Cute photo and a confession...

How cute are the boys checking out the Christmas tree in their footed pajamas? I treasure moments like these, and love catching a photo when they don't expect it.

Oh, and remember these bad boys...

 So much for 4 pretzels at a time. The entire bag... gone in 1 day. Oops.

 

New Favs

Maybe it was the Christmas music in the car. Maybe it was the gigantic red and green snowflake display hanging in the entrance of the store. Maybe it's just that I'm SO excited for Christmas this year that I have absolutely no willpower when it comes to anything holiday! Whatever it was, I was lured into purchasing a few "extras" at Target this morning and I just had to share them with you.

  
First up, my new FAVORITE snack food. Snack Factory Pretzel Crisps in dark chocolate & peppermint. I read about them last weekend while visiting my parents (my mom has the best assortment of magazines that I love to look through while I'm there). Anyhow, these babies are to die for! Salty, sweet, pepperminty... delish. And the best part... they're not that bad for you. Four pretzels are only 120 calories. Of course it's really hard to only eat 4... but hey, it's the holiday season. :)

Okay, up next... can someone please explain to me why I must buy the Kraft Macaroni & cheese holiday shapes? I bought the Halloween ones and now the Christmas ones too! I truly think I get a bigger kick out of them than the kids. They're just so fun - stockings, snowflakes, candy canes, snowmen! Even the packaging is cute: "tis the cheese'n" get it?!? Too cute.

Of course I had to get a package of candy canes for our Christmas tree. Payton was very concerned when we put up our tree last weekend and we didn't have any candy canes. He'll be happy to hang these on there tonight. I am also dying to give one to Parker. His first candy cane! Too young still? Maybe so. Hmmm.... the dilemma....

And what Christmas season would be complete without a gingerbread house? LOVE the pre-made kind. They still require a bit of construction, and lots of decoration, but who has the time to bake your own gingerbread?? Payton and I have made one of these every year since he was born and this year will be no exception.

Last, but certainly not least... why, oh why did Nabisco have to create Peppermint Oreos??? I meant come on!!! I'm not a huge Oreo fan (this often troubles my husband and son). In fact, I never buy them during the year. But when I saw these, I thought, "These will be a fun treat for the boys." And then I tasted one. DON'T buy these if you like Oreos and peppermint because you'll want to eat the whole bag in one sitting. They are also dangerously good crumbled up on top of a bowl of vanilla ice cream. I'm just sayin'...

And as for those two bags of M&M's... well, they were on sale and I had a coupon if you bought 2 bags. Geez-oh-petes, I'm gonna gain 100 pounds this holiday season...

 

Thanksgiving in Orlando

We were very blessed to spend Thanksgiving with lots of family this year. My brother, his wife Amanda and their 3 kiddos all drove down from NC and spent the week at my parents' house in Orlando. We drove over on Wednesday and also spent a couple days there. The cousins had so much fun together, it makes me sad that they live so far apart. They spent hours coloring, putting together puzzles, swimming, playing hide-n-seek, and generally just wearing each other out! And of course the "big kids" spent lots of time playing corn hole. Even Parker got in on the action (see photos!).
Everyone had so much fun hanging out together, eating lots of great food, and enjoying each others company. And while we had a wonderful time hanging with my side of the family, we missed all of our other relatives whom we could not be with on such a special holiday. 
We are so thankful for all of our family members. And I really, really mean that. We know how precious family is, and we do not take it for granted.
Hopefully you'll see that love reflected in these pictures. :)
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Disney with the cousins

On the first leg of our Thanksgiving weekend extravaganza, Payton and I went to Disney with my brother, his family and my mom. It was so much fun to watch the little ones ride the rides and look around the park in amazement.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a ton of pictures because I was busy holding hands or holding a map or riding rides! But here are a few pics from the day.
P.S. The last one was taken with my brother's phone camera. He took it of Payton and his cousin back at the hotel that evening. Do you think they were a little tired???

Thanksgiving Play

Payton had his class Thanksgiving play yesterday. His character was a turkey. You can tell this by his turkey hat of course. Can you find him in the grand stands?

 The play involved three 1st grade classes, so they performed outside in the courtyard. It was a very cute play with singing, acting, and lots of  kids waving at their parents in the audience.  :)

Parker was happy that he had his friend Amelia to play with during the performance...

 Then afterward, they had a "feast" in the classroom. There was SO much food, but I didn't get a picture of any of it. Unfortunately, once we got to the classroom Parker was on the move and ready to stir up trouble. So I had to keep a tight reign on him, which meant no more pictures. But trust me, it was a very nice event!

Here's the one picture that Brian got of all of us:

Happy Turkey Day!

"Camping"

Brian and Payton were supposed to go camping this weekend. But with the cold front, and the fact that Payton's friends weren't able to go, they decided it might be a better idea to go "camping" in the backyard.
So, we borrowed a tent from our neighbors, and then invited over some friends to roast hot dogs and s'mores over the fire pit. Of course Brian had to bust out his camo and "Kate's Fish Camp" (you Gators know about this place!) t-shirt to really get into the camping mood.
Here is a slide show of pictures from the evening...


The boys actually slept the entire night in the tent. I was shocked when I woke up this morning and they were still outside. Of course Payton was napping by 8 a.m. and Brian fell asleep on the couch later in the afternoon. So, probably not the best night's sleep. But overall, they made some great memories and Payton can't wait to go camping "for real" now.

A few leftover pictures

I am still learning how to use my new iPhone. It's a major learning curve for me. But so far, it's been very rewarding. The one thing I need to really work on is learning how to use the camera. So far, all my pictures have come out fuzzy, blurry, or both. Anyhow, I downloaded them off my phone and into Picasa today so I could post some of them. Bare with me as some of these are old, and most are fuzzy...

Here are Brian and Payton carving their pumpkin at our neighbor's pumpkin carving party:

 Here is the finished product. A "Pikachu" pumpkin (it's from Pokemon). Payton was very proud of how it turned out:

Here are all the kids and their pumpkins that they carved:

Here's what Parker looked like the whole time. Give that boy a snack in his stroller and he's a happy camper!

 Here is one of Payton after our community Fall Festival. He had his face painted like a zombie. It really did scare me a bit...

And here is Parker in one of my favorite little outfits. Since he barely ever sits still these days, it was hard to capture a good picture of it. But it says, "Thankful As Could Be." That's how we feel about him too!

Any suggestions on improving my iPhone picture-taking abilities are always welcome. In the meantime, I'll keep practicing and looking for some good photo apps. :)

 

Snuggie

We had a cold front move through Tampa last night. It was in the 40's I believe, which is very cold for us. So, the boys got all snuggie in their footed pajamas. How cute are they?!?!?

Lollipop Sadness

Parker thought he had discovered the wonders of lollipops today. Unfortunately, his brother had another idea...

Da Bears

Did you know the Chicago Bears beat the Philadelphia Eagles last night? Well, you would have if you had been in our house. Brian had all of us dressed up in our Bears jerseys in support of the big game.

Payton and mine are #34, Walter Payton jerseys, so they both say "Payton" across the back. Pretty cute! Brian's jersey is... well... I'm sure you could have guessed it... #89, Coach Ditka.

 Go Bears!

 

Thanksgiving Craft - You can do it too!

Have you been on the web site Pinterest yet? If so, you know how intimidating some of the craft ideas can be. However, once in a while I come upon an idea that I think, "Now, I can do that!" This is one of those... and you can too! It's very easy, and fun for the whole family.
The idea is that you create a "Thankful Tree." Basically, it's a tree that holds a bunch of pieces of paper that lists things you and your family are thankful for. Here are the simple instructions:

1. Find some branches in your yard and strip off any remaining leaves. Then find a large vase that is tall enough to support the branches.

 2. Fill the bottom of the vase with something heavy to support the branches. I used rocks, but you could use shells, marbles, candy corn, the possibilities are endless!

 3. Arrange your sticks however you want your "tree" to look.

 4. Grab some paper (I used some Harvest-themed scrapbook paper) and a circle cutter if you have one (I borrowed this one, but I have it on my Christmas list - hint, hint). Then cut out however many circles you want. I did 15 for each person in our house, and then punch a hole through the top of each one so you can hang it on the tree.

 5. Then, the fun part! Have each person fill out their circles with things they are thankful for. We did ours together after dinner one night, so I ended up writing them all, but Brian and Payton told me what to write. Parker told me his a little earlier. :)

6. When they're done, hang them on your tree!

And "Voila!" Just like that, you're done. I love looking at it throughout the day. It reminds me that it is the season to reflect on all the things we are thankful for, and it makes me pause and think about just how many things we have to be thankful for.

It also makes me chuckle when I catch a glimpse of some of the papers, like one of Payton's that says "Dad's Super Deluxe Chocolate Pancakes." Or some of mine...

"Watching my boys play together"...

and "Sleep".

I hope you will consider making a thankful tree for your house too. :)

Lots of Pics!

If you're not in the mood to look at pictures, just go ahead and skip this post. However, if you are in the mood to check out some recent pics of lots of different stuff, read on (and click on the "read more" button at the bottom).

Lots of fun fall activities happened at school last week. As you saw from my previous post, they had the character parade on Monday for Halloween, followed by Fall Centers.
Then on Friday, all of the 1st grade classes went on a field trip to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center to see a Junie B. Jones play. I'm not sure what Payton was more excited about, the play, or riding a bus to the play... I think it was the bus ride.
After the play, they walked from the school to the park by our house for a picnic. (Side note: can you imagine trying to walk hundreds of 1st graders from school, across the street, through a neighborhood to a park??? No thanks! But they all made it safely there and back.)

Here are a few pics from the picnic:

Miss Adams leading the class across the lawn to the picnic pavilion...

 Payton eating lunch with his best friend in class (not sure why he's holding his head)...

Burning off some energy after eating:

 My mom was also in town, so she helped occupy Parker at the park:

 That evening, the school hosted their annual Fall Festival. It's mass chaos, but the kids have SO much fun. There are eight ba-jillion kids running all over the place, hyped up on candy, and running through bounce houses with their hair spray-painted 10 different colors. It's quite a scene. Unfortunately, these are the only shots I got of Payton playing the festival games...

 Because this guy wasn't so into the chaos...and was cold, and tired, and very ready to go home and go to bed.

 So my mom and I walked home with Parker and the boys walked home a bit later, after lots more candy and running around I'm sure.

In other miscellaneous news, Parker has discovered the television. I really think he thinks he can grab the images and play with them. He was literally babbling and squealing at the Backyardigans tonight. 

Here he is with Yo Gabba Gabba...

And Mickey...

 He also loves to watch his brother play Beyblades. Brian and Payton were "battling" in his Beyblade stadium this afternoon and Parker happily sat there and watched the whole thing.

As did Rohy...

 And then the boys got really silly after dinner and Payton decided he would try on one of Parker's bibs. Much to his surprise, it fit!

 Parker doesn't look too happy in this picture, but it's still cute:

 And now, the house is quiet. The boys are asleep. And I'm hoping it stays that way until 6:30 a.m. :)

New Fav

Have you seen this in your grocery store?

It is SO good! I've eaten it toasted with butter, used it for french toast, and eaten it right out of the bag. Mmmmmmmmmm! 

Pick up a bag if you can find it, you won't be disappointed. :)

Busted!

Look who I caught emptying out the pantry this morning...

This boy is FAST! But he inspired me to clean out the pantry, so I guess it wasn't all bad. :)

Lots of Halloween Fun!

We had a great time celebrating the last few days of October with all sorts of fun activities.

We started out Halloween morning with some spooky ghost french toast:

Then, Payton's school had their annual "Storybook Parade" which allows the students to dress up as a book character. Fortunately, there are numerous Pokemon books, so Payton was able to wear his Halloween costume.