Rewind: Christmas 2012

Noel had a nice long break for Christmas. Unfortunately he was sick, really sick, almost the entire "nice long break." He did manage to make the boys a firetruck bunk bed in the garage, even though it was really cold. I think it turned out to be a bigger project than he anticipated, but he got it all finished and it looked great. He's such a good dad. 

 He also managed to get some reading in. :)

 The boys before church. This wasn't in December, but it was too cute of a picture not to include in our book.

A few days before Christmas, Lexington got a pretty good snow storm (3 or so inches). 

 Brighton does not like to be cold, so he was a little hesitant.

Greg, on the other hand, loves the snow and was gung-ho about playing in it.

Christmas Eve, we went to the Bylund's house for a fondue dinner. Yvonne Allen was there also, as well as Jon's parents (Pam and Bob). We sure miss the Bylunds!

Here is a picture of the crew (stolen from the Bylund's blog): 

Acting out the nativity. BFFs, Ashley and Greg, were Mary and Joseph.

Christmas morning. The kids were way spoiled.

 The best picture we could get of them in front of the tree. :)

After opening presents, we had the Bensons (Curtis, Gail, and Dezh) over for brunch. Good food, good company.

Rewind: Picking out the Christmas Tree

While Lynne and Gordon were visiting in early December, we all headed to Barkers Tree Farm to pick out the perfect Christmas tree.

Rewind: Gatlinburg

Back in December...It was our first Christmas not traveling to see family for the holidays. We were really sad to not see family, so we decided that we needed to do some fun stuff close to Lexington. After Noel finished school for the semester, we went to Gatlinburg with Chad and Ashley Jackson. We just love the Jacksons! They are so much fun. We especially like playing games with them and trying out new restaurants. 

We rented a cabin for really cheap since it was the off season. It was nice and spacious! It had 3 bedrooms, a pool table, arcade game, and a nice kitchen. 

We all drove down after church on Sunday, then on Monday we went to this indoor water park. It was really overpriced and a bit underwhelming for the adults, but the kids had fun. It had a lazy river that Greg and Brighton loved walking; they wouldn't float on the tubes. The temperature of the water was great, but the air temperature was freezing. There were all these parents in jackets wading around with their kids. We kept getting the kids out and wrapped them up in towels to try and warm them up. Brighton wouldn't get out and had the blue lips to prove it.

The next day, we went to Obergatlinburg. We started off by riding a aerial tram up the mountain. 

Greg, Brighton, and Hailey on the tram

Brighton wanted to be carried everywhere.

Noel and Greg and Chad and Hailey went on the alpine slide.

I can't figure out how to rotate this picture. :)

The kids went on this little train it seemed like 50 times. They loved it! There were no other kids, so the ride operator just let our kids keep going around. When he slowed the train down, Brighton yelled, "Noooo!" Crazy kid.

Playing in the fountain before we went to lunch at Bubba Gumps.

Greg and Noel at the very top of the mountain. They were just a bit cold.

Riding the carousel.

At night, we played games ("Pandemic" and "Ticket to Ride"), talked, and ate lots of treats. One of the nights, Noel wasn't feeling well so he went to bed early. There were two doors into our room, one was through the bathroom. When I went down to go to bed, both doors were locked. I knocked on the doors. Ashley and I called Noel's cell phone a bunch of times, and he still didn't wake up. It was really funny. I ended up sleeping in my clothes with Greg.

The Jacksons: Hailey, Chad, Lyla, and Ashley

Rewind: The New Swagger Wagon

Back in November...with a new baby on the way, we decided it was time for us to venture into the world of the minivan. Honestly, I've wanted a minivan since I had Greg. Lyndsey Skanchy was nice enough to watch the boys while Noel and I drove to Cincinnati to pick up this beauty (2012 Honda Odyssey). It had 12 miles on it when we drove away from the dealership. I had never driven a new car before, so I was a bit nervous.

 To say I was excited would be a major understatement.

 When we got home the boys were so excited. We put the back seats down and they played in the back for quite a while. Then we took a little drive over to the Bylunds'. I still absolutely love it!!!

Just another day!

Wipeout.jpg, a photo by Noholio on Flickr.

This is characteristic Dickens; Greg wiping out, Brighton w/ his plumber's crack and I am taking the picture while we are all at the beach. We are only missing one thing...good friends. How much would it cost to bribe our friends to visit us in NC.

Just Couldn't Wait

IMG_7332_BW, a photo by Noholio on Flickr.

We didn't even make it one day in NC before Greg had to go to the beach. Fish out of water?

Rewind: Brighton's Birthday 2!

For Brighton's birthday, we had a family barbecue with the Bylunds and Reynolds.

He is obsessed with monster trucks, so he got a few for his birthday.

I sure love this boy!

Sherrill Moody made his cake: a monster truck with wheels that actually move! It was so cute (and delicious); the picture doesn't do it justice. He still talks about his monster truck birthday cake.

Rewind: Halloween

My mom sent the boys these cute foam Halloween houses to put together. They loved it! Those little houses kept the boys entertained for hours!

We went trick-or-treating with the Willburs. We met over at their house and made our rounds through the neighborhood. 

Greg and Brighton getting geared up.

Ben was a robot. I didn't get pictures of the other kids but Nick was a minion from "Despicable Me", Kristen was Minnie Mouse, and Emily was a cat. Joy makes the most amazing costumes ever. There is nothing that woman can't do.

The cutest cow I've ever seen. 

It was cold that night, and Brighton is definitely a fair weather child. He was also being a bit shy, so he was content to just sit in the wagon the whole time.

Greg totally got into the whole "get tons of candy" thing. He would run up to the door with the other kids, say thank you, come give his bag to me, then run to the next house. Then he'd get a little frustrated that he had to wait for me to get his bag. After a while, he finally figured out that it would just be easier if he held on to his bag.

When we got home, Greg was helping me take something out to the garbage and he saw some trick-or-treaters. He started shouting, "Hey! I like your costume! We have lots of candy at our house! Come say trick-or-treat, and we'll give you some!" It was pretty funny.

Noel helped the boys carve the pumpkin we got at the pumpkin patch. What a fun Halloween!

Rewind: Fall Festivities

Remember how I'm really bad at keeping up on memory keeping (journaling, scrapbooking, blogging, etc.)? Yep. So to keep our family scrapbook/blog alive, here's some of the things we did this past fall.

I had a Groupon to Bounce U, so Noel and I took the boys one afternoon that he unexpectedly had off. What a fun afternoon! Greg LOVED it! Especially the slides.

Noel and I thought that Brighton would be all over the place since he loves jumping off furniture and whatnot. Not the case. He got in one bounce house and wanted out immediately! He did, however, love the little "batting cage." You put the wiffle ball over the cone that had air coming out of it and then you could hit the ball. He thought it was really fun and was actually pretty good at it.

We bought a fire pit on sale at Lowes and had a few marshmallow roasts in the backyard. Neither of the boys like roasted marshmallows. That's okay, more for me!

Brighton was terrified of the fire, so he just snuck marshmallows and played on the slide instead. I guess a healthy fear of fire is a good thing, right?

In October, Greg's preschool had a field trip to Bi-Water Farms, an awesome pumpkin patch in Georgetown. They have play sets, sand boxes, a tricycle race track, slides, a petting zoo, corn maze. All sorts of fun. The boys didn't want to leave!

Ashley, Greg, and Brighton

Greg was obsessed with wearing Noel's sunglasses. He looks so cool!

On the hayride out to the pumpkin patch

It was pretty cold that day, but after we picked out our pumpkin, I could not get Greg to wear his jacket. I'm an awesome mom.