Preschool Art

Braden makes the cutest projects at preschool. His teacher, Mrs. Amy is SO crafty and has the cutest ideas. Since the fridge has been filling up, I've been putting them on his bedroom door. I'm going to need to take everything down to get ready for the "Christmas projects" so I thought I'd take a picture of some of his cute fall work. :)

Elf on the Shelf

I've heard about the famous elf on the shelf that helps kids behave during the Christmas season. :) Ha! Sooooooo, needing all the help I can get around here and just for the fact that this idea is too cute, I had to go buy one today. The elf is this little, kind of creepy looking guy that sits somewhere in your house each day. When the kids get up each morning he will be hanging out in a different place on a different shelf possibly. He watches you all day and then travels to the north pole at night to report to Santa how you behaved that day. You can't touch the elf but you can talk to him. You also have to name your elf. Braden and Chris named ours "Elfy." Elfy came with a cute book that tells when he joined our family and what we named him. I'll let you know if Elfy tames any children in this house. Hee hee!

Big walker :)

Check out Ethan's thunder thighs while he is walking....I love the chunks! He is one solid baby! He weighs 29 pounds and he is a load to carry I tell you. :)

Santa Baby!

Tonight we ventured up to Memphis for their first annual "light up Memphis." Gma Cindy and Pop were so nice to be standing in line for us so we got to walk up and go right in to see Santa. Braden was ready, not scared but a little timid or unsure just like last year. He wants to see Santa and willingly sits on his lap but always has that look on his face like he's not so sure what to do. :) He did tell Santa he wanted Jessie and Bullseye for Christmas (2 Toy Story characters he doesn't have yet). Ethan wasn't into Santa at all! He was very scared and tried to get far away the whole time...of course I was snapping away on my camera. :) I think screaming babies on Santa's lap are just part of the normal Christmas tradition. Ha!

We tried many different ways and then Santa suggested I sit on his lap with Ethan. Of course that's a little strange because you just don't know who's under that suit. Ha! Ethan was not having it!

The boys enjoyed cookies, hot chocolate, and candy canes after seeing Santa.

Since no one was left in line when we were leaving, we went back in to chat with Santa some more and even did a little family shot. :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I loooooooovvvvvee this time of the year! I love Christmas time and I especially love it now that I have kids to share it with. I get so excited to put the trees up each year, for Chris to hang the lights outside, shopping for gifts, and of course watching my kids' faces on Christmas morning! Love it, love it, love it!! We usually put our trees up the day before Thanksgiving. Braden has been so ready for this! He has asked me for 2 straight weeks, "Is it Christmas today?" The kid is ready!

Getting our upstairs tree out of the box. Braden was a little let down when he realized he had to wait a long time for us to get the tree together and the lights on before he could really decorate. Even with his 100 questions of "can we put the ornaments on now?" he was still a pretty good boy. :)

Ethan was loving the new "stuff" in the living room.

My cuties in their matching pjs. :)

Braden was the best little decorator ever!!! Instead of putting them all in one area, he carefully placed them all around the tree, high and low and even pushed them back on the branch. I was pleasantly surprised!! He seriously decorated half of the trees and it looked great! Such a big boy! :)

Ethan checking out the kids' nativity scene.

I tried to get Ethan to decorate but as you can imagine it was a little hard. At first he was almost scared of the tree and wouldn't go near it, then once he discovered the ball ornaments, he said, "ball" and began throwing them. :) After we ended that, he's been really good about not touching the tree. Such a good baby!

Chances of getting a good picture of a 3 and 1 year old simultaneously....next to impossible. BUT the funny pictures you do get=priceless! This is a sneak peek of our Christmas card too. :)

Starting on the downstairs tree-such big helpers.

Oh, and the train. This might be Chris' biggest nightmare. The train goes around the downstairs tree but of course the kids knock it off the track and it's kind of tricky to get it back on. These three have been duking it out over the train for days now. ha! I just sit back and listen....the yearly train will always be a good laugh around here.

Walking!!!

Well we finally have a big walker in the house! Ethan started taking about 5 steps a few weeks ago and he is definitely on the move now. He's been walking for about 2 weeks but was also still crawling at times. Just like Braden, he couldn't get going unless he pulled up on something and then took off. Now he's figured how to get up off the ground and put that cute little butt in the air and he's off! I think a beginning walker is the cutest thing ever! He has his hands out for balance and always looks like he has a load in his pants with his wide stance and waddle. It is too cute! It's funny how my big 'ole babies are such late walkers. Braden was just shy of 14 months and Ethan was just a smidge over 14 months. It's a lot of work to begin walking when you're the size of a two year old. :)

Pics from when he first started making it across the room. He was so proud of himself! Chris was pretty excited too. :)

Cassidy's baby shower

So I am waaaaaay behind on my blogging lately. Thankfully I don't have that much to catch up on..I haven't taken a ton of pictures lately. Sometimes I feel like I take too many pictures and forget to just enjoy the moment so I've just been playing with the kids lately and thinking, "Tracy, you don't have to go get the camera." ha! Anyways, it's nice to be back in the blogging world and Chris' aunt reminded me that I was way behind, so Cathy, here is your update." :) Hee hee!

Cassidy had her baby shower on Nov. 13th in Spencer. She looks adorable and she and Chris are expecting sweet little Logan in February. Cass and I have been friends since kindergarten so she is definitely someone that I've got to enjoy growing up with. We have been friends through childhood, high school, college, getting married and now starting our families. It was so fun seeing her finally pregnant and knowing she'll get to enjoy a sweet baby boy soon! AND it will be nice for her to realize why my life is complete chaos when she calls. Ha! Congrats Cassidy! I can't wait to hold Baby Logan!

Me, Cass and Tabitha :)

Randoms...

Have I mentioned that my child LOVES dress up clothes? hee hee! I mean loves them! Every day when he gets to preschool he has to put on his chosen gear for the day. This is what he had on when his class came out to play yesterday. Really? It was 70-some degrees and he wore this the whole time! I kept asking him if he was hot and he said no. Eventually the heat wave overtook the fashion sense and he had to come over and strip. He was soaked with sweat-sheesh! What a crazy boy. :)


I know I've mentioned that Ethan loves bath. As soon as he hears the water running he comes booking it in and starts whining to get in immediately. They love to take baths together too. Ethan always takes the cup and tries to dump it on Braden's head because he sees me do it to wash his hair. Braden thinks that's pretty hilarious. Funny boys :)

Churchill Downs

Yesterday Chris and I got to go to Churchill Downs with a group of friends and just enjoy being adults all day. :) Jen, Nick, Christy, Jason, Larissa & Scott came along with several other couples that were friends with Nick & Jen. It was soooooo much fun. We had our own suite and our ticket included all the food and drinks we could want. That's our kind of place! Hee hee! Thanks girlies for a great day!!!

The girls and I went on our own tour to check out all the cool landmarks at the track. Then Rosie, a little old lady took us for some behind the scenes track history-pretty neat stuff! I took several pics but just included a few cute ones. :)



And Chris was there too! :)