December 2013

December 2013 came and went in a whirlwind it seemed!  December is the busiest month of the entire year for John at work, but we managed to cram a lot of activities and fun into the month along with a little (much needed) at home play time.

 

The day after Thanksgiving (really this was November, but I saved it for this post since it was Christmas related), we visited the Fantasy of Trees with our friends the Myers!  As I mentioned last December, John and I both always went to this growing up and I danced there each year.  Last year we were excited to take the boys for the first time, and this year we were just as excited to take the boys AND Nora Kate AND go with our friends! 

 

Our family on the carousel at the Fantasy of Trees. 

(This was the kids' first chance to all three wear their matching Christmas shirts I made them, although it's hard to see in the picture!)

Dawson and his friend Colt had so much fun together at the Fantasy of Trees!

 

Nora Kate was excited to go to the Fantasy of Trees.

(I made her hairbow from the tutu of one of my old dance costumes that I wore in the Fantasy of Trees one year.) :)

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we started decorating for Christmas!

The boys were SO excited about the big tree and their little tree!

Then they discovered they could both fit in the Christmas tree box, and they decided this was the most fun thing to do!  :)

Boys in Christmas attire.

 

Dawson LOVED getting an Advent gift each day of December.  Here he is opening his first one!

Carter quickly learned to be excited about tearing into the Advent gifts.  Here he is opening his first one!  (It was good practice for Christmas, because he knew just how to open those gifts by the time Christmas rolled around!)

Our Christmas tree!

This year Dawson's new ornament was a soccer ball since he started soccer for the first time this year! :)

Carter picked out this owl ornament at the store, and he absolutely loved it!  Owls are one of his favorite animals to point out and one of the first animals he learned the sound they say, so we decided since he picked it that it could be his ornament for the year.  Turns out he LOVED having it on the tree too!  He would go look at it, talk about it, point it out.  So sweet!

Last year we got these "D" & "C" ornaments for the boys, and this year I was SO excited to find a very similar "N" for Nora Kate!

More Christmas décor.

(Carter liked to point out Baby Jesus)

When I was younger and danced in the Nutcracker, my parents started giving me Nutcrackers at Christmas.  When John and I got married we started picking out one each Christmas too...needless to say, we now have A LOT of Nutcrackers!  Now our favorite thing to do is to try to find different looking ones!  I try not to put them all in the same place just lined up, so we had Nutcrackers in every room of the house.  The golfing Nutcracker sat on John's desk. :)

More Christmas decor.

Carter loved going around pointing to the Nutcrackers, and calling them "crackers!"

We hung our Christmas kissing ball that we got in 2009 in Ft. Lauderdale in the foyer this year.

I was excited to put our tree in the front of the house this year so it could be seen from outside!

We put the kid's little tree in the living room.

It was perfect because they could undecorated and redecorate it as many times as they wanted!

I really enjoyed our mantel decorations this year.  I kept looking at all FIVE stockings and thinking how blessed we are.  So thankful for our sweet kids.  Hard to believe that Christmas 2011 we only had 3 stockings, 2012 we had 4, and 2013 we have 5!

The boys and I did A LOT of baking in December!!

This was always their favorite part...licking the dough, batter, frosting, whatever! (don't worry, I didn't let them do this with any of the treats we shared with others!)

We made a gingerbread Christmas tree.

Our friends the Myers had a really fun Christmas party, and were so kind to plan it on the Saturday John was off in December!  They had a huge turnout!  Look at all these friends Dawson and Carter had to play with!!  The kids and John and I had a great time!

 

Sunday, December 8th we had Carter and Nora Kate baptized!  We were still visiting churches when Carter was born, so we still had not had him baptized.  Dawson was, of course, baptized in Alabama at Asbury in September 2009.  It was special to be able to baptize Carter and Nora Kate on the same day.  It was a rainy and cold Sunday morning, but it was perfect!  They were baptized by Dr. Russell at our church Fairview United Methodist.  The church was so pretty, all decorated for Christmas!  After the service, some family and friends came over for lunch!

After the baptism our friends the Myers came over for lunch.

Nora Kate, Mom, and I at our house after the baptisms.

All the family members who attended Carter and Nora Kate's baptisms.

With Lolly and Pop

With Nana and Grandad

Carter in his suit for his baptism.

(He has a cummerbund, but he kept putting his shirt over it...like in this picture) 

The suit had tails!

Sweet Carter in his baptism suit.

The beautiful and delicious cake Nana and Aunt Emily made!

Carter and Nora Kate's baptisms.

 

I decided to make Nora Kate's baptism gown, and I was really pleased with how it turned out.

Nora Kate in her baptism gown.

Nora Kate in her baptism gown.

 

At the lunch we had at our house after the baptisms, Dawson, Colt and Haley decided to put on a little show for us!  It was pretty entertaining!  Only wish I had gotten some better pictures! :)

We went on several rides in December to look at Christmas lights.  Dawson liked for me to ride in the back of the van and share a hot chocolate with him while we looked at the lights. :)

(He looks sick in this picture, but I think the camera flash was rough on him since it was completely dark when I took this.) :)

Carter loved looking at lights too!

Dawson's 1st or 2nd Christmas, my parents gave Dawson his Elmo stocking.  It sings and moves-right up Carter's alley.  Well, Carter absolutely loved this stocking this year!  So sweet!

Everyone sporting their Christmas pajamas!

(Dawson and Carter's pajamas match, although I had to cut the cute feet out of Dawson and sew cuffs on them because his feet were too big for these new 5T pajamas!)  He was still excited to have matching Christmas pajamas with a reindeer on them!

 

Had to share this picture, because after I took the good one above and was about to put the camera down, Carter leaned over and hugged Nora Kate.  No one told him to do this, he just did it!  He does this all the time.  She's lucky to have two sweet brothers!

Dawson and I made several ornaments this year!  Here he is making a cool sun catcher type of ornament!

We made several Gingerbread houses.

LOVE this picture.  Perfectly captures Carter's love for Dawson.

Dawson's telling Carter what to do while Carter looks lovingly on.

Our gingerbread village.

My friend Abbey made this adorable penguin hat for Nora Kate and mailed it to us!!  Penguins are our sorority's animal (so this is perfect for this little Sigma Kappa legacy!), and I think it's perfect that this one has blue eyes just like Nora Kate!  Thanks, Abbey!

One evening we drove to Shadracks Drive-thru Christmas lights.

We had a great time!

Carter was super excited to get to ride on my lap through part of the lights and John's lap for the rest!

Dawson also was happy to ride in the frontseat with me!

After driving through Shadracks, we got out and found this giant Santa.

Carter LOVED it!  Funny boy!

Nora Kate dozing in some Christmas attire.

I wanted to make a few gifts this year.  The kid's second cousin (I think that's right...my cousin's son), Corbin, LOVES wearing ties, so I made this for him from Dawson, Carter, and Nora Kate.

I made this infinity scarf for my cousin that we drew names with for Christmas day.  I loved the orange and white chevron and was wishing I had made one for myself, then I opened my presents from my parents...and they had bought and orange and white chevron infinity scarf for me!  Perfect!

A couple more gifts we made this year.  As part of the gift for Dawson's teachers, we made these tumblers with their names on them!

We baked and decorated cookies for our neighbors, the two directors of Dawson's preschool, and the two teachers in Dawson's class.  We had fun making these!!

In the boxes of cookies for his teachers, we decided to make a cookie to place at the top of the stack to say who they were from!

Tumblers and cookies ready to go for Dawson's teachers!

This picture is out of order, but I just love this!

This is a great example of Carter's carefree, easygoing nature!  He's hilarious...all the time!

Here he is, no pants, just shirt and diaper, weedeater in one hand, leaf blower in the other hand, singing loudly! :)

Dawson wanted to give all his school friends a Christmas gift!  We gave them these cups filled with candy canes, candy, and playdough!

Dawson's class with Santa!

Dawson's last day of school before Christmas break he had a Christmas program!  He was so excited for this he could barely wait.  (More on this in a minute...because these pictures are out of order!) 

Christmas day (photos out of order) at Lolly and Pop's house!

Christmas Day at Lolly and Pop's house!  Carter was really excited, despite this face!  (This is also a great picture of the busy board Pop made to put on the end of the workbench they got the boys!)

Dawson and Carter both LOVE their new work bench!  The vice is the favorite part!

John and Dawson Christmas Day!

 

Nora Kate's Great Aunt Phyllis was more than happy to hold her for a while!!

Christmas Day with my Mamaw.

Our family on Christmas Day 2013!

On Christmas day my brother took this picture of Dawson I absolutely love!

Lolly and Pop with their Grandkids on Christmas Day 2013.

(We're back in order now, so back to Dawson's Christmas program.)  He was SO excited about it, and he did a great job!

The program was really sweet, and I loved watching his sweet face smile and sing the whole time.

Sweet Dawson's first school program!

Santa Dawson and Elf Carter delivered the Christmas goodies we baked to our neighbors in the John Deere Gator, of course!

Front view before delivering cookies!

Carter wearing some Christmas pajamas.

Carter

One morning we went over to make Christmas cookies with Nana!!

The boys were excited to see the Chickfila cow dressed as Santa at the mall.  Carter couldn't get enough, and he kept asking for "More cow" after he left!

We also saw Santa this month!  Santa was awesome!  He got down and played ball with Carter.  He talked to Dawson about how his reindeer like carrots, and how his favorite cookies are Oreos (so we left out Oreos and carrots on Christmas Eve!).  He was GREAT!!

One morning the boys left on their pajamas and put on aprons for a little more baking.  We made Oreo balls dipped in white chocolate.  Their favorite part is pictured here...smashing the oreos!  They're banging them with spoons to break them.

The kids on Christmas Eve night.

Left to right:  Carter, Haley, Ashton, Corbin, Dawson, and Nora Kate.

They had a lot of fun playing together!!

Christmas Eve brunch with John's family.  Carter was thrilled to tear into some gifts!

Dawson was excited to begin unwrapping too!

Nora Kate enjoyed some time with her Aunt Emily!

Dawson and Hailey helped each other open some gifts!

Daddy and Nora Kate on her first Christmas Eve!

Cousins! Carter, Dawson, and Hailey!

The kids with Nana and Grandad on Christmas Eve!

Dawson's gifts.

Carter's gifts.

Nora Kate's gifts. 

Christmas morning!

Even though the kids got in bed super late on Christmas Eve, they were still up bright at early to open gifts!  We did stockings first!

 

Dawson saw this big box, and said, "I KNOW this is a typewriter!  Typewriters come in big boxes like this!"  (A typewriter and legos were the two things he asked for this year.  Waaay back in April he saw a typewriter in a book by PD Eastman, and he has wanted one ever since.  We tried to talk him out of it because we were afraid he would be disappointed.)  He was SO excited with the typewriter!  He loves to type on it, and thinks it is so cool! 

So excited with his typewriter!

Opening gifts Christmas morning!

Nora Kate sat in her Bumbo and watched the Christmas morning action.  We helped her open her gifts, of course!

Carter loves this bowling set!  Our hardwood floors are perfect for this toy!

Carter and John checking out some gifts!

Check out this cute hat we got Carter!  HE LOVES IT!

The Christmas morning aftermath!

 

The two things Dawson asked for this year were a typewriter and Legos, and he was so excited to get both!  Carter, of course, is too little to ask for anything.  Dawson suggested that Carter would want games.  Sure enough, Santa listened.  :)  Nora Kate was happy with her onesies and teething rings and baby toys.  The kids and I got John some new clothes, a photo frame for his new office with 4 5x7s (one for space for a picture each kid and one for a family picture) along with some coffee, candy, to go coffee mugs and an air compressor.  I told John he got the award for giving the best gift, because my favorite gift from him was a new string of pearls!  He said it was because Nora Kate would need to be given my old pair (that John gave me when we were dating & that I wore on our wedding day-among many, many other times) when she gets older.  Love it!

 

Now on to more Christmas pictures....

 

The boys playing with their workbench at Lolly and Pop's house.

Nora Kate in a dress I wore my first Christmas!

Nora Kate in something else I wore my first Christmas.

We loved all the wonderful Christmas cards we got this year!  Dawson and Carter REALLY enjoyed looking at all of them over and over!

 

We had a wonderful December, and we hope everyone else had a Merry Christmas.  Happy New Year!!!