Christmas 2012

This blog post has been a loooong time coming. Between trying to move pictures over to the new laptop and crazy children who must touch every button as soon as I open the computer, it just hasn't happened until now. We made the long journey to Illinois once again this year--puppy dog, kids and all their trappings. We decided to start driving at night so that the kids would sleep the first half of the trip. It kind of worked. :) They didn't sleep the whole time but they didn't scream or cry either. And once we arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's new house we didn't stop playing/laughing/eating/having fun until the night we left. I didn't take as many pictures as I thought I would, but only because I was so busy being in each moment. (I love pictures and the memories that come when I see those pictures, but I'm becoming more and more convicted that the memories mean more if I'm really all there instead of half there, half distracted by my camera. Sorry, end of random explanation.) Here are our pictures from this year's Christmas and New Year's trip to visit my side of the family. We had so so so much fun and the boys were spoiled rotten. (PS: The pictures are not in chronological order at all. I had such a hard time getting the pictures ON the blog that I didn't feel like risking losing them just to put them in order. So...deal with it. Ha!)

Krista, Grandma, Great-Grandma and all the grandbabies (WHY did I not hop in this picture?? Sigh. Oh well.) 

Hangin with Aunt Kristi 

Garrett loves snuggling with Grandma

 A few Christmas morning pics

 

 

Bowling!! Garrett got to bowl with his cousin Roman and the two had a blast dancing and cheering for EVERY SINGLE TURN. So cute.

Cousin love 

Garrett and Grandpa had a slumber party in the living room. The fireplace was going and they watched 3-2-1 Penguins til 1am. Or Garrett did at least. :) 

 It's an Uncle Bob!

 



 

Climbing on Grandpa. Boys. 

SNOW!!! The first day we were there, it snowed. And then got really really cold. We're talking single digits here. But the boys wanted to play in the snow since we don't see it much in Texas, so we bundled up and went outside. For a grand total of 10 minutes I think. :) But we did it.

Snowman Pizza Night

Pinterest strikes again! I saw the cutest picture of a snowman-shaped pizza and just had to recreate it. Garrett had a good time helping me with the multiple steps. Nolan, on the other hand, chose to whine the entire time until he got some cheese and olives to snack on. :) Here are some pictures from our pizza-making.

Garrett took this picture of me grating the mozzarella cheese. He was very very proud of himself for getting my whole face in the picture. 

A little pre-cooking silliness 

 Our end product

 

This is the look I get right before he starts full-on wailing. The paci comes out and it gets really loud.

 I told you he loves olives!!!

This is what I got when I told him they were all gone. I promise, I do feed him. He was also very tired at that point. Silly boy, 1 year-olds need more than 30 minutes of napping per day! 

And then he played with the Christmas tree and all was right with the world once again. :)

Dishwasher "Fun"

Nolan has been obsessed with the dishwasher lately. He empties it, turns it on at random times, and does this about 532 times a day. Give or take a few.  He's SO lucky that he's cute.

Halloween!!

I think maybe I should post our pics from Halloween before Thanksgiving is over and done next week. :) I'm slow...but I get it done eventually!

Hard at work, carving our pumpkin.

End result...a happy jack-o-lantern!

Tigger and Pooh! These were taken before going to the library's story time that morning. They love their costumes and would have worn them for a week and not just all day like they did.

Not sure why only half of this picture is here...this is how it uploaded from the camera. Oh well...you can see how cute our boys and our friends kiddos are together. Thanks for a fun night, McAllisters!

Garrett and Madi with their loot.

Russ and Tigger.

Garrett was telling a "spoooooky" story with his pumpkin light as a microphone. I love his imagination.

Back-tracking a bit

I was so excited about our trip to the pumpkin patch that I somehow skipped right over a couple of other events and outings that were picture-worthy. Not to mention Halloween. Oops! Those pics will be posted separately I think.

The first group of pics are from our trip to the Texas State Fair. We never last too long at the fair with the little ones along but we had a good time checking out the animals, watching a dog stunt show and letting Garrett experience a few rides. The other outing that I skipped on the blog-front was Russ's running the Dallas Uptown 5 Miler. Our church, Pantego Bible Church, was encouraging its members to participate and raise funds during the half-marathon and 5 mile race in downtown Dallas with World Vision. The money raised by our group would go to a specific town in Ethiopia (with whom our church has a personal relationship already) so that they can dig a well and get clean, fresh water to the people there. Russ joined the team late in the game but still managed to raise $375! Thank you to all our friends and family who gave to this worthy cause and supported my hubby as he ran in the freezing (literally!!) cold. I'm always amazed that he can just get out there and run like that. Garrett got to run the last 100 meters or so to the finish line with him, which made his day. I love my little runner! (And the big one, too!)

Checking out the petting zoo. We didn't spend too much time here because it was SO crowded!

Ready to help out "on the farm"

 Planting some vegetable seeds very carefully

Posing with the State Fair of Texas sign and tractor, of course!

Ride #1: Motorcycles. He loved it for the first 30 seconds...

...then was about ready to be done and off that thing. :)

Ride #2: Race Cars. Oh boy, was he excited to go ride in the race cars. 

See that happy, smiling child, just glowing with eager anticipation of the ride that was about to begin?? Just wait.

This is what he looked like the entire ride. That car whipped around the turns super-fast and jerky, he was holding on for dear life and crying by the time he got off this one. I didn't get any pictures of the third ride he went on. I went on the whale ride with him and it was MUCH better. Plus, there were bubbles being blown in our faces and we could honk the horn at Russ and Nolan every time we passed by.  Next year, we start with the whale.

Race morning!! Only about 38 degrees but we had to cheer on Daddy.

Garrett is wrapped up in a blanket too.

My two runners!

Garrett got a cool balloon puppy dog after the race. He wore it almost all day!