New Years Eve Outing

The weather was absolutely amazing today!! We played outside with Will most of the day while John started putting together a swing set we bought for Will for his 2nd birthday. It came in a large, narrow box. I have posted pics on here before of John dragging Will down our hill in a diaper box. Well, I could tell when he was opening it that he thought it would be the perfect box for going down really big hills...John wanted to try it out. We decided to have a little family outing and pick up lunch and head to Vulcan Park, where I was sure NO ONE would be out and about on New Years Eve. There are good hills there, so I figured it would be the perfect place to try out his box. I was wrong-the place was packed, but John still got the big box out of our car after lunch and he and Will had a ton of fun. I will let the video tell the rest of the story.



Happy 2011!!

Christmas in Pictures!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!

Ring Pop...Breakfast of Champions

Santa did not disappoint...

He LOVED the trains the best!

Mickey and Train Pajamas!

Hello Mr. Potato Head

Who wants some nuggets? McFlurry anyone??

Where's Will? Oh yeah, there he is...the only kid not smiling and crying for his mama :)

He literally played with them all day...

Our attempt at a family shot...

Enjoying some stocking stuffers...bubbles and color tabs that make our bath water crazy colors!! (Thank you Pughs for the cool dinosaur foam stickers-I love them!)

Merry Christmas!!!

A Whole Lot of Christmas!!!

I was going to just put all of our activities in separate posts, but seeing as how I have barely found time to blog this month in the first place, I think it might be easier to just condense all of it into one! Hang with me....
We took Will to pick out our real tree this year....I've always been a REAL tree kind of girl-full and fat. It wasn't quite the Christmas tree farm experience...with LOTS of 280 traffic just beside the lot, but that didn't really matter because Will was not in the browsing mood. We took home the first one John picked out and luckily it turned out to be what I think is our best tree yet!!

The 2nd weekend in December we met our cousins out in Calera at the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum for a special train ride with Santa! We have been talking about doing the Polar Express train ride since about August. Helena started calling/checking online in October to book our tickets. This is when we quickly found out that tickets for the Polar Express train ride go on sale in JULY....so needless to say they were sold out. They had a daytime train ride with Santa that was not sold out, so we opted for that. It turned out to be perfect for Will and James' age. The Polar Express wouldn't have really meant anything to them since they haven't seen the movie or read the book, but the hot chocolate and warm cookies would have been pretty sweet!Will's school Christmas party was this past Friday. John took the day off of work, brought him up to my school for our breakfast and then dropped him off at school and attended Will's Christmas party. He took a FEW (4) pictures for me...pretty much what I expected...lots of eating and a little dancing :)Sunday night we took Will to his first Zoo Light Safari at the Birmingham Zoo. This was John and Will's first time and it did not disappoint. I mean, you don't go for amazing light displays like Callaway Gardens or something...there is just a bunch of lights and inflatables, and of course the carousel and train. Will was super cozy in his stroller and thankfully it wasn't too cold!Monday morning we were lazy in our pajamas and made our first Gingerbread house. Nothing too crazy-just the store bought pre-assembled one from Wal-Mart but Will seemed perfectly content. He ate as much icing and gumdrops as we put on the actual house, but I guess that pretty much goes with the territory when constructing a gingerbread house. Every time he walks in the kitchen, he says "houuuuuse."

Mix in a few Christmas parties, shopping, wrapping, and trying to get it ALL done, we've been busy! I even attempted to make Christmas cut out cookies today-what a mess!! They turned out decent and I think Santa will be pleased, however I am not sure I will try to go that fancy next year. I think I have cleaned my kitchen 17 times, and that was all before 11:30 this morning. Whew....it has even taken me 3 days just to finish this post :) Merry Christmas!!

HO HO!!

This is Will's new favorite word! Anything red with white hair or a beard has become Ho Ho! We weren't sure how this year would go with Santa. Last year was bad. Will turned all shades of red as his cry was so high pitched nothing was really coming out. You can revisit that trip here. This year, we headed back out to Bass Pro Shops to visit with Santa. This place is awesome during the holidays. They have a whole Santa's Winter Wonderland. LOTS to do while you wait in line-Will was entertained the whole time! As we got closer to Santa, Will wouldn't take his eyes off of him. He didn't say anything or smile, just stared very intently. I walked him up and sat him on his laugh and he just sat there. He didn't look at Santa or smile, but he didn't wail either, so we considered this a good start. He literally didn't move AT ALL while we tried to snap some pictures. The little elves were screaming his name and shaking the bells and he just sat motionless. If you notice, his shoulders are leaning away from Santa...this is how he was the entire time. He didn't seem scared, but also wasn't willingly going to socialize with a stranger.

Look at that sweet face....

He loved the train!!!

Got so excited when it would come at him through the tunnel!!Hmmm....Maybe Santa isn't so bad after all!!