Christmas 2015

The kids were so excited for Christmas this year.  This made it a lot of fun for John and me.  I think this was one of my favorite Christmases. 

This year Dawson asked Santa for a wallet (specifically the one he had seen at the Gatlinburg Aquarium Gift Shop that was blue with a shark on it).  Carter asked Santa for FIREWORKS (yes, fireworks!  he has loved fireworks since we bought some back in the summer for July 4th), erasers (he loves playing with erasers, sorting them, stacking them, etc.), and stamps!  Nora Kate kept saying she wanted to ask Santa for "girl things" meaning Littlest Pet Shop. 

 

This was the tree with gifts on Christmas morning when we woke up! 

The green letters and gifts are from Santa.

The kids first wanted to open their stockings which was great.  I think the stockings are more exciting if they open them first before their bigger exciting things.  The stocking had items in them like new cups, loofas, candy (of course!), activity books, etc.

Then they moved on to the gifts.  Above is Nora Kate opening a doll from Santa!

Carter and Daddy checking out all his stamps Santa brought!

 

So much excitement!

This was Carter's face when he saw his big box of fireworks!  Santa DID bring fireworks!

Dawson must have gotten the great gift-giving gene from Daddy.  When we were asking Dawson what he wanted to buy to give to Carter and Nora Kate.  He immediately knew what he wanted to give them!  He said Carter really needed his own fishing rod.  This was true, and it was perfect because it was something John and I hadn't thought of at all!  Dawson was so excited to GIVE this gift!  The picture above and below shows Dawson giving and Carter receiving the fishing pole.

This is probably one of my favorite pictures from Christmas.  Look how happy Dawson was to give this gift!

Dawson wanted to give Nora Kate a piggy bank because she didn't have one.  Also true and a great gift that she loved.  He picked a Hello Kitty bank for her. 

Carter picked new John Deere kid sized work gloves for Dawson, and a plastic bowling set for Nora Kate.  Nora Kate picked candy lifesavers for Dawson and a Wii game for Carter.

Dawson hadn't asked for a BB Gun, but we really though Dawson would love one.  We were right.  He was so excited!

Christmas morning!

Carter could barely wait to set off his fireworks.  After putting them off for an hour, we finally decided to set off at few at 9am on Christmas...I'm sure our neighbors were cringing, but the kids were SO excited!  Blame Santa ;)

Carter is already saying he wants fireworks again next Christmas from Santa! Haha!

John and I gave each other a few gifts, but our big thing this year was a new van we bought the week of Christmas.  We said goodbye to the silver van (that the kids had named the Jolly Roger-haha!), and hello to a new van! 

After gifts I made sausage balls, hashbrown casserole, biscuits, and eggs for breakfast.  Then we played with Christmas gifts for a bit!

In addition to the BB Gun, the other gift Dawson was most excited with was the drone!  Santa brought Dawson a drone.  It's a perfect thing for Dawson and John to do together.  I love that when Dawson gets excited he still jumps and swings his arms. It's been a while since I've captured this on camera though.  This was the first flight of the drone (notice everyone still in their pajamas!).  John is flying it, and Dawson is so excited he's jumping up and down!

Drone flying lessons.

(They were having really good luck learning to fly this on Christmas morning in their pajamas, then all the sudden they got it way to high in the air.  The wind caught it, and they couldn't control it to bring it back fast enough and it took a brief swim in the creek down the road!  John ran down the road and hopped in the creek in his pajamas to rescue it, and thankfully it still works!  Whew! I will say they haven't let it get that high in our neighborhood again because of the creek.  When they do fly it high they go to the park or soccer fields now! BUT they've also gotten a lot better about being able to fly it!

After playing with Christmas toys for a while, we went to Lolly and Pop's house.  We had a yummy lunch, and the kids were so excited to open more gifts!

Nora Kate absolutely loves this doll house!  It's probably one of her most played with toys since Christmas.

The boys were SO excited to get remote control monster trucks and Jeeps! 

Look at that smile!

Lolly and Pop had already charged them up and so the kids got to start driving them immediately!

While Nora Kate played with her doll house!

Dawson was really excited to give everyone gifts too!

 

After playing at Lolly and Pops for a while with their new toys, we loaded up and came home.  We were all exhausted after such a late night on Christmas Eve and being on the go.  The kids napped, and I went to the hospital to visit Mamaw.  Unfortunately Mamaw ended up being in the hospital on Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, but she is thankfully back home now.  I didn't take the kids on Christmas Day just because they were SO tired and I was worried their little hands that touch EVERYTHING would pick up a germ while at the hospital. 

 

We had a wonderful Christmas.  This year was perfect-the kids were all so excited about giving and receiving gifts and really everything about Christmas. 

Christmas Eve

As I mentioned in the last post, we were very fortunate to have great weather around Christmas.  One Christmas Eve the kids spent hours outside playing. John took them on a few mile walk/bike ride around the neighborhood while I did a ton of Christmas cooking.  It was so nice the kids wore shorts and short sleeves!  That evening when it was time to go to our Christmas gathering, I was determined the boys would wear their Christmas sweaters, but the only way we could do this was if we put the sweaters with shorts!  I'm sure we will look back at these pictures in a few years and wonder why the kids had on sweaters and shorts! Hah! 

Before going to our Christmas Eve party, the kids sprinkled reindeer food outside near our chimney.

 

Sprinkling the reindeer food

Sprinkling the reindeer food

 

Then we headed to Arlene and Wayne's house for the Wade's Christmas Eve Party.  We had a delicious meal and enjoyed visiting with everyone.  Our kids had fun getting to play with their second cousins Corbin, Ashton, Hayley, and Jaxon! 

Nora Kate was excited to sit by Corbin...Corbin was less than excited! Haha!

Then the kids got to open presents!  They had a great time!

Then the kids played with all their new things while the grownups played Dirty Santa!

Nora Kate and Haley

It got really late, but I wanted to get a picture of our kids while we were there.  This was the best we ended up getting.  Sleepy kids!

Dawson

Nora Kate checking out Jaxon's new toy!

 

Perhaps the highlight of the whole evening for the kids was the drive home.  As we were leaving Arlene and Wayne's house right down the road, 5 deer walk slowly across the road right in front of our car.  The kids were convinced they were reindeer!

We got home and it was so late, but we were determined to sit the kids at the kitchen table and read the kids the Christmas story from the Bible.  The kids were even telling us how tired they were so they knew how late it was.  Right as we finished reading the Christmas story, we were reviewing what each person had asked Santa for when we heard bells ringing right outside our kitchen window!  The kids faces were priceless!  They said, "It is late! We HAVE to go to bed! SANTA IS HERE!"  We ran upstairs and got everyone in bed.  Nora Kate's bedtime prayer which can usually be very lengthy went like this that night, "Dear God, Santa's Coming! Amen!"  We didn't hear a peep from the kids until the next morning.  The next day and for about the next week they had to tell EVERYONE we saw that we stayed up so late on Christmas Eve that we heard Santa's bells at our house! 

(As a side note about Santa's Sleigh Bells the kids heard...we have awesome neighbors!)

Christmas Eve Eve

John was off on December 23rd, and it was unseasonably warm!  The kids wore shorts and short sleeves most of the day and had fun playing outside.  You'll notice them barefoot in a lot of our Christmas pictures because it was so warm!

This year we were very, very fortunate to have our Christmas celebrations spread over several days.  Usually it's such a challenge when every family gathering is on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, so this was perfect! It also made Christmas a lot more fun for the kids because it was a three day long celebration!  They got to enjoy each gathering and the presents they gave and got there before going to the next event.  On December 23rd, Christmas Eve Eve, we celebrated with John's family.  We went to Nana and Grandad's house for dinner.  The kids got to see Nana, Grandad, Cousin Drew, Cousin Zoe, Emily, Eric, their great Uncle and Aunt-John and Beverly, and their second cousin Valerie.  We had a delicious dinner followed by great gift giving and receiving!

 

The kids had fun playing with Zoe.

Nana and Grandad gave Carter light up shoes.  I didn't know what he was opening, but I happened to have the camera ready to capture this reaction.  He was so excited with his light up shoes.

Dawson was proud to be able to read who each gift was to and from this year.  So he had fun handing out gifts!

Carter had great expressions while opening all of his gifts.  He was so happy!

So was Dawson!

Happy Birthday, Jesus Cookie Cake!

Dawson, Carter, and Nora Kate with Nana and Grandad.  Christmas 2015.

Nora Kate, Dawson, Zoe, and Carter.

Zoe's first Christmas.

Dawson is SIX AND A HALF!

Our big boy turned six and a half in November, and he seems so grown up!  At 6.5 he LOVES kindergarten!  He has never once told us that he didn't want to go to school, and thankfully he hasn't had to miss any days this school year!  Dawson enjoys his time at school, and gives us a full report in the afternoons on how funny he thinks his teacher is (he really likes his teacher!) and how the other 18 friends in his class were.  Some of his favorite parts of his school day to talk about are Writer's Workshop (he is becoming quiet the writer/speller! I'm continually impressed with the progress he has made), STEM (this is a special so they only go to this class every few days, but he always has fun telling me about the fun projects they do in there...the other day they designed an app and he was thrilled!  His STEM teacher sent me the info, and he is thrilled that I have promised we will attempt to make our own app this weekend the same way he did in class!), and, of course, recess!  I LOVE the stories he comes home from school to share!  I think he enjoys having his own separate time from us at school-I can tell that it makes him feel like a big kid.  He usually packs his lunch unless the cafeteria serves breakfast for lunch or pizza, and he's super excited that after Christmas they are allowed to start buying dessert/ice cream in the cafeteria once a week!  (These things are a big deal to a kindergartener!) 
The friend Dawson plays with most frequently outside of school is Carson, and at school Dawson seems to play with EVERYONE!  Every day he comes home to report who he played with on the playground and I'm certain he has played with every kid in his class...I can never guess who it will be!  He probably talks the most about playing with Alexa and Dillon on the playground. 
Here are a few of his favorite things:
Favorite Show:  Curious George
Favorite Toy: Since I'm delayed in posting this update a lot of these favorites are toys he got for Christmas...his drone (he loves flying this with Daddy), nerf guns, his workshop, his playset outside, really just playing outside in general, his remote control Jeep, and Legos!  I think this is the first Dawson update I've ever written where I haven't listed his John Deere Gator as a favorite toy-he does still love riding this, but he has gotten so tall his knees hit the steering wheel and it doesn't go as fast now that he weighs more.  He does really enjoy riding his bike, I think because he can control the speed.  (Carter enjoys driving the Gator now, so this works out well.)
Favorite Outings:  Dollywood, walks, the mountains, the zoo, bowling, the park
Other things I want to remember about Dawson at 6.5:
-He is amazing at chores!  Dawson now has six chores to do daily.  He NEVER complains about these and is happy to do them and check them off his chore chart.  He gets a $4 "commission" on Sundays if he has completed all of his chores (and he always has!).  His chores include making his bed (which he does PERFECTLY!), feeding the fish, getting the mail, sweeping the kitchen floor after dinner each night (this is a new chore we have added for him lately, and he's getting REALLY good at this!),  cleaning the playroom, and wiping down the kids' bathroom counter and sink each night after everyone has bathed and brushed their teeth. 
-Naps...I'm only including this because I've discussed napping in all of Dawson's updates for forever, but obviously he doesn't really nap anymore...EXCEPT on Sundays.  We decided back in the summer that every Sunday everyone had to nap.  Dawson knows this is his one day to have to nap and isn't thrilled with it, but he surprisingly still falls asleep and sleeps about an hour (a few times he's napped about 2 hours).  This works great for keeping Sunday's lowkey and helping him be rested before the week starts.  I'm always surprised, but even after napping he doesn't have a problem going to bed on Sunday nights! 
-Sleep:  Dawson's bedtime on non-school days/weekends/summer/Christmas break is 8pm and he sleeps until 7:30 (when the owl turns green!).  On school nights he goes to bed at 7:30, and he has to wake up at 6:40. 
-Siblings: Dawson and Carter have always been close, and they still are...BUT what I really wanted to mention in this post about Dawson is how he has started to have a special little relationship with Nora Kate.  She loves him so much, and you can tell she feels special when he plays her things with her!  I think he's realized that she watches and listens to him, so he likes to show her things..then she runs to me and reports, "Dawson teached me that!" The boys are still best buddies and love sharing a room.  Dawson once told me in a surprised way, "Some people at school don't GET to share a room with anyone!" Sweet!
-When I grow up...Dawson still talks about being a farmer all the time.  He wants a red barn, animals, AND crops.  Of course, he says he will have John Deere tractors.  He loves to talk about all the plans for his farm!

From age 6 to 6.5 have brought big changes with Dawson starting school, but I'm beyond happy with how easily he adjusted and how much he seems to enjoy and do well in school.  Although it doesn't seem like it was 6.5 years ago that we brought our precious 7pound 13ounce baby boy home from the hospital, we are enjoying watching the big boy he's growing to be.  We love you, Dawson!

Here are just a few of my favorite pictures of Dawson from the past six months.

Dawson LOVED playing baseball this year and John had fun coaching!

Our fisherman

With his catch!

Kindergarten Checkup over the summer

Swimming in the river in Townsend

First day of Kindergarten

SO EXCITED!

Running (he loves running) in the Raccoon Romp fundraiser for school

Dawson on our beach vacation in October!