It's a reverse Christmas miracle!

The ward Christmas Party was last night and they had pictures with Santa before the festivities began. I was pretty sure it was going to take a miracle to get both our kids up there for pictures this year. Last year I ruined Christmas (for the record she doesn't remember) and Tanner was freaking out. The year before both kids were screaming.


As soon as those jingle bells started jingling, Lana turned into this. And Tanner perked right up and as soon as he saw Santa he sat up real tall, looked at me with his eyes wide open and said , "Momma...it's Santa!"


It took hardly any convincing on my part for Tanner to go sit on Santa's lap for a picture.


He was all about telling Santa about getting anything and everything Lightning McQeen this year.


It also helped that Santa had a bag full of candy canes.


We tried to convince Lana that she needed to tell Santa about the one thing she REALLY wants for Christmas (Unicorn Pillow Pet) to make sure that it will be under the tree, but not even that would convince her to go up.

Thanksgiving fun

We had a fantastic time hosting some of the Judson's (and Miller's and Kowallis'...but they're all Judson's at heart anyway) at our house again this year. And since I was so incredibly busy trying to make sure everyone didn't starve no pictures were captured of the actual "Thanksgiving Feast". Rest assured everyone ate well and we had sufficient amounts of left overs this year. Except for the Cheese Ball and Fudge. I don't think we would ever have leftovers of Cheese Ball and Fudge no matter how much I made.

Some of us attempted Black Friday shopping. Some of us stayed home (me!). All of us went to multiple Dirt Cheap locations and we even decided to have a last minute White Elephant gift exchange.

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day so we took the kids over to a park in Petal that we've never been to. Turns out it was a fantastic idea because this park is awesome. It's geared to both big and little kids. And I think the adults had more fun than the kids.




There were these two gigantic slides, I've never seen slides so big. I think Tanner was the first one up and he went down the red one first. He literally came shooting out the end about 3 feet and landing on his bum. Everyone (including Tanner) was a little shocked and then we're all cheering and laughing so he doesn't freak out.


No freak out in sight. He actually went down both slides multiple times. The Blue slide is a little more tame.


Hi Brayden!


It took some convincing but Lana finally decided to try the Blue slide.


Scott and Paul on the teeter-totter







Karen catching some air on the teeter-totter.


Paul on the one person merry-go-round.


We all had a blast. Definitely going back to that park when it warms up!

Happy Birthday Tanner!

Sometimes I feel a little guilty about celebrating Tanner's birthday with Thanksgiving. I feel like I'm short changing him or something. But in reality, he didn't care. He enjoyed having some of his cousins and a whole bunch of aunts and uncles and grandma and grandpa there.


Thanks to everyone for Tanner's bday gifts. He loved them!


And unfortunately he's still not too great at sharing (still working on that). Sorry Daniel!






He absolutely loved this Lightning McQueen book Grandpa Jerry sent. I have read it to him multiple times a day. Now he can "read" it (in Tanner-ese) to me!

Tanner's Holiday Program

Tanner is awesome, what more can I say? I love to watch this kid perform and be a "big" boy. He makes his momma proud! I wasn't sure how he was going to react when he saw us (we sat on the front row for easy viewing). My guess he was either going to

A. Run to us and not want to perform or
B. Make a big fuss about us, wave and yell at us (and he is NOT quiet by any means).



We made contact as they were walking in from the side hallway. He saw us, waved and then went to the stage. 15 seconds into the first song he came running over to us (and started 3 other kids running to their parents too...oops!). He was so excited to be showing us his program they've been working on. We told him to go back and he did. 20 seconds later he told his teacher, "I be right back ok?" and came running back. He did this a few times and finally stayed in one place. He did such a good job, mostly doing all the actions and singing some words when he wasn't mesmerized by the gigantic projector screens on the wall behind him!





You can tell he's poised to make a run for it. And we're sitting in our seats waving at him and trying to convince him to stay there! He doesn't listen and ends up coming over anyway...


Listening to Ms. Sharon (that's Gracelynn's mom...Grace was/is Lana's friend from last year.)


Tanner and Ms. Emily.



Awesome job Tanner-Man!