Drew's Favorite Christmas Song

I wanted to quickly share Drew's favorite Christmas song for this year:

Elise Noddy Nod
Elise Noddy Nod
Elise Noddy Nod
Elise Noddy Nod
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas
From the bottom of my hea-a-art

That's Feliz Navidad for those of you who speak Spanish and not toddler-ese! And he sings it with such joy and spirit - it's great!!

Fun Times with Daddy...

Sunday after church the boys (all three of them!) had a big time playing together. It was fun for Mommy just to sit back and take pictures!

Awww...brotherly love!

Superman! And his sidekick, of course!

Christmas Thomas chugging through the tunnels...

Allen decided he needed the tunnel more...

What? I didn't touch the tree...I promise!

Updates...

Allen seems to be getting better, although his temp is still around 101.5 without Tylenol. I'm hopeful that the morning will bring a fresh start! Drew was exhausted after school today and took a 3 1/2 hour nap. It made for a cranky and late evening, but I think he needed the rest. I am holding my breath and hoping he does not come down with a fever as well!

Patrick called today and the preschool in Scottsdale where we really want Drew to attend has a very unusual opening in January. So Drew will be able to start school there the Tuesday after we arrive! We are so excited. We really feel it is the right place for him and the fact that they have an opening is amazing. The only problem is that he needs to be completely potty trained. That should be interesting to accomplish over the next 4 weeks! We're so close...yet so far away...

I hosted a very fun Girls' Night Out at my house on Tuesday night for our Sunday School class. We did a cookie swap and I came away with 6+ dozen cookies! Needless to say, I don't need that many cookies in my house! I was able to take a big tray to a friend today to brighten her holiday and it was so nice to see all the variety in one place and to know it was going to someones family who will enjoy it all! I have also eaten cookies for many meals over the past 2 days. I'm in desperate need of a well-rounded meal at this point!

Saturday is the Christmas celebration with my dad's side of the family. Everyone is coming down from southwest Virginia/northeast Tennessee to have lunch and play at my parent's house. I think there are 37 planning to be there. It should be chaos but fun! The kids draw names and do a gift exchange so it will be Drew and Allen's first Christmas presents of the season. I'm excited to see how they react!

Patrick is in Scottsdale for an extra day this week and it sure does make a difference! Drew really misses him and is ready for him to be home. So am I!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Today is Grandma's birthday and I forgot to have the boys call her. Some daughter-in-law I am! Sorry Grandma! I'll have them call tomorrow.
Regardless, Happy Birthday! We hope you had a great day!

Sick Boy...Again...

Allen is sick again, only this time we don't know why. When I picked him up from preschool yesterday he had a fever of 102.5. It went up to 103.5 during the night - sleep did not come easy for him and we were up most of the night. It has been at least 103 all day and goes down to 101 with Tylenol but goes right back up when it wears off. We went to the pediatrician and they did blood and urine tests and nothing came back "remarkable" so it is assumed to be a virus. For now I just treat the fever and if it is still high on Friday we go back in.
Of course, Patrick is in Scottsdale this week and not home until late Friday night since he doesn't travel next week. It's times like this that having Daddy at home comes in handy. Mommy is exhausted!

The Mother Letter Project

I stumbled upon this page today and the concept is pretty amazing. There is a man who, when his family decided to spend NO money on each other for Christmas this year, came up with the idea of compiling letters of encouragements from mothers to mothers to give to his wife. The project has exploded and you can be involved. You write an anonymous letter and send it to the e-mail address provided and he will add it to the group. You can also receive a final copy of all the letters if you want it for yourself. It's a really cool idea and I know there are a lot of mothers out there who could add some great letters!
The Mother Letter Project

Nativity Pageant

Tonight, Drew and I went to the Nativity Pageant downtown with Nana, Grandaddy, Uncle Mike, Aunt Celeste, Jay and Amelia. (Allen stayed home with our wonderful babysitter...I'm not sure what I'm going to do without her in Arizona!) It was fabulous, as usual. The kids had a special treat before it started as Mike and I took them "backstage" to visit some of the animals. They were able to pet the sheep and feed apples to Buster the donkey. Drew was VERY excited to meet Buster and spent most of the pageant looking for him and baby Jesus. I'm sure Jesus is excited to know he ranks up there with the donkey!
The cutest comment from Drew tonight was when Isaiah walked out and started talking to the villagers...
"Is that Santa Claus? I think that is Santa!"
When the spiritual and secular worlds of Christmas collide...

Overheard...

Tonight, Drew was playing with his nativity and we overheard this...
"Mary, Mary! You're going to have a baby and his name is Jesus!"

Precious! At least he's retaining some of what the holiday is really about, even if it is just bits and pieces of the story!

It's (finally) beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Today we finally finished decorating our Christmas tree. We put it up over a week ago and it has had 6 ornaments on it since then, the 6 that didn't get put away last year or were purchased this year. So today I decided it was going to be decorated no matter what! I was able to get most of the ornaments hung during the boys' naps and then Drew helped me do the lower, unbreakable ones. It turned out pretty nice...we'll just see how long it takes for Allen to undecorate it or pull it over on his head!
Oh, and Drew is completely distressed that we don't have a star on top of our tree! Oops!

The Christmas Express!

Saturday morning we took Drew and Allen on the Three Rivers Rambler Christmas Express. It was a surprise to Drew, but he figured it out pretty quickly...as soon as we saw the train tracks he started talking about it and by the time he saw the train he said "What if that is my special surprise? Is that my special surprise?!" Can't slip one past that kid...
We enjoyed cookies and treats with hot chocolate while we rode along the river. They stopped the train and read a story to the kids that was quite cute - The Christmas Lantern. Santa boarded the train and stopped by each family to take photos and hand out little gifts. Both boys really enjoyed it, though Allen really just wanted to sleep!

Listening to The Christmas Lantern

Santa and the boys

Daddy and his boys...aren't they cute?!