Lovie Day~December 4th

Aedan and I have had an ongoing joke for quite some time now about him being my lovie.  For the past several months he has said that he is Daddy's lovie only.  He promised me that on December 4th he would be my lovie!  He tried to get out of it, but there was no way!  Here's video evidence that on December 4th, he was MY lovie!!!

CBS

This past Thursday was our last CBS until after the new year.  We had our wonderful Christmas brunch:)  It was so yummy!  I love eating all the different finger foods!!  woot!!!  On Wednesday, we had some snow, and students were let out of school at 1:00.  I was so afraid of a delay on Thursday!  (CBS doesn't meet if there is even a delay.)  When Ryan and I woke up Thursday he checked the computer first thing and came back in our room to let me know the Christmas party was ON!!!  yay!!! 

Aedan and Mercy ready to go to CBS!  (They look a lot alike to me in this picture.)

Aedan waving at me:)

I had a great seat and view of Aedan.

Here are some videos~

Tree time

We went to Lowes, as usual, to get our tree this year.  The boys were into checking out all the trees and trying to find the perfect tree.  We always name our Christmas tree after a Survivor player from the season.  I can't remember all of our tree names in the past.  For those of you who watch Survivor, I'm sure it will take one guess as to the name of our tree. OZZY!  Shocker, right?!  I am almost certain that we have had an Ozzy tree in the past, when he played the first (not second) time.  Hopefully, Survivor will continue airing, or we'll have to figure out some other method of naming our Christmas trees.  Maybe I'll switch to Parenthood characters. 

Ryan with the kids (and the tree)!

Josiah with the tree

Aedan is concentrating putting on his ornament.

Josiah adding an ornament

Mercy and I

Mercy and I with her "Baby's First Christmas" Ornament.  I actually didn't get it until after Christmas last year.

Aedan and Josiah loved standing in the window ledge to decorate the tree.  We have lots of ornaments behind our tree.

Hugs!  You can really see Mercy's K9 bottom tooth that recently came in.  The other one on the other side has cut through and is pushing it's way up.

No tree is complete without a Clemson ornament.

Having fun!

Aedan~the football fanatic

Aedan LOVES sports!  His three favorite sports (right now) are soccer, football, and baseball.  He loves watching sports with Ryan and playing with balls in the house.  He has memorized many college football teams by their mascots and logos, and frequently spots them when we are out in public.  He is getting a Clemson football uniform for Christmas...a surprise to him, so if you see him...mums the word, please!!!  I love his love for sports!!!!       

Aedan with his "game football"

Here are some videos of him watching the Clemson/Va Tech football game, the ACC championship.  He couldn't watch the whole game since it was a night game, but it was on Sunday afternoon as well.  He was able to watch the FUN 3rd quarter!!!  Go Tigers!!!!!!!!!!!!  Enjoy some oranges!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Columbia Zoo

On Friday, we met my dad and sister at Fuddruckers for lunch.  We exchanged Christmas goodies and then headed over to the Columbia Zoo.  I love this zoo.  It is the perfect size with plenty of animals for the kids to see.  We had fun looking at the animals and I took lots of animals to make another zoo book over the Christmas break...a morning of entertainment and activity!!!  (Not all of the animal pictures are displayed in this post:)

Lions

petting the bunny....Once again, Josiah is willing to touch the animals

 

feeding time!

Congaree National park and Thanksgiving

We went to Columbia, SC for Thanksgiving.  On Wednesday we visited Congaree National Park and walked 2.5 miles on a boardwalk through (swampy) woods.  The boys loved it, especially bending down to play in the water and simply exploring.  We saw a lizard, daddy-long-legs, squirrels (Christie's fav), and birds.  I'm sure we probably scared away any larger animals as we walked.  I thought the boardwalk was very nice.  (I couldn't imagine building it, though!!)  The only stressful part of the morning was when Mercy's shoe fell off and fell off the boardwalk.  Thankfully, it wasn't in a wet part, and Ryan was able to climb down off the boardwalk and get to it.  (My first thought was...oh no, that's the only pair of shoes she has on this trip!!)

We saw this huge tree!!!   

sporting their Clemson orange

Mercy was in the baby jogger, but HAD to get out since we stopped and were taking pictures.  She does not want to be left out!

Aedan with his daddy-long-leg

We stopped at a little rest area by the lake for some snacks and juice boxes.

Grammy with her grandkids

Here's a boardwalk shot!  This is on the older portion of the boardwalk.  Some of the earlier parts were through wetter areas.  Glad the mosquitos weren't out!

Ryan with the kids!

On Thanksgiving day, Josiah, Aedan, and Mercy were able to spend time with their cousins.  They had so much fun with them and loved being around them.  Their cousins are very sweet to them and play well with them.  Josiah and Aedan (and even Mercy, too) loved playing the launcher connect 4 game, and the boys enjoyed basketball out back. 

Where'd November go?

Yes, I've been a little slack with blog posts, so here is a little snapshot of November.  Here are some things that happened...

Ryan had a "Tacky on the Town" night with the teenagers.  They went to eat at Chili's and then went bowling...yes, in public!  Doesn't he look fabulous!?

Some Clemson cheers...unfortunately, the Tigers didn't look so good in November.

Some pig time!

My big girl brushing her teeth by herself!  Go girl!

a mystery photography shoot...the movie Up was photographed wonderfully, don't you think?!

And, Thanksgiving, of course...coming in my next post!