backfired as John Cole had to spend time  in the stroller while we waited #3 in line for Santa but he did ok...especially considering he's been up since 4am.  The boys did GREAT with Santa...quite frankly I think John Cole was too tired to fuss and Preston was all about giving him his NEW requests.  We asked him why he didn't tell him the things he's asked for previously and he said, "Well, I already told him those things."  Good point.

I think P had already had a good breakfast but he made room for a little more and John Cole was loving his pancake.  Mommy and Daddy went all out with a big breakfast and I probably won't eat much more today...but it was fun!  Preston then got to coloring and also did some cupcake decorating.  As you know that is right up his alley.  Lastly, we visited with the Dugdales for a while and I think this pic of P and Georgia is priceless :)

It was a great time.  Hope you and yours are enjoying this season.  More later...

PS--You may notice the medal P is wearing in most pis.  He got that yesterday at a birthday party and will not take it off.....

Family Night

Because I know that Preston (and John Cole, for that matter) will only experience the true magic and wonder of Christmas for a short time--P asked tonight if that was the REAL Santa--I want to make the most out of this Christmas season :)  So we had a holiday family night out in Jonesboro/Hodge.  About 3 times a year I CRAVE fried fish/hush puppies/french fries....GREASE!  Like I said it's not often but when I do my family is game so we went to the Catfish Inn in Hodge for dinner.  When we were all stuffed--especially John Cole who consumed at least 7 popcorn shrimp, 10 or so fries, probably half a hush puppy AND ice cream--we headed to J-town to see the lights and Santa. What a surprise to also find the pony and carriage ride too!  All in all we had fun, boys are tired and another to do is marked off my Christmas list :)  Hope you are getting into the spirit......

**SANTA report***
John Cole was not at all afraid of Santa!  YAY! Now, I say that and he will prolly scream next time but he was quite intrigued with his beard tonight.  Preston came up with a NEW WANT tonight..a remote control boat? ? ? ?   Maybe Santa is going to wait and see if that request comes up again....more later...

Kansas City Southern Comes to Town!

My pics aren't the best, but they do I think give you a glimpse of our afternoon welcoming the KCS Santa train to town!

The plan I had was to kill some time after I picked up Preston at 2:45, so I got my car washed and leisurely meandered downtown fully planning to go grab a cupcake with the boys at SocialBites before we went to see the train.  BUT, when I pulled up to my strategic parking spot South of the track at 3:10 and saw the line with about 50 people we changed plans and got in line!

So, we were IN LINE at 3:15.  John Cole was a PRINCE in his stroller for well over an hour while we waited. Santa actually rolled in at 4:00 and the train wasn't ready til about 4:20 so P even got to visit with him before our tour.  I didn't attempt a pic with Santa with both kids because a) they weren't even dressed that cute b) after an hour in the stroller I could just about guarantee John Cole's reaction to him and c) I didn't know how much time we had before train line rolled.  (Think I'm just trying to justify no pic with John Cole....)  Preston could only remember one thing he wants from Santa--a remote control helicopter.  He was quite stricken with the man in the red suit but I told him not to worry he would have other chances......

Now we get to get on the TRAIN!  I will say I was impressed mostly with the extremely friendly "elves" KCS brought on the train.  They even rolled my stroller to the end of the line while we toured the train.  Little touches that made this a great time.  The elves heaved P onto the train and the rest was just magical.  Every square inch was filled with snow, tinsel, ornaments, figurines....yep pretty gaudy but the kiddo set LOVED it.  And the train room was next to none.  I really wish we would have had more time to explore but they were shuttling us through pretty fast.  They even handed out favor bags at the end and the boys bathed with their Christmas rubber duckys tonight.  All in all it was a great time.  Love, love this time of year :)

**PS**  K-K Preston told ALL the people in line with us about his letter from Santa :)