And December 25, 2013

On Christmas Eve, we celebrated with the Rutledges. We went to Heather and Matt's church where Maddie was an angel and baby Anderson was baby Jesus! unfortunately, I don't have a good picture of them but they were so sweet! Here is my fam watching,

 Afterwards, we went to the Smith's house to eat and open gifts. The cousins were super excited for Santa to come. I love this photo!!

 My sweet husband

 My sweet GG had a ball giving her great grands their gifts.

And Christmas morning...

 Nerf Guns, legos, Little Critter and trains. Oh... and dinosaur transformers!!

 Collin and his Little Critter are just too adorable together!

 P and me making his famous Guac for our third annual Christmas fiesta!

 And the Lego king got his dream firestation!! He already finished it in one day.

 Father and Son laughing...love it!

 Reading our fav book of the season, The Dog who saved Santa. I had read the story to Collin's class as a mystery reader and mama read it on Christmas day. It was so cute!!

 New Batman punching bag from Uncle P...

 And things got out of hand! But wasn't long before he was right back at it!!

 Little E was so precious while he waited on people to open the boxes for him!

 And that night we all went to my great Aunt Elizabeth's house for dinner.

 Love that Ashton wanted to sit in birth order with Grandaddy Earl...too cute!!

A few days later Wes' parents came and we celebrated with them. Embry got a new chair of his own!! He LOVED it from the start. what a ham!!

 Wes has been remodeling our downstairs bath and he started on Christmas break. We painted and put up a new mirror and light. It looks awesome! I caught this one day as the boys were watching!

 This last photo is from a party we had with the Koulouris, Short and Dickens families. So fun to see all these kiddos playing together!

Exactly a month overdue...not too shabby!

December pictures are just too fun!! Here are a few from decorating the tree

 GAC had their first annual Light the Night Christmas Event that was so fun! There was fun fake snow and a giant slide and a live nativity and Santa!

 here are some fun photos from the boys singing at church. Although they both knew all the words, Collin did not open his mouth one time! So funny...Ashton sang every word.

 They looked adorable! The grandparents all came to hear them and we had lunch together.

 Embry was so pooped by the end of the day. He looks like such a old man. It cracked me up!

 Here are some photos from the boys' school Christmas parties. It was a little stressful for me running back and forth between the two classes but I cannot imagine how it will be when Embry is there too!

 Wes played some Christmas songs for the kids in Collin's class. They loved it!

 random Christmas tree snack I made

 I loved when I found Ashton by the tree like this one day

 This photo I took to remind me about Collin singing Jingle Bells very loud while he was pooping one day. These are the things I never want to forget!!

Fun wrapping gifts with my tape helpers

This year the boys enjoyed putting the Little People Nativity pieces on their train for rides around the tree. They loved making the train go as fast as possible to see who could stay on. baby Jesus had the best balance Ashton announced to Wes one morning! It was so hilarious to hear them all yell as the poor people fell off one by one. You can see poor Mary upside down in the background of this picture!

So thankful!!!

Thanksgiving we spent with Wes' parents and sister and her family! The boys enjoyed playing outside with their cousin Edwin, and Ashton really wanted to find the wishbone in the turkey. He and Edwin are pulling it in the last photo.

Thanksgiving Day I found a lymph node in my armpit area that I felt had not been there before. I was concerned considering my recent breast lump and the mammogram I had been throughon the same side. As soon as I got back to work, I discussed it with a doctor I work with and she felt I should see a breast surgeon. Wes and I contacted a friend of ours who is a breast radiologist and band parent. He was so kind to set me up to ultrasound it immediately at his hospital and said he felt it was just a benign lymph node but still wanted me to schedule a follow up wiht a breast surgeon in 6-8 wks, which I did. I still felt nervous about the whole thing through the holidays and last week he called out of the blue to check on me. When i told him my appt was next month, he asked me to come in last week and he could ultrasound it again. It was a rough few days for Wes and me. Although he had been reassuring, we were concerned since he felt I should come in sooner. On Friday we went and he did another ultrasound. Praise God, the lymph node still looked like a benign healthy node and had slightly decreased in size. I felt like a ton of bricks had lifted from me. We are so thankful. I am still seeing the breast surgeon next month but feel so much better. God has truly provided for us once again and we are so very grateful. I wanted to document this so one day my children will be reminded of the ways in which God cares for our family. For me, it has been a rough few months as it was hard not to think the worst but we judt kept trusting in God and the people He has placed in our path to help us.

Favorites from November...

 In November, we visited my brother and his girlfriend, Catherine who were running in a half marathon! We had fun making signs for them to cheer them on!

 After the race, we visited Opry Mills which was decorated for Christmas and then ate dinenr at The Wild Cow vegan restaurant which was amazing!

On the trip, we had to go to Old Navy for Collin a new coat and Embry fell in love with this hat and could not put it down! He went straight to a mirror and started dancing!
Of course, his grandparents gave in and got it for him. He looks so cute in it!