Christmas Part I

We may shop and put up the tree after Thanksgiving, but, Christmas really begins the Sunday before Christmas for us. That's when we have our big "Family Christmas" with aunts, uncles and cousins. The Friday before the big party all the girls and a few of the boys gather for the most massive baking session ever. Cookies, divinity, pralines, fudge and anything else we can think of are made in abundance for the party on Sunday.

Me, Mom and Ms. Norma making pralines - my personal favorite.

Aunt Dianne always has an art project for the kids.

The kids love to play before we all eat. The girls get in the lemonade stand with a pitcher and cups and every one of them is running inside and out. Piper and Paxton walked by me with Piper in front followed by a slinky in the middle and Paxton at the back. I looked over and said, train? Nope. Wrong answer. They were making a Slinky Dog. Love it!

Two of my favorite people: Kristi and my cutie pie Godson William.

Is it time for presents yet?

Yep - presents!

Piper was more excited than anybody this year. Every single present came with shrieks of excitement.

Here's one you almost never see - a picture of me with the kids. Usually I am taking the pictures!

And another one that is rare: all of us in one picture together. This one made me happy, happy, happy!

Pre-Christmas Fun

Here are a few funny ones from pre-Christmas festivities. As usual, the teenager was either sleeping, playing video games or filling some other slot in his busy social calendar. But don't worry Zac fans, there will be pictures of him in future posts. :)

Piper's school party was really cute. Good thing we went with pigtails that day since glitter and glue were used multiple times!

Now for something I like to refer to as "sugar sneak attack". Here se wee Judah enjoying a ring pop from April (queen of all things ring pop).

And this was about 2 minutes later. Seriously. Only 2 minutes. The camera didn't capture the layer of sticky drool on his face or car seat straps but y'all really didn't want to see that anyway.
Sugar sneak attack part II. He was so sleepy he couldn't keep his eyes open but still refused to give up the mixer attachment.

Once again, only a couple of minutes later this is what we found. Our rocking chair has recovered but it took a fair amount of effort.

Two words: Total Diva...or April's Protege. Both fit.

Pre-packaged, Play Doh colored sugar cookie dough. Greatest invention ever! I won't even show the picture of the free-form version even though they were cute. Piper and I pressed the dough into our cookie cutters fore this batch.

Hats and Mittens, and More Hats

So Halloween wasn't a fluke! He really does like the hat. One really cold Sunday a few weeks ago Judah was bugging me to go outside. I finally caved even though it was 40 and windy. When I told him were going to get on our warm hats and gloves he ran off to his room. He totally didn't understand why this wasn't the "warm" hat. He even cried a little! And just like getting used to the hat we had a small set-back with the mittens.

He gave in when he realized he wasn't getting outside any faster and went with the warmer stuff.

He played like it was 70 and sunny and Zac and I were freezing!!
Then we came inside and played with another hat. I still don't think he liked either of these as much as the cowboy hat so we may be playing a lot of dress up.

Halloween

Piper had Halloween figured out way in advance. She wanted to be a cowgirl and wanted Judah to be a cowboy. And, as usual, she got it just that way. We practiced for days trying to get Judah to wear his hat only to be met with a lot of grumpy moments that were usually followed by crying. When the big day came he put the hat on with the rest of the costume like it was his favorite thing to do. go figure!

Here's our cowgirl - ready to go.

The wagon ride to and from the candy sweet spot was a hit!

A quick photo opp and it was time to Trick or Treat.

by the third house Judah had the hang of the whole, "they give me candy" thing.

Back to Blogging! From July to now...

Hello, Blogspot. I've missed you! A few people suggested that I give up the blog and just post to Facebook. So, I did. But I didn't love it. There are details that I would blog about that I don't want to post on Facebook. So it's back to blogging for me. And for those of you who care to dive deeper into the Metcalf madness.

Since July we've missed out on a few birthdays, Halloween and a lot of fun stuff. I will attempt to bring us all up to speed in short but well photo-documented order.

A Very Fairy 6th Birthday (September)

The mother of all fairy cakes:

What would a birthday be these days without a giant inflatable slide?

See that super happy look they have at the bottom? That's what it's all about!

There were three generations of Metcalf boys on hand for the celebration. The smallest of the three was also a giant slide junkie.

Zac's Big Day (October)

Zac's birthday was all about family and fun. We grilled, the kids played inside, outside and all over the place. It was a beautiful day and probably the most fun birthday celebration we've ever had. Check out our 15 year old birthday boy...

Zac with the greatest Godmother ever, Aunt Dianne. They always make the best pictures together!

The big family picture. The only folks missing were me (taking the picture) and my brother and his two kids who couldn't make it. We did have a surprise guest. We found out our newest family member was nice and toasty warm baking in Emily's tummy. We'll be saying hello in person in a few months. Yay!!

Stay tuned - more good stuff to come!

Ross Bridge Trail Play Day

These cute pics are from a quick play date at Ross Bridge Trail. All three of them loved the wooden train.

Piper at the wheel and in charge - anyone surprised?

I love this train set OH so much!

What? you want me to go for a walk? No thanks, I'll just hang out here.

The real train tracks were neat for the girls, but the rocks were a bigger draw. They each brought back a bag of the ones they thought were interesting.

Getting into "pose mode"...
And there it is. Two little divas in the making!