Christmas Cookies

Wells had his friend Carter over to decorate Christmas cookies.  Yum yum!!

Testing the gumballs

Finished product

They sampled their work and then sang "Jingle Bells"

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

We had our first run-in with Santa Claus today.  Wells loves the idea of him but does not want to get too close.  Here he is with me - this is as close as he would get before his bottom lip started to stick out.

He did tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas though:  Gordon and Henry (Thomas the Train cars).  And he gladly took candy candys (aka candy canes) from Santa and enjoyed those with his friend Reid.

After Santa we went to Chick Fil A to play and eat dinner.  Here are R and W enjoying their ice cream.

We have several more Santa opportunities over the next few weeks - we'll see how those go...can't be worse than last year:

Happy 3rd Birthday (squared)!

Wells' identical twin friends, Tyler & Harper, turned 3 yesterday!  He loves "Tyler Parper" (I think he sometimes just wonders if he's seeing double - I'm not thoroughly convinced he actually realizes they are two different people).  We were excited to celebrate at their train themed party. 

It was a little chilly but no one seemed to mind

Carson pushing Wells on the tricycle

Our cute little conductor.  He had an absolute fit when the train arrived and there was not room for us on the first ride.  Someone must have felt bad for him (literally there were tears streaming down his face) and gave us a spot.  He could not bear to wait!

With Mommy on the train

Good thing we were buckled up - the conductor is crazy!  Here he is showing the children how to drive without using your hands...

Birthday girls on the train

The girls' mom did such a good job with the party - here's the adorable cake and favors

Happy Birthday T&H!

You better watch out...

Around here, there is a LOT of talk of Santa Claus and the fact that he's watching Wells to see if he's being a good boy.  In fact, from a parenting standpoint, Matt & I are wishing that we had this kind of leverage all year long!!

In order to get more trains for Christmas, he is really supposed to be working on his listening skills.  Listening to his parents, to his teachers, etc. 

Santa sent Wells a video last week to reinforce all this:

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/s4FY1JTTTxwlYicpkOOFOQ

But perhaps best of all, Wells' girlfriend Liza sent him a special gift that we opened yesterday:  Elf on the Shelf. 

He was really excited and decided to name his elf Junior (a little random - but we went with it).

Junior is watching all the time - Mommy and Daddy have been continually reminding Wells that he sees everything and reports back to Santa every night on his behavior. 

So we'll keep you posted, but we're hoping that we'll have a tantrum-free, well-behaved little boy as a result (at least until December 25)!

Thanks Liza :)

Deck the Halls

With Thanksgiving behind us, it officially means that Christmastime is here!  And this year it is going to be so much fun.  Wells really "gets it" this year and we can't wait to share it with him and focus all of our attention on him before our family adds one more to the mix (in just about 10 weeks)!

So this weekend we spent some time getting ready for Christmas:  buying a tree and all the trimmings, hanging wreaths, and listening to Christmas music (Charlie Brown/Vince Guaraldi is a favorite of Mommy's and will pretty much be on repeat between now and New Years Day).

Running full speed ahead through all the trees.  He could have cared less which one we picked out - he just liked running through the maze of them.

We went to the Farmers Market to pick up some garland and bows, but Wells mostly wanted to play on their sleigh/Santa...

And pet the reindeer.

We even ran into his friend James there.

And back at home helping to decorate the tree - he hung the first ornament.

He loves it all - good thing we still have 26 days to enjoy the Christmas fun!

Tool Time

No Black Friday shopping for us!  Wells spent the day after Thanksgiving in the mountains doing projects with his Poppy and watching football.

Poppy is the handiest guy around - and he got Wells a special new toolset as a gift - complete with a hammer, tape measuerer, safety googles, hard hat, toolbelt, etc.  Wells especially loved the goggles and tape measurer. 

He used his new tools to put together a gingerbread house.

Reading the directions and hammering the house together.

So proud of the finished product

And then later in the day - watching football with Mommy.


We had a great day - and no regrets about not being at Target at 4am! 

Gratitude

Today we are grateful for all the blessings God has given us.  Wishing you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving!!

“They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.”
Psalm 145:7