Christmas fun!

One of the boys' favorite things to do at Christmas is to come down to Indianapolis to see the Christmas lights.  We were lucky this year in that the weather cooperated.  The boys also love coming to the office to see the Christmas lights from my office.  We had such a fun time!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

It always amazes me how quickly Christmas sneaks up on us each and every year.  It seems like almost as soon as the boats are put up, that Christmas prepping begins.  I love watching the boys during this time of year.  They truly do have the Christmas spirit.  They are both so excited for Santa to come that they can hardly stand it!  We have an elf, Gunner, who is watching and reporting to Santa each and every night.  The boys are on their best behavior these days knowing that Gunner is watching - and they are quick to tell Gunner when the other one has done something wrong. I also ran into Santa a few weeks ago at the mall and he gave me a picture of himself which lights up. I explained to the boys, as Santa told me that when the lights are on, Santa is videoing them to make sure that they are behaving!  I love it that they are so young and so excited for this time of year.  I know that these years are limited so I am busy taking tons of pictures.  Here are a few of my favorites!

Halloween 2012

Our little potato and four-wheeler racer had an awesome Halloween!

Fall Favorites!

 Conner got to go 4-wheeling with his friend Makayla!  Makayla is quite the driver these days.  They had so much fun doing it all by themselves!

 MawMaw and PawPaw got the boys a brand new bed to try to help us cure our sleeping problems!  The boys love their bunk-beds (especially all of the storage) but only Conner is sleeping in the bed right now.  Drew is still sleeping on the couch...maybe one day!

 Conner's Thankful picture brings a smile every time I look at it.  His "people" Jason, me, Conner, Drew, MawMaw, and Remi are all getting better with each picture he draws.  It is so fun to watch him learn and grow!

Conner got his first buck! He is so excited and so proud.  Jason took him out the week before Thanksgiving to hunt from a deer blind.  I asked Conner what he did when he saw the buck and he said, "Mommy my heart was beating so fast I couldn't breathe very good!"  With a little help from Jason, they got it down and brought it home to show everyone!

The Tooth fairy's first visit!

Conner lost his first tooth on October 17th!  He was so excited to leave his tooth in his tooth fairy pillow.  For almost six weeks, this tooth (along with another that he lost about a week later) was only hanging by a thread.  He would not pull it out for anything.  On a good note, it gave me a few weeks to order a tooth fairy pillow.  It is camo (of course) and has a little zipper pocket to hold the tooth.  For his first tooth, the tooth fairy brought Conner ten dollars along with a note explaining that he brushes his teeth very well, that Santa says hello and that for his other teeth he would only get a dollar!  Thank goodness!  Conner was concerned with the tooth fairy's letter because all of the "e"s were upside down and the "s"'s were backwards.  He said she my need to go back to pre-K!

Fall Fun

I absolutely love this time of year.  It is a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the summer.  Instead of getting up early to go boating and staying up late to fish; now we get up early to ride 4-wheelers and stay up late for bonfires!  It is also nice to get out and about and visit the pumpkin patch as well as the orchard.  The boys are loving the fall.  Drew and Conner both are busy with their 4-wheelers this year.  Drew is still on a rope (which makes my heart beat slow down just a little bit!) which is nice because even though he wants to go full throttle, Jason controls the speed. Conner, on the other hand, is quite the little rider.  He is getting really good - he stands up going over hills and gets in trouble almost every time for taking turns too quickly.  He has his dad's 'no fear' mentality for sure.  Conner is doing really well in school right now.  I think he is fully adjusted to the schedule and to being there each and every day.  No more tears and instead LOTS and LOTS of crazy stories.  I love their minds.  For show-n-tell for the letter "A" he took a stuffed alligator head that he bought in Florida.  However, he proceeded to tell his class that he shot the alligator and had it stuffed.  The voice mails and texts from parents that night were hilarious!  Thank goodness we all know each other well!  Drew is potty trained now (for the most part) and loves to show EVERYONE his underwear.  So watch out if you see him at Wal-mart or the movies - he will show you because he shows EVERYONE.  Conner has two loose teeth right now so we are always wiggling teeth (both Conner AND Drew's).  We are excited for the tooth fairy to come. Conner said he hopes that the tooth-fairy brings him a $20 like she did for his friend Taylor; I had to break the news that the Coatesville tooth fairy gives one dollar - he was bummed at first and then realized once he loses all of his teeth he will have $20 dollars.  I'm safe for now! Deer season also opened on October 1 so all of the boys have been busy practicing with their bows. Conner got his first "real" bow this year.  He can't quite pull it back yet - but he tries with all of his might.  Drew has a toy bow that he practices with - and then cries because he can not hit the target.  They have all been out once - but no luck!  Here are a few pictures of our fall fun!