decorating for christmas

one of the highlights of the season is getting all the christmas stuff out.

i'm not sure who is more excited, me or the boys! jason is always a big help with the lights. 

it's a fun tradition to play music and get all the stuff out and watch our cat go nuts.

i love having lots of kid friendly stuff. i love it that they can enjoy everything as much as i do.

it really makes me so happy.

this year we did a new thing, we made our own snow globes. it was fun, and we learned

some good lessons for next year's snow globes....

ornaments!

one of my favorite parts of this year was watching chase move the ornaments

around every day. grant would be gone at school, and he would just look at the tree and 

then move all his favorite ones to his special part of the tree. i loved how involved he was.

 i loved it even though every day there were huge bare spots in the tree. i loved 

hearing him talk about each ornament and what he liked about each one. 

he did this everyday for weeks. i loved it. it was so so so cute.

chase: "mom! is this what a star looks like?"

beach in december

i wonder if i'll look back and think wow, our photo album has WAY

too many pictures of the beach. haha! 

we love going as a family and this trip was a unique one.

first of all, it was FREEZING. in the 40's and the wind was blowing. 

the waves were supposed to be really big, but when we woke up, 

they looked small on the Galveston beach cam, so we decided to go 

just in case they were big and if they were small, 

we'd just enjoy the day at the beach.

the waves did end up not being very big, so we just played. hunted for shells,

chased birds, had a fire, dared each other to go in the water, and overall

had a great time. it was sort of like we were camping. fun memories for sure.

i think it's funny the boys are on the beach in their winter gear!

we found some watermelons growing in the sand!

grant organized some races to warm up...

and chase learned he could "win" if he turned around and ran back before grant noticed!

it's sort of scary how fast grant is...how can my first grader already almost beat me???

chase attempting to escape...or rock climb.....or something.

(sorry for the terrible quality of pictures, i forgot my camera and only had my phone)

chase being his happy self....wearing his "crunchy pants" that he NEVER takes off...

grant being the only one brave enough to try the water! he didn't stay in too long...

and there may or may not have been some tears....

enjoying the fire! (and cookies too by the looks of chase's face)

cutting open the watermelon (that tasted like a cucumber...)

it really was a fun day!

Thanksgiving

thanksgiving started out super cold, rainy, and wet. 

the boys loved feeling like it was winter though! 

my parents drove in from georgia to celebrate with us. grandma got jason to make her a 

slow feeder for her horses. he was supposed to make two, but only one would fit in 

her truck! grant loves helping jason.

we started a new tradition of having thanksgiving on tuesday! that way

we could eat leftovers all week, instead of my parents not being able to 

enjoy all the food. here's chase and grandma making rolls!

whew! making rolls is hard work.

grant wanted in on the snoozy fun...

grandpa helping me make apple crisp!

making grandpa's awesome salad and grandma's wonderful stuffing

chase on the couch again....

the boys went fishing a few days. i think it turned into hiking more than fishing.

grant absolutely loves to go with his dad and grandpa. it's outside, grant hunts

for "treasures," and it's the most fun he ever has. he's SO happy doing this.

this picture is classic grant. fishing takes too long, he'd much rather see what 

sort of bug/shiny object/stick he can find.

one of the best things was Jason finding this tree frog. he was SO excited!

more fun with ice...

on actual thanksgiving day the weather was super nice, so we traveled north to 

a part of lake livingston to fish/hike/bird watch/enjoy the weather. it was awesome.

the scenery was so beautiful...and it was so peaceful....

grandma even got in on the fun!

the best part of fishing for chase is mutilating the worms that are

supposed to be used for bait. i'm not sure how i feel about that....

can you see how many pelicans congregated on that side of the dam? nuts!

my hiking buddies...

before my parents left they helped us decorate for christmas and pick out a

christmas tree. it was a fun relaxing day before they had to drive home.

more fun dancing and horsing around...

oh, and poor grandpa's phone got washed! jason almost fixed it. 

hope your thanksgiving was as much fun as ours!