Christmas 2009-Post I

Piper was very interested in all the Christmas decorations this year and was quite the helper with getting ornaments on the tree. We had a large concentration of ornaments on the back lower third of our tree this year, and to be honest, it made it all the more special.

Her pure excitement leading up to and during Christmas made it quite a joy this year, which was quite a blessing.

Piper also had her first ever school performance. We had the video recorder and digital camera and were there to cheer her on. Below are shots of both kids before we left for her big night.

Piper's teaches gave the kids plenty of descriptions of what would happen that night, i.e. parents would drop them off in their classroom and then would head to the fellowship hall, they would come into the hall with their class and perform and then go find mommy and daddy. So Piper spent some time relaying this important information on to us on our way over the school to be sure we were up to speed on what was going to happen-so cute!

And here's a picture of Mrs. Theresa's class (along with Mrs. Melinda and Mrs. Tiffany) and their big performance. All their rehersals were on the stage, but minus the audience and the lights, so Piper spent the first half of the performace quite mesmerized by both. After that she started getting into it and sang rest of the songs. They performed four songs, and I even got a "Mommy" shout-out during the performance, as she tried to squint and see through the stage lights at the audience to find us. We didn't quite make it through all the class performances that followed (i.e. "the older kids"), as it was getting late and out little pumpkin Boone was getting very tired. So we opted to head out of the fellowship hall to get everyone's coats on, and ended up running into many of the families with kids in Boone's class already out in the hallway! We loaded everyone up and headed to Sonic for dessert, we all enjoyed ice cream in the car, while Boone happily snoozed away in his seat!

We also went to the Lights of Lugoff Christmas parade. It was a really cold night, so we bundled the kids up and all had a great time. Boone opted to stay nestled under layers of clothes and blankets in his stroller and managed to wiggle his hands out once the floats started and waved at them all as they passed by. Piper sat as close as she could to all the action and watched all the floats come by and she would yell, "There's Santa, hi Santa, I been a good girl" at every man on a float that had a beard. We also scored lots of candy and I think she ate her weight in candy canes that night. We waved and wished everyone a Merry Christmas as they passed or "Merry Ristmas". Finally, the last float we got to see the real Santa and Piper was speechless. It was such a fun night and I think we'll look forward to going every year. Ger was busy taking pictures and got some good ones of everyone enjoying themselves.

Piper has been enjoying reading all her Christmas books that have been up in the attic. Her babydolls have gotten quite the earful. I think she can almost recite the Night before Christmas, as we've read it so many times and she loves it.

Things heard around our house lately

Let's see...

For Boone, that would be the following list of phrases:

-E-I-E-I-O!

-E...F...G (Apparently, this is his absolute favorite part of the alphabet, he sings it often throughout the day. Occasionally, we here an H-I-J-K, but usually he stays true to his favorite 3-letter combination)

-All done

-Dog, dog

For Piper, we never quite know what's going to come out of her mouth lately, she's working on lots of originality that's for sure.

Yesterday morning, she and Boone were at the table having their breakfast. I sat down next to her to have mine, and she gave me a little smile as I sat down. After a short pause she looked at me and said, "Mommy, you smell dat?" This is a question we hear quite often from her, as her nose seems to be quite sensitive to the many smells around her!

I responded, "No sweetie, I don't." To which she replied, "I toot!", followed by swells of belly laughing. I tried to keep a straight face, but that didn't work, because, well it was pretty funny! She followed that up with, "No toot at the table!" Well, at least she's hearing me when I say these things, and I must say, I like her comedic timing!

She's also extremely excited about her upcoming 3rd birthday. She's so excited that just about every morning, when she gets up, she says, "Today my birfday party?" She has also taken it upon herself to start inviting people when she sees them. When I was heading out of the kids' school yesterday, we ended up running into two other moms on their way in. Piper informed them both that she did in fact having a birthday coming up, and then proceeded to invite each of their children! I think she may be beside herself the morning we walk into school with the actual invitations, and my goodness, the day of the party, I don't think she's going to be able to contain herself.

Oh my, life is just that much more fun when you a 1-year old and a 2-almost-3-year-old to share it with!

Thanksgiving 2009-Part III

We also squeezed in some time playing in the leaves outside. Everyone took turns covering each other up in the leaves and then at the end we all covered the kids up all together. The kids also spent a lot of time collecting sticks.

Boone can't wait to get into the action soon. I think he's decided this "sitting on the sidelines" thing is for the birds!

A blessing and a curse that his sister has so much love for him and loves to show it regularly!

The grand finale of leaf piling!

The ride back to Grammi and Fafa's. Marci opted to get back on foot.

All the kids favorite perch for snacktime!

Thanks for sharing all the great pics Aunt Ria!

Thanksgiving 2009-Part II

Marci and Piper both share a love of playing in a sink full of water at the "big sink". So we filled it up and let them go to town! Consequently, they ended up right next to Fafa, and therefore, supervised his stuffing of the Thanksgiving Day turkey as well.

I think the kid's favorite part of the meal were the pre-meal beverages. The kids had cranberry juice and orange juice, and the adults had cranberry mimosas. Osten, Marci and Piper were delighted to have their drinks in real glasses and practiced "Cheers" to everyone before downing their juicy delight.

We went for a family walk in the dark after Thanksgiving dinner and Osten and Piper had a blast being the "lineleaders" and leading the way with flashlights through Grammi and Fafa's neighborhood. After baths, everyone headed out to check out the stars before bedtime.

The kids with their matching Christmas pj's. A rare group shot, thanks Aunt Ria!

And we celebrated Grammi's birthday a bit early too. She had three happy helpers there to blow out the candles for her.

And of course we had to head out and do a bit of Black Friday shopping. Grammi, Fafa, myself and Aunt Ria all headed out around 4am, had a great time and got some great deals. Ger and Uncle Tom manned the homestead and kiddies, and even managed to catch a few ball games as well.

Thanksgiving 2009-Part I

We spent Thanksgiving this year at Grammi and Fafa's new house in Greensboro, GA. All the kids loved all the outdoor amenities their new neighborhood had to offer and we took advantage once we got their while we were waiting for Aunt Ria, Uncle Tom, Osten and Marci to get there. We went for a long walk, fed the fish and picked flowers and berries the whole way back.

Blog...what blog?

Well, after quite a hiatus, I'm back and hope to get the ole blog back up-to-date with all our holiday happenings as of late (well, over the past few months).

Oh, and guess who decided to start walking yesterday? Yep, Boone.

We couldn't be any more proud and he couldn't be more pleased with himself. Right now he alternates between looking a bit like an orangutan (complete with arms waving wildly above his head, we think, for balance) and frankenstein. It's quite cute and very entertaining.

Chrismas Kick-Off Week

We got out our Elf on the Shelf earlier this week. We'd been telling Piper that Santa had sent a special elf to our house to watch over her and that he delivered him to the attic. She was anxious for Daddy to go up there and find him. She decided to name him Umbrella and he's been a real treat to have around. She loves to find him each morning and put him somewhere where he can easily fly back to the North Pole at night.

The Christmas decorations have made their way out of the attic, just haven't made their way out of the boxes yet! We're going to get a tree this weekend, so should be a festive one.

Piper also wrote a letter to Santa last night (it's something they do locally, where you fill out a form and your child gets a letter back from Santa before Christmas). Sounds like fun, it's our first year doing it, so we'll see.

I asked her what she wanted and she said, "A pink bike with helmut, barbie doll, and ask Santa to bring Boone a truck. He likes trucks." Then she proceeded to decorate the whole sheet with some of her best artwork and it's all ready to drop off to make it's way to the North Pole.

Piper also had her first viewing of "Emmett Otter's Jugband Christmas" and loved it. And I'm happy to report it's every bit as good as I remember it (Ger said the same thing). Although she kept correcting me and telling me they were bears not otters.

And while we were watching that I set up one of Boone's little ride-on cars that turns into a walker, thinking it would be a good way to entice him to continue to practice standing and working towards walking. Well he grabbed the walker like he'd used it a million times before and proceeded to walk across the better part of he basement! Looks like it (hopefully) won't be long now.

Oh, and Boone's love of electrical outlets and small spaces continues. He somehow managed to crawl under a table and unplug the Christmas tree in his classroom the other day at school.

We also found out that both kids will be moving up to the next classroom the end of this month. Boone will soon be sleeping on a nap mat (hard to believe), eating lunch at a table in his own chair, and having gym and playground time each day. Piper is moving up to the 3's and I think it's going to be a great move for her. I think she's really ready and she'll be excited to be reunited with some of her friends that have already moved up.