School Parties and Gingerbread Men

The boys had their Christmas Parties at school this week. Here are a few pictures marking the festivities. I even made some dairy and egg free cupcakes for Dylan's class so he could enjoy one too! Here is where I start asking for some extra prayers! They are home with mommy now until after New Years!

Dylan enjoying some Party Snacks

One of the twins considering taking Dylan's Pretzel.
(she was not even close to being successful!)

Dylan reading his new book from the book gift swap.
He got "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star".
His teachers say this is his favorite spot to be in the classroom.

This would be the party craft/snack for Jacob's Class.
Decorate an ice cream cone into a Christmas tree. It was so cute!
Jacob was threatening to eat it all...I was trying to convince him it was a decoration only!

Jacob and Mrs. Jenni at his Christmas Party.
We love Mrs. Jenni!

Gigi and Dylan dancing to Christmas Music in the kitchen!

Gigi came over for dinner this week and afterwards we decorated some gingerbread men.

The Final Results! Mom's is on the left, then Jacob's and then mine.
We had fun and Jacob doesn't understand why we can't eat them now.
1. They would put us in a sugar coma
2. They would taste like cardboard!


One of the songs the 3K and 4K classes sang. We Wish you a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Jammies

These two have been awfully cute lately. You would think they are acting particularly good for the big man at the North Pole! Dylan has now pulled every bow off each present under our tree and each of our nutcrackers has lost a limb (or head). But tape and glue guns have made those problems all better!


Gigi made the boys a Cookie Calendar for the month of December and we're down to 15 days from today.

It's has really helped Jacob understand that Christmas is not "Tomarrnoe". And we particularly love the special calendar she made Dylan that is Egg and Dairy free. Thanks Gigi!

We hope you and your family are ENJOYING the holiday. Try not to be stressed and busy all the time.

Slow down and smell the cinnamon, hear the bells and watch the children.

Enjoy it all.

Pictures

We had pictures taken recently (we were long over due) and they turned out pretty amazing. Here are just a few of the good ones we got...

Santa Visit

We made our visit to see Santa at Brookwood last night. Jacob has been so excited about this. We've talked about what he was going to ask for, what he would say, whether Santa would remember him or not and in general he was giddy with excitement. When we got to his lap, Jacob got stage fright and like the little boy in "A Christmas Story", he couldn't say a word! So Mommy and Daddy helped him tell Santa what he wished for. He was just in complete awe. Later he told him that Santa did remember him though - so that's a good thing!

Dylan was excited to see "Ho Ho Ho". He walked right up to him with a smile on his face, but the minute I put him on Santas lap, he had the biggest scowl on his face! He didnt cry or seem scared, but not exactly excited! This was a pretty decent picture given his expression. Part of me wishes we got the scowl expression in the picture. Jacob never cried in a Santa picture and I think those are the best ones of all!!

Ages: Jacob 4, Dylan 18 months

We are Thankful for...

This year I found it much more important for us to really consider and reflect on what we're thankful for. We've been talking to Jacob about it for days (to the point now he's asking everyone else what they are thankful for). Even if what you are thankful for is trains and Wall-e, we need to stop and truly be thankful.

Really, we ought to do this more than once a year.

In the past, I've been guilty of spending more time focusing on the perfect meal at the perfect place setting. Maybe it's having little ones, but I just find myself in a completely different mind set. We did Chinet plates, plastic silverware, forgot to get the Tea to drink and some people had to eat sitting on the floor - but you know what? It was PERFECT because it was one of those times we get to spend with our family without the distractions that loom around us (other than Cowboys football!).

Jacob and I made this Turkey and had all of our guests (19 people total) write what they are thankful for on the turkey. That makes it an official "Thanksgiving Turkey"! It is neat to see what everyone wrote and I think it really helps us see how much we have to be thankful for.

We hope you and yours had a great Thanksgiving. We certainly did.

The official Thanksgiving Turkey.
All 19 of us added a feather full of things we're thankful for. Aside from many of the traditional ones (family, jobs, etc), here are some of the other things we're thankful for: sleep, paci, bug spray, Plavix and hair straighteners!

This is Carol's Family. Mark, Debbie and Mackenzie are in town from Jacksonville, FL and we were thrilled to have them join us. Boo-Boo and Mr. Ed had to leave a little early, but we certainly appreciated them making the trip in from Jasper.

Here is Momma Liz with her crew :) Obviously Jacob was pretty concerned that he look good in the picture. Mom was a huge help for me in getting ready for tonight!

Here is Dustin's family. It's his Mom and Dad, and his sister Amanda and her husband Allen. Amanda and Betty contributed some yummy food to the table - thank goodness we have some cooks in the family! (I wonder if that's written on a turkey feather?!)

The Christmas Season is here!

We have put up the Strickland Christmas Tree of 2008! We have a good bit going on for the next couple of weekends, so we went ahead and put up the tree this weekend. Up until we got the actually decorate, Jacob was about to come out of his skin with excitement. He did indeed help decorate the tree with ornaments, of which I took the picture below. He created several "ornament clusters" that we'll leave exactly as they are.

Dylan's interest when we were decorating was to take the ornaments off as we put the on! None broken so far and his interest in touching (aside from the light saber that went into the tree) has been minimal. Our fingers are crossed as my mom reminded me of Matt pulling our tree over when he was Dylan's age. They had to wire it to the wall!

Later Jacob sat on the couch with me and said "Momma, I just love our tree. Let's look at it forever"...Ok sweet boy, deal!

Trying New Things

Today Gi-Gi took Jacob iceskating. He's never tried it before, but he loved watching the Disney on Ice (declaring he wants to be an ice-skating Buzz Lightyear) so we thought it would be a great idea. Dylan and I had to go to the dr. to get him the Flu Shot Booster, but we met up with them later and got a few pictures. Jacob could walk on the ground great in skates and tried soooooo hard to iceskate. He made it around the rink by holding the side or holding Gi-GI's hands. He stopped at one point and when my mom asked him what was wrong he said "I'm just trying to think about how to get my bones to do this". I love him so much for trying as hard as he did at something so new and hard.

And on an unrelated note - Super Funny, but shouldn't be. Yesterday Jacob started calling out to Dylan to get his attention "Hey Dylan....Dylan....Hey Fartface!" I burst out laughing - he didn't even say Fart right .... really it sounded more like "Furtface". I said "Who says that?" And he said Louis does on Meet the Robinsons. Thanks Louis for teaching my 4 year old about Furtface! (and yes, I did tell him not to say that word anymore!)

The Past 24 Hours...

We had such a good Halloween this year. Jacob really got the "trick-or-treating" part and Dylan loved wearing his costume (which I never expected!). Walking through the streets with friends and family last night, I realized how blessed I am. It's like the joy of being a kid on a holiday is even better when you are a parent realizing that joy with your child. Thanksgiving and Christmas...here we come!

Jacob and I got to go to Aldridge Gardens for a field trip Friday Morning.
What a neat little retreat in the middle of the city!

These are the pumpkins we carved and decorated on Thursday night.

Dustin gets the credit for the best pumpkin....Thomas the Train!

Getting ready to head to the parade and trick-or-treating.

Jacob and his Gi-Gi, dressed as a fairy princess at Jacob's request.

Our crew for the parade and trick-or-treating.
Jacob and Emily were so cute!

We all had so much fun. Here is Jacob and his princesses.

Here is the costume(s) I was most impressed with.
The Flintstones - and Fred would yell "Yabba Dabba Dooo!"
each time they took off running to the next house.

In Publix - Dylan and his buddy Daniel steered the way!
Publix always has games and prizes for the kids on Halloween - easy and fun excursion of the kids.

Seriously - Jacob walked so much Friday night he was limping with sore feet the next morning! We had to give him Advil and a Foot Spa to try to get him ready for the 9:30 soccer game! You know you've done well trick-or-treating when you need a Foot Spa the next day because you can hardly walk!!!!

The parents worried the kids wouldn't be into the game after the night out for Halloween. But it seems the sugar highs gave them a lot of energy! Although not playing soccer here, they were being a train and collapsing on each other and it was pretty funny. They just all look so happy here :)

Halloween Festivities

October has been so busy, but lots of fun. Here are a few pictures from last night's Halloween Carnival at our church and from Jacob's Halloween Parade and Party this morning at school. There are only 2 boys in his class, how funny they were both Buzz!

Jacob in his school costume parade

Dylan the Frog and Gi-Gi at the BPUMC Halloween Carnival
(the mummy costume shown previously was destroyed in about 30 minutes. This is costume #2 for Dylan!)

Jacob's Cute little 4K Class. Waiting to start the Parade!

Game Time! Make a Mummy out of a classmate.

Jacob won "Pin the Cat on the Witch's Broom"!

Mommy and Jacob at the party

The 2 Buzz Lightyear's Running off to the party.
They were both making flying noises and saying "To Infinite and Beyond!"

Two Cool New Links

Business has been good for me the past couple of months, really good actually. I feel blessed and a bit stressed - all at once :) But in between designing, programming, conference calls and maintaining, I came across these two cool links to share....

1. Tax Calculator - This is on Obama's site, but it tells you how your taxes will be affected by the 2 candidates.

http://taxcut.barackobama.com/

2. Hand Bell Hero - For those who love Guitar Hero and get bored at work :) This is fun and even though I'm decent at Guitar Hero, I was Pretty bad at this one!

http://www.vml.com/handbellhero/

Big Weekend

Dustin went to Texas this weekend to stay with his brother and go to some big airshow. They had a blast, but we had a pretty good time here too! We were certaily busy to say the least.

Friday morning Dylan fell backwards out of a little chair and hit his nose on the train table. Potentially broken, may be going to an ENT this coming week. He's been a champ though.

Friday night we went to the Pumpkin Patch with Dad, Carol, Anna Claire and their Sunday School Class for the Bon Fire. It's inflatable playing, tractor riding, pumpkin hunting and a big bon fire where you cook hot dogs and smores in the middle of nowhere, in the pitch dark. So much fun!

Saturday morning was a Soccer game for Jacob. Only 3 out of 8 kids came to the 8:30 shin-dig (come on, if I can make it alone with 2 kids after a 10pm night out the day before, I think some others can make it too! Slackers!) Jacob usually loses interest in soccer pretty quickly, but he was all into it this week and scored 3 Legitimate Goals! (In other words, not mercy goals they get to score at the end of each game!) I was so proud of him!

Saturday night we went to Boo at the Zoo with my Mom and they kids got to wear their Halloween costumes for the first time. Pretty cute. Jacob is Buzz Lightyear and Dylan is a Mummy.

Now we're all lounging around the house, trying to recover. Dustin is on his way home and we all miss him. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

And by the way, Content Creations is doing really well these days. I have been really blessed and earned my 40th client this week. I'm looking forward to seeing the months ahead.

Jacob as Buzz Lightyear at Boo at the Zoo

Dylan the Mummy at Boo at the Zoo.
Note the bruised Nose!

Rottin' litte boys.
Mommy is trying to get a good shot of us and they do this!

Pumpkin Patch Friday Night.

This is one of those things I love about little boys. Their imaginations are priceless and this was one of those moments I wanted to capture and keep forever. Jacob explained to me that this was the line for the train. They are all waiting in line to ride it. There are 4 Rescue Heros and Wall-e. In the middle of the room...just waiting to ride the little train. Love this!

The boys at the zoo last weekend.

What we've been up to lately...

October is turning out to be a crazy busy month for us. Most of it is fun stuff - soccer, festivals, events, etc. But it's also been a really busy month for me at work. It's a good problem to have, especially these days with the economy as it is. (Side Note: Jacob just walked up to me and said, "Mom, I'm going on an airplane and I have a meeting with Geico Industries". WHAT?! Where did that come from?!)

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go hang out with friends and kids for the afternoon and to meet little Keely, Jennifer's baby. She's a cutie! There were kids everywhere. My how times have changed in our lives. And in such a good way. We are so blessed.

And last weekend we had a street fair at our church (celebrating it's Centennial) and the boys both rode on a pony. They both equally loved it too!

Mallory, Ella, Dylan, Jacob and Keely!

Dylan on the pony

Jacob on the pony

Jacob and his buddy Emily at the playground.