Party Time!

RJ's 5th birthday is finally here! So hard for me to believe... I'm still trying to grasp all that... my little boy is 5 (well, not officially until the 21st). He had a blast at our local jumping place - Party Central. He had lots of friends to play with and lots of presents. He was bouncing off the walls all day just waiting for his party to get here... he literally wore himself out and fell asleep on the way to the party. But he didn't miss a beat and woke up energized and ready to play!

Breakfast with Santa

We headed to the Birmingham Zoo on Saturday morning, bright and early! The kids had fun getting to see Santa up close! Even though the kids were shy with him at first, Santa was great with the kids and they eventually warmed up... except maybe Payton... just keep looking you will see for yourself!

This was about as close as she wanted to get...

She did wave Bye to him!

RJ finally warmed up.... a little. I'm sure this picture will be priceless in the future!

Quick hello...

So much going on... we are in full swing of the month of December around here. Just a few pics to share, hopefully more to come soon.

On the way to the SEC Championship game... not a fun outcome, but definitely a fun trip!

Sorry for the not-so-great picture, but this is the return on Santa's 'Elf on a Shelf' "Candy Cane" to the Brooks household. This silly little elf gets into all kinds of mischief each night after the kids have gone to sleep. He appears on Dec 1 and leaves after Christmas to go back to the North Pole with Santa. Candy Cane took all of our stockings off the mantle and played with some toilet paper before falling asleep in RJ's stocking. (RJ loves this surprise every morning... this morning he was in our fridge! RJ could hardly stand it!)

Watching the Christmas Parade... the girls are tucked into blankets and jackets behind these tough boys (RJ was really just getting close in hopes of getting some candy thrown to him!) Notice the similar pose they are both in?

This little girl loves some food... opposite of her brother, but oh so funny! She also loves chinese lo mein noodles... she can slurp them up like nobody's business. She was quite tickled with herself at this!

Birthday roses... these gorgeous 2 dozen roses were from my wonderful, giving, and thoughtful husband.

Thanksgiving weekend...

We celebrated a wonderful Thanksgiving this year at our home. Even though all our family was not able to be together I'm looking forward to spending time with my side of the family during Christmas break. Lots of stuff going on during our days out of school... a trip to see Santa, a message from Payton from school one day (it absolutely made my day!), a new bed, and a good lesson learned- hopefully. Payton's new big girl bed... over the long weekend at home with us she really started spouting out some new words. She is trying to repeat words she hears and really has discovered books! She loves to read books, even if it is the same one, over and over :)! The bed is taking a little adjustment... she has slept wonderfully in her crib so we are hoping after the initial shock of the change she will settle back into her routine. Still more changes to come... right now the bed is just on the floor with a box spring until she gets more comfortable.

I guess you could call this the kid table... but we had three stations of eating going on... the favorite part of the meal from the kids - pigs in a blanket and fresh corn from Aunt Nette. We had anything and everything you could think of and plenty of delicious desserts. The kids enjoyed riding in the golf cart and playing upstairs!

My message for the day... so sweet!

These are the bags of toys that RJ picked out to donate to a local organization. We went through several of his toy bins and he decided what to keep and what to give away. I really hope he understands the point and just how lucky he is.

After our trip to see Santa at the mall, home relaxing and playing... they discovered how fun the hats were to play in...

Getting Ready...

We are bracing ourselves for the month of December around here! This month is always filled with craziness: birthdays, parties, shopping, more birthdays, pictures, holiday festivities, school programs, and most important of all - family! We have just about finished our decorations for the house... first time ever I have been done this early. But I need desperately to start some holiday shopping and birthday shopping! And then comes Christmas cards... at least we had the pictures made this weekend, I'm dying to see how they turned out. Definitely keeping my fingers crossed. Here are a couple I got the kids to take for me at our local park. Almost card worthy, but I had my heart set on a shot of the kids together or a family picture (since we haven't had one made since our little girl joined the fam.)

Pretty toes!

This weekend the girls painted our toes while RJ was taking a marathon nap session... she absolutely loves having me paint her toes and sits very still for me. I can't wait for the day when we will be getting pedicures together!

Everyday life.

For the most part... until the little one gets covered with ants. There were about 15 bites on her hand and wrist, some on elbow, feet, forehead (from stripping her shirt off that was covered also.) Beautiful weekend so we decided to move our mums to the back yard and Payton just happened to pick the lucky mum full of ants. I felt horrible... she cried in the first few minutes and then she was over it. She is definitely a tough girl! I can't get over how grown up she looks in this picture...

she is really getting into the stage of 'writing' and 'drawing'.

At one of our favorite spots, Los Mex!

She had so much fun climbing in the box which I tried to capture, but I only
got the end result when she was stuck and couldn't get out!

A moment too sweet for words... both kids enjoying time with Daddy reading them a book!