Saturday, December 31, 2011

Ferguson Christmas 2011

I promise…last Christmas post for 2011.  Like most families, we scurry around going from Christmas to Christmas, trying to see all the family.  Lucky for us, the Ferguson Christmas is at our house, so we don’t have to travel anywhere. Our cousins, Amanda and Jeffrey Thornton, drive in from Louisiana with their 3 kids, so its not quite as easy for them. 

This year, we had a house full of little ones!  Great grandkids (from the top) Morgan –16, Madison – 14, Caden – almost 7, Gracen – 4, Jake –2, Jackson –2 , Brylie – almost 2, Gabriel – 3 months, and Jake Thronton- 1 month. WOW!!  These kids had a GREAT time playing together and pulling out every toy in the house.  While some might say they would never want that many running through their house, I LOVE it.  I love that Jake has so many cousins his age and am so grateful he’ll have many more Christmas’ of fun ahead of him!

jake and jackson in the gatorjake jackson in the gator

gracengabriel

angie girlsbrylie

crazy group pic2

grand and great grand2

gary and grandkidsjake and jackson in bedroom

morgan madison on the phone2papaw and baby jake thornton

Christmas in Marion

We drove to Marion on Christmas day to spend some time with my family  Jake had a GREAT time with his cousins and was spoiled rotten for about 24 hours straight.  A great end to our tour de Christmas!

jakemom and jake opening giftsjake playing drumsnan and jake

jake hugging nangranny

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Christmas Eve and Morning 2011

Seems so strange that this will be our last Christmas as a family of 3!   We came home from a long day in Carlisle to get ready for Santa. Jake set out cookies and eggnog (Greg bought it and no one else will drink it …hence, Santa gets stuck with it).  It was really fun explaining to Jake that Santa would come down the chimney to eat the cookies; and as much as Jake enjoyed that little tale, he wasn’t quite sure why Santa got all the Oreos!  So, being the sucker I am, I let him have one too!  Of course, Papaw and Daddy got a piece of that action too!

santa cookiessanta cookies2

mom jake eli

After reading the 1,000 books he got earlier that day, I finally got Jake to bed. He was anxious to see if Santa was really going to eat those cookies!

All December, he has been telling everyone that Santa is going to bring him donuts and chocolate milk. Easy enough!

donuts and chocolate milk

I was so anxious to see his sweet, little face Christmas morning! Typically, Jake is reluctant to get out of bed in the morning. He likes to lay around and play for a while.  However,  all it took Christmas morning was reminding him that Santa came and he was jumping over me to get out of his room!  And, just as I predicted, he didn’t make it past the donuts and chocolate milk. He told everyone he needed to “eat first.”   By “everyone,” I mean our sweet parents (grandparents to Jake and Eli) that came over for Christmas morning. My parents drove in the night before and Greg’s parents got up really early to be there when Jake woke up!  I know it made his Christmas morning so much more special to have all that attention!  eating donutslooking at presents

Once the donuts were half gone, he was agreeable to checking out the rest of Santa’s loot!

leappad closeupdaddy and jake in the tent2

playing with the trainjake dad train

reading with tag

Christmas in Carlisle

We went to Carlisle for Christmas Eve and celebrated with Greg’s family. We’ll bring the whole clan together in about a week, so this was just his immediate family. We had Craig’s BBQ, (for those of you non-locals- its some of the best BBQ around!) Perfect Christmas Eve dinner!

Jake had a great time playing with all of his cousins and to top it off – Dadoo got a ranger they could all ride in and drive. I’m certain we put 100 miles on it that day! Little Gabriel, Greg’s sister’s newest baby, was there and is already 3 months old. He is soooo cute and was a real champ that day – given the chaos, lack of quite time for him to nap and a certain wild, two year old!

jesus' birthday cake

Having a piece of Jesus’ birthday cake!Cadenjake and daddy driving

jake driving 2jake driving 4

jake and daddy presents2elmo hatmadison and gabriel

Madison and sweet Gabriel!

dadoo and jake

presents2

gart sleeping

Now that is dedication to the remote!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Celebrating our Savior’s Birth

We’ve been talking to Jake about the birth of Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas. It is so easy to get caught up in the “magic” of Santa and forget to spend time talking about the real reason for the season!  Jake goes to a Christian school, so they also teach the kids the true Christmas story, which has been so much fun for Jake to learn!

Tonight, Jake and I made a birthday cake for baby Jesus.  Jake helped me put all the ingredients together, stir and even put icing on the cake.  Now, I’ll admit – it was just a box cake, but it was a lot of fun watching him help. We even sang “happy birthday to Jesus” while we baked!

We plan to eat it tomorrow at Nana and Dadoo’s house during the Veazey Family Christmas!  Excuse the way I look – I was off work today and didn’t bother with make-up – YIKES!

washing handseggs

pouringicing

tastingfinished cake

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."

Cousin Christmas!

We are so fortunate to have cousins who live in Cabot too…and the best part – they have 2 boys! 

This year, we decided to have an early Christmas dinner at our house with the cousins and exchange gifts, play and let the boys run around.  Jake thinks the world of Jack (5 years old) and I’m sure Eli will be just as fond of Ben (6 months).

all three boysjack opening gifts

openign giftsben playing

Aside from celebrating Jesus’ birth, we also celebrated April’s birthday!  I made her a strawberry cake (her favorite), but I’ll be the first to admit that I wouldn’t win any style awards for its appearance!  It tasted okay though!  Unfortunately, our singing scared little Ben!

ben crying at singing