All Aboard!!

So it is getting close to Christmas. Last year, Cody watched The Polar Express almost every day from Thanksgiving until New Years when I MADE him put it away. Well, it has already started this year. Since we've been home from the mountains, he has wanted to watch The Polar Express. This is now the 7th day in a row that we have watched it and he now acts it out with his own trains. There is a Polar Express train in one of his toy catalogs and I debated telling 'Santa' about it, but now I'm positive that 'Santa' will have to make sure it ends up under the tree. I'm very excited about Christmas this year and the magic that comes along with it. He is also very interested in the Reason for the Season! We have been talking about Baby Jesus and Christmas being His birthday. I'm going to pull out the Nativity soon and I'm excited about explaining the story with figures. Cindy (one of the soccer moms with me) gave me the great idea of not putting Baby Jesus in the manger until Christmas morning, so we're going to do that and make it a tradition. YAY for my FAVORITE time of the year!!!!

First Night in the Big Boy Bed!

MiMi and PaPa (along with MeeMaw, PawPaw, Karen and Jessica) brought Cody's big boy bed yesterday! The room and the bed have a lot of work to go still. His bedding is being delivered on Friday from Land of Nod (I LOVE that online store) so the dust ruffle and blanket are just temporary. I am in the process of un-babying his room and trying to figure out a 'theme' to go with. He did really well last night and slept like a rock!











To explain the below video, he is OBSESSED with calling everything a peanut butter sandwich. It cracks me up, so he continues to say it.

Trip to the Smoky Mountains with MiMi and PaPa

It has taken me FOREVER to post these pictures because there were thousands to go through! Mom is such a great photographer!
A rundown of the trip:
We arrived on Monday to snow flurries on the highest point of the mountain range. It was exciting just to see the little bit of snow, but it was FREEZING! It was down in the 20's. Tuesday morning we woke up hoping to have snow on the mountain. We drove over to Gatlinburg and ate at the Log Cabin Pancake house which is a tradition. Then we set off to drove over the range. Well, we COULDN'T! The road was closed due to the amount of snow and ice! So we decided to drive around the range and get to the entrance of the Blue Ridge Parkway but when we finally arrived there, it was also closed! We headed back to the Smokys by way of Cherokee and they had just opened the road. When we started getting higher, the snow started getting thicker and at the top, it was a beautiful winter wonderland! I had said all I wanted was to see snow on the mountains. I got my wish! On Wednesday, we went to Cades Cove and saw TONS of deer. They were everywhere! We toured a couple of the churches and the working farm which was at the half way point. When we were coming out of Cades Cove, we stopped to use the restroom and noticed we had a flat tire. So Dad changed the tire and we had to find a tire store to have it fixed. That night we went to Dixie Stampede for the Christmas Spectacular. Cody LOVED it! He danced and sang and when the horses came out, his mouth dropped and he couldn't take his eyes off the show long enough to eat anything! Thursday we headed home. We had a wonderful and fun trip!
Like I said, there were TONS of pictures, but I got them down to the best ones. Click on the picture below to go to the picasa album!

2008 smoky mountains postables