Saturday, January 5, 2013

Christmas 2012

We had a wonderful Christmas season!  We were off of school almost the whole month of December, which gave us time to enjoy lots of fun!  We made so many new memories and started a few new traditions.  We spent the weekend before Christmas out of town, at our parents.  We enjoyed family time, and our boys really had fun playing with all of their cousins. 

 One of the HUNDREDS of pictures I took for a Christmas card.....next year I am pretty sure I will start in July!!
 We took a carriage ride through one of the parks and enjoyed thousands of Christmas lights.  It was so much fun, and the boys loved it.  The carriage ride came at a perfect time, because we had just finished studying about horses in school, and Wesley and Davis had lots of ? for our driver.  Our horse's name was Doc, and they are still talking about him!


 I was brave several times and took these sweeties Christmas shopping.  They were so good, and this day we finished our trip with Build A Bear!  We are now the proud owners of " Snowflake Christmas", "Blue Flake" and "The Grinch" ;)
 We spent an afternoon at the zoo, and enjoyed the Christmas lights there!




 I was the recipient of many home made gifts this year.  This particular one was two paper plates, carefully wrapped with red tape, and inside was much needed pieces of green streamers and green ribbon.  Sweet Davis worked HARD on this gift.  Precious Wesley wrapped up his beloved Bible for me, one day!  I LOVE my boys sweet hearts and spirits, and all of the memories we are making!

 We also went to the Botanic Gardens.  They have a wonderful event for Children (it is fun all year long), but especially at Christmas.  The boys had a blast playing and running around. They even had a snow globe with some sort of artificial snow.....needless to say we spent a lot of time in it, and I won't mention who busted it a few times!!




 My sweet friend and I took our boys to visit Santa.  We have gone to this same place every year, since Wesley was a baby, and EVERY YEAR, I am in the picture!!  Johnson was not a fan of Santa or taking pictures this day :)!
 When we were at my parents for Christmas, we visited a local park and had a fun time there.  The boys spent lots of time running around and playing with their cousins.
 Almost 12 years of marriage, and EIGHTEEN years of being a couple!  I love my sweet husband more and more every day and I am so blessed God chose us for each other!
 Christmas cookies!!  My mom started this tradition when my brothers were little, and we all still do it!  We always have lots of fun, and Rhett and I enjoy a little friendly competition for the best Santa cookie.  I am happy to report that I still have the winning title :)!
 All ready for church!  It is crazy hard to get a pic with every one looking at the camera, much less smiling!
We made a huge effort to teach our guys the reason we celebrate Christmas.  We let them have the joy of believing in Santa and the magic of it all, but if you ask them, they know the reason we celebrate is because of Jesus.  Davis is quick to tell you that Jesus is "the best gift that we got EVAH, and all He wants is our hearts".  Wesley was extremely interested in the Christmas story and all of the details.  For the month of December we did "The Truth In The Tinsel".  It is great for kids, and really helped my boys understand lots of details.  I highly recommend it if you are looking for an advent activity for the Christmas season.  It has a Bible reading, craft/ornament every day.  We hung our ornaments on a tree we made with branches from the woods, and Wesley and Davis were able to look at every ornament and tell the Christmas story.  I am pretty sure this will be a tradition of ours for years to come.  I look forward to seeing how our ornaments change as they grow.
 Santa certainly visited our house this year.  We had very excited boys, who were obviously very good!
 Happy boys Christmas morning!

 Santa left two basketballs inside, but no basketball goal?!? So, hours later when we went outside to ride scooters/tractors......Wesley was so excited to see the basketball goal he has been asking for!  I love the look on his face!
 The electric scooter is so much fun!  A certain big kid in our house had lots of fun riding it......so much that the boys had to ask for a turn ;)

 Home made Christmas cards.  My FAVORITE Christmas gift!

 Exchanging gifts with baby brother.  Davis was so excited to give all of the gifts he picked out and wrapped!
I love this sweet little boy so much!  What a gift he is to us!  
 Thanking Daddy for new Nerf guns!




Every year, we make a birthday cake for Jesus.  It is such a fun tradition, that our boys really look forward to.  This year we added in the book "Happy Birthday Jesus".

We hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas.  May we all never forget the true meaning of Christmas and what Jesus did for us all!!


"For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life".                                         John 3:16

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Lately

Well, I am terrible at updating our blog.  There is just always something to do, and honestly I would rather be playing with these precious boys, instead of sitting at the computer!  The last few months have been super busy!  So, this will be the most random, and LONGEST post ever!  But, I have several sweet friends and family members who are not happy that I have done such a poor job of keeping our blog up to date.  These pictures are in no particular order, and I don't have time to fix them, haha!

 Thanksgiving at Rhett's parents.  We had a great meal, and enjoyed seeing family that sadly,  we rarely see.  The boys had a fun time playing with their cousins.
 This sweet baby is growing soooo fast!  He is almost 18 months old and full of energy and personality!
 Wesley LOVES playing soccer, and had a good little season.  It is lots of fun to watch him!
 Davis was more concerned with the snacks this soccer season ;)
 We had a blast at my parents for Thanksgiving.  We had a great supper prepared mostly by my sweet mama.  My boys are crazy about my parents!  They love them just like they love us!  Rhett and I talk about how very thankful we are for the great relationship we have with my parents and brothers.  We literally don't see much of our kids when we are there, because they are playing with every one else!  My sweet Daddy even does diapers and baths just to give us a break!
 My precious husband!   So very thankful for this amazing man God blessed me with, when I was just 15 years old!  We have had some wonderful times and some very hard times, and there is no one else in this world I would ever want by my side!
 The best Daddy and Papa!!
 These boys are WILD about their Papa!  He is just so much fun!  I have to brag on my Dad, he volunteers at a local hospital for children once a week.  Something he has done since retirement.  He was recently named volunteer of the year.  I know he makes such an impact on the sweet kids and families he visits and plays with.  He has even learned how to play WII with the older patients :)

 Sweet Davis is hilarious!  He spent lots of time keeping Aunt Becky and Bailey entertained Thanksgiving night.  Uncle Greg, Uncle Todd and Reagan spent a lot of time playing football and chasing these silly boys!  I have to say my sister in law Rhonda, has to be the fastest dish washer, ever!  She is always so good about jumping in and cleaning up every one's mess!  We definitely missed my oldest brother Scotty, and his family.  We were glad to spend some time skyping with them, and can't wait to see them all at Christmas!
 These boys had such a good time!  Maxwell stayed every night with us, and they had a blast. We had movie night and popcorn.....such sweet memories!
 Time is flying by with this precious boy!
 Several people have been asking about our homeschool......you know since I never blog about it!  It is going really good, and we are all loving the flexibility we have.  I don' think it is how we will educate our children for 12 years.  But, for now, it is exactly what we are called to do.  Here, we were making homemade apple pies to go along with our apple unit from My Father's World.  We have all really enjoyed this curriculum, and it is amazing how much our boys are learning.
 Ready for Disney!  We decided early summer, to plan a fall trip to Disney!  We had about 3 months to plan, and it was plenty!  We didn't tell Wesley and Davis until the night before......and keeping that secret was so much fun!  I spent the week before sewing t-shirts, and Halloween costumes in secret.  They were ecstatic when we told them, even though they had no idea what Disney World was.  They were really excited about the plane ride!  We decided to leave Johnson at home.  It was a really hard decision, and we went back and forth.  But, it was the BEST decision for all of us.  It would in no way be fair for him to have been strapped in a stroller all day (for those of you who know how busy he is, you understand), and we knew it would be better for Wesley and Davis.  We were able to stay gone all day until late at night, something that would have been impossible with sweet Johnson.



 These guys LOVED the character meals.  Probably one of their favorite things!  We visited every park, including both water parks.  We realize that these guys have no fear, and the bigger the roller coaster, the better!  Late September was a great time to go.  We never had to wait on any rides.  We would literally get off and get right back on!



 We went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween 'Party.  We knew it would be warm and walking around DW with bulky costumes would be no fun for any one.  So, we decided to be Micky Mouse Caped Crusaders.  The costumes were easy, cool, and certainly original!
 We had glow in the dark masks to wear with our costumes.


 Wesley and Davis were ecstatic about the train in the Magic Kingdom.  The conductor was so nice, and invited them to ride on the back with him, and even let them give the "ALL ABOARD" call.


 The Lego store was def a favorite for these lego loving boys!  I think we were in there for over two hours!

 When we came home, it was my birthday, and a few days before Davis' fourth birthday.  My Mom and Dad had a little party for us, complete with cake, streamers, hats and lots of fun.  Davis was beyond thrilled to see his Papa and Mimi and this awesome tractor they gave him!  My sweet parents stayed at our house all week with Johnson.  I can not thank them enough!  We never once worried about Johnson and were able to have a fantastic trip knowing he was so well taken care of!
 Hard to believe this little guy is FOUR!  He is hilarious and keeps us laughing all of the time!  He has a heart of gold and is so loving.  I pray he always stays as sweet as he is today.