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