Rain Gutter Regatta & Random Christmas Happiness

Payton had his Cub Scout Rain Gutter Regatta last night. It's not quite as serious as the Pinewood Derby, but it still has a lot of rules and regulations. And even though he didn't win a trophy this time, he did have fun designing his boat and cheering on his friends at the race.

He decided to decorate his boat like the "Green Ninja" from the LEGO show, Ninjago.

He and his friends had fun checking out each others creations.

Then they place their boats in a rain gutter that is filled with water, and blow them down the gutter with a straw.

 

I think Brian may have been most proud of him by the way he handled not winning, and continued rooting for his friends instead of pouting. He's growing up and learning what's important.

On another note, we made our first batch of Christmas cookies today. They turned out really yummy! I decided to make our own icing, even though I have not had a lot of success with that in the past.

Fortunately, this time, it turned out perfect and the boys loved it. Here's the recipe if you're interested. (The only thing I omitted was the food coloring. No need for that Red Dye if you can avoid it.)

They especially liked licking the beaters after the icing was done.

Parker paid close attention while Payton decorated the cookies with sprinkles and red hots.

And then of course, they had to taste them out to make sure we did a good job. :)

"Cheers!"

 Happy boys!

 

 Aside from homemade vanilla icing, here are some other things that are making me happy this Christmas season...

Pandora Christmas Channel on my phone. Listen to it all day long. Seriously. All. Day. Long.

I

 ...Being able to open up the house and let the breeze float through. It's been so gorgeous lately!

This is how our back french doors look most of the time...

And since we don't have a screen on our front door, I improvise with a baby gate. Hey...use whatcha got, right?

 ...Excited for this little elf to get into some funny & naughty activity next week...

...Displaying this beautiful plate that my sis-in-law, Kara, got me years ago. It's such a great reminder of what's important:

...Being able to turn on our "fireplace" every night. Something about cooler weather makes it a little less cheesy to have a fake fireplace...right??

 ...Going on long morning walks around the neighborhood with my little guy in his Christmas PJ's watching him meticulously pick out just the right acorns to put into his tiny bucket.

...And how he insisted on wearing these reindeer slippers all day yesterday. Even when we left the house. It was pretty cute, I must admit.

What are you enjoying these first few days of the Christmas season?

Whatever it is, relish it because before you know it, it will be January and we'll have 365 more days until we get to enjoy all of this holiday cheer again. :)

It's On Baby!

Christmas is in FULL swing around here.

I'm talking fully decorated house, Christmas music playing 24-7 (I'm addicted to the Pandora Christmas Channel), daily candy canes, peppermint mocha creamer in the coffee, kids in Christmas PJ's, candles burning all day long (cinnamon, peppermint, balsam - you name it), gingerbread house, and every kind of Christmas kids book displayed in a huge basket by the fireplace.

It's on baby!

We decorated the tree the night we got back from Thanksgiving.

 As usual, Payton was so excited. He loves going through each ornament and talking about who it's from, what's its significance, and which ones are "his."

 

We also got out all of our Christmas decorations for the house. There are so many fun ones that we've collected and been given over the years. 

Brian's parents gave us this large ball ornament a few years ago. It has a Christmas scene inside of it with a rotating train. Plus, it plays music.

Parker is in love with it this year! 

(Thank God it's plastic and not glass).

I also set up a little card table tent with Christmas lights inside. The boys have played in here every single day. They read in here, color in here, play hide-n-seek... just about everything!

 They even play with their friends inside the fort. :)

I'll be posting lots more pictures in the next few days. I've been super busy this week getting settled into my new job. Yep, you read that right! I am working part-time with my church again. This time I'm doing preschool staffing for the weekend services. I feel really blessed that the staff asked me to come back to work again. I know that God will continue to guide my steps as I learn to schedule my time and incorporate this new work into my daily life.

That's it for now! It's off to bed for this tired mama!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like...

...Christmas!!!

We will be traveling a bit over the Thanksgiving holiday week, so we decided to break the Cardinal Rule of "not putting up Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving." However, we only put up the decorations that are kind of a pain in the rear - like the lighted garland that goes over the garage door, the front door and the entertainment center. It's a pain to put up every year, but it's so beautiful and really makes me happy once it's up. And, even though we put up those items, we aren't lighting the outside lights until after Thanksgiving. So really, we're still kinda playing by the rules. :)

Here's a sneak peek at the indoor decs:

(Entertainment Center garland with Christmas Village set up on mantel area)

 (Parker loves this by the way. He makes me hold him up and talk about each and every building and what's going on inside as he points to them and babbles at each one. So cute!)

 And the tree:

(Notice - no ornaments yet.)

I'm very excited to get home from vacation and get out all of the fun decorations. I have a feeling Parker is going to love the blow-up Frosty the Snowman this year. And Payton can't wait to get Percy the Elf out! So many fun things to look forward to.

And since I'll be taking a blogging hiatus this week with the boys being out of school and traveling for a couple days, here are some random photos from the past couple weeks to tide you over till I get back...

We had new attic stairs installed last week. Our old ones broke and the company had gone out of business, so we got some spiffy new stairs that are SO much safer. Even the boys can climb them (with supervision of course!).

  The boys had so much fun up there - I was tempted to close up the door and let them hang out for a while! :)

Parker and I enjoyed our first candy cane of the season at Publix last week. It was yummy. 

Now that Payton takes showers instead of bathing with Parker in the tub, the boys have found a new way to play together during bathtime..

Payton fogs up the glass with his breath:

 Then draws things in it for Parker.

Then they banter back and forth at each other.

Sometimes ending in a kiss-through-the-glass!

Brian and I went out to dinner with a group of amazing friends last week. We were celebrating a new job for our good friend, Neal. It was a celebration in the sense that we know he is going to touch so many lives and be a huge impact for God in his new church. But at the same time, there were some tears shed at the idea of them moving to Virginia Beach. We love them so much. It's going to be a very hard goodbye.

(sorry for the horrible pic - the lighting was bad, on top of having the hostess take the pic who didn't know how to use an iphone camera :))

Here's one of me & Neal's wife, April. Such a sweetheart.

And one last random pic to share. I never want to forget this stage of Parker's life.

He is a very strong-willed child, but at the same time he can be so sweet and cuddly.

This is his favorite position in the world. Sitting with his bunny, blue blankie in hand, paci in mouth and gently rubbing his nose with the corner of the blanket. It's just so. darn. precious.

Okay, that's it for me.

I'll be back in a few days to share fun vaction pics.

Have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving with your family & friends.

And remember... we all have so, so much to be thankful for.