Merry Christmas!

Fun in the Sun

Welcome back old friend

It's a miracle of all Christmas miracles. The SUN is actually shining in Nashville. It is streaming in my window as I type. I actually put my sunglasses on when I was driving home this morning. It has been at least a week, and probably more, since we've seen sun around here and I've missed it. Don't get me wrong, I love a good cloudy day, but not 7 straight days in a row. Granted, the sun is shining, but every once in awhile we get a little shower of rain.

Here's the best part about the sun peeking through the clouds.

This morning, the boys and I were sitting at the table eating breakfast. I had just opened the curtains and saw that it was raining again. I told the boys I was so sick of the rain and wished that the sun would come out. I hear Sam mumbling something, then he looks at me and says "Mommy, I just prayed that Jesus would make the sun shine today".

Skip to later...we walk out of his school after his Christmas party and the sun is shining brightly! We all got really excited, started yelling and got some interesting looks.

I looked at Sam and said "do you know what this means?"

He replies, "God answered my prayer!" with the sweetest smile on his face.

Thank you Lord for the sweet gift of answered prayer for my baby, for revealing Yourself to him in such a real way, and, for the gift of sunshine, for a couple of hours today.

It's hard, being little.

I asked Gabe the other day why he didn't want to go outside and play with his neighborhood friends. This was his response...

"Because they all think I'm little, and that makes them hug me".

Poor thing.

Christmas Traditions

Everyone has been blogging and talking about favorite Christmas traditions. I thought I'd throw in two of my newest favorite traditions.

My friend Christy gave us What God Wants for Christmas last year, so we are just using it for the first time this year. It is so sweet and really emphasizes the TRUE meaning of Christmas. It is very kid friendly, the boys love it, they ask a few times a day when we can open the next box. Follow the link to read about it and then buy it, you won't regret it.

Another is Elf on the Shelf, I've noticed that a lot of people are doing this one too. Sam's class at school has their own elf, Goldie, so he has been asking when our elf, Buddy (from the movie Elf, of course), would come back to our house. He made his appearance this morning in the Christmas Tree (pictured above). I'm not really big on telling the kids that they have to be good in order to get Christmas presents, but the thought of Buddy going to see Santa every night to report in on how Sam and Gabe are doing is so magical to them, we'll keep doing it as long as they like it. Buddy is supposed to hide somewhere new each morning, so hopefully, Neal and I will remember to move him! It comes with a book that tells the Elf's story and gives the kids an opportunity to name their elf. Very cute and fun.

It really snowed!

This is the view we woke up to on Friday morning...

Then, of course, we got all bundled up and headed out to play in the snow.

We got enough snow that the schools called in an official snow day on Friday. The boys have been having a blast the past two days, getting in as much time with the snow as they can. I love this time of year!

10.5 months

The littlest Watson and his newest thing...
He's been doing this for a few weeks, but I've been pretending that it hasn't been happening.
There is no ignoring it now.
Sorry for the poor video quality.

Sam's 6th Birthday Party

For the first time we had Sam's birthday party at our house. I was a little nervous about what to do with 15 kids for an hour and a half. Neal was a little nervous about 15 kids walking around on our carpet. We were able to work through those issues and the party was a success. We sent them all in the backyard to run around with their lightsabers and play some soccer. Then we sent them into the woods on an "Asteroid Hunt" (I wrapped up random objects in aluminum foil and Neal hid them). The kids had a blast looking for the asteroids and traipsing around in the woods. My little 6 year old is quite the social bug. He loves being around people. The look on his face the entire party was priceless. He loved having all of his friends at his house, all at one time. Being the center of attention helped too, I'm sure. So did the fact that he was the one that actually broke the pinata, although Neal was close behind with one of his golf clubs, in case the kids couldn't break it with their lightsabers. Obviously, the party was a Star Wars theme. Sam is currently obsessed with all things Star Wars, like every other boy his school!

The little StormTrooper in the above picture is Gabe. He cracked me up in that costume.

Happy Birthday Sam!

My little baby turned 6 yesterday. 6.

He got this cute little birthday hat at school and wore it all day. We went to Cheeseburger Charlies for dinner and he opened up some presents. This was his reaction to the thing that he wanted the most...

Leggo Batman video game. He's so excited to play it every waking minute (or the minutes that we let him play it)!

His birthday party will be this Saturday...at our house. This is the first time that I will have 10 6 year olds running around my (new) house. It should be interesting!

Happy Birthday baby boy. We love you so much. You bring such joy to our hearts and to our family.

First "snow" of the year

We woke up to a wonderful, wintry sight when we opened our windows this morning. The snow was falling and, although it didn't stick, it was sure pretty. It came down all morning and I bet Gabe asked me 20 times at least if it meant that Santa was coming today. We went to Target so Gabe could pick out a present for Sam's birthday. We talked about how it was a surprise and that he shouldn't tell Sam anything about it. I'm sure you see where this story is going. The second Sam walked in the door this afternoon from school Gabe says "we went to SuperTarget (he always specifies if we go to SuperTarget or "normal Target") and I got you Wall-E". Luckily, it sounded more like "whaley" and I don't think Sam knew what he was talking about. Little stinker.