Winter Break 2012

The winter vacation from school and work has brought along a whole host of fun things going on. And it's not even over yet! Oh yea!

Charlotte trip

With having a few days off school/work and a friend just having had knee surgery, the boys and I were Charlotte bound. We helped Ms "Crispy" around the house, making meals and taking her to drs appointments, walking her dog and playing with her two boys. We then picked up Frances (yay!) and hung out with her today. She babysat for me while I took Chrissy to her physical therapy appointment and then we all went ice skating uptown. The boys had such a great time!! They kept saying they want to come back and do this again. So funny!

Xmas #4 and done

After Santa came for his virtual appearance this morning, we went over to Bobby and Emogene's house for our 4th and final gift exchange. Apparently, I didn't take too many photos because this was the only one on my phone. I'm sure Linda and Jemmay will be sending me some shortly (wink, wink)! Merry (exhausted) Xmas and happy new year to all!!

Santa Claus came to town!

Last night the boys went to bed excited for Santa to come and bring us presents. We watched him on the Santa tracker go from Greenland to Iceland and we knew he was on his way to us next! They quickly jumped into bed and before they knew it, they were out like lights. When I woke up this morning at 7:15(yay for me!) i heard Santa ring his bells and say 'ho, ho, ho' a few times. When I finally went into their room to see if they were ready to see what Santa brought him, I found Nolan with the covers pulled over his head. I said 'come on, guys! Don't you want to see what Santa brought?!?' Nolan said , ' Santa scared me!'. Oh my. They finally came downstairs after a bit of persuasion and tore into their gifts. 2012 is on the books! Merry Xmas to all!!!

Halloran Xmas 2012

Monday night we celebrated Xmas with the Halloran, Goodloe, McLure families at Dawn's new abode in Roswell. It went from a nice evening of appetizers and soups to an all out wrestling mess. It was quite funny to watch Keely take Ryan down over and over and over again! All in all, it was a fabulous Xmas marked with good times shared with great family!

McLure Christmas 2012

Last night we had our traditional McLure family (Larry's brother, Charles and his kin) Christmas at Jammy and Grandy's house in Athens. During the day we played games, took naps, rode bikes and threw the football in the yard. Later that evening, Charles and Pat and their three 'kids' John, Michelle, and Wesley came over for dinner and presents! The boys got a slew of remote control cars, robots, books, stuffed animals, bath stuff, candy, gift cards, and just about everything else you can think of. And just think, they still have 3 more gift giving ceremonies to go thru before the end of 2012! We'll need a shed out back to hold all of their loot!

Greedy little elves

Apparently, the north pole isn't the only economy on a fiscal cliff. Looks like we caught a couple of elf burglars candy-cane handed in the boys' monkey banks!

Ah, ah, ah, choo!

Poor elves! Looks like they caught a cold the other night. Nolan wondered why the mask wasn't attached to the machine. He said "he'd probably feel better if he got a real treatment!"

Holiday lights

Last night we took the boys to see the nights of lights at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Good thing we got some good advice from Erika to get there early because when we were leaving at 7:45pm, the line looked to be a mile long!!! We ran around the grounds, danced to the music, marveled at the toy trains, and the boys couldn't get enough of the carolers that were in the tunnel. I swear we stopped for about 10 songs and then they didn't even want to go! What an amazing spectacle the gardens were. They clearly needed to run off some energy seeing as they had Polar Express day at school complete with hot cocoa, popcorn, and s'mores and their bus driver gave them all cookies on the way home! Holy sugar over load, batman!!!

Sleepover, of the Polar Express kind

Saturday night, Todd and I braved 6 little boys and their craziness to have Reed and Nolan's first REAL sleepover. I mean, they've slept over at Jammy and Grandy's, Nana and Poppa's, Dawn and Burke's, Sean and Lindara's, and even the Pete's, but this was the first time 4 other smelly boys stayed at our house. They played outside, ate pizza (probably the last time we'll be able to feed 6 boys on 2 pizzas), and got dressed in their pjs so we could watch the Polar Express, movie theater style (with all the lights off). They actually all did fall asleep around 9pm. Nolan asked me if I would stay in the room and tell them all when to stop talking. Ok! I almost fell asleep being the guard dog! It was a fun night, even into the next day, but it could be a whole year before we do it again! Merry Christmas!!!

Breakfast with THE man in red

Today's blog title might have you a bit confused seeing as Todd is usually the man in red around our house. I'm sure that my 3 blog readers might have just thought i was going to talk about a normal weekend breakfast with daddie! However, on Saturday, we took the boys to our 'club' to have breakfast with Santa. They ate pancakes, sausage, and strawberries and then went to the gym to write letters to Santa and, inevitably, play basket-soccer-ball. (basically, they found a less than inflated basketball and played soccer with it. And these boys say they don't want to play soccer next season!)
Then, they got to sit on Santa's lap and read him their Christmas lists they've been keeping for over a month already. They really got into it and I'm sure now if they don't get everything on their list, they'll think something's up!
After gym time, the kids gathered on the carpet and Santa read 'Twas the night before Christmas'. Lastly, they got a cookie and one last hug from the bearded red-suited stranger before bidding him adieu for now. Ho, ho, ho...merry Christmas!!

Great gawd, I'm thirty-five!

What a great bday it was today. Thank you everyone who made my day so much fun! From a butt busting work out with a great buddy, a relaxing massage, lunch with another fun friend, an afternoon with the boys and dinner out (no cooking or cleaning, yay!) it all ended with a non-mariachi band singing happy birthday to me at the restaurant. Thanks, hon!

Hello, gorgeous!

When you were a kid, what was it that got you excited and giddy? Christmas lists and going through the sears catalog? A long awaited visit from a friend after a school holiday break? A birthday gift you'd been swooning over for months? Well, mid-thirties seem to be the time when Todd and I get tickled pink at a brand new....HVAC unit! Hooray!!!! Ain't she a beaut, Clark?!? Say goodbye to the old clunker that did us well these past 6 years and was over 20 years old. Hellooooo Christmas future!

Elfin' around

The elves have been up to some crazy antics the past few nights!! Hopefully, they got clean underwear out of our drawers and not from the dirty pile!!! Yes, Pete, the clock says 6:30am... Again!!! No rest for us!