Whitney's preschool class had their Christmas Performance the week before her Christmas Vacation started. The kids were SO cute, and it is always especially nice to have my parents in the crowd!
Our little ham was front and center, right in the middle of the stage. She cracks herself up!
I always think its tricky to dress little girls for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays because its often too hot to wear tights....as evidenced here. lol
Preschool shows are a wild time! Hand motions, shouting verses, waving to parents across the room, and siblings trying to join big sisters and brothers on the stage...
Seriously? The cutest.
Whitney is going to marry Jackson. And I am totally on board with that. LOVE him. LOVE his mom!
After the performance, we headed to the mall for a quick visit with the man in the red suit!
Grady was NOT interested, and actually got down from my arms, walked right up to Whitney as she sat on Santa's lap, and grabbed her hands in an attempt to pull his sister to "safety".
Booker had another successful visit this December, and I have to admit we were loving Whitney's reactions, but sorta pleased to see him head back to the North Pole.
He taught some sight words....
....made some "snow" angel mess....
...."trapped" Whitney in her room....(an annual favorite!)
...started a snow ball fight with some Barbies...
...and helped surprise Whitney when she came home from school with this:
When Eric and I went shopping for the kids' gifts, I grabbed a stuffed Twilight Sparkle pony in the cart. Eric cringed and while I agree that this child and her stuffed animal collection are growing out of control, I know my girl. And I knew she would love a stuffed pony.
We went back and forth about the silly pony in the cart, and ultimately agreed that we could spend that $10 towards something bigger/better.
And then. Sure enough, the next Monday at school. we learn that they ONLY thing Whitney wanted for Christmas? stuffed Twilight Sparkle.
Of course.
So, back to Walmart to grab the dang horse.
And Booker made sure Whitney knew just how great her behavior was recently, and she woke to this note taped to the TV in the playroom.
And a few more around the house.
It really was fun playing Booker. Especially since we down-play the Santa aspect of Christmas as much as possible.
For a little boy who loves trucks, Mommy's new Amazon Prime account gives him ample opportunity to see the UPS and FedEx trucks outside our door :)
Free two-day shipping?!
My mom and dad watched the kids so Eric and I could go Christmas shopping one night. We got some great stuff and it was nice to splurge on our kids and shop alone! Even if we had to go back for the horse a few days later.....
This year brought a new TRAIN to the house! After I plead my case for a while, Eric gave in and we got the Polar Express train set to go under the Christmas tree. We all LOVED it....especially this dude.
We set it up at night and couldnt wait for his reaction the next morning. The best!
"Whoa!"
Busted under the tree trying to play with the train.
My mom got us these special ornaments to remember our favorite mutt at Christmas :)
When a college friend was in town for a short visit, we traveled to the tourist side of town to meet them for lunch. While we waited to meet up with them, we took our first family outing to Bass Pro Shops. :)
The kids thought it was great to sit on all the trucks and boats and ATVs!
This is so Whitney and Grady. Whitney always smiling, excited and easily entertained. Grady is Captain serious, tough to impress, and makes us work for smiles.....but sometimes he just cant help but smirk at the silliness. :)
We saw lots of big BASS fish in the huge tank!
And while the wait to see Santa was 3+ hours, we were satisfied to see Mrs. Claus and Rudolph!
And it was SO much fun to catch up with Krystal and her sweet family! I LOVE when friendships fall right back into place after years and years apart. Marriages and kids and miles just cant change some friendships!
And its no surprise when my kids hit it off with my friends' kids! I LOVE watching Whitney interact with new friends, giggling and being silly and acting like they have known each other forever! Whitney and Riley are destined to be Clemson roommates, sorority sisters, or just besties :)
I was late getting Christmas cards out this year, but when it was finally time to sit down and make it happen, Whitney was thrilled to help me lick the envelopes. :) There may or may not have been cracker crumbs on several envelopes....
Grady has been continuing speech therapy, but Ive been researching things we can do at home to try to help stimulate his mouth/jaw/tongue muscles to help his speech improve. Aside from the new electric toothbrush that he really likes, we also bought him a train whistle that sounds remarkably like a train...and a recorder that sounds a lot like....nails on a chalkboard.
BUT....he is a quick learner and was easily able to blow both whistles with very little prompting or practice. Whitney was so proud of him one morning when he was happily making a ton of noise on the recorder :)
Later in the day, Grady and Whitney were playing nicely in her room. I peeked around the corner from the laundry room and saw Whitney happily combing Rapunzels mangled hair...with her back to Grady...who was fiddling with a pile of stinky fish food. Instead of busting him right away, I grabbed my phone and snapped this pic as I asked, "Grady! What do you have???"
Whitney. Sweet, protective, always awesome big sister Whitney. She gave me this exact look and said, "(gasp) Grady! No! Mommy, I didnt do that, but Grady already told me hes really sorry...."
We had such warm weather leading up to Christmas, but it was so oppressively hot that we couldnt function outside. We got to enjoy a few hours outside!
So this happened.
And he loves chasing her almost as much as she loves being chased.
An airplane flew overhead and Whitney loving ran to Grady and said, "Do you see it!?? Do you see that plane, Buddy??" She is so motherly and loving and just wants him to be happy ALL the time.
She explained to him that, the next day their Uncle Jay would be flying on an airplane to come see us!
So the next day we headed over to Mac and Gramps' house! Grady and Mac watched a little Cars - Grady's current favorite movie since I had to retire the Polar Express ( I couldnt take it anymore).
He is such a cuddle. The best!
And we again ended up outside enjoying the weather and decorating the driveway for Uncle Jay's arrival that night!
His favorite!
more airplane spotting!
Is THAT Uncle Jay's plane!?!?!!!
And then we got the text:
The Eagle has landed!
Uncle Jay arrived!!!
And it officially felt like Christmas festivities could begin!
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