December Festivities

I was fortunate enough to have a MUCH needed girls' trip in December.  Laura and I decided to visit Canton for a pre-Christmas shopping trip.  The roach motel was waaaay overpriced, but well worth it so we could stay two nights and get an early(ish--we all have kids, so it was heavenly to sleep in) start on shopping Saturday without having to drive over an hour in the Trade Days traffic.  Even better...our lifelong friend, Mandy, who lived down the street growing up, was able to join us!  I hadn't seen her in years, so it was wonderful to all catch up. 

Shopping day!  After a (shoddy) breakfast at the motel, getting ready, and a bit of shopping, it was time to enjoy some everything's fried fair food!  Corn dogs were a must, but I had been waiting since my last Canton visit (when I was pregnant with Carter) for the ultimate...red velvet funnel cake!!! 

My little Canton cart was pretty darn overflowing by the end of the day, and that was after a few trips back and forth to the car.  I'd say it was a success!

And then we realized that Mandy somehow needed to fit into the backseat.  Good thing it wasn't far from the motel!  It was a fun weekend and so good to catch up with my girls.  Moms like us are not so good at taking a break from family to rejuvenate ourselves.

Back at home, it was a busy month!  Reid was totally into decorating this year.  And had the *ahem* muscles to prove it.

He was a Bear of the Month in December!  Makes a mom proud!!  Our December Friday Live is in the morning and is called Holiday Live.  Thankfully, Jason was able to attend the first part and barely made it to see Reid get his award before running off to work.  He even snapped a cute pic of Reid coming up the ramp on the way to the assembly.

 

One of the perks of going to the same school as your mom, right in the classroom across the hall at that, is that your mom can sneak across the hall for a quick selfie.  My little reindeer loved his party! 

This little stinker loved being home for the Christmas break.  He began his obsession with the pantry...and standing on water bottles, which is apparently hilarious.  Eek!

 

Somewhere in December was Jason's company party for the kids.  Structuretone always has a very kid-friendly, fun party and it's neat to meet all the people Jason works with.  Reid loves the doughnuts and cookies...Carter loves the fruit and cheese.   I love that we get to see a normal-looking Santa and take pictures that don't cost $30 after waiting in line for two hours.  Last year, Carter didn't seem to mind sitting with Santa, so I figured this year we wouldn't be so lucky.  Yep.

 

 

Carter was done!  It did make for a funny picture, though.  Reid wanted to open his magic kit from Santa right away, and he was enamored with his snowman balloon.

Carter got an adorable remote (that he apparently thinks doubles as a phone--he makes "calls" and listens to music all the way to Holli's each morning) and other goodies.

Reid even got his face painted this year...a BIG deal after avoiding it his entire life.  I'm pretty sure they had lots of fun and someone is counting down until next year's party.

Reid wanted a "special" breakfast one morning, so we made holiday pancakes.  I'm a good cook, but a terrible baker.  Note to self:  next year, use pre-made pancakes.  Thankfully, he didn't seem to mind.  We used his new cookie cutters and decorated them with sprinkles, whipped cream, and M&Ms. 

Someone was also obsessed with his "lungs" over the break.  Eek!!  Not even gonna go there...

Two little cuties

In the "hot tub" one day as I did laundry

Carter insists on feeding himself, yet ends up with half of it on his clothes, tray, and hands so he freaks out because he can't stand stuff on his hands.  At least he's trying.

Photo Shoot

Windsong brought a professional photographer in to set up a day of photo opportunities at the Commons.  The sitting fee was only $50, so I figured even if we just got one semi-decent family picture, it would be worth it (all the other sitting fees in this area begin around $250!).  The photographer was very nice, but I'm not sure he'd had lots of experience with little kids.  Carter is usually pretty chill, but the only time slot that worked for us had to be between church and nap time.  He was fed, but started getting tired and just wanted to run around.  We did get the one good one...

And the others were pretty funny.  I mean, doesn't everyone pick their dad's nose?!

I also wanted solo picks of the kids since it was a pretty day and got them all dressed up.  None turned out fantastic, but I was satisfied.

I know I'm a bit biased, but I think this two kiddos are pretty handsome, just like their daddy.

Turkey Time

Being the first year we have ever owned a dining room table, it seemed only appropriate to have everyone up here this year!  My folks still hadn't seen our new house, the Frenches were coming for Christmas, and Penny had just visited in the Fall.  Reid was excited to see his cousins and Carter just followed everyone around, as usual.  With cold, rainy weather in the forecast, we anticipated lots of cabin fever and got out every chance we could.  We took a nice hike/walk the first day and it was even warm enough for shorts.

Jason got to use his infrared "fryer" (tastes like deep fried turkey...but without all the bad fat!) and we all giggled from the plethora of thermometers he had plugged in.  Seems like every year we buy a new one because we can't remember which one(s) worked, so he tried 'em all this time.  The outcome was delish!

Carter busied himself with whatever looked interesting.  The big boys were super loud playing something, so he made his own wine cork ear plugs, lol.

Ben showed Grammy a video he'd made on the iPad.  It never ceases to amaze me how kids nowadays totally get technology.  The first year we had iPads at my school, I had to have one of the kids show me how to make all the icons stop shaking.  Talk about being put in your place!

The other big boys enjoyed Jason's handiwork in the media room and settled in for some football on the big screen.  I am still quite impressed that Jason did it all by himself because it was a ton of work...and he did an excellent job researching, building, and putting together. 

Turkey time!!  Carter was the first one ready...sitting all by himself while we got things ready.  He wasn't a big fan of my turkey headband on himself.

The big spread looked mighty fine...and smelled even better.  It didn't take much to convince anyone to jump in.

No kids' table at a holiday would be complete without lots of carbs (pretty sure that's all they ate!), a picture of everyone's eyes going in a different direction, and a fart song. 

We adults stuffed ourselves on all the goodies, not just carbs!  It was so nice to host our first Thanksgiving in our own dining room with an adult table. 

Carter loved it when Ben asked to read to him.  Ben was so sweet and patient with him, even though Carter was trying to turn the pages randomly.

Alex had to get in on the action, too, and had his turn next.  Too bad I can't convince Reid to read to him yet...

It was very quick and probably the last time we'll be able to do it since the tub was full of arms and legs, but we did manage to get everyone in for a traditional tub picture.

It was so fun to have the Shepherd side of the family up to our new house to explore our neighborhood, enjoy family time, and eat ourselves silly.  I'm so thankful for the memories we made on our first holiday here.

We're also so thankful for our fabulous neighbors!  Don't yet have a picture of them, but I do have one of their sweet little guy, Lane.  The boys all love each other (almost like brothers!) and we adults love to hang out.  God definitely heard our prayers :)

November

We love our new neighborhood.  Windsong puts on at least one event a month, some of which will be annual events.  The Wine and Music Festival (2nd annual...but last year's was cold and rainy, so we skipped it) fell on a beautiful day.  About twelve Texas wineries were there selling tastings, glasses, or bottles of their wines.  There were food trucks, events, booths to shop at, and live music.  Nearly every event is family friendly here, so kids were running around everywhere.  Carter spent most of the time in the hiking backpack on Jason's back, so thankfully we didn't have to run around with him the entire time.  Our neighbor Erica and her son, Lane, joined us after his naptime.  We love hanging out with them and all the boys have fun together. 

Reid was very busy adding to his Santa list all month.  He saw things on tv commercials and would run to the table to write it down.  Serious stuff!

Carter has gotten increasingly independent (or wants to be).  He often insists on feeding himself.  Only drawback?  Most everything falls off of the spoon first, so it's best to strip him beforehand.  Hard to do when it's cold....

I didn't get a great picture, but I was chasing Carter around Cici's Pizza during Reid's t-ball end of season party.  Coach Sean and Jason got along well last season in McKinney but it was unorganized, so we joined the Frisco league this time so we could be on Coach Sean's Angels team again.  The boys had fun with a little awards ceremony and got a trophy, but Coach Sean always goes above--he and the assistant coaches had all signed a ball for each player and he'd written something they improved on during the season.

And of course, the kids all enjoyed the game room.  Stupid machines were pretty much all broken, but they didn't seem to mind too much.

Another great event Windsong held was "Wings Over Windsong" where remote controlled airplanes/pilots came from all over the country to show off their planes and flying skills.  It had rained for a week before and everything was cold/muddy, but they'd done their best to lay down hay and had a shuttle from the Commons to the makeshift air site so folks wouldn't get their cars stuck.  They had a flight simulator trailer that anyone could play, food trucks, snow cones, and a DJ.  But the stunt planes had to be my favorite part and were amazing!  Those pilots did all kinds of tricks.  Carter was enthused and would point to each one as it flew by, then clap when the audience clapped.

Reid, on the other hand, could've cared less about the planes.  He wanted pizza as soon as we stepped off the shuttle bus, so we tried the mac 'n cheese pizza from the gourmet truck and got yummy Asian for ourselves.  Pretty much the only other thing he cared about was jumping in the bounce house.  He also liked to play with the hay, catch crickets, and somehow found a crawdad.  Only Reid.

Our Thanksgiving "feast" at school was two weeks before our break.  It's a big deal in kinder because we spend the week before that squeezing in time to make pattern headbands, necklaces, and vests.  Poor Reid had no one to eat with since I'm a teacher and was on duty, but I sat down with him for a little while.  One of my sweet families make sure they sat next to him (and even brought me a Sonic Dr. Pepper) so he wouldn't feel too left out.

I'll devote a whole post to Thanksgiving, but can't resist adding this one for now.  The Sunday after Thanksgiving, we went to At Home after church and found a new Christmas tree.  Our ceiling is so tall now that the old tree would've looked dinky, plus it was about nine years old and has a string that works intermittently...so I gave that to someone in our neighborhood and we opted for a new one.  What we didn't plan on was how exactly it was going to fit in the car with four of us and two car seats!  We did a little rearranging (in the rain) and eventually made it home.  As Jason began to put it up, I started second guessing our 12 foot choice!  He could only reach the top with the big ladder, and even though it's a slim tree, it's so much taller that it took me twice as long to fluff out the branches. 

In the end, we were pretty thrilled with the results.  Our ornaments and ribbon fit perfectly and it's just the right size.

Halloween

Reid was super excited about Halloween this year.  He went round and round about what to be for the holiday.  When I saw how excited he was about dressing up (finally...after years of not wanting to), I introduced him to some of the goodies in our dress up closet.  His first outfit was, um, interesting.  Quite a colorful fellow.  And this was after he'd removed a furry women's top and belt with gun holsters.

Thankfully, he fell in love with a blue ninja costume at Wal-Mart!  Cheap, perfect, and he looooved it.  Unlike other dress up outfits, he actually got to wear it three times, too!  We had storybook dress up day at school, the church Fall festival, and then trick-or-treating.  And perfectly enough, there was a baby ninja outfit he found for Carter.  Perfect!  Aunt Kristen stayed with us the evening of the Fall Festival at Stonebriar.  We met up at Macaroni Grill for dinner before braving the crowded church.  It was raining, so everything had been moved indoors.  The lines were so long that we didn't get to do a whole lot (plus it was past bedtime), but it was fun nonetheless.

The next day, this little guy was in on the action this year.  He rode a lotof the way in the stroller, but also enjoyed getting out to walk and run with big bro.

Blue Ninja and Baby Ninja were ready for showtime!

Squirrel...  Someone got sidetracked with mini pumpkins...

...and then this was probably the last time Reid actually held his ninja swords, which became Carter's favorite thing to drag around.  We enjoyed trick-or-treating so much that I never took anymore pictures!  Jason and I met several new families who either lived here currently or are building.  We met so many people, and everyone was friendly, nice, and normal.  Total opposite of last year!  It was this very weekend last year, when we turned back into Craig Ranch (our old neighborhood...the one that made national news for the racial issues at a pool party) and decided we needed to move our family. 

They made quite a haul and excitedly played with it for days.

A day or two later, this little candy monster got very quiet in the pantry, his favorite place to play and rearrange.  He had been sorting the candy, inspecting each piece, and babbling about them.  I was cooking dinner and suddenly noticed it was awfully quiet.  Little stinker had found a chocolate eyeball and was chewing it, aluminum wrapper and all!  I went through all the candy and picked out anything that could be a temptation or choking hazard...but then I looked up a few minutes later and he'd found another!!  After that, the candy stayed on a high shelf and he would just scream for it, "THIS!!  THIS!!"

Carter had been our healthy eater, but once he discovered candy, he's been hooked.  When asked if he would like a piece of candy, he'll even do a dance.  We were laughing so hard the first time that I didn't get to my phone in time, but this one gives you the gist of it.