Merry Christmas

I realized I never posted Eli's picture with Santa this year.  It's definitely my favorite so far.  He did so good!  Eli was nervous but excited!  There was no one there when we went to visit Santa so Eli got lots of Santa time.  He went right up to him and told him "I want a construction site with a wrecking ball crane".  I told Eli he was supposed to wait until Santa asked him what he wanted.  Santa laughs and says "I guess he didn't want to forget"! 

Our Christmas started last weekend.  Eli's Christmas party at school was Friday morning.  Not all of the kids in his class were there for the party.

 This is his best friend in his class, Jack Henry.  He talks about him ALL the time!

Friday after Chad got off work we headed to Forrest City to have Christmas with both sides of our family.  We knew it would be a fast trip but we didn't really have any other time to do it.  Finding time for everyone during the holidays is always tricky for us since we both usually have to work some of the holiday.

Eli helping Emmie and Gracie open their presents.

Chad and me at Mom's house

Eli and Matthew enjoying hot chocolate at Mom's house

Eli and his tower of presents

Eli opened this tractor and said "wow, it's what I've always wanted"!!

I think this tractor ranks up there as one of his favorite gifts for Christmas.  This child loves tractors!  Especially construction tractors!

A little family game of go fishing

We came home on Sunday since we both had to work on Christmas Eve.  Chad went out to do some last minute Christmas shopping.  Eli and I stayed home to decorate a gingerbread house.  I haven't decorated gingerbread houses in years!  I bought the kit from Wal-mart.  Definitely the way to go! 

Eli had a great time!  I put the house together then let him decorate it.  He wanted to eat all the candy and icing instead of decorate!  Who can blame him?

When I got home from work on Christmas Eve Eli was going crazy!  He was so excited!  I was afraid we were never going to get him to sleep.  He had to sample one of Santa's cookies before we could put them out.

 I just love Christmas pajamas!

This is how most of our pictures usually end up.  Eli is one silly kid!

When we went to visit Santa he told us that Rudolph liked apples and carrots.  Eli wanted to leave him a snack along with the cookies for Santa.

This morning I totally expected Eli to wake up really early.  My sister and I always woke up at 5 or 6am on Christmas morning!  Eli didn't wake up until after 8:00!  I didn't mind sleeping in at all!  He was so excited when he saw all Santa had left him.

This picture pretty much sums up our morning!  I love it!

We've been under a winter storm warning all day.  It was 25 degrees with a wind chill of 15 outside.  We couldn't NOT go outside for Eli to test out his new four wheeler!  We could only stay out for about 15 minutes.  It was too cold!  And I just want to add we NEVER got snow!  What's up with that, weathermen???

We spent the rest of the day hanging out inside while Eli played with all his new toys from Christmas.  This is the "construction site" he asked Santa for.

 

Eli took a little time out from toys to watch Finding Nemo.

We have had a wonderful Christmas this year!
Merry Christmas to all of you!

SDC

 Last weekend we went to Silver Dollar City in Branson for our annual Christmas visit.  We love going during Christmas time to see all the lights.  We were afraid it would be too crowded for a stroller.  We decided to brave SDC with no stroller for Eli. 

 Waiting in line for the teacups

 Eli loves the teacups!

 Fun on the ladybugs!

We met up with some friends of ours.  They have twin boys a few months younger than Eli.  I think this was the most fun Eli has ever had at SDC since he had friends his age to play with!

 Jack, Jake and Eli on the frogs

Boys, boys and more boys!  Our friends have another son who turns 2 next month (far left).  And another boy on the way!  Whew!  That makes me tired just thinking about it!

We found Santa at SDC!  Eli was so excited about seeing him again.

Riding the bus to the parking lot

What a fun-filled day!

Buddy the Elf

We have been having lots of fun with Buddy the Elf this year.  Eli looks for him each morning.  I have forgotten to take pictures every day but these are the ones I have so far.  I have already posted a couple of pictures of Buddy in previous posts so I won't repeat those.

Hanging out

Chillaxing

A game of match

I had to take up Buddy's match game so Eli could sit down to eat.  Buddy decided to watch Eli eat his dinner to make sure he cleaned his plate.  That may be used again!

Playing guitar and riding deer

Going for a ride in the bucket.  Eli thought this one was the funniest so far.  He busted in our room at 6:30am and said "Mommy, Buddy is caaarrrrazy!  What are we gonna do wif him?"

Sipping on syrup

Top Shelf Elf

Santa sent Eli a video message.  We found Buddy sitting in front of the computer so Eli would see it the moment he woke up.

 Eli loves to talk to Buddy :)

Eli watched his video message from Santa at least 10 times that morning.

It's a good thing Christmas is only 9 days away.  I'm running out of elf ideas.  Okay, not really.  I mean just look at pinterest and there are hundreds of ideas!  More like I'm lazy and getting tired of this stupid elf!  But Eli loves it and the look on his face each morning is priceless.  There's not much I wouldn't do to see it!

You should take a moment to read this blog post.  I laughed out loud reading it!  I think every mom feels like this to some degree!  I know I sure do!

9 Years and Counting

 On December 6, 2003, I married the love of my life.  Chad and I started dating in July 1998 just after I graduated high school.  I wasn't looking for a boyfriend because I was going off to college the next month.  Little did I know I would meet my future husband and best friend!

I never wanted a December wedding but with Chad's job at the time he wasn't able to take off for a wedding and honeymoon during the spring/summer.  So we settled for a Christmas wedding in December!  I loved our wedding.  It was perfect down to every little detail.  But my advice to all bride-to-be's... go away and get married!  Then come back and have a BIG PARTY!!!

 

 The night of our anniversary we went to eat dinner at Pesto Cafe.  This was always our date place in college while we were dating.  And Chad took me here the night we got engaged.

Eli chowing down on the spaghetti

It was a perfect ending to our special day.  I love my boys more than anything!  Here's to many more years with my hubby!

Eli's Birthday 12/02/12

Remember I told you how terrible Eli acted while shopping the day before his birthday?  All day I told him he was on the naughty list and how Santa was going to be so disappointed in him.  When he woke up on Sunday (his birthday) his elf, Buddy, had left him a letter.  I think Eli was pretty relieved Buddy didn't tell Santa about him being naughty on Saturday!

Eli requested doughnut holes for his birthday breakfast.  He ate 10 doughnut holes and two oranges!

Chad was able to leave Forrest City bright and early and got home around 10:00am for Eli's birthday.  Eli was pretty excited to see Daddy but I think he was even more excited because it meant he could finally open presents!

We got this crane last minute for his birthday.  It's by far his favorite toy right now.  He tells it goodnight before bed and good morning when he wakes up.  He LOVES this crane!  And it's as tall as he!

Birthday lunch at Jason's Deli.  Eli loves this place because of the muffins and ice cream.  Which is pretty much all he ate.

Next up for the day.... Eli's birthday party!  We decided to do it at Boingo Bounce again.  It's just too easy.  We just show up with the cake and ice cream.  They do everything else!

 Eli and his best bud, Tyler

 Campbell and Alexi

 Eli, Talan and Alexi

 Jack and Jake

 McCall

 McCall and Karsyn

 Mom and Me serving up cake

 

 This was our best picture together.  Eli's not really into pictures these days.

 Opening presents

 Parker

Tyler and Alexi

Blowing out his candles!

I loved his cake and Eli did too!  Perfect for his construction themed party!

His party favors containing an ornament kit, candy cane and cookie.

 The birthday party was a success!

The party was over at 5:00pm.  We headed to the Fayetteville square to eat pizza and walk around to look at lights.  Eli was on a sugar high from cake and ice cream at his party.  Combine that with no nap that day and it was interesting to say the least.

The lights on the square are very special to me.  This is where Chad and I got engaged!

If you only knew what it took to get this family picture you would probably appreciate it more!

I think Eli had a fun birthday.  We tried our hardest to make it very special for him!