A Small Town Christmas Parade

You've gotta love those small town Christmas parades! There's nothing quite like them. For several years now I've attended the Henderson Christmas Parade and I'm always amused. People complain about the cold but I say, what would the Christmas parade be if you didn't have to put on layer after layer just to watch a few decorated tractors and semis drive by! We always have a good time and look forward to it every year!

The ornament for the day is one that I've had for years and years. There's nothing really special about it except that since a child this has always been my favorite ornament. When I was growing up we (my brother and I) would get to pick one ornament to put on the tree first. I think I picked this ornament every year. Today it's still one of the first ones I hang on my tree!

Three Month pics

Just wanted to take a few minutes to post Rhett's 3 month pictures. We took these ourselves and while we are no professionals I was pretty pleased with what we got. Rhett was SO cooperative. It really is amazing the difference a month can make! He's such a happy baby. :) Anyway, here are a few of the pictures--my favorites.

The good, the bad, and the HILARIOUS!

Ok, I'm usually quick to post about my children doing good things and being so sweet--and they are so much of the time. But, we have our moments of misbehaving just like anyone else. I really wasn't going to post about this until I heard "the rest of the story". Once I had all the facts, I just couldn't resist. Many of you know my boys. Some of you even know what kind of families both Brandon and myself come from so it really doesn't come as a surprise to most why my boys do the things they do! Ha. I'm told that the Young boys (Brandon's dad and brothers) were always up to something and my dad has a long laundry list of things he did as a child. With that said, here's my latest and most recent story:

Yesterday afternoon I had put everyone down for naps. It was so quiet in the house and I was catching up on laundry. Rhett woke first (or so I thought) so I got him up and started feeding him. I know I've told some of you (and some of you with more than one child can probably relate) but I am my most vulnerable when I'm feeding Rhett. It's not nearly as easy to get up to check on things. Anyway, as I'm feeding Rhett Lawson and Jagger come tip-toeing down the hallway. I could notice that something was on their faces so I asked them to come closer to me. They both had looks on their faces that told me they knew they were in trouble. They held up their hands and I could see that they had drawn all over their hands with ink pens. The whole time I thought they were napping they were coloring! Each other! Fearful that they had drawn on other things like bedspreads, walls, etc. I asked if that was the only thing they colored on. Lawson looked around for a moment and slowly lifted up his shirt where his chest and belly looked like a smurf! I'll admit I was pretty mad and spanked them and sent them to separate beds. While in their time outs they both fell asleep.

When Lawson woke up he came into the living room where I was and sat down in the chair. Neither of us had spoken a word and he finally, breaking the silence, said, "Mom? Do you know why me and Jagger colored on our bellies?" To which I replied, "No, Lawson--I really have NO idea why you would do something like that!" He then replied " We wanted to have hair on our chest and belly like my dad!" I could NOT hold it together. I just started laughing and laughing. Lawson just shook his head and said, "See...I knew you'd laugh". That's when I KNEW I had to take a picture and post a story for the blog. I had been reluctant earlier to take a picture because I didn't want them to think I thought it was funny but after hearing that I just couldn't help myself! Later as I was cleaning them up I noticed that they had even drawn under their arms for armpit hair! Those two! I just don't even know what to say! They have promised me, though, that they will never do that again! :)

Movie Night!!!

My boys love movie night! This is something I started for them about a year ago. We pick a night (usually a Friday night since no one works or has school on Saturday) and pick a movie to watch. I pop popcorn for them (their favorite) and they get chocolate milk. We spread blankets out all across the floor, pile in the pillows and watch our movie with the lights out. A very inexpensive, but entertaining night! We've watched all sorts of movies. We've watched tons of Disney movies, cartoons, etc. We've even watched some of the silly movies like UnderDog. I love the giggles that these movies bring. Those are the sweet sounds I wish I could just bottle up!

Last night I saw that a couple of Christmas cartoons were coming on. I decided that it would be a great time for a movie night even though it wasn't a Friday. I quickly got out the blankets and popped the popcorn. I love TiVo where I can pause whatever is getting ready to come on. That allowed the boys time to clean up the mess in their room before settling down to watch TV. Once everything was in order we started the cartoon up. We watched Shrek the Halls (this was not a favorite of mine but the boys liked it) and The Grinch--one of my all time favorites. We had a blast and you can see in the picture that even Rhett enjoyed it. He sat in his bouncer and was mesmerized by the cartoons! What a great night.

The ornament pictured above is another one of our special ones. This was given to me by my inlaws. It is a "Mother's Keepsake" ornament. It's shaped like a gift box and inside the box is a charm with a little boy (2 of them actually) and Lawson's and Jagger's birthstones. I hope this year to add Rhett's. The tag on the box says "Children are the greatest gift of all." I love this ornament!

More Christmas

Since I plan to turn the past year's posts into a digital scrapbook, I wanted to post a few pictures of our decorations in our home. As I've said before I love this time of year and love a house decked out in Christmas decorations. I'm a traditional green and red gal so most of our stuff is green and red. Here is a picture of our tree. We love it. Not because it is the most beautiful tree but because it is the most special tree because of it's trimmings. I mentioned it before but I think nearly all of our Christmas ornaments have some type of story tied to them. So, what I'd like to do up until Christmas time is end each post with a picture of an ornament on our tree and tell the story behind it--just as sort of a documented story for some of our most special ornaments.

This ornament is only a year old, yet it has one of the deepest meanings to me. Last year Jagger played ball with an ornament that I had gotten in Colorado on mine and Brandon's very first vacation as a married couple. It ended up being thrown against our stone fireplace and shattered into pieces that could only be cleaned up with a vacuum cleaner! I was quite sad over losing such a special ornament. My sweet husband got online, found the store where I had bought the first ornament and ordered one. He, of course, was unable to find one exactly like I had bought 7 years ago so he picked one on his own. The ornament is hand painted and has a melting snowman on it. At the top it says, "You melt my heart". So sweet and so beautiful! This year the ornament is hanging at the very top of the tree to prevent any future ball games with my ornament! :)

Thanks, Becky!

Well, I've been tagged. My friend Becky tagged me and here's what I'm supposed to do: Go to my 4th folder and post the 4th picture in it and tell 4 things about it. Here's what I came up with:

1. This picture was taken at Lawson's 5th birthday party/ party for our good friends, the Lambs.
2. The kids in this picture (other than mine) belong to some of my best friends Sandy, Becky, and Sally.
3. The party was held almost an exact month from Rhett being born.
4. It was near 105 degrees that day!!!

Now my part is done. All I have to do now is tag four other people. Sorry guys, but I tag Brittany, Johna, Ainsley and Beth. Good luck guys.

A very special Christmas gift!

Although it's not Christmas quite yet, I still received an extremely thoughtful gift this weekend! I love it when Christmas comes early but this just took the cake.

Lawson had told his dad that he wanted to get me something for Christmas. He wanted it to be GOOD. Brandon asked him what he wanted to get me and this was Lawson's reply:

"Well, whatever I get her I want it to be better than what YOU get her!" He's so funny. He's my most comical child the majority of the time.

Anyway, after a trip to Wal-Mart (cause where else to you buy the perfect Christmas present?? Ha) they came home with gift in hand. Lawson got me a silver necklace with a diamond heart charm on it. Since it had to be something that Lawson could afford it is not what most would consider "fine" jewelry; however, I don't think I would sell it for $1000! It is priceless to me! He told Brandon that he didn't want to wait for Christmas--that I had to have it now. You can see me wearing it in the picture of us above.

He was so sweet. It was not wrapped but he held it behind his back and told me to close my eyes and hold out my hands. I was busy cleaning up from breakfast and (I'm ashamed to admit!) that I told him just to tell me what he needed, that I was busy right at the moment. A nod from Brandon told me I really needed to pay attention so I played along. He put that sweet necklace in my hands and I could have cried thinking I almost hadn't given him that minute of my time. I love the necklace but it and Lawson taught me an important lesson! I should never be "too busy" to take a moment for my kids. These moments won't last forever and I want to soak them up at every opportunity. Believe me! I'll do better next time. I have a very special necklace to remind me just in case I forget! :)

Lawson later told me that he got me that necklace so I would remember he would always be my Sugar Bear. I feel sure that the day will come when I'll have to pull out the necklace to remind HIM that he said he'd always be my Sugar Bear! :) Thank you, Lawson for such a special Christmas already!