Merry Christmas!

How blessed we are to have such a wonderful Christmas!

Santa brought Jack a superman costume, Transformers talking helmet, and a Buzz Lightyear talking action figure.

I love this gift Lucy received from Lady and Uncle Brendan...She loves Gummy Bears!

This was a hat given to my brothers... hehe

and my favorite gift of the day - the one from me to my husband. I have been eating, sleeping, and breathing Jeeps for several weeks, scouring autotrader and Craigslist all over the Southeast looking for the perfect Jeep. He loved it!

Be sure to check out the video if him finding it:

As soon as he got it, he was off to find some mud pools to play in!

I said, "YOu've already gotten it all dirty!!!" Which, I know, is the point. :) He even washed it off once we got back from a little off-roading!

Lucy's new dresser

Lucy's two small drawers weren't cutting it anymore to store her clothes, so a few weeks ago I took on a project to find a great piece of furniture on Craigslist for a great price and then have Brooke Rawlins paint and distress it.

I loved the lines of this and the grooves and details. I thought it would look great refinished...

So, here's the before (bought the piece for $150)


and the after!
(It was $150 to have it repainted, distressed, etc. and that included delivery. Very reasonable I think!)

I'm going to find new knobs for the second row since it was missing one bracket when I bought it. Lucy loves the two little cubbies on top. Not sure if you can tell in the photo, but there's that etched /frosty pattern on the mirror around the perimeter- very girly :)

Anyways, it's just what I wanted and pictured in my mind, so yea for things going as I'd hoped!

Jack is THREE!

Due to Jack's birthday falling on Dec. 2nd, he gets to enjoy several celebrations. First this year, we celebrated his birthday on Thanksgiving while spending the holiday with Jason's family in Oxford, AL:

He LOVED his Spiderman cake, and was showered with lots of spiderman toys.

On his actual birthday, Dec. 2nd, we celebrated before school with special birthday doughnuts for breakfast! :)

Later that night, Jack opened his present from Papa and Lady. TRANSFORMERS! Lady gave Jack "Optimus Prime" because my dad wouldn't give Jack a toy that had a saw for a hand - too violent he thought. I think that's hilariously adorable! So he gave Jack "Bumbleebee". Jack and Lucy immediately began fighting with them :)

And today, we celebrated for the final time with Jack's party at home:

This pic above is my favorite; sweet boy!




Here is the Monster Truck moonbounce we had!


And Jack wanted a "Batman" cake this time!

A new use for an old tree

Sunday night after Thanksgiving, Jason scooted around in the attic, got our artificial tree, hauled it downstairs, and spent a substantial amount of time fluffing all the branches and getting it "pretty." And then we plugged it in, and none of the prestrung lights on the tree lit up. Bahumbug!

So, rather than kick the tree to the curb, I decided to take advantage of all the plants and trees in our new yard being so little and make this an "outdoor" centerpiece tree. I bought the old fashioned, big bulbs and let the kids go to town. Our own little "Charlie Brown" Christmas Tree.

Jack's running away because someone upset him (he was seriously having one of those days..."



and therefore, he's not in this picture. He was pouting... (How adorable are the kids?!? A's little stance is priceless!)




I finally managed to motivate Jack to join the group...only for him to run away again...



but finally...
Christmas is on the way!!!!!