Playing Pretend a Little Too Well...

A funny conversation from lunch today:

The boys and I were sitting at the table eating our lunch, when I noticed that Ben has devoured his veggie corn dog, but has not touched his sweet potato fries - something he loves and usually gobbles up.

So I say, "Ben, do you want to eat your french fries?"

And he says, "No. He's sad" holding up the littlest fry on his plate.

So, I reply, "Oh no. Why's he sad?"

Ben: "Want Daddy."

Me: "The french fry is sad because he wants his Daddy?"

Ben: "Yes" as he scoots the little fry to sit next to the longest french fry on his plate. "Dis Daddy. Dis Brother." (this is Daddy, this is brother) as he scoots another little fry over to the two.

So I say "What about Mommy? Where's she?"

Ben: "No see her." (I don't see her)

Drew - ready to be a part of the conversation too - looks right at Ben and says very matter of factly, "Mommy a Car-get." (Mommy's at Target).

Possibly I should go one week without visiting our home away from home.

A Holly Jolly Christmas

This past weekend we were able to celebrate Christmas with Michael's side of the family. MawMaw and PawPaw braved the terrible Midwest weather and came to see us...although it was warm here until they came, so we think they must've brought the cold winter weather with them. ;) We took them to see the lights at the Opryland Hotel; something we like to do every year. We missed going last year, though, so this was the first time the boys really enjoyed it. Here are our little guys in front of the HUGE christmas tree of lights....or as Drew and Ben kept saying "the BIG wock-et". Try as we might, we couldn't convince them that it was a Christmas tree. It was definitely a rocket to them. The Grandparents and the boys behind one of the waterfalls.
Here is our best attempt to get a family picture. Unfortunately for me they were much more interested in running as fast as they could all over the place than posing for a photo-op.

And then we capped off the evening with cookies while looking at the twinkle lights. Of course, they each just had to pick out their own cookie, and no one was surprised that they each picked out a sugar cookie topped with a huge snow-ball sized mound of icing, complete with red and green "pwink-uls" on top. Needless to say the sugar rush that ensued was more than us four grown-ups could handle in a place that big.
We decided that since it was rainy and cold on Saturday that we'd just have our own version of Christmas morning. I made us all breakfast and we all exchanged presents. Ben had a great time opening everyone's presents, while Drew really enjoyed playing with whatever had just been opened.
Here they are playing with two of the new games that Dressie, Aunt Chelle and Uncle Dan gave them: Lucky Ducks and Splish Splash Fish. Both are cute little games that they have had a ball playing with.
But for sure the biggest hit of all was a choo-choo train that MawMaw and PawPaw gave them. They both love choo-choos, and have played with it almost non-stop. I wouldn've put a few more pictures of them tearing into all the boxes and paper, but somehow I ended up in all of the pictures the boys are in. And let's just be honest, there's no need for the whole world to see me in my pj's with no make-up and bed-head. We'll try to do better when we do Christmas again next weekend.

It was a great weekend, and my buddies are taking looong naps to recover from all the fun. The only thing that was missing was Dressie, Aunt Chelle and Uncle Dan who weren't able to come this year. We sure did miss you!!!

That's about all we have going on for now. Thanks for checking in on us....more Christmas pics to come soon!

Better Not Pout, Better Not Cry?

We officially kicked off our holiday season this weekend with our church's annual Breakfast with Santa. We always look forward to such a special event - the team that puts this on ALWAYS does an amazing job - and this year didn't disappoint.

We began with a time of worship in the sanctuary, followed by breakfast, then stood in line to get our picture made with the Big Guy, and then should have made Christmas pillow cases as the craft. But we had to skip out on the Christmas craft this year since we had so much else going on and nap time was well upon us. Here's Michael entertaining Drew as we stood in line to wait: The boys seemed to be excited about getting to see Santa since we've been talking about him, and we had told them that they would get to sit on his lap and tell him one thing they'd like to have for Christmas (as if they don't have any toys to play with, and need more). They were fine while we waited in line. They were fine as we stood ready to go next. They were fine when we sat them on his lap. And then......
...This is what happened when Ben saw me walk away from him. Never mind that I was still in eyesight and standing less than 4 feet in front of him, he still didn't like Santa.
Drew, on the other hand, did great and was really interested in his beard. I'm telling you, that kid never meets a stranger. But Ben? Well, all the coaxing and bribing in the world wasn't going to get that sweet boy to calm down for a good picture. What worked, you ask?
Sitting on Mommy's lap while very politely telling Santa that he'd like to have more cars, "pwease". If you look closely, you can almost see the half smile that Ben finally gave him. Almost.

We Really ARE Thankful....

....I just forgot to post about our Thanksgiving fun at MawMaw and PawPaw's house. And honestly, I didn't really take that many pictures either. I know, I'm falling down on the job altogether. But I'm back in the swing of things [sort of] and I figure I'd better get caught up in my posts since this is such a busy time of year. I'm sure there'll be plenty to take pictures of in the coming weeks.

Basically we've been going non-stop around here. Last night Michael and I got back from a quick little trip to New York, where he had some work to do, and I tagged along with him to keep him company. We had fun, and I had never seen the city during the holidays, but we are so glad to be home with our buddies.

Coincidentally, our good friends Jeff and Laurie were in the city at the same time. So we had dinner with them one night, and then went for brunch and ice skating in Rockefeller Plaza the next morning. Lots of fun to be with the one you love AND some good friends there during Christmas.

Here are a few pictures.

There are plenty more pictures, but I figured I'd leave it at these since - after all - this blog is supposed to be about Drew and Ben. ;)

We are sooo in the Christmas Spirit around here. The boys are excited about getting some "pwe-sents" from Santa, but we're trying really hard to reinforce that giving the presents to others and remembering the birth of Jesus is really what it's all about....But let's just face it: they're two and really only understand that there are pwesents under the tree. Oh well...here's hoping for next year.

Thanks for checking in on us. Hope everything is merry and bright for you too!

A 24-Hour Getaway

One thing that I love about my husband is that as much as he loves being a daddy and spending time with his boys, he also loves spending one-on-one time with me. Somehow he has always understood that when our relationship is great, it is then that we are the best parents we can be to Ben and Drew.

So, after Michael got off work Friday, he and I headed over to Knoxville to spend the night and go the the UT v. Vandy game with my cousin David and his wife Lindsey. We had a great time just hanging out, playing with their "children" (two dogs, Walker and Molly), and catching up. We had a blast, and here are a few pictures of our mini-vacation:

With Smokey...or as Drew says "Mo-pey"
And after the game. It was a little too close for comfort for both David and Michael, but we all managed to have a great time.
Many thanks to Aunt BeBe and Mimi who took care of the buddies for us while we were away. We sure do love and appreciate yall!

We hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, enjoying time with the ones you love and thanking God for all He's done. We have so much to be thankful for! More pictures when we get back.

The Simple Life

Last week while Michael was in Europe for work, Drew and Ben and I headed to Southern Georgia to a little town called Waycross to visit my Nana and Papa. We stopped first in Montgomery to pick up my parents, who were both able to take some vacation time and enjoy the visit with us.


It was such a treat! The last time we were able to go was last year at Thanksgiving, and even though they had a great time playing on the farm last year, it was nothing like this year! They played outside running all over the place from the time they finished breakfast till the time we dragged them inside to take a nap. What kid wouldn't love having [almost] full reign over 6 and a half acres of farm land, trees to play in, goats to "talk" to and a golf cart to "drive"? They both were obsessed with the golf cart, saying "No, I dwive it, Mommy." So we really had to keep an eye on them for fear that they actually would try.

It just worked out that we were there to celebrate my Papa's 88th birthday. He may have been celebrating 88 years, but he only had two candles on his cake...one for each of the boys to blow out. Every year he has all 35 - 40 or so of his pecan trees shaken to get all the pecans off. So, when he found out that we were coming, he waited until we were there to have it done so that the boys could see the big tractors "hug" the trees and shake them. Ben really liked watching it all, but poor Drew missed out because he was taking such long naps due to playing so hard. So in addition to all of the other fun things to do on the farm, we also got to pick up buckets and buckets of pecans. Luckily for my Nana and Papa, the little helpers love having a job to do, and they really enjoyed getting out there with all the grownups to "help."

We actually did take some really great pictures, but blogger isn't cooperating. Sorry to disappoint since I know that the pictures of the boys are the only real reason people check this thing anyways! ;)

Happy Fall, Yall!

Can You Guess Who We Are?

Here are the clues..... 1) We used our favorite word when we were told to bow down and worship.
2) We were the original firefighters, but we didn't have these fancy jackets or water hoses.
3) We'd love to tell you our names, but we're only 2, and they are really hard to pronounce.
We're Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego!

This past Halloween night, we participated in our 2nd year of the annual Parade of Bible Characters at our church. Last year we had a great time with all of our good buddies from our lifegroup being the Seven Days of Creation. These are the clues that Mr. Brandon read out to the audience, and they guessed who we were right away....probably because Mommy and Miss Darci were so clever in coming up with our costumes.

Brax really enjoyed being onstage, but we were a little less excited about being the center of attention....especially when we looked out and saw Daddy taking pictures and waving to us! We would rather be with him, hands down.

Then Miss Janet and Miss Melanie let all of us kids come up on stage and sing some songs together. Which would have been really fun, but instead we chose to run up and down the stage ramp rather than sing...so we had to sit in the audience with Mommy and Daddy. Then they read all of us kids a book about being scared of monsters, but not to worry since God is always with us. We liked this part the best, and all in all, it was a really great night.

We hope your Halloween night was as fun as ours was!