Zoo with Cousins!

We were so happy to have Joe's sister Kelsey visit with her two little kiddos.  We had a great time at the zoo, even though it was barely 50*.  :)

 

Our favorite moment was when two gorillas with their babies came right up to the window.  The kids all got lots of baby time, even tapping on the glass with them back & forth.  But mostly the gorillas just picked their noses and ate it.  It was gross.  And hilarious.

 

Baby birds: Rosie, Jared & Hunter

Basketball: The Pirates!

Sawyer started basketball last month through Upward Sports (Johnson Ferry Baptist Church) and is having a great time being on the team named "Pirates"!  Here they are before a game, hearing from one of the refs and getting ready to say their prayer together (have I mentioned I love the South?).

While it's a lot of fun, he has definitely learned that he's more of a soccer star. ;)  Someday we'll be able to provide our boys with a driveway with a basketball hoop to practice on, though!  And of course at this age, they're all just having so much fun being out there together with new friends, that they don't even care that they've lost all three their games so far.  Haha :)  Their coach is so patient with them!

Christmas Catch Up!

Sawyer met Santa at The Avenue (mall).  Hunter was scared to death and screaming with a death grip on us to not make him go over by him.  Haha :)

We had SO much fun with our Elf on the Shelf, Simon!  This was one of our favorite days: he made us 'elf donuts' for breakfast (cheerios with icing & sprinkles).  The boys were so sad to see him go, since he went back to the North Pole with Santa on Christmas Eve.  We're so excited for him to come back next Christmas!

Our Christmas week pizzas (so fun, btw):

The kids sang at the church Christmas party.  Technically Hunter wasn't in primary yet (still in nursery), but I guess they were all out playing in the hallway and he got corralled into the group as they lined up to go up on stage!  He did VERY, INCREDIBLY well!  You never would've known he wasn't supposed to go up. He stood still and sang a lot of the words.

Our beautiful tree, loaded with goodies (mostly from Grandmas):

Christmas morning, unloading the stockings Santa filled!

Opening gifts:

Thank you for the game, Grandma!

...and thank you for the awesome pirate stuff!

A BIG thank you for these awesome Perplexus mazes!  They play with these EVERY DAY, and they must be SO good for their minds and motor skills!  Highly recommend these toys.  Hunter has the "Rookie" and Sawyer has the Original.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Decorating our sweet, $30 pre-lit tree from Target last year.  :)  Maybe someday I'll have the big, fancy, perfectly coordinated & decorated tree, but for these years I'll just enjoy having little children who want to break and/or rearrange the ornaments each day.  It's so fun to watch the magic in Hunter's eyes as he stands at the Christmas tree, moving the ornaments around.  It was often several times a day.  I don't want to deprive him of that.  I'm already uptight about enough things around our house.  :)

 

 

One of the first things we do to rev up the Christmas season is build our annual mini gingerbraed (graham cracker) houses.  Joe and I have been doing this since our first Christmas together when we were dating: 9 years ago!  Once kids came along, I started making individual houses, so each person can work on their own.  I make them early in the day so the 'glue' is totally dry and they're ready for decorating (tiny kids wouldn't have the patience to do the building yet; but Sawyer did start helping me with the building process this year).  We're rewarded with having a nice big "Christmas Village" of multiple homes on a shelf somewhere.   



Thanksgiving at the Cabin!

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving this year.  About the best you could expect when you're across the country from your family.  We went with two other young families (who also live far from family) up into the Blue Ridge Mountains to stay in a big cabin together.  All of us cook amazingly delicious food, so it was a fantastic Thanksgiving Day line-up!

 

 

(Above) The grown-up table

(Below) The three year old table.  I think they each ate their rolls & then left to play.

The hot tub out on the deck, which the kids used way more than the adults.  In fact, Joe and I were the only adults to even get in!  The kids had a blast!  It was usually in the 40s-50s outside when they went in.

Lots and lots of games were played:

After Thanksgiving Day, we broke out the sugar cookies & decorating (Christmas shapes & sprinkles):

The kiddos played a lot of pool in the basement (no pics of that, whoops), played a lot outside with the dog that visited almost every day, and spent one afternoon playing with clay (these amazing animal shapes were done by Brittany, though).  :)

The cute & sweet dog, Noah, who visited every day & often stayed for a large portion of the day.  Apparantly he lives down the street.  There were notes inside the cabin from other renters who'd talked about the sweet dog named Noah who comes to visit.  Our boys were in HEAVEN having a dog for four days!  They were SO upset when it was time to leave.

Goodbye, Cabin!