Shadowbrook Christmas Parties

After Caden's program, he headed back to the boys' classrooms for parties. I love that Ethan and Caden are right across the hall from each other! I was able to go back and forth taking pictures and Mimi hung out with Caden in his class.

Ethan's Party

Lunch

I so wish I had taken a good picture of Ethan in his shirt. 

It was a cute corduroy reindeer with googly eyes wearing a plaid Santa hat.

 Decorating(or eating the decorations while watching Owen decorate) a gingerbread man

 Book exchange set to music

 Goofy boy with his teachers, Ms. Tamara and Ms. Janice

 His present from Ms. Janice and Ms. Tamara

A dry erase board with a vinyl border and his name in vinyl letters. 

He loves it!

 His present to Mommy and Daddy. 

I think this is one of my favorites!

Caden's Party

His class made tie dye snowman shirts to wear to their Christmas program and party.

 Mimi and Caden

 Caden's present from his teachers

 Opening his book from the book exchange

 After Ethan's party was over, he joined us in Caden's room.

I can never get enough of the moments where they play nicely!

 Mimi and Ethan

 Sweet boy with his teachers, Ms. Mindy and Ms. Brennan

 After the party, the boys got to ride the train before leaving school. 

For these train loving boys, it was a perfectly ending to the day.

Recognize where the words on the train car came from?

 The train is aptly named The Holy Roller with an engine and caboose and

ten cars in between for the Ten Commandments :-)

Have I mentioned lately how much I love our school!

Shadowbrook Christmas Programs

With the busyness of the holidays, I'm just now getting to post the boys programs from last week. Since Ethan is a big boy this year, his program was on Tuesday evening. Mimi came in to spend a few days with us so that she see both of the boys programs and go to their parties at school. 

We got all the way to the school and sat down in the sanctuary when I remembered that I forgot my fully charged camera so I did the best I could with my phone and the result was awful. We didn't arrive early enough to get good seats and the phone pics from a distance did not turn out so well.

Ethan is on the far right in the second row second to the end. If you can see it, he's wearing a sweater vest with a snowman on it.

 And this would be why I wasn't able to get any good pictures. 

We were waaayyyy back.

 But it really didn't matter anyway, because after the second song he decided he was ready for a break and moved to the side to sit in Ms. Janice's lap.

 A nice blurry picture as he left the stage...shirt halfway hanging out and all :-)

 One of many attempts at a picture with both boys

 Scene 2/Take 20...they were not feeling the spirit by this time

On Thursday, we headed back to school for Caden's Christmas program and both parties. Since Ethan had his program Tuesday night, his class got to watch the 1's, 2's, and 3's program. 

Ethan's "Mommy's asking me to smile but I'm with my friends so I'm going to show off" pose.

 Silly boy walking to the stage with fingers already in his mouth. 

 Love seeing these little ones!

 The true meaning of Christmas

 Making sure he can still see Mommy, Daddy, & Mimi...evidently my finger was in the way

 Being silly

The theme of this year's program was "Go Tell It on the Mountain." I have always loved this song and have walked around the house singing it for the last week. I try to remember that these are special moments in time to be savored and life won't always look like this. Each time I go into Shadowbrook, I realize how extremely grateful I am for the wonderful people that love on our children and our Christ-centered school. God has truly blessed us by placing these ladies in our life and I know that Ethan and Caden are growing in faith each day they are there. Although faith is a part of our home, I cherish the conversations we have that begin from school.

Early Christmas with PawPaw Forrester and Nana Lyndy

This weekend we had an early Christmas with PawPaw Forrester and Nana Lyndy. They came down and we actually went out to eat dinner WITH the boys! Even though this is an event we usually try to steer clear of right now because they are not the best at sitting still, Ethan and Caden did really well. We went to Daddy's favorite place, Ted's Montana Grill, and then came back home for presents.

These boys were completely spoiled! Oh My Gracious! 

Somehow, they behaved well enough(in Grandparent's eyes) to have EACH scored a LeapPad2 AND a $75 gift card each to Stride Rite. The LeapPad's have not been put down since they received them and Mommy is very excited at the prospect of some new shoes for 2 little boys who are rough and tough on everything they own.

Before they left, we attempted pictures in front of the little tree in the playroom. The boys had a hard time letting go of the LeapPad's long enough to take a picture.

 Then we attempted a picture of the Forrester boys...and this was the best we got.

Can you tell they like their gift? And yes, we have already had the talk about holding it correctly and taking care of it(i.e. not holding it by the stylus while it dangles precariously in midair).

Thanks PawPaw Forrester and Nana Lyndy!

Gingerbread Auction

This past Wednesday was our last week of Awana until after the new year. We culminate each year in the youth building in an annual Gingerbread Auction, the proceeds of which support several of our church's missions. 

Ethan and I got to participate together this year and work with another church family to create a gingerbread masterpiece. As usual, he had a great time and may have nibbled on a few of the candies that should have gone on the house instead of in his mouth :-)

 

This is such a fun event and I can't wait until next year when Caden is old enough to participate, too! The Awana families teamed up and decorated 14 gingerbread houses this year. After the timed event is complete and while the auction is set up in the sanctuary, families snack on homemade cookies. Then a live auction commences with bidding on each house starts at $15. Families have a great time outbidding each other! It's a time of lots of laughter and lots of jokes with we raised over $1,000 this year!

Bass Pro Shop with Santa

Let the Christmas season begin! A first is always a visit to Santa Claus at Bass Pro. Since Ethan has been born, we have only missed seeing him one year which was the year the we moved from Texas to Georgia. Unfortunately, that was Caden's first Christmas :-(

Anyway, we made the trek a week ago and as you can see from Caden's face, he was mesmerized.

 I love that Santa took the time to talk to both of them!

 

We were in a little bit of a rush because we had to get back home and get ready for movie night at church but we did get a chance to ride the carousel and play with the RC monster trucks.

 

Sadly, the train was not working that day for us to see it and we were too early for craft time but we had a great time anyway!

Thanksgiving

My mom told me this year that Thanksgiving is the forgotten holiday when it comes to taking pictures. As I thought about it for a moment, I realized that she was right. In our family, we never truly document our Thanksgiving in pictures as we do at Christmas. Even in looking back at the pictures that I did capture this year, it is not a complete summary of our time together and there are several family members that I didn't even get a picture of :-( I hope to do better next year!

We spent Thanksgiving week at Mimi's house this year. After lunch on Thanksgiving Day, we loaded up and took off to get home for some Black Friday shopping and to celebrate Ben's birthday. Then we concluded our Thanksgiving festivities on Saturday with Ben's family in Gainesville.

Thanksgiving at Mimi's

Electronic entertainment while cooking is going on

 Caden's cheese face

 Mimi beginning to set up the dessert table

 Chad carving the turkey while the dogs drool...literally

 

 Feeling full after the meal :-)

I'm sad that we missed the big Holloway reunion when everyone was
able to get together that weekend but hopefully we'll make it next year!

 The day after Thanksgiving was Ben's birthday so I 

ordered a golf cake to celebrate with his family

Thanksgiving at the Buffington's

Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of everyone there 

but we had a great time catching up with family!

Mike and Melissa

 Trish and Lynn sharing Pinterest ideas

John Michael and Heston

 
 Wanda and Ethan

 We have totally cut back on the electronics 

now that we are home and getting back into routine. 

Evidently the cousins had some pretty cool games on their iPods :-)

So sorry to Ben, Gary, Cheri, and Daniel for missing you in pictures. I'll do better next year!

Thanksgiving Feast

Tuesday was the Thanksgiving Program and Feast at school. While Caden had to miss it and Daddy nursed him at home, I went to see Ethan's performance and eat with him. He did an amazing job! For the first time ever Ethan sang the songs, did the hand motions, and was a complete gentlemen. This is the same boy that usually has the entire audience and the teachers laughing out loud because he is creating his own performance instead of following along as he should. My little Pilgrim made me so proud!

Before the program

 I see you Mommy but I'm not going to yell :-)

 Hand motions!

 

 After the program ended

 Cheesing it up

 One of the creations that he made for his section of the table

 His placemat

It's hard to see with the glare, but he wrote his name on the top left. Ethan has had a very difficult time with fine motor skills this year so this is a huge accomplishment!

As a way of giving thanks to our amazing Shadowbrook family, we made pumpkin bread for each of the teachers and staff. These are two loaves that we made for our little friend, Sadie, to give to her teachers. It just happened to be the only picture that I took of the bread :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!