Christmas at "Cow Chikin"

P has been calling Chick-fil-a "Cow Chikin" for quite a while now, hence the title of this post. It's one of his go-to choices when you ask him what he'd like to eat for lunch or dinner. (This gets very interesting when we are dining at home. I've tried saving the sauce packets from Chick-fil-a and making my own chicken nuggets by coating chicken pieces in crushed up corn flakes to no avail, but I digress.)

This past Tuesday, our local "Cow Chikin" hosted Mr. and Mrs. Claus and had 99 cent kids' meals. I totally went for the marketing gimmick, and we found ourselves joining a crowd of people for dinner. Daddy A pointed out the flaws in my logic, but he humored me and we had a good time.

Please excuse the photo quality in this post - these were taken with my cell phone.

The boys had a chance to say hi to "the cows" before dinner while Daddy A stood in line for our food.


After dinner, the boys went to see Santa and Mrs. Claus. Parker asked for Thomas toys and a car, and a pap pap (pacifier) for his brother. Santa gave the boys candy canes, and you'd have thought he was giving out hundred dollar bills. They were so pleased!

We headed to the play area (hey, it's been cold outside and they enjoyed the chance to use up some energy!) for a few minutes before it was time to go home to baths and bed. We can hardly believe Christmas is almost here!

Thanksgiving

P and I arrived in Fredericksburg on Sunday afternoon with Poppa Fred and Grandma Paige. Daddy A and C joined us on Tuesday. Thursday we were joined by Grandma Hen and Granddaddy Rooster for Thanksgiving, and throughout our visit we had some time with Tiffany, John, and Tucker. We felt so blessed to get to spend time with so much of our extended family, and to get to celebrate Thanksgiving as a group.

I think the highlight of the week for both boys was playing outside in the leaves. They spent lots of time out there.







C was also more than happy to mug for the camera. Every time I turned around, he was grinning at me and saying, "Cheese!"



P collected some pinecones to make a birdfeeder, and he couldn't resist grabbing a few pine needles, too.


P also gave us a hand in the kitchen as we prepared our Thanksgiving meal.

Thanksgiving night, Grandma Hen treated P, Daddy A, and I to the movies. At P's request, we saw "Tangled Up" (Tangled).

Friday, Aunt Tiffany suggested that we all head to Splitsville and go bowling. It was a lot of fun. P and C both enjoyed their turns to "roll the ball".

Friday night we rounded out our trip to Fredericksburg with a Christmas light show. Saturday morning we returned home to Morganton, and we are eagerly awaiting some more family time this Christmas season!

leavin' on a jet plane

A couple of weeks ago, I headed to DC to help my sister shop for wedding dresses. My dad was nice enough to come to Dressapalooza along with my mom, so I brought P along and we flew instead of driving. Mom, Tiff, and I were able to shop during the day while P and Poppa Fred had some grandpa/grandson time, and we had some family time in the evenings. Then Daddy A and C met up with us in Fredericksburg on Tuesday the week of Thanksgiving.

P was very excited about the chance to fly on a plane. We had a great conversation in the airport.

P: Mommy, look at that plane! It's a GIANT one!

Me: That plane looks very big because you're close to it... it's the plane we are going to ride on.


P: This BUILDING is going to go up in the air?

Me: No, not the building, just the plane.

P: But the plane is attached this building with a tube!

Me: The tube is like a tunnel people use to get onto the plane. Then they'll pull the tube away.


P was incredibly excited about his impending ride! He kept asking when it would be time to get on the plane. When we began to board, our conversation continued.

Me: (as we boarded the plane) P, do you remember the tube we were talking about?

P: (eyes lighting up) THIS is the tube!

He had lots of fun on the journey - in particular he liked looking at the clouds and enjoying a Sprite.


When he sees a plane now, P likes to proclaim, "I flied in that plane!" or, as he begins to understand that there are many planes in the sky, he likes to ask, "Is that the plane I flied in?"

Our first night at the Gaylord National, we took in their ICE! show. This year there was a Grinch theme to the show, which P really enjoyed, since that's one of his favorite books.


These heavy coats were provided - you've got to keep it pretty cold to have a building full of ice.


The entire event was spectacular. The artistry involved in designing and carving literally rooms of ice was phenomenal. P's favorite part though, hands down, was the gigantic ice slide. He even talked the staff into letting him ride the larger slide that was supposed to be for ages four and up!

As we were exiting the ICE! show, P had a chance for some "face time" with the Grinch.


The hotel had a neat light show and they made it snow in the lobby at various points throughout the day. For my train-loving boy's heart, you just couldn't beat the miniature train in the lobby. I have no idea how many times he rode it!


Sunday morning we had more face time with the Grinch, because we had breakfast with him.


In the spirit of Dr. Seuss, P even had tried some green eggs and ham as part of his breakfast.

It was a wonderful weekend getaway!

Merry Christmas!

If you follow along regularly, you may remember that I was very excited about Shutterfly's promotion that offered bloggers 50 free holiday cards.

I wanted to follow up and share that our cards arrived in the mail last week and I am thrilled! The cards look wonderful, and I will definitely be looking got so excited I went back to Shutterfly today and ordered more Christmas cards! I will definitely look to Shutterfly in the future for photo gifts and cards.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to send you a "virtual" Christmas card. From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

...it's time to prepare for Christmas!

Around the time P was born, I was really into designing photo cards. I'd upload photos to my computer and create backgrounds for cards for friends and family for just about any holiday. It seemed natural, then, that I would create a photo Christmas card for our family to send out. I did, and then I uploaded the picture to print and be mailed to our house. Then I addressed and sent out cards. That's been my MO ever since.

This year, though, I decided that since we have so much going on, it might be really nice to choose a favorite photo, upload it, and let someone else do the work to turn it into a card. I looked into Shutterfly first for a couple of reasons:

1. When P was born, we created a website with a company called Baby Jelly Beans. Once we had uploaded photos to the site, friends and family could order prints. They came in the mail a few days later from Shutterfly. Everyone who ordered prints from our website was pleased with the timely delivery and the quality of the pictures.

2. I have had positive experiences with Shutterfly's photo calendars. You can look at their full selection of calendars here.

Given my positive experiences, having Shutterfly do our Christmas cards this year seemed like a no brainer. Easy peasy lemon squeezy - I'll just choose and upload a photo, select a card, and be all set!

While I was doing my Christmas card research, I was very excited to find out that bloggers can get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… you can learn more here.

All that's left for me to do? Choose our card, wait for a stack of them to arrive in the mail, and then address and send them! Shutterfly will do that for you, too, if you are interested. Here are my top choices for our card (sans pictures of our family at the moment, of course!).

Holly Frame

Gorgeous White Ribbon


Merry Xmas 2010

Please feel free to leave a comment and tell me which card you think I should choose (or let me know if you see one that you like even better than these!).

Ketchup Day

Today's post will help you catch up on some of our day to day activities. (Now that you've read the first sentence, my post title seems clever, doesn't it? Fine, fine... just smile and nod, okay?)

Since P and I won't be here next week for his class Thanksgiving party, I sent some yummy goodness to school in the form of a turkey cake on Monday. (Just to be clear, it was a yellow cake with chocolate icing that was shaped like a turkey, not a cake actually made of turkey.) I realized Monday night that I didn't take any pictures of the cake for you guys to see, so I snapped one of the turkey's face, because we hadn't eaten that yet. (It is gone now - only a few feathers are left - but we've been munching on it since P brought the leftovers home from school on Monday.)


Monday P was also introduced to his new teacher's aide, Ms. Tamra. Miss Tiffany was asked to move to the four year old class downstairs. P's really enjoying his new teacher, and he still loves school.

A few weeks ago, we made a change in C's room. We converted his crib into a double bed!


I haven't taken tons of pictures of the whole room yet, because it's definitely a work in progress right now. C will probably be getting some bedding for Christmas or his birthday.

The first few days he did really well at bedtime, but spent several of his naps sleeping on the floor. Just in the last few days, he's needed, ahem, some encouragement to sleep in his bed. He gets out of bed after we tuck him in. He knocks on the door. We go to the closed door and say, "Get back in your bed, C," in a very calm voice, and hear him get back in bed... for about five minutes. This cycle continues for up to an hour, but it was the shortest it's been since it started last night, so hopefully he'll be back to his champion sleeping self soon!

I tried to get C to pose sleeping in his "big boy" bed so you could see it, but he was sure I was actually trying to make him go to bed in the middle of the evening, so I gave up on that. I did take pictures of both boys in his bed though (they love to play in each others' beds together!).

The boys read some books.

C was more than happy to have a picture taken while he was awake!

Daddy A did succeed in getting him to lay down with his eyes open.

Good night!

Dollywood

Thursday of our Tennessee trip we headed over to Dollywood. It was already decorated for Christmas, which went nicely with the theme of our trip.



P asked me to pose with him so he could "act like Santa".






From there we pushed C over to Santa's workshop.




The boys had another chance to visit with Santa, and I got a picture to display. I really enjoy seeing how the boys change from year to year when I display all of the Santa pictures at Christmastime.

There was a gigantic wall picture and some crayons available. P added some artistic touches.

P really enjoyed the rides at Dollywood, especially the Veggie Tales rollercoaster and the Scrambler.

All six of us took a ride on the Dollywood Express. We took advantage of a family photo op. (P was enjoying the park more than it looks like he was here... I promise!)

We saw a show and a Christmas parade, and the boys drove cars like this one near the end of the night. P said it was his favorite ride, and C definitely enjoyed it, too!

We're looking forward to another visit to Dollywood, and hoping that this will become a yearly tradition!

Dolly's Dixie Stampede

While we were in Pigeon Forge, we went to dinner and a show at Dixie Stampede.


Before we went inside, the boys checked out the horses. During the pre show, they had a great time with the "hillbilly tinsel".

P tried to roll all of the "tinsel" back up. He was able to take a few "taller" pieces back to the hotel with him.

Daddy A reminded me that the entire meal consists of finger foods and drinkable liquids. I packed silverware for the boys, but they didn't need it.

Both boys enjoyed petting the horses after the show, and P was full of questions for the riders. I was quite impressed with the things he wanted to know! The boys made stuffed animals - Santa Claus for C, and a beaver for P. P named his beaver Flap and both boys cuddled with their new friends as they fell asleep Wednesday night.

The Inn at Christmas Place

We arrived in Tennessee Wednesday night, and headed to our hotel. It was really neat! There were multiple Christmas trees in our suite, and we loved the holiday decor and the black bears throughout the rooms.


Santa was in the hotel in the mornings. After breakfast on Thursday, the boys met up with the big guy and chatted for a bit. P asked for a Follow Me Thomas toy and two matchbox cars for Christmas.

We were able to capture him looking at the camera after he had a few minutes to talk to Mr. Claus.

P watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" on Wednesday night in the hotel, and was enthralled with him after he "turns nice" and "gives them back their party". While we were shopping at The Incredible Christmas Place, Daddy A snapped a picture of him in front of "the Grinch tree".

We also took a photo of the boys posing with this train, since trains are quite popular in our house.

As far as our family is concerned, The Incredible Christmas Place definitely lived up to its name!

at home with Poppa Fred and Grandma Paige

We kicked off the Christmas celebrations a little early at our house this year - Grandma Paige and Poppa Fred came to visit and took us to The Inn at Christmas Place. They also spent a few days at our house.

The boys enjoyed having special bedtime stories

and playing in the backyard.

The boys loved showing off their new skills - fixing cars and sliding in particular. We'll see Grandma Paige and Poppa Fred soon, and the boys are excited about it!