Jingle and the Gingerbread House!!

Jingle is back! For those of you who don't know who Jingle is...Jingle is Cody's Elf on the Shelf. Since he made his appearance on Monday, we have our angel boy back! It is amazing the power of Santa's elf. When he was about to pitch a fit today, he cried for under a minute, looked up and realized Jingle was watching him, politely used his words to tell me I hurt his feelings and ran off to his room to finish crying. I'm trying to get it on video because Jingle has helped stop 2 fits already!! We wish this would last year round! So far, Jingle has hidden in the foyer and on the frame shelf. I think in the morning he might hide in the fridge since he is used to being at the North Pole which is very cold! Be on the lookout for Jingle pictures all month long!! As a side note, if you do not have an Elf on the Shelf for your child...GO NOW to your nearest gift shop and get one! Not only for a trick to help your child behave, but because the story is so very sweet and very well written! Plus it is fun to come up with your own elf name.

Cody and I decorated his gingerbread house this weekend. He did it all himself this year with the exception of me helping a little with icing the candy. Not bad for a 3 year old! He is very proud of it!!

Fun during the week!

Monday before Thanksgiving, I was able to get with some friends and have dinner! It was great to see Ashley, Bran, Lisa and Tracy but surprisingly, I forgot to take pictures! I could kick myself because I even took mom's camera. We had a nice dinner and I can't wait to do it again the week before Christmas hopefully!! Maybe on Brandi's birthday?! :)
Later in the week, Me, Mom and MeeMaw took Cody to see Madagascar 2. It was the Friday after Thanksgiving and I was NOT going shopping! We had some time to kill before the show, so we walked in Hollywood Connection to let him ride a couple of rides. He LOVED the swings and train (rode both of them twice). When we got off of the train the last time, he ran to MiMi and MeeMaw and said "We made it to the North Pole!" He was pretending the train was the Polar Express (imagine that).

Cody is the khaki blur in the middle

Riding the train

Thanksgiving 2008

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my MeeMaw and PawPaw's house. We had some wonderful food and Mom took some WONDERFUL pictures like she always does. Enjoy!!

Hanging at MiMi and PaPa's

We stayed with MiMi and PaPa for the week before Thanksgiving. Cody had a great time. MiMi took him to see Bolt 3D and he was able to play with Tatum! I cooked with MeeMaw and made Red Velvet Cupcakes which were delicious if I must say so!!

Wild Turkey (no...not what you think...)

My husband's fraternity has a alum versus new member football game every year the weekend before Thanksgiving. They call it Wild Turkey (which I'm sure you can probably figure out why...) and Dennis plays every year. Cody was very excited to be a part this year and had a blast running around like a little mad man. Dennis has managed to get hurt twice since we've been married. The first time he blew his ACL and last year broke his finger. Thank goodness he was safe this year, but I hear there was an injured shoulder and a broken finger on someone else. Full tackle football without pads=CRAZY injuries.

Praying before kick-off. I was praying we weren't going to take a trip to the emergency room!

My two football players!

Down...set....

Looking down the field to pass....

Cody was front and center. Just one of the guys already!

Playing with the boys at I.N.K.

Cody, Cooper and Marc had a "boys play date" at I.N.K. at the end of November. They had a really good time playing in all of the stores and businesses. Their favorite was the playplace and they stayed in there for at least an hour. There was an elementary school there for a while, but once they left, the boys had the run of the place. They had a great time and we decided to make it a weekly play date for the soccer boys!

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

Halloween

Cody was determined to be a red Power Ranger for Halloween this year. No cute costume for him! So we made the best of it and he had a great time! We had dinner at Cooper's house and we all went trick-or-treating in his neighborhood. Next we headed up to Flowery Branch for us to be with our church. There was a hay ride (which we missed) and making smores! I think he had a great time! Enjoy the pictures! (Click the picture below to go to the gallery)

2008-10-31 postables

It is the GREAT PUMPKIN!

We went to the pumpkin patch at Washington Farms Thursday with Cooper. The boys had a BLAST and they did not want to leave!! I think their favorite part was either the cow train or the corn box. They spent at least 30 minutes in that corn box!! Enjoy the slide show!! (You can click on the slide show to view the album and the pictures larger)

Life without a computer is NO fun!

I finally have my computer back! We had to replace the hard drive so I've been installing everything back this afternoon like a mad woman! I really don't have anything else to report with the exception of boot camp is harder than EVER! She is pushing me really hard and wow...it is rough!
Oh, and prayers for our church would be AWESOME. If you don't already know, we attend a very new church and we don't have a permanent place for our church yet. We meet in a community center every Sunday and have to unload and load all of our production equipment and children's church equipment. God has given us an awesome opportunity to possibly have a permanent church home with a lot of potential and we just hope that this is God's plan for our church! SOO exciting! I hope everything works out so I can report more!!!
Other than that, I'll see if I can get some updates this evening with pictures from what has been going on this week in our little family life!

Fun with MCAG

Yes, I was hanging out with a bunch of Georgia and Alabama fans but I had my AU pin on (which I'm not sure you can see it in the pictures). We had a get together at Tara and Greg's to watch the Alabama/Georgia game and we had a great time!

Gas crunch

This was on Tuesday afternoon. We've had a huge gas shortage since Hurricane Ike came through Texas and shut off our pipelines. This morning, things are getting back to normal finally. There have been lines all over town and it has been worse in Metro Atlanta. Out here in the burbs, we haven't had a problem until this past weekend. I had filled up on Thursday of last week so I'm still at 1/2 tank, but I'm filling up today because there is gas to be found!!