Boomer has arrived!

Getting home early Saturday morning from Alabama gave us the chance to finish putting up the Christmas lights.

Of course we love anything Frozen so I knew I had to have this Olaf inflatable for the front yard. The twins think it's the real Olaf! They keep asking to go touch him and Chloe plays Patty Cake with him.

I couldn't wait to break out the Christmas jammies...

On Sunday, our Elf on the Shelf, Boomer, arrived. He brought Advent Calendars and a package from the North Pole filled with new Christmas jammies, a Christmas movie, and a letter from Santa.

Santa's letter said that we had to take a picture in front of the tree, so that's just what we did. Chloe took a little longer nap than the boys so I got a few of just them before she woke up.

 

He also delivered 25 Christmas books for us to open and read each night from now until Christmas.

 

We are all so excited for Christmas and it's my goal to do something "Christmasy" every day. And having Boomer and these Christmas books help make that possible.

So far the threat of Boomer watching their every move and reporting it back to Santa hasn't made an impact on them...

Thanksgiving 2014

Last Tuesday, we loaded up the car and headed out around 9:00 pm for Alabama.

 The thinking was that if we drove at night, all 3 kids would sleep most of the time, and we wouldn't have to make stops for potty breaks and feedings.

 Of course that didn't happen. The twins wanted to watch a movie so they didn't end up falling asleep until around 11:00 and then around 1:00 am it was time to stop for gas. As soon as we got off the highway and slowed down, they woke up. So that meant we had to go in for a potty break. Then they wanted to watch another movie (which I should have just said no, but I didn't want the whining to wake the baby up), so they were up again until around 3:00 am.

Shortly after we got back on the highway from getting gas, Cooper had a blowout so we had to stop again and get him all cleaned up.

The last hour was the roughest. The kids were tired of being in their car seats and they were so tired and hungry. But we made it and were so excited to see everyone!

We spent Wednesday catching up with everyone and just playing.

This is my Papaw with Cooper.

Cooper was held the majority of the time and he loved every minute of it.

Connor and Chloe got pretty spoiled too.

While Papaw was cooking the turkey...

I attempted to get some family pictures on the front porch.

Connor was pouting and he wasn't going to give in so we had to take a break and try it again later...

This was our family of 4, 2 years ago (I didn't get a picture last year)...

And now in 2014...

Mamaw had all of the Christmas decorations up because we were going to play Dirty Santa while everyone was together.

So after we had Thanksgiving...

We had Christmas!

Friday morning, we got up and had breakfast, and then took a few pictures with Mamaw and Papaw.

 

We left around 3:00 that day. We decided to try something other than driving all night. We figured if we left at 3:00, they would nap in the car until it was time to stop for dinner and then we could all get out and stretch our legs and then get back in the car and they would sleep the rest of the way.

And that's pretty much how it worked out. After dinner, they watched a few Christmas movies and then fell asleep. We got home around 1:30 am and put them straight in bed and everyone slept until around 8:00, including Cooper!