Happy Birthday to Our Savior

What a great Christmas day we had. We are striving to keep the focus on the birth of our Savior and as our pastor preached this morning, we are truly stuck in the middle. Stuck in the middle of this world and heaven. Where we place our hope determines how we live today. And today I pray we live for our Lord and be truly encouraged by the fact that He came as a baby to be our redeemer and allow us to have a relationship with our Father. 

So we do gifts for Fulton but they are from Mommy and Daddy and we talk about how we give gifts because Jesus came as the greatest gift we could ever receive. But this little guy was excited because he rode a scooter at a friends house recently and loved it. So we knew he would enjoy one. Since it's been raining so much he has actually been riding in the house. Love it!

Merry Christmas from the Howards. Had to try out our hats one more time before storing them away.

Fulton picked out this tie by himself for daddy. Here's the precious part. That same night at the dinner table Fulton said to Matt "We bought you a tie today." No more secrets with this little guy. 

 

We don't go overboard for Christmas and thought we had everything we were planning to get for this little guy. Then anytime someone would ask him, what do you want for Christmas? He would say--Thomas the Train. So, we made one more trip to the store and found him a little 

travel track for his trains. 

It's all about practicality around here. Nothing like a good ole headlamp. By the way, Pop and KK got Fulton a matching headlamp. It's the little things that excite this boy. 

After we had some time with just the three of us, the rest of the family came over for breakfast. Fulton was so excited when Grandma came because he wanted to show her how to play a new game he got from Grandma Janet. 

 

We started doing the whole breakfast thing a few years ago and I am so glad we did. It was delicious. We made pancakes, breakfast casserole, bacon, sausage, cheese grits, scrambled eggs, and fruit. We were stuffed. 

Have I mentioned Fulton's love language?? Not that we have given him the assessment, but I believe his love language is truly quality time. He loves when people sit down and just spend time with him. His tank was full having all our family over for the day. 

I mentioned we don't go overboard on Christmas, but my family doesn't always abide by the rules. Fulton was introduced to the etch-a-sketch and has created some serious masterpieces 

since opening it. 

We were so glad that dad went and got Grandma to spend the day with us. I think she was worn out from the festivities, but we loved having her over. 

Kiki and Pete are too sweet to this little guy too!! 

No more stealing our phones to take pictures. We have our own family photographer now. 

Our sweet little family. 

Everyone headed home mid afternoon and this guy took a three hour nap. After he woke up we made some sweet treats for Jesus's birthday and delivered them to the firemen close by. What a beautiful day celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior. 

Celebrating Pop

Last Tuesday was a special day in our family. It was Pop's 63rd birthday. 

Dad chose Moe's BBQ for dinner and it was delicious. We headed back to Keri and Pete's house and sister made a gluten free cookie cake for dad. We have always had to get creative with a birthday dessert for dad because of his allergy to flour. This was a hit

Dad with his girls plus Fulton. He has to be in every picture. 

 

Pop had his little helper there to assist with gifts. 

These two are best buddies. He helped him blow out his candles too!

We had a great night celebrating our sweet daddy. He's a hardworking selfless man and 

We love you Dad!!

Stage Fright

Fulton had a big day on Sunday. So we got up early from the lake and headed to church because the little cutie below had his very first preschool choir performance. 

 

He has choir practice on Wednesday nights and they have been practicing their songs for months. We have even listened to the cd in the car since October. I couldn't wait to hear him belt out those precious songs he had worked so hard on. 

 

And then he started to wig out a little. We got in the sanctuary early like we were supposed to and he sat like a statue watching the older kids practice. This was after he dramatically threw himself onto the stairs saying--he couldn't sing, he just couldn't do it. We kept giving him pep talks and pumping him up and then it was time for us to leave. 

We headed down to our small group for a bit and then came back in time to see him in the first service. Looks like he mustered up the courage because here he goes walking proudly onto the stage. 

Look at our handsome little guy up there. I am so proud of him. 

The whole fam came in time to see him sing in the second service and this pretty much sums up his performance. Yep, he didn't sing a word. Not one single word... the entire time. That little stinker. 

But he sure was proud when he saw us. Sweet boy was just a waving to us. 

And then this occurred. He really put his fingers in his ears for a good bit of this one song. We asked him afterwards why he did that and he said the kids behind him were singing too loud. Memories. 

We came home and rested up and finally unloaded the car. Later that night we met up with everyone and enjoyed the lights at Zoolight Safari. 

 

Do you and your family have personalized Santa hats?! Festive huh? We were given these as gifts by Fulton's sweet preschool teacher. We put these on last night and set out to see some good Christmas lights. 

Today has been a rainy yucky day, but it is a very special day. It's Dad's birthday!! We surprised him at work this morning with some good gluten free treats and his favorite, Diet Mt. Dew. We hope you have had the best birthday ever Dad!! We love you!! We are meeting up for dinner later to continue the celebration. I split from the boys and had lunch with my bestie Ryan Lee. Good time to catch up without chasing little ones. 

Lake Celebration

We spent the weekend at the lake with our extended family, the Bouchillons, having an early Christmas celebration with them. 

Fulton and I rode up with KK and Pop on Thursday night. Yay for having a job that I am off on Fridays. These two spent most of the morning Friday blowing leaves. Fulton just followed Pop around the yard jumping in the leaves. He had a blast. 

Matt, Steven and Keri arrived later Friday afternoon and the boys had a some grilling to do. 

Dinner was a full house, you think?!

Saturday morning Caleb and Fulton enjoyed decorating cookies together. 

We lounged around a lot too. 

But the whole family returned for a delicious meal Saturday afternoon. We actually got Fulton to wear his crown for a few minutes. 

These three had fun together. 

The girls did our annual ornament exchange and then we did a few gifts. 

Matt and I went home with two Chick-fil-A gift cards. We love some gift cards. 

Mema hit the jackpot on the gifts with the boys. She got them each a remote control jeep. They had a blast. Fulton may have broken his ten minutes into playing with it, but we are hoping it can be repaired. 

Not just any old Christmas pot holder.. there was some good stuff in those mitts. Whoop whoop!!

Getting together with our whole family is always a special time. We are so blessed with precious family and realize that we must cherish these times because we are never promised tomorrow. 

Partying Hard

Before we get to the party, I just had to share this sweet picture. 

I have mentioned that Fulton loves being in the kitchen with me. We were baking some goodies for sister's ornament party Tuesday night and someone got a hold of the cream cheese packet after I was finished with it. He enjoyed it just a little bit :)

Fulton had his Christmas party at school today. Ms. Juliette let them open their gifts and he came running over to my room to show me. The perks of having a room right next to his is that I get to enjoy these sweet moments. He loved the Santa hat with his name on it. 

When I asked him what his favorite part of the party was he said... the food. Literally the kid said his favorite part was the pizza and cupcake. Sheesh. 

Aunt Keri came today to enjoy the festivities. So much appreciate her coming and being there for Fulton as  I popped back and forth from the parties. He loved having her there!!

And here's the after party.. these three!!! 

 We got some snuggles from Mrs. Vin too!!

So we had a great party day. My sweet little ones had fun and I think Fulton's class had a blast too!! 

Parties and Houses

Last Saturday morning we had a neighborhood Christmas party. 

All the years we have lived here we have never been. 

We enjoyed a little crafty time of which Fulton wasn't really interested in and would have rather just focused on the snacks they had. 

The main event was when these two arrived. 

We don't really talk about Santa in our home (gasp again) but Fulton knows who he is, but that's not the focus in our home during Christmas. So he was a little nervous and I thought he may tear up, but he held strong. 

And eventually a smile came out. So we let him sit on Santa's lap and that's about all I wanted to pay for a picture... free. But we are drowning him in the Word this season and pray he understands that this about the birth of our Savior and nothing else. 

Sunday night we made a gingerbread house. We declared it last year that this would be a tradition. It started off a little rocky and the house kept falling down. I begged Matt to get the hot glue gun but he said that was cheating. And then Fulton started eating the sides of the house. Good memories. 

But the icing stayed strong and the decorating began. 

We had fun... even when the millions of teeny tiny candy balls went flying through the kitchen. We may find those for days. 

Our finished product looks pretty good. Matt gets pretty serious with stuff like this. After this picture he was determined to use all that icing and made icicles hanging from the edges. He is a perfectionist.