Christmas in...uh....March?

Well, it's March 3, and sadly I am just now updating the blog from Christmas. Better late than never, right?! Life just seems to get crazier and crazier as time goes on, and once you find yourself so far behind in posting the task just seems so daunting because you feel you can never catch up. Have no fear though! I am determined to keep this blog going!

 

A thought about Thanksgiving first....somehow I managed to only end up with one random picture from Thanksgiving. Not sure what happened there, but my lack of documentation is not indicative of anything less than a perfect holiday! As we do every year, we celebrated with Brandon's family the weekend before and my family the weekend after. This was an extra special year because my cousin Melody and her family of 8 made the trip from Ohio, which was so much fun! We really had a great time catching up with them, and for the first time Ma was able to be with all 12 of her great-grandchildren (soon to be 14!). There is a picture somewhere, so once I get my hands on it I will post it!

 

December was full of a lot of fun activities, including going to a Christmas parade and picking out a tree!

We got a real tree this year from a Christmas tree farm, which we thought the boys would love! They did like it, but after about 10 seconds of looking at the trees they ran off into a field nearby with Brandon to run around. Somehow I ended up picking out the tree by myself! :)

 

Writing letters to Santa....

 

 

And the pre-Christmas highlight was taking the boys to ride the Polar Express in the NC mountains! This is one of their favorite movies, so we thought it was the perfect year for them to experience it themselves! We rented a really cute cabin and spent the weekend!

 

One of the many faces of Landon. :)

After dinner, we all got ready to head to the train station!

After getting hot chocolate and cookies (with singing of course!), Santa arrived!

Santa gave everyone a bell!

The conductor made his rounds and punched their tickets.

Once we got off the train, the boys got to spend some quality time with Santa! Last year Landon refused to sit on Santa's lap (actually screamed and cried!), so we weren't sure what to expect this year. He had no issue with Santa at all though....ran right over and jumped in his lap!

On Christmas Eve, Granny, Gramps and Uncle Scott came down, which is always fun! Here is an attempt at a picture before going to church.

Christmas morning!

 

Heading back to Boone....

 

We headed down to Pinehurst the afternoon of Christmas day and were able to spend a few days at Mimi and Popeye's house with everyone!

 

 

Making a fire with Popeye...

 

 

Look at these two little cuties! Elle and Griffin loved their dragons from Mimi and Popeye!

 

 

Grady got a really neat circuit set, which he loves! He is a little engineer in the making!

 

 

 

 

Kelly and Louis had Griffin baptized a couple days after Christmas, and we were honored that they asked Brandon and I to be his godparents!

 

 

Elle doing some push-ups to get ready....

 

 

Landon is....hmmmm....resting before the baptism (?)....We almost lost him in the carpet with those red pants!

 

 

 

The cousins!

 

 

We also celebrated Popeye's birthday, and the boys enjoyed helping him blow out his candle!

 

 

Landon's Birthday!

Landon turned 3 on November 11. Three is an adorable age because kids just say the funniest things, and it's so fun to see their little minds churning away. Just today (and I'm a bit behind on the blog as I'm writing this on Jan. 30) we had this conversation:

 

Landon: "Mommy, you're going to be my wife."
Me: "Oh really? Good!"

Landon: "Yeah, we're going to get married in 60 years."

 

Yep, I'll be 94, and I'll be marrying my 63-year-old son. he he.... Gosh I love that little boy.

 

I love to use birthdays to kind of reflect on who my kids are as little people. Landon is definitely a funny little guy with a very unique personality. He's pretty sensitive and generally needs extra comfort a lot of the time (yep, he's pretty much a little me). At the same time, he can also be pretty laid back (until something rubs him the wrong way, and then the floodgates open!). He is definitely his own person, and often times has no interest in things other kids his age typically love. He is usually pretty sure of what he wants and doesn't want to do, and there is really no point in pushing him to do something he has decided he has no interest in. Actually, the only person who has influence over him with things like that is Grady. Landon ADORES Grady and very much loves the little brother role. They are really cute together and genuinely love each other. (Don't get me wrong - they fight too, but they get over it pretty quick.)

 

Landon loves carrying around little "guys," and at any given moment you could find 2-3 of them in his pockets or hands. Usually these are little lego guys, but they change periodically - sometimes mini Smurfs (Papa is his favorite), little figurines, etc. And then there is Woody. He pretty much adopted Grady's Woody (from Toy Story) a long time ago and goes through phases where he carries Woody literally everywhere. Then for a few weeks we don't see Woody at all. No matter what Landon will always have a "friend" with him.

 

 To celebrate Landon's birthday we had both a family party and one with friends at the park in our neighborhood. It was a beautiful 70-degree day (November is always a little unpredictable)... we did our best to give him the Smurf party that he wanted! :)

 

Here is our big boy! (See his "guys?")

Both of our families came to help Landon celebrate his birthday, which we always appreciate! (And as you can see Woody made an appearance at the party too!)

 

Grady managed to get messier than any of the 3-year-olds at the party! :)

 

And of course birthdays always make me a little nostalgic, so I couldn't resist posting a picture from Landon's 1st birthday! Where does the time go?! :)

Catching up from September and October

The last couple of months have been a bit of a whirlwind! We moved into a new house in September and somehow survived the whole moving process with two kids. Not an easy task! Luckily, the first couple who looked at our house bought it, so we didn't have to endure too much of the keep it sparkling clean 24/7 in case you have a showing craze.

Enjoying lunch on our new deck!

In mid September I took Landon and Elle to the Museum of Life and Science! Here they are with the snakes!

We also took the boys to the State Fair....it was quite a different experience this year because we were pretty much stationed at the rides the entire time. Grady wanted to go on absolutely everything! Here he is bungee jumping (well, the version for kids anyway)! 

Landon wasn't quite as sure about the rides, but finally decided that he wanted to ride the dragon roller coaster with Grady. This was the first roller coaster the boys went on all by themselves, and I have to say it was quite fast (and they picked the front seat)! I wasn't sure how Landon would do, but all is okay with the world when Grady is next to him. :) You can't really see Grady in this picture, but at least we got a glimpse of Landon.

And it wouldn't be October without a trip to the pumpkin patch!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We closed on our old house in late October (luckily, we had a few weeks in between to move), so the last day we went over and played in the backyard one last time.