Bah Humbug

I know it's the end of January, but I'm still just so happy that December is over. The holidays are supposed to be a wonderful and magical time of the year, but it seems as though they are so crammed full of events and parties to attend/decorating to do/treats to make/shopping to do that in all the relentless hustle and bustle, I tend to forget about the wonderful part and am just left overwhelmed and exhausted. Tell me I am not alone in feeling this way! 

This December was no different. It was so chock-full in fact that I am vowing next year, our family is going to leave out some things and make it a less stressful and enjoyable holiday to spend together. And that we will get all our Christmas shopping done by the beginning of November because let's face it, running around everywhere to find everyone's gifts with children in December with tons of people everywhere is by far the WORST part. (Hopefully, this will not all be forgotten when the holidays roll around again.) 

We did have some joyous times together so let's take a look at some of the highlights from the month:

To start the month off, we had S.E.A.'s Christmas party (Chase's work) at the Huntsville Museum of Art. I love that they do it at the very beginning of the month. I may or may not look forward to it every year because of the really good food...

Santa at the party

They always have a balloon animal man who makes cool stuff for the kids.

This year the party also had ice skating! Cade's first time, and he loved it!

Then there was church activity #1.

Next came Cade's birthday. I still get all sappy and can't believe he is already 4.

The day before his big day, I brought cupcakes to his preschool class to celebrate.

On his big day.

And it just so happened that Papa was running his first marathon the same day. Which is not a big deal at all.

I seriously don't know how people do it.

And then we had a birthday party with the Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, and cousins:

He (and his daddy's) favorite gift- a remote control helicopter. He is not capable of looking in any other direction but the tv if it is on.

Insert another church activity here.

Then we went to Santa's Village downtown.

Next came the annual ornament party, and Cade's preschool Christmas program.

Then, a huge achievement- Chase graduated with his MBA!! So. Glad. This. Is. Over. And I let that be known all the time. It's really, really hard to go to school while working full time, raising kids, and fulfilling church callings. But, with hard work, sweat, and maybe some tears sometimes (on my end), it can be done. And done it is! Woohoo!

I couldn't be more proud.

Cade still refers to this day and calls it "Daddy's gradulations".

At Daddy's celebratory meal- a glimpse of the evil eye Reece gives everyone now. Unfortunately, the big cookie cake I made was not documented.

Then we had church activity #3.

Next, came a nice surprise for my sister, sister-in-law and I- we were sent to the Carrie Underwood concert in Memphis! I'm really bummed I didn't bring my camera, and I couldn't get anything good on my phone. Alas, it was an awesome concert.

Snowflake ornaments Cade and I made for his teachers and a few people he loves.

Other goodies were made

We had Cade's Christmas party at school. If only we knew that was the last time we'd see his teacher, Mrs. Nikki. She took a job at another school over the holiday break, and we boohooed big tears!

Then, we had an awesome (and I mean awesome) get together with some friends at our house. You know it's awesome when Dirty Santa and blindfolded snorting like pigs at each other games are played. And when someone knits a scarf to look like a piece of bacon. Sheer genius.   

And we still had our normal traditions of seeing the Botanical Garden lights, Christmas cookie decorating, and Christmas Eve dinner.

And Santa came.

And Cade got a "keykol" mask and a little "keykol". We couldn't figure out for the life of us what a keykol was when he asked Santa for it. Apparently, it is the noise that Darth Vader makes (keeeyyy....koolll). Thank goodness I brought it up at the preschool party, and Mrs. Nikki knew exactly what it was or we would never have known.

Aunt Kim made awesome capes.

Reece started going to nursery with absolutely no problems and no looking back! He leaves there every Sunday in such a good mood!

Cuddling with "puppy" and "monmey"

And my husband has become a redneck.

Wisdumb teeth

Because the world needed to see my best picture ever

Let's just say November was a not so fun month for me. I came into the month just getting over a virus, just in time to get my wisdumb teeth taken out. Woohoo. I thought it would be a breeze. And it was not. Extreme pain that I have never experienced before. Pain meds wouldn't touch it. After a couple of days of off the charts pain that kept getting worse, I took my tail back to the oral surgeon hoping that he would please tell me it was just a dry socket and he could fix it. NO. Apparently, that tooth was a lot closer to the nerve than the others so that's what was bothering me. But, he did load me up with some other pain meds and a steroid, which helped a lot. Took about a week and a half for it to completely stop bothering me, and it is now all behind me. (My doctor was great though, and I would recommend him if anyone is needing those suckers out.)

Moving on- I did have some not so great side affects from the antibiotics I had to take and that took awhile to get over, too. As soon as I got over the wisdumb teeth charade, I came down with the lovely stomach bug, and so did everyone else. At what age do children learn to grab the bowl next to their bed?

Happy day that it didn't mess with our Thanksgiving because it was awesome(no, really. it was.)! My side of the fam had tons of our relatives come into town that we don't see very often and we partied. Meaning we got together 3 nights in a row, stayed up late playing games and eating good food. That's how to party.

 They made these cute outfits in preschool for their Thanksgiving feast. He was so upset to take it off that I promised him he could wear it again on Thanksgiving day. And he did.

Thanksgiving was Cade's first time meeting his new favorite person and my cousin, Sydney (what is her title to him?). He LOVES her. He kept saying, "I'm really gonna miss Syd...". Reece also met his new favorite person, my Aunt Wendie (what is her title to him?). He had to be with her all the time, sat with her at dinner, ate off of her plate, had to kiss her a million times when leaving. I wish I had gotten a picture of them together.

 Nonni and Seth attacked him.

Cade had his first school pictures taken and they were really cute, but so whopping expensive!! So I took pictures of a few of the proofs. Yeah, don't make fun of me...

Now, THIS makes me smile!

And this.

(For the record, I am aware that it is not spelled 'wisdumb' teeth.)

Together We Have It All

This also happened in October, but it gets it's own post. 

My brother Matt was kind enough to take some family pictures for us, and we love them! I'm sad to say that these are the first family pictures we've had taken with Reece. Our last family pictures were taken when Cade was Reece's age (15 months in these pics). We definitely need to have them taken more often. Glad these were taken before the whole staples episode, too. 

For those of you who don't have facebook:

All Hallow's Eve

In the spirit of Halloween festivities, we went to Tate Farms (again). And the kids loved it (of course). Chase and I have decided that it's getting a tad bit overcrowded for our liking (a lot overcrowded if we are being honest), so next year we are going to try to find a different pumpkin patch to enjoy.

Tower of Tires

Massive bouncy tarp

He loved throwing and yelling. When are my kids not loud?

Never again will I ride this ride. We were stuck with the seats right behind the tractor. Meaning- bits of dirt and hay were flying in my eyes the entire time. Meaning- my eyes have been irritated and red ever since (going  on 39 days if anyone is counting. Which I am!).

This is the one.

The week of Halloween, Cade's preschool had dress-up week:

Pajama day

Dr. Cade on Community Helper Day

The other days that Cade goes were wearing your Halloween costume (pictured below) and team spirit day (we can only guess what jersey he wore).

Haunted gingerbread house making with Papa and Nonni

Little monster and dragon.

All the cousins and Grandma and Grandpa came trick-or-treating in our neighborhood this year! (Maisy is without her sheep costume.) It was a lot more fun having them to go around with us. The worst part of the night was when no one knew where Cade was. I panicked to say the least. I darted everywhere screaming at the top of my lungs. I just knew one of those cars driving by just snatched him. Finally, we heard someone yell, "Over here!". Cade must have been screaming for me, too. I finally saw his little wings bouncing up and down as he ran in the distance. THANK GOODNESS! Huge sigh of relief! And then we were done. No more trick-or-treating. We're going home.

On a lighter note, we only had 255 trick-or-treaters hit our house this year. That's about 100 less than last year.

Backtracking to the 29th of October (my birthday, thank you), Reece went to the doctor to get the staples out of his head. He did ah-maa-zing. Didn't make a peep. Didn't flinch. Held still (which is a miracle in itself). His doctor even said how shocked he was at how awesome he did and gave him the nonexistent best patient of the day award. 

And then, 3 hours later, Reece was sitting on the floor playing with a toy and somehow managed to fall backward on the hardwood and busted it back open. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Blood everywhere. I was freaking out as usual. Cade was excited because he thought he was going to get to go play at Nonni's again (since he went to Nonni's when we took Reece to the ER to get staples in the first place. Thought process of a child...). Sorry, dude, but you're coming with. It was only partially split back open so I rushed him to my dad's office to see if he thought he needed staples again. My dad said he should be fine with suture tape and a big bandage. (Don't pay attention to my huge laundry pile in the background. Oh wait. Now that's all you can see...)

Reece is always into EVERYTHING. 

On this particular morning, he pulled my birthday cake down from the counter (who knows how) and was sitting on the floor giddy as can be while devouring. He looks a little guilty doesn't he?

Just a little while later- got into our food storage shelves and threw everything on the ground. That one's not so bad. He does it a lot.

Can you guess what that is ALL over the floor? Yep- rice. I opened that big 50 lb. bag in the corner while cooking dinner since I was out. No one saw me open it ,and I didn't have time at that moment to put all the rest of the rice in something so I went back in the kitchen to get it cooking. Needless to say, I got consumed in cooking and forgot about the rice. That is, until I heard some whooshing sounds over and over and over... couldn't figure out what in the world could be making that sound and them BAM it hit me! The rice! Yes, he discovered the rice and was happily throwing it alllll over the place. All in the hall, both boys' bedrooms, closet, bathroom, laundry room. It traveled everywhere. SO. MUCH. FUN. The next day, he figured out how to get into my sugar and was throwing that all over the kitchen. We also have to take the bar stools away from the counter because he climbs up on the counter non-stop. His other new thing is to hold down the water lever on the fridge and soak himself and get it all over the floor. Oh how I wish there was a lock button...

And that is October.