Surprise!!

Last Saturday, Mama and Papa surprised Pearce with a visit!  They called me Friday and asked what we had going on Saturday and Saturday night.  I said nothing and they said they were coming for a quick visit....YAY!!!!!!!  I didn't tell Pearce at all, so when they knocked on the door and Pearce answered it, he could not believe it!  It was really cute and such a fun surprise.  During Thanksgiving, Mama and Papa took the kids to see The Good Dinosaur and they all (including mom and dad) loved the movie!  Mama and Papa brought Pearce the little boy from the movie.  He talks and makes sounds and Pearce takes him everywhere :) We went to a new place called Santa's Jingle House.  It was really cute.  It was a house a couple rented out from November to December.  They had it all decorated like it was Santa's house.  Pearce got his picture taken with Santa and then got to listen to The Polar Express on Santa's bed, read to him by one of Santa's elves.  He sat so still through the whole story....that's my boy!  Then he got to decorate a cookie and a Christmas ornament.  It really was so fun!  That evening we had fun just watching Pearce play and Chris made his yummy chili.  Then we loaded up in the car and went to look at Christmas lights.  They left the next morning and Pearce was sooo sad :(  He got tired later that afternoon and decided he wanted to take a nap...."in the bed where Mama and Papa sleeped and on Mama's pillow."  Mama and Papa, you can surprise us anytime!!

 

 

Christmas Prep!

Pearce was so excited when I told him it was finally time to decorate for Christmas!  He helped me a little with our inside decorations, but doing the lights outside were his favorite!  I couldn't wait to decorate my tree because I had new mesh and picks that I completely forgot about last year, so I was excited to see how my tree would turn out this year.  I think it turned out so pretty and really love the mesh and picks!!!  Mom got them for me two years ago when we went to Canton...thanks Mom!!!!!  When we first did our lights outside, I only had white lights for the front bushes and trees on either side of our house.  Pearce told me he really wanted a light up Santa, so I found an inflatable one at Walmart.  He loved it!  We like to drive around at night and look at lights in the neighborhood.  Together, we decided we needed some more lights....red ones and the multi-colored ones, plus some candy canes :)  I found the multi-colored net lights at Walgreens and they were on sale, so I thought those would be perfect to wrap around our tree trunks...and I was right!!  I love the colorful lights out front, now!  After we got the decorations all up, it was time to give Pearce his Christmas box.  I decided to make this our little tradition from now on.  I filled a box full of Christmas items:  PJ's, hot chocolate, Christmas movie, an ornament, and a Christmas book.  Every year, Pearce will get to open this box and I think it will be a fun kick off to celebrating Christmastime!  We've already done so many Christmas activities!  The first big one was Follow The Star which is a live reenactment of Jesus' life.  This year was our 3rd year to go and Pearce and I just love it.  I got him all dressed nice and warm in the sweater and hat that Mama knitted him.  Of course he looked adorable!  Pearce asked so many more questions this time about Jesus.  Each time we came to a new stage setting, Pearce asked me to read that part of the story to him and he just listened so intently.  Another fun activity we've done was decorate gingerbread houses at the club.  They had all the houses set out and every type of candy and icing you could imagine.  Pearce spent most of his time eating the candy and I was trying to decorate the house so that we would have something to take home!  It was really fun, though.  I just love this time of year and experiencing so many fun things with Pearce!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving 2015

Our Thanksgiving holiday was so much fun!  Pearce and I went to Dallas on Tuesday so that we could celebrate Mama's birthday and see Allie.  Pearce and I went by Ashley's to pick up Charlotte and take her with us to Mama and Papa's house.  Ash had to finish a few things and Nathan had a play date with a friend.  I loved that Pearce and Charlotte got some play time together just the two of them.  What I thought was so funny was that Pearce and Charlotte played together a lot more this time than ever before.  He normally is stuck to Nathan's side, but this time Charlotte and Pearce were buddies.  Pearce still did a lot with Nay Nay, but Charlotte was definitely his little buddy during Thanksgiving :)  Ashley and Nathan came over that night for dinner and a little birthday celebration.  Mama made the BEST chocolate cake, too!  We had our big celebration on Wednesday since Allie and Jen and Robert got to Dallas late on Tuesday night.  Mama took Charlotte and Pearce to Toys R Us that afternoon and let them pick something out.  Pearce found a Scooby Doo Lego set that he wanted and Charlotte got a little "pet" bird and bird cage.  We picked out a lego set for Nay Nay, too.  So, when we got back to Mama's house, Pearce wanted me to start putting together his lego set which had a TON of parts.  I was so relieved when Ashley and Nathan finally got there and Nathan came up to me and said, "I'll take it from here, Auntie Carrie."  He had that lego set put together in no time!!  Nay Nay asked if he could spend the night with us that night and Pearce was so excited for that!  Pearce and Nay Nay slept on a pallet on the floor, then we spent the rest of the time at Ashley's house.  On Wednesday, Allie and Jen got their hair cut and then we all met up at Cheesecake Factory for lunch and our second birthday celebration.  It was so fun having all of the "kids" together....Allie just turned 19, so I guess she's not a kid anymore!  After lunch, we went to the mall to do a little shopping.  Mama treated the little kids to toy at Barnes and Noble.  Pearce was so excited that he could finally get Calico Critters, or "the little bunnies" as Pearce calls them.  Our Thanksgiving dinner was soooo good!  Once again, Ash cooked the turkey perfectly and all of the sides were yummy!  We all had fun just playing and visiting together.  The kids were really excited to play football outside after lunch, but then it started raining....oh well.....playing football in the rain was more fun!  Thursday night, Ashley and I went Black Friday shopping at Macy's and Toys R Us.  I had never been, but oh my gosh, it was fun....and a little crazy!  Ashley scored a cute pair of boots and a top and I just got one top.  We left at 9:30 that night and didn't get home until 2:00 am!  Even though we didn't buy a ton, it was still so fun to just browse around and try on clothes and be out late together.  Friday, we met Mama and Papa at the movies and they took the kids to see The Good Dinosaur and me, Allie, and Ash went to see Bridge of Spies.  Mama said the kids cried during the movie during a couple of sad parts, but they all really loved it!  The guys stayed home and watched football ALL DAY/NIGHT LONG!  We left Saturday afternoon and it took us two extra hours to get home because of traffic....oh well!  Thank you for a wonderful Thanksgiving, Ash!!!!

 

 

 

Wayne had to strip to cut the turkey, LOL!!

 

Mama making the BEST gravy ever!!!

 

Photo bomb courtesy of Chris

 

  

Drenched after playing football in the rain!