merry christmas and princess belle.

Here is a Hood Christmas week recap. 

Monday, RG had dance class and we had a follow up with Gideon's pediatrician and all of his ear infections.  His ears are CLEAR! Still had fluid on them, but it was clear! Woo Hoo!

After that, he SLEPT THRU THE NIGHT for 3 nights in a row! WHAAAAT!

Tuesday was RG's last day at school for the year.  They wore pajamas, ate pizza and had a birthday party for Jesus. That was also the day that the kids SWINGSET was delivered and installed! Our parents & Aunt Dianne went in with us to get the kids a swingset for Christmas.  THEY LOVE IT!

It has a slide, rock wall, fort with steering wheel & telescope, trapeze bar and place for a sand box! We will have so much fun out there this spring/summer! (and Christmas Day since it was like 75 degrees!)

Wednesday, we ran all kinds of errands anxiously waiting on Memaw & Papa Toler to get here!

Thursday morning we woke up and headed to Opryland Hotel!

Friday, we laid low and spent time with Memaw & Papa Toler.

Saturday (Christmas Eve) we said a tearful goodbye to Memaw & Papa Toler and started on our Christmas Eve dinner. Since Gideon & I are dairy free, I knew it was going to be a slim meal for us... I did some research and found sweet potato casserole and corn casserole dairy free! and they were good! We also made a birthday cake for Jesus!

That afternoon, we went to our Christmas Eve service at church.

Check out these handsome boys!

After church, we ran home, put on pj's and headed out to look at christmas lights.  Since our kids absolutely HATE their carseats, we decided to keep it in the neighborhood... 

Y'all.. I took ZERO pics of us on Christmas morning!! WHAAAAT! We do have video of the entire morning but no pics. Boo. Actually, I take that back.  Here is the only pic I took and it's of Giddy boy on his first Christmas. 

Stephen and I decided that it was finally time to break RG of the paci.  And y'all, let me tell you, sister LOVES a paci. I mean OBSESSED. I was so scared/terrified of how this would go.  So, we started around thanksgiving, talking it up that she was going to leave all of her pacis for Santa and he would bring her a big special gift.. So I took her to target and let her pick out ANY toy she wanted for Santa to bring if she left all of her pacis.  She picked out a 3ft tall princess Belle. So Christmas Eve, Elfis brought a box from Santa for her to leave her pacis in.  Y'all she has BARELY even asked for them.. I can not believe how well this has gone.  We just make sure we take Belle EVERYWHERE.

She is basically a 3rd child. I also walked into RG's room this morning thinking she had already woken up, but she was sacked out... it was Belle I saw on the monitor and thought it was RG. creepy. 

Stephen is on vacation this week and it has been the BEST time with him home.  We have played and drank coffee and napped and played and had so much fun.  I want this week to last forever!

Gideon stands up in the high chair -- and won't sit to eat.  So i decided to move the kids table back to kitchen and see if he would eat at it.  He has done so much better! He still stands up in the chair but it is much better. Why does he look 7????

He is also already 11 months old. I have been so much more emotional with Gideon turning 1! I have been able to enjoy every minute and every phase with him.  I know some people know this, but I struggled with PPD/A with RG for the first 7 months of her life and it seems like such a blur.  I was in such a bad place that I really don't even remember it.. so I have made sure to soak in every moment with Gideon.  My children are my biggest blessing and I am so so grateful to be able to stay home with them and see each day of their lives.  They are only small for such a short period of time.  Even on the tough days (and with an almost 1 year old and a 3 year old, there are A LOT of tough days) I try to remember how important these days are! 

 My mom and Mr. Ken are coming this weekend and we are looking forward to that! 

it's practically here!

So obviously I'm not good at commitments -- especially to this blog.  But I'm going to quit talking about it and just be happy when I get to it. 

Two Saturdays ago.... Our next door neighbors had a tacky Christmas party! Lucky for us, our monitor works at their house and we didn't need a sitter. ha! We had a great time and we LOVE our neighbors!

Last Monday, we had our friends Taylor & Wes come hang out! Allen, Wes' dad, works with Stephen and so they were in town with him and we got to play! We played and played until we had to take off clothes and eat sloppy joes! We learned how to climb up on the toy shelf and cleaned out the kitchen! 

We ordered a 22ft ladder from Amazon -- because I get everything from Amazon -- and it came in the BIGGEST BOX! Which was the kids favorite thing ever.  I seriously should have saved it for a Christmas gift. 

Tuesday night we met the Woods at Chick-Fil-A... just like old times! Man, we miss seeing them as often as we used to! I didn't get pics of the big kids because they were playing so hard! But it was Gideon's first time to really be into climbing in the play area... he loved it! and pooped in it. 

Thursday, RG's school (& our church) put on their Christmas program.  It was called a Journey to Bethlehem.  It was so cool.. It was three different rooms and teachers/staff were dressed up.  The kids and one parent got to sit on the mat and sing and hear about the journey to see Jesus.  I only snapped one pic.. the wiseman with the crown on is one of RG's teachers, Mrs. Kristen.  

Here is a better pic of RG's teachers - Mrs. Ruthie & Mrs. Kristen.  (I borrowed from Mrs. Kristen's Facebook).  These two have been such a blessing and have been SO great! Thank you Lord for putting them in our lives!

And this pic because she is so stinking cute. 

Friday was Federated's office party.... and Stephen's favorite excuse to wear women's Christmas clothing.  (see below for previous years)

Saturday morning, we woke up in matching pajamas. and played on the couch cushions. 

Gideon can NOT stay out of the tree. He loves it.

Saturday afternoon we had to make a run to Cool Springs Mall -- not smart. One of the most popular towns in America, the main mall in that area, on the Saturday before Christmas.... It was chaos. But we made it out alive... and got to watch lots of crazy shoppers. RG & I faked the photo booth. 

Here is my weekly sleeping picture of Gideon...

 And the weekly booty pic of Gideon. Y'all he is such a typical boy and loves to be naked. HELP! haha!

I can't believe Christmas is almost here. It truly goes by too fast and I am so enjoying this season with my babies.  It's so fun to watch them get so excited about everything. 

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Finally Friday!

Stephen has been in MN for work all week and man, it has been a doozy.  Shout out to single moms everywhere because two kids 3 & under AIN'T NO JOKE. Mama needs a nap and to be hooked up to a caffeine IV.  Not to mention, this week has included threenager major meltdowns, fevers in both kids, coughs, too many trips to Kroger and freezing temps that keeps us from going outside.

WELCOME HOME BADGER! Now, I'm going to take a nap.  Bye, Felicia!

Ok so lets go back to last weekend.  We wanted to go to the downtown Nashville christmas parade.  We went last year and it was awesome.  Well Gideon woke up at 4am... I was feeling sickly... needless too say, we didn't make it.  Ok, so let's go to the Franklin parade!! I look up on a website and it says it starts at 11:30.  So Gideon naps, we get ready and as soon as he wakes up, we go.  At like 10:45... So i'm looking to see where the parade starts and I pull up another website and it says the parade starts at 1pm.  Oh ok... well that's not ideal, but we can grab lunch before.  So, I start to question myself... check their Facebook page... it starts at 2!!!! WHAAATTTT? ok this is getting ridiculous.  We grabbed lunch at Merridee's Bakery (yum - BTW) and headed home to let kiddos nap again.  

We then decided to try for the Spring Hill parade that night.  Much smaller, but still the fun of a parade.  Ends up raining and pretty cold... but we press on and had a great time!

we laughed so hard at this pic because I'm a struggle bus as usual - holding Gideon (his favorite), keeping him away from whatever RG has, trying to tell RG to calm down, smushed between the two of them.. and Stephen is perfectly smiling and posing.  hahahahaha! 

Sunday, we were going to go to church but RG woke up puny and because I didn't have a trustworthy thermometer I didn't want to take her to the nursery at church if she had a fever. 

Monday, we went to dance class and her teacher told me she kept saying she needed to go potty but would never go when they took her.  Ok, so I know a lot of 3 year olds do this because they want to check out the cool bathrooms at every single place we go to... but she has been doing this to me at home too! And she did it to Stephen... So we ran her to the dr to check for a UTI since she was acting funky Sunday... well no UTI.. Just being funky I guess! 

We took baths and pretended to be mermaids

We did Christmas crafts!

I also took Gideon's 10 month pics... Look how similar they are at the same age!! 

This is me -- still wondering where RG gets her facial expressions from? #shegetitfromhermama

and in the spirit of Christmas - here I am with Ronda & Santa... Wonder where I get my style from?? #shegetitfromhermama

On another note, I have finished ALL of my christmas shopping except for a few small things for Stephen's stocking. I would like to thank Amazon prime for making Christmas shopping the easiest thing since life without kids.  I would also like to thank Target and my red card for giving me lots of deals & free shipping.  Ho Ho Ho. 

Speaking of Target... if you like candles that smell like Christmas, RUN (don't walk) to your nearest Tar-Jay and pick up these two beauts. They are super cheap ($5) and they smell up the entire house. 

Holiday Spruce

Merry and Bright

This weekend we are going to go to Dickens of a Christmas in Franklin and hopefully rest, a lot!

Here is a video of RG half-you-know-what saying her bible verse we are working on... with a paci and no pants. #illtakewhaticanget