Toys and Burrs

It was a nice day so he played Rescue Heroes outside.


Toys are more fun in the grass.


When he happened to heard a noise.


It was a little hummingbird who found our feeder.


The Burr made James boil over with excitement.


He screamed Burr! at it and chased it until it was gone.


He really wanted the burr to come back, but James was just too scary for the little burr.


Back to those toys.....

Hush!

Mike opened his Christmas present today.


When it comes to gift giving I can't keep a secret! As soon as he found out there was a present somewhere in the closet that was for him I just had to give it to him. At least I wrapped it.

Parades

Our family band member has been busy these past couple weeks. He has been a part of two local parades and has an upcoming Christmas concert that he has been for. I hear the clarinet version of Jingle Bells on a nightly basis. I love it.


His first parade was right around Thanksgiving. Still nice and warm outside.


Our downtown is in the ghetto. We stood in front of one of the abandoned buildings and across the street from a local trailer park and laundromat. Classy.


James checking out the hood.


He also liked to chase the nasty pigeons off the abandoned building. It passed the time until the parade started.


He marches, he plays, and he chants. He did so good. He told me after that he was kind of nervous but it didn't show.


Parade numero dos wasn't quite as warm, but we were lucky enough to get our same spot. We came prepared with blankets, gloves, hats, and hot chocolate.


Choo Choo! The train had hydraulics on it that made it lift. I told you... ghetto.


Fire truck.

James loves parades because he got to pet a mini pony. The guy that was handling the pony just walked right over to us and let the boys pet him. So neat! My dang flash didn't work so the picture I got was completely black. Actually most of my pictures from the evening didn't make the cut. I need to take a class.

The second reason James likes parades is because he is obsessed with telling everyone Hi! and Bye! normally this gets a lot of weird looks when we are in Walmart and he says bye to everyone he passes. In the parade he got tons of waves back.

The Naked Christmas Tree

I am freezing today! The thermostat says 70 but I find it very necessary to blog wearing socks, a jacket, and swaddled in a blanket. Hopefully that doesn't mean James is giving me his cold again.

Monday we decorated our tree whom I named Gurdy. We started the Christmas music and I made the hot cocoa. Never, did I anticipate what was coming. James went nuts! Every single ornament that was within his reach had to be touched, yanked, shaken, and a couple of times they were thrown.


Marcus put one on the tree, James took two off the tree. I started freaking out when he grabbed hold of the garland beads and started walking backwards.


Sometimes he tried to help decorate by putting the outdoor garland on the tree.


We quickly learned to put all the old and special ornaments at least four feet up the tree and only the wooden or metal ornaments were allowed in the bottom sections.


After tree decorating, I cleaned up the shattered ornament on the sofa while the boys made button wreaths. Marcus also made us sugar cookies in his brand new easy bake oven.


This is what our tree looks like today. The ornaments are dropping like flies. The bottom half is almost completely barren and trust me. I can sleep better knowing that it is.

Mystery Tree Returns

This was the second year in a row that we decided to buy our Christmas tree relatively sight unseen. We go to the tree lot and look for the tallest, fattest, still bound with twine tree we can find. Then we take it home and unwrap our tree and see what we got.


We didn't measure all that well. We figured the 6 to 7 foot tree we bought would fit under our 8 foot ceiling. When we stood it up it was scraping so we had to do some tree surgery to make room for the star.


She's definitely got girth, but her top is a little... funky.

Okay so this year's tree wasn't as perfect as last year but that's okay. The excitement of unwrapping the unseen tree is worth it.


James got acquainted with the new living room addition while eating his first candy cane. He is in love.

Tomorrow I will tell you why our tree is half naked.

7 already

2 months


3 years


Today

Mr. Marcus is officially seven years old today. Oh God make them stop growing!! His chubby cheeks are gone now. He isn't shy anymore. He doesn't sneak into our bed in the middle of the night anymore. He's changing before my eyes.

Marcus wanted "fancy cupcakes" for his class. Fancy meaning out of our super awesome cupcake book fancy. I happily obliged his request and here is that story in numbers.



23- The number of cupcakes I had to make.
6.5- The number of hours they took to complete.
1- The number of school rules we broke by bringing in homemade cupcakes.
553- The number of M&Ms I gave James so that he would be a good boy and let mommy decorate.
698751954-The number of times Jason and Nathan asked if they could eat the left over sprinkles.


His class was super impressed with the cupcakes, he told me one boy said I make the best cupcakes ever. He was upset because he noticed someone threw one of his mom's special cupcakes in the trash. So cute. Even though he is seven, he will always be my sweetie.

Where to start

I guess I will head on back to November and play some catch up. We decided to have my cousin Daniel spend the night with the boys one weekend. He LOVES coming to visit and being wild with fellow wild children. Him and Marcus are close in age and played together most of the afternoon.


While Mike grilled our dinner, the boys practiced their shot with the nerf guns.


They aimed at an empty 2 liter bottle sitting on the table and occasionally James. If you are ever wondering what to buy a boy age 4-14 for Christmas, you can never go wrong with a nerf gun.

Seriously, I know.


After dinner, Daniel introduced us to Scooby Doo. His favorite show in the entire world. He actually recited some of the lines in the movie as they were saying it. I was impressed that James actually sat still to watch it for at least 15 minutes. An eternity for him.


We had a campfire in the backyard later that night. The smores were a hit and looked so delicious. Mike and I at the time were still dedicated low carb eaters so smores were out of the question. I had Jason describe the taste to me but it wasn't the same. That picture has some really crazy facial expressions going on doesn't it.


James wanted to be included but could not be trusted to stay away from the fire so I locked him in his high chair and gave him a stick so he thought he was roasting marshmallows too. He was cool with that.

It was a great night, we really should do it again soon. Was that really a month ago??

Grandpa's Birthday

My Dad turns 49 today. I remember when I was little and he turned 30 I thought he was so old. Funny how now that I am older, 49 doesn't seem old now. It's all about perspective.

My dad likes to hunt. He loves to camp and fish. He has had a mustache for so long it looks weird when he shaves it off. He makes big messes when he cooks but he is a great cook. He likes to run. He wears big ugly reading glasses that make him look like an old man. He loves being a sheriff, Love with a capital L. My dad always has time to play with his grandkids. He is the best guitar hero/rockband player I know. His favorite cake is pineapple upside down cake. He still lives in the house I grew up in. He is a tinkerer, always building something, always fixing something. He likes adventure, travel, and thrills. He doesn't have cable, got internet for the first time this year but only uses it to find free stuff on Craigs list. My dad is frugal. As kids, my sister and I never got value meals, just hamburgers, and cheese was added at home. He likes country music. He gave me my brown eyes and and my flinstone feet.

He's my one of a kind dad and I love him.

Happy birthday dad, sorry we couldn't hang out today. I owe you a pineapple upside down cake.

The Elves

This video makes me laugh so hard I cry every time I watch it.