Early Christmas with my Dad's Side

This year was Chad's family's turn to celebrate Christmas Day with us, so we had a few Christmases beforehand. 

The weekend after Thanksgiving, Dad & Donna, Josh & Becky, Matt & Betsy (step-sister & fiance), and Rebecca (step-sister) all came up and spent one night at our new house. My step-sisters had not seen our new place yet, so that was exciting to show them around. It was also great to have 10 people sleeping under one roof and not feel crowded at all. (We are truly loving the spaciousness of our new home and using it to the fullest.)

They all arrived on Saturday afternoon for lunch and stayed until sometime on Sunday. We (mainly Chad) prepared lunch at home and Maddox and I helped. I have included quite a few pictures in this post, but they are the highlights of the weekend for me. =)

Maddox helping mix up the salad for us.

Once Dad arrived, Maddox sucked him into playing Handy Manny with him. 

Dad was obviously getting into it....just a little. ;)

Chad finally sitting down and relaxing. I have to give my thanks to him for all the hard work he did over the holidays for ALL the company we had for many weekends in a row. I was just too pregnant and uncomfortable to do hardly any of it. He is the best husband EVER!

Josh & Becky kicking back a bit.

The loot. I am so proud of that tree. Haha!

Maddox telling someone a very detailed story.

My foot making him look up for a picture. 

The Donna and her girls HAD to watch the Alabama game that evening, so we definitely had that on. Maddox enjoyed it as well. He loves football.

As usual, Matt humored Maddox in his make-believe play. 

The "men" talking about "man" things in the kitchen. 

Me and my MONSTER belly.

The newly engaged couple, Matt & Betsy.

I'm still not sure how we got so many spontaneous expressions in this one shot. 

Me and my baby man.

That evening, we opened gifts before Maddox went to bed. He got to help play Santa Claus and was giving Nonna Donna a gift here. 

Josh and one of his gifts. I can't believe he's almost 29. Moments like this make me think I'm seeing him still at age 17. ;)

Maddox hanging out with Aunt Rebecca and playing on his Thomas laptop from Uncle Josh & Aunt Becky.

Family Christmas shot

Dad & Donna. Or as Maddox calls them: Papa Will & Nonna Donna

Me and my Daddy-o

Maddox & Aunt Becky being crazy together, as usual.

All of Dad & Donna's kids. We have too much fun when we all get together like this!! 

Donna & her girls.

Maddox's big gift from Papa Will & Nonna was his new wagon!! It won't get used a ton until later in the spring, but it still can be pulled around the house before then. 

Thanks, guys, for making the trip up here and making this holiday a lot easier on this pregnant lady. Love you all!!

Decorating for Christmas

We decorated for Christmas around Thanksgiving because of how busy we would be in December already. Starting on December 6th (the weekend after Thanksgiving), we had planned 7 solid weekends of visitors staying with us, not including the weeks in between with people. 

Maddox had such a great time watching all the decorations go up. We didn't do a lot of decorating last year since we were in Chattanooga & Marietta for the holiday, so this was all very exciting for him. 

He watched the tree go up one day, and then one night after he was in bed I decorated the tree all by myself. (Which Chad got annoyed about because I was at the very top of our ladder leaning over our tree with my huge pregnant belly.) Then another night I got our little Christmas village out and set it up. 

These pictures are of the next morning when Maddox came down for breakfast. He was so incredibly intrigued by these little houses. 

Looking at presents under the tree and trying to tell us who they were for. You know, since he can read and all. ;)

The little man looking at the houses again in our finished family room. Yeah!!

P.S. I now have my pictures set up on here so you can click them for a larger view if you want to. My previous posts before October don't usually have it.

Happy Birthday, Chad!

Chad was very cute this year. I wanted to have a party for him so badly, but was feeling sooooo large and uncomfortable that I knew I couldn't do a nice one. I told him just to plan it himself, invite his friends, and we would have fun. And he did just that. 

He called his friends (all people that he works with on different projects or from the studio), he went out and bought all the food & drink, and he cleaned the house. What a great husband he is! 

Here's a group shot of who came - minus a few who had already left and Taylor, who took this one. 

Even though Chad doesn't like the whole candle-thing, we made him blow out the candles. Wow...I can't believe he's 34!!!!!

Maddox got to stay up with the party-goers until around 8pm or so, and he loved every minute of it. He would hang out with adults all day if he could. 

The next day, I captured this Maddox moment. This train is one that he got when he was almost a year old. It is NOT to ride on, but I walked in the kitchen for breakfast that morning and he was riding it around saying "Look Mommy! I'm not too big for this! Look!" It totally cracked me up and I had to get a shot of how ridiculous he looked. 

I love this kid!!! (And yes, I know he needed a haircut. I took him the next week and they ruined it. We're still working on getting it fixed.)

My Silly Boy

Maddox does so many silly and hilarious things now. He has the BIGGEST imagination that I've ever seen on a kid. He will play at his train table for literally an hour or two....alone....making up scenarios and dialogue between his toys. Sometimes I like to sneak up on him to listen because I'm truly amazed at his comprehension of words & ideas. 

I was able to get a few shots of him in early November of him just being Maddox.

On this particular day, I caught him in our sunroom putting his shoes up to Gretchen's face. (You can barely see her head sticking out from the sofa arm.) So I walked up to him and said, "Hey Buddy, what are you doing?" He goes, "Oh...um...I just thought Gretchen might like to look at my shoes." And that was it. Haha! I'm not sure where he got that idea, but he said it so matter-of-fact that I decided it must be a good idea, too. 

That evening, it was so nice outside I decided to take a few pictures of him with our pumpkins before I threw them out. He kept wanting to sing songs on the front porch instead of smiling, so I just had to go with it. =)

And of course, the sweet "Boy and His Dog" shot. Except I made him do it. This was actually one of many tries. But hey, for all those of you who want to see pics of our house so badly....here's our front door and steps. Happy Fall!

Bonfire & Veggie Dogs

Maddox is currently in Cradle Roll B at Sabbath School. There have ended up being so many kids that it is now only for 2 year olds. We are so blessed to have such wonderful adults and children to surround our family with from church. It is what I have always dreamed of for my children and I'm so thankful that we have found it. We are extra lucky that we have such a wide surrounding of friends in this town in addition to church. And especially the other moms who I can turn to for support. 

So, I started rambling....what's new? Here's my point: Maddox's SS class put together a Saturday night function where we all got together at another parent's home for a big bonfire and weenie roast for the parents & children. It was really a lot of fun! 

Here's my friend Brooke and her two little ones, Elise & Zion. Elise is just a little bit older than Maddox and she's so smart and sweet. Too bad we moved farther away from them when we got the new house.  =( At least we can still see them at church.

Here is my friend, Kajsa, and her little guy, Kaj. They are really great friends of ours now and we are soooooo lucky to have them. 

Chad was in charge of helping Maddox with his food. He was such a big boy sitting in his little lawn chair eating. 

Anne and Lillybeth, who you see a lot of in my posts. Maddox and Lillybeth get along really well which is nice. 

Our new little friend, Nylah. She is newer to the Sabbath School and is really a sweetie. 

And last, but not least.....me and my little man. We had such a great time! Thanks to Anne for putting a lot of this together and to Bonnie and family for lending us their home/yard/fire pit/playground for the evening. =)

Trick or Treat!

So, I'm a little behind in my posting. But I'm here to catch up and share our last few months with you. 

I think I left off with Halloween 2008. 

This was a fun, low-key year. I guess partly because Halloween was on a Friday night, so we didn't have too much time to play dress-up on our new street before Sabbath arrived. 

We did get lucky, however, and Maddox was invited by our neighbor/playgroup pal/Sabbath School buddy, Lillybeth, to a Halloween party at My Gym. She goes there every week for classes and was able to bring a friend to their Thursday evening party. The first few pictures here are of the fun they had at My Gym. 

Maddox dressed up as a Train Engineer and Lillybeth went as a Hula Girl. They were totally adorable and made me wish that this age could be frozen in time. (No such luck.) 

Maddox got to jump in his very first ball-pit. He was hilarious and wasn't sure what to think. He loved it, but couldn't figure out why he kept sinking lower the harder he tried to climb out. =)

Maddox and Lillybeth in the circle of crazy costumes, while the leaders sang fun songs with them.

My shy boy branching out a little. He prefers to play in places that do not involve other young children. He loves playing with the older kids instead.

Maddox's real costume this year was "Dumbo." He was, without a doubt, the cutest little elephant that I've ever seen. He didn't wear this one to My Gym for obvious reasons, but we got to use it on Halloween evening before sundown. He walked to a few houses on our street and got some loot that his Mommy ate. (I'm a sucker for sweets.) 

Mom bought him this costume and there is a short story behind the reason why. This whole last year he has been loving the Dumbo movie. One of the few movies that we let him watch. He's so sensitive and such a loving little boy, you can really tell by the things he'll talk about. Because of this movie, all year long he has loved to pretend that he is Dumbo and that I'm Mrs. Jumbo. He would get done with naptime/quiet time and when I would come to his room to get him, he would say "Can Mrs. Jumbo hold Dumbo now?" It was too precious. Then he would want me to hold him tight, rock him, and sing "Baby Mine" to him. That is a memory that I will never forget and I'm so thankful that we had all this one-on-one time together. 

So......here's Dumbo!

Chad came home just in time to walk the neighborhood with us. =)

My two guys. Maddox looks so tiny here.

Dumbo, Mrs. Jumbo, and my big ol' belly. He was so cute walking up to houses by himself and saying "Trick or Treat!". He definitely though he was big stuff. ;)

And my final picture of the evening.....the chocolate-induced daze before heading to bath & bed.