Starting the Christmas season right....with our TREE!!

We started the Christmas season the same as always....by trekking through a Christmas tree farm on the side of a mountain up in Sparta, NC on Saturday after Thanksgiving....however, this year, it was done TURBO style!!! Honestly, I don't mind admitting that I am a bit of a Christmas tree snob and I do take my tree selection very seriously! My husband can attest to the fact that I sometimes can take 45 minutes or so to make my official decision, after 100s of trees have been considered and kids are running wild. This year was just a bit different and lead to different selection strategies!! This year, winter has decided to come early, and on the day we chose to go up to Sparta for the annual trip, it was 31 degrees with 22mph winds, meaning it felt more like 19degrees. Not quite the temperature I would like to be in while taking my time, very carefully sizing up every possible tree! This year's decision was based on one thing: what tree stood out when we looked down the hill along the rows!! I maybe only considered 5 possible trees this year before the decision was made, the tree was chopped, and we were nice and toasty inside the payment shed enjoying our hot chocolate :) But you know what, our tree was perfect and I loved it! Maybe next year we'll get to spend a bit more time playing on the tree farm though.

Thanksgiving DAY

On Thanksgiving Day, we were quite busy! We started out over at my aunt's house in Stanley with all my dad's family, whom we hardly ever get to see. This was the first time any of them had ever met Braxton!

Cason is Beth and Craig's son who is a few months younger than Braxton. The funny thing about having a big sister is that every time B meets a new friend (or just sees another child!), he wants to hug them, b/c that's what he sees Reilly doing with her friends! Most of the boys that B tries to hug are not too into hugging though :(

And we actually got ALL 30 of us together for a group shot...

Then we came home and hosted Shawn's family at our house for Thanksgiving dinner! Nana, Kelly, Shaun, Grandpa and Nanny all came over! We had quite a full house. Reilly had a blast decorating a white paper table cloth with "hand turkeys" at each persons spot at the table! It was a fun evening!

Thanksgiving: Part 1 & Braxton's 1st hair cut!

My mom and dad have been hosting a big Thanksgiving celebration at their house the weekend before Thanksgiving for the last several years. This year, we went up for the entire weekend to eat and play.

Before we headed out of town, we actually made a stop over at the barber shop for Braxton's FIRST HAIR CUT!!!! He was SUCH a big boy. He sat so still and was so into what was going on! It was really cute. Jason said that Braxton was "golden" for the way he was being so easy for him to cut his hair :) We think so too!!




Then we headed up Greensboro....For some reason I didn't take ANY pictures while we were eating, but, I did manage to get some afterward. Clarke and my 2 cousins (Carson and Cooper) came up, as well as Memama and my uncle Watts. After lunch, mom always saddles up some of the horses because the boys and Reilly ALWAYS want to ride!! Reilly has really become such a little horseman! She is in heaven out there at the barn with DeeDee. She has her own special helmet and knows all the steps involved in prepping and saddling "her" pony, Teddy. She is such a big girl and looks SO big sitting up straight and tall on the horses!


Later Saturday night, mom and dad built a bonfire out in the pasture for us all to roast marshmellows. It was super cold but really fun!
Braxton continues his "open mouth" kissing...
Brandon, dad, mom, Angel, and Reilly


and before we left on Sunday, mom was determined to get a "good" new pic of them and the kids...this is the best we could get.

Starting from Thanksgiving....

I don't know why I feel it necessary to fill you in on how I'm trying to get this darn blog updated, but for some reason, I do :) Anyway, I've decided to just start with Thanksgiving and fill in all of our favorite Holiday traditions and try to insert pages into the future-planned Blurb book to account for events that took place in September and October of this year that were left out off the blog for one reason or the other. Ok, there. That's my plan. now, to work I go!

Panther Fans.

Despite the way the Panther season ended, Shawn started out the fall with just as much hope and anticipation as any of the other Charlotteans. And he had two of the cutest fans right alongside. Reilly LOVED watching football games with daddy this fall and could even tell whether the team she was watching was the Panthers or not based on their jerseys. She liked to yell "Gooooo Panthers!", but unfortunately, she didn't get to do that too often :( Better luck next year!

1st day of 3yr. old Preschool!! (9-8-10)

Reilly was super lucky to get into the 3day/3's class this year at Stonebridge after a lottery draw. I so wanted her in this class, with these teachers, because I knew it would be a more challenging set-up for her, which she so needs! She was super excited for the first day, but I was super anxious after the DAILY drop-off fits we went through last year at preschool.

her buds Jack Green, Cayden and Lindsey

I was very relieved that all went perfectly well on the first day :)

Minnie Mouse!!!

Oh boy did we have so much fun with something so special to Reilly!! I found an advertisement in a Family Fun (Disney) magazine one day about some random pasta company running and special that you could go to a certain website and sign up for one of the Disney characters to CALL your child. There were many different options you could click on to personalize the phone call, from "Congratulations on...", to "Hope you feel better..." to "Good luck at..." and many many more. You even put in your child's name and the character would speak directly to them on the phone!! So, we decided to sign up for Minnie Mouse to call Reilly and wish her a good first day of school this year. When the phone rang, I answered and it gives you a few seconds to put the child on the phone. I called for Reilly and told her the phone was for her.



She was a bit confused at first but then after she put the phone to her ear and Minnie Mouse started talking to her, she was absolutely floored!!! It was just precious to see her expression while "talking" to Minnie on the phone!!!


And after the call was over, Reilly wanted to call her back to talk some more!! And the funniest thing is that for the next day or so, anytime the phone would ring, Reilly would say, "Oh Mommy, it might be for me! Go check, quick!!" SOOOOO adorable. Too bad it was just a short term offer and not an on-going thing you could do!!