Christmas Morning

Advent Candle

For the first time ever (and maybe the last for a while) things worked out for us to be in our home church for Christmas Eve service. We decided to attend the 4 p.m. children's service and were honored to be asked to light the advent candles.

As we were preparing this afternoon, Travis suggested that maybe Shayne should be in charge of the actual fire, stating that I wouldn't be able to "stop, drop and roll" with the baby in my tummy! Good, solid logic from him as always!

Travis volunteered to read the lines associated with the white Christ candle. He said he'd bring "the big finish!" He did wonderfully! We were so very proud of him!

By the way, Cole tried to get the attention of his friend Andrew the whole time we were up there. You can see him in the photo looking his direction!

Cousins

The five cousins celebrating Christmas at GG and Grandpa's house in Macon, GA. When they're all together, they are quite the housefull...and next year, there will be six!

From left to right:

Travis, 8; McKenzie, 7; Gray, 2; Cole, 4; Morgan, 5

Waitin' on pizza...

Cole and Morgan

Travis and McKenzie

Cole wanted lots of lovin' off of Gray...Gray, not so sure!

Snowball Fight!

Our holiday travel took an unexpected turn with Shayne's Pappaw ill in the hospital in Indiana...so midway on our way to Georgia, we took a left in Mississippi and headed up to meet the family. Thankfully, as of this post, Pappaw is doing better, though he remains in the hospital.

As we were leaving to go to Georgia on Monday morning, there was a slight dusting of snow on the ground. All the boys wanted to do was have a snowball fight. So Shayne gathered up enough snow off of some cars' rear bumpers to oblige them...

Ready for a Baby

The room is fully converted back into a nursery awaiting a baby to sleep in it! We finally chose a paint color (after sampling six different shades of green) and Shayne got it painted last weekend. He also assembled the furniture and the glider was delivered. At last, the room was totally transformed and everything seemed much more under control around here!

The bedding I'd ordered was delayed a week or so, but was ready for pickup on Tuesday, so I drove down to get it right away--so anxious to see everything pulled together!

I love how the bedding turned out!

A comfy rocker that both boys already love to lounge in!

Our only artpiece--no real theme this time around.

I just loved the sentiment and colors of this painting.

Special Toy

Travis' class has been reading The Velveteen Rabbit. To culminate this lesson, the teachers planned a formal English Tea for the classes. Each child was to bring their oldest and most loved toy. Travis of course chose his stuffed lovey blanket Rocky to be his guest.

Travis and Rocky

I asked Travis this morning if he thought Rocky would become real like the rabbit in the story he replied, "He's already real to me in my heart."

Cole's Gingerbread House

The mom of one of Cole's classmates made actual gingerbread houses for all the students. They were all lined up this morning fully assembled and the kids had all the frosting and candy necessary to decorate them today. This was a BIG deal! The kids were so excited. And the mom is my new hero.

As you can see, Cole's finished product was a masterpiece! His first words were...we can eat them after you see them if we want to!

Step #1: Show it off...

Step #2 Pick a piece...

Step #3: Pop it in...

all before we left the parking lot!

Walk Through Bethlehem

Cole and I attended our church's Walk Through Bethlehem this morning. We'd intended to go as a family, but Travis got sick and had to stay home with Shayne. He was so sad to miss, and Cole was reluctant to go without him. But we had a lot of fun, learned some new things and even got to bring home some of the "crafts" for Travis to do when he's feeling better.

We were greeted at the city gate by Roman soldiers. No photo opportunity there...Cole was in too big of a hurry to pass by the intimidating guards. Next, we signed the census scroll and paid our "taxes"--donations of socks and underwear for charity.

Next we met this woman at the well. She explained the importance of water to the city and how it was gathered. She also mentioned that the women at the well had been whispering about a family that arrived and had a baby the night before in the local innkeeper's barn.

Cole visits the herb market and crushes a select few for a sachet.

The potter gives Cole a lesson in working with clay. While we were there, the tax collector came and made a collection. All of the gruff Romans really made an impression on Cole.

Finally, we followed the star and the directions of the townspeople and found a baby lying in a manger.

Cole's Christmas Program

Cole by a little tree in his classroom all spiffed up and ready for his Christmas Program.

Cole and his class in full reindeer gear. He slept in the red nose, by the way, and was sad when it had worn off on his pillow during the night.

Truckin' along

Travis has gotten into the habit of riding his bike down our long driveway everyday after school. Because it's gravel and Cole still has training wheels, it's impossible for him to keep up on his bike. So today, he backed the Monster Truck out of the garage and tried to keep up with Travis. I peeked out the window to find Cole stuck in a pothole about halfway down the driveway and Travis trying his best to help him get out. I literally had to get in the car and drive down to help them. Then we inched our way back home. Cole was so happy to finally make it back to the garage--and so was I!

Travis' Christmas Program

Travis' class contributed to the school's Christmas worship service by singing, "O Little Town of Bethlehem."

Snaggletooth

Travis has lost a matching pair of bottom teeth in the past few weeks. He's busy trying to outsmart the Tooth Fairy! He "fell asleep" a couple of times with the tooth out of the pillow. No tooth=no cash! She did give him a second chance the next night though. Hopefully he's learned his lesson.

Baby #3 in 3D

During a routine ultrasound to check the baby's growth (all is good) the technician said, "Let's try and get a 3D picture for you." I was surprised because I thought you had to pay extra for that. But nevertheless, soon I was looking at our baby in a whole new way.

You can tell very little about his features. He has his little hands criss-crossed up against his face. But it looks like he has quite the set of cheeks on him. I can't wait to kiss them!

Travis' New Room

Travis didn't need a new room--he's already in the biggest one! But we did decide to give him a makeover of his choice. He chose to have a Star Wars room!

His one request was to have a chalkboard. Easy enough. It's been fun to leave him notes and see what artwork he produces.

Believe it or not...this Darth Vadar lamp is another product of the Myhand's "magic attic." This was also Shayne's at some point in his childhood. I'm so grateful to my in-laws for saving this for 30 years so BOTH our boys can have things in their rooms that used to be Shayne's!

Cole's New Room

With the new baby coming, we asked Cole to move out of the littlest room upstairs so we could once again make it a nursery. That meant he got to move into what was the guest room and get a BIG bed. Turns out we got him the coolest bed ever with lots of cubby holes and a "cave" underneath. It was also very important that he have a place to display his (2) trophies! He's so proud of his new sports room and feels like such a big boy in it.

Shayne's mom painted the ceramic football player shown above on the football shelf. It's got an Atlanta Falcon helmet (Shayne's fave team) and it's signed "Mom '79" on the bottom, when Shayne was 6 years old.

Shayne's Mom and Dad have a "magic attic" in which things from the past are pulled periodically and passed onto the boys. Luckily, Shayne had a sports room when he was a little boy and we received a shipment of sports decor from the '70s like this lamp which also came with matching bookends. Cole LOVES that he has stuff in his room that used to be his Daddy's.

We Need a Little Christmas!

Cole stayed home sick from school on Friday, even though he probably could've gone. We thought it was going to snow (much ado about nothing) and I kept him home with me for the second day in a row to make sure he was fully recovered from his little stomach bug. Our big tree downstairs had been sitting dark and empty for four days so I decided we needed to get it done. It was a big job, but I learned there's nothing like an enthusiastic four year old practically juggling glass ornaments to keep you going! We got it done with only a few breaks: one for the 10 minute snow flurry and once when he asked me to dance to a song on Wynona's christmas album. And there was only one broken ornament that was easily repairable!

Our fully trimmed Santa tree!

Red the Elf is baaaaack!

Our little "Elf on the Shelf" Red is back again this year! The boys were delighted to see that Red had returned and was waiting on our banister for them when we got home from Thanksgiving. It's sooo much fun to see where the little guy shows up each morning...and who can spot him first! It's quite the competition...

On Wednesday, Cole got into the Hershey Kisses pretty heavily, and coincidence or not, threw up in his bed that night. Well it turns out, Red did the same thing...and also left candy wrappers around as evidence of his binge! As Travis told him, "Mommy hates messes." The best part of this placement is that it kept everyone out of the candy dish the next day because everyone knows...you can't touch Red.