Christmas Pics

We had a great Christmas! I think age 4 must be when the idea of Christmas really hits a child because Max was totally into it this year!

We went to the Christmas Eve service at our church then my entire family came over to my house for enchiladas and my mom's favorite punch - yum. Don's dad came over bright and early Christmas morning so he could be there when Max woke up. When Max saw what Santa had brought him he got all embarrassed and hid his face in my leg - too funny. We then went over to my Mom's house for more gifts and to eat a scrumptious lunch. Don's dad surprised me and gave me a ring that he had given Fay (my husband's mom who passed away in January) two years ago for her 60th birthday. I can honestly say that I think it was the best Christmas present I have ever received and something I will treasure forever.

We also rode on The Polar Express a few days after Christmas - because of Max's love of trains this was his dream come true.

Here are a few pics from the festivities...

5:15 AM

Max is all about routines and he definitely has a morning routine - he gets out of bed, goes to the bathroom and then goes downstairs to play with his trains. I typically lay in bed for a few minutes and just listen to him play. It gives me time to wake up and get mentally prepared for the day. :) Unfortunately, Max has been getting up pretty early lately - we're talking between 5:00 and 5:30 am. Well, the other morning I hear him get out of bed, go to the bathroom and then go downstairs. After a few minutes I realized that it was very quiet and I hadn't heard him talking for awhile. So, I go downstairs and Max is nowhere to be found. I then walk to the back of the house and the door to our deck is wide open. I go outside and proceed to find Max playing in his sandbox at 5:15 AM in 40 degree weather! I about died! He had put his shoes on and had managed to unlock the doors. Crazy!

Anyway, I guess the moral of the story is that I need to get my lazy behind out of bed when my son gets up!

Hollywild

Below are pictures from Hollywild - an animal park outside of Greenville. At Christmas they have a TON of lights and also have a place where you can drive through and feed deer from your car. We took my niece and nephew and had a great time! FYI - just so you don't think we're pulling a "Britney" the picture of Max driving the car was taken in the "deer field" - we were pretty much just sitting still with deer all around us.

Wal-Mart

I was at Wal-Mart last night waiting for a prescription to get filled. A lady started talking over the loud speaker about someone's car lights being left on. (keep in mind I live in SC so this lady has a VERY country/redneck accent). She must have repeated ALL the car information about 3 times and then proceeded to say very seriously (and I quote) "your lights are getting dimmer and dimmer and if you don't go turn them off then your car isn't going to start." Am I the only one that thinks that is hilarious? Only in Wal-Mart...

Anyway, here are some pics from the Christmas parade in downtown Greenville. Max LOVED the bands and was a dancing fool! So cute!

The little girl above (Faith) was in the NICU at the same time as Max. She was born at 25 weeks and weighed 1 1/2 lbs. She is smart as a whip and you would never know she was born so early. We're all great friends now!

Go Cowboys!

So, my Cowboys won against Green Bay last night - yeah baby! I'm a native Texas girl (I live in SC now) so I'm all about the Cowboys coming out of their losing slump. I think we can make it to the Super Bowl, but I'm not overly hopeful about beating the Patriots. My husband is a football fanatic (played in high school and college) so he is loving my new found interest in football this year! I think he would rather see me in sweats watching a football game then in sexy lingerie! :)

It's 12:00 on Friday and I'm still in my pj's - what a rare thing, but I love it! I've had to make a lot of phone calls this morning so I just got my coffee and plopped down on the couch this morning.

I know this is random and kind of cheesy, but for some reason I just was thinking about how happy I am right now. My marriage has had some rough times over the years, but I can honestly say that now is the best that it has ever been. I think this is largely due to finding a church, getting involved and attending a great Sunday school class together. In fact, our Sunday school class has been doing a series on marriage and it has been WONDERFUL!

I'm also happy because we're trying to have another baby and I'm excited about what next year could bring. We've been trying for awhile, but for some reason I'm not getting stressed out about it. My heart has such a desire for adoption that I know we will add to our family in one way or another.

One of the main reasons I'm so happy right now is because my Christmas shopping is DONE!!! I did the majority of it in October on the internet - what would I do without the internet? For the past few years, I worked 100% from home for the company I worked at for quite a few years before Max was born. They were so wonderful and flexible with me, but the end of the year was the busiest time for what I was doing - I'm talking working until 2:00 in the morning the week of Christmas. So, my husband and I talked about it and decided that we didn't want to do that again. I quit at the end of September and have been enjoying being a true stay at home mom - and doing all my Christmas shopping! It is so nice to actually be able to enjoy the holidays and not be so stressed out - this may just be the best Christmas in a long time!

Back to the Cowboys, here's a picture of my nephew (on the right) with two of the cheerleaders. It was taken a few weeks ago. His older brother was embarrased to get his picture taken with them (he's 7) - boy, is he going to regret that later! :)

Santa

Another year...another visit to Santa! We went to the mall around 2:00 this afternoon and only had to wait around 15 minutes - you gotta love that. The only thing Max asked for was "Whiff" - a new Thomas train. Something tells me his list will get longer as the years go by!

Lunch today

So, Max and I are eating lunch at our local Duke's sandwich shop and I get up to get more tea. As I'm filling my cup I hear Max yell out "Mommy I pooted." What the heck?!? He's done that to me at another restaurant - WHY? It's almost like he knows it will embarrass me and get a laugh or two. Well, it got a laugh, lots of laughs - the people around us thought it was hilarious. Might be hilarious today at the age of 4...let's just hope he doesn't pull this one on me in a couple of years.

This time last year...

This time last year my mother-in-law was celebrating Thanksgiving at our house - it was the last time she was here. You could tell she didn't have a lot of energy and that she wasn't feeling 100%. BUT, that didn't stop her from helping me cook, playing endlessly with Max and anything else that was needed.

She passed away on January 10th of this year at the young age of 60. Don, Max and I spent her last two weeks with her and I'm so glad we had that time. She was a great lady and a wonderful mother to my husband. I miss her a lot and I am just so sad that Max won't be able to know her and know how much she loved him.

New camera and my secret

Yesterday was MY Christmas because my new camera came via the UPS man! Thanks to great recommendations from fellow bloggers, Diana and Kim, we decided to invest in the Nikon D40x. Well, I've only taken a few pics but I think I'm really going to love it! The quality seems to be so much better than my old cheap camera - of course, it doesn't take much to have better quality than the one that broke after 1 month of use.

I have to admit a secret - none of my family (husband included) or friends know that I have a blog. I got "addicted" to blogs when my friend started one to chronicle her adoption process from Guatemala. Well, I became hooked and thought maybe I would start one about my son, Max. I have been absolutely horrible about writing things down in Max's baby book so I thought maybe if I had a blog it would be easier to write cute and memorable things down (since I'm on the computer every night due to my "addiction"). Well, I'm still not doing it as often as I would like so I'm going to try and do better. But, back to my secret...I've been debating about whether to tell everyone that I have a blog. I mean - what if I want to complain about my husband not picking up his dirty clothes and working too late??? Do I really want him reading that? :)

Anyway, here are some pictures I took with my new camera. My niece, Lily, was sick with a 103 fever so I thought I would take a picture of her when she was actually quiet and still for more than 5 minutes! She's a sweetie!

Pics from Homecoming at Furman and Max's Birthday