Jingle all the Way

I can't believe Christmas is almost here! We have had such a fun month. Christmas with kids is the absolute best. Everything is so much more fun with them.

Each night we have been doing our Advent stories with our Jesse Tree ornaments. Last year we did the Jesse Tree ornament exchange with friends from church so it has been fun to use those again and hang them on a tree in the girls' room. Most of the ornaments survived but there has been a lot of gluing and re-gluing.

We have driven around to look at Christmas lights twice and will go on Christmas Eve as well. This is my favorite thing to do! I love getting cozy in the car, listening to Christmas music (of course), and looking at all the creative light displays. We found an awesome street in Panther Creek and then made the journey to Prestonwood another night. I hadn't been there since I was a kid and it did not disappoint. It was as awesome as I remembered. Cambry and I were yelling and pointing to everything the whole time (Look, a huge Santa! Look at that mailbox! Look, spider man is on the roof! Look, all the Disney characters!).

We went to a white elephant party that one of Greg's coworkers throws every year. We have been to it several times in the past. It was always so far away, but now that we live in the Woodlands too it is super close. The kids had fun and there were plenty of other kids and toys there.

Cambry turned 5 this month and I turned 35. We had a family part for Cambry in Dobbin which I will post about separately. For my birthday we dropped the kids off at a drop-in playcare so we could go on a lunch date. They didn't have room for Colton so we just took him with us. He was good. We went to Hubble and Hudson Bistro. Then later that afternoon my parents came over to celebrate. Greg cooked us a nice steak dinner and my Dad made coconut cream pie.

This year I finally bought Christmas stockings. In our 8 years of marriage we have never had stockings or a fireplace/mantle...until now. I searched and searched for the perfect stockings. I wanted something coordinating but all a little different. I really wanted something in gold and white but could not find anything in stores on online. Finally Etsy came through for me. I love love love these stockings!

Cambry had her Christmas performance and party at preschool. It was precious. They all wore Christmas pajamas and each class sang a song. Then the older classes dressed up in parts for the nativity. Cambry was the cutest little cow.

Side note: I had no idea they were even doing the nativity part or that she was a cow. Whenever I ask her how her school day was I get answers like "I don't know", "I'm not sure" or "Don't ask". This is most certainly pay back for how I treated my parents when they asked me these questions growing up. I remember my mom would always ask me how my day was after school and I would say things like "Regular". Hahaha. 

ANYWAY. After the performance parents took a few hundred pictures then the kids went back to the classrooms for the party. They had pancakes and hot chocolate, decorated sugar cookies, one of the moms read Christmas stories, they had playground time, then they came back and had happy birthday Jesus cake. If you include the 30 minutes I arrived prior to the performance start time the whole thing lasted 3 hours. Let's keep in mind I had Lainey and Colton with me. WHOA. It was all I could do to keep them from destroying the classroom and eating every one's cookies and trying to run around during "Up on the Housetop". But we survived and it was fun.

I will have to do a Part II to this post for a few other things we have been doing. 7 more days til Christmas!!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving week Greg took off work every day except Monday. The Kimmels came in town and we spent the whole week with them and my parents. We had the best time! Here is our week in pictures.

Fishing at Gigi and Pa's house.

Turkey craft at our house. Not pictured is Lainey devouring all her candy,

Park time.

Tour of Towne Lake on a friend's boat.

Kids everywhere.

This is what we referred to as daddy daycare while Mom, Lauren, and I enjoyed pedicures, shopping, and lunch.

Cousin twins.

The closest thing to Disneyworld in Houston = Bounce Bounce. We secretly hoped we could leave the kids at home and have some adult competitions here. Trampoline park + obstacle courses + ball pits + giant bubbles + fro yo.

Mom always sets a beautiful table.

Traditional post-turkey walk. 

Looking at lights.

We were all sad for the week to end. I'm very thankful we got to enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving with family.

November

We have had a fun month. Even though it's not even December, I feel like we are already into the Christmas festivities. It was hard to remember what we did earlier this month but thank goodness for iphone pics. It feels like it was a long time ago but I think that is because of our week long Thanksgiving staycation (separate blog).

Earlier in the month the littles and I met a group of friends at Dewberry Farm. Sidenote: Cambry has picked up on me referring to Colton and Lainey as "the littles" and now she does too. It is adorable. Lainey had a great time and loved exploring everything. Colton couldn't do a ton so he was in the stroller a lot but was content to go with the flow.

We have had mostly warm weather, but there have been a couple short cool fronts come in. It has been fun for it to feel like fall and I love dressing Lainey in cute fall outfits. Cambry has all sorts of opinions on clothes and only likes to rotate through a few favorites. Thankfully I can still have fun picking Lainey's clothes.

With the nice weather we have been outside a lot. There is a sweet 2 year old girl that lives next door to us and also 2 sisters, 4 yrs and 5 years, that come to visit their Grandparents on our street all the time. I love that our kids have other kids to play with. Poor Colton needs some boys on the scene. One day the kids spent about 20 minutes raking together a pile of leaves to jump in. Fall in Texas, y'all!

Greg had planned to take the girls camping with several other daddies and daughters. They had been looking forward to it for a long time. But the day they were supposed to go camping a cold front came through and it was supposed to be rainy and be super cold that night. They decided it was best to cancel and try to find another day. Well, by the afternoon the rain was gone and Greg still had 1 remaining campsite that he hadn't canceled just in case. So we decided to just go as a family for a couple hours since Huntsville isn't too far. I remembered that the Gentrys had talked about camping that weekend too so we ended up meeting them there. They guys made a fire, we roasted s'mores, and the kids had fun playing together.

We took family pictures recently and I love how they turned out! As usual I spent way too much time trying to figure out what we should all wear. #firstworldproblems. I will post the photos soon.

It has been a great November and I am so excited for all the magic and fun of Christmas!

Family Tidbits

I saw this on a blog I read and thought it was a cute idea. Write 3 things about each family member. Here we go!

C O L T O N

(Pictures taken by Briana Burns Photography. Love them!!)

1. This guy is walking everywhere. No more crawling for him. He is a full time walker. He falls down all the time but that does not stop him. His little waddle is the absolute cutest. 

2. He is the pickiest eater. It is terrible. He is even pickier than his sisters at this age. Basically he likes fruit and dairy products, and items off the Chick-fil-A menu cause #thirdchild. He did try a PBJ the other day and liked it. I made him a turkey and melted cheese sandwich and he treated it like brussel sprouts. We always offer him the food we eat for dinner but he almost always spits it out so then we resort to things like cheese and crackers and look at each other like WHERE DID WE GO WRONG.

3. Twice a week Lainey has therapy at the Elementary school while Cambry is at school. So Colton and I have 30 minutes to ourselves. There is a nice park connected to the school so I have been pushing Colton in the stroller along the trails or letting him play on the playground. Today he was fascinated by the bulldozers nearby that were doing some work. He just stood there and stared for a long long time. His little face was so sweet and curious. I love all of the little "boyish" things that I am seeing in him that are different from the girls.

L A I N E Y

(Beautiful photos by Briana Burns Photography)

1. Lainey had a heart checkup this week. There are lots of unknowns with her, medically, so we try to be proactive in getting her checked out. She had an EKG and an ultrasound on her heart and we are so thankful that everything looked great! She hated the EKG but actually laid perfectly still for the US thanks to Dinosaur Train.

2. Lainey learned a new skill: escaping her crib. Today she got put in time-out for throwing her oranges all over the floor. I put her in her crib. A couple minutes later I heard a loud sound so I walked upstairs to investigate. I was almost at the top of the stairs when her bedroom door opened, and she popped out saying "mommy?". Then tonight after putting her to bed she escaped again. I guess we will need to take the front railing off her crib so she doesn't get hurt.

3. She has been loving playing outside lately. Now that we live on a cul-de-sac we play outside quite often. Lainey loves being out there running around, playing on her plasma car, being pulled in the wagon, and playing with the other kids out there. We have had some nice weather and are enjoying putting all our ride-able toys to good use.

C A M B R Y

1. These are Cambry's school pictures. The photography is great and I love that they are outdoors and don't look like the standard school picture. But, this sweet and precious girl is still working on her fake smile. Oh well, she is still a cutie pie. 

2. She had a Thanksgiving feast at her school and all of the families were invited for lunch. They cooked up some great food and it was fun seeing the other parents there. It is such a sweet preschool.

3. I have said this before but this girl is a talker. Non stop at home. She is always busy telling stories about made up characters and she thinks up these interesting and creative names. She also likes to sing songs but does not like it when we try to join in. 

G R E G

1. He caught his first Woodlands fish recently. Maybe not his biggest ever but he did it with a baby on his back. I'm sure there will be more fish to come!

2. We live on a cul-de-sac now which is amazing. It is very quiet and there are so few cars. There is a spot in the middle with benches that the neighbors started updating. They are taking up all the old wood and replacing it with new. Greg has been out there helping the neighbors. It has been fun getting to know our new neighbors here and watch this project come along.

3. Greg Griswold is getting in the Christmas spirit! We have never before put up Christmas lights on the outside of our house (mainly because we didn't have an outdoor electrical outlet at our old house). But now we do and have no excuse not to decorate. Greg went to Home Depot and bought a bunch of lights and is eager to put them up! WHAT?? I am so excited about this. 

M E

1. I have been slowly trying to decorate our house. It is a LONG process and I am very indecisive. But it is coming along and I am enjoying the process. Our sectional for the living room came in and we are getting some extra carpet bound into a rug this week. We also have a few things on the walls. 

2. I finally started working out again! I have only been twice but hopefully I will get into a regular routine. The Y is just around the corner from our house and they have great child care there. I am hoping to try out a class soon because I seem to work out harder in a group setting. It has been about 2 years since I worked out. I am hoping to get more energy and strength.

3. My friend Becky, who started Sacred Holidays, is hosting an Advent study at her house this year. She lives really close to me and I am so excited! It will be fun to meet other people around here and good to really focus on the true reason for Christmas.