dollywood

We love to go to Dollywood, and the kids and I have been so many times this season that I sort of take it for granted - I always fail to take my camera and document our visit.  But this fall we went with Sean's grandmother, and I took my camera along.  We had PERFECT fall weather (it was the very end of October but so warm!), and we had a perfect day.

 

 The place was just about empty, and Kellen and Wyatt got to ride all the big roller coasters 3 or 4 times each (sometimes without even having to get off the ride!).  Cade got to ride the Ducks and Pigs with his sister - and he loved it!

Of all our trips to Dollywood this year, this was definitely one of my favorites. 

wyatt's 11th birthday

 Wyatt turned 11 on December 1st.  We celebrated at home on his actual b-day with a cake and presents.  Then that weekend, he had a bowling party!  These are the tshirts I made for the party-goers.  They were so easy and I thought they turned out really cute!

The fronts had each child's name on them.

My friend Veronica made this really adorable bowling cake!  She did such a great job and is very, very reasonably priced.  Check her out!

 They turned out all the lights in the bowling alley and turned on black lights, so I didn't get a lot of good action shots.  But here's one of the birthday boy and his cake.

 And of the rowdy bunch (plus Elliott) that celebrated with us! 

christmas

 Every year I think Christmas could never get any better, and every year I'm wrong.  Here are the six (seven!!) of us on Christmas Eve.

 We spent the evening with Sean's parents, grandmother, and Eric and Allison and their boys.  (We missed our Florida family - Sara, Warren and their kids!)  Wyatt read the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2.

Elliott and her My Twinn doll - it looks just like her!

They got matching pajamas, which made them look even more alike.

 Elliott had been saying for weeks that she wanted her mamaw to get her a Dora necklace.  (Don't ask me where that came from - she's not really even a Dora fan.)  So after searching high and low, Sean's mom found her this 10K gold one! Elliott was thrilled.

 

 I didn't take pictures of all the present-opening, but the boys got new robes, books, Wii games, a couple board games, and some iTunes and Visa gift cards. 

 Cade had fun reading Elliott's Dora book with his cousin Cohen!

 I think Cade's favorite part of the evening was changing out of his church clothes and into his jammies.  The kid is never happier than when he's naked.  Ha!

We left cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for his reindeer.  (Elliott was already in bed by this point.)

And then Santa came over night!  These pictures are from Christmas morning.

Wyatt's big gift was an iPod touch - which he was super excited about.

 And Kellen's big present was a video camera.  It's funny how, the older they are, the smaller their "big" gifts get.

Sean got the first 3 seasons of Sons of Anarchy on DVD.

 And I got a new sewing machine and serger!  I'm amassing quite a collection.  ;-)  I was so surprised, because my last present to open was just a really small, light box.  It had a piece of paper instructing me to go to another Christmas tree and open the big boxes marked "to John from Debbie" (his parents).  Sneaky little booger.  You can't really tell what my shirt says - it reads "I ate the milk and cookies."  I was feeling ironic, I guess.  ;-)  Plus I'm at the pregnancy stage where I could be pregnant or I could have just eaten too much.  Ha!

The kids and their stockings. 

Kellen, definitely the biggest Christmas fan in our house, wanted to savor his gift experience and chose to open his stocking later.  Somehow I didn't get a picture of him.  We had such a great, lazy day.  None of us got out of our jammies all day.  (A little note about our PJs... I have been using the same pattern to make Christmas pajamas for 3 years now, and it's such a fun way to see how my boys have grown.  I had to cut Kellen's from the adult pattern this year!)  We ate a HUGE breakfast, watched Christmas movies, played games, played with toys, ate a big Christmas dinner (Big Fatty's pork tenderloin - oh. so. good.) and laughed all day long!  I already can't wait til next year.

CINCO!

Can you believe it? 

The little giffords will be adding yet another Gifflet to the fold, due mid-June 2012.  That puts his/her estimated arrival at just 17 months after older brother Cade's birthday.  (Saying "older brother Cade" makes me smile.)  While we weren't exactly planning for this arrival, we could not be more excited about this amazing blessing God has given us.  We can't wait to meet you, Cinco!

halloween in the 'brook

 In what has become an annual tradition, we spent this Halloween with some great friends trick-or-treating in Forest Brook.  (And I forgot my camera.  These were all taken with my phone - which is why I don't have any great pics.)  Same crew as last year, plus one new little shark Gifford.  I'm not sure who has more fun when we get together:  the kids or their parents.  Thank you, Schwalbs, for always being amazing hosts!

a little boogie

No - not the gross kind! The dancing kind! Some little darling in our house likes to move it, move it each and every time he hears music. I love it, love it!

pumpkin painting

 In what is becoming an annual tradition, Sarah the Great came over to paint pumpkins with the little giffords a couple weeks ago.  As you can see this is quite a messy activity, so the kids all put on their yucky clothes and had a blast covering themselves their pumpkins in paint.

 The finished products are a little hard to make out with all the spider web, but we have [back row] Sarah's spider, Wyatt's ghost, Kellen's evil scientist, [front row] Cade's baby nerd (painted by Elliott - that's why it's got so much pink), and Elliott's baby spider.  So much fun!