Merry Christmas

Here's a few pre-Christmas pics.

This was the pic for our Christmas card this year. We could not get JM to smile, so if you recieved a Christmas card from us with him smiling, that smile was Photoshopped in from another pic.

I LOVE our Christmas tree this year!! We bought it from a Boy Scout troop. In B'ham every road intersection has a Boy Scout tree lot, but here in north Alabama this is the only one we could find. It smells so good...it might be a while before we take it down :)

Since we had to redo our fireplace/chimney this year, we haven't put up the mantle yet (we are making is stone up to the ceiling), so our stocking are hanging on a piece of furniture that was my grandparents. My stocking is Vixen, J has Dasher, and JM has Roudolph, and of course Miss Belle has her doggie paw print stocking.

This is our family stocking. It has history. When J's parents got married and they lived in Tuscaloosa, a neighbor gave it to them. It was their first stocking. It has "White" knitted into it. I don't put anything in it because I'm afraid it'll streach it, its very delicate.

This is my Christmas card garland. Ever wonder what to do with all of the Christmas cards you get??? Well I took last years cards, traced a Christmas tree over the most interesting part of the front of the card and cut it out, punched a hole inthe top and tied a ribbon to it. I cut out who it came from and taped it to the back of the tree. (please excuse the view of the backyard...it has been neglected for quite some time now.)

It snowed here a few weeks ago!! It didn't last too long but it was JM's first snow. He wasn't really sure about it at first, and neither was Miss Belle.

This is the fence along the pasture across the street.

The boxes almost beat us.

So folding some boxes shouldn't be hard, right??? I bought JM some of those boxes that have the brick pattern on the side of them. I remember them from preschool and saw a set for cheap at Target. They came with instructions, that should have been my first clue. It took us longer than it should have to figure our how to fold them. The first few were not easy, but it got better once we figured them out.

Boxes - 1, Us - 0

Belle finished folding hers before we did one :)

We needed to rest our brains after the box folding event.

I made a $5 five minute scarf for JM's sitter. She is AWESOME and I wanted to do something for her for Christmas. I saw the directions on Natalie's blog, and had to give it a try. It was super easy! You need to use the super thick yarn for this.

We have a sick doggie right now...Miss Belle has a UTI, which has not been fun for any of us. She had to sleep in the kitchen 2 nights in a row, so she wouldn't destroy our carpet. She usually sleeps in our closet floor, so she was not happy with us when we gated her in the kitchen. Funny, we use our baby gates for the dog, not the baby.

JM got to see Santa Claus!! And I think they liked each other, what do you think?? Beofre it was our turn one kid in front of us cried and screamed when it was his turn with Santa, nothing made him happy. Then the other kid I believe talked Santa's ear off. The whole time I was thinking please don't cry JM. The only time he really smiled is in this pic when he looked up at Santa. I love it cause its not posed, and it makes you wonder what is going on in his mind.

His little outfit cracks me up, its smocked with the scene of a roof top with Santas boots sticking out of the chimney and a bag of presents. Santa asked if he could stay, sorry Santa its bedtime!

What the......

heck is this making this noise in our backyard??????? Don't worry nothing is going to jump out in the video at you, it was just so I could record the noise (we never did see it). We've heard lots of wildlife "noises" around our house (baby coyotes yelping, the 3 owls hooting back and forth) but this is new...J thinks its a pterodactyl and that its going to swoop down any minute. We figured out what tree it was in but thats it. If anyone has any idea what it is, please leave a comment and put my poor husbands mind at ease. Oh and this happens to be outside our bedroom window...I hope this thing quiets down in a little bit.

Other news at our house...JM has a top tooth coming in!! You can kinda see it in the pic.

Halloween

I had bought JM a Halloween costume, a Chili Pepper, a month or so ago, hoping he'd still fit into it once Halloween got here. I trie it on him Halloween morning and this is what happened...

He had outgrown it...so sad cause it was so cute! See his legs are supposed to fit into the body of the pepper outfit. I think we were about 2-3 inches too long and round :) There was no hope of "fixing"it so he would fit. So I went to plan B...make a costume.

Remember this is Saturday morning...Halloween day! So I rummaged through the material I had from projects that I have hopes it one day of starting and finishing...and I found a piece of brown material. So I wiped out my sewing machine (more like drug it arcoss the floor while huffing and puffing, it must weigh 50 pounds!!) and some tissue paper for a pattern. ** Note to self: Self, pattern making is not as easy as you thought it would be.**
Ok, so after an hour of so of cutting, recutting, pinning and stiching, we had a.........Monk outfit. I had found some twine in the garage and a little wooden cross a pastor from a church had given me from Israel, and the costume was complete, hood and all. Now I just had to get JM intot he costume. I hadnt made it wide enough for him to get his arms through the arm holes, so I had to undo the side seam to get him in it. He wasn't very happy with me at this point. But we suceeded and took some pics and headed out.

Our little lounging monk..."hhhmmm can I get this into my mouth???"

JM tried to eat the pumpkin top while posing for pics.

We went to just a few neiughbors houses cause lets face it, JM didn't know what we were doing and we really just wanted to show him off. Ended up on 2 neighbors were home. The first one was an elderly couple who are some of the sweetest people. JM got a pair of Halloween socks from them (since he can't eat the candy, we took care of that for him). He'll probably be able to wear them in a few years :)

Our pumpkin we carved. We each got our own mini pumpkin to carve. JM's is onthe left, J's is in the middle (go figure, a Jeep grill), and mine on the right.

The other day JM was napping and I went to check on him and found this...

Apparently he had been giraffe wrestling during nap time :)

and then yesterday he was sitting in the boppy pilow on the floor playing and I was int he kitchen cleaning and I came out and this is what I found...

He was laughing not crying. Oh and his onesie says Mommy's little stinker with a skunk on it :)

FIRE!!!! we now have an operational fireplace!!!!!

And JM loves to try to drink for a glass...most of it ends up being spit/drooled out so I pretty much have to undress him for him to drink.

Have a happy week, from the Southern White House, as J like to refer to it as :)

Tate Farms Cotton Pickin Pumpkin Patch

We went to the Cotton Pickin' Pumpkin Patch at

Tate Farmslast Saturday and we had a blast.
We rode on a hay ride to get to the pumpkins and then you can pick your own pumpkin.

We decided not to get one since I had already bought one at the store.

We did however take TONS of pics of JM in the patch.

I found one, Mom!!!

My Pumpkin!

Two cool Dudes!

JM and the Llama

JM and the sleeping goats

The pigs that snotted JM's shoes
they were dirty pigs :)

This is where the rabbit almost jumped outta

J's hands cause JM was holding it so tight.

Just a swinggin'...I really don't like that song.

This gourd looked like a swan.

I love the ugly gouds/squash/thingys.

Apple gourds, I like these, they were neat looking.

Mini pumpkins!!!!!

JM in the corn crib.

Not as comfy as you would think...

Mom and JM in the cotton

Now this is comfy...maybe a little itchy.

Two cool dudes again!! They seem to follow me where ever I go...

maybe its because I keep feeding them ;)

A 2 headed scarecrow!!!

Gotta have a pic of the guys and the firetruck...

and the tractor.

Time to go!!

By the time we got home JM was passed out!

We had tons of fun at Tate Farms.