Topper Tribute

Topper has been such a fun little family friend this holiday. The boys have absolutely LOVED hunting him down each morning. Once Wyatt got past the "Topper is preaking me out" stage and stopped trying to shoot him with our assortment of toy guns he really LOVED him. Even now that Topper has gone back to the North Pole Wyatt still asks "where's Topper" first thing each morning. It's pretty sad and cute all at the same time. Before Topper flew back to the North Pole with Santa he got into more mischief.
One morning we woke up to discover he dyed our milk red. We caught him red handed...ha!

The boys had a really hard time finding him when he decided to hide in our poinsettias.

I still think the silliest thing our sweet little topper did was trade out our stockings for our undies! The boys thought this was hysterical!
We will really miss topper until next year!

Santa Came

Santa Came, Santa Came! Woohoo, I think we were all surprised that he showed up. haha! Good thing Santa averages out your behavior throughout the whole year and doesn't go by the last few weeks before Christmas when two little boys may or may not have had too much togetherness...ha!

Rhett was so excited Christmas Eve night that we told him he couldn't get up before 6:00am to see if Santa came. His bedroom is right above ours and at exactly 6:01 am we heard the thud of his feet hitting the floor. Wyatt has super-sonic hearing and heard the thud all the way down the hall and was wide awake as well. So we grabbed the cameras and Christmas morning began.

We spent the rest of Christmas day playing and eating. R was so happy to have his very own Kindle Fire and W is loving playing with his new LeapPad. Or as he calls it, his ipad. R also got the duel mindflex game he's been asking for. We were all surprised to discover that it actually works. It's pretty awesome! We all gave it a try but of course none of us were as cute or as expressive as little W was...haha!

All the boys are probably enjoying daddy's new bean bag the most. Daddy rarely gets to sit in it because so far it's been full of little boys.

I guess it was good that daddy couldn't sit for long because he was busy preparing our roast beast. He really outdid himself this year. It. Was. DELISH! We ordered a small prime rib this year and it was perfect for our family of carnivores.

We all ate in the formal dining room and tried to give our boys a little etiquette lesson along the way. R had perfect manners at the table and was so proud of his fancy drinking skills. W on the other hand still has a way to go but I'm still glad we had such a "fancy" dinner together.

Sorry about the big chunk of beef hanging out of W's mouth but it just cracked me up because he really was trying so hard to be "fancy" haha!

We just had the most relaxing, stress-free, perfect family Christmas and hope you did as well!

Christmas Eve

Y'all did I mention that we got to stay home for Christmas? Well in case you've missed the last couple of blogs we got to stay home and just enjoy our little family of five. It. Was. Magical! Our Christmas Eve festivities began with the 2:00 service at church. The service was so uplifting and the boys all loved it and Landon almost made it through the whole thing. We were able to snap a few family pics before heading out to church.

I snapped this one of L-man and daddy during church.

Once we got home from Christmas Eve service the boys quickly turned the Santa tracker on TV. My heart may have melted into a big dripping pile of love when I looked up to see them quietly sitting like this watching the Santa tracker. They do have their moments!

Since we got to stay home we got to create our own new traditions. We let the boys decide what they wanted to eat for Christmas Eve dinner and they picked breakfast. Which worked out perfectly because Jason just happened to ask Santa Momma for a waffle maker. (Fate...I think YES!) The boys and I decided to let Jason open the fist gift of Christmas and then cook for us. It really worked out well for all of us...ha!

Once our bellies were full of waffles we opened gifts.

We were all showered with so many wonderful gifts. Grandma and Moopa got us all beautiful souvenirs from their Alaskan cruise. The next best thing to going to Alaska is knowing someone who has gone...ha! We all benefitted greatly from their trip. Thanks for all the wonderful gifts!

After presents it was time to put out the obligatory milk and cookies for the big guy.

Then the boys put out their stockings, bid Topper farewell and were off to dream land.

Check back tomorrow to see if Santa came.

The week of Christmas

Once we were all re-united and it feels so good at home, we enjoyed a 100% family of five week before Christmas. Daddy "worked" from home Thursday and Friday and the boys took full advantage of daddy time. We built gingerbread houses and managed to get most of the candy on the houses this year.

Wyatt's House

Rhett's House

The next morning we woke up to find Topper enjoying some of Rhett's house.

When the boys weren't busy building gingerbread houses, Lego Skyscrapers were on the agenda.

The boys aren't the only ones who enjoyed spending extra time with daddy. He and I were able to escape for a wonderful night out for our 12th anniversary on the 23rd. I was so excited to give him his gift. I purchased concert tickets to three of his favorite artists. I put each in a separate envelope with the particular artists song lyrics  in front of the tickets. He was so happy to open each envelope revealing our upcoming concert/date nights.

Rhett and I also attempted to make a cinnamon roll Christmas tree for a fun holiday breakfast.

This was the goal.

And this was our masterpiece...you can hardly tell the difference right? haha! I would say our tree was an epic fail but luckily its appearance didn't alter the taste.

Our week before Christmas was so special and I can't wait to share our first-ever stay-at-home Christmas. It was magical! Hopefully I'll get it posted in the next couple of days.

Whirlwind Christmas Out West

When we got back from the North Pole we faced another insanely busy week. I'm still not sure if we checked everything off the old to do list but I'm certain we did ENOUGH!  Even if it's all a blur now. We had an early start Friday the 16th beginning with Rhett's spirit rally at 8:00am. The second grade was singing and Jason and I both made it to the performance. They sang a medley of songs from the 60's and did a great job!

After the spirit rally, I had a few hours to get ready for the class party. Luckily I ran into my dear friends in the parking lot who were able to help me carry in five large pizzas, a large fruit tray, 36 decorated sugar cookies, two teacher gifts and a partridge in a pear tree. Ms. V liked her gifts and the class loved their party. Whew! (Of course they loved it who doesn't love parties based on the pizza and sugar food groups...haha!)


As soon as the party was over Rhett and I raced home to get the little boys. We told Topper goodbye and Rhett let him know where we were going just in case he wanted to come find us on our journey.

Topper must've known how important it was to watch the boys extra closely the last couple of weeks before Christmas, because when we woke up at our cousins' house he was there with Fred.

Topper and Fred had fun playing together each night while we were visiting our cousins. I don't think they had near as much fun as all the kids did running all around our cousin's Christmas Tree Farm. (Either R really needs to go potty or L is really that heavy...you decide...haha)


W wanted to stop and play with the first toy he opened.

We had a great time cooking hot dogs and smore's in the fire pit.


Landon loved charming all the ladies in the gift shop.

We had a wonderful time at the Christmas tree farm and can't wait to go back next season. What an appropriate place to celebrate Christmas!  While we were out West both the littles developed horrible coughs which turned into upper respiratory infections. W ended up in the Urgent Care twice. I took him in the second time once we arrived at our second Christmas destination, San Antonio. While poor W was getting two shots and a breathing treatment R called my cell phone to let me know that he was getting what the little boys had. I may or may not have blown him off while wrestling W down for medical punishment...haha! I regretted that decision when I arrived back at our cousin's house to discover that R seriously couldn't breath. Turns out our little R-dog is highly allergic to our cousins cat. I shoved benadryl down his closing in throat and gave him a breathing treatment just in time. He started feeling better and was able to overcome the benadryl coma long enough to eat, open presents then crash at the hotel. Look at his poor swollen eyes, that cat really did him in.

I was very happy to have my bright eyed R back the next morning for a yummy hotel breakfast.

After all the boys fell apart on our trip I was so happy to finally get back home Tuesday the 20th. Oh I think I forgot to mention that I was flying solo on this trip. Because nothing says Merry Christmas like driving by yourself seven hours in a car with three sick boys...haha! All in all we had a wonderful trip and are so thankful that we were able to see all of our cousins during the holidays. I'll try to be back tomorrow with more Christmas Cheer.