A Day at the Zoo

My sister-in-law Traci and I took 7 boys, yes I said 7, to the zoo a few weeks ago.  

Talon loves animals, so I was excited to see his reaction.  This first picture of him with the bird is the most precious thing ever.

They both enjoyed feeding the birds.  I happen to have a small ;) fear of birds, but these weren't too bad.

 We ended up not getting much of a reaction out of Talon, he just looked and pointed.  They both loved riding the train and the monkeys.

Let's Try This Again...

So I am going to try to start blogging again.  I don't know that I will actually "catch up," but I am going to try to keep it up to date from this point on.  Especially for our Pappaw, who moved away a few months ago. We miss him terribly and want him to be able to keep up with what we're doing and how the boys are growing and changing.  Also because Tucker started kindergarten this week and I really want to remember every thing about this time in our lives! So, hopefully I will do better, we shall see ;).......

A Winter ONEderland

I wrote Christmas posts and then somehow all the content was lost, so if something happens to this one...I give up.

For Talon's January birthday, I wanted to do something winter-related and loved the Winter ONEderland idea.  It is always so hard to plan these winter birthdays, so it was nice to find something to actually celebrate the cold aspect of his birthday!  I made a snowman centerpiece out of styrofoam balls. We had powdered donuts, chocolate peppermint cookies, grape salad and cupcakes for snacks.

Chocolate covered pretzel sticks, candy and snow were the favors.

We set kids tables up in the dining room, so all the kids could enjoy their cupcakes together...

Aunt Alye made Talon's birthday cake.  She also made Tucker's first birthday cake, so it is a special tradition. :)

I ordered all the cute printables on etsy.com.  They turned out super cute!

As always my mom and sister were a huge help.  I am so thankful and so glad they could be there.  We especially appreciate Aunt Alye for traveling so far.

Talon didn't know what to think about the whole cake thing.  He did not touch the cake and even when I tried to put cake in his mouth he didn't like it much.

We waited until the party was almost over to open presents.  The stress of present opening is just too much for me!  Talon got some cute stuff and Mrs. Jennifer made the cute snowflake shirt Talon wore to the party. We have such sweet friends and family!

Annual Hollyhand Christmas Party

Crystal and Riley have a Christmas party every year and it's always fun with GREAT food.  Things have changed quite a bit now that all the kiddies have been added to the mix, so this year, Santa came!  I was so excited to get a cute picture of the boys with Santa...but this is what happened instead.

Tucker wouldn't go near him.

Haha...but we did all go in to the playroom to sing along with Santa, and everyone enjoyed that!

We love spending time with Crystal, Riley, Anna Riley, and Ava Kate.  Cameron and Riley have been friends for a long time and it's so neat that now they are grown and their kids (and wives :)) are friends!  And who knows...maybe one day there will be a little love connections between our boys and their girls?!

Jenn is Thin and Thirty!! :)

One of my favoritest friends turned 30 in December.  Jennifer and I have been friends since we were seniors in high school and then we lived together for two years in college.  I LOVE her and her family (especially Coop ;)) and it has been so amazing to share all of the wonderful milestones in our lives (21st birthdays, graduations, weddings, babies, and now 30th birthdays! After some deliberation with Wes and Jenn, Lauren and I planned a little dinner party at Jenn's favorite Mexican restaurant. Afterwards Jenn's sweet mom got us rooms at Ross Bridge, so we hung out there for a little while longer and met up for breakfast the next morning. I had such a wonderful time, I hope Jenn did, too! :)

Christmas Program 2011

Tucker did such a good job in his Christmas program again this year, we were very proud of him!  

Pappaw came, and so did LeLe and Paw and Grandaddy and MiMi (of course I didn't get a picture of everybody).

The first part of the program the four year old class rang the bells...

Tucker was very serious about his blue bell and ringing it when he was supposed to.

Then they performed a manger scene.  Tucker was a shepherd and so were his two buddies, Joe and Dylan.

They were so cute!  We will miss Chapel Hill when Tucker starts "big school" next year.

FIVE. Years. Old.

Tucker turned five December 7. I feel like five is such a big age, I guess because I remember a lot about my fifth year. This year Tucker wanted a spy party. And you know what? There is no birthday kit for spy parties...not the easiest theme, but nothing is easy with Tucker, so why should birthday parties be any different? We had the party at the farm and we had a scavenger hunt/hayride which was fun!

Luckily, I found some really cute "spy" cupcake toppers...

We had some fun party food and drinks, like "Double Agent Stuffed Oreos" and "Truth Serum." 

The scavenger hunt hayride was lots of fun, at least I thought so!

With Karsyn and Morrisa...So proud of his legos he wouldn't even look at the camera!

LOVES dress-up.

 A couple days after his birthday party we went to Pappaw's house to get one last birthday present.

Tucker was so excited to get a "real" four wheeler!  

I know everybody feels like their children are special, and we're no different...we think Tucker is so special and wonderful. Of course, he is not perfect...much like his mother he does not know how to shut his mouth when he needs to. He loves his baby brother, this took a little bit of time, but he loves him now. Tucker loves super heroes, guns, swords, and his four wheeler. He calls the remote "remoke," he says about instead of without (he says lots of other funny things, but of course I can't remember any right now!).  He told us the other night that he wants a game for the iPad where he is a "paleontologist," so he can learn about dinosaurs (didn't know he knew that big word!).  His favorite person is his Pappaw.  His favorite food is chicken nuggets from Chik fil a.  His favorite color right now is blue.  He likes anything on Cartoon "Neck-work."   Tucker loves animals, especially dogs.  It makes me so sad that he is growing up so fast, when I think of all the things that he is "getting too old for" it brings tears to my eyes.  But, I look forward to watching him grow up and seeing the person that he will become, too!