Harrison is 3!!!

I can't believe how fast time flies! Today our little guy celebrated his 3rd birthday. I don't know why, but the 3rd and 5th birthdays have seemed the hardest for me to accept -- to me they are the ages when such big changes seem to occur. Harrison's lost all of his baby-ness and is such a little boy these days!

Since we didn't do a big party this year, we had a birthday extraordinaire planned with just the 4 of us! We started the big day by heading to Krispy Kreme for snowman donuts -- yummy!
Our next stop was Jump Zone -- holding our breaths the entire time that no one would throw up after the amount of donuts we ate! Madeleine was so excited to be there. I think she was already jumping before I'd finished filling out the release forms! :)

Harrison was all talk and then when we got there, he refused to go on anything. Finally Matt coerced him into going down a slide -- something he probably later regretted. After one slide Harrison was hooked! He wanted Matt to take him up/down all the slides. Poor Matt was exhausted!

Here's one of the moments Madeleine slowed down for a second so I could snap a picture! That girl was fearless and it was sooooo good for her to get out and burn off some energy. :)

What's making Harrison smile???

This Batman slide. He probably did it at least 20 times!!! Eventually, Matt went and sat in the back and I'd head Harrison his direction and he'd keep an eye on him going up the slide and I'd watch him coming down. He wore himself out!!

After 2 hours at Jump Zone we headed to the Promenade to ride the carousel. We'd hoped to ride the train, but it wasn't open that day....so we settled for 3 rounds on the carousel. I made the first ride before realizing that pregnancy and spinning around don't mix well. :) So Matt rode while I waved from the side.

We also took a break from the carousel to ride some of the little rides there.

Harrison had to ride the Razorback!

After heading home and everyone getting a nice looooong nap it was time for presents! Harrison was so excited to tear into everything!! He's so sweet -- he always says "thank you" -- and gave lots of hugs.

Playing with his new dinosaur magnet book.

Opening his new remote-controlled car.....he LOVED this toy! I've been waiting for weeks to give it to him! I only wish I'd gotten 2 since Madeleine loves it too.

Opening his new play-doh set and sporting his new racecar slippers.

After more presents it was time for cake! Harrison saw this Thomas Cake at Rick's back in September and it's been all he's talked about for months. Anytime we'd mention his birthday he'd remind us that he's going to have a Thomas Cake. And, his reaction was priceless when we got it out! He was so excited!!

He at his piece then hijacked mine and ate it too.

Madeleine waiting excitedly for her piece.

It was the perfect day! I wouldn't change one thing about it and I think Harrison feels the same!

Christmas with Grammy and Pops

This past weekend we celebrated our Christmas with Grammy and Pops since I can't move from NWA until this baby is born. Unfortunately my camera batteries were low so I didn't get a lot of pictures. :(

The kids LOVED their gifts!! It's been basically an entire year since Harrison's opened a present and he was so excited!! I also must add that he's got to be the most polite 3 year old EVER. He said "thank you" after every gift and several times, put the gift down saying "I gonna give you a hug" which he did. How sweet is that!

So, it was nice for them to have some fun new toys to play with....they were pretty busy the rest of the day just playing with their new toys.

Grammy found this awesome Santa/Christmas look and find that the kids have LOVED!!! There is an easy list which is perfect for Harrison and a harder list that sometimes even has me and Matt stumped -- although Madeleine seems to find EVERYTHING. It's been a source of lots of fun family time this week.

Meeting Santa....Round 2

Before I blog about our very fun night at church with Santa, I have to post a picture of our first stop that night. Matt, along with 12 other teachers, was honored at the Fayetteville School District Board Meeting. They all became National Board Certified Teachers in November, which is a BIG BIG deal in education. It's taken Matt 2 years of hard work to achieve this and we're so proud of him!
Our next stop was church to meet Santa! The kids were so excited to see him again....until we got there and Harrison decided he wasn't going to have anything to do with Santa that night! :) Madeleine, however, went right up to his lap and told him her Christmas list -- Barbie house, car and salon. She tried to add a few things, but I told her that it was too late and Santa had to have time to get things made and loaded into his sleigh. That seemed to work.

Isn't that the BEST looking Santa???? He's one of the elders at our church and he did an amazing job!! Harrison decided he'd rather watch and not sit, but he checked out sissy sitting there.

After all the kids had sat on Santa's lap, they gathered around for a Christmas Story. Harrison decided he was brave enough for this part.

They were all captivated just listening to him read!

Afterwards we all feasted on yummy pizza, breadstix, salad and, of course, sweets!!! Yummy!!!

Our Gingerbread House

One cold night last week while Matt was taking his last final of the semester, the kids and I broke out the gingerbread house and went to town -- or at least the kids did, I was the camera-gal.

They have been begging me to let them decorate their house ever since I bought it days ago and were soooo excited! I think they spent over an hour working on it -- one beautiful hour of teamwork and absolutely no fussing. I just might buy another one for this week! :) Just kidding....sort of.

Madeleine was very intent on her half.

Harrison's trying to decide which candy to eat, I mean decorate with, first!
Working together! Madeleine helping Harrison with his icing.

Love this face!

Funny girl.

The finished project. All the candy in the front of the house is where Harrison made it "rain" candy. He kept saying it "needs one more thing" and that happened to be candy raining down into the front yard.

Our house may not win any awards for the most lovely, but we take the cake for the most fun! I look forward to this project each year and every year it gets more fun. After we finished this year, both kiddos headed straight to the tub, since they were COVERED in icing! And, I'm pretty sure there was more candy in their tummies than on the house, but that's the sign of a good time!

Christmas Parties

This week has been filled with parties! First was Harrison's party at school on Wednesday. They had yummy cupcakes, and everyone ate ONLY the icing off. Funny. :)

Harrison's class sang Jingle Bells -- his FAVORITE song right now. I think he was probably the only one that actually knew all the words and sang. :)

Then Friday was Madeleine's class party. I don't have a lot of pictures of this since I'm the homeroom mom aka party planner. We started the party by watching the old Frosty video, which the kids LOVED!!! Then they made a snowman picture frame craft. (This is Madeleine's table where she sits every day. )

Here's Madeleine with her finished craft. I think they all seemed to like it -- at least the other parents did!

After craft time we played pin the nose on the snowman. I'd made a girl and boy snowman and we had some silly fun with this. The were surprising accurate -- we couldn't use a blindfold since her class has had an outbreak of lice (YUCK) and we didn't want to pass it around. But they thought it was fun.

Then it was time for the food!! They feasted on cupcakes, cookies, chips, candy and some grapes and cheese thrown in for good measure! :) I'm sure her teacher was thankful that all the kids were heading home after this! :) They were bouncing off the walls!!!!

Here's my silly girl with her blue tongue from her cupcake!

I'm so thankful that I've been able to do this for her class this year! I've made so many memories with her and it's been so neat to be up at her school and see all the fun things they're doing. I'm so thankful for her teacher and all the work she puts in to making her class such fun!!!

The Man in Red

Last Sunday we stopped off on our way home to make our first visit to Santa. I'd already prepared myself for neither kiddo wanting to sit in his lap or talk to him. Was I wrong!! As soon as Harrison could make his way to Santa he let go of my hand and took off in a sprint screaming "SANTA" the entire way! He climbed up in his lap and just started chatting away. I was so surprised and completely tickled by the entire scene (as were several others nearby). He told Santa that he wanted tools so he could "help daddy." So sweet!

Madeleine stood by me and waited patiently until Harrison paused for a minute, then headed up for her turn. She sat so nicely --- just like her --- and told Santa that she wanted a Barbie house, Barbie car and Barbie haircut (salon). I'm almost positive that Santa's going to deliver! However, just in case, Madeleine prayed her Christmas list last week at dinner one night! Ha! Matt and I were both trying SO HARD not to laugh!

So, now we're planning a trip to the mall to see the "good santa." Hopefully I'll get some better pictures then.