It's Christmas Vacation

We went to My Big Backyard's Snowy Nights last week to soak up some last minute Christmas fun. I'm realizing this is the age where Whit will start remembering things- maybe not well, but little glimpses, so I really wanted to do all we could to have a fun Christmas season!

As John put it- poor little Southern kids who have to pay to play in fake snow. So true. But they had a blast playing in the snow made of some sort of Palmolive concoction. 

You can't tell it, but he was dancing in the snow.

Some sort of ice skating in some sort of fake ice.

Hallelujah!

My little Thomas loves to sing. His newest venture is the Hallelujah chorus. That's right. Enjoy!

Zoo Lights

We went to Zoo Lights last weekend and had a BALL! It was so much fun, and it was still kind of warm so we weren't freezing. If you live in Memphis you need to go! 

Random animals at front of zoo. Thomas was not impressed. If Graham read this I know he would be thrilled that Whit wanted his picture made with an elephant over the panda and pig.

Live reindeer in background you can't see because I can't operate my camera

Do yourself a favor and go to Zoo Lights!

Thanksgiving, round 1/2

Whit set up a Thanksgiving feast for his animals, Thomas, and himself:

Oh Shit...

Pardon the explicit title, but right after I got married my mom gave me a yellow magnet that said "Oh Shit: I've turned into my mother." It was laughable then, and there were a few things that I realized I did just like she did. However, becoming a mother has made me realize all the more how I can be like her. Just tiny little things that make me think, "wow- that was very Margaret-like." So, this post, in honor of my mother, is all of our Thanksgiving decorations. I remember growing up she used to take pictures of everything- the birthday presents all lined up, the mantle at Christmas (which was the same year after year) and so on and so forth. I always thought this was a funny habit and probably made fun of her in my head, because I was nicer as a child and not as sarcastic so I didn't do it right to her face. Well, then I became a mom, and oh shit... I do the same thing now too! So here ya go...

This is flat out hilarious- Whit made it at school

Or N for Native American? 

Our thankful tree

Whit's cornucopia 

My fun little turkey

Back to the thankful tree... We started it the first day of Thanksgiving and it was so much fun. Whit wanted to do it every night and reminded us when we forgot. Here are some things he was thankful for:

Emmie and Happy

Mimi and Papa

Aunt Hayley and Uncle Graham Cracker

Jesus

T-man

Bear

Frog

York

Goldie

Clifford (our animals are so important)

Yorky Bear (the real one, not stuffed one)

Jesus' grace

Jack

Cousins

Mommy

Daddy

Claire

Aunt Leslie

School

Friends

All the doggies

God and His grace

Leaves

Last night after 2 Thanksgiving dinners I was thankful for stretchy pants. And if you are reading this blog, know that I am thankful for YOU!

Election Day

On election day, pre-k had a special election to see who their class would elect as President. The teachers showed the boys the pictures and THAT WAS IT. Can you believe the class unanimously voted for Obama?!?! Whit said he liked his face. One boy said he was smiling. One kid with curly hair liked him because Obama's dog had curly hair. So there you have it, pre-k'ers elected the president!

The class shown with the poling station

More Halloween Fun

Here are a few more from Halloween from my phone:

Whit and Joel at their pre-k party 

Harlan and Mrs. Kilgore

"Show me your angry face"

The Angry Bird knocking down the Piggy

Whit's Halloween basket- after about 5 houses he looked down and said "that's enough candy. Let's go home." Say what?!?! He's not my child.

Boo!

Halloween was FUN this year! I laughed... a lot. How could you not? You can dress your kids up and laugh at them! Major props to John this year- Whit insisted he be a yellow Angry Bird and he complied... for a bit anyway. At least we got great pictures. Whit wanted me to be a princess... hence the crown. If only I had a fabulous princess outfit like Kate Middleton. 

Pumpkins!!

Whit has been talking about getting pumpkins for a long time, and I finally went to get some. I'm so terrible! I've been meaning to get some for oh, about a month now, and decided it was time with Halloween pretty much here. The boys had fun picking out pumpkins.

Carving our pumpkin... T loved it, but Whit just wanted to play with the knives. 

Yeah... not a good idea.

Happy Fall

Before I show you cute pictures of my kids I thought I would let you know of a pet peeve. I'm SICK AND TIRED of "y'all". Have you noticed this trend? Happy Fall, y'all! Merry Christmas, y'all! Welcome, y'all! I don't know if I'm a yankee, but I'm so tired of this! Yes, I say it but no, I don't need to write it on everything. That's why the title is just Happy Fall... no y'all.

And now for pictures... this is from the Corn Maze we did with our Sunday School class. I mean, the Marks. It was us and Dan and Sam! Way to go, Veritas :)

Whit and Sam are ALL BOY. Can you tell?

Happy fall, everyone!

A Few Fun Rides

That's what she said.

Sorry... I had to get that out of the way.

Here's a recap of some things in the past few weeks that all GO...

John got a new car a few weeks ago and the boys loved playing at the dealership...

The Fire Department had a Fire Safety Week and gave tours of the fire houses and let the kids look at the equipment...

The eliptical was his favorite part

Whit and Austin having fun

Whit rode on a camel at the zoo. His name was Elmo. He can't wait to do it again!

Really??

First of all, yes it looks like he is far out in this picture but it was REALLY shallow and there was a sand bar not too far away from here where we played a lot. I was close- he was fine! 

My purpose in posting this is because I had a big realization on this trip- my baby is growing up! This is the first time Whit has wanted to go in the water by himself and play. I was sitting there waving at him and yelling to come back when necessary, but he was having a blast in the water just splashing around. He also had a lot of friends at the beach too so he would go over a few umbrellas and play with them while the moms and I talked. I felt like a mom. I felt like my mom! I remember being the kid in the ocean and playing in the sand with friends while my mom talked, and now here it was my turn? When did this happen? How did he get so big? I know if the water was deeper I wouldn't have allowed that at all, but still... when did he get big enough to do all this and want to just run off and play with his friends? My little 4 year old said today "when I'm 5 I can...". What? His next birthday he'll be 5? 3.5 years ago I don't think I ever thought about my baby being 4 and 5. I had tunnel vision in the baby phase and never thought about parenting a kid during that time, but here it is! I'm so thankful for this time- 4 is awesome. I love his personality and while it's trying sometimes :) it's still a lot of fun. He's pretty hilarious, but I guess all parents say that!

A little piece of Heaven

Rosemary Beach has to be one of my favorite places, and Rosemary Beach in October is even better! We were fortunate to get to take a mini-vacay because Whit was out of school for Fall Break, so we packed up and headed out!

We had such a fun time- the weather was amazing and it wasn't crowded at all. We took John's parents with us so we had a little bit of free time too, which was great! If only it could have lasted longer!

Stopped for dinner at McD's. I looked over and saw this. They were so happy to be out of the car!

Ah yes, the toe picture

To say he loved the beach this trip is an understatement

This one even liked it too!

Red Bar- if given the choice, this might be my last mneal

We walked to the Donut Truck in Alys Beach and Whit got to ride his bike in his PJs

We dug a hole- and he was proud

They *tried* flying a kite

Mimi on the boogie board

These are the Patterson twins in Whit's class who were there too. We played every day together and had a ball!

Not quite sure about this pose

Digging another hole

It's a hard life for T bird

Dinner with the Pattersons

Melissa- this is for you- I don't have a before shot when it was just our family's stuff in the back, but when we loaded ALL OF YOUR MOM'S STUFF this is what the car looked like- couldn't see out the back! John and his dad went back a day early and we were left with this...