Saturday, December 28, 2013

Christmas vacation

We just got back from a week in Knoxville! We had the best vacation with all of our family. It was wonderful to be able to spend so much time in town. It was a wonderful week full of lots of fun. Kaitlin and Colin are exhausted but it was a amazing week.

Kory and I went on a date!
We were so excited to see friends and be out past our bedtime!
Rachel and I went to a new blowout bar in town, be styled. It was a fun girls day out and it was so relaxing. They had huge TVs with "Miss Congeniality" for us to watch. We had a great time. As we were checking out we were so surprised that our Dad snuck in and paid for our blowouts. We started crying in the middle of the salon. Such a sweet memory from the week.
I was so blessed to get to visit with Brooke and Cara! We had a great lunch at Cheesecake Factory. These girls are so wonderful and am so thankful for their friendship!
Thankful to spend so much time with family
Kory and Will went to a Tennessee game and had amazing seats. They even were rubbing elbows with Butch Jones.
We ate at Tupelo Honey, a must visit on our trip to Knoxville.
We were shopping and stopped for a photo op!
It was an amazing Christmas vacation!

 

 

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Charlie Brown Christmas 2013

Kaitlin LOVES Charlie Brown. We watch it every year and this year she quotes it .. A lot! Tonight, she got Colin and Kiki into the Charlie Brown Christmas spirit ...

I can't believe this is her 5th Christmas. She is so big now!


"Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!"
Love,
Kaitlin & Colin

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Christmas cookies

Kaitlin had a great time making Christmas cookies this year. She knew she wanted to make trees, snow girls and gingerbread girls. They were messy and were not perfect but it was so much fun seeing her make the cookies from start to finish.

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The frosting was her favorite part

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Sprinkles are always fun too

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My cookie bakers did a great job

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Poor Santa

We were at the mall at Black Friday and the line to see Santa was over a hour long! People looked not so full of Christmas cheer and kids were melting down left and right! We shopped and ate lunch and were heading to Macy’s for their doorbuster that ended at noon when we passed by Santa with no wait! Our kids were happy and Kaitlin was thrilled to go say “hi” so it was spontaneous visit to Santa! This is so not my style! We backed Colin into Santa hoping he wouldn’t notice a strange man was holding him. Santa’s face is my favorite. I also love Kaitlin’s face and that is is still smiling when Colin is upset.

 

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Maybe next year Colin will tolerate Santa

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Kaitlin could not get enough of Santa

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I love this girl

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Once we got Colin out of the way Kaitlin gave Santa very specific instructions for her wish list. She said she wanted the Princess Dream Castle with very tall dolls! Gotta love a girl who knows what she wants. She was also sweet and told Santa to not forget about Colin even though he was not sweet during his visit. 

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 So Santa was a great memory and it was such a fun spontaneous visit. And we made it to Macy’s and had lots of success!

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Snow day fun

We had another round of snow this weekend. It was really heavy wet snow and we got about 5-6 inches. It was great snowman making snow.
I had a gingerbread house hidden away to make on a snow day and Kaitlin was so excited to help. It was a great snow day activity.
I am less than crafty and was worried our house may be a little messy . Thankfully the house was already assembled so we just had to concentrate on the decorating the house. We had fun making different patterns and designs.
She had a great time and wants to build a gingerbread village next.
Not too shabby!
Colin was thrilled to see more snow and sat by the door until Kory dressed him and took him outside. He loved playing in the snow and was so tired after playing all morning.
Kaitlin and Kory built another snowman. They also did some fun sledding and snow soccer.
Kory and Kaitlin did some last minute shopping today and got Kaitlin's haircut. She looks so grown up in this picture. They looked at some of Kaitlin's favorite stores like the Disney store and the apple store, they even went to the "library"! This is what Kaitlin calls Barnes and Noble. They had a fun time together and Kaitlin loves the new bow they gave her.

We are expecting single digits temperatures tonight and snow. So we are enjoying the fire and some peppermint mochas! I love Christmas!

 

 

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Letters to Santa

It’s amazing what technology can do now.  No more hand-writing letters & dropping them in the big red box at Macy’s anymore.  Kory downloaded an iPad app for Kaitlin to write a letter to Santa this year.  She had SO much fun writing it.  She really, really wanted to make sure that Santa didn’t forget what she wanted for Christmas!

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Kaitlin is always concerned about everyone else.  She routinely asks how was Colin’s day when he gets picked up from pre-K and always asks Kory “how was work?” when he gets home every night.  She applied the same sort of charm to Santa.  It’s also very funny to me how specific she can be when describing what she likes.  She doesn’t want Santa to bring the wrong present!

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Santa replied back within a couple of hours so Kaitlin is relieved to know he got her letter.  The USPS was never this fast!

Friday, December 13, 2013

Christmas cheer

We are loving this special Christmas season. There is something so special about seeing the excitement thru the eyes of a child.
Colin is loving to read
And he loves this Santa
We are getting ready for more snow after 4 more inches on Tuesday
Colin has been playing with the Little People nativity and his favorite person is baby Jesus
These two played in the snow and had a great time last weekend
I got slippers for both kids since it is very cold these days! I love them and everybody seemed happy

Love these sweet feet

 

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Santa cow

When Kaitlin was little she wanted nothing to do with Santa but she always loved Santa Cow! So we had to go see him! This is her 4th year to see him and she was a very happy girl.

Here is a look back at Kaitlin and Santa Cow thru the years

2012

2011
2010
Such a fun tradition for Kaitlin! Colin wanted no part in the fun.
 
 

 

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Snow weekend

It started snowing on Friday morning and they canceled school because of the snow threat! They never cancel school here so it was amazing they actually cancelled it! It felt like home canceling school before the snow even hit!
It snowed all Friday and Friday night. It was beautiful when we woke up Saturday morning.
Colin ready to play in the snow! Doesn't he look like the Hulk... Only way cuter!
He loved every second in the snow ! We have two dogs that live next door and Colin is obsessed with them. They came outside and Colin ran over to play with them falling several times along the way! The dogs were excited and stole Colin's glove. It was so funny and Colin just squealed with excitement.
Swinging in the snow
Kaitlin and Kory played and even built a huge snowman
 
Colin and I enjoying the warmth inside
Meet our snowman "Olaf" like the snowman from the movie Frozen.
We had a great night making Christmas Pasta and watching football.
Kaitlin fell asleep on Kory! Sweet girl was exhausted from all the snow activities. It was a great weekend of snow fun.