'Twas the Night Before Christmas

...and all through the house, every creature was stirring, even my spouse.

It is a hustle-bustle holiday season in the Jones home! We have been wrapping, shipping, cleaning, baking, counting (gotta make sure we have enough wine), singing, laughing, crying AND loving every minute.

A few weeks ago, Pop Pop and Lisa came to visit.  We had a really great weekend.  We visited with Santa and Peyton built a her first gingerbread house (with the help of Lisa and PopPop).

 

 Parker loved Santa.  He seemed to think that Santa was very fascinating with his glasses and beard.  Peyton, for the third year in a row, wanted nothing to do with him!

  

Parker hasn't really bothered the Christmas tree too much.  But, now that there are some presents under it, he is always under it!  He loves to eat the bows and squish the paper. He must know that he isn't supposed to do it because every time he is under the tree and we call his name, he jumps and crawls away as fast as possible. It is so funny!

Peyton had her North Raleigh Church of Christ Preschool Christmas show this week.

She practiced her songs every chance she got and sang them beautifully in the show!

In other news, the kids are doing great. Peyton continues to adore her baby brother and we are really proud of the sweet big sister she continues to be. Parker is a little love muffin!  He is so cute and is constantly spoiled with kisses and snuggles.  He has two passions: binkies (he must have more than one at all times) and his blankey. He also looooves bath time! 

MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

MUCH LOVE!

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Every year we look forward to pick out our REAL Christmas tree.  This year is no different.  We bundled up and headed out to our favorite lot in search of the perfect one.  Boy, did we find it! We did not realize until we got home that our tree was HUGE!  It ended up being around 12-13 feet tall.  We had to buy more lights and had to stand on the top stop of a six foot ladder to reach the top of the tree!  It is like our very own Rockefeller Center!

 Our first snowfall of the year could not have come on a better day!

Chris had just put the finishing touches on our exterior Christmas lights when the first flakes fell. 

It was so gorgeous!  What a fantastic weekend!

 

Much Holiday Love!!!

On The Move

We are ex.haus.ted.

Parker is on the move.  He is crawling everywhere! This kid is ALL boy.  He gets into everything he shouldn't.  When he is being held, he wants to get down and when he is down, he wants to be held.  He is lucky he is so cute.  Here is a picture showing how proud of himself he is!

Parker loves anything outdoors, especially the park.

Peyton had her Thanksgiving show at school and she did AWESOME! She sang nice and loud. It was so cute, it made my heart melt. We were such proud parents.

Peyton and Gray Spencer

 Peyton's Preschool Teacher, Mrs Teresa

Assistant Teacher, Mrs Carrie

This was the very first Thanksgiving that we cooked.  We had a BLAST!  Chris bought a smoker and smoked a beautiful and delicious turkey.  I made the sweet potato casserole, dressing, cranberries and pumpkin pie.  We were joined for dinner by Kristin and Mark Terdik with thier girls and Shirley Min.  We drank good wine and ate until we couldn't eat any more.  It was fabulous and we were full of pride. 

 

We spent the rest of the long weekend relaxing as a family.  It is rare that we get to experience this kind of "staycation".  We had a special movie night with Peyton.  We ate a "picnic" dinner on the floor of the family room and watched Toy Story 3.  It was a great night. We also bought our Christmas tree and started decorating the house. It is a big job and seems to grow bigger every year!

Much Love!!!