We went to State College today to check out the First Night festivities including the ice carving they do each year. Unfortunately I forgot my camera at home so I was stuck using my cell phone's camera. No great pictures today! : ( Oh well - we had a fun day anyway!
We got to watch some of the carving being done.
Will posed for a picture in a carved ice padlock.
Jerry and Will froze their behinds on the carved angel chair.
Then we all shared some much needed hot chocolate.
Will turned 4 years old today! What happened to my baby boy? The time has gone by way too fast!
Since his birthday falls so close to Christmas we decided to just have a special day with our family today and then plan a party for his half birthday in June. This way all the presents, cake, and decorations won't be crammed into one month.
We let Will decide what he wanted to do today. He chose to spend the morning in his pajamas and then go to Altoona after lunch. We went to Toys R Us, the Slinky Action Zone, and to the train display at Holiday Lights on the Lake. We also had dinner at Outback Steakhouse where they sang Happy Birthday to Will while he enjoyed a special birthday dessert.
Fun at the Slinky Action Zone
Will loved the super-fast slide.
We made two slow laps around the train display.
Will actually wanted his picture taken!!!
Enjoying a special dessert at the Outback. Chocolate waffles - yum!!
And now some pictures from the beginning...
At the hospital
One week old
Two weeks old
Eight weeks old
Will has only aged 4 years but I think he has aged me 40!! : ) Oh well - he's worth every extra wrinkle and every missing inch of hair! I love you, Will!!!!
On Friday we drove to Virginia to share Christmas with our family. Friday night we went to Grandad's house for a Christmas party and to exchange gifts. That's always our most boisterous celebration!
We did a Christmas ornament exchange where we passed ornaments upon hearing "right" or "left"
in a story mom was reading.
Then we did a group present exchange. Luckily Will chose a gift bag that
contained a blanket. Some of the gifts would have been less than appropriate for him!
Grandad built Will a very nice wooden box and filled it with
cash. Will was so excited! I don't think he had ever seen so much
money at once!
Of course, Will loved playing with the train. And this time he
had a playmate - his cousin, Dillon.
Grandad with all his kids.
For Grandad and Mom's Christmas presents this year we are taking them to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon with us in February. To surprise Grandad, I Photoshopped him into some pictures of the casinos, the Grand Canyon, Lake Meade and Hoover Dam. In the back on the photo book I made an airline boarding pass for him. He was so surprised when he finally figured out what the photo book was all about!
On Saturday morning we went to visit Jenny, Craig, and Brittney. Will got very spoiled there, as usual!
Saturday evening Aunt Carol had her Christmas Eve party and we went to the candlelight service with Grandma Margie at Lifeline Ministries. On the way we stopped by a light display in Bath County consisting of half a million lights!
Their display on 97 Grandview Road in Hot Springs is the creation of 15 year-old, Jordan. He has been creating the display for the past 5 years. According to his Grammy, he asks for decorations, lights, blowups, etc for his birthday and Christmas. People in the community help him put up the display each year. You can drive by, walk through, and even enjoy some hot chocolate when you go to see the various holiday displays. Some nights you will even see Santa!
Here is his website so you can have a sneak peak at what you will see. There's even a webcam to see the lights live. http://www.celebratechristmasforest.com/
On Christmas morning we went to church with Grandad at Faith Baptist then opened presents at mom's house. Here Will was spoiled rotten once again! He loved it!
Afterwards we went to Grandma Margie's house for lunch and more presents!
My cousin, Emily, initiated a game of marbles that Will and his two cousins,
Isaac, and Sophia really enjoyed.
Will was thrilled to get even more money. And he'll be thrilled
with it all over again when he can cash in the savings bonds we plan to
buy with all his cash!
All three kids enjoyed playing with the My Little Pony sets.
Will liked it because he thought the candy was real!
He looked at the miniature gum ball machine and said "Come on out
candy so I can eat you!"
We had a very busy weekend but we were so fortunate to be able to spend time with our family and friends! Will had a wonderful Christmas again this year! We are so blessed!
We had a wonderful Christmas morning together! Santa brought Will a remote controlled Cranky the Crane! He also got Legos, some new Thomas trains, and two new games. In his stocking he got an electric toothbrush, a new Thomas DVD (can you tell what one of his favorite things is right now?), a wallet with a driver's license, and a matchbox car. But the thing that made him stop digging in the stocking for more was the M&M candy cane, of course!
Will must be like Grandad Mike! He shook this present and correctly
guessed it contained Legos! (My dad could ALWAYS guess what
was in his presents!)
And last, but not least, the dogs had a great Christmas too. Will picked out presents for them including a chew bone for each one. Josie wasn't interested in hers so Napoleon quickly confiscated both of them for himself.
He was really cute sitting there with both of his bones.
We decided to celebrate our Christmas together on Thursday before we travel to Covington for the holiday. That means this is Christmas Eve for us so we finished reading the Nativity story tonight and Will made his last ornament and ate his last piece of candy. Here are a few more of the ornaments we ended up with.
The donkey Mary rode to Bethlehem.
The stable where Jesus was born.
Baby Jesus in the manger.
A sheep to remind us of the shepherds that came to worship Jesus.
The star that led the wise men to the new King.
One wise man (on the right) and the gift he
brought to Jesus (on the left).
We made Christmas cookies with Lindsay, Natalee, and Brady this evening. Looking back on the evening it really was fun, though there was a brief time during the icing phase when "fun" was not the word I would have chosen! You will note the conspicuous absence of pictures of the kids icing the cookies. This is a testament to the difficulties we had with that part - neither of us had a chance to even think about pictures!
Lessons learned for next time:
1. Icing in baggies does not work when you have more kids than adults! Painting on icing glaze like we did at Valentine's Day worked much better!
2. Divide the baking and the icing with a period of play time in between (great idea Lindsay!) The kids have too much energy to sit and focus that long.
3. I will just have to invest in more sprinkles for Will and resign myself to the fact that he will waste 90% of them, but remember that he will enjoy it more that way and that's what my goal really is anyway!
Will's favorite part this year was the spatula Natalee got out to lift the cookies!
A few of our finished products. Lindsay and I ended up applying the
icing and the kids did the sprinkles.
