Exciting morning

Today right before I was scheduled to go to the gym (for the first time all week), Griffin slammed his fingers in the car door. He was majorly upset and cried forever. His middle finger was really swollen at the first knuckle and started to turn blue. So we cancelled the gym and ended up at Patient First. Luckily he was easily distracted by the people working there and mesmerized by the x-ray machine. Gray had some stickers to keep him busy. So one hour later, we have one very swollen and bruised (but not broken) finger and a much happier boy. We made it just in time to hit McDonalds and meet the contractor at the house we are looking at.

Pageant pics

Today Griffin participated in his first Christmas pageant at church. His age group were the angels and they sang, "Away in a Manger". Here is my little angel (HA HA) before the pageant. A cute pic of Griffin's friend, Annabelle.

The kids up in front of the church. It was pretty funny to watch them try to stand still.

A quick shot of Griffin and I. He was very ready to be done at this point.

A quick line up of the angels in their costumes.

Truly a Vol Fan

Gray probably has an equal amount of Vandy and TN gear to wear. But I personally think we have a Vol fan on our hands. After all, why else would he keep going up to our tree and take off the Tennessee Volunteers football ornament? Just thought this picture was cute in light of him wearing his Vandy sweatshirt yesterday.

Not Getting It

This year Griffin and Gray received a nice card and gift from our friends, Teresa and David and their girls, Annabelle and Adaline. The gift was from the church's Mission Mall and it was a hammer given in their honor. I gave Griffin the card (and he was VERY excited about the hammer) but tried to explain to him the purpose of the Mission Mall and the gift. He just kept asking when he could touch the hammer and check it out. Later that evening we had a rehearsal for the Christmas pageant at church. I made a comment about how Griffin should tell Annabelle "thank you" for the gift. At the practice Teresa came up to me laughing and said that Griffin marched up to here and said, "Why did you buy me a hammer and then give it someone else?". Not quite getting it:)

Christmas program

Here is a little video from Griffin's Christmas program on Wednesday. He is pretty easy to find- front row center.

Cute comments and feeling guilty

Just read some of my friends' blogs and already I am feeling guilty. First of all, Lori wrote that she has never had to put her kids in time-out in their house. Griffin is in time-out at LEAST 2 times a day. And let's not talk about all the notes and negative reports that our head-strong child has received home lately. And Jessica is doing an organic food co-op...yeah, we had KFC tonight. Since I have been sick lately, I can barely stand to cook. So KFC it was. The cute comment was when Gray looked at the picture of Colonel Sanders and said, "Santa" over and over.

Brunch with Santa

On Saturday Brent and I took the kids to have Brunch with Santa at the botanical gardens. It turned out really well. It was very organized and not too crowded. They had an awesome buffet with salad, shrimp and grits, french toast, pork and rice, and all kinds of kiddie foods. They also had a chocolate fondue fountain which Griffin loved. Here are some shots of the day- we had a hard time getting the boys to cooperate at the same time:) Santa arrived about halfway through the brunch.

Up until Saturday, Gray had been afraid of Santa. But he did really well- Santa just casually walked from table to table to get pictures and talk with the kids. No pressure to sit on his lap at all. Gray had fun with it and even learned how to say, "Santa", which he now says incessantly.

Griffin was more than happy to tell Santa all about what he wanted for Christmas. He also wanted to know where Santa parked the sleigh. Apparently Mrs Claus dropped Santa off and was coming back later to pick him up.

The best attempt at a family shot.

The boys sitting with Santa at the end of the brunch. This was the best we could get.

Gingerbread Houses

A BIG THANK YOU to my friend, Carrie, for having a gingerbread decorating party at her house this morning for all of the kids. It was a lot of fun, and she was pretty amazing to let that many kids have icing all over her house:) Griffin is hard at work on his house (notice the tongue out as he is concentrating, just like his Daddy).

Gray with his house.

Here is a pic of Meghan and Kaleigh working on their houses. Or in Meghan's case, eating all the decorating supplies:)

Here is a shot of all the adorable creations that the kids made. I think they came out really well, and they are completely edible too:)

Getting in the Christmas spirit

Griffin has wanted to have our Christmas tree put up for awhile now, but we finally got around to it this weekend. We got the tree and lights up last night, but it was late so the ornaments had to wait until today. Here are the boys in their coordinating holiday outfits.

I thought Gray looks pretty snazzy in his plaid pants.

After we got the tree decorated, Brent got out the North Pole Express. The boys were completely mesmerized by the train again this year.

It is a pretty fascinating train with working elves and smoke puffing from the top.

They just stood and stared at the train forever. It is definitely one of the highlights of their Christmas holiday.

TV conversations

Today we were driving and Griffin said that he saw a cactus. I asked if it had prickly spines on it. Then he elaborated from there..."yeah, and it had red berries to make it look beautiful, and I am pretty sure I saw a chinchilla on the branches. Because you know chincillas love to climb on branches".

Another conversation involved the different kinds of teeth we have in our mouths and what shape they are. There are ones that are round, pointy ones called canines, and front ones shaped like rectangles. I recognized it from a recent episode of Sid the Science Kid.

Last night he defined the word, camouflage, as meaning "to hide". When I asked him where he learned that, he said, "Diego". I am pretty sure he has been watching a bit too much tv.

Lights at the Botanical Gardens

On Tuesday night we took Mimi to the Festival of Lights at the botanical gardens. It has become one of our favorite holiday activities. Here is Mimi with Griffin outside.

The four of us under one of the snowflake arches.

They have a great train display inside which the boys both loved. Gray was very captivated by it this year.

The conservatory with the butterfly lights.

Griffin loved the spiders.

A pic of the boys inside the conservatory. It was absolutely beautiful with all of the flowers.

After the conservatory we went to the children's garden and roasted marshmallows for S'mores. It was a nice ending to a great night.

Elf on the Shelf

I know this concept is not new to a lot of people, but today we got our Elf on the Shelf kit in the mail. I didn't know this was something you could order, but I stumbled upon it the other day online. I think the boys will have a great time with it.

The package came Fed Ex today (so it's a big deal when they ring the doorbell and everything) and had lots of different stamps on it saying things like, "from the North Pole" and different country stamps. Here are the boys with their package from Santa. We opened up the package and this is what was inside... our own Elf on a Shelf and a storybook that accompanies it. The book talks about how Santa sends us an elf to watch us during the day and then report back to him at night (on who is naughty or nice). At night he flies back to the North Pole, and in the morning, he returns to your house in a different location. So every morning he is sitting somewhere new. There are a few rules- kids cannot touch the elf and the elf cannot talk to the kids. This so far has not stopped Griffin from talking to the elf anyway:)

Right now we have our elf on our fireplace mantel. Griffin has already informed me that he is going to find the elf tomorrow and wake me up to let me know where he is sitting. Great:) We are supposed to name our elf, anyone got any good ideas for names?

Thanksgiving program

So these pics are going to be hard to see, but they are the best we could do. Today Griffin had his Thanksgiving program at school, and it was really cute. Lots of turkey songs, an acorn song, followed by several politically incorrect Indian songs. But the kids had a fun time singing and the parents were really into it too. If you look carefully, you can see Griffin in the center of the front row wearing his green sweater vest (next to the kid in the yellow shirt). Everytime he caught us watching him, he would stop singing and point at us the whole time.

Little Indians in the leaves

Just a few pictures of the boys from the past week. This weekend Brent was working on the leaves and made a huge pile for the boys to play in. Even though it was freezing outside, they loved running around and jumping in the pile.

Here are 2 pictures of Griffin in his Indian costume that he made at school. They had a Thanksgiving Feast today and he got to wear it at the feast. I thought he looked pretty cute. We have been hearing a ton of Thanksgiving and Indian songs lately, so I am ready for the program at school tomorrow.

teacups

On the way home from the gym, Griffin started talking about Christmas (and how he wants a Pixos super station for the 100th time). I asked him what we could get Daddy, and he said, "teacups". When I asked him what kind of teacups he would want, he said, "well, sparkly ones, I suppose". I am sure Brent would LOVE sparkly teacups for Christmas.

Today was the day

Yesterday I was just talking to Brent about whether or not we would get a big boy bed for Gray when we have to move or just keep him in the crib as long as possible. I was voting for keeping him in the crib. Brent just said, "well let's see, he's not trying to climb out yet". Well this morning I heard a big thump followed by crying. I went in Gray's room and found him on the floor just looking at me. So not even 24 hours after our conversation, he has climbed out of his crib once at least.

Catching you up

I guess I have been busy or maybe in an anti-blogging mood. I think mostly just busy. The boys are "playing" together a lot now (which should read more closely as screaming, fighting, arguing) so I am playing referee most of the time. It makes me want to pull my hair out:)

We are also starting the process of putting our house on the market. I think mid-January is the time we are shooting for. It is kind of scary with how bad the housing market is everywhere. And we are still having trouble with finding the perfect or quasi-perfect home for us to buy. So we are just going to have to wait and see how it all pans out.

Happy Halloween

Here are some pictures from our Halloween. Griffin spent the whole afternoon climbing a tree. A battle between Capt Hook and Peter Pan.

The Peter Pan Crew: Meghan (tiger lily), Kaleigh (tinkerbell), Griffin (Peter Pan), and Gray (Crocodile)

Best Buddies!

Wanna hop on the back of my big wheel?

Trick or Treating on Seminary Avenue

Brief footage of Griffin at his schools Halloween parade before the battery went dead.