Happy Birthday, Bridger!

I love this boy.  He has so much personality. He is always thinking of others and always has a compliment for you.  ("I really like your dress, Mom.  You look like a princess!")  He loves to sing and dance, but not in front of other people.  He tries really hard to remember to say thank you and to show appreciation for what others do for him.  He loves Lightning McQueen and Curious George and peanut butter and honey sandwiches.  He is such a good big brother to Penny.  His eyes light up when he sees her and he can make her laugh more than anyone else.  He is such a blessing to us and we're so grateful he's ours.

P.S. Thanks to my friend Heather, we decided to put balloons in his room so when he woke up he could see all the balloons and be so happy!  Well, maybe it's not such a good idea when he wakes up before the sun.  He came out confused saying, "Mom, there are so many balloons in my room...I won't be able to get out of my room when it's time to wake up." (He was already awake AND out of his room).  We went and turned the light on and then he was happy and excited about the balloons.  It was a little anti-climactic for me.

Happy 4th Birthday, Bridger!

Ouch

See these two tiny little teeth?  They have caused a lot of suffering around here.  Poor little Penny has been working on those teeth for months.  They are finally here and guess what?  They're sharp.  So sharp that Penny is now 100% on bottles.  Her smile is still as cute as ever, though.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours.  We're so grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ and all that He has done for us.  We love you all and hope you have a wonderful new year full of blessings and happiness.

Christmas Time

 We have been busy with Christmas activities all month long.  Between Christmas parties, decorating, trimming TWO trees (we found a little tree at a garage sale so the boys get to decorate their own with all of their homemade ornaments), making cookies, Christmas crafts, and school activities, we have been busier than we've been in a long time.  It's nice to have fun things to do, but I also love to hang out at home watching Christmas movies with popcorn and hot chocolate.  Here are some pictures of what we have done.

 I've always wanted to string popcorn and put it around the tree.  This year I finally did it.  It didn't take as long as I thought it would.  It was fun!

 I got this advent calendar from here and it has been really fun for the boys to pick their surprises every day.  Most days are a Hershey kiss but there are also some bigger treats too.  Some of their favorites so far have been Pez dispensers, movie night (we watched Elf), and ornament craft, and Go Fish cards.

 I made these with old frames I had lying around and with my sweet cutting machine.  I saw it here and pretty much copied it.  I LOVE it and can use it every year (minus the bottom text).

 I love that our nativity set has Mary holding baby Jesus instead of Him being in the manger.  Who doesn't want to hold their newborn all day long and memorize their little facial features?

 

This is just a bonus.  Penny likes to crawl up to the office door when it's closed and give us her sad eyes until we open the door for her.  She also likes to "latch on" to the glass on the door. It's attractive, right?

Falling

Fall here in Georgia is so nice.  It's such a nice reprieve from the summer heat.  It represents the end of heat, humidity, and miserable sweaty days.  We have some old trees in our backyard that we are so thankful that the builder left for us.  We get thousands of leaves falling onto our grass.  We also have a trampoline a few feet away from said grass.  Adam decided it would be fun for him the boys to fill the trampoline with leaves and go hog wild.  He even hid under the huge pile of leaves and when they came out, he jumped out and scared them. They had so much fun.  Something about boys and anything dirty just go so well together.

 

Leaf angels.

 Adam obviously joined in on the fun and made it rain leaves on the boys to their hearts content.

For Bridger's preschool Thanksgiving feast, we made these turkey cookies.  Yeah, they're cute, but they taste SOOOO good!

Fall Picnic

I love when the weather starts to get cooler.  It's such a relief from the hot sweltering heat and humidity here in Georgia.  Brody and Bridger spent hardly any time outside during the summer and so now they are loving it.  They played outside for over an hour and a half today.  Being friends and building and digging.  Then for lunch they had a little picnic on the trampoline with all the fall leaves that I refuse to remove until they're done falling.  They interlocked their legs and laughed and smiled and relaxed while they ate.  It made me happy.  It was just a small moment in life that made me appreciate the wonderful little people that are mine.  Now they are back to pushing each others buttons and arguing, but you can't have the good without the bad, right??

Halloween Part 2

Penny as Pebbles Flintstone.  Maybe someday I'll try to post the video of her going after Brody's candy pile.  I don't know how babies come out knowing what is inside those candy wrappers.

 
 The boys both wanted to be Spiderman. Brody picked the black one because he said it meant he could be mean.  What I'm wondering is, why are they standing like that?  And why do they make kids' costumes so lame?  Bridger's is pretty great with the muscles that bulk him up (although he was convinced his muscles weren't muscles, but things that only mommies have).  Brody's costume could easily be used as a leotard.  Don't worry, though.  Today we picked up some better quality costumes for 50% off for next year.

Halloween Part 1

 Every year, I get excited about all of the traditional holiday activities.  It seems like the holidays all start with carving pumpkins for Halloween.  I always think it will be so fun for the boys to pick a design and help us carve the design into a pumpkin that we joyfully pick out at the store.  This year, it started just like I imagined.  A fun trip to Walmart where the boys picked out the coolest pumpkins they could find.  We invited some friends over, which always adds to the excitement.  Picking out the design- exciting and fun.  We're on a roll, right?  Right!  Then it comes time to scrape the pumpkin guts out and it starts to get less exciting.  Here is a representation of what I always think the whole night will be like:

  Here is a representation of what most of us feel like when it's all done:

This is a pretty common face for Bridger these days.  He's kind of pouty.  I can't remember what this was about but it probably had something to do with him not wanting to help with the pumpkins. 

This is what he did instead:

This is what I'm talking about (happy faces!):

 This is NOT what I'm talking about:

The final product:

Maybe next year I'll look back on this post and realize that it's not as cool as it is in my head.  But we'll probably do it again anyway.  Because that is what traditions are for.

Going Back to the Time of Adam's Birth

This last week, Adam turned 30.  That's right.  He's old.  I am now officially married to an old guy.  For his birthday bash, I decided to ask everyone to come dressed in 80's garb (Adam was born in 1980).  Best decision I have ever made.  Seriously.  If a picture really is worth a thousand words, then here are like a million amazing, hilarious, and disturbing words for you:

Shari and Kelly came as a couple since their husbands are both deployed.

   The Galans.

 The Pilkingtons.

The Winns. You are seeing zebra print spandex pants and not just imagining it.

 The Rhodeses. 

 Adam was depressed that he was the only guy without a wig.  Also, I'm not sure why we don't have a picture of the Glovers but he had a pretty amazing mullet and she paint splattered her shirt.
 

Group photo.  These are some of the funniest people ever.  I had to really use a lot of bladder control around these peeps.

We played a bunch of "Minute to Win It" games and it was so fun!  And hilarious.  And not just because everyone looked like fools trying to complete a task dressed like a freak (as illustrated in the pictures below).

 Blowing cups down with balloon air. I couldn't complete this task because I was laughing too hard. Have you ever tried to blow a balloon up while laughing?  You probably can't do it, either.

 Stacking M&Ms on straws. And Cari having a good ol' time in the background.

 This chick can get a cookie from her forehead to her mouth in 6 seconds flat in case any of you were wondering.

 Getting pennies out the toes of pantyhose.  See all the cute little babies in the background?

 Megan got the pennies so fast but then couldn't get her arms back out of the pantyhose.  Hil. Arious.

 Check out the no smoking sign shirt thingy.  Who DIDN'T own one of those?

 This sure is what I married. Pretty hot, right?

 Shari shaking her booty to get the ping pong balls out of the Kleenex box strapped to her bum. Ben, if you are reading this, it was hot.  Smokin' hot.

 Dantzel rocking hard core for those ping pong balls.

 Don't you love those gloves?

 No words.

 Is it just me or does it look like Aaron is doing a graceful dance? Or maybe tiptoeing?

Mullet buddies.  Sadly.

And there you have it. Happy Birthday, Adam!  I hope you enjoyed your twenties, because it's all downhill from here.