Christmas Pictures (Part 1)

The Saturday before Thanksgiving, we took the boys to go get Christmas pictures made. I found a great deal on Christmas mini sessions on Facebook. I later discovered why it was such a great deal and that you get what you pay for. I'll post the official ones in another post, but this is just from that day and what I took on my phone.

The boys looked so handsome dressed up for their pictures. They were very excited to wear a tie and bow tie. This is what they did when I asked them to smile for a picture!

They definitely thought they were something.

My handsome little men.

I just cannot get enough of them in these shirts.

We definitely took a lot of pictures in the front yard before leaving to go get pictures done. :)

By the time it was daddy's turn, the boys were losing their excitement.

We had the pictures done at Steed's Dairy, which is right up the road from us. The props were adorable and were the reason I went with this photographer.  

Carter was so funny doing this pose. He had no idea what to do with his hands, so he kept putting them up like Will Ferrell in Talladega Nights ("I don't know what to do with my hands"), it was so funny!! I got so tickled at him.

After a few pictures in normal clothes, the boys changed into their pjs and did some pictures on a bed she had out. I thought the idea was really cute. The boys didn't know what to do with the book, Evan had the hardest time, he didn't know whether to look at the book or look at the photographer, and she wanted some of both, so he was so confused.

Sweet smiles. Our appointment was at noon, which is the worst time for pictures. A lot of photographers around here won't even do them then, they'll only book for morning or late afternoon, and now I see why. Carter kept squinting and trying to cover his eyes, but I still think they look so cute here.

At the end, she let them jump on the bed and got some pictures of them doing that.

They were hesitant at first because we're normally telling them not to jump on the bed, but they thought it was fun.

I bought sugar cookies for one of the poses, but we didn't need them, so the boys got to eat their Santa cookies when we got home. This was what I used the whole morning-- "smile good for the camera and you'll get your special cookie" haha. We got these pretty cookies from Barnes and Noble, they always have the cutest cookies, individually wrapped and made in a peanut free facility.

Even though it was the Saturday before Thanksgiving, we had no problem getting into the holiday spirit for our pictures. I got my trees out that weekend and decorated them. The boys each have one in their rooms, they have a small one downstairs in the living room with fun, kid ornaments, we have one in the kitchen and then the main one in the playroom. I have a small one for our room that I put up, but never decorated. If I had more room, I'd have more trees. You can never have too many Christmas trees.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at my parents house. The boys wore the outfits they made at school. I thought they looked so sweet. I wanted to get them a Thanksgiving t-shirt like I get every year, but wasn't able to find one in their size, but it worked out because I think these are so much better than any t-shirt I could have bought.

So precious!

I had them do a few crafts and activities while waiting on the turkey.

I got these fun felt boards at Michael's after Thanksgiving last year for super cheap and the boys seemed to enjoy putting all the felt pieces on the board.

Next, we did a thankful turkey craft that I got in the dollar section at Target. I wrote down exactly what they told me. For weeks, they've been saying the sweetest things that they're thankful for. But, when I sit them down to talk about it, they tell me they're thankful for Halloween stuff and pineapples. haha. This turkey is Carter's. He told me a week or so before Thanksgiving that he was very thankful for his teacher but that he was NOT thankful for the naughty rug, haha!!

This is Evan's thankful turkey.

Watching some tv before we ate.

It was all amazing--turkey (we had deep fried and oven baked), gravy, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, dressing, and rolls.

Evan wanted a snack after lunch and so Greg gave him this turkey leg. He thought he was something. I'm sure this is how he's going to insist on eating turkey from now on.

 Of course, after Carter saw that Evan had one, he had to have one too. So, the next day when we went back for leftovers, both boys insisted on a turkey leg. I don't know if Carter was sure what to think about it at first.

But, he got right to it and they both ate up those turkey legs.

We're always reminded around the holidays how thankful we are that we moved down here. We spent every holiday for YEARS, traveling. It's so nice now that we just get up and drive up the road (it's about 30 minutes) and that's it. We were fine with traveling when we were doing it, but now that we're older and have kids, it's just nice to not have to do that around the holidays anymore.

And just for fun, here's the boys on their first Thanksgiving.

S'mores

A couple of weeks ago, my parents kept the boys overnight and when we went to go pick them up, we had a little bonfire and cooked some hot dogs and smores. The boys have been talking a lot about camping lately and campfires. They didn't know we were going to do it, so they were so excited when we told them. They had so much fun. I expected the boys to be pretty wild, but they were really good about the fire.

The boys checking out the fire.

Papaw and the boys, getting ready to cook some hot dogs.

I love the intense look on Evan's face and the big grin on Carter's face.

They told me several times that this was the best day ever!

Eating the hot dogs they cooked themselves (with a little help from Papaw and Daddy)

After hot dogs, we had some smores, which Carter referred to as "marshmallow sandwiches" a couple of weeks ago, haha.

 

This is my favorite picture from that day, they were laughing at something Papaw did.

 

My parents did the bonfire (campfire, whatever you'd call it) for the boys, but I think we all really enjoyed it, so we'll definitely have to do it again.

Random November Happenings

Catch up time again. I'm finally finished with my first semester back to school. But, I managed to get an "A" in both my anatomy and physiology class and in microbiology, so I'm happy, even if I did get behind on blogging (and everything else--especially housework) This first post is just some random pictures I took throughout the month of November. I think the rest of my catch up posts have points to them, like based on something fun we did.

The boys teacher sends home worksheets and activities that they didn't have time for in class so that we can work on them at home. She sent home a really cute bone worksheet along with bone shaped candy to use with it. The boys had so much fun doing that.

I took the boys out clothes shopping for our Christmas pictures. I LOVED these pajamas. I thought they were so precious, but they ended up clashing with something that was going to be in the photoshoot, so we didn't get them. (You can see that Evan still has red paint on his nose from dressing up like a scarecrow for school)

The boys had to dress up like scarecrows for school one day, and the teacher suggested just using your imagination and using stuff you already had. This was the best I could come up with that didn't require me to buy anything new. I found some cute ideas that I could have made, but it was a hard week with my school and I just didn't have time to do anything more with the costumes. :( The boys thought they were something, though. ;)

We've decided to start doing movie night once a week. We were going out for pizza, but with drinks, appetizers, tip, it can get expensive, so we decided to combine pizza night and movie night and it's been so much fun. We watched Tangled one night because Greg hadn't seen the entire movie (plus, I LOVE it and so do the boys). We have several like that where one or both of us have only seen the beginning or end of the movie, so we started with ones we wanted to see, since we knew the boys would like anything we picked. Now that it's Christmas time, we've been picking Christmas movies.

We've been trying to get to church. We went to Sunday school once in November. I really like the church we go to, the boys love it and it's where my weekly moms bible study meets. We just need to get there more often. Here's the boys posing outside before we went in.

The boys specifically told me to take this picture so I could show "mamaw how cool their shirts are" haha. I forgot all about it until I was going through getting pictures to catch up on my blog.

We've been in Kohl's a few times this past month, they've been having some great sales and also some coupons that you have to use in the store. Every time we go in, the boys just play and play with the Imaginext toys that are on display. Especially the Bat Cave and the Castle, hopefully they play with it as well when they open it on Christmas morning.

I wish all stores had toy displays like this, the boys are so good and quiet while playing with it.

We were able to go to story time at Barnes and Noble in November. My mom came with us, it's always nice to have company on our fun little day activities. The boys really love the Barnes and Noble story time. We've tried a few different libraries, but they definitely prefer B&N over library story time.

The boys were super excited that the mall tree was out.

The boys had their Thanksgiving feast at school and looked so precious!!

A different group of moms put on each party. Me and two others were responsible for the Halloween party, 3 different moms were responsible for the Thanksgiving party and another set are responsible for the Christmas party. I think the Thanksgiving moms did an amazing job, there were some really cute little details and the boys really enjoyed the party.

Look at this sweet Thanksgiving craft the boys did. The ribbon is attached to both of their tiles, so I was able to hang it up when we got home. I love this.

 

Another movie night. We always pull out the couch and cover it with a sheet so we can stretch out and eat without worrying about crumbs, we just take it off afterwards and wash it.

 

The boys and I went to the library a couple of times to get some books. They love going into the little reading nooks and looking over the books they picked out.

We had a playdate at the mall with Cooper, which is as fun for me as it is for the boys because I really enjoy hanging out with his mom.

It had been a while since we had been in the mall play area, so they played really well for quite awhile.

Evan and Cooper.

Of course, the boys have to sit on all the riding machines before we leave even though I don't put money in them. :)

I think that's most of the random pictures I have, I have several more posts to get caught up.