Black Friday

My first trip out on Black Friday was with Allison and her mother-in-law and we went to Wal-mart at 5am... it was so amazing I told Ben and Mama they had to go just to witness it so the following year we did just that... I think it scared Ben for life (I'm surprised he ever went back in Wal-mart!)  Since then Mama and I have gone every year... Karah has come a few times and she can hang pretty well.  But, this year was a first... Grandma decided that she wanted to come with us so we could help her pick out some gifts for all the kids.  So, she loaded up with us and we headed for Wal-mart at midnight, then off to Target where the line was so long we decided not to wait, Toys R Us (arrived about 2 am), snack time, back to Target (arrived at 4:30 am) where we got our stuff and got in line and it was so long we left again, Lowe's, Dick's, back to Wal-mart for the 5 am sale, and then back home.  I think that was about right... it was all kind of a blur.  I crawled in Bed around 8 am on Friday morning.  But... Grandma held out as well as we did!  I hope I get around half that good when I'm in my eighties.  I took my camera because I had planned to get pictures throughout the night, but the only time I thought to bring it out was as we were loading up after leaving Toys R Us.

The rest of the day was a little more peaceful... after a few hours of sleep I headed out to the farm to meet up with Ben and the kids.  They had a great time spending the day with cousins.

 Noah, Samuel, Bradley, Jeb, Cooper, Kyler, and Caleb

 Kyler brought Sticky to show him off.

Bradley did a little photography while we were there.

He is pretty good at getting people to ham it up.

Sticky's New House

Sticky got a new home... he has moved into a plant that has much more room for him to climb around and many more leaves for him to hide in... he really seems to like his new habitat more than his old one... I've already spent too much time trying to find his sneaky rear!

ICE!

At the National Harbor they have a Christmas thing going on where the highlight is ICE!... they have about 2 million pounds of ice that is carved into scenes from the movie "How the Grinch Stole Christmas."  We decided to go over and hang out in the National Harbor and check it out.  It was really neat to see and we had lot of fun.

We crawled all over this statue that looks like a man being buried in the sand if you look at it from far away.

Meggie rocking some reindeer antlers.

They keep the part with all the ice at 8 below so it was VERY cold.

After we walked trough all of who-ville we watched some carolers.  Kyler was so worn out that he just couldn't make it through.

Meggie however tried to enjoy it... she was having a good time dancing but when Ben turned on the camera to video it he got this instead:

Meggie At Ice!

There was also a 2 story slide that was made entirely of ice (super fast) that the boys had a blast going down over and over... if it hadn't been so cold they would have done it all day... click on the link below to see a video:

ICE! Slide

Decorating

We usually decorate the Christmas tree the weekend after thanksgiving... but we got up with nothing to do today so we decided to go ahead and pull it out.

Meggie has been enjoying all of the Christmas  music... she especially likes this one toy that makes music and she has figured out how to start it... click on the link below to check out some of her dance moves:

Meggie Dancing

Awesome Christmas Cards!

Every year I begin designing our family Christmas card in my head before I ever pick out the card.  We have a lot of friends and family that live out of town, who we rarely see; so our Christmas card gives them an update of how our lives have been throughout the year.  I've ordered cards from several different places before and my favorite so far have been from Shutterfly.  They were good quality and reasonable priced.  There were also many more styles than the other online sites I looked at.  A few weeks ago I received a Shutterfly 'flier' in the mail and fell in love with their cards.  I knew I would be using them this year to share Christmas with our friends and families.  The problem is...which one will I choose.  I can choose from:

Holiday cards---http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards

Photo cards--http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

Or even order gifts for grandparents---http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/5x7-folded-greeting-cards

http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-gifts/photo-mugs

To all those fellow bloggers out there, you can get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly! Sign up at http://bit.ly/sfly2010.

I can't wait to pick out our Christmas cards and to share them with the people we love.  I also can't wait to find all the fun cards in my mailbox from all of my family and friends.

Goat Fun... and Chickens too!

While we were in SC we had to make a stop and check on the chickens and goats... they love to chase, pet, and feed the animals.

 Caleb and his rooster... too cute!

Playing on the goat playground!

Trying to get all the goats gathered up.

Playing on the hay bails.

Atlanta Trip

While we were visiting SC we made a little side trip over to Atlanta.  We went to the Zoo, ate some Japanese, spent the night downtown, went to the aquarium, and then headed back to SC.

 The boys playing on the statues.

Trying to get the birds to land on them.

All the kids... Bradley, Cooper, Kealie, Kyler, and Meggie.

Karah and Kealie

Karah getting silly in the gift shop.

This was the first time Cooper had been to a Japanese restaurant (since he could remember anyway) and he thought it was just great.

Kyler of course had fun... like always!

Cooper checking out the fish at the aquarium.

All the boys had to touch a sting ray and a shark so we spent FOREVER trying to touch a shark!

Kealie taking a peak at the sea anemone.

Kyler touching a starfish.