~* We Made it *~

Can you believe it, we actually made it through Christmas! It is hard to believe that it has come and gone, but I have to admit that I am kinda happy! The kids filled our house with excitement this year.....which was so fun! Santa outdid himself at our house this year and left the kids lots of goodies! Garrett was so excited and ripped his packages open in 5 minutes flat! Ethan on the other hand, enjoyed opening but got rather bored of it after a couples minute in......which didn't bother Garrett because he ended up finishining it up for him!

The day was rather busy.....we started with breakfast here at home! My mom and dad came over early in the morning to see all the goodies from Santa! From here we went to eat with my mom's family, which was so nice this year! Having family that owns a restaurant played in our favor this Christmas.....they opened the banquet room up at Bonanza and we all gathered there! It was so nice....the kids could run freely and play, which worked well for our family! My aunts all went together and got my kids (and my nieces) gift cards for a couple trips to Splash Lagoon, which was a huge surprise! We are so excited to go!!! After that, we headed to OC to Kurt's brother's house! A long day filled with fun for the kids!

Today I took my grandma to see the movie "Marley & Me". Most of you know that I am not exactly an animal lover, but geez was this movie ever so sad! My goodness! If you want to see a good movie and have a good cry while you are at it, go see this one! I am a fan of Jennifer Aniston and she didn't let me down in this one.....it is a must see!

We have a busy week planned.......boy it will go fast! Vacation always does! Garrett was having a fit tonight that tomorrow is Monday and he ALWAYS goes to school on Mondays! oh how he just doesn't understand! Enjoy the pictures! This year I feel short on pictures! I sorta took it all in instead of being behind the lens all the time!

~* TwAs the Night Before Christmas......*~

Christmas Eve is finally here :) We had an enjoyable evening with my mom and dad tonight as we always do on Christmas Eve! This was such a memorable day as Garrett was so excited! By far this has been the best year yet with Garrett! He is so into Santa coming, it is one of those things that you wish would never pass! Before he went to bed we set out cookies for Santa, sprinkled a little reindeer food on the lawn and kissed Timmy good-bye! We are sure hoping that Timmy comes back next year!

Garrett's Christmas wish was granted at Grandma and Papa's house this year! D-Rex was delivered there! Ethan thinks he is alive and real! Ethan isn't really into toys for some reason! His favorite thing this evening was a horse book from Aunt Tiffany aside from the visit from Chilli ~ Hunter and Tailor's new puppy! Ethan loves that little dog!

I hope this finds everyone having a memorable evening as we had! Merry Christmas!

~* BaTh-TiMe Fun! *~

I am trying to think positively! The week is finally here ~ Christmas is only 5 days away (as Garrett states it!) I am beginning to feel like I can make it through the last 2 days of school and that my kids will make it for the next 5 days anxiously anticipating Santa coming to our house! Garrett is so stinking excited it is not even funny anymore! He was invited to a Christmas party today and that has set the tone x10! WOW! The only thing he is not looking forward to is Timmy leaving us :( Yesterday he was drawing as he always does and was so proud of his picture......it was a picture to Santa with a note attached that said "Ples snd Timme bac to us!" I wish I had a scanner ~ not only to show off his incredible phonetic spelling that I was so proud of that he did on his own, but the awesome picture that he drew! He is very artistic, he loves drawing!

Tonight we had to fill our time with an extra fun bath, to make time pass.........enjoy the pictures!

~* New Song *~

I recently added a new song to our site.....Garrett heard this on the radio and loves it! I didn't realize at first what they were singing about :) To my surprise, it fits Garrett PERFECTLY this year! Listen to the lyrics! and think of Garrett while you sing along:)

~* A SNOW DAY!! *&%*$& *~

Ok so SNOW DAYS are supposed to be fun :) That is what they say! Well, by 10 a.m. Garrett was bored out of his mind and I was ready to pull my hair out! So we made DINOSAUR ornaments for everyone on Garrett's Christmas list......if you are on it, you will be a lucky receiver of one of his dinosaur ornaments! I must say they smell GOOD!

~* Garrett's Christmas Program *~

On Wednesday night Garrett had a Christmas program at school. It was nice, it was actually a school-wide program and preschool was included :) They sang some songs and did a few actions!A good time was had by all!

~* Serious Prayers needed! *~

Pray for Kayleigh. If you haven't already done so, click on the Kayleigh Anne Freeman button on my right sidebar. Grab your tissues.

~* Dinner at RoCkY's! *~

Yesterday was a crazy day for us :) Our babysitter was sick, so Kurt stayed up until I got home at 12:30 to be with the boys. I then planned on going to my mom and dad's for dinner, but Grandma Rocky invited us to her house for the classic "homemade noodles"! Both of my kids truly enjoy her homemade noodles and ALWAYS eat a good supper there! We had a good time and it allowed Kurt to get some sleep before he had to go back to work!

Garrett had Rocky read him the book that Timmy had left him that morning. It was a personalized book with Garrett, Ethan, Hunter and Tailor's name in it! He got a real kick out of his name being in it! He is beginning to read, which is great because he recognizes everyone's names and our address that was in there.........so he nows we aren't trying to trick him :)

Tomorrow night is his Christmas program at school ~ I will try to post pictures of that! Until then enjoy these snapshots of our evening with Rocky!

WOW Ethan really has "red eyes" in these pictures! Sorry ~ no time to edit! I am going to bed early tonight!

~* It's Beginning to FEEL like Christmas! *~

It has taken me a long time this year to get into the Christmas spirit! I don't know why, especially since Garrett is SO excited for it! This is his best year yet in being excited for Santa to come! Of course he has a list a MILE long ~ but what kid doesn't?? Ethan is enjoying the lights, but wants nothing to do with Santa! The boys and I are in love with Timmy and are enjoying him to the fullest extent!! He has actually become an integral part of our mornings! Ethan gets so excited when we find him! I truly am going to miss him when Santa takes him back to the North Pole!

I had decided that I wasn't going to do Christmas cards this year, that is until I got this Christmas card in the mail today from a friend that I went to high school with! Trying to get a good picture of 2 kids together is nearly impossible! Her card assured me that separate pictures is best......her cards were absolutely adorable! Thanks for the idea Emily! So tonight I was on a mission to get "half" decent pictures of the boys! Here is a sample of what I got! Enjoy :)

~* Timmy Update! *~

Well, Timmy has kept our house on its feet! As if we aren't already :) He has done some crazy things in the last week that he has been a part of our family. Garrett was doubting whether or not Timmy was real, but after the tricks that he has pulled, he is believing! First, Timmy flies back to the North Pole every night to report to Santa.....this part is of no concern to Garrett! I don't think he cares what Timmy tells Santa! When Timmy comes home, he always lands in a new place! The first night, he came home and landed on the deer in our living room and decorated the antlers with bulbs off our Christmas tree :( He then was hanging upside down on the shower curtain rod! and this morning topped it all off! There were cookies crumbs on the counter, the motherly instinct in me blamed Garrett for being up in the middle of the night eating cookies! Much to my surprise, Timmy was in the cupboard eating the chocolate chip cookies :) He didn't even leave 1! What will be next?

~* Meet TiMmY! *~

Well, we had an unexpected visitor this evening! When I returned from the grocery store there was a knock at the door.....much to my surprise when I answered there wasn't anyone there just a box left on the porch! When we opened it, we found a little ELF that Santa had sent our family straight from the North Pole! He came with a book that explained his duty while at our house! He is to keep an eye on Garrett and Ethan and every night when we go to bed, Timmy flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa! I had seen on the news that Santa was sending Elves to families, but I never dreamed that he would send one to us :) He is with us until Christmas Eve, when Santa will take him back....................

~* A Weekend Trip to HeRsHeY *~

My mom and I took the kids to Hershey this past weekend and we had a great time! There was a lot to do in a short amount of time, but we accomplished all we set out to do! It was a great get-a-way! The drive was a little bit longer than what I had expected......and I am not sure I would do it again next weekend with my boys!

We started off by visiting the Hershey's Chocolate World.....this was Garrett and Ethan's favorite part! We toured the chocolate factory and oh the smell was great! We then went down to the park and rode some rides! Once the sun went down, it was very cold and the kids didn't last long after that! We then headed to see all the lights! The "Sweet Lights" was beyond amazing! It was so beautiful! It took us a good hour to drive through it to see all 2 million + lights!

We stayed the night at the hotel and swam for the rest of the evening! When we got up, we spent some unexpected time in the pool again due to my mistake of leaving the interior light on in the car! We had to wait for an "AAA" guy to come get me going again :) A FUN time was had by all!!