2014 Alabama Christmas, Part 2

On Christmas eve, Grammie and Pappy had Amelia put the star on the tree.

 

On Christmas morning, Amelia assumed her position as distributor.

But we convinced her to let Austin have a few turns.

Family photo

We drove over to see the Callaway Gardens light show in Atlanta, GA. It was a lovely evening and the kids were tickled to be out of the carseats once we started driving through the light show.

Daddy had them doing chin-ups on the garment bar while we were waiting in line.

Although Amelia is pretty much too big for this car, she found a way to get inside and scoot around. It's definitely still Austin's favorite thing.

I hauled up a project for my mom and me that we'd talked about doing some months ago - glass etching. So we etched some dollar store vases. My mom's had a monogram on it. I did the word "bloom". They turned out pretty neat and now we know how to do it.

 

Pappy and Amelia built a monster truck in his shop

Painted it

Decked it out with decals

My mom caught these two great photos of the kids and I. I'm grateful and really like them.

Grammie had Amelia doing all kinds of chores that I had previously considered too old for her. Here she is washing dishes. (pretend ones, but still did a decent job) And she loved being a helper. It's a great stage.

Not sure what game this is....

Making waffles

Boy and a chainsaw. Enough said.

They made bells from solo cups and stickers.

Amelia now has her own nail polish so we had to put it on.

Patrick was particularly proud of his ability to head-butt the ball onto Austin's head.

Yup. Same book.

The Roomba can provide hours of entertainment.

Amelia remembered her knitting so Great Grammie pulled it out for her and we added on a few rows.

 

I got the chance to run a few times at both families' homes. Patrick brought the kids with him during one of my runs and Amelia actually kept up with me for parts of the track.

We took a morning to visit Patrick's great aunts. We don't know her exact age but we estimate Great Aunt Faye to be around 96. She just recently slowed down, but still loves a good visit. Austin followed through with the charm.

 

Martha brought a few small toys to keep the kids entertained.

Then we headed over to Great Aunt Gatsie's (who we think is about 90). Some folks heard we were driving down and came over to visit with Granddaddy (who grew up in the town).

 

Such a sweet morning visit!

2014 Alabama Christmas, Part 1

When we checked last spring on flights to Alabama for the four of us, they were already expensive. So we talked ourselves into doing the 16hr without kids drive (2 days for us). We told ourselves we would do it this once and it would be so miserable that we'd have reason to buy plane tickets in the future. We were pleasantly surprised that the kids did well on the drive down to Alabama. There was moderate use of the iPad with Curious George (mostly when Austin took his midday nap and after dark). Otherwise, they were happy with the bag of tricks I had prepared (thank goodness for pinterest!)

The biggest challenge was the amount of time after the sun went down (3-4 hours on Day1, 2-3hours on Day2). Here's how we tried to stay occupied.

We arrived in Alabama and stayed with Grandma & Granddaddy for the first week. We were able to grab a good family photo.

 

Visiting with Great Granddaddy

These cousins kept each other entertained most of the time!

I couldn't find a photo to demonstrate how Amelia reacted to her cousin Harrison. She dotes on him, asking him to play with her and basically demanding his attention/bossing him around their entire visit. At a later visit I was told that she climbed in his lap and snuggled to him. He was a sweetheart went right along with it even though he could have been doing more-fun-for-him activities. I'm so glad she choose a cousin so thoughtful to be attached too.

 Granddaddy makes every game or toy so silly!

 

You know how your kids get obsessed with a book for a month at a time? Well our kids are all about Chicka Chicka Boom Boom right now (and have been for the last 2 months). Amelia can "read" it to Austin (basically memorized) and even Austin has his cues memorized - "boom, boom", "oh no!", "B, C". So our family ended up reading this book a lot. It's a good thing we have two copies.

Big boy on the big wheel

Can't ride it yet but can push with his feet

Doing tricks

 

The kids still love Grandma's pool (as Amelia calls it). We probably would have tried to go more often if we hadn't packed our schedule out.

 

The fitness room next to the pool had all kinds of fun things to do!

Showing how-to do the machine

Showing off his muscles

She even did the rowing machine

This is how daddy likes to use the weight machines

The kids got measured on Granddaddy's chart. It was the first time that Amelia asked and was a willing participant.

Funny observation - Amelia consistently has 3-4 inches on Austin at the same ages. Daddy's banking on basketball/volleyball scholarships.

We met Gabrielle for lunch at chick-fil-a (a great joy to those of us who don't live near one!) You can see that Austin was a charmer.

Amelia on the other hand was not in a good mood. So Daddy took a selfie.

Cuddles with Grandma

This piano gets quite a bit of love when we visit.

Granddaddy keeping them busy taking notes.

Amelia really got into the present-handing-out job. As eldest grandchild, I suppose it's her birthright.

These boots would be worn every day if I let her.

Austin liked mommy's new rain boots

 

Austin loved the funny noises Uncle Nathan would make

 

There was a quiet few moments. Grandma went to look for Austin.

 Found him with my wallet, taking it apart. He's a smart boy.

Granddaddy is the best at tea parties.

While we jumped to Grammie & Pappy's on Christmas eve, we returned for Christmas Day lunch. Here's a group photo, minus Grandma.