Christmas in November

We decided to celebrate Christmas with Parker and Sara since he's leaving for the Navy next week. There was no use in us coming home to mail their gifts back so they could open them a few days closer to Christmas. We celebrated Christmas the Sunday after Thanksgiving and it was a great time. We all got some good things and enjoyed spending the evening together.

Eden and Parker ready to get the show on the road!

Eden got her first Yo Gabba Gabba toy. I'm not sure how shes so in love with the show and didn't have any of the toys until now. She loves her stuffed Brobie and calls him "Bobbie."

Opening her BIG gift from Parker and Sara. The toy was so big we decided to take it back and re-buy it once we got home. It was just as big a hit the second time she got it!

Checking it out and sitting on it for the first time.

Eden pushed the "bunton" and it took her by surprise when it started driving!

She wanted Brobie to ride with her.

She wanted Mommy to push the "bunton" while she rode.

After gifts and pizza we went over to Aunt Nana and Uncle Papa's house to visit their Winter Wonderland in the back yard. They put it up every year and it would have been wrong for us to have left Georgia without seeing it!

When we got out of the car she saw the bear and said, "Mommy! Bear! Touch?"

Excited to walk through the lights.

"Hi Santa!"

Parker, Eden, the Snowman, and Sara.

Family photo with Mr. and Mrs. Claus.

Parker was helping Eden put the ornament on the tree.

Mimi and Pop - there wasn't even any mistletoe around!

The soon-to-be Mr. and Mrs. with the Mr. and Mrs. Claus.

It's the Fripp Deer! "So I said to the Fripp deer, do you have any doe and she said yeah, 2 bucks!" ~Uncle Papa

Daddy getting a good squeeze from Eden.

Aunt Nana and Mimi.

Daddy, Mommy, Eden, Uncle Papa, Aunt Nana, Sara, and Parker.

Wave to the camera!

Congratulations are in order!

I'm going to take a break from posting pictures for a minute for a very special announcement:

PARKER AND SARA ARE ENGAGED! 

He just called me and told me that "operation get engaged is complete!" I have been waiting and waiting and waiting to be able to share this great news and now that its official, I can!

I had to keep the secret from before leaving for Georgia. Once we were in Georgia I got to see her ring since I wasn't going to see it on her and it was almost impossible to keep that secret! I just wanted to tell everyone I knew and I wanted to give her a big hug to congratulate her, but I couldn't. I was able to hug him, but it just wasn't the same only giving one hug, when all I wanted to do was give two!

Please keep both of them in your prayers in the coming months because Parker will be leaving for Boot Camp with the Navy next week. He was supposed to leave a few days after Christmas, but they moved up his class date. Both Parker and Sara were aware this could happen and they've both come to terms with it, but with such exciting news like this it could make things harder emotionally.

Congrats to the happy couple and many blessings and years of happiness to come.

Babies Galore!

The weekend after Thanksgiving was a weekend of showers. My mom, Pat, and cousin Samantha hosted a shower for Baby Boy and then on Sunday, my mom, Alaina {one of my sorority sisters}, and I hosted a shower for Sara {my big sister in Kappa Delta} and her soon-to-be daughter. Both Sara and I got some great stuff to start spoiling our children! Even Eden walked away from my shower spoiled. I think she might have gotten more things than her brother.

Eden was tired of helping us clean for the shower so she took a break and put her feet up to watch Yo Gabba Gabba

Tommie and Grandma sitting with Kate, Marylynn's {a high school friend and my Matron of Honor} oldest daughter.

Me with my Granny.

The cake for Sara's shower. Baby girl's name is Leah Grace and she is already VERY loved by many!

Turkey, Santa, and Lights - Oh My!

Thanksgiving was {as always} a whirlwind of family, food, and laughs. We went to Aunt Nana and Uncle Papa's house first for lunch and ate WAY too much. Don't we always do that? Eden wasn't too thrilled about the idea of all of the foods, but she sat with us at the table for most of the meal. There were a lot of kids there, so she wanted to get down and play with them. I wasn't surprised at that fact at all. After lunch at Aunt Nana and Uncle Papa's we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner. While Eden napped, Lane and I took care of our turkey comas and slept for a few minutes to recharge ourselves for the idea of eating again. 

After dinner, Lane and I stepped out to go to Wal-mart and let Eden stay home with Grandma, Grandpa, Tommie, and Sonic {the dog}. We just wanted to go out and get a few things so we could avoid shopping on Black Friday for the small things that we needed. Lines were already crazy everywhere even though Black Friday hadn't started! Target wasn't going to open for another 5 hours and there was a line outside the store, Best Buy wasn't opening until morning and there were tents outside the store, and the deals in Wal-mart weren't starting for another 3 hours and there were cops guarding merchandise that wasn't available for purchase yet and lines within the store. I'm so happy that I'm not a Black Friday shopper, I would go insane!

When we got home from our short shopping trip, Eden showed us how much fun she had with her "sitters" that evening. They got to spin and dance and we made sure to get pictures of the fun they were having. Eden had such a big smile from playing with them, it warmed my heart!

Our real Black Friday was spent at Stone Mountain with my childhood friend, Jennifer. We've known each other since elementary school and she was my maid of honor in our wedding. She's great and we had a lot of fun {finally} being in town at the same time since she now lives in New Jersey and I'm constantly moving. Eden got to sit with Santa when we went to Stone Mountain and wasn't such a fan. She was excited about the lights and she would talk about Santa, but she didn't want to sit with him by herself.

The gingerbread house in the village where the lights were.

She might not have been happy about Santa, but she loved that he gave her a candy cane!

She was pitching a fit, so Daddy decided to mock her and she stopped, so he looks silly in the picture.

On the train looking at the lights.

Watching the Snow Angel come bring snow to the village.

Snow Angel with snow all around her.

Home Sweet Home

Last night Lane and I went to dinner with his family and mine in order to see everyone one last time before coming home today. After dinner we had a lot of laundry and packing to finish up in order to be able to head out west to come home. When all was said and done we finally went to bed at 2 this morning {eastern time}.

Just as soon as we jumped in bed, it was time to wake up and head to the airport. Our flight left Atlanta at 8:30am, so we had to be up at 4:45 in order to get last minute things in the car, get Eden and ourselves up and ready before making the hour drive to the airport. My dad usually leaves the house at 5:15 to get to work, so it was no big deal for him to have to leave at 5:30 to get us to the airport. Eden had been waking up around 10 while we were in Georgia, so the 5:00 wake up for her this morning was not much fun!

Dad dropped us at the airport and we quickly went through security. The lines weren't terrible, but we were able to go through a special line since we had a stroller with us. Eden was just about delirious while we were waiting to board the plane and all she wanted to do was walk around and spin and dance. Once we got on the plane we were able to get her to go to sleep for about an hour. This would have been wonderful had we taken off on time, but we didn't. When we were ready to take off there were 15 planes in front of us waiting to get in the air. She stayed asleep through all of the announcements through the plane and even through take off, but soon after we were in the air she was awake and ready to go - and we had 4 hours left!

Once we made it to the airport we got our bags, got taken to our car and started the hour drive home. We got lunch for Eden and we let her ride with her window down in order to insure that she didn't nap in the car on the way home. The last thing Lane and I needed was for her to sleep in the car and not sleep once we got home. We learned real quick that it wasn't easy to take care of a wild toddler on just 3 hours of sleep. We knew we needed to nap in order to make it through the day with her. It was a success, she slept this afternoon for about 2-3 hours and so did Lane and I.

Once we all got up we decorated our Christmas tree and I pulled out some other decorations to start decking the halls around here! I can't wait to go out and buy some garland for out fireplace and our banister on the stairs. I will be sure to post some pictures of everything once we get it done enough to be proud of it. I also have more pictures from our trip to Georgia, so be on the look out. As soon as we catch up on sleep...and I have this place looking like Christmas...and I get to the store I'll make sure to post the pictures that I have! Ok, I won't wait for all of that to be done before I post pictures, but I am going to make sure to catch up on some sleep before posting pictures!