Gaylord Texan

Oh boy...if you thought October and November had a lot of of FFF episodes (Forced Family Fun, of course) then just wait until you see our December pics. With my birthday, four other other family member's birthdays all in late November/December, and Christmas...it's a miracle we are standing at the end of the holiday season. But that's what that season of Christmas is all about, right? Spending time with each other. As a parent, it's so hard not to get wrapped up in the consumerism of the holiday season and give your children all they could want and more but I remember that I never felt like I went without growing up. I certainly did not get everything that I wanted especially those years that my mom was a single mom with three before she married my amazing dad who adopted me. I'm constantly questioning if what I'm doing is right and if I'm setting a good example for my boys and what I want them to remember about Christmas. So as I grudgingly put things back on the shelf in the store , I tell myself that what they have is enough. It's ironic that as much fun as I make of these triple F outings...those are the things that my boys (and I) will remember.

So...Christmas FFF #1-Gaylord Texan

This place is amazing. It's a winter wonderland even for adults. The trees, lights, gingerbread house...it's like you're at the North Pole. We waited of course to see Santa Claus and after about 30 minutes in line, we get to the front. Nolan (no big surprise after the Easter Bunny episode) is terrified. The sweat is starting to happen as everyone is staring and ready for their turn in line. Nolan is clinging to Justin for dear life like we're about to put him in scalding water. So Santa says, "Hey there give me a high five." And just like that, Santa and Nolan were BFF (best friends forever). He was sitting on his lap and telling him all about his wish list.

Grandma and Granddad waiting to see Santa

Yes, that is Nolan licking the candy cane. Hey, we were by the gingerbread house...it all looked too yummy to resist!

Here we are by the gingerbread house

Nolan by the decorations with Mrs. Claus and the real live reindeer (we took those pictures last year)

Here we come Santa!

Turkey Day

What a fun Thanksgiving. We ate ourselves silly, saw the fam, watched the cowboys game and the boys seemed to really have a great time. I got a really cute little onesie that said "Gobble til you wobble" for Campbell. Good thing I took pics of him at home because we were only at my parents house for about 30 minutes before a blowout happened. I only had to change his outfit about 3 times that day. I swear I need to bring his closet with me everywhere I go! After lunch, Nolan and his cousins helped rake the leaves at Grandma and Granddad's house. Nolan was quite a helper and it was good for me to see that he's willing to help with yard work! Justin and I joke that we're going to be having our boys mowing the lawn by the time they're 4! All in all, we have so much to be thankful for. First being two beautiful happy healthy boys.
Peek-a-boo

Nolan raking with his cousins Avery, Adalyn, Aspen and Granddad

Not sure who's bigger of the two...

What a big helper

Mommy and her little butterball turkey

Oh my goodness...

Our sweetgum in our backyard just turned this week this beautiful shade of red.

Shopping trip

I realized with Justin gone for the weekend that even though I was with the boys 24/7, I felt like I didn't have any quality time with Nolan. The poor thing heard a lot of "hang on Nolan" or "when I'm done feeding Campbell"...So I took him tonight to Petsmart and Target for some good ol' mommy/Nolie time. It was Nolan's first trip to Petsmart (or that he can remember) and I told him how we were going to see fish, birds, and maybe some dogs and cats. He was really excited and told me that "he couldn't wait to see the hippopotamus." I think he was a little disappointed to find out that all they had were guinea pigs. He was a little freaked out by them for some reason. He told Justin when he was tucking him into bed that he was scared of the "giggy pigs."

So we go to Target and Santa heard that Nolan wants a bike for Christmas so I was trying to do some shopping for Christmas for Santa and find out what size helmet Nolan needed. Since he already wears hats for 5-7 year olds, I thought we better try them on. So I find a helmet and put it on his head and just smiling because he looks so cute in it. I show him a mirror and his response is, "I'm the coolest!" I seriously have no idea where he heard that but I think the whole store heard me laughing.

Toofers

I finally got a photo of Campbell's first teeth coming through. It took about 10 pictures to finally get this one of his teeth showing.

And here are some of our food adventures. Usually they involve bath time immediately afterwards. The bath water color is always an interesting color.

Bounce House

Nolan got this bouncer from my cousin for his birthday and it's his new method of transportation around the house. He thinks walking is overrated. It's pretty funny to watch.

Breakfast blunder

Oh have I got a funny story...whoever thought parenting could be so funny? Our Sunday school teacher texted us on Saturday and told us she couldn't make it on Sunday so to sleep in a little. Well Justin had a great idea, why don't we drop the boys off at church and go have some breakfast without bouncing a baby on one of our knees or telling Nolan for the gazillionth time to eat and stop playing. We dropped Nolan in Sunday School and then asked the ladies in the nursery if it was ok. We left Justin's cell phone (I forgot mine at home) and headed off to a kid-free breakfast. I was already dreaming of my french toast. Well the french toast was a little of a bust. One slice was not cooked and rather mushy so I asked for another one. Only 15 minutes later do they present real toast (not french) sprinkled with powdered sugar. It's a little weird to think you're about to eat french toast, drown it in syrup and then hear a "crunch".

So minus the mushy/crunchy french toast, it was wonderful to have an adult conversation. We are pulling into the parking lot and we hear the phone ring...uh oh...DANGER. I know this can't be good. So I have Justin drop me off and I run in. As I run in, I have two people greet me at the door and tell me that "my kid is going crazy." "Which one?" I ask. Campbell...oh boy. As I round the corner, I can hear screaming. I walk in and the two nursery attendents are totally frazzled. Apparently, Campbell had a blowout of epic proportion. I run over to him to see tears streaming down his face in his full blown silent scream that he does. Little do they know, that's all part of his drama game. I swear he will win an Oscar when he grows up. They get him cleaned up but the clothes had to be sacrificed...it was that bad. I immediately picked him up only to discover it in his hair. And, mom of the year over here doesn't have any backup clothes. I dig through the diaper bag to find a onesie hidden in a pocket that the buttons were holding on for dear life it was so tight. Oh and might I mention that it was about 50 degrees outside and the poor guy is dressed like he's going to the beach. At this point, there is only about 15 minutes left of church and I just stay in the nursery to rock him and calm him down. So basically we went to church to change a diaper. Maybe next week, we should have breakfast at home.

Picasso

Ok, I know that I brag a lot about Nolan. I can't help it. He blows me away constantly. It shouldn't shock me that Nolan would be a good artist with the creative genes he has from his daddy. One of our friends got Nolan a little doodle pro and he draws on it all the time. It's been a lifesaver many-a-time at restaurants and doctor's offices. Unfortunately, since you can erase them and can't save any of the images, I have to take pictures of his artwork that I'm especially blown away by. Here are a few that would have made it onto our fridge if we could have.

We present our newest artist at the McDonald Museum of Art...Nolan Case McDonald

Nolan drew this and told me that "he was trick-or-treating"...notice the door with the person to the right holding their bag.

We know Nolan knows his ABCs but this blew us away, he drew it and told us he spelled "Pop" his grandfather's name.

And this has to be the grand prize. He drew this (seriously with no help at all) and said it was a parrot. I can't even draw a parrot this well! He just turned 3!

Still Halloween around here

Halloween is over, right? Well, not according to Nolan. The costume is still pretty much part of our daily routine. I don't mind it too much because he's so darn cute when he wears it around the house. Have you ever seen a cuter cowboy?

Well that's not the end of the cute things he does. I swear having a toddler is as good as having a comedian in the house. He makes me bust out laughing at least once a day. What good medicine. My top 10 list of adorable things Nolan says:

1. "It's froggy (foggy) outside"
2. "Is Campbell eating your arm?" (when I'm nursing Campbell)
3. "Is he eating squish (squash)?"
4. "No mommy you can't eat me, you only eat food." (when I say that they are so cute that I want to eat them.
5. "What's on your face, do you have stripes (wrinkles)?"
6. "I'm not cute, I'm smart!"
7. "I love you 5 million, 2 million and 1 million!"
8. It's a tie between "What are YOUR doing?" and "What DOs this?" (instead of What does this do?)
9. "Dingerbells, dingerbells, dinger all the way"
10. "I had a happy day. I made good choices!"

First Foods

I have to admit cereal really isn't that much fun to give to babies. You get excited because you're so tired of always giving bottles or nursing them after months of doing only that around the clock. So we're already introducing the good stuff. Tonight we started with butternut squash. Here's a first look at what Campbell thought of it. He seemed to like it. I especially like Nolan's commentary on the video of how Campbell is eating "squish."

First Tooth!!!

Yes, you read that right...Campbell has his first tooth! I can't believe it myself. He's only 4 months! I wish I could share a picture but everytime I try to take a peek he sticks his tongue out. I just had it set in my mind that he wouldn't get his first tooth until he was 6 months because that's when Nolan got his. Maybe he heard the rumor that second children do things faster. My mom said last weekend that his gums were swollen and I thought they were too but Nolan's gums would be swollen for weeks before a tooth would break through so I just thought that it would at least be another month...wrong! Justin said Campbell was gnawing on his hand and then he felt a little sharp chomp on his knuckle and sure enough...He's been drooling a ton but hasn't really had any other symptoms. He didn't sleep very well for 4 or 5 nights last week but I thought that was because it was so congested. It's scaring me how fast this is going! How can he already have teeth? Hmmm, I'll let you know how long nursing lasts.

Pumpkin carving

I'm a little late on this one but better late than never, right? We carved a pumpkin for Halloween. It was all fun for Nolan until he discovered that the pumpkin turned into a jack-o-lantern and then he was pretty spooked out by it. After telling him only about 10 times that he wasn't real and was fake, he thought it was pretty cool.

A new word for wrinkles

The other day I was talking with Nolan and I guess I had one of my expressive faces on. I had my eyebrows raised and a lot of wrinkles popped out on my forehead. Nolan quizzically asks, "What's on your face? Do you have stripes?" I guess that's a lot nicer than saying I have wrinkles.

Country cowboy

My sister and her husband live on 35 acres south of town. We went to go celebrate my nieces' birthdays. We also decorated our Halloween treat bags and had some good ol' fashioned country fun. Justin drove David's tractor with Nolan. It was pretty comical especially after Justin realized that what he thought was the accelerator was really the brake. Nolan loved it and even sported some boots that were way too big for him but he didn't seem to mind. Campbell's cousins just played with him and had him giggling and cooing the whole time.

Campbell's baby dedication

Today was Campbell's baby dedication at church. He was very cooperative during the service and didn't even pitch a fit when our minister held him. It was so wonderful to have my whole family there to celebrate with us in this special event in his life. My grandparents even made the trip down from Amarillo to see their great-grandson's dedication.

More Halloween pics

We had my family over for Halloween. My mom made a mean bowl of chili along with my favorite homemade caramel popcorn and of course caramel apples. My sister-in-law made the cutest rice crispy graveyard...it was too cute to eat! Nolan was so excited about our trick-or-treat party. Our neighborhood was full of trick-or-treaters but word on the street was that our cowboy and indian were the cutest of them all. I'm just reporting what was told to me people-no bias here or anything. But it was a bonus because we got extra candy for the cuteness factor-more to share with mommy!






We had my family over for Halloween. My mom made a mean bowl of chili along with my favorite homemade caramel popcorn and of course caramel apples. My sister-in-law made the cutest rice crispy graveyard...it was too cute to eat! Nolan was so excited about our trick-or-treat party. Our neighborhood was full of trick-or-treaters but word on the street was that our cowboy and indian was the cutest of them all...I just reporting what was told to me-no bias or anything.

Boo at the Zoo

Our neighbors, Courtney and Reid, invited us to go to Boo at the Zoo this year with them and their son Hank. We had a really great time with them. Nolan didn't have a nap at school that day so we had quite a few meltdowns but we managed. Campbell was the cutest sleeping indian you've ever seen.