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

 



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!)

 

 



Christmas Morning

After driving around to see the Christmas lights and coming home from Ashland,

we had our traditional Sunday evening with Joe & JJ. 

Sonic and game night...well more recently added the game night...

but this particular night, I finished wrapping presents! 

Monday, on Christmas eve, we went to the candlelit Christmas Eve Service, 

and later we watched A Christmas Story and played Apples to Apples with the J's. 

That evening, after saying Good-bye to Buddy Dude the elf 

(he goes back to the North pole you know, and comes back next Thanksgiving)

 I had just sat down with Case to read him a bedtime story, 

when all of a sudden we heard jingle bells. 

His eyebrows went sky high, his eyes were as big as saucers. 

His jaw dropped, and with a hint of nervousness, started screaming, 

"AHH!!! He's here! I have to get in bed Mommy! I have to GO!" 

I could not help from laughing, as I tucked him in! 

"Okay Mommy, Good night!"

We prayed the fastest prayer I've ever prayed as he nodded along with me, urging me to finish 

as fast as I could. 

"Okay, Case stay in bed, and go to sleep or he won't stop here!"

"Okay, Mommy! I not go ANYWHERE, I stay right here! Night!" 

Oh I love the magic of Christmas.

 

And finally, it was Christmas morning. 

This year (probably the only year this will EVER happen, ever) our boys slept past 8:00am! 

I woke up around 7:30am, got a shower, started a pot of coffee, turned on the Christmas lights, and quickly wrapped another Christmas presents of Matt's that I had forgotten was still in my truck! 

I was just turning the corner near the stairs when I spotted Case, 

complete with bed head, rubbing his eyes. 

"Good morning, Case! Do you want to see if Santa came?" 

"Ughhhnnn." 

(Which is "Leave me Alone" in grumpy. I am fluent in grumpy four year old) 

The grumpy boy went away as fast as he came though, 

as his little mind remembered the excitement that awaited him down the stairs. 

Matt rolled out of bed, and we scooped Rhetter's out of his crib. 

I had already set up the video camera downstairs, so we all made our way down the stairs together. 

 ...and let the ripping of wrapping paper begin! 

Daddy got an indoor remote control helicopter, all of us are obsessed with it! It's so fun! 

Later, after everything was revealed, the boys didn't waste any time actually playing with their favorites. 

Our morning was spent playing play dough, and feeding dinosaurs pop-tarts. 

...Mommy played with her camera, and Daddy played with his new helicopter.

Our cup runneth over. 

Love our sweet babies, 

the innocence and magic of these first years of Christmas, 

and most of all

for the ultimate gift, 

the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.