Merry Christmas!

Wishing our family, friends, and all others we hold near and dear a Merry Christmas!!!

xoxoxo Billy, Carolyn, Will & John

Will's School Christmas Play

Will's school put on another great Christmas play this year...and I really loved the premise ;)

The play was called We Three Spies and it was FABULOUS with a great message about the true meaning of Christmas!

Here are a few photos and a video clip of the Kinders singing...enjoy!

Here are three cute spies ;)

 And of course when I see photo props - I can't help myself so here's one of Will and his bestie Cade...

Ok...turn up the volume and enjoy the music!

Run Run As Fast As You Can....

I'll give you one guess - which Gingerbread Man do you think is John's?

Noteworthy Napkins

Last week was my week - and Will wanted birds - like, realistic birds - and he chose the following (it was a four day week) 1)Kingfisher, 2)Heron, 3)Vulture, and 4)Cardinal.  These were NOT easy for me...I may have burned through 1,234 napkins just trying to get them right...here they are!

I was really proud of Monday's napkin - the Kingfisher.  When I picked Will up from school, I asked him if he liked it and he said (and I'm not kidding or paraphrasing) "I loved it! It was so neat I thought Daddy did it!"

Grrrrr!  I mean, I realize Billy is easily a better napkin artist than me but it still hurt a bit haha!

By weeks end, I thought the Vulture was my best work...and Will told me his friends loved it too!

And now Billy and I find ourselves with two weeks of no napkin homework!

Whew! We deserve a break :)

Breakfast With Santa

Saturday was a busy busy busy day...the morning kicked off with a painful round of physical therapy, followed by Breakfast With Santa, followed by TWO birthday parties for kiddos that we know. 

Breakfast With Santa went exactly how we knew it would go...

The morning started out great - the kiddos were pumped up and wearing real clothes for the first Saturday since I can remember (ie not a uniform or pajamas or some other sort of casual gear).

When it was Will's turn to visit with Santa, he marched up onto his lap like a champ...

 And asked for a remote control boat and a leopard gecko...(we'll see if he gets them!).

 John completely freaked out when we tried to get him close to Santa - shrieking and screaming like a wild animal to the point we had to leave the house and head out to the farmyard for some of the other (and obviously less threatening) Christmas festivities...

Like riding in a buggy pulled by a miniature horse...yes ya'll, that is a miniature horse...like...half the size of a pony!  I want one!!

 And taking photos by flowers and fake reindeer....

 Then we headed out back where the boys checked out the wide open spaces and some livestock...

 I am including this photo solely for the cheek shot...super chubby here...

 Will had a serious run in with one of their cows...this guy HATED Will's red sweater...it actually lowered it's head and charged at him twice!  Note to self - don't wear red to the Rodeo in March...

 John was absolutely mesmerized by the chickens and roosters...

 And when Santa walked out the back door of the house, I KID YOU NOT, John actually shut the fence gate on him to keep the distance!

 Being the mom that I am, with little to no sympathy, I finally forced the boys to get in a shot with Santa...John, obviously, not a fan.  Hopefully he'll get more than coal in his stocking :)

 And then we headed for some food...this is the hot chocolate/coffee station complete with a red bucket full of marshmallows...and here is Will, the skinniest marshmallow thief of all time stealing a cupful of them!

 Before heading to our next shindig, Will took one last ride on the pony, yes, pony this time...

 And we were all back to being happy again!  Both kids really did have a great time, aside from the Santa/John debacle...looks like we might need to leave Santa a few extra cookies by the fireplace this year :)

Noteworthy Napkins

Last week Billy was in charge of characters from Christmas shows.

He did a great job!  I swear he is getting more and more artistic as the weeks go on!

Here we have Alvin, Superman, Polar Express, Abominable Snowman, and The Grinch.

He added cotton balls to the Abominable Snowman for a 3-D effect, but seriously...the greatest napkin of all, hands down, was The Grinch!  Great job Billy!

Decorating and Getting Healthy

Last weekend, despite being exhausted, despite Will having strep throat, despite Johnny on the verge of an upper respiratory infection, we bought our tree and managed to get it up and decorated!

Here is one proud Papa Dave with his two grandsons :)

 After Billy and I's annual argument about lights (love you babe),  Will put up the first ornament...

Then I hung up two of the most important stockings in the house :)

 More tree trimming...

 And then there was John...who made it his mission to try to squeeze that Texas A&M football helmet ornament on every single ornament character he could find...including several Peanuts characters before victimizing Winnie the Pooh...

 And later, Reveille haha!

We will see how it goes - so far John is ignoring all the ornaments for the most part, and we took a lot of folk's advice - putting the memorable/breakable ones towards the top!

Now all we need is to get healthy and await a visit from Santa!

And Another Difference

Just going through some photos of when my parents were here...and found yet another difference between our boys...love, or lack thereof, of reptiles.

Will has ALWAYS loved them, John is somewhat skeptical...

This picture proves it...from our trip to the zoo, and our stop at the Komoda Dragon exhibit.

Will getting up close and personal, John...not so much...

Noteworthy Napkins

Wow, last week was not any easy week for me...

Will wanted owls so here we have the best I could come up with in the wee hours of the night...

Barn Owl, Snowy Owl, Barred Owl, Great Horned Owl, and a Saw-whet Owl.

I think Billy is going to be in charge of birds next week...good luck honey!

Zoo Adventure

Last weekend we took the boys to the zoo and we had a FANTASTIC time!

First stop was the Animal Encounters exhibit where the boys navigated through an underwater tunnel...

 Then we were off to the ewefunts (as John would say)...

 And our predictable family photo op at the rhino exhibit (but they were on loan :( )...

 Next we raced off to feed the giraffes - if you can get past how adorable John is when he runs, you will see that I have finally surrendered to wearing a belly bag lol...whatever, I love it! 

 John was semi excited about feeding the giraffes, but didn't actually do it himself.  For some reason though, whoever that lady in pink is thoroughly loved watching it all (seriously, why do my kids attract so much attention from strangers?)...

 Will loved feeding the giraffes - I might have to find a camp during the summer for him at the zoo...

 Next we hit the carousel where Will tried out the siberian tiger and John clutched on to Billy, completely unhappy with the whole carousel experience...

 But then he cheered up during lunch :) Check out those lashes...

 After a quick Trey photo op we headed to check out some primates - John was extremely excited - he loves monkeys...

 BELLY BAG...omg I am thoroughly channeling my mommness...

 Here I am stretching my GOOD labrum lol...gotta find levity somehow!

 I just love photo props...especially if they involve monkeys!

 OMG - this guy is the cutest orangutan EVER!