Snow and Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia!

When we woke up yesterday morning, this is what our house and yard looked like! A truly beautiful Winter Wonderland!

Yesterday morning, we went out to play in the snow again after Kevin cooked us a yummy breakfast (if there is ever a contest for fixing breakfast, I'm entering him!). We even put the sweater on Charlie and he LOVED running in the snow! Kevin said I'm damaging Charlie's "manhood" by making him wear such a "sissy" sweater, but I think he looked adorable and surely it kept him warmer than just his own fluffy white "coat"!

Our house is at the top of the big hill in the neighborhood so most of the parents and children were gathering at the road and sledding! We had fun talking to the neighbors, but Whit didn't wanted no part of sledding! In fact, he wanted to be carried most of the way up and down the hill I think because the road was more of an ice/snow mix. Here's a picture of Daddy carrying Whit up the hill - he's much braver (and a lot less clumsy) than me, so I let Kevin do most of the carrying!

Kevin tried and tried (and tried and tried and tried) to build Whit a snowman all day yesterday, but the snow wasn't packing well and Whit was ready to go inside.

Bless his little heart! I think he was just FROZEN! It might be because he refused to wear his mittens outside! Here's one more picture of the 3 of us...

 

We decided to come on inside, fix a piping hot cup of hot chocolate, turn on the gas logs, and watch Thomas the Tank Engine. Since a snowman wasn't going to happen, we got another idea of a fun indoor activity we could do. A few weeks ago we had "won" a Siamese cat Chia Pet at a White Trash Christmas party. We both laughed at the time that Whit would LOVE doing this project!

We soaked the Chia Pet all afternoon...

And according to the directions, in just 1-2 weeks we will have a "full grown" Siamese cat Chia Pet! Whit didn't understand why it wasn't growing right before his eyes, but it will be fun to watch it grow over the holiday break.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

 The first and third Tuesdays of each month Whit and I go to MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). We love to go, and value the friendships we have made there with other moms and their children. Whit comes home each week with a craft he's made and I come home with a full belly (we have delicious brunches each time) and a full mind and heart after sharing time with other moms. At the end of MOPS today, it started sleeting. They've been calling for snow for a couple of days, but I'm one of those "I'll believe it when I see it" people when it comes to snow and am not one to get my hopes up or rush out to the grocery store for milk and bread (luckily we have enough at home anyways!).

Well, it looks like the weather folks were right! Whit went down for his nap about 1:00pm and when he woke up, the sleet had turned to snow and we had a light dusting already! Daddy came home early from work and as soon as he got home, it was time for us to go test out the snow!

I was so fortunate to find Whit's snow bibs at a consignment sale this fall and his snow boots are hand-me-downs from his cousin, JT. We did go yesterday to Marshall's where I found him a heavy winter coat marked down to $16!! We all bundled up and went outside to enjoy the snow, which was falling heavily by then.

Here's our house with the snow (excuse the old, green truck - that's Kevin's farm truck that he drove home - he was afraid he wouldn't make it home in his car!):

Whit wanted to blow bubbles in the snow, so we did a little bit of that. Daddy taught Whit how to throw snowballs so that was fun for a while.

Whit loved to walk around in the snow! The wind was blowing pretty hard, so we decided to come back in after about 15 minutes. Kevin said he can't wait until Whit can go sledding - we have a big hill in our neighborhood that will probably be perfect!

We hope to go back out tomorrow when it's stopped snowing and make a snowman! All 3 of us are giddy about the snow and are enjoying some time with each other both outside playing and inside snuggling!

Homemade Preschool Teacher and Friend Gifts

This year is Whit's first Christmas in preschool. Last year he started preschool in January, so we haven't experienced the Christmas parties, programs, and teacher and preschool friends gifts until this year. I've been perusing the internet for about a month now looking for inexpensive, yet festive and/or useful gifts and here's what I've come up with.

Last year after Christmas I found some cute painted ceramic Santa bowls on sale for 75% off, so I bought 4 of them. Two of them will be used for his two preschool teachers and I'm planning on filling them with some homemade dark and white chocolate Peppermint Bark.

Here's a picture below of the bark from the website where I got the recipe - doesn't it just look yummy and festive?!?

For his friends at preschool, I'm making each of them a personalized glass ornament, similar to these at Kelly's Korner, but with a more traditional red and green color scheme for the ribbons and shredded paper (I love her hot pink, lime, and zebra theme but that's more girlish and the boys in his classes may not think they're so fabulous!).

Here's a picture of the ones Kelly made:

I'm so excited because between the 2 preschool teacher gifts and 10 preschool friend gifts I'm making, they're all costing us a total of LESS THAN $30 --- that's $2.50 a piece! Yippee! I'm packaging them in just plain paper lunch bags with a simple ribbon and tag.

If you're one of Whit's cousins or friends, don't be surprised if you also receive one of these ornaments from him! They turned out super cute and we made some extras!

Whit's preschool Christmas parties and programs are next week and we are looking forward to the birthday parties for Jesus and the performances of Whit and his friends!

Have I mentioned this is my most favorite time of the year? I sure hope Whit enjoys the months of November and December as much as his parents do!

Dancing KING!

Have I mentioned just how much this boy of ours likes to sing and dance? We've always known he's had a love of music, but lately he's been quite the performer! The only problem is that he doesn't stand still long enough for me to get any good camera shots, so the pictures below are all "action shots" of Whit singing and dancing (in his diaper nonetheless)!

We were singing "This Little Light of Mine" today and he looked at me, stuck his hand out in the shape of a "1" and said, "No, Mommy. I sing it." I guess he is more of a solo artist than a group performer! Ha!

 

 

The performer and his proud Mama (looks like we're both "neked" here but of course we're not - he's almost in just a diaper but I have on a tank top that you can't see in the picture)!

 

Early December

It's the most WONDERFUL time of the year!

The semester is wrapping up, Christmas programs are next week at Whit's preschools, we have Christmas parties and gatherings galore, our house is looking more festive every day, and I'm about 75% finished with my Christmas shopping!

At 2 1/2, Whit is starting to understand a little bit of Christmas and LOVES to sing "Jingle Bells" and see Christmas decorations everywhere we go!

 We are in the process of converting the guest bedroom into Whit's playroom, and still have to get some organizational shelving, etc. but it's definitely coming along! Our goal is to have all of his toys organized (and put away any "baby" toys) before the new load of Christmas surprises come!

 Here are some fun pictures from putting up and decorating the Christmas tree (thank you to Pop and Nana for helping us put up our tree!), decorating the mantle, and hanging the stockings...

After the tree was decorated and Whit was in his pajamas, it was time to explore this new thing in our living room!

 

"Hey Mom, you said there would be presents under here!?!?!"

Almost every night since the tree has been up, he's crawled up underneath it, laid on his back and stared up at the lights and ornaments in awe and amazement! I know in the picture below it looks like he's messing with the light socket, but rest assured, this is just the angle - we of course don't let him play with that part of the tree! :)

Early November Fun

It's so hard to believe that Whit is almost 2 1/2 years old! He's as funny as ever and has never met a stranger. He absolutely loves Barney and Sesame Street DVD's and sings and dances constantly. He's learning how to dress and undress himself and is talking in sentences most of the time. He still eats and sleeps wonderfully and we pray that never changes! We are really looking forward to Thanksgiving with family, especially since Uncle Robert is coming home from Oklahoma!  It's been 3 months since we've seen him!

Here are a few things we've been up to the first part of this month...

Fun times in the bathtub! Bath time continues to be one of Whit's favorite times and he loves to lay his head all the way back in the tub and sing. In this picture he's singing "If You're Happy and You Know It".

This next picture is just funny to me! He loves to go around the house without a shirt on. On this day it was even warm enough for him to have on shorts! I have no idea how his pants got down (he does like to practice taking off and putting on his clothes so that could be to blame). This will be good "first date" material to really embarrass him in front of his girlfriends! Ha!

On November 11, my good friend Lori and her husband, Brent, welcomed their second son, Matthew Ellett! After a difficult pregnancy, we all breathed a sigh of relief that Ellett was finally here and that Mommy & baby are healthy and happy!

On November 14, we celebrated my friend Amy's son, Blake's, 4th birthday at Bounce U in Lewisville. We went there over the summer and Whit was a little bit timid, but it's amazing just how much difference a few months can make because this time he just jumped right into the fun! Here's a picture of Whit and Conner (Ellett's big brother) playing.

On November 19, we celebrated Thanksgiving at Hillsdale Baptist Preschool with their annual Thanksgiving Feast. We dined on chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, green beans, and some of the best desserts in town! I went to help set-up which was the first time I was able to go volunteer at Whit's preschool. The children paraded in as either pilgrims or Indians and it's amazing that I got this picture of Whit with his Indian hat on because he's not a fan of hats at all!

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving next week and to having a few days off of work and school!  We have so many things to be thankful for this year!

Halloween Festivities

Although the weather at the Halloween Eve Weenie Roast was perfect, the weather for Halloween today was not so ideal!  It misted/rained all day - in fact, Kevin's rain gauge said we got over 2 inches of rain this weekend!  Our Halloween started out with something very special at Old Salem in the morning (more details to come - this is part of a Christmas gift to some who read our blog so I can't yet say too much!!). Thankfully it wasn't really raining at that point, just foggy and misting, which was perfectly fine for our "project"!  Kevin then had to go to work for a little while (he's still in the middle of corn season), so Whit and I came home and enjoyed lunch and a nap. After a 2 1/2 hour nap, we headed to Advance Pediatrics to get Whit's seasonal flu vaccination and then to Walgreens to put the finishing touches on our trick-or-treat goodie bags for Whit's cousins!  They had all of the Halloween stuff marked down 50% which my wallet greatly appreciated!  Daddy met up with us at home and we got Whit into his spider costume and the adventure began! We headed to "G" and Papa's house first, where Whit got a wonderful goodie bag of treats! Here is Whit walking up to the stoop at G and Papa's house.

Thanks again to my best friend, Amy, for letting us borrow the very cute Pottery Barn Kids spider costume from her son, Blake! After visiting with G and Papa for a little bit, we headed to Mocksville to see some of Whit's cousins, Morgan and J.T.  Morgan dressed up as "a neon green lady" (for lack of a better description - Kevin and I laughed that her costume resembled Lady Gaga!) and J.T. was a ninja. Here's a group picture of the Robertson/Bumgarner cousins:

We then headed back to Advance to Covington Creek to visit some of Whit's other cousins, Emily, Jack & Addie. Emily was dressed up as a bumble bee, Jack was a turtle, and Addie was a pink poodle! Don't you just love Uncle Blake's cooler attached to the stroller? Ha!

Our last stop of the evening was at Jason & Page's house in Oak Valley, where about 25 of our friends and their little ghosts and goblins were celebrating! Jason and Page had tons of trick-or-treaters, so we had a blast answering the doorbell, eating, and chatting!  We ended up leaving a big bowl of candy at our doorstep for trick-or-treaters, and thankfully all of it was gone by the time we got home! Here's a shot of Whit and Joe clowning around and then a picture of the group's littlest goblin, Harper, who is 4 months old and her grandmother Marie!

 

 

Here's a family shot from the evening, taken on Blake and Erica's beautifully-decorated front porch.

We're so grateful that Halloween this year was only about the fun of dressing up as a "pider" (that's how Whit says "spider") and visiting family and friends...and NOT yet about the candy!  We know we'll have plenty of years to come where Whit will need to see just how full his Halloween bucket can get and subsequently gorge himself on candy, but for now, we all enjoyed the simplicity of the holiday this year! Happy November everyone!