Evan is a Teenager!

It's official now.  We have a teenager.  I have kind of considered him a teen for a while now because he is very mature for his age, but I have noticed a few changes in him in the last few months.  He is definitely wanting to hang out with his parents and younger siblings less and less.  He will often sit with his earbuds in his ears whether or not he is listening to music.  I don't know if that is because he thinks it looks cool or just to tune us all out.  Haha!  He gives us the teenager stink eye glare a lot more too.  The teen attitude has definitely made its appearance.  How long will this last?  Of course, I am also growing a bit sad thinking we only have about five more years with him at home.  He has big dreams to accomplish and will likely not be at home much after he graduates from high school.  Sigh.  We still wanted to celebrate this special day with our still precious big baby boy.  I have especially hated this pandemic for him because he is definitely our more social child who craves interactions with friends.  He is lucky to have a best friend neighbor across the road, but he misses school and sports.  I hate that he missed his final days at his old school with his friends, but I can't wait to get him established in his new school, sports, and church activities.  I know he will thrive and be successful wherever he goes. 

I made my big teenager a chocolate soccer ball cake.  Soccer is still his favorite sport, and I hope he will be on a good team when we move. 

He is wearing his favorite Adidas soccer shirt.  Yes, he prefers athletic wear all the time. 

So grown up and handsome.  Where is my little baby?  

He's still there and will always be mama's baby. 

I think this was doughnuts for breakfast time.  Grayson is probably Evan's favorite little brother right now.  They both love to wrestle and play rough.  They gang up on poor Brody and Mattox. 

For his birthday supper, we were able to go to his favorite wing restaurant, Wild Wing Cafe.  They stayed open longer than most establishments and implemented stricter seating policies and other measures for their staff.  We all felt very safe, and Evan got his favorite meal. 

Baby sister Maggie looks the most like baby Evan so it is nice to have her to remind me.  

Mommy and Mattox and Brody enjoyed celebrating too.

We love you to the moon and back, Evan!  Keep making us proud in all you do!

Mattox's Out of this World 5th Birthday

Mattox has definitely developed an obsession with Buzz Lightyear, spaceships, and going to the moon.  Those are his favorite topics to talk about.  With a child who does not talk very much, you want to do anything you can to encourage his communication.  He had received a Buzz Lightyear action figure earlier in the year to encourage him, and after Christmas, we had discovered the coolest Buzz Lightyear spaceship that he could "fly."  I had asked him if he wanted that for his birthday, and for the next couple of months, when we would ask him what he wanted for his birthday, he would say "Buzz Lightyear spaceship."  After Christmas, he was also very excited to go back to school, and his teachers and speech therapist were able to get him to talk by offering him incentives like watching Buzz Lightyear videos on their phones.  It was the most progress he made all year.  Can you guess what his birthday theme would be?  Yep, Buzz Lightyear and spaceships!  I know this boy is going places...maybe even to the moon one day!  

Since we didn't have a big party for him, I wanted to splurge a little.  I got him this "lifesized" Buzz Lightyear balloon to party with him.  I also used my newfound trick of blowing up my own balloons for a large bouquet, and that bouquet is still going strong three months later!  I was going for colors that resembled Buzz although my green was a little more teal than his.  

We ate dinner at our customary favorite Mellow Mushroom.  Since Grayson's birthday, the statue outside changed from the giant minion to a cool E.T.  I love E.T. so much that when we visited Universal Studios when Mattox was a baby, I bought him a little E.T. stuffed toy.  We took our E.T. with us to see the big E.T.  The manager of the restaurant was quite impressed.  Sadly, the big E.T. has not been holding up well because he is made of fiberglass instead of metal.  He has several broken fingers and a bandaged arm.  Mattox tells him, "Owwww!" like E.T. says in the movie.  The manager said he would be leaving them and be replaced by a different sculpture soon.  

Mattox was pretending to let E.T. drink from his cup.  There is also a cool Spiderman on the ceiling.  

I just love this kid!  He really is so very special to me. 

He is so special, I could not resist attempting to make him my most fantastical cake yet.  I made him a huge rocket ship like Buzz Lightyear's.  I think Buzz approved. 

I just love all of these boys!  I never would have imagined my life with four boys, but I wouldn't change it for the world! 

Mattox and Buzz defending the galaxy. 

The big 5 year old is ready to blow out his candles. 

He just needed a little help from his teammates.  He actually blows the wrong way so air really isn't coming out.

I was trying to "teach" him the proper way to blow.  

It did kind of make me sad to cut into this cool cake, but the kids all enjoyed it.  

Mr. Grayson likes Buzz too and has Buzz Lightyear sneakers. One of the first real sentences he would say was answering the questions "Who is on your shoes?" and "What do your shoes do?"  He will reply, "Buzz."  and "They light up."  

Mattox is ready to take on the evils of the universe in his very own spaceship.  

We love you to infinity and beyond, Space Ranger Mattox! 

Our Favorite Christmas Traditions

Our family loves to celebrate Christmas.  We love everything about this festive season except maybe the stress from the over commercialization that has really tried to take away from the true meaning of the season.  I have really tried to adopt traditions that will help our family remember what this season is all about.  Namely, our faith and belief that Christmas is the time when we celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  While we do allow our children to experience the magic of believing in Santa while they are young, we also want them to be aware that the real magic of Christmas is in the gift that was given over 2000 years ago for us all.  We hope that our Christmas traditions help to inspire you to make Christmas magic this year!

1. Picking out a Real Christmas Tree

Since my husband is a forester and has a thing for trees, only a real tree will do.  We are also from North Carolina where the best Christmas trees are grown.  Many of the White House Christmas trees come from the North Carolina mountains.  Frasier firs are the number one Christmas tree in our opinion.  Thankfully, Georgia seems to agree and gets its trees from North Carolina as well.  Our kids love running through the trees while we pick out the best one. 

2.  Decorating the Christmas Tree and House

The kids love hanging our special yearly ornaments and their special ornaments on the tree. 

Our tree is very traditional with sentimental ornaments we have collected through the years from our travels or a special ornament from each year since we were married.   

We hang our stockings from the mantle awaiting a visit from the man in the red suit. I have also enjoyed using colored lights on our tree for the last few years because it just feels festive and fun for the kids. 

3.  Visiting Santa

I love our pictures with Santa through the years as our family has grown.  No, our kids don't always want to sit on Santa's lap but that's okay.  We don't usually encourage our kids to sit on stranger's laps, right?

4.  We do have an elf!

So truthfully, if I had known six years ago that I would have five kids and may be stuck doing this elf thing for many many years, I probably would have chosen differently.  Our elf has become progressively less active over the years and does not move nearly as much as he used to.  Haha!  He does bring the kids sweet snacks and notes that remind them to be good and to remember the true meaning of the season. 

He does tricks like hanging our underwear in the place of our stockings.

He toilet papers our tree.

5.  We decorate gingerbread houses together.

I love this special time together.  Our boys really enjoyed being creative with their houses.

6.  We go see Christmas lights.

Last year, we visited our local botanical gardens that puts on a beautiful light display every year.

7.  We attend a Candlelight Christmas Eve Service

We love this special time to sing Christmas songs like "Joy to the World" and "O Come All Ye Faithful" as we light our candles to remember the birth of our Savior. 

8.  Reading the Christmas Story on Christmas Eve

We read an age appropriate story of the birth of Jesus to the kids on Christmas Eve night before going to bed.  This helps keep the focus more on Jesus than on the excitement of Santa.

9.  Putting Out Cookies and Milk for Santa

We do still put out a plate of cookies and carrots for Santa and his reindeer to keep some magic in the experience for our youngest children.  Our oldest has learned that Santa is not real, but he understands that we must keep the secret for his younger siblings. Our youngest boys snuggle in the bed to fall asleep before Santa visits.

10.  Santa Visits!

I found an app that will put a picture of Santa dropping off presents in your home.  My almost four year old thought this was pretty awesome because he was obsessed with "hohoho" last Christmas.

11.  Santa leaves a special letter

Santa's letter is another special way to remind the kids of the true meaning of Christmas before the excitement of the presents overshadows it. 

12.  Opening Presents!

While all of the Christmas season seems to lead up to this moment, I really feel like it is such a small part of the whole event.  It is just a few hours of fun compared to a month of family celebrations and traditions.  I do love watching the excitement on my kids' faces as they see what Santa brought them though.

13.  We celebrate with family

Some years we travel to visit family but since our family had a big gathering earlier in the month, our family came to visit us after Christmas. 

14.  We enjoy a yummy Christmas dinner together

We enjoyed a delicious home cooked meal of turkey with lots of sides.  Even the baby liked it!

15.  We sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and blow out his candles on his birthday cake!

Some years we bake Jesus' birthday cake but sometimes we just have to buy a cake from the store.  The point is to celebrate Jesus' birthday with our kids.  Happy Birthday, Jesus!

How do you celebrate Christmas?  Do you have a favorite tradition?  Leave us a comment to share!

2018 in Review

As has become the norm the last couple of years, I am still way behind on logging our memories here.  I am currently about halfway through 2018, and I hope to get even more caught up in the next few weeks before our new baby girl arrives.  That is probably being a bit ambitious, but it is January...the month of resolutions so there's mine I guess.  I did manage to get our yearly Shutterfly calendar prepared so I do have that little gem to help capture some of the highlights of our year.  Here is a little summary of our year told by our calendar pages:

I guess to simply live, laugh, and love is a pretty good theme for our year.  We took our annual Spring family pictures in Savannah's famous Forsyth Park.  It was such a gorgeous day. 

We rang in the New Year together and enjoyed the very very rare snow day that hit our area of Georgia before proceeding north. 

We gave and received lots of love in February after celebrating our Daddy's big 40th birthday. 

Mattox is definitely a believer in making his own luck.  He was not feeling very photogenic for St. Patrick's Day, but he did enjoy celebrating his 3rd birthday.  Evan enjoyed a Harry Potter 11th birthday complete with a Hagrid made cake and receiving his invitation letter to Hogwarts. 

In April, we celebrated Easter and attempted to get a picture with the Easter bunny.  It was pretty epic with two out of four boys not loving it.  Brody turned 7 with a special Skylanders cake and a visit to an amusement park. 

My boys made me feel extra loved on Mother's Day, and we visited Mattie for Easter. 

June was month filled with love as we celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary and Father's Day. 

We enjoyed the fireworks and 4th of July celebration in downtown Savannah. 

We experienced a lot of summer fun with several trips to the beach and fun at the pool. 

Our big boys headed back to school to begin 6th grade and 2nd grade. 

We had lots of fall fun at the pumpkin patch and dressing up for Halloween.  Mattox and Grayson brought back the police and convict duo while Brody was a cute Harry Potter and Evan dressed as a dark figure of death.  

We were very thankful in November to announce our newest addition. 

December was a festive month as we celebrated our baby Grayson's 2nd birthday and Christmas. 

So long 2018.  You brought us many happy memories.