Christmas x3!

 

 

We started our Christmas festivities in Ashland this year,

Erica is super pregnant with another sweet baby girl,

so completely made sense as they requested to celebrate the week before Christmas instead of pushing it until the weekend after.

The Hamblen family weren't able to come the same time as us this year,

so we were missing them terribly!

 

We arrived Friday night,

and celebrated Nanny's birthday with dinner and presents!

Boys were dying to sing Happy Birthday to her,

but it turns out they had ulterior motives,

they knew after they sang they got cake. ;)

Ha!

 

Boys went to bed, and Santa came!

We made sure the boys knew that Santa was making an extra special trip,

coming to Nanny & Poppy's house early, as they were extra special boys.

 

Before all the Christmas excitement though,

we were sitting around watching Christmas movies,

and I was facing the window.

Looked up and saw THIS getting into the bird feeders!

 

CREEPY McCREEPERSONS!

 

Apparently they had been wondering why all the bird seed had been disappearing so quickly!

Roger went out and tried to scare it away,

and I was freaaaking out that it was going to jump on top of his head!

 

Creepy.

 

Well after we all ventured to bed,

and anticipated some very early risers from two excited little boys,

it was Christmas morning in Ashland before we knew it.

The logistics of sleeping arrangements have changed with growing families,

Nanny & Poppy bought a new motor home,

so they slept out in it,

Eric and Erica had their bedroom with the pack n play for Audrey,

and we slept at the end of the hall way in the two guest rooms,

one for us, one the boys shared.

The boys had very specific rules for the morning,

as Nanny & Poppy didn't want to miss the Christmas morning faces and magic.

We told Case he was not to go past the bathroom door,

(the hallway is right past it...leading to the living room filled with presents)

and to stay in their room and play until everyone was up,

and Nanny & Poppy were back inside the house. 

 

Well everyone gave a quick morning text,

alerting that the kids were up and ready,

when Case says,

"Mommy! I saw presents that went ALL THE WAY UP TO THE CEILING!"

"Um, Case did you go past the bathroom door?"

In his most serious voice,

"No Mommy! My feet didn't go past he bathroom door!"

 

We will give even more detailed instructions next year. ;)

 

 

The boys didn't waste ANY time opening presents,

especially since Case can read his and Rhett's names on name tags this year.

He helped hand out presents as well,

but seemed to always find his first! ;)

 

Audrey Hope was at the precious age of being completely content with a bow and wrapping paper. :)

 

Buddy Dude the elf even followed the boys to Ashland!

He sat in the Christmas tree to watch all the fun.

 

We had Nanny's monkey bread and breakfast casserole, (soo good) along with COFFEE.

Was a fun, fun morning,

so much more fun each year with all the little ones!

(Missed you Chloe!!)

 

There was one present Nanny & Poppy suggested the boys opened last,

we knew it was probably best to be an outside toy,

so we took full advantage of the insane 70 degree December weather,

and headed outside.

 

Oh my word, I love those crazies.

 

I took Audrey out with me for a while, she was so cute walking around,

she preferred to be held when we played baseball after playing swords.

Which I was A-Okay with!! Hee!

 

Cuties!!!

 

We had such a fun couple of days hanging out with family,

Mamaw and Papaw headed to Texas that week,

and have to update that Nanny & Poppy "took care" of the opossums, with a BB GUN!

That's talent if you ask me!

 

SO excited for the arrival of the second Turner girl!

She is scheduled to arrive January 21st!

Can't WAIT to see pictures, and to see what they end up naming her!

(We were looking up baby names a lot over the days they were here, hee!)

 

Thankful for time spent with family,

the boys were over the moon with all of their new toys,

and Mommy and Daddy appreciated all of the fun new things as well.

So fun to watch everyone open their presents,

but so thankful for the real gift of being together, and of course the true meaning of Christmas.

 

...

 

We arrived back home Sunday afternoon,

Rhett slept the entire way home,

and we had a lazy lazy evening at home.

 

It was nice having Monday to catch up,

and clean & put away before Christmas Eve on Tuesday.

 

Christmas Eve we made chocolate chip cookies,

Daddy got some carrots for the reindeer,

and Case informed us that the reindeer also needed crackers and popcorn,

just like last year.

(We don't remember this, but always trust a 5 year olds memory!)

Then we tracked Santa online,

and the boys opened some new Christmas PJ's!

 

 

Before bed, Mommy snuck the boys upstairs one by one,

and helped them wrap their presents to each other.

Daddy took Rhett out,

and Mommy took Case out to buy for their brother.

LOVE this little tradition we started this year.

 

Case was especially into it, being older,

and I'm sort of in love with the tag he wrote.

Precious.

 

Getting ready to set up the food for Santa and the reindeer,

Daddy was explaining how they had to be asleep for him to come,

and Rhett immediately collapsed and starting fake snoring!  

 

He came, he came!

 

 

Boys got everything they requested!

Rhett just kept saying he wanted "presents" so we're assuming he was happy with his

big trucks and dinosaurs Santa brought him! Ha!

 

After all the presents were ripped open,

they boys played with all of their new toys until it was time to head to Mimi's house for lunch,

and Round 3 of Christmas!

 

After a delicious lunch, it was time for even more presents!

 

The boys and Avery all got nerf guns,

so it was a full on nerf gun war later in the day, so much fun!

Amy made an ADORABLE video of it all, she posted on facebook.

Here's the link!

http://www.magisto.com/album/video/eXZ6BAUCQgkfDnIEDQ

 

THEN, It was time to reveal the video the Grand-kids (plus Cy's cute girlfriend)

made for Mommom after they left on Thanksgiving.

 

Let's just say, it has a lot of the word "fart" in it,

which if you know Mom is just her FAVORITE word on earth. Ha!! ;)

 

I felt a little guilty as we gave it to her, and I heard her say,

"Aww, I'm going to cry!"

to which Griffin mumbled to me,

"Yeah, cry with disappointment"

Bahah!

 

You see, in the past I've made the family DVD's with pictures and sweet music,

and I'm 100% positive that she thought she was about to watch a precious video of all of her grand-kids over the past year...but she didn't.

 

She watched a lot of crazy kids singing,

"FART FART FART, FART FART FART, FART FART FART FART FAAAART!"

(in tune to Jingle Bells, along with an assortment of other Christmas songs,

like Silent Fart, Oh Fartmas Tree and O Holy Fart)

 

Good times.

Although we think she was pretty embarrassed and might have wanted to kill us all,

it was hilarious and the laughter and the looks on her and Dad's faces were absolutely priceless!!!

 

Love you Mom :)

 

 

We hope everyone had a blessed and happy Christmas like we did.

Lots of memories were made,

and so very glad we could spend it with a majority of our family.

We are hoping and praying that EVERYONE can make it in next year!

We missed those that couldn't this time.

 

Merry, merry, merry Christmas!

 

"She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." Matthew 1:21

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6

 



16 week Check Up

Always exciting to come upon another appointment!

One step closer to meeting this sweet baby inside of me.

 

I was pretty excited about this one, because I would be scheduling our 20 week ultrasound this time!!!

(Thanks Mimi for watching boys for my appointment!)

 

We had originally planned on getting an early gender scan done before Christmas, 

but effective December 1st our ultrasound office no longer did the optional gender scan.

Umm. BOO!

 

Other places around town were double the price,

and we just weren't willing to pay that,

so we decided to be patient.

With just a little moaning and groaning about it on my part. ;)

 

 

Dr.Y didn't have a student with him today,

so he found baby's heart beat immediately,

and we got right to talking about our next appointment.

(Baby's heart rate was in 150's nice and strong :)

 

"So do we know boy or girl yet?"

"Uggh, No!"

"Ha! No huh?"

"I was going to ask you, I will be 20 weeks on a Monday,

wondering if it would be okay if we scheduled it for the Friday before, because Matt can't get off work that week, and we of course want him to be there..."

"Oh yeah, that's no problem at all."

"Yay! We can't wait!"

"You know size wise, it actually might be better if we waited until the week after..."

"Buuuut that would mean we'd have to wait a whole other week before we find out what this baby is..."

"Ha! Oh man, I see how this is going to go! Too funny. That's totally fine."

(continues to laugh at me)

 ;)

 

I mean, I just literally couldn't wait that long, I'm already dying to know!

So now we are all set up for our Ultrasound, I'll be 19 weeks and 5 days,

I mean that is seriously almost 20 weeks.

and I. CAN. NOT. WAIT.

 

Now to talk about pink or blue.

I honestly (truly truly) will be so unbelievably happy either way!

Everyone around us seems to think PINK,

but not sure if that's just because we have 2 boys or because they truly have a strong feeling!

 

Case is 100% BOY.

Rhett changes with the wind.

Daddy thinks BOY.

Mommy has no earthly idea.

 

I think it would be so fun and exciting to hear the ultrasound technician announce,

"It's a girl!"
I love the idea of having a daughter,
I know Matt would be absolutely wrapped around her little finger,
and I imagine her wedding, and having babies, and her needing me in a way I know the boys won't later on in life.
The boys will need me but not in the same way.

however,

I love my crazy, dirty, silly boys, and could completely imagine our lives

with 3 sport playin', dirty, stinky, precious, sweet boys.
There is something so special in a bond between boys and their Mommas.

I love me some boys, and would be one happy girl being surrounded by a bunch of 'em.

 

We shall see, 50/50 shot right??

Let the countdown begin.

 

 {17 weeks}

 



Little Blessings Christmas Party

 

 

Little Blessings had their Christmas Party,
Tuesday, December 17th,

always a little chaotic but so much fun!

All the kids were so adorable singing their Christmas songs,

some of them wearing random Santa hats and elf hats.

So cute to see who gets shy and who belts it out in front of all the parents!

Case didn't have an ounce of stage fright this year,

Rhett didn't either, but Rhett doesn't sit still.

I have a quick video on Facebook of the boys singing,

and I happened to catch the .9 seconds Rhett stayed on stage singing...
he was trying to find his Momma the whole time!

The cute thing was that he actually knew the words and was doing the motions just like big brother!

Then it was on to making crafts and decorating cookies,
the parents in charge did a great job, the boys got lots of goodies from their sweet teachers!

Had a blast!
Can't believe it's already time for our big Christmas break!

Southern Lights, A Christmas Tradition

The tradition started in 2010,

Rhett was a teeny baby so we just took Case the first year.

 

We go out to dinner, then head for the Horse Park

for the Southern Lights driving tour,

then we head inside to meet SANTA!

 

This year we took the boys to Fazoli's

(one of Case and Mommy's favorites)

While finishing up dinner, Case threw a curve ball at us.

 

"Case, what are you going to ask Santa for, for Christmas?"

"Hmm, I'm going to tell him a secret, and you can't know till we get there!"

 

Umm. Yay for Santa.

 

As we arrived at the lights,

we unbuckled the boys from their car seats

and let them ride in our laps for a better view.

 

They were so stinkin' cute this year,

"LOOK MOMMY!!!"

"LOOK A DINOSAUR!"

"LOOK A PENGUIN!"

"LOOK DADDY LOOK!"

 

 

We arrived right when they opened,

 so thankfully the line to see the guy in the big red suit wasn't too bad.

The boys seemed so excited in line,

right before it was our turn,

we let them hop out of the stroller,

both boys still seemed very excited.

Rhett was laughing and jumping up and down,

Case was trying to get a better look...

 

 

 

Well,

then it was time to actually go sit on Santa's lap...

You could tell Case was nervous, but he hopped right up,

Rhett panicked. You could see his face change,

then came the freak out. ;)

 

Case had a smile plastered to his face, and kept giggling that nervous giggle.

Mommy and Daddy decided to get in on the picture, so Rhett would at least sit for a second.

 

 

 

Definitely not the best picture in the world,

but Case got to tell Santa, that he wanted

"Hungry hungry hippos and power ranger stuff!"

(and Santa was very thankful there weren't any new requests!)

Rhett told Santa he wanted candy,

but I think it had more to do with the big basket of candy canes next to Santa's chair.

 

Both boys got a candy cane, and were happy campers.

We headed outside,

checked out the camel, and the animals they had set up,

then Daddy suggested riding the Choo choo train!

 

It's a cute little train, that's completely open,

and it was fa-reezing.

Memories though right? Memories.

 

:)

 

 

We asked a sweet lady to take our picture before we headed out,

there was one last stop before heading home!

 

The fire station on our way home,

we only lasted for one song this year,

the boys were exhausted,

we kept hearing,

"Mommy, I wanna go hoooommmmeee"

from a certain 3 year old in the back seat.

 

 

We had so much fun with our little guys,

thankful for these yearly traditions,

I love looking forward to them,

and LOVE that the boys know we are going to do this each year,

makes it so much more special!

 

...and just for fun, a quick glance back!

 

2010

Little bitty!

 

 

 

2011

(Look at those baby faces! Rhett still looked terrified then too ;)

 

2012

(we didn't go in for Santa last year, as we went coming straight home for Ashland!)

 

 



Mini Thanksgiving at Our House

We always try to do something little with my side of the family for Thanksgiving.

 

Even if it means a lot lower key.

So this year, with Ashland Wednesday &Thursday & Amy & Tim having

Thanksgiving dinners Thursday, and Saturday,

we decided to have dinner at our house Friday evening.

(Big brother and his wife aren't able to come in at all this holiday season,

so we are missing them!)

 

Amy brought a yummy yummy cheese ball,

we had salad, chicken lasagna, and traditional Thanksgiving pies made by Mom!

It was very laid back, was perfect.

 

I think everyone was a little worn out from Thanksgiving festivities just the day before,

we all lounged around, watched a couple of Christmas movies, boys watched football,

and ate and ate and ate.

 

Rhett's talking to baby in the picture below,

he is constantly saying,

"Hi Baby!"

"I want baby to come out!"

"What are you doin' baby?"

 

If you ask him what baby is doing, he says all kinds of things, like,

"He's changing. He lookin' at me! He's closin' him eyes."

...and yes he always uses "he" when referring to baby,

although if you ask him if it's a boy or a girl, he answers differently every time.

Case, on the other hand is 100% convinced it's a boy,

as "girls are yucky!!! I don't like girls!"

 

However, Case said he likes THREE girls and preschool the other day!

One of which is his "favorite" and tells us they are all "cute and pretty!"

OH MY!!! Hee!!!

"Sooo Case, what do you like about her??"

"Cuz she's CUTE and I LOVE HER!"

Oh. my. word.

These boys are going to keep me on my toes!

 

 

Cy brought his cute and pretty girlfriend over! Hee!

...and I do believe Case and Rhett were both very flirtatious with her at some point through the evening, stinkers! ;)

 



Griffin bug!

 



 

Our low key evening was just what I needed,

it was fun, and the kids had us cracking up!

 

Our boys were exhausted, we have had a busy week,

their red cheeks and ears gave them away.

Our poor Case who has had too much busy, and not enough naps (as in zero)

had about 57 melt downs, so it was off to bed as soon as everyone said "Good-bye"

 

Very thankful for spending time with lots of family this Thanksgiving week.

 

Our house is already decorated on the inside,

so we are looking forward to getting outside lights up,

and so excited for lots of Christmas traditions coming up in December!

 

I also need to get on my Christmas shopping!

...and here's one of our first belly shots. :)

 

13 weeks and 5 days here... just a couple of days away from that glorious 2nd trimester!

 

So blessed.