Thanksgiving

Here it is, after Christmas, and I'm just now getting around to writing about our Thanksgiving. Tsk, tsk. I got a new laptop on Black Friday, so that was some of the reason for me getting so behind. But, I plan to get caught up and start the new year off right. One of my goals in 2014 is to stay on top of the blogging because the boys say and do the funniest things now. I want to blog about that so I can remember it later.

Anyways, back to our Thanksgiving. We drove out to my parents house to have Thanksgiving. The weather was nice enough that the boys played outside before dinner.

The boys.

Those boys have my dad wrapped around their finger.

I was trying to get a picture of Evan in their Turkey shirts and to get a video of him wishing us a happy Thanksgiving, but he was not cooperating.

The boys didn't eat too much of the meal, but they snacked around a lot beforehand. They loved the rolls!

Oh Greg...

My plate. One of the many reasons, I've started Weight Watchers this weekend.

While we were cleaning up the kitchen, the boys were upstairs doing this. When I came upstairs, every single item in Carter's room had been moved to the pile in the middle of the room. They said they were building a mountain. What am I going to do with them?

The boys got to go for a tractor ride after dinner. They even got to steer, so they thought they were something!!

The boys just love riding on the tractor.

Then they played in the sandbox for a little bit.

After we left, we stopped by Walmart on the way home to see if they had some sheets that we wanted and I saw this sign. I thought it was funny.

My sister ended up having to work Thanksgiving evening until early in the morning on Friday. Me and my mom hit up a couple of stores that were open to get a few things, but nothing crazy. Overall, Thanksgiving went great. It was so nice to spend our first major holiday living here. It was weird to be done with dinner and get to drive back to our house. For the past 13 years, any holiday has required travel, so it was very weird to wake up at our house, go spend thanksgiving with my parents and then go back and sleep in our own bed. It was nice.

Just a head's up, I'm going to try and get caught up by Jan 1st on this blog. So, I'll probably be posting several catch up posts a day about the month of December. I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Feast

Last Thursday, the boys had a Thanksgiving program and feast at their preschool. Greg and my dad had to work, but my mom and I went and watched the boys perform their poem and song and ate lunch with the boys. The boys wore their Thanksgiving turkey shirts that I got at Kohl's. There were SO many cute, girly thanksgiving dresses and outfits, but hardly anything for boys. :(

The boys wore Turkey hats that they made in class. I thought they looked so cute. They were SO excited that Mamaw came to school! We all sat down and they called us up to get our food table by table. Then, after we all ate, each age group was called up to put on their poem and song.

The tables were decorated with things that all the kids had made in class. It was so cute! There was so much food. We were told specifically what to bring, which made it easy.

The school provided turkey, chicken nuggets and rolls. I got both the boys some chicken nuggets and Carter was not messing around. He made quick work of those things. He loves chicken--strips, nuggets, grilled, plain, crock pot, he loves it all. Evan's not much of a bread eater, but he loved the roll. He ate all of his and then snuck mine off my plate and ate that. They had some dessert we had brought, too.

The boys have been singing their Thanksgiving song for a month now. They sing in the car, around the house, in the bath, etc. I couldn't wait to hear the whole thing. Each class went one at a time, so the parents were able to sit in front and get video and pictures of their kids. Evan and Carter were in the back row, so it's not as easy to see them, but I'm glad I was able to get video of them singing. Especially since Greg wasn't able to make it.

I uploaded the videos I took to youtube and also put them in this post. I always have problems with videos I try and put on my blog, so hopefully these work.

 

 

 

I wanted to get a picture of the boys in their turkey hats and shirts before we left. The boys had other ideas. Getting both of them to stop, face the camera and smile is like pulling teeth. first, they would only take a picture if Mamaw was in it. Then, Evan wouldn't look, then Carter wouldn't look. This was the best I could get.  

When we got home, the boys played dress up in the turkey outfit they made at school and the turkey masks that they got.

 

Parks and Petsmart

*I wrote this last week and forgot to post it. Oops*

Last weekend, I went to Christmas Made In the South with my mom. It was my first time and I would love to start going every year. I got a couple of things, but they're gifts, so I can't post them. But, I did get this cute, Grinch ornament for the boys tree this year. They had a no photos policy, so this is the only picture I got.

After the boys naps last Saturday, we took them to Petsmart to look at the animals. There's always lots of people with dogs there on Saturdays and sometimes there's organizations there with animals to adopt, so it's the best day to go if you want the most to look at. the boys saw a chameleon which pretty much made the whole trip worth it to them. It came up to the glass and looked like it was trying to touch the boys. Evan told him he loved him. Haha.

The boys also loved the birds. They would say "fly bird, fly over here" and one would just happen to fly and they'd clap and say "good boy!" haha. There were several birds in the cage, so this went on for a long time.

Then we made a quick trip to Target. The boys were pretty good. Evan wanted to ride in the cart and Carter wanted to push. The boys were very excited to go to the Christmas decoration section. They loved looking at all the trees and stockings.

Sunday, we went on Fort Gordon to let the boys play at the park. it was calling for rain after 11, so we wanted to get some outdoor time in before it started. The boys were so full of energy! They decided to play "race" where we would say "on your mark, set, go" and they would run around the entire park and come back and want to do it again.

Before we left, the boys wanted to find a good stick and play with some leaves.

They had the best time picking up sticks, hitting the leaves on the trees and making them fall.

 

On Sunday after naps, we took the boys to check out Costco. We've always had a membership to Sam's Club, but now that we live near a Costco, we wanted to check it out and because we're old and boring, this was something I was really excited about. They let you walk through the store without a membership, so we checked it out. They had their Christmas stuff out, so the boys were excited to look at the decorations and toys.

Flu Shots & Random Pictures

I love how the boys play together now. The other day, they were pretending it was time for bed and Carter was reading Evan a story and then he'd say "goodnight, stay in bed" and when he'd walk off, Evan would jump up and run out of the bed. So, Carter would take him by the hand and walk him back to bed and tell him he needed to stay in bed. This went on for quite awhile. Thank goodness it was only pretend and we don't have that problem with them when we put them to bed, but it was so cute to watch them play.

I tried a recipe for pot roast that I saw on the side of an A1 bottle and it turned out amazing. It was so good that I've made it twice in the past couple weeks. It was my first pot roast. I have tons of pot roast recipes on Pinterest that I want to try, but I don't know if I can bring myself to make a roast without using this recipe. It's just SO good. It's just half a cup of a1, half a cup of water, and a packet of Lipton onion soup mix. We add carrots and onions and then instead of adding potatoes to the crock pot, I make Pioneer Woman Mashed Potatoes.  It's hard to get a good picture, this is the best I could get, but trust me, you should try this asap!

I scheduled the boys flu shot last week for right after school. My mom and I had been shopping while they were in school, so she came with me. I actually had forgot until we were in car line and suddenly I remember that we had to go straight from school to the doctor's office. Oops. The boys were hyped up.

The nurse had two shots drawn when she took us back, but I wanted the boys to get the flu mist instead. So, it took her some time to get those ready. The boys were so hyped up and the exam rooms are so small. The paper that they had on the exam table was almost gone, so the boys took the cardboard that it came off and used it as a telescope to look for the doctor. They also crumbled up the tissue paper and played catch with it. Did a lot of climbing. They weren't bad, just very hyped up.

After the boys woke up from their nap, we went with Greg to CVS to get his flu shot. He doesn't have a doctor yet, so we just figured we'd go into the pharmacy and get it done real quick. There was about a 15 minute wait, which felt like much longer. But, the boys managed to entertain themselves. First, they got walking canes and used them as horses, vacuums, sticks, and witches brooms.

Carter riding his walking cane.

Then, we went to the Christmas section and let the boys play with anything and everything that lit up or played music. We were very lucky that the only part of the store that was busy was the pharmacy, there was hardly anybody else in the store.

The boys loved all the Christmas stuff. They saw characters that they recognized from their Christmas cartoons.

It felt like forever, but Greg finally got his flu shot.

Red cups are out at Starbucks. I've seen them all over Instagram. I got a groupon deal and a free starbucks gift card from Huggies, so I had to join in and get a skinny peppermint mocha latte. Mmm..

Evan's obsessed with the camera on my phone and always asks to take pictures now, and I LOVE it!!

Our little helper at the store.

I took the boys over to my sister's house to meet her cat. They were SO excited. That poor cat. The boys were jumping up and down, throwing her balls to get her to "play catch" trying to talk her into getting in her bed. Matilda (the cat) was such a trooper, though.

They boys just loved her so much. I think she could sense that, because she actually let them pet her a little and didn't run and hide under the bed while we were there.

Last week was also Starbucks happy hour with buy one get one free drinks. Greg was not interested, so me and Caroline took advantage during nap time (after Greg got home one day) and went and got some yummy coffees and sat outside and talked.

We haven't been going to the parks as much because it gets dark so early now, but the boys need it. We went to the "turtle park" last Friday and while we were feeding the turtles a wedding party showed up to get married in the gazebo we were in.

Veteran's Day Fireworks

Saturday, November 9th, we went to the Evans Towne Center for their Veterans Day celebration. There were supposed to be fireworks at dusk but we found out when we got there that they wouldn't be until about 8:15 and we got there at 6:00. So, we figured we'd stick around and listen to the army band and let the boys play. They were excited to be out while it was dark and they were looking forward to their first fireworks.

Happy Evan.

Evan insisted we got one with daddy in it too.

The boys ran around and danced for awhile.

They let us hold them for a short amount of time and listen to the music.

Then, we got closer and they could see the band playing the different types of instruments, which they thought was so cool.

I have a video of Evan imitating the conductor and it's really cute, but I don't know if it'll work.

The boys had a little picnic while listening to the music and they went back and forth from the park to the stage.

this is how close we were to the band.

Evan and I went over to the park to play for a little bit since he was getting ansty. He thought he was something playing on the park in the dark.

There weren't many people there and we got a great first row view of the fireworks. I was so excited because it was the boys first time ever seeing fireworks. They were over and done by 8:15 and we got home and in bed no much later than the boys normal bedtime. There was so traffic on the way home. It was really a great first time experience for fireworks. I wanted to get a picture or video of their reaction to the first time seeing fireworks, but it was just such a fun moment to be holding them and being all excited (maybe a little bit more me than them) so I didn't even bring out the camera.