Feels like His Christmas present

Dylan has really enjoyed jumping on the neighbors new trampoline. He has really worn himself out. I see more days of jumping in his future. Thanks neighbors for always sharing and allowing us to intrude :)

Dylan is in the aqua shirt. Their youngest son and Dylan could be mistaken for fraternal twins even though he's a year younger. Same cut and color

 Wrestle time

Craft Day

Depending on his mood and the day, if you ask Dylan where we live, you could get any answer.  For the most part, he will say Tennessee, but the city, he doesn't quite understand that concept.  One day, I was telling him how his friend that takes gymnastics is from Africa, and he said like us.  He was dead serious. I thinks we are from Africa because I have been there a few times and we have had a few people from Africa stay at our house. I think he gets a little confused.  

To clear up any confusion, we decided to embark on a craft that I found on pinterest.  It was super easy. The only things needed are paper plate, markers, construction paper, scissors, glue and a binder clip (or yarn). These are things most people have around the house. When Dylan asked to do a craft the other day, my mind immediately jumped to this one. 

The circles include : my house (with address), my city, my state, my country, my continent and the paper plate is my planet.

Wordless Wednesday

Christmas 2011

We had our immediate family over our house on Christmas eve.  This included my mom and dad, brother and his family, and my grandparents. 

Here is Trinity (14 months) and Natalie (10 months)

 Natalie didn't know what to make of things.  She was a little unsure. Especially with the crowd.

 Dylan enjoyed getting lots of games. He's really gotten into playing games.  This one is like Jenga but called Critter Crash. He called it Skit Skat.

 Trinity and Natalie again

 Smiles for Mommy

Christmas morning at our house. Natalie was all smiles as usual

 In their PJs 

 Her attempt to unwrap a gift

 Hollywood

 The one thing that Dylan asked for, "a mega T-Rex"  He said it was his favorite present.

 He got a new playdoh creation station. Damien has become the expert molder. I think he enjoys it as much as Dylan

 My one request for Christmas, a Christmas picture with my kidlets.

 Dylan enjoying his new tablet

December 25 Advent and Elf

Advent Calendar : Make Jesus a birthday cake.

While we were putting frosting on the cake. I asked Dylan if he wanted to put red sprinkles on it. He insisted on green since it's his favorite color.  I explained we only had red. He asked if God liked the color red. I said, yes, he loves every color because he made them.

Later that night, I was eating a piece of it and he said what are you doing? I said eating a piece of birthday cake. He said, that's God's cake. I said, we get to eat the cake too because he wants us to celebrate Jesus' birthday.


The elves had a little gift that they wrapped up.

The letter said,

Dylan and Natalie,

It's Christmas! Woo Hoo! See the present we wrapped, open it, go on....then come back and read the letter.

It's Jesus. He's the greatest gift ever. Born into the world as a baby and died to be our best friend forever. I am so thankful for Jesus. I want to shout it from the mountain tops. I love Jesus! How about you?  See you next year.

Love
Batty and Peppermiz

 He was opening the gift. All I could think was I hope he doesn't get mad when he realizes this isn't a gift for him per say.

 Then the reveal. It's baby Jesus.  (There is a story behind this baby Jesus.  I got a nativity from Malawi during my first trip. It's carved of wood and it's really pretty. They wrapped it for me at the market, so I didn't bother unwrapping since I thought it would travel well.  I got home with the nativity and guess what, no baby Jesus.  I guess I got them to low on the price and they taught me a lesson.  The following year and I had to hit up everyone in the market for a fair price on just a baby Jesus.  They really priced gouged me compared to what I paid for the entire nativity. )

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Merry Christmas!

December 24 Advent and Elf

Advent Calendar : Read the Christmas Story


A little light climbing for the elves

Fun with the Family

Dylan could not wait for his cousins to come visit. We always have a good time with them when they visit or when we visit them. 

We haven't seen them since July (well one of them longer than that) so Taylor enjoyed holding Natalie, and Natalie could actually kind of play with them

They played games like pop the pig and hide n go seek. Dylan had a stellar hiding spot.

We visited Opryland hotel for their Dreamworks Christmas.  We didn't get to meet the characters as you had to buy a wristband which started at $50.  No thank you...ridiculous.

After Opryland,, we went to Bass Pro Shop so Taylor could see Santa.  My kids wanted nothing to do with that, so we did the other free stuff, like riding the carousel. 

Afterwards we had to go somewhere to warm Natalie's bottle, so we hit up the McDonalds, where Damien and Dylan played a round of "what are you looking at, then followed by some name"  Dylan has been saying bone head but we explained that was like calling someone stupid and it wasn't very nice. Now, it's what are you looking at snowman?

Christmas Program

Dylan had his Christmas program at school. This year his class sang, Reindeer Pokey, Rudolph and we wish you a merry Christmas.  We would sing it together but I left out all the extras. Then he started to add some of the extras like Yippee, so I sang it to him with all the extras, monopoly, like a light bulb, like Columbus and he insisted that it was wrong to sing it like that.  That his way was the right way (later on we heard someone sing it on TV and he said, Mommy they are singing it like you).  This year he wasn't distracted like last year, but he was still a little shy. 

before the show

 Natalie having some fun waiting for the show to start

 His class performing

Afterwards we enjoyed some cake. Great job Dylan

Gymanstics

Earlier in the month, Dylan's gymnastics place had award ceremony. For every child who had benn taking class for a year, they received a trophy.  All others received a ribbon. We have been doing the class about 3 months, so Dylan was excited to get his ribbon.  Here is his ribbon pose. 

Natalie enjoys going to gymnastics and crawling all over the floor and pulling up (when she stays awake)

This past week, they let the kids do something new.  It looked like a lot of fun and Dylan seemed to really enjoy it.

December 23 Advent and Elf

Advent Calendar : Get a Christmas treat  -  (really it said go bowling but we just didn't have time)  I had a little batman car so here's your treat.

The elves were busy making breakfast this morning, but Dylan did not want to eat it.

December 22 Advent and Elf

Advent Calendar : Go to ICE

To do ICE, it's like $25 a person.  (thankfully Dylan was free)  We heard a lot of people went in and out in 10 minutes because it was so cold.  We decided only one of us would do it and the other would stay with Natalie. Of course, Dylan picked Damien. He seems to be the favorite lately. 

Damien said it was really impressive what they could do with ICE. The theme this year was Merry Madagascar.   

Here are a few pics Damien snapped : 

We also saw the Shrektacular show at Opryland.  A lot of Dreamworks characters were there for the party.  Like Gingy...

Po

Shrek and Fiona

Puss n Boots and the Penguins

Dylan said his favorite was Puss n Boots. 

The elves got a little sick yesterday. Daddy, Dylan and Sophie touched them. Hope they feel better soon 

And the campout from the night before....well it didn't go so well. Set up went fine, but an hour after laying there, Dylan was still chatting and wide awake, then proclaimed he didn't want to sleep.  Uh no, it's 11pm, we are going to sleep, so off he went to his bed.