Christmas Day at Gramps & Grammy's

After we spent the morning at home, we packed up everything and headed to R-ville to have lunch and open presents with my family.  We got there and O got to spend a little time with some of his family that he doesn't see very often.

We were joined by Edmund, Makayla, Uncle Johnny, Aunt Sally, Grandma, and my parents.  We had a delicious brunch and after we were all stuffed, we opened presents.

Again, O was all about opening his presents.  He likes to take his time and check each one out before moving on the the next.  He really loved all of his presents and we had a great time.

After we were finished, we headed back home.  We spent the rest of the day at home playing with our new things.  It is hard to believe last year it snowed on Christmas Day.  We were truly blessed this Christmas season.

Christmas Day

With all of the excitement on Christmas Eve, O slept a little later on Christmas Day.  He usually gets up around 7:30, but today he woke up close to 8.
  

We were already downstairs and we couldn't wait to see his face when he headed down stairs to see what Santa brought him.  He immediately went to the tree and we started opening presents.  He was really excited about his presents.

After he played with some his toys a while, he had a Frosty dounut from Krispy Kreme.  Yummy and really healthy, right?  He played with his toys a little bit longer and then we got ready and headed back to R-ville to have brunch with my family.
 

Christmas morning is such a blast with a small child.  Can't wait to see what next year brings with two kids!  Happy Birthday Jesus!  

Christmas Eve with Mimi & Papa

Each year, we always enjoy Christmas Eve dinner with the Carrolls.  After O woke up from his nap, we headed to Reidsville.

     

While Mimi and I got all of the dishes ready for dinner, O, Brent, and Papa played until everything was ready.
 

We enjoyed a delicious meal and then had some of Mimi's famous carrot cake.

After dinner, we opened presents.  O really got into ripping the paper off of the presents and he enjoyed all of the gifts he received.

We headed home and O went to bed so Santa would come and leave his presents.

Christmas Party at FOL

O's preschool class had its Christmas party the Wednesday before Christmas.  It was a lot of fun.  The kids got to wear their Christmas PJs.  Of course, O had to wear his Thomas pajamas.

 

     

Santa Claus made a surprise visit and the kids loved talking to him.

They had yummy cupcakes and snacks.

They played pin the nose on Rudolph.

O's teacher helped each of them make reindeer food to put out on the lawn on Christmas Eve.  O is off from school for a couple of weeks and he really misses it.  I have really enjoyed the extra time with him and we have had a lot of fun hanging out during the day.

Christmas Program at FOL

Each year, O's preschool has their annual Christmas program and we always look forward to seeing O with his class.  This year, their class sang two songs, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and This Little Light of Mine.
 

When it was his class's turn to enter the sanctuary, he spotted us and wanted to come over where we were.  Fortunately, his teacher was able to reign him back in and he went down front with his class.

He was so hilarious to watch.  We had no idea he knew the songs so well, he was really singing them and remembered most of the hand motions too.  His teacher said O was about the only one singing.  Afterwards, they had refreshments in the fellowship hall.

It was a great way to get prepared to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.  Jesus is the reason for the season and we want O to understand that and always keep that first.

Meet Mr. Elfie

This year, we decided it was time to introduce Owen to Elf on the Shelf.  We figured he was old enough to understand the concept, so we bought it and read the story to him.  Some mornings he would get up and ask where the elf was, but other mornings he would forget about it.  O decided to call him Mr. Elfie, who knows if that's what he will want to call him next year.  We were able to come up with some creative places for Elfie to hide.  I am so glad we got to do this with him this year and we look forward to making it part of the Christmas tradition at our house.

Lunch with Santa

O has been talking about Santa Clause so much this year.  We took him to his first lunch with Santa last year at one of our friend's church.  All throughout the year, he would say that's where he saw Santa when we would drive by the church.  Last year, it was snowing pretty heavily when we met with Santa. 

This year, the snow wasn't there, but we had lots of fun.  We enjoyed yummy food, nifty Christmas crafts, and most importantly, O got to sit on Santa's lap.  You should have seen how excited he was as he waited in line. 

We had a lot of fun and the newspaper photographer was there and O got his picture in the local paper!

Deck the Halls

The day after Thanksgiving, we got all of our decorations out and began giving our home a little Christmas cheer.  O loved helping with the ornaments and he goes around and looks at each one.  He also has a very special job this year, he cuts the lights on each day.  He loves cutting them on and cutting them off if we leave during the day.  He is at such a fun age this Christmas.

Thankful

We enjoyed Thanksgiving this year and were able to spend some time with both of our families.  Prior to Thanksgiving Day, we spent one evening with my parents and Grandma.  We drove over after Brent got home from work, enjoyed some yummy pizza, and enjoyed spending time together.  Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera, so I don't have any pics to share.  Brent was able to take some extra time off of work, so we got our decorating and some shopping done early. 

On Thanksgiving Day, I got up early, prepared several dishes, and then we packed up and headed to R-ville to celebrate the day with the Carrolls.  We had a delicious meal and O, Brent, and Papa were able to spend lots of time outside on the tractors...his favorite.  We brought the camera, but only snapped a few pics.  We are truly blessed and are so thankful for all of the things God has given us.

Potty Training 101

Well, we decided it was time...time for us to get a small raise...time for O to get some cool Thomas underwear...time for us to ditch the diaper bag.  We have officially completed the journey and O is diaper free!!

Several weeks before Thanksgiving, we decided it was time to tackle what we thought would be a very arduous task.  O had been expressing interest in using the potty himself from time to time, so we felt like we needed to take advantage of his interest and go for the goal.  We had tried it several times before, but he wasn't ready...he fought us and did not want to get on the potty....we didn't want to push it and it be a negative experience for him, so we waited for a time that we knew he was ready.  We told him once he got fully potty trained, we would buy him a truck or tractor of his choosing.  We found a neat potty training chart online and he proudly placed the stickers along the path until it was completed.

Since O did not realize he had to go potty until it was too late, I knew I had to be the one proactively asking.  Rather than he resenting and getting angry at me making him try to use the potty, I set a timer and every 45 minutes or so, we would go sit and try to use it.  He was very willing and got excited when the timer went off.  He was so proud of himself when he actually went in the potty.  The first two days, we had a few accidents, but much less than we expected.  By the third day, we were down to no accidents.  From then on, it was only a few accidents here and there.  After the first week, he was telling me when he needed to go potty and the timer went bye-bye.  Once the potty training chart was completed, we got him a big truck, wrapped it up, and left it on top of the potty.  We told him the potty fairy left it for him.  We were so proud of how well he caught on and how easy of a transition this ended up being.  He's really becoming such a big boy!

FOL Thanksgiving Feast

Each year O's preschool has a Thanksgiving Feast and all of the classes get to come together and enjoy the delicious meal.

Each class has a different theme and O's class made cute Indian hats to wear.  At each one's place at the table, there was a miniature tee-pee.  Brent was able to slip out of work and join the fun which just made O's day.

We are thankful for O's preschool and the great experiences he has there.

Random November Happenings

November was a busy month for us getting ready for Thanksgiving and trying to squeeze all of the extra events in during month as well.  O and I had a lot of special quality time where we worked on different projects and enjoyed hanging out together.

We also got to go to a cool birthday party for his friend Blaze.  They had a mad scientist at the party and the kids got to participate in the experiments.  O was a little unsure at first since several of them involved lighting things on fire.  He warmed up though and enjoyed the party very much.

We really enjoyed these fun times and are now looking forward to Christmas.