Santa Visit

We went to visit Santa last weekend and only had to wait 2 1/2 hours, more like 3! The four of us went to the mall right after church and the line was really short. Great! Then we found out that there was a private event and we'd have to wait an hour until it was open to the public. Well, daddy had some important football games on, so we took him home, ate a bite of lunch, and then went back. Needless to say, the line had grown! But we came prepared with a backpack and iPads. They also met another little girl in line who they had fun playing with. 

Plus, the Santa area at willow bend had lots of interactive things to do to make the time pass quickly. 

Christmas Decorating

Thanksgiving 2014

We had a smaller Thanksgiving this year. Jen was our only out of town guest. I was a little nervous about my turkey this year because I was using the electric roaster that Mama got for me. I had already used it for other dishes, just not the turkey. I read several articles on the Internet about how the roaster is different. The main thing I found out was that it cooks faster and doesn't brown the skin as much, but that the turkey ends up being extra juicy. So I timed everything based on the longer cook time. One of the recipes I saw said that a 19 lb turkey would be ready in 4 hours. My roaster cookbook said 2 1/2. Mine ended up being ready after 3 hours. It did brown a little, but I rubbed it with butter and stuck it in the oven for 30 minutes to get it browner. It was perfect! I also did mashed potatoes and rolls. Mama made the dressing, pecan pie, and pumpkin pie. And Grandmother made her broccoli salad and cream corn with sausage. Everything was so good!!!! Plus we had a little birthday party for Mama. We gave her $50 to Tuesday Morning and a hummingbird charm.

 

After everyone left, we took short naps, watched the Cowboys game, and got all of our Christmas decorations out. My main goal for that evening was to get the tree decorated. Nathan and Charlotte helped me, and it looks so pretty! I did the ribbon and then just let them do all of the ornaments. They only broke 3! Poor Nathan broke two in a row and felt really bad. Then I broke one (so I guess it was 4 total) and he felt better. Ha! Around 10, I left to do a little Black Friday shopping. Since everything opened earlier this year, and I didn't have to wait til midnight to start, I figured I'd just be gone a couple of hours especially since I didn't have anything specific that I needed. Well, once I got out, I was having so much fun shopping by myself that I didn't get home until 4:00 am!!! I bought one thing on sale (a pair of pajamas for $7.00 and everything else I liked was not on sale like two pairs of earrings, a necklace, and some shoes). It was fun though. Now we are finishing our Christmas decorations, which I'll show in a different post. We are trying to get everything ready because Wayne and I are going out of town Monday through Wednesday for Wayne's Nashville Christmas party.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting Ready for Christmas

The big Toys R Us and Target toy catalogs came to our house, and two little kids were VERY excited! I was thinking now that they are a little older, maybe they could really just circle only their favorite, must-have toys and give us a good idea of what they really wanted. I told them to try to just circle their top 10. Both seemed to think that was a good idea. They worked really hard and long, and when they showed their choices to us, how many things do you think were circled? Only EVERYTHING! 

Nathan

Nathan is now toothless! He's already lost his two bottom teeth, and has now lost one of us upper teeth. It was loose just a few weeks ago, and then it seemed like in one day, it got VERY loose. When I picked him up from school two weeks ago, I could see this big space between his front tooth and the side tooth! He wiggled and wiggled it, and Wayne and I even attempted to help him out. One day last week, he came home from school and it was leaning to one side. I told him we had to get that thing out! Then he came up with the idea of using his stomp rocket. We tied a long piece of dental floss to his tooth and the other end to the rocket. Jake and Skylar were over playing and they were our audience. Jake helped encourage Nathan. Here is a video of one of our first attempts. It was so hard for Nathan to get his courage up even though he really wanted to do it.

From watching the video, it looks like it worked. But the string ended up breaking. And Nathan was done after that! He told me just to untie the string and he would wiggle and wiggle and get it out himself. The only problem was that the rocket ended up making the string really tight and up high against his gum. There was no way I could get it off! So I just clipped it, and he ended up having this tiny piece of floss hanging between his teeth! I emailed the video to his teachers who thought it was hilarious and let him show it to the class the next day. The next night, I made fried chicken. Nathan took one bite and yelled that his tooth came out! Leave it to my cooking! He was so excited!!! 

This is a perfect example of Nathan's spunky, adventurous, and funny personality. I can definitely say he is all boy! He has such a great personality. He loves to be funny and make us laugh. He can quote and act out tons of commercials...he expecially likes the insurance ones. He's got his British/Austrailian accent down to a science and even told the sister of one of Charlotte's friends that he was from England and was just here visiting his cousin for a few weeks! Where Charlotte has my passive personality traits, Nathan has his Daddy's assertive personality. He will grow up to be a great lawyer or politician. If I tell him to do something and he asks why, I can't just say "Because I said so." He wants to know exactly what it is, why it's necessary, and if he doesn't agree, he will give me his reasons why or try to negotiate something different.  

He and Charlotte have their moments of not getting along or getting on each other's nerves, but overall, they are really very close. They really play together well and actually enjoy being with each other. There was one night when Nathan really wanted Charlotte to sleep in his room with him. She used too but now loves her room and her bed. I had already tucked them both in, but heard Nathan get out of his bed. I went to the hallway by their rooms and heard Nathan talking to Charlotte. He said that if he had a Genie, he would wish that he could have all the toys in the world, then he'd wish that Charlotte would stay little. He said that now that she's bigger, she doesn't want to be with him as much. Then Charlotte told him she still really loved him but she just likes her bed. So then Nathan asked if he could sleep in her room! I was dying laughing because they were having this sincere conversation and really trying to negotiate what each of them wanted. So I let them work out this agreement and Nathan slept in her twin bed. In the middle of the night, I heard a big thud and Charlotte crying. She fell out of the bed! 

Where one of Charlotte's favorite things is shopping and dressing up, Nathan's favorite thing is to wrestle with Daddy. They have wrestled before bedtime since he was little. I used to worry about Nathan getting hurt. Now I worry about Daddy! Nathan is getting so big and pretty much has no fear!

Another funny thing Nathan said was just a few weeks ago. I fixed him a bagel but told him we ran out of cream cheese. He said, "That's ok, I'll have some..." and he pauses for a while trying to think of the word. "Mommy, what's that white stuff we have at Thanksgiving?" I answer, "butter?" and he says, "Yeah, I'll have some butter." I laughed so hard. I guess we don't have much butter around here, ha!

I love you Nathan! Thank you for making our lives so entertaining and unpredictable! Even though you are getting big, you are still my baby. I love that you love your family so much. We love you too.

Here are some pictures of Nathan pre toothless and post. Also, some pictures from his first grade Thanksgiving feast and the teacher dodgeball tournament at his school