Merry Christmas!!

The boys talked to Santa on Sunday. Will asked for a Nintendo DS and Ryan asked for shoulder pads and a new bike! I guess we'll see what Santa brings.
(I love how Ryan is slouched down like he's going to stay awhile!)

Snow Day!

We enjoyed today. A bright, sunny, snowy day! We ate muffins, played in the snow, drank hot chocolate, played in the snow some more, and made gingerbread boy cookies. I managed to get a few pictures along the way.

My sweet old girl

Cookies!

Our Otter Creek Ladies Christmas Party was Tuesday night. We had a cookie and ornament swap. 

Even though I have been stuck home with sick boys all week, I managed to make my Angel Cookies. More cookies to be made next week for school parties!

 My Angel Cookies

My talented friend, Kristen, made these mittens

We had about 70 ladies at the party. We had a great night with lots of tasty cookies and pretty ornaments.

November-December

I have been sitting here with coffee for about 2 hours now going through the couple hundred pictures that were on my camera from the past month. Christmas music plays in the background as JW strings lights on our real tree. I try to savor this time of year, as it passes too quickly. I have so much I want to do and know it will not all get done.
I am going to play catch-up here on the blog and then move full force into December! 

Our beloved Preschool and Kindergarten, Otter Creek, is building a new building. We finally had our groundbreaking ceremony yesterday and it was wonderful! We had a beautiful, sunny day and everyone really had a great time. We look forward to what the future holds for our precious school.

David, Dawson, and Ryan in their matching shirts.

Ryan participating in the groundbreaking. All the kids had matching shirts, and hard hats.

Will's cub scout den had a behind-the-scenes tour of our local fire station the other day. We are all really enjoying cub scouts. We have a great den leader and a good group of boys.

This is what Will does now. Reads. Reads, reads, reads. Everything and all the time! It is so cool to watch him enjoy reading. Many of you will recognize that he is reading a Magic Tree House book. He loves those books! I would be interested to know what other book series do your kids enjoy?

 Will and David on Thanksgiving Day.

  

 November appreciation gift for Will's teacher. Pumpkin Bread and assorted goodies.

Thankfulness

I am thankful for a son like Will who has a heart that absolutely bursts with love. He is a joy to everyone and he quite literally hums and skips through life. I almost teared up when I read his thankful turkey in the hallway in front of his class. I snapped this picture with my phone. 

How can I not be thankful for this face? I could eat him up.

I must also add that I am thankful for these boys daddy. He has worked like a dog these past 2 days getting down all our Christmas decorations and trees, putting most all of them up, stringing lights on the front and back of the house (huge job) all while I was gone much of the day yesterday.

*why do people use the expression "work like a dog?" my dog doesn't work hard at anything except peeing where she shouldn't.

Things I Love Lately

I wish I could say I was getting some kind of paid endorsement from these companies, but sadly, no.  I am just a big dork that is in love with these products. Therefore, I feel the need to share with you guys. So, here you go.

I don't know if any of you remember the chronic sinus infections I have had the past few years. Well, I do. After countless prescriptions and doctor visits it was discovered that I have a deviated septum on the left side. That explained everything. Now I use a daily prescription nose spray, simply saline, and I drink this tea every night. Yogi Cold Season. I call it my "miracle tea." It is wonderful.  It contains ginger, cinnamon, peppermint, eucalyptus, basil, and lemongrass. The combination of these herbs works together to promote respiratory health and clear sinuses. Not one sinus infection yet, (knock on wood.)

Miracle tea at night and this in the morning! Trader Joe's Gingerbread Coffee with Coffeemate Pumpkin Spice Creamer. Both of these products are limited edition for the Holidays, so I have to take full advantage while they are available. I really, really love this coffee. This combination makes the perfect cup of coffee. Makes a small Starbucks at $4.99 seem ridiculous.

My boys are notorious for getting dry, chapped lips in the winter. Not just chapped lips, I'm talking cracking, bleeding chapped all the way around the mouth -spreading -down- the -chin -chapped. Pitiful. I used to slather them up with vaseline until I found this. Neosporin lip health. The best lip product I have ever found. And, believe me, I have used them all. Ryan's mouth had been so bad and it healed it up in just a few days. Highly recommended.

I'm almost embarrased to admit how much I love my new iphone 4. I had the old-school flip phone until just recently. The iphone was my belated birthday gift. It's silly, really, how awesome this phone really is. It does everything. Takes fantastic clear pictures, email and internet is SUPER fast. Faster than my computer. And the apps are really ridiculous. There is one for everything you would ever want and plenty you never would. I have made fun of my friends who are iphone addicts, and I still do. But, seriously, this phone is awesome. I still refuse to pull it out during church. That is just tacky.



Halloween!

We had a little neighborhood Halloween party on Sunday! It was so much fun. The weather was sunny and 70 degrees. It was the perfect evening. We have been so blessed to make such good neighborhood friends over the past 2 years.

My Pumpkin and Ghost Cookies!

 Carrot and Cheese "Fingers" my friend Melissa brought. So fun!

Avery the Mermaid and Maggie the Fairy

"Indiana Jones" David and the Mario Brothers, Ryan and Will 

 Friends


 We lit our fire pit (JW is standing next to it.) The kids had fun roasting marshmallows. They eventually starting playing "marshmallow factory" and it got a little out of hand. The next morning Greta found lots of marshmallows all over the backyard! You should have seen me trying to get those marshmallows away from her! They kept getting stuck in her beard and once she snapped at me when I tried to take one out of her mouth. Lesson here: don't try to take a marshmallow out of a schnauzer's mouth.

I had to include Boone, the baby Lobster! Check out those cheeks!

Fall Break

Lots of catching up to do here on the old blog. We had a really great Fall Break trip to Hilton Head. We went for the entire week and my parents went too. The weather was perfect. By this I mean high 70s and sunshine every day! We went to the beach, ate seafood, played tennis, putt-putt, endless games of Uno, and I read 2 books! John Will did not work the entire week and even played some golf. It was a calm, relaxing trip. We were really glad to have my parents there. My Mom and Will put together a 1000 piece puzzle. They are so much alike, it is really funny. I can't last  more than about 2 minutes at a puzzle of that size, but Will and my Mom have more patience to sit and work with it.

Here are some pictures.

Ryan on the docks by one of our favorite restaurants.

Boys on the beach. They were too busy to bother with me taking their pictures on the beach.

Will and the puzzle he and my Mom put together. Those pieces were tiny!

The view of the docks by our favorite restaurant, the Skull Creek Boathouse

Same restaurant as above. People would sit and watch the sunset. The night we ate there a Reggae band was playing. I had the best shrimp and grits I have ever eaten. It was divine.

My favorite picture of the week.

My boys

G is for Giraffe

These little guys are going to Ryan's class tomorrow for a "G" treat!

Fall is in the Air!

It is finally feeling like Fall around here. I am so thankful for the cooler temps. We all enjoy being outside so much more this time of year. I love to stand and drink my coffee on the patio in the cool mornings. I love how the day starts out cold, but ends up warm in the afternoons. And, of course, I have already stocked up on canned pumpkin and have started making pumpkin bread. As much as I love Middle Tennesse, it was way too hot this summer. But, somehow, these glorious Fall days are making up for it.

We have been busy! Some of our recent highlights:

Ryan's precious class at school took a trip to a local pumpkin farm. It was the perfect day and we all had so much fun.

We went to Springfield for a family gathering and to celebrate my great-aunts 90th birthday. We got to see all our extended family and fun cousins!

This past Friday night Will's cub scout den went to our local high school football game. The boys had a blast! You would've thought we went to the Superbowl.  Nothing like high school football games to make it feel like Fall!

I am still on our Women's Ministry Committee at church this year. Thursday night we hosted a class entitled "Food Frugality." It was a 2 hour session that one of our members worked very hard to prepare for us. She is a caterer and also a registered dietician. It was a very imformative class about how to cut your grocery bill, while not sacrificing quality.

We hosted our church Life Group at our house Sunday night. It got a little chilly, but we had the fire pit going and the kids enjoyed roasting marshmallows. My boys stayed outside on Sunday from the time we got home from church until about 7:45 that night. They didn't complain once, they didn't ask to come inside, they even ate out on the patio! Amazing! Yet, another reason to love Fall!

This week in Ryan's class is the letter "G" week.  I went yesterday to work in his class and take "G" treats. They are the sweetest bunch of kids. 9 boys and 3 girls!  I took Goldfish and Grape Gatorade for their snack. Get it? "G" snacks?  Such a cute idea. The kids get so excited to know what the letter treats will be each week.

(Somehow all my pictures just have Ryan in them. I didn't mean to leave out Will!!)

Ryan's sweet class at the pumpkin farm

I love this picture of Ryan and our cousin Libby

Poor Blog

The poor blog has been neglected lately. Days go by and life happens. I load and unload the dishwasher, make lunches, make dinner, do endless loads of laundry, drive to school, sit at pick-up, chase dogs and pick up after little boys. That is my life and I love it.  I will try to do better, but I don't promise. Here are my 2 favorite pictures recently.

Yes, Ryan is holding a flaming torch. We had a little campfire and roasted marshmallows with our cousins Friday night. It turned into Ryan setting things a-flame.

Last week Will received the Gold Medal award at his school. I think it's kind of like Citizen of the Month or something like that. I think you can only get one medal per year. Pretty big deal. We were all so proud of him!

September

Well, it's finally September. I feel like August was the longest month of my life. Maybe it was the heat. This is just a quick recap of what all we've been doing.

Will started Cub Scouts and it has been lots of fun so far. The trip all 4 of us made to the Scout Store was hilarious and I am still battling with all those patches to get them to stay on Will's scout shirt. Our pack already has a camping trip planned for this weekend.

Ryan started soccer and loves it. He does great at practice listening and following directions. His first game is this Saturday.

We had a nice Labor Day weekend. We got to visit with lots of family and the boys spent a couple nights with my parents while JW and I enjoyed some time alone. We ate lunch alone after church and it felt very weird. We just sat there for a few minutes, like, okay what do we do now? But, we quickly acclimated ourselves. We enjoyed a night out Sunday night and attended a party at one of JW's former co-workers.

And, that's about it.  I hope all of you out there in Blogworld are doing well and enjoying your September.

Will in his Cub Scout uniform

First Den Meeting

Ryan at his first soccer practice