Holiday happenings!

Such a fun, but busy, time of year! This very-pregnant mommy is still recovering from it all, it seems...I want to document some of the activities had during the month of December.

We had Breakfast with Santa at our church, and Jameston did great! He had fun with the carols and crafts as well

And then we tried having Blake sit in Santa's lap. You can see how well that went, ha!

 We did not get professional pictures this year, and I'm kinda glad because I don't think Blake would've even been in the picture, ha!

We DID however mail our letters to Santa at the Macy's mailbox, which has become an annual tradition. They double the postage and donate it to a children's organization. The boys loved it!

Jameston was in not one but two Christmas programs this year. Here is a pic from the one at our church, where he was a star :-)

He was also in one at his "school." They performed four songs, one with sign language and one in Spanish. So fun! We treated him to ice cream afterwards :-)

We tried our hand at a gingerbread house this year. What a mess, but they boys had fun. Next year, I will be  making two :-)

We try our best to instill the real meaning of Christmas to our boys. Through our church we helped provide a family and their 7 year-old-boy some things for Christmas and gave him clothes and toys. Jameston really got into it but had a hard time not wanting some of the items for himself. So, I thought we would good for us to tag along with some of our church members to deliver the bags of presents to the needy families. After that, he seemed to have understood the real reason for the season.
We traveled a lot over the holidays, and the boys were troopers thank goodness! Between Thanksgiving and New Year's, we went on four different trips, for a total over 1,800 miles. Phew!
My dad was put in the hospital on December 22nd for blood sugar issues, and he was in there until Christmas day :-( He is feeling much better now, and we praise the good Lord above for the treatment he received. We went to visit him on Christmas Eve night

So thankful for these three boys and the little sibling who is on his/her way!

Such a wonderful time of year we had with these two! Can't wait until there's three next year :-) 

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New Year's fun!

We had a fun NYE and New Year's day this year. We stayed at Brett's brother's and his family's house near Fort Worth that night since their cousin was getting married in Weatherford the next day. Lots of family were in town, so the second-cousins had a blast playing Zingo and the Wii :-)

The adults took turns monitoring the kids upstairs. The boys and I had fun singing karaoke together :-)  

The next day Brett's cousin, Ryan, got married. It was such a beautiful wedding and lovely reception. The tots sure enjoyed the music!

Uncle Brett dancing with and swirling around Miss Riley. He would be such a great daddy to a little girl :-) 

They had activity bags at the tables for kids. Ingenious! Kept them busy for maybe 20-30 minutes ;-) 

Cousin dance party, ha!

Such a fun day celebrating a Christian marriage and being together with family!

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8 months!

How Far Along? 32 weeks tomorrow. Whoa, we are in the single digits on weeks!! This pregnancy has FLOWN by. I am relishing every movement and pregnancy perk, albeit I am feeling bigger and slower by the minute :-)

Maternity Clothes? Loving tights/leggings (and tall boots, of course) these days. My sis gave me a pair that I could live in! Seriously.

 

Weight Gain? Let's go with 25. Belly button is waaay out, and I've had some friends comment on it. Hahaha, the joys!
Like I said, I feel bigger than a house, but it's because of my second-born wanting to be held. I am cherishing those moments as well! But he's a whopping 32 pounds!! All of my family got onto me over the holidays for picking him up, but my defense is that he's only little once (even though he's not little, ha!) But my doctor reassured me it's fine, since I am used to picking him up.
  

Gender?  ???!! Sticking to our guns. We have names! Baby sibling will be named Will if he's a he and Elise if she's a she. So fun!!

Sleep? Sleeping well, as long as I have my nasal strips :-)

Food Cravings? Not really craving anything these days, and my appetite has decreased a lot.  One food I can't seem to stop eating is cereal for breakfast. I've been on a frosted shredded wheat kick as of late.

Movements? All.the.time. I feel this baby more than I recall with the boys. He or she is a mover and a shaker! This baby is definitely higher up, too. And he/she moves a lot between 10-11 pm and again at around 4 am.

Symptoms?  Heartburn still reigns, had to get on medication for it because it is has been almost unbearable :-( I am so over the dry skin issue as well.

Best Moment(s) of the Week?: Scheduling delivery date for March 4th, which is also my mom's birthday. Can't believe our littlest blessing will be here in less than TWO months. Wow...

What I am looking forward to: Trying to take it easy with the two boys, enjoying my time at home with them, and anticipating the arrival of their little brother or sister. Jameston is so sweet and talks all the time about holding the baby and wanting to help change and feed him or her. He got a little practice in over Christmas with his baby cousin Claire. It was so sweet!

So, this little guy seems to want to be like a big boy and has started going potty in his potty chair. Whoa, we were not ready for that!! I wasn't even planning on tackling this with him until AFTER the baby arrived. I am excited he's ready, here's hoping we can keep it up!

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Snowed in!

Wellll, more like iced in. Dallas got hit with some bad weather on Thursday night, and we've been pretty much cooped up inside since! But we've made the most of it :-) Because we are an outdoors family (and maybe a little crazy), we got out in the cold Friday thru Sunday!

At first, B didn't know what to think of the snow...

Jameston had been asking to get out in it since we talked about the weather changing! He would wake up from his nap or nighttime slumber and look out the window first thing to see if it had snowed!

Once we got outside, Blake was really concerned about where his bucket of chalk was...

Winter Wonderland of a backyard

Our snow-loving boys! (and that bucket of chalk :-)

They had fun hitting and kicking the icicles off of the trampoline :-)

Brett had to still work Friday, so this was some "mommy and me" time :-) We had fun but probably only stayed out there 45 minutes or so!

On Friday afternoon, my cousin and her son headed over since they were without power. We are so thankful to have kept electricity throughout the storm, as many locals did without. 

Saturday afternoon, after naps, we decided to brave the elements and go to the grocery store. They boys had some extra energy we wanted them to burn off!

Later that night, we spent some more energy with our Advent calendar activity for that day: making home-made Christmas cards for family (trees that donned their fingerprints as ornaments)! We are forgoing the customized cards this year (sorry friends, one less in your stack) since we hope to send out a birth announcement once little brother/sister arrives!

Yesterday morning, the boys took turns helping me "wrap" their Aunt Maggie's present. It wasn't pretty, but it got wrapped. And they loved it!

And yesterday before lunch, we decided to do our own form of "sledding" down a small hill in our neighborhood. The boys rode in laundry baskets and had a field day! It was so fun to watch them take it all in!

Love my boys! 

So blessed to have gotten to spend the last three days holed up together :-)

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Thanksgiving

Absolutely love this time of year. Time with family, time to reflect on our abundant lives, and time spent anticipating Christmas. It is even better experiencing it all with your children!

As a family, we are truly blessed. For reasons not to be mentioned on this-here-blog, last year was a hard year. In fact, this time last year we were living a nightmare. It really never sunk it what we were going through, and maybe that is why I am not ready to blog about it. But, nevertheless, it is a year later, and we are SO VERY THANKFUL for all we have!

We loaded up the boys and headed out early Thursday morning for West Texas. By early, I mean "pajamas and breakfast in the car, and they were coloring before 8:00" early! We left at 6:30 :-)

 Overall, they did great and napped (thank goodness) on our way, and we arrived before noon! 

 

Gotta love the plains of west Texas...miles and miles of cotton fields. And the pertiest sunsets!

Brett's cousin, Brittany, and her family hosted about 25 of the Winters' crew! 

The big kids' table, with Layne, Gage, Ian, and Jameston busy coloring with their great-grandmother before mealtime.

We ate around 1, so Blake was ready! Ha! The little kids' table...

Miss Aubrey and Mister Wyatt later joined him :-)

That afternoon, we played outside,    decorated cookies, and watched football :-)   And we ate all day long! Some of the little ones roasted marshmallows that night

 The seven first and second cousins also later enjoyed popcorn and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"

The next day, Brett and I and the boys headed out to Christoval to visit a friend of his from Austin. They live on a ranch in a beautiful log cabin home. The boys had a field day feeding the animals and checking in on the baby sheep!

Oh, and Jameston loved "driving" the jeep!

The cousins sure had a grand time together! Here is Miss Aubrey, 2, who LOVED the playset!

And Blakester was obsessed with the slide

These four boys played (and fought) like boys :-) Jameston has said he already misses them!

Until next Thanksgiving!

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