First Snow of the season

Our first snow of the season came a little early this year. We're lucky if we see much or any at all. It was enough to create a little ruckus and some excitement for the kids.

Christmas in the Country

Another favorite tradition of ours is going to Christmas in the Country at the Triple R Ranch. It's a big family owned ranch that opens their property for 2 weekends before Christmas. They usually have the place all decked out with Christmas lights with lots of activities for the kids and families to enjoy. Pony rides, hayrides, crafts, music, rock climbing, a live Nativity, a chili feast, and bon fires along the way. The kids are at the age now where they are starting to remember the things from previous years that they look forward to doing each year.

Laura wasn't too sure at first if she wanted to pet the animals or not.

It was neat watching this man take old horse shoes and heat the metal up to form new things. He was making a horse shoe pick and when it was done he handed it to Bradley. It made him a happy little boy. He wasn't expecting it.

Me and my girl

Enjoying the cozy hayride

Bradley and Alayna loved the horse rides, but Laura was scared to death and paniced when we tried to set her on the horse just for a picture so that wasn't happening.

Meet Dash and Lightning

Here are our two new Christmas blessings dash and lightning. Poor things have had so many names until Bradley and Alayna are now settled what their kitties will be called. We had plans this year to surprise the kids with two kittens. After Ashley died last year we didn't have any plans on getting another pet....a least for a while. We had our other 2 cats for 15 years so they really didn't grow up with the kids since we had them way before kids and they weren't really attached to each other however, when Ashley started getting sicker Alayna had such a sensitivity towards her and was more and more drawn to her and would sit with her and talk to her and read her stories and pet her. Even though it was a sad time it was a sweet time. After she was gone Alayna just couldn't figure out why she was gone and would always say "it's just taking Ashley too long to get back from heaven and when will she be back" along with all sorts of random off and on comments. A few months ago she really started talking about wanting a puppy and a kitty and how fun it would be to have them to play with and follow her around everywhere. It just really touched my heart to hear her say these things. It seemed our hearts were all ready to enter the kitty world again. It started the talks of how we were going to pull it off for Christmas day. Craig called me in the middle of one day wanting me to meet him at the Hope Center on his lunch break and see what they had. I told him I just couldn't come "look" and not take them home:) but I so wanted to pull it off for Christmas day as well. It ended up being that I couldn't meet him at that time so we met there the next day. I walked into the kitty room and sat down and about 4 of the 10 started climbing on me and taking turns. It was just so stinkin cute!! I had 2 on my shoulders and 4 on my lap and thought "oh how could I choose?" I stayed in there and played forever. Only one was allowed in there at a time so while I played Craig and the kids played with the other bigger kitties and cats. The hope center couldn't hold any cats or kittens until Christmas and since that was going to be a big part of their christmas present we didn't want to take the chance of waiting so......long story short as we were discussing what to do and one of the ladies told us to pick out any 2 cats we wanted that day and she would just give them to us......in the mean time we believe God was leading Alayna's little heart to 2 other older kittens that we bypassed right when we walked in because I wanted 2 baby girls and these were 2 bigger boys. There were triplets, but Alayna kept going back to 2 of them saying these are the 2 that we should get and that she loved them ones. It took everything in us to not get the 3rd one and talked about it for the next few days after, but decided we were settled on the 2. So needless to say that is exactly what we did and definitely know those were the two kittens God wanted us to have and we are so thankful for them. He has been so faithful and good to our family. They have been just the little loves of our family and perfect additions. They are so affectionate and can definitely handle alot of love and craziness. The kids take them to bed with them at night which is such a sweet time. Bradley and Alayna make forts with pillows and blankets for them. Sarah and Alayna dress them in baby doll outfits and play house with them. Alayna keeps saying everyday how much she loves her kitty and keeps saying "thank you so much for getting these kittens for us" The love you see in her eyes for them is just so priceless. Bradley loves his kitty so much too and just the way he totes it around and talks to it is pricess as well. I found him in his room one day with his kitty on his bed and he was showing dash his new football cards. I just sat and watched him and he didn't know I was there. When I walked in he told me he had read his book to him too. As for Laura....in the beginning once she learned the word kitty that's all she would squeal was (TITTY!!!) and it was with a purpose and on a mission she would chase them around and try to pick them up by the neck, but has now learned to say ni titty for nice kitty and has learned gentleness with them. One day she sprayed one of their heads down with 409, (which isn't too funny, but it happened and had somehow found a stray bottle) she has picked her nose and used the cats as tissue because she's the chronic nose picker of the family and I've found boogers on them. Now that she's learned how to treat the titties and learned that they really do only have 9 lives we're good to go. We still make sure they get the breaks they need. They sure put up with alot of lovin, but they keep coming back for more. Once again we are thankful for these little guys.

Williamsburg

We had great fun as always on our annual tradition of going to Williamsburg right after Thanksgiving. Gramma Dennice was able to join us this year so that was a special treat. We started off at the Yankee Candle Village to visit with Santa. Laura would have none of him what so ever. She was absolutely terrified!! Poor Santa gave it his all trying to get her to sit with him, but no way hosay! Long enough to get the classice baby screams in Santa's picture and that was it. She's the first of all three of the kids that wants nothing to do with any furry character or Santa. Just another way she's broke the mold:) The Santa at Yankee is always so good with the kids and interacts with them a little more. The kids especially love the dark room at the village with the night sky that forecasts snow every 4 minutes to fall from the ceiling. After that we headed to the Christmas Mouse and Gramma bought them their ornaments and chocolate christmas countdown calendars this year. Bradley picked out a snow globe with his name on it, Alayna picked out a beautiful ballerina, and Laura got a gingerbread cookie because she loves cookies and that is one of her favorite words:) Of course she tried to eat it and bit the string off, but it survived. Then we headed to Merchants Square for a late picnic lunch, went for coffee and cookies at Aromas and let the kids play along the streets and taking it all in. The were so many leaves and they had so much fun playing in all of them. Santa was due to walk the streets in the late afternoon so we waited for him and then right after that we stayed for the Christmas Carol play that the Virginia Theater puts on right in the street. The kids remembered it from last year and loved it. This year they added some neat new twists to it. All in all it was a great family day and a fun tradition.