partying it up on new year's eve!

we are some party animals over here.

we spent the afternoon in the hump.

that was followed by a fancy shrimp dinner complete with chopsticks.

then there was a little chill time after showers.  (reed got in a fight with the "pockey" table if you are curious as to what happened to his nose.  the "pockey" table won.)

and all that will be followed by a bedtime of 930.  ok, we might get a little crazy since it's new year's and all and push it back to 10.  either way, i definitely won't be awake when the new year arrives!!

see y'all on the flip side in 2012!

mr. potato head got a swimming pool

well christmas has come and gone.  the decorations have been stashed away, most of the presents are not strewn all over the house anymore, the leftovers are gone, and everybody is happy because they got what they wanted.  even mr. potato head got a present this year.

i'll back up, though.  let's begin this with christmas eve.  ok, actually it was christmas eve eve.  we wrote santa a letter and asked him to come a day early since christmas was on sunday this year.  we knew we couldn't get everything done and have a ginormous brunch like we like to do and make it to church in time.  santa was happy to oblige, so we had our christmas eve festivities on the 23rd.

we don't make cookies for santa.  i'm not martha stewart.  i'll cook you a shish-ka-bob that will make your head spin, but slice and bake is more my speed when it comes to cookies.  i figure that santa gets tired of cookies, so we roast marshmallows in the fireplace and make s'mores for ourselves and the fat guy on christmas eve.  i'm sure he appreciates the change up!

after the shower, they got to open the christmas eve present.  pjs!

i was slightly thrown off by christmas eve actually being on christmas eve eve, so we forgot to put out the reindeer food.  thankfully, santa's gps got him here anyway!

everybody had to wait at the top of the stairs for the christmas morning picture, and then they got to scramble downstairs and see what all they got!

of course the first words out of reed's mouth were, "it not pjs, mama?  i not want pjs."  apparently the present the night before wasn't exciting enough for him!  they weren't disappointed.  bikes, scooters, legos, and the toy of the year - the perplexus - were enough to keep them smiling and happy!

and yes...reed ate a box of whoppers for breakfast!

over the next two days, we had several present opening sessions and continual playtime!

the highly popular perplexus made it into everybody's hands throughout the weekend!

and now that chase and i have mastered the "rookie" version, i'm going to have to purchase the next level one for whatever holiday comes next!

the little people baked and decorated a birthday cake for jesus.  and, we promptly devoured it for dessert!

the highlight for wes was getting his very own real camera!  (no more stealing mama's!)

no...i'm not a crazy mama that bought her 4 year old a $200 camera.  ebay, people, ebay.  he has had a blast with it so far.  i'm going to have to devote whole blog posts to his pictures.  maybe i can get him to give them some captions as well.  and then he can just take over this here blog, and i'll go fold laundry.  :)

so, like i said...everybody was happy.  even mr. potato head.  you see, he stays in one plastic bin on a shelf of many bins upstairs.  at some point during the festivities, my grandmother found mr. potato floating his bin.  yay!  he got a swimming pool.  only it wasn't chlorinated, pretty blue water he was swimming in.  it was yellow water.  are you following me here?  my middle child, who shall remain nameless, decided to use mr. potato head's bin as his own personal urinal.  joy!  i don't know how long this had been going on, but it was definitely more than once because he wasn't stomping in a puddle.  mr. potato head was getting his float on.  i should have been horrified, right?  i think this house of testosterone is desensitizing me.  the bin, mr. potato head and all his body parts got some clorox and a trip through the dishwasher and were good as new.  middle child...well, we're still working on him.  maybe that camera will at least keep him occupied enough that he won't have time to think about places to relieve himself outside of the bathroom!

but y'all christmas isn't about cake, perplexuses, or plastic toys floating in a pool of pee.  it's about this.



and for that, i am eternally grateful!  hope y'all all had a great christmas!

christmas vacation

there was no shortage of things to do this christmas vacation while daddy had a few days off!

bowling was a hit.

reed made sure to clap and tell everybody "good shot!" after every throw.  throw?  is that what you call a turn in bowling?

sadly, reed won the first game.  but i pulled a few strikes out of my back pocket to come from behind and pull out the win in the second game!  i can't have my kids thinking that they are always winners! :)

we also went over to new albany to visit grandmother.

we kept her entertained for a short while, and then we headed north to cotton plant.

seriously.  who knew a place such as this existed??  wes was beside himself.  he kept saying how much he liked it, how he wanted to live there, how he wished he could stay forever, and then as we were leaving..."well can i at least have my birthday party here?" he was sad to find out that this was just a field in the month of may!

reed was very hesitant at first and hung back saying, "it not gonna get me?"

but after a few minutes, he was pointing stuff out and saying, "take my picture, mama!"

they decided the flamingo and the bulldog were their favorites.

and they also decided that we were for sure going to make a visit to cotton plant again next year!  and maybe i'll bring a birthday cake and call it party to appease wes!