Traditions

 

This year we decided to leave our tree in the box and get a real tree.  We put the tree up the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  One of our holiday traditions is that every year we take the kids shopping and they choose an new ornament that goes on the tree.  When they leave and have a family of their own.   They can take their ornaments with them to have for their tree. They always seem to pick out a mercury glass ornament. Nathan and  Andrew's selection varies from year to year.   Emma always picks a kitty cat, and  Barret, a train.

Another tradition is that I sew the kids matching Christmas pajamas.  This year I ordered fabric and ended up short 1 1/2 yds.  Nathan grew out of the pattern I normally use.  He now wears an adult size.

Emma and Andrew's school was hosted a Polar Express party.  They were permitted to wear their pajamas and bring a pillow.  They watched the movie in the school auditorium and were served cocoa with marshmallows. Each got a "golden ticket".  They had a blast.   Thank goodness I had a deadline, or they would still be unfinished.

Here is Emma in her pj's before school:

All I want for Christmas is.... =)

                 Andrew and Barret

I stayed up late trying to finish Andrew's before the school party.  He found them on his bed the next morning and came running in to give me a hug.  Scot had dressed Barret before he left for work but, he took them off to try on his new pajamas.  

Andrew loves snowmen.  We have an outdoor snowman that we put out at Christmas.  We used to store it in the attic with a sheet pulled over him.  When we were moving, the movers took the sheet off of him and loaded him on the truck.  Andrew cried for an hour about it because he thought his snowman was going to get cold without his sheet.  They finally had to put the sheet over him so he would stop.

Here is an old picture of Andrew and his buddy when we first bought him. He was 2mos shy of two.

We usually go through 4 pounds of butter during the Christmas season.  We make several different cookies, pecan tassies,  fruit and sausage and cheese kolaches.

I always envisioned creating sugar cookies with my children to look something like this:



Instead the gingerbread  men look like homicide victims.  My cookie cutters were Scot's mothers that included all the holidays.  So our Christmas cookies include the Easter Bunny, the Thanksgiving Turkey, a Halloween Pumpkin and an American Flag.

 It's the memories you're making, right?  Sure.

They're getting good at making cookies though.  I am pretty impressed.  Here's little Miss Martha making her favorite White Chocolate and Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies:

We were a dozen short because she couldn't stop snacking on the dough. I'm surprised she didn't get a stomachache!

 

Andrew making Peanut Butter Chip Cookies.

Barret took the job of transferring the cooled cookies to the cookie jar.

Where's Nathan you say?  Wrestling Practice-  Monday through Saturday, school or no school.  =(

 

No More Diapers!

I never thought the day would come to pass when our house was diaper free.  I have been changing diapers since 2002 and 3 yrs before that with Nathan.  10 yrs. Sheesh!  Nathan was hard to potty train,  Emma, a breeze.  Nothing could prepare me for the trauma Andrew put me through.  He could care less about it and the furniture and clothes he went on either.  He was 4 years and 4 months when he finally seceded.  I swore that I would not potty train Barret until he was ready. I didn't care how old he was.  He knew the concept though,  he always went in the potty before bath time since he was 18 mos.  If Andrew was "watering the lawn" he had to do it too.   Barret was now in a size 6 diaper.  His diaper just wasn't holding what he was producing and Scot and I where playing rock, paper, scissors who would change the muddy ones. It was the last straw when Barret would announce what he about to do in his diaper and then take it off .  We told him that we weren't buying him diapers anymore and that he would have to potty like the rest of us.  He gave us a little resistance but agreed.  He was potty trained on day 1!  I never had to ask him if he needed to go. He took himself.  At night he went to the bathroom on his own.  I couldn't believe how easy it was.  He was a little hesitant about going #2 but when we told him if he didn't his belly would explode,  it was an easy decision after that =)

Free at Last!

SNOW!!!

If it was anything I wanted for my kids to have this winter, was for my kids to experience snow.  We figured moving almost 900 miles away from our home to the mountains would increase our chances significantly.  Then the inevitable happens.  Houston gets snow...inches of snow! Ack!! I didn't tell the kids.  Thankfully the same front moved in on us early Saturday morning and dusted a little on us.  The kids came running in our room screaming, "It's snowing! It's snowing! Nathan is on the roof making snowballs!" I looked out the front door to see Nathan sitting on the sill of the dormer in his room making a stockpile of snowballs. Nathan comes down and says "I have bad news.  The snow is starting to melt!"   Immediately everyone is scurrying to get dressed to go outside.

Nathan took the trucks off of his skateboard to make a snowboard. 

This Aggie wanted to give it a try:

Woops!  Not as easy as it looks, Huh? 

Let's try this again:

 Yes, those are socks on Barret's hand. Nathan and Andrew were wearing them also.

 

"I'm not going to throw it!  I just want you to take a picture of it."

.....and then he threw it at me.

We were all soaked to the bone and had frozen fingers, but it was a fun morning.

Our Thankgiving

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday.  It is a wonderful time to be with family and friends.  No gifts, just food.

I love to cook, especially for the holidays.  This Thanksgiving was low key.  Scot's dad and brother came to visit us and to have dinner.  They brought us smoked sausage links  so that I can make our favorite:  Kolaches.  We tried to convince his dad to move here so that he could be near us.  I don't think we succeeded especially after the Saturday drive on the winding roads.  We're getting used to the terrain.  Still not ready to live on the mountain though.

We had a traditional meal along with a Cajun Fried Turkey.  Dessert consisted of: Banana Pudding w/ meringue, Lemon meringue, Apple, Pecan, and  Pumpkin pie, All assembled and baked by Yours Truly ;)
All desserts were devoured in just a few days. 

Here's the Chef and Main Course

Andrew and Emma raided  the cheese ball Scot made (his mother's recipe) It's a holiday tradition.

Chattanooga Train Ride

We have learned not to tell the kids when we are planning to do something fun.  This eliminates the thousands of questions and headaches that follow.

We planned on taking a Fall Foliage train ride that takes you through Georgia, but it was canceled due to September flooding.  The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum has a train ride that runs on the weekend.  It's a 6 mile trip that lasts an hour long.

When we arrived at the Museum,   Barret was hooting with excitement.  He loves trains.  His room shows it.
We made it right at boarding time, which made it a little difficult to get a party of six seated.  All 4 passenger cars were nearly full. It took some rearranging (thanks to the nice passengers) to get us all seated together.  The train takes use through a Civil War horseshoe shaped tunnel that is 948 feet long (and dark I might add). We got a live tour guide that told us civil war stories. One was the Great Locomotive Chase that went from Atlanta to Chattanooga. The kids were fascinated (I was too).  The train takes us to a train yard.  There we watch a  live demonstration of the train turntable using our train engine.  We toured the restoration shop and then boarded the train to head back to the station.  The boys didn't want to leave.  They left kicking and screaming (literally).

Waiting for their tickets to be punched

Going over the bridge

Our tour guide looked a little familiar to Barret.  He waved and said "Hi Santa." in a casual way.  He saw Santa last year when we took a train ride on "The Polar Express".  I think he thinks Santa works for the Railroad when he's not delivering presents.

Here is our engine on the turntable.  I found a video of the train ride we took, in case you don't come out to visit us.

Fall Foliage

The Fall Foliage reached it's peak the last week of Halloween.  It was really wonderful seeing all the beautiful colors.  Nathan said it looked like a painting.  We took a Saturday drive through the valley.  Nathan said it looked like a painting.   My pictures didn't come out well  because I was taking them in the car. 

Here are some I took in the neighborhood.

This is the ridge behind our neighborhood

 

Taken from our front door

The yellow trees were bright as the sun.

Andrew said he made a big leaf pile at recess and took turns jumping in it.  I reminded me of the fun we had when we were kids.  It sounded like so much fun.  I wanted to do it too :)

Happy Fall!

No Tricks, Lots of Treats

 "Faith"

We started off Halloween morning cleaning and carving our pumpkins that the kids got from our dairy farm trip.  We used templates for the kids but Nathan carved his out free handed.   We were invited to a Halloween party that evening and then we were to trick or treat in their neighborhood as a group.  Since we wouldn't be home that evening, we had a little party at lunch. The kids made pumpkin pizzas. We just cut pepperonis into triangles.  Easy peasy.  Jones soda  had candy corn flavored soda. I found them at Target. It was a hit with the kids.  

We made candy corn cookies from this blog site I steal many ideas from.   After the sugar rush.  They dressed in their costumes recession style.

Andrew wanted to be a robot.  We googled ideas and made one.  He immediately went into character when he tried it on for the first time.  We laughed so hard, tears were streaming down our face.  It was worth the headache.

Emma went as a ballerina.  It's her costume from her ballet recital.  I tried to talk her into making her a little scary. I suggested a head wound or a bloody leg.  She wouldn't have it.  She said Halloween costumes don't have to be scary.

Barret was wearing Andrews hand me down skeleton costume.

Nathan was low key.  He carried his bow and went as a hunter.

Here are some pics and their pumpkins before the party.

I like them illuminating in this picture

Spooky!

When we got everyone in bed.  Scot and I "inspected"  their candy and confiscated items that looked like they could be possibly tainted and potentially harmful.  We siezed all the dark chocolate, almond joys, a couple of reeses pieces and a few peanut m&ms.  We took our life in our hands and consumed these items quickly.  Thankfully, there were no harmful additives.  Mission Complete.