Santa Hunting {Or...Visiting Santa at Bass Pro Shop}

So ready to go see Santa!

Super excited and giggled the whole time!!

Excited and asked quite loudly for a Batman Robot

Not a fan, but tried to be brave because his brothers did it.

After seeing Santa, the boys had to try out the different things you do in a Southern Winter Wonderland - archery...er, bow hunting? Shooting rifles. And, riding bears. No? You should try it sometime. 

  

Apparently, Alex is in need of a bow? Um, no.

 

See? Super fun!

 

Always stop to catch a train!

 Tracing his letter to Santa...yes, he is asking for a Battle Plan. Haha! Best Christmas letter so far. No worries. Santa knows what he is talking about.

Tracing his letter to Santa. If you don't already know...Alex is quite the Batman fan. I'll share a story of their playing soon. Super funny!

"Hmm...what should I ask that red suit guy that has the fuzzy face to bring me...? Maybe more Cheerios. I'm running low here, Mama."

Good times at Bass Pro Shop means saying goodbye to the fish.

 Merry Christmas!!

Five on Friday

Welcome to Friday!!In an attempt to keep this blog as updated as much as possible for family and friends who wanna sneak a peek into our new lives as a family of FIVE (!!!), I thought I'd share five (ha, that's kinda coincidental...perhaps) things with you from this past week. So, let's get this thing going!

{ONE}

You know I have to start with the tiny one... And, guess what?! He is a month old today! A MONTH OLD ALREADY! What?!

Yep. He is one month old already. Crazy how time flies, right? We have an awesome routine and going strong with it. Oh, and this morning he totally woke up at 5am. That's right. Jason did his night time feeding (he always does that midnight-ish one and I do the 3-ish in the morning one) and BAM! A month old and he slept for his mama. Keeping my fingers crossed for tonight! He is quite awake during the day now, too! He love checking out the Christmas tree and he likes his brothers talking to him. He has even smiled at Andrew a few times now. So sweet.

Also, side note: Today my bestie is going to have her baby girl! Please say a prayer for a quick, easy, and safe delivery!! We can't wait to meet our new little friend!

{TWO}

This was the first week the boys got to wear their Christmas gear! So stinkin' cute! I am dying over the reindeer booty. Sorry, I just love it. So cute! 

Ok, and, just so we are clear...Andrew DOES have on a Christmas shirt, but he had to wear his class shirt. You will see why in number three. ;)

See? Cute little Christmas train! And, yes. He LOVES to feed Austin. He did this for Alex, too. Love it! He is one awesome big brother!

{THREE}

The boys wore their Christmas gear for a special presentation at school. The Singing Santa came for a very special visit. It was pretty cool. This is THE Santa, by the way. If you are local, you may have heard of his visits to the malls and such. Very cool.  

 

The boys even got a chance to talk to him to tell him what they wanted for Christmas. And, yes, the orders have already been put in - phew! That's definitely checked of the list...

{FOUR}

This is also the first week of Advent that we are celebrating. So, we have been working our way though "The ADVENTure of Christmas" this week (Thanks, Pat and Terri!). 

 This is a great book for this time of the year! SO much information!

 We learned about the Star - Read a story, put the star on our tree, and made star cookies. Yum!

 We also learned about the tradition of decorating the Christmas tree. Here are the ornaments that have been made this season (so far):

Austin's baby hat and bracelet from the hospital.

Andrew's blue guy and Alex's green guy (painted the inside and added googly eyes)

Alex's ornament from school - Mary and Baby Jesus

Andrew's Start ornament from school.

Andrew and Alex colored some gingerbread men that we will add their pictures to once I get to that.

 Last night, we read the story of St. Nicholas... 

 And, this morning we celebrated his feast day! The boys each got their "gold" coins and a Hot Wheels car. Jason got his special holiday Nerds candy :) 

{FIVE}

Ok this is more of a "What the what?!" thing...

 

I mean...really? DIET Hot Chocolate... "Sensitive Sweets" with just 25 calories... Really? It's the Holiday Season, people. Just stop it. Get your sensitive sweets on January 1st like everyone else - and then drop it by the 3rd week since resolutions never actually seem to work out. LOL Come on... Diet hot chocolate... I mean, puh-leease... 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, there you have it! Updates for this week's adventures! I am hoping that we will get to go out this weekend. Maybe go see the ZooLights or Christmas Parade...? We'll see. Have a great weekend, y'all!!

 

Feast Day of St. Nicholas

Last week, I was getting a few last minute items for our stockings and I ran into a very special someone...

Can you believe that? At Books-A-Million...at night...hmm... Must be making sure that all the good boys and girls are in bed sleeping. It was about 9pm anyway on a weeknight.... Well, I, of course, had to ask Mr. Claus for a picture.

But, just who is this guy?

Santa Claus, rather St. Nicholas, is REAL. He was a real, live person. And, he did many wonderful, amazing things throughout his life. He was such an inspiration to those who heard about his life that he became a saint.

source

There are many legends about who this man really was, but the big picture told of his love for children and generosity to those in need. All over the world this day is celebrated in many different ways, but nonetheless St. Nicholas is remembered. The Dutch children leave treats for Santa's horses/reindeer in their shoes in hopes that Santa will leave a small prize for them in return. In Germany, children dress up in a Bishop costume (just as St. Nick wore in the picture above) gathering alms for the poor.

Here, however, the celebration is a little different or next to nothing. People are still madly searching for things they want and things they have to have for others and whatnot. Honestly, Christmas in the US is getting a little out of hand for me. Which is why (one of the reasons) I do not plan on doing the Elf on the Shelf idea. Sorry. No offense to anyone who loves it. It is a great idea, but it's just not for us. The little elf freaks me out... I don't do puppets. 

Anyway, basically, a way that we like to keep this particular season not so commercial is by honoring certain days such as this. They way that we remember St. Nick is with our stockings. Whether we are following this idea from the Dutch children or another legend, the stocking/shoes are a part of St. Nicholas. This is how he left little prizes or money to the children or those in need. We started this tradition last year, and here's what we did this year (remember, you can click the picture to make it bigger):

 From the top left: Alex LOVES this idea!  The layout of everything in the boys stockings - including gold coins like St. Nick left. Candy Cane Kisses - yes, please! Andrew is such a big boys this year...he's growing too fast! Jason's stocking goodies :)

Opening their stockings - love Andrew and Alex faces!! LOL

Now, yes, this year Andrew did ask more questions about this. He knows that St. Nicholas and Santa Claus are both the same guy. But he wasn't sure why we were just doing the stockings for now. We explained that today (December 6th) is when we celebrate all the good things that Nicholas did for those around him. He was good with that answer so moved along to his Christmas Goldfish :) 

We definitely do the "Santa thing" here and will continue to do so until whenever. I definitely go Christmas wild here. House is decorated, all the Christmas books are out, the DVDs, the music is on 24/7 it seems. We love this time of the year. In fact, our decorations don't come down until the Epiphany - Jan 6th (AKA the 12th day of Christmas). But that is another post for another time.

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

To learn more about the life of St. Nicholas and how you can celebrate at home, Church, or school check out the St. Nicholas Center for LOTS of ideas and stories.

Christmas!!!

I am so happy that MOST of my decorations are up and MOST of my Christmas shopping is done - YAY! I have a few projects I am working on around the house still. But, I can show you what we have done so far. Ready?

 

First thing first - the kiddos need their stuff up! We LOVE our Little People Nativity - so cute! Alex loves to keep Baby Jesus with him all. the. time. Andy gets a little annoyed that Mary isn't with Baby Jesus in the stable. But is fine with it as long as he gets the 3 kings. Goodness... 

 Yes, we have the North Pole, too! This set actually belonged to my little brothers!! How cool!!

 Playing in the morning when they found the Christmas stuff I put out. 

This cracks me up. The boys made Santa take his train over to the stable because Baby Jesus needed some toys. I told them how the 3 kings brought gifts to their king (which is yes a baby at that moment) and they were confused why Baby Jesus couldn't play with those presents. So Santa took care of that part, I guess LOL Too cute.

 After breakfast, we set up the tree. This is how a toddler decorates the tree :)

Andrew puts all ornaments in his favorite color on first while Alex pulls off all the hooks. LOL

 After the tree was up, they guys wanted their other trains to play with. That's when I brought out yet another Christmas surprise that belong to my brothers. The tree from the Polar Express! And, it makes magical noises and lights up :) FUN! 

 We bought some impromptu decorations for trees I didn't think I was using. I had these 2 tiny trees before we had the boys - one was in our guest room and one was in the kitchen. Now, they are decked out in the boys' favorite colors and in their rooms!

 Andy's Blue Christmas :) The tree is from Hobby Lobby years ago, but still available. The star, ornaments, and battery-operated LED lights are all from Target.

 Alex's Ever Green!

 Of all the decorations, this is my favorite! It took me FOREVER to figure out how to display my Nativity scene, but it's up! I have all the pieces, but not enough room to put it all up this year. Plus, I have 2 toddlers who want to touch every. single. thing. So, yes, this was the solution. The cranberry wreath and star are tied together (both from Target a few years ago). I figured they needed the STAR over them somewhere and I needed to add in some color.  LOVE IT!

 In the bottom of one of my Christmas boxes, the guys found the Packer Santa hats. We had a lot of fun with those!

I was playing around with my camera settings on my phone last night trying to get a picture of our tree. These were the best ones :)

I love Christmas!! Do you have your decorations up yet? When do you take them down?



**Linking up with**
Organize & Decorate Everything - Deck the Halls Holiday Pinning Party!
I'm an Organizing Junkie 
 A Bowl Full of Lemons 
Diana Rambles - Pin It Party  
Smart! School {House} 
Skip to My Lou 
The NY Melrose Family

Santa Claus!

Jason had Thursday and Friday off this week and it was great! He went with us to take Andrew to school and pick him up. The whole time to school Andrew was a bit confused. He kept saying, "Daddy work?" We told him that it was a special day so he got to stay home with us. He seemed to be alright with that answer, but he was still unsure. 

When it was time to pick him up and we were in the car line (I always try to get 2nd or 3rd in line), I showed Jason which window was his classroom. Andrew was so excited to see that his Daddy was in the car!! Jason was laughing because Andrew was gone for a bit but came back to the window with some friends. LOL Too funny! I love that kid!

When Friday rolled around, it was a super special day - we were taking the boys to see Santa!

We started with breakfast at Cracker Barrel! YUM!! But, again, Andrew knew that it wasn't Saturday and Daddy is normally at work. So this is our convo while getting dressed:

Me: Good morning, monkeys!

Andrew & Alex: Crazy giggles and squeals (reasoning for calling them my monkeys and why they got monkey ornaments this year!)

Me: You guys want to go to Cracker Barrel for breakfast?

Andrew: Mmm-hmm!! (with a big smile)

Me: Daddy is coming, too!

Andrew: Daddy, Cack Barrel?

Me: Yep!

Andrew: No, mama. Daddy work. 

Me: No, Daddy is home again today. 

Andrew: (big smile) Oh! Daddy, mama, Alex, Andy, babies go Cack Barrell!

It goes on. It is too cute. The babies are our "stuffed animal children" AKA Tusker and Baby Bunny. I know...Baby Bunny? Yep! Alex has decided that Pat the Bunny is his baby. Andrew has a larger Pat the Bunny and Alex has a smaller one. Andrew handed it to him one day (both from mom!) and ever since Alex has it with him all the time. Anyway, the babies stayed in the car. I don't need to have a missing baby fiasco...   
After breakfast, Jason and I don't say anything about what is going to happen next. Andrew does ask, though. "Go?" every so often is the question down the highway. We get to Bass Pro Shop and there is a sign with Santa on it. We ask Andrew who that guy is and he says, "SANTA!" He was pretty excited!

This year he sat with him! Last year...I couldn't bring myself to post the pic... But, Andrew would only sit with Santa if I did... So me and my 22-week pregnant self AND a 15 month old sat on Santa's lap... Lindsay was crackin up. I was too, but OMG, REALLY? Anyway, I'm glad that Andrew and Alex sat with him. Alex was pretty happy about the whole thing!

Here is the rest of our fun at Bass Pro:

 Gotta love it! :D