Kick off to Christmas!

Today Chris and his mini-me hung up Christmas lights out front. {Yes, Dylan is wearing the same sweatshirt as his daddy.}

Then we went to get a Christmas tree.

Did you notice that Dylan had a band-aid on his forehead? Here's why.

You mess with your sister one too many times and she will get in a good shot! {She whacked him with a plastic pole.}

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Christmas is my favorite time of year. I love everything about it, the music, the sights, the smells, the decorations, the hustle and bustle, the gift giving, the food, the hot drinks, spending time with the family . . . but most of all remembering {celebrating} Jesus' birth. It's hard to wrap my brain around the fact that the God of this universe, the God who created the world and everything in it would humble himself, come to earth to be born as a baby. To then grow up to die on a cross for MY sins {and yours too} because he LOVES me {you}. That is the greatest gift ever. He is all I need.

Thanksgiving 2014

Well good morning Rylan! {Yes, he was stuck in there.}

Oh! I forgot to show you the most precious note Payton has ever written:

Yes, my heart melted and I may have shed a tear of joy. I LOVE her heart!

~

The kids found gum hidden under their pillows from Gigi.

Then the sweetest moment happened.

I spent the whole morning doing laundry and prepping to go to Atlanta for Thanksgiving. We hit the road and in a little while the kids were doing this: 

We got there in the late evening {thanks holiday traffic} hung out for a bit then went to bed. We tend to sleep a LOT at Papa & Sasha's. We sorta decompress while we are there!

Wednesday we went to the SuperTarget to get the last few items we needed for the Thanksgiving meal {and I got myself a little something - you'll see later!} Ry found the num-nums, that I stashed in my purse, while we were out. He was so proud of himself.

My baby girl!

Lucky duck! He slept in {by an hour or 2 almost every morning. He was the last one up!}

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Waiting patiently for Thanksgiving to start.

It's time!

At home we had been working on our "Thankful For" board all week.

Each day we wrote on it 1 or more things that we were thankful for and ended up with this:

Some of my favorites? 

Payton wrote "Loren" and "Brook" because of 2 girls Dylan had/has a crush on. Then in rebuttal Dylan wrote "Walker & Chase" for Payton's crushes. 

Someone wrote "me" and I'm not sure who it was.

Payton wrote "yogrt".

Dylan wrote "MIT" because he wants to go to college there.

It was a fun way to realize that we can be thankful for the big, small & funny stuff in our lives.

~

Anyway, back to Thanksgiving day. At dessert time the kids got mouthfuls of whipped cream,

And Chris gave an extra shot to Dylan.

Ry crawled up with me while I was reading and fell asleep. Sweet boy.

Oh and that book . . . I finally finished the 5 book series "A Lineage of Grace" by Francine Rivers. I REALLY enjoyed them.

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When we were at Target I scored this jacket for $16. I complimented a friend from my Mom2Mom group who was wearing one and she said she got it from Target. I looked at it each time I went and this time, with the deals/coupons ($5 off a $25 apparel purchase - woot woot!), I couldn't pass it up!

We went to the new WalMart by Craig and Sasha's at 11am on Black Friday, and it wasn't busy at all!

Here's Rylan's picture he took of the Ninja Turtles. It's his new obsession.

Dylan got to play with his neighborhood buddies so we took the littles and walked Papa & Yaya's property. That neighboring house and fence is brand new. It's weird to drive up and see new homes where there were once bushes and trees.

That evening Ry relaxed on his new Ninja Turtle pillow {Thanks Papa!} while playing games.

Saturday morning we packed up and tried to head back home, but it took some time getting Payton and Rylan in the car. They were hiding under the coffee table because they wanted to stay with Yaya...and they probably would have if we let them!

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The kids disappeared shortly after we got home and I found them huddled up in Ry's room.

Thank you Papa & Sasha for the wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving!

Last Day with Gigi

Gigi's flight took off a little before 7pm today, but we still jam packed the day with fun stuff.

~

We took Dylan to get his hair cut.

Then to a couple of stores and the kids rode on the carousel. {Doesn't Dylan look so excited?}

We went to an awesome Antique Shop and I didn't take any pics. But it was awesome, just trust me.

We stopped by the house for lunch and picked up Chris then headed to Nashville.

Nashville Farmers Market 

There weren't as many vendors as normal, but it was neat to see and I can't wait to go back in the spring!

Antique Archeology {the American Picker's store}

It's on this very cool street. The buildings were amazing!

Very neat store, full of lots of interesting, and eclectic stuff.

We stopped for "linner" at Hattie B's Hot Chicken.

Wow.

I have no words for how amazing the food was.

I mean, come on! Look at that Black Eyed Pea Salad!

We stopped at Michael's and heard Rylan ask a million times if he could put _____ {every item he saw} on his "wist-a-list".

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Then it was time to take Gigi to the airport.

Goodbyes are always the worst.

Especially once we drive away.

And then get home to find this written on our white board:

Thanks for coming out to visit us Gigi! We can't wait until next time!!!