It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Well, we have participated in every kind of Christmas activity you can think of this year!! I think I've had more fun than the kiddos though! I have scoured for activities that I thought the boys would like, and I think we did pretty good! We started off the month by visiting Santa in the mall. Lincoln did VERY well this year (although he looks slightly constipated in the picture - which I don't have a digital copy of btw). He actually sat in his lap, and told him he wanted a "dozer" actually specified a blue one! And Liam thought Santa was hilarious! Must've been the beard. He just kicked and cackled the whole time!

Then we took a trip to the local library to listen to Santa read Christmas stories. This was SO cute, and hopefully will become a yearly tradition. He may not have been the best LOOKING Santa ever, but he was SO animated and did a great job reading the stories. He even stuck around afterwards so all the kids could sit in his lap and take pictures.

Again, both children did great with Santa!

We did lots of Christmas cookie baking (my husband swears I made cookies every night this month) and even did some Christmas painting involving hands and feet made to look like reindeer!

Gosh, I just LOVE these boys...

Ashley's birthday was also this month (he turned 29 again). Lincoln and Liam helped him to open his presents. Afterwards, we made our way to the Boonville Christmas parade, then to Santa Claus to drive through the lights.

It was a perfect day for the parade. A bit cool, but not too bad at all - and perfectly sunny!

It was held right around the square, so Lincoln loved running around and getting to climb on the courthouse steps.

Liam just loved trying to eat the grass.

The parade had a TON of firetrucks, tractors, ambulances, police cars and - of course - candy! I was worried that Lincoln wouldn't like how loud the trucks were (since we were 5 feet from them!), but he didn't seem to mind at all! He was waving and watching like crazy.

And poor little Liam, bless his heart, really hung tough. Until he just couldn't take it anymore.

When we finally got back in the car, Lincoln finally gave it up too. Sucker and all.

We stopped to get some pizza while we were in Santa Claus, and then went over to the festival of lights. If you haven't been, and you have small children, you should absolutely go. It's over a mile of Christmas lights that tell the story of Rudolph. Super cute. And Lincoln LOVED it.

Of course we went through the lights at Garvin park, too. Although there aren't as many as Santa Claus, the boys still love it and Lincoln even requested to go through it "both" (his term for twice).

Mim-mim and Pap took them to a "living" nativity at a church in Bowling Green where they got to see all the manger animals as well as "baby Desus." Of course when I called to see if the boys liked it, mom was crying (we shoulda stuck with the name "Drama-w") telling me how sweet they were...

Awww look, they do love each other...

And incase you didn't catch this picture yet, it's definitely worth seeing. This is it... Real life folks. Welcome to my world... Total meltdown mode, all over a picture...

But we managed to catch enough sweet moments to make up for the... um... not-so-sweet moments... ;)

Christmas Day is right around the corner, new post soon!

Santa was here!!

SANTA WAS HERE!! Once we made it home from Mom and Dad's on Christmas eve, Santa's poor little elves were up until 3am doing their "elf-work" - it's a good thing they got to go when they did, because Liam was up at 4am! We would've caught them for sure if they stayed any longer! ;) This dude slept in a little this morning (till 930) since we had such a busy few days, and I was so grateful! Merry Christmas to me! Even Liam slept till 9. Lincoln didn't even know where to start when he saw that pile of toys!

Liam, however, knew exactly where to start... With breakfast!

Once he got his belly full, he was good to go!

Lincoln loved his umbrella - I think because he's not usually allowed to open one in the house. We made an exception for Santa's sake...

Liam pretty much just made a big ole pile and wallered around in it. He didn't mind which toy he was playing with as long as he was playing with something!

And of course, we saved stockings for last. Lincoln didn 't really want to stop playing long enough to dig in there, but we talked him into it. Liam passed out before we made it that far! We were obviously having too much fun to remember to take many pics, so this is it!

Thanks Santa for the Christmas Morning fun! And Happy Birthday Baby Jesus!

Thoughtless Thursday

Welcome Ms. Annalee!

Kristen was induced on November 22nd, 2011 - and we all made it to the hospital to wait on Mrs. Annalee Ruth's arrival! Lincoln and Liam even hung tough for the 8 hour wait!

And here she is!! At a whopping 8#, 5 oz - Annalee is born! She had so much black hair that it took the poor nurse 20 minutes to clean it out!!

Look how perfect and sweet she is! They kept her back in the nursery for what seemed like forever getting her cleaned up (I'm sure Kristen REALLY felt like it was forever!). We didn't get to stay and hold her that night because we had to get back to Evansville with our munchkins, but it wasn't a few days before we headed back down to cuddle that girl!

And since the cousins were all at Mim-mim's and in their Christmas jammies, we decided to snap a few pics.

Lincoln calls her "sweet An-wee." And she really is. She lost a little weight in the first week or so, but she has gained back well and is just perfect.

I told Kristen, it's a good thing she has the first girl... If it'd been me, Ash and I would be totally broke by now. I just can't quit finding girl things that she NEEDS.

Look what a sweet little face! Love her!

Finally, a GIRL in the family!

7 months!

This baby boy is seven months old now!! Liam is wearing 12-18 month clothing, a size 4 diaper, and size 4 shoe. He continues to take 4 8oz bottles a day, plus has two babyfood tubs - and now LOTS of table food. If he sees real food, you better believe he ain't touching that pureed stuff (and who could blame him?)!

He really loves puffs, lil crunchies, graham crackers, cheerios, and Lincoln's oatmeal! His favorite baby food seems to be vegetable risotto with cheese (blech..). He has also taken a liking to ice cream lately - and I'll tell you what - if you don't give him enough, he will yell at you until you do so! He is most definitely going to be my temper tantrum kid...

He's making lots of sounds lately; dada, mama (mainly when he's ticked), baba, and naynay. He's also learned to do raspberries, not to mention he continues to make the "possessed baby" growl. Actually, that growl is his most common sound. Really creeps people out, but it is hilarious!

He's not crawling yet, but he is trying his hardest! He'll get up on his knees, rock a bit, then lunge forward to his belly. He can "squirm" around to pretty much anywhere though.

Liam is very happy-go-lucky. I can take him pretty much anywhere and count on him hanging tough. He grins at ANYONE who will give him even a seconds worth of attention, and he already seems to lean towards women. Yikes. Already a Morris...

(Ignore the prunes on his face) Is he not the sweetest little sleeper? He's definitley easier to get to sleep than Lincoln. Liam sleeps on his belly, and when he gets tired, you lay him on his belly, cover him up, and he's out. He does NOT like to be rocked! He'll bow back and howl if you try!

Still hanging tight with two bottom teeth, but the top two are already trying their best to push through. Won't be long!

Such a sweet baby. I'm so blessed...

The Search for the Perfect Tree!

Have I mentioned that I'm not a fan of real trees? Either way, I'm not. There's just something
"perfect" about an artificial one! You can put them up WAY before Christmas, they don't lose needles, they aren't crooked, there's no bare spots, you get the idea... So this year, I'm not sure what came over me, but I decided maybe we should try a real tree for downstairs. Ashley LOVES a real tree, so he was more than excited about it. So we took a Sunday and headed out to Sycamore Valley tree farm to find the *perfect* tree. It was a little harder than I thought! This one is too tall, this one is bald on one side, this one is too short......

And this one had to take a "tree-hunting" break to show off his muscles....

Lincoln got bored about 1/2 way through the search and that made it REAL interesting... This is the result of asking him to be in a picture with mommy and Liam...

Then we had to stop to "pee on gass"

On the other hand, Liam was in hog heaven! Getting packed around all day long out in the fresh air, perfect!

I mean, look at that face! He's like, "oh yeah, I've got these parents whooped!"

Lincoln got a little more involved once I offered to piggyback him around. ;)

We finally found our tree and a guy came by to "ring 'er down" (as Nathan wouldve said when he was little). Lincoln was a little creeped out by this guy.

They netted it and put it on the car for us.

And we took her home for setup! Seriously, look how crooked this poor tree is... It took a new stand, rocks, bricks, and being thrown across the yard once to get it to stand up right... And no, it wasn't me who threw the tree... Once we finally got it standing, I coulda cried. Poor crooked tree... So ugly...

But once she was decorated, I have to admit that Ashley was right, she was a beaut!