It's Christmastime!

Although it is traditional to get started with Christmas decorating and Christmas fun after or on Thanksgiving, the truth is that we have been getting ready for a couple of weeks! I just LOVE Christmas and don't think it is possible to start too early!

We started with making a gingerbread house. Of course, Evan was the driving force around this choice! He had a great time and the house turned out great! He is getting to be quite the artist!

After the decorating was done, Evan enjoyed eating the icing straight from the tube!

The next thing that we did was start to put up the tree. Of course, the process actually took several sessions, since the kids, jobs, etc. keep us pretty busy! We did get it done though and we had a great time! Evan hung lots of ornaments and so did Preston. Preston actually surprised us and knew exactly what to do after watching us! It was so cute!

"I'll help you"

Preston and Evan both had fun placing the ornaments on the tree!

"This was fun!"

We spent more time decorating the inside of the house and then decorating the outside of the house and by the day after Thanksgiving, it was all complete! The place looks great and we are all in the Christmas spirit!

Our stockings were hung by the chimney with care! =)

Our house looks beautiful! I am sure it will look even better tonight, since Carl put on lots of extra lights! 

The boys love the tree! It looks great!

Our tree is complete!

Preston enjoys watching the train go around the tree. Of course, he also likes to touch the train, which makes it crash! Oh well!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The past couple of years we have spent our Thanksgiving in Key West with Grandpa and Bonnie Mom, which is a ton of fun. This year though, we were at home for Thanksgiving. Although we missed Bonnie Mom and Grandpa, as well we the warm weather, we had a fantastic Thanksgiving here in Louisville.

We spent the morning here at home making food, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and relaxing. It was really nice and stress-free! We then headed over to Grammy and Granddaddy's house for our first Thanksgiving feast with the Keeling side of the family. We had a great time and enjoyed seeing everyone. Unfortunately, we did not stay long though, because Preston had a terrible cold and got fussy after a couple of hours.

Although he was fussy for a lot of our visit, Preston was really happy when he was in the basement playing with the beads and the box.

Evan and Caleb

Emily

 Evan and Jackson

I am so thankful for my sister, who is not only a great friend, but also takes great care of my boys!

I am so grateful for my sweet husband. He is a wonderful husband and a great dad!

Grammy and Granddaddy (Dad looks like it is painful to smile in this picture!)

After Preston's nap and some medicine, he was feeling a bit better, so we went over to Rachel and Teddy's house for dinner. The food was delicious and we enjoyed seeing Rachel, Teddy, Caroline and Ron. Unfortunately, Preston was still not feeling great and he fussed quite a bit. Luckily, we still managed to have fun eating and playing.

Sweet Caroline (My boys both enjoy playing with Caroline. They had a great time playing together, even though Caroline had a nasty cold too.)

It was a really wonderful Thanksgiving, although we did miss Bonnie Mom and Grandpa. We have so much to be thankful for! As Evan said, "We are thankful for food, our house, our family, our pets, that we are not sick, our toys...." We are certainly blessed!

The 22 Collection

Carl loves music and is a very talented musician. For as long as I have known him, which is about 18 years now, he has always wanted to play in a band. So, when he told me he had been invited to join a band, I was SO excited for him! The band is called The 22 Collection and I think he really thought that they would mostly just play together once a week and have fun. Jordan had other ideas though and was able to get the band booked to play their first show last weekend! They played at Phoenix Hill Tavern and I think that everyone really enjoyed the show. I know I did! I am already looking forward to the next show, which I believe is an afternoon show, which is a MUCH better time than the first show, which was 1:30 a.m. Of course, seeing the show was totally worth staying up late and be super tired all weekend.

I tried to take some pictures of the show, but a phone camera is not great for taking pictures in the dark. Hopefully I can get some better ones next time!

Carl and I had fun hanging out with our friends before the show.

The 22 Collection

My Favorite Guitar Player ;)

Evan's Class Trip to The Kentucky Derby Museum

Last week I got to to accompany Evan on his class trip to The Kentucky Derby Museum. As with all of the field trips I have gotten to chaperone or lead, I had a great time! We started off hearing a story about Seabiscuit. Evan and some of his friends were chosen to help act the story, which was adorable! Later, we got to tour the museum and see a movie about The Kentucky Derby. Evan liked the movie a lot, but I really liked getting to see him dress up like a jockey during our museum tour. Of course, the most exciting part of the trip was the end, when we got to see a real horse race. We even had front row seats! How fun!

Evan and Ty

Evan - Owner of War Admiral

Go Baby Go!

My Favorite Jockey

Race Time!

These two are great buddies and partners in crime! They were so much fun on the field trip!

Thanksgiving Lunch

Preston and I got a special treat last week, when we were able to join Evan at school for a special Thanksgiving lunch. We had a great time eating with Evan and all of his friends. Evan has been asking us to come eat lunch with him for about two weeks, so he was really excited that we came to his special lunch. Preston was not in a very good mood that morning, so I was nervous about lunch, but he did not cry once and he enjoyed playing with Evan and his friends. We all had a good time and I am so grateful that I am working part time, so that I can do fun things like this with my boys!

I was thankful that a friend was able to take a few pictures for me! Unfortunately, we took the pictures at the end of the lunch and Preston was not in the mood for pictures. Oh well! We know he was there and that he had fun with me and Evan.

Soccer - Fall 2013

Evan just finished his second soccer season. Last year, his age group focused on basic skills such as dribbling the ball. This year year was much different! His age group learned all about working together, passing the ball, defense, etc. While everything seemed a bit confusing at first, Evan started learning the skills quickly and played well. It was so cool to see his progress throughout the season! We are so proud of him! He scored two goals in the last game! The best part of Evan's season though, is that he always shows good sportsmanship. He is always so kind and takes care of all of the players. What a great kid!

Evan's Soccer Pictures - Fall 2013

Here are a couple of pictures from Evan's last game. I like the one at the end, where he just celebrated his team's goal.

Halloween Fun

Evan was so excited to carve our pumpkins this year! In fact, he wanted to carve each pumpkin as soon as he got it! We convinced him to wait to carve the pumpkins until the weekend before Halloween. Everyone helped this year, including Preston, which was adorable! He wants to do everything just like his big brother! We carved one scary pumpkin and one happy pumpkin and Evan even enjoyed eating the fruit from the white pumpkin, which was really sweet, just like a cantaloupe.

All three boys had fun carving the pumpkins!

"Let me help!"

"This is so much fun!"

"What is inside of the pumpkin?"

"Seeds!"

"Yummy!" The inside of the white pumpkin was so sweet and delicious!

Our pumpkins turned out great! My favorite one was the happy one, but Evan really liked the scary one!

As always, our neighborhood Halloween party was lots of fun. Evan really like decorating his pumpkin this year and he spent a lot of time making his "ocean" pumpkin. Preston on the other hand hand NO interest in decorating his pumpkin. He just wanted to run around and jump in the bounce house!

Evan found his good friend Jackson, so he he walked with him in the costume parade. (Jackson is the knight.)

Preston enjoyed "riding" in the costume parade.

This little man was so cute that he convinced a friendly police officer to offer him some fruit snacks. He was thrilled and ran off to eat his treat!

Halloween day/night was really unusual this year. There was a really bad storm that had the chance of producing winds up to 60 miles per hour. Obviously, this made trick or treating dangerous, so it was moved to Friday night instead of Thursday. We did still manage to have lots of fun on Halloween day/night! Evan had a fall party at school and then we had a pumpkin shaped pizza for dinner. Afterwards, we had a candy hunt in the dark, using flashlights!

Evan and I both enjoyed his fall party at school! (It was also pajama day at school. How fun!)

"Happy Halloween!"

Preston LOVED this Monsters Inc. hat and onesie! What a cutie pie!

We got to see both sets of grandparents on the day of trick or treating! We went to Grammy and Granddaddy's house before trick or treating to get some cake and to play. Later, Bonnie Mom and Grandpa came over to see the boys and to help play with Preston once he was done with trick or treating. They had a great time!

I should also add that on the day of trick or treating, there was Donuts with Dad at school! Evan was so excited to get to take Daddy to school! They both enjoyed a special breakfast at school, as well as visiting the book fair, where Evan selected books for himself, as well as for Preston! What a sweet boy!