Countdown to Christmas Photo Challenge - Day 2

Day 2

Of course my L Man and the silly pup were looking at Daddy and not me.  I would have tried to get a better or another picture but my two goofballs M & G who NEVER want to be in pictures decided to tackle L to get into the picture, yet wouldn't look at the camera or smile or actually even sit still enough to get a non blurry shot.  BOYS :) 

Countdown to Christmas

I am so behind in posting.  I have picture after picture that needs to be gone through and posted.  I haven't even been creeping on the blogs that I normally creep on much lately.  For some reason I decided to make, yes MAKE all of the Christmas presents this year.  If I ever do this again I will start way before the month of December.  I feel like I'm missing out on a whole month with my boys.  

I quick flipped through the blogs that I normally read tonight and I came across a photo challenge.  I am going to try to do this every day until Christmas... I hope!!!  

If you want, come on over to key to pictures and join in on the challenge.  

Day 1

G and Mama decorating the Christmas tree.  I love that he loves me!!!

Festival of Lights

A few days before Thanksgiving we went to a parade called Festival of Lights.  We were so excited to take the boys to their first parade.  

They are so cute!

The parade was no big deal.  Let's just say I was SO happy that it wasn't freezing because I would have been so annoyed that we went if it was.  That's how unimpressive it was.  BUT the boys LOVED it.  I cracked up because most of the floats were pulled by tractors.  Yes my East coast friends, tractors!  I was cracking up.

Happy Thanksgiving

 I know Thanksgiving has come and gone but I thought I would share some pictures anyway.

We went to Hubs parents house to celebrate.

Hubs older brother and family were there, his younger sister and family were there, and my mom and one of my brothers were there.  There was a total of 21 1/2 people 11 kids and 20 adults and a babe in utero (no not me).  

We had yummy pie.  One of my sister in laws made two pumpkin pies from pumpkins from her garden that were waiting in her freezer to be put into something delicious.  I was suppose to make an apple pie.     Of course I couldn't stop there.  Hubs has grown to love chocolate pudding pie since we have spent so many holidays with my family and it was a staple.  I figured I had to make one special for him.  I found a recipe online and sadly it never stiffened.  It stayed soupy and was way too rich.   Yes that apparently can actually happen.

I also made a coconut cream pie.  I decided that I really wanted it.  I've never made one before.  Actually I don't know if I ever even had tried one before.  It was AMAZING!  Definitely a recipe to keep in the box.  Even if I'm the only one that will eat it in my house.

My nephew LOVED his pumpkin pie.  He was the first kid back to the table for dessert and actually finished his piece before his siblings and cousins were even able to come up to join him.

My mother in law has these cute pumpkins all over the house.  Here are just two of them.  

 Little L Man turkey bum.

This is a horrible picture of L, but I love the joy on my mother in laws face.

Hubs family celebrates holidays much different than my family.  They spend the ENTIRE day together.  Family arrives in the morning and leaves at night, where as in my family we meet around 2, eat at 3/3:30 and leave anywhere between 6 and late.

After the big turkey dinner (noon) there was pie and play/nap time.  Then we met back in the kitchen for supper.  We had turkey sandwiches, fruit, some veggies, and chips.  I made a cranberry mandarin orange walnut apple salad with a cranberry vinaigrette dressing.  It was really good.  I love salads with fruit in them.

Then we had some birthday cake and more pie.

One of my cutie nephew's birthday was on Thanksgiving this year so his mommy made him a dinosaur cake.  Chocolate on chocolate... not my favorite, but it seems it's everyone else's because this is what we have had at 3 birthday parties since I've been here.  Oh a 4th cake was an angel food (my fav.) but with chocolate frosting.  I thought that was the strangest thing.  I guess that's why we all have at least 1 time a year we get to choose our favorite right :)

Hope you all had a wonderful time with your families on Thanksgiving.

Operation Christmas Child

The mission of Operation Christmas Child is to demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way to needy children around the world, and together with the local church worldwide, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.

I don't know how long I have been putting together an Operation Christmas Child shoe box.  I always thought it was so fun to pack a box.  Then a few years ago I started packing them with the youth as a youth leader.  To see the students bring their boxes to youth group and show the leaders everything they decided to put in them was special... little did I know that this year would be my favorite shoe box packing year yet.  

When we gave the Bigs a shoe box to fill we explained to them that we were going to go to the store to buy special things for a little boy and a little girl that don't have/get any toys or special treats.  We explained to them that when we were at the store we were not going to get anything for them BUT only for our shoe boxes that we will be sending to the little boy and girl.  

We asked M & G who wanted to fill the box for the boy and who wanted to fill it for the girl.  G took the boy box and M took the girl.  

They picked out some colors (crayons).  Actually they put ALL of the crayons in their boxes.  This was the first item they picked out and they hadn't yet understood that we were getting more than one type of thing.  They tried to fill the whole box with the crayons.  It was really cute.  They were putting them in so fast that I couldn't keep up with trying to take them out and explain to them that we should go find more items.

Mickey Mouse playing cards.

Checking out what was in his brothers box.

Finger paints.

Pencils.

M looks so happy here.

M picked out some doll accessories.  He didn't think about needing a doll to go with it so Mama helped him out there.  They also picked out some of the books and coloring books that were next to the doll accessories.

The boys did great with not asking or expecting to take home anything... until we got to this isle.  There were monster trucks, semi trucks, bull dozers, dump trucks, tractors, motorcycles, etc.  Although they did ask to get some of the toys they asked in the sweetest ways.  "This is for my boy and this one is for me.  This is for my girl and this one is for me".  We gently reminded them that they weren't getting any toys today.  That todays trip was just for the special boy and girl.  They pretty much happily put back the ones they picked out for themselves and put the ones they chose for their boxes in the boxes.

Some how we ended up waiting until the last night (what else is new).  Since we didn't have time to go back home to pack our boxes we sat in the van and filled them up there.  When they were all filled the boys gave their boxes squeezes and kisses and Hubs brought them into the church to drop them off.

I was so proud of my boys.  This is going to be a great tradition.

Big Eats

Little Man got to have his first bite of food on November 11th.  He turned 6 months on the 1st and I have been putting off this milestone.  I know this is a great step.  It means he's thriving, he's healthy, he's strong, etc.  However, it means that he doesn't rely solely on me anymore.  Yeah, yeah, I know he does... it's just not the same.  

Here L is with M waiting for his first tasting.

He has been ready for this day for a while now!  Every time we eat while holding him he opens his mouth as we bring the spoon or fork to ours.  Like I said, I've been putting this off.  It was about time.

Daddy and G did most of the feeding.

Look at him open his mouth so perfectly for his cereal.

His eyes remind me of a Precious Moments right here.  They don't normally look like this, but I think they are sooo gorgeous.

Of course (like most babes) he was ready to feed himself right away.

Towards the end of the bowl I traded the camera for the cereal.  I wanted to get in on the fun.

This kid has chunked up in the last couple weeks since we began cereal.  He's gotten such meaty little legs.

He ate it all up!

Hubs was hoping that since L started cereal it would mean that he would sleep better at night.  Not so much.  He's a monster at night!  I shouldn't say that.  He is such a happy baby.  He just wakes to eat A LOT.  I normally try not to feed him at night but the last few I gave up.  Normally I try to get him to go back to sleep but it takes about 2 hours and then I just give in and feed him.  After I feed him he goes right back to sleep.  The last few days I said forget it and just feed him right away.  I'm up much for a shorter amount of time and I don't have to wake Hubs for help since I'm not AS sleep deprived.  I figure I need to stop waking Hubs for help because he said at this rate he's done having kids since L doesn't sleep at night... he doesn't want to go through this again.  HAHA.

OH and NO, we DID NOT pick the wall color.  That's not bad compared to the horrible yellow mustard bathroom.  Try putting makeup on in a yellow mustard bathroom.... ug!