Happy 3 Months, Kate!

She is growing oh so fast! Full of smiles every day! She sleeps so good at night, only waking up once or twice after she goes to bed at 6:30 or so. And even then, she's up to eat and then goes right back to sleep. Such the little angel!

Sittin' on Santa's Lap

It's a big deal, right? Sitting on the big guy's lap. It must be because seeing a screaming, terrified kid reaching for Mommy, while being forced to sit for a picture is about as common as long lines and no parking this time of year. Not Jackson. As I said last year, any greeting and subsequent seat upon the lap would only occur on Jackson's terms. If he didn't want to get close, no big deal. I can totally understand why little ones are a bit freaked out by the guy. I mean really, it's not like I usually encourage Jackson to sit on a stranger's lap. And then to him, this stranger is really big and has an unusual looking furry suit on. It's got to be a lot for kids to take in!

Over the past couple of weeks, we've obviously been talking about Santa and I've asked Jackson a few times if he wanted to go see him. He would always say, "Yeah. Iwan go see Santa!" Then he started saying, "Iwan sit on Santa's lap!" So, last Wednesday we planned a trip over to Crabtree to see Santa. (By the way, the reason behind Crabtree... You can't use your own camera at Triangle. How crazy is that!?! Wait in line AND have to pay $15 for a picture. I don't think so.) Well, I thought we'd be timing it right, getting there at 5:30 or so. Not so much. Apparently Santa has to eat, and we got there right at the end of his break. So of course the line was crazy long. After talking about it for a few minutes and discussing it with Jackson, we decided to go ahead and wait. Once Santa was back in his seat, Sean took him around so he could see him and asked if he was going to sit with him. At first he said no, then he said he wanted to. So we waited. And waited. And ate Chick-fil-A while we waited. And waited a little more. Jackson was actually really good the entire time though and stayed very (relatively!) patient.
After about an hour or so, we were almost at the front of the line. We had been watching all the other kids for a while, so Jackson and I were just talking about what he was going to tell him.

Well, here goes...

Jackson LOVES it! As soon as Santa waved him over, he pretty much ran to the guy! He was so excited.

Santa wasn't too good as understanding 2 year old speak, so I had to help translate a little. As he's been saying all along, he told Santa that he wanted a blue dump truck.

And Kate. Well, she didn't care much either way. Next year will be a whole different story I'm sure!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Jackson's First Preschool Christmas Party

Last Wednesday was Jackson's last day of preschool before Christmas break, so of course there was a party to celebrate. I was the "host" for this party, which meant I supplied the snack and a craft or activity for the kids to do. This was the first time I had really seen the class in action, other than when I go to pick him up. I was really anxious to see how he would react to me being there and how he and the other kids interacted together. And let me just tell you, I have no idea how preschool teachers do it! I mean really, nine 2 year olds and two adults. Talk about outnumbered! His teachers are absolutely wonderful though. He talks about Ms. Edie and Ms. Judy all the time. He always tells me that they are who he plays with. And they are obviously so good with the kids. Jackson connected to them both almost immediately. He went through a little rough patch at school after Kate was born and didn't want to go to his music class unless Ms. Edie went with him. I'm just so glad his first experience with "school" has gone so well! We definitely made the right decision by enrolling him this year!

Anyway, back to the party. Monday night I baked oatmeal cookies to give as goody bags to all the kids and Tuesday night I made the cupcakes. The cupcakes turned out to be extra small, but that was actually perfect since they were for a bunch 2 year olds.


Jackson saw the cupcakes as soon as he came downstairs Wednesday morning, but I told him they were for his party at school and that he couldn't have one. Now if you've ever seen Jackson meet a cupcake then you know how feels about them. Well, needless to say, when I got to classroom with the cupcakes and handed them out, he was the first kid BY FAR to finish his cupcake. You may not get the full effect from this picture, but he had his mouth crammed full!

This is Claire. Ms. Edie told me the other day that Jackson and Claire are buddies. She is such a cutie!

Here is Colt, Kassi and Mia.

Again, you can't really see it in this picture, but Jackson's teeth were covered in cheese doodle and he was just a cheesing!

Time for crafts! They used foam stickers of circles and stars to decorate a Christmas tree ornament. Here's Kassi, Buddy and Colt working on there ornament...

Claire was one of the only ones to actually put her star at the top. Most of them just stuck it right in the middle!

It was amazing watching them during a structured activity. They were all sitting (fairly) still and working together on making the ornaments. But the minute they had "free" time, it was a wild place! I'm sure the fact I fueled their energy with a sugary cupcake and juice box may have a little to do with it, but Ms. Edie said they had all been very excited all morning!

Ms. Edie told me when I showed her the craft that they loved pulling the paper off the back of the sticker, so I was taking note of that when they got started. It was really cute watching them all concentrate so hard. Jackson was especially focused on getting the paper himself.

So serious.

Jackson proudly hung his ornament up on the tree when we got home. How sweet!? His first handmade ornament.After craft they had circle time. This is when they put their chairs in a circle (hence the name) in the middle of the room and say the Pledge of Allegiance and sing songs. Jackson was the first kid to have his chair in place and ready to go. But, when it came to singing, he was more concerned with making sure I was involved than he was actually singing himself. Ms. Edie told me afterwards that he is normally a lot more involved. I think he just wanted to make sure I got to play, too! :-) He's so considerate!

So, the party was a hit and it was so fun to spend a little time in the classroom with Jackson. Sean told me while I was baking the cupcakes that this was the first of many cupcakes I'd be getting ready for class parties through the years. It's crazy that Jackson's already two and in preschool! Kate is still so tiny, but I know I'm going to blink my eyes and Jackson's going to be in kindergarten and Kate in preschool herself. It's just crazy how fast time flies. I'm so glad I have this blog to document all of life's little adventures. If, for nothing else, I'll be able look back over the past year or so and remember some of our simplest moments.

As They Grow: New Words Every Day

Jackson amazes us everyday with his ever budding vocabulary. Sean and I were just talking about how every day he says something new and it totally catches us offguard. One of my most recent favorites... When he starts to look for something he'll say, "Hmm. Let's see." It's just so serious and so darn cute!

"I Want Go See Mickey Mouse"

Last Friday my mom came up to spend the weekend with us, so we could do some Christmas shopping ("we" being her and I, then Sean and I) and so we could go to Don and Jen's Christma-hana-birthda-housewarming party and Ashely's Christmas party. But before the marathon shopping began on Saturday, we all went over to the RBC to see Disney on Ice. You may have seen the commercials for this over the past few weeks, but in case you haven't, it basically shows all the Disney characters skating around, including all of Jackson's favorites from the Clubhouse. When this commercial would come on, Jackson would get soooooo excited, point and say, "Mickey! Goofy! Donald! Daisy!" as each of the characters would flash on the screen. He would say, "I want go see Mickey Mouse!" It was obvious that we would have to get some tickets for this one. So Sean put in a call and got us a few tickets to the Saturday morning show in Martin Marietta's suite. Getting tickets in the suite was well, sweet, because Jackson didn't necessarily have to stay in a seat, he could move around when he wanted, but he was still in a confined area so we didn't have to chase him. Plus, there were several other kids there, including an adorable 3 year old and a 1 year old. They had a good ole time together! Not to mention the suite was stocked with lots of snacks and drinks, including some yummy cookies and Jackson's favorite choice of the day...popcorn!

He was so excited when the show started and watched intently for a while.

However, it wasn't long before he and all the other kids were just back and forth between the snacks and the show and whatever else they could find in between.

As long as Mickey was on the ice though, Jackson was "all ears"!
This pig skating on all four's was hilarious! That has to take some serious talent!!

Jackson loved the finale! He just clapped and waved! It was too cute!

Tree Hunt 2009

{This post has been in progress for about two weeks now. As I'm sure is the norm in most households right now, it's been pretty crazy busy around here lately!}

Last Friday (12/5) we packed up and headed to Boone for our annual Christmas tree hunt with the Ryan's. This was our 8th annual trip and we always have the best time. We were especially excited this year, because the forecast was calling for snow on Saturday! What better way to kick off Christmas than that!? We always stay up on the mountain in Seven Devils. This was the view from the back porch of our house this year.

We got to the cabin Friday afternoon, unloaded two Odysseys packed full of "stuff", then just hung around for the rest of the afternoon. The owners of the cabin had a great board game collection, so Stevie, Ryley, Papa/Jackson and Aunt Amy played a little game of Sorry. Jackson did really good waiting for their turn and not moving any extra pieces!
Playing games is always the highlight of the weekend. Every year we each bring a game to play with a prize for the winner. Some of the games may be Christmas themed, made up games, board games, whatever. This year Ryley brought a couple of games of her own. Her first game was Candycane Hunt. She hid little candycanes all throughout the kitchen, dining area and family room, then we all came up and tried to find the most. Here she is helping Jackson find one that she had hidden in a pitcher...

Even Kate got in on the action! She's got two!!

When we asked Ryley what the prize was for the winner, she told us that they would get to keep 1 candy cane. That's right, just one! Kids are too funny!

I lvoe this picture of Kate with her Aunt Amy!

Stevie brought the Santa Hat game. We all had to wear Santa hats and couldn't take them off until Stevie took his off. Once Stevie did, the last one to take their's off was out. Yeah, I didn't do too good. I was the second one out. This silly guy here ended up winning...

Aren't we cute w/ our little hats on? :-)

Mamma and Papa looking all festive!

The Pridgens!

This was Amy's Skittle game. There was a bowl of Skittles and peanut M&M's and we each had a straw. We took turns rolling the dice until somone rolled doubles. Once you did, you grabbed the bowl and candy and using the straw had to get the candy out of the bowl and into your cup. It got pretty intense w/ lots of bowl snatching! Papa was a machine though and waxed us all!

Look at Mamma! Showing no mercy for her son! :-)

See that water bottle there in Stevie's lap? Yeah, he's got finger stuck in there! Ha Ha Ha!

We always celebrate St. Nick in the mountains, so we all put our shoes by the fireplace before we go to bed Friday night and St. Nick comes and fills them with little gifts while we're sleeping. It's been fun watching the row of shoes expand over the years. This year our shoes extended across the entire mantle!

The kids all love waking up on Saturday morning to see what St. Nick brought for them! Here's Jackson checking out his sweet new Seseme Street school bus! He has had his eye on that thing at Target for months now! And he loves it!

Here's Emma peeking in to see what she's got!

Oh cool! She got a school bus, too!

Check out these awesome reindeer that Pat made for Amy and me. There are four of them, in different sizes with a little red nose and a red bow. They are so Pottery Barn esque! I love them!! The picture here really doesn't do them justice. I'll post a picture of them up on our mantle, so you can really see how cool they are!

This picture of Papa and Kate in her little Santa's helper hat is priceless! I love it! Too sweet!

So this was what we woke up to Saturday morning... SNOW!!!

Jackson couldn't wait to get (all bundled up!) out there! It took forever to get him all layered up! "Two pairs of pants, Mom. Really?"

He was lovin' it out there! It was soooo cold, but he didn't care! (I must confess, I'm taking these pictures from inside the house...through the sliding glass door!)

Mmmm...Snow! This little boy loves eating ice, so this was the perfect snack!

It was just Jackson and Uncle Stevie playing in the snow for a while before Ryley finally got layered up to go out and play! I love this picture of her! They were having the best time throwing snowballs at the glass doors!

The Snowy Pridgens!

By lunchtime the snow was still coming down pretty good and baby, it was cold outside! We all made it out to play at some point during the day. Well, almost everyone....

Hey, someone had to stay in and keep Kate warm! And Mamma didn't seem to mind! :-)

This is another priceless pic!

Ryley had been having real snow cones all morning, so Amy decided to make her a flavored one with a little apple juice!

Yummy!

By mid-afternoon we had already played hard, so it was time to cozy up by the fire for a little siesta!

But the little ones couldn't stay in for too long! Time for making snow angels! Jackson watched Ryley do it first, then got down to make his own. He was so cute flapping his little arms. He looked more like fish than an angel! He was lovin' it though!

Here's a picture of our snow covered cabin!

I'm just out trying to take a few innocent pictures of the gang in the snow and then all of a sudden I'm ambushed! By these two...

Jackson was all about the snowball fight! He was trying his best to hit his Daddy! You can tell by the looks of the back of Jackson's coat that he has already fallen victim to a couple of snowballs himself! Sean got him good with one right in the back of the head!

This snow shovel made an excellent bulldozer!

Jackson was circling the house with the shovel saying, "Buuuuuulllllllldozerrrrrrr!"

After a day in the snow the fun wasn't over yet!! As a matter of fact, it was just getting started! Ryley's second game was pin the nose on Frosty! Here she is getting it right on target!

Now it's Jackson's turn. First he gets his instructions from Aunt Amy...

And after getting blindfolded with the Santa hat and spun around a couple of times, he goes in with the carrot...

We should have lowered Frosty for little Emma! She's peeking out, probably thinking, "Come on guys. This is no fair. I can't even reach his nose!!!"

I think this next picture speaks for itself! :-)

It's Happy Birthday time! We all know the real reason why we go to the mountains every year is to celebrate Stevie's birthday!

These next few pictures are from Sean's game, which was inspired by a game on Ellen. He hung a piece of plexi-glass up and stuck Ritz crackers on each side with Easy Cheese. Each couple raced to eat all of their crackers and be the first to whistle Jingle Bells. This was hil-ar-i-ous!

Since the plexi-glass was swinging, you had to really time it right when you tried to get a cracker! If you didn't have any resistance, it was next to impossible to get one off! Even though Stevie looooooves him some Easy Cheese, he was no match for Amy! She was crowned the champion of this game!

Even though this was Sean's game, everyone insisted that he play so they could laugh at him like he had laughed at them! And for the record, I think he did have the best time.

Amy got some beautiful pictures of the sunrise Sunday morning.

Our 2009 family pic! (The best that we could get w/ four little ones!)

Now time to attempt a few family shots.... Emma wasn't too happy about pictures at this point!

Papa and Mamma sure know how to cooperate!

But throw the kids in with them and..... Well, at least Jackson and Ryley were all smiles!

Let's try again... Nevermind, I think Jackson's had enough now!

So in the past we always go out to the tree farm on Saturday. But since we woke up to such a snowy scene this year, we decided not to make the trek down the icy mountain and waited until we were headed home to make our stop by the tree farm.

All the little snow capped trees were so pretty!

And even though it was snowy, it wasn't nearly as cold out as it was on Saturday!

So we all tried to get some pictures of the kiddos. These are great of Emma and Ryley!

Here are our Christmas trees loaded up on our Odysseys!

After such a fun and exciting weekend, it's time to head home!

And we weren't even out of Boone before...

I think those last two sum up the whole weekend! We had a blast!! We made more great memories to add to all those from the previous 7 years! This was Kate's first tree hunt and she did great! I already can't wait til next year when we're all together for a weekend in the mountains again! Merry Christmas!