Holiday Home Tour - Take 2

This year we decided to spread the holiday cheer to the outside of our house by adding some lights. I really wanted to find a wreath for each window, but I guess that will have to wait until next year.

Here is the wreath on our front door. I just love our red front door!


Here is our first attempt at outdoor lights. Hopefully by next year, we will have the tacky metal awning down!!


Jackson helped me decorate our Christmas tree today!! I need to find some type of tree topper, but I can never find one I like. Any suggestions? Tomorrow I will wrap up our holiday tour with pictures of our tree.

Holiday Home Tour - Take 1

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . . .

All the Christmas decorations are up and the tree is in place. It's not quite decorated, but that will be done tomorrow night. Christmas music is being played while we sip hot chocolate. I just love this time of the year. I have definitely passed my love for Christmas down to Jackson. Every morning he wants to hunt for his elf Jackle and hang a bell on his advent calendar.


This is the advent calendar that I passed down to Jackson. My mom made it for me when I was a wee little girl.


At bedtime, we are reading only Christmas stories, and in the car we are listening only to Chipmunk's Christmas CD - thanks again for that one Dee Dee! (I guess it is payback for all the times I made her listen to it!)

Jackson has had a lot to say about Christmas:
"Is it Christmas yet?"
"Where is that elf? How did he get there, momma?"
"Let's count the bells until Christmas."
"Hey, what is Jesus getting from Santa?"
"Happy birthday dear Jesus, Happy Birthday to you!"
"Mom, what are those big socks?"
"Thank you for putting a tree in my room. It's beautiful"
"We need to buy a chimney for Santa."

Anywhoo, we all love Christmas around here and are excited about celebrating it all month long. On to the rest of the decorations - what this post is supposed to be about.

Every year I try to get a new picture frame for Jackson's last year Christmas picture. I guess I might have to stop this some time, I don't have that big of a house.


I don't have a place to display my beautiful but fragile nativity scene, so I have this one out. Jackson loves it and plays "baby Jesus" all the time.


Since we don't have a fireplace mantel, our stockings are hung with care on our stairwell.


This is sitting on my coffee table. Jackson loves putting all kinds of treasures in the two glass vases.


Next up, the outside decorations.

The Life of a 3 Year Old

We took Jackson to see A Toy Story awhile back, and he absolutely loved it. It was a 3D double feature, and he actually wanted to stay for both movies. Who would have guessed? He had stayed up a little late the night before, so it was a nice place for him to veg out all afternoon. Oh . . . and the fact he had a big tub of popcorn probably helped too.

Sometimes you get so hot while playing you just need to start shedding clothes.

Who Had More Fun . . .

at the Nation Museum of American History, Jackson or Daddy? I'll let you be the judge.

Jackson trying to wind surf.

Daddy's turn.


Jackson's building a slide, and Daddy's building a crane.


Jackson and Daddy working together to create a maze for the ball.


Jackson is making a long bridge and Daddy is trying to reconstruct a model of DNA.


Jackson won. He built his bridge faster than Daddy built his DNA.


Jackson glued, cut, and colored a picture. Then he closely examined it with his magnifying glass. Daddy has wondered off to play with something else . . . .



I think we all had fun, and we can't wait to go back!

Happy Thanksgiving

I can't believe Thanksgiving has come and gone! I guess that means Christmas is right around the corner. Yikes!! I better start buying presents instead of just making a list of what all I am going to get everyone. We had a pretty low key Thanksgiving which was nice because December is never very low key!

We started our holiday by participating in our church's Turkey Outreach the weekend before. By the time we got there, however, most of the boxes had already been assembled. Therefore, Jackson and I didn't get to help out too much which really upset the little guy. I guess he really wanted to help "share" turkeys with people. So we watched and cheered as daddy helped load packed boxes onto the delivery trucks. It was an incredible morning watching people come together to serve God in such an amazing way!

Here is a video of the event. (Keep you eyes open, you just might see us!)

We didn't have big plans on Thanksgiving, so we woke up and ate a big breakfast while we watched the Macy's Day Parade. Mark and I have been before and I hope that one day we will be able to take Jackson also! We also crashed The Sheers Family Picture Perfect Thanksgiving Dinner which is now a beloved family tradition. (Thanks Kelly for the yummy leftovers and letting us stop by!)

Some of our neighbors got together for a "Thanksgiving after Thanksgiving" dinner on Friday night with all the fixings. We had ham, green been casserole, mac n cheese, rolls, salad, and roasted sweet potatoes. And let's not forget the dessert - we had chocolate pecan pie, apple crisp, and a pumpkin pie. Yummy to my tummy! The food and company was fantastic!

It was a great Thanksgiving holiday, and I am pretty sure there were a couple of new family traditions that were born!

Playing Airport

Jackson absolutely loves to fly. The other day he decided to play airport. He has two little cases that store some of his puzzles which he decided to use as his suitcases. He would place his luggage on our coffee table and push them around and around - this was obviously the baggage claim. After he grabbed his luggage he would go sit on the bottom step and yell, "taxkey!" - taxi. Which by the way he has never ridden in an actual taxi, so I have no idea where this came from. Then the taxi would come and take him back to the airport, and the fun would start all over again. Such a city boy . . .

Happy Halloween

If you find your house is on fire, give Jackson a call because he is a pro at squirting water just like a real fireman. He had to wear his costume every day for a week before the big day.

Here he is leaving our house to go trick-or-treating. Of course the night started out with Jackson acting all shy.


"You want me to do what?? Ummm, I don't think so!" So Mark, Jackson, and I walked up to the first couple of houses all together. And all together we knocked on the door, and all together we said trick-or-treat. Well, actually just Mark and I said trick-or-treat and Jackson hid his face in my neck.

However, after a couple of houses, Jackson finally got it!

Knocking on doors + saying trick-or-treat = a pumpkin full of candy. JACKPOT!! He even remembered to say thank you.

Hurry let's go to the next house!

Then of course, we couldn't get him to go home. Please, just one more

house . . . .