Santa X2

Also on our busy day Sunday, we went to the club for brunch with Meme, Grampe, the Vaughts, and Santa Claus! That Santa is one busy guy, he keeps showing up everywhere.

Meme and Grampe were trying for their Christmas card pic. This is no small task, here are some of the rejects which are pretty funny!

Santa is going to the bank tonight. Franklin wanted him to go, but the ear trouble (fever) isn't backing down. If it is still there tomorrow, we are heading back to the doctor.

Central Lanes

Uncle Jase wanted to go bowling for his birthday and it was a lot of fun! David Franklin tried to make a few fast breaks down the lanes- but luckily we caught him before we were slipping down into the gutters. We just left that up to our bowling balls. He had his very own terribly tacky neon bowling shoes! My Uncle Bob joined us and told us he hadn't bowled in 30 years- he ended up being the highest scorer!

The double ear infections have struck again and he had 103 temp this morning. Franklin said, "let's go and get him the tubes." Like we can go buy them for him for Christmas or something :) The doctors aren't there yet, but we won't be opposed when they are. We are ready for this ear junk to go away! I'm so sorry these ears are giving him so much trouble and hurting my baby!!

Rub a Dub Dub

Look who likes the big tub! He has discovered our bathtub and he tries to climb in and/or run the water almost everytime he comes in our bathroom. He loves the bubbles too. After I broke down this morning and gave him a bath (which is usually right before bed) he got pretty sleepy and took a nice long morning nap, heavenly!

He may get his love for the tub from his Uncle Jase, who LOVES baths. It also happens to be his Uncle Jase's birthday today. Happy Birthday Jason!! We can't wait for you and Aunt Lauren to get here soon!

It's the hap-happ-i-est season of all

Yesterday was our big, once a month playgroup and Santa (Josh Hurst) came to surprise the kids. David Franklin hasn't seen Santa since last year (he was asleep and 2 months old then) so he was mesmerized. He started inching his way up, side stepping around kids and scooting to the front, but not quite sure who that person was. He stood at a distance and looked for a while but eventually made it up to his lap, not for long, but with no tears. This is a really big playgroup- last month 40 kids were there so it gets pretty wild! We tried to get a group picture, but it wasn't very successful. All of these kids are 0-4 so imagine that. I must say, as I was watching and observing, David Franklin is really and truly a great child. Even other moms were commenting. I know I am very biased, but some kids threw fits and David Franklin was literally blowing kisses. As my mother-in-law says, He's Amazing.

Today, we loaded up and went to a Christmas tree farm and got our tree! It is humongous. It looked so different outside in the wide open than in my living room. I'm in love with it- I think it's the prettiest tree I've ever seen. I know so many people have color coordinated, themed, trees. I don't. Those are so pretty and well put-together, I just can't pull it off. My tree is a mix of ornaments from all different times, looks, and colors. I have dollar store ornaments and expensive ones right there side by side, and it makes me so happy! I read in People magazine that everything tacky is in this year- so I'm embracing it. I even have the silver tinsel up. Franklin is having a hard time with that, but he will get over it.

It was a blast out there today. DF wanted to help his daddy and is so observant. Franklin laid on the ground, so did DFB. Precious! He is such a helper, too bad he kept tripping over all of the stumps and couldn't stand up long enough to understand what was going on. This is such a stressful time of year- I had a very productive day today and still have a million things on my list. Among all of the chaos, there is a special joy of Christmas. I had to restrain from telling strangers in the parking lot at the grocery store, Merry Christmas.

Shout Out to Grampe!

Tomorrow is Grampe's birthday and David Franklin told me to give him a shout out on the blog. Afterall, he is one of our most faithful readers! :) Notice anything Grampe-ish in this photo?

Happy Birthday Hal, we look forward to celebrating with you and Meme tomorrow night!!

*Hint- The vest and the book

Yeast rolls

(I'm email blogging if you can't tell because my computer died, So this is all via my iPhone)

Franklin and I are in a marriage study right now with several other couples. This week our lesson is on leaving a legacy; how to do that and what you want yours to be. It asked us about our influences and has been very insightful for us both.

We were asked questions about lessons we were taught as children. For
example who taught you about work ethic, how to tie a shoe, pray, etc.. Most our our answers were our parents, but a lot had our grandparents as well.

My mind flashed to this picture- earlier this week David Franklin went to my mom's house while I went to feed my grandfather his lunch in the hospital. I came back to find her kitchen and the both of them a MESS, and my mother unable to hold in her smiles and giggles.

She is famous for her yeast rolls, they are her signature dish and a
secret recipe. She was making them and decided to "teach" DF to make
them too. She claims (although she has no witness) that he would pat the dough, push the cup down and even place them on a seperate tray. She is pretty generous in what she thinks he can say and do but either way, he helped. I just watched and looked at the flour all in his ears and down my mom's shirt and thought of the mess they had made. I couldn't think about that long when I saw her face and the pure joy she was feeling. What precious time they were spending as she was building a legacy with her grandson.

We ate his rolls for dinner that night. They were flat and even a little hard but they were the sweetest rolls I've ever tasted in my
life. Hands down.

Christmas EVERYWHERE

Whoa! Christmas with a toddler is very different. Ornaments and decorations have already been pulled on, destroyed and our tree isn't even up yet! We get a real tree, go out to a Christmas tree farm and make a day out of it. It's much more work but so much fun to make those memories together! We want to wait a little so it makes it until Christmas and we have less needles to pick up.

We have duck taped the stockings and are crossing our fingers we can make it through without any major destruction.

David Franklin is all over the place! In the last hour I've gotten dirt, leaves, rocks, and even a milkbone out of his mouth, or most of it anyway. Yesterday, I found a soured bottle under our bed, who knows how long it had been there- gross! We found our phone in the pocket of my pants hanging in the closet, an ink pen in the wine cabinet, and shoe in the laundry basket! It's a continuous game of hide and go seek at our house. I sound so neglectful but I watch him like a hawk!

It's an adventure and with the Christmas decorations out, it's even more so!!