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.