Merry Christmas!!

From Ben, Whitney and Miller

Miller's Christmas Pictures

I of course had to take Christmas pictures of Miller. While I can never get him to cooperate, I still love them.

Hope everyone is getting to spend some quality time with their families.

Christmas Potluck with Friends

Back in October, I made a list of all of the activities that I wanted to do over the holiday season. I consulted our calendar and emailed our friends to coordinate with them. Yes it was kind of early but I wanted to get things on the books before everyone got busy. One thing we all wanted to do was have a potluck. Thankfully everyone was able to come. We hosted at our house which was great because it is already Miller proofed and there were going to be a bunch of babies here. 

Miller was so excited to see Isla. They circled the food table all night, sharing and swapping food. It was so cute! 

The spread. Everything was so good!

This was before the majority of people arrived. I love Miller in the corner down there checking out what I am doing.

Miller opening up a gift from his friend Caleb. 

They make those darn presents parent proof. The darn cars were screwed to the cardboard. Ben thought he would use it as an opportunity to use his toy from last Christmas, his drill.

I made Lindsey take a shot of us as a family before everyone left, as proof that I was actually there.

No idea what is on the TV behind him but I love this shot of him. 

These two getting into mischief. They followed each other around having screaming competitions.I love seeing Miller with his first real friend.

All in all, it was a fun night and we got to see friends that we have not seen in forever. This might have to become a tradition.

GingercakeHouse Decorating

I always loved the idea of making a gingerbread house as a Christmas tradition. I have done it a few times and in an effort to start some grand traditions with Miller, we were doing it this year. I went back and forth about buying a kit, just using a small milk carton and graham crackers or making a cake. I ended up finding a cake pan shaped like a cottage that I had received for Christmas two years ago and decided that would be the way to go.

I made a spiced cake and was so excited. Since it was the first  time I was using that recipe, I didn't know what to expect. When I put it in the pan, it only came up 2/3 of the way but I figured it would rise. Nope! And it did not cook evenly so even though part of it was done, the center was still gooey. This is what ended up happening when I took it out of the pan. As a girl who prides herself as a proficient baker, I was disappointed, but grateful that we were just going to be covering it with candy anyways.

We decorated some sugar cones to act as trees for the house's landscape. Miller decorated one, and ate another. 

All of this decorating has caused a few extra baths lately. 

The end product. Not perfect but it is cute. 

We used it as the centerpiece for our party the next day. 

Lessons were learned and we will revisit this next year.

Christmas Cookies

It wouldn't be Christmas without baking. That is my favorite part of the holiday season! This year Miller was a big help (Ha! Yeah right!). You know last year he just sat in his Bumbo and watched mom and I. This year he wanted to be in on the action which meant that everything got messy and took longer. It was still fun though. At least with this holiday activity, he actually showed interest in it.

Like I said, last year he sat in his Bumbo on the table and watched. This year he sat on the table and licked the bowl. 

Watching "Elf" with daddy as Ninny and Mommy finish things up. (Okay, really Faddy distracting Miller so Mommy and Ninny can get stuff done before he comes over and bugs us again).

After the baking, comes the decorating....

.....and taste testing.

When I was younger, we always did the decorating with my cousins. Megan, in her attempt to make the most spectacular cookie, always ended up making the ugliest. Miller is going to give her a run for her money for the ugliest cookie award now. 

We waited until daddy was home from work to decorate a few with him. My boys hard at work. 

Rough day decorating all of those cookies! Tough job kid.

Town Square Lighting

Our first Christmas outing here in Georgia was to go to the town square lighting in our little town. Like every activity, it is more for us, but I was hoping Miller might actually enjoy looking at the lights. We were the first of our friends to arrive so we staked out a spot and went and got hot chocolate.

Miller liked  the hot chocolate (which was cooled of course). You can see  the evidence on his lips. 

When we went to the Fantasy of Trees a week prior to this, when you leave they give you a candy cane. Mom broke it up to give to Miller and he loved it. Some people came around passing them out before the lit the square. Ben just let Miller suck on the whole thing. He was fine for most of it but of course, he ended up choking on it. I am okay with gagging but this was full force choking. Scary but he ended up throwing up some pink stuff and was fine.

I love this shot!

Miller was not too impressed with the lights turning on and eventually just got over being in that stroller. All of our friends were there so I let him get out and run around and run he did. Him and Isla running around together.

If Miller is not in his stroller in a picture, than all I get is the back of his head as he is running away from me. At least this one picture turned out pretty good. 

Meeting a Best Friend

So I have a crazy confession. When I was getting married I joined a message board with other girls getting married in October '08. Even after our weddings, some of us continued to talk and got closer. I pretty much talk to these girls on a daily basis.

When we were trying to get pregnant, I started emailing back and forth with another girl, Tania, who was struggling as well. We exchanged phone numbers and then started texting with each other. Before Tania I sent maybe 100 texts a months, now I send a couple of thousand (thank God for unlimited texting plans). We talk almost everyday. I was texting with her while I was in labor and vice versa. We have skyped with our kids. We really became best friends..

Yes I met my best friend on-line.

Our husbands are very well acquainted with our relationship.  We joke that we are only staying with them until we are done having kids and then we are running away together (and no not in a romantic way).

Tania, spends most Thanksgivings in Georgia with her sister in laws family. Unfortunately, we are never home when she is there but they decided to take a detour through Knoxville on their way back home to see us. It was so good to finally meet. It seemed like we always hang out like that.

The best part was Miller and her little Annelise getting to play. They are 6 months apart but still had fun.

They kept doing this. It was so darn cute!

Love that smirk!

Miller and Drew playing. 

A group shot. Look how tiny Tania is! This was the only picture where Miller let me hold him.

Yep, she makes me feel ginormous (and no Tania, not as in tall)!

It was seriously the best thing to be able to finally meet. I know it is completely unconventional to meet a friend over the internet and through texting but after meeting in person, we know it is no fluke that we are friends.

Latest Activites

So you might have thought that I have been slacking on my activities with Miller but I promise you that I have not. In late November we got so overloaded with being out of town for Thanksgiving that I just recently emptied my camera from them and I had so many other posts anyways. Since it is no longer really fall, I won't bore you all with those activities.

December is really no different in terms of busyness. Our activity last week was the felt Christmas tree. This week we decorated cookies.

One simple Christmas thing we have done (I would not call it an activity) is that I bought some jingle bells from Dollartree to hang on the doors. I love that we get the sounds of the season when our doors open or close. Miller loved them too. So much he ripped them off the ribbon I had them hanging on. I decided to put them in some containers and he has had so much fun making music with them.He noticed that one sounded different than the other (one had 2 and the other 4). He was playing different rhythms to match what I was doing. It is simple but I still think important and fun.

I am trying to so hard to still do activities the next two weeks in between getting ready for Christmas so you might see a post about them, but I make no promises.

Second Thanksgiving

Every year, the day after Thanksgiving is reserved for celebrating with my moms family. We always have a different group of family come in but it is exciting to see everyone.

After a morning at the Fantasy of Trees, we were all famished. My aunt Jennifer made some appetizers and we attacked them. Those poor dips didn't see us coming.

Kelsey stole my camera and ran around taking pics. Here is sweet little Bridget playing in the Rec Room. 

Hanging out in the living room with the family. 

I was so busy with food and chasing Miller that I did not get very many good pics. In fact, Miller spilled my drink after I had chased him into the other room for the hundreth time so I went and ate all by myself in another room. It was lovely!

The next day we just hung out with everyone before they were leaving town. That night we went to my aunt's house where she was watching my cousins. Miller played with them a bit before they went home.

We miss everyone already!