Oops, I did it again

Well, I let a month go by without an update... it's actually been a pretty busy month so my mind hasn't been on blogging.  However, I will play catch up. 

My mom and I  took a weekend getaway to Nashville for her birthday in early November.  We enjoyed some delicious meals, marked lots of items off of our Christmas list and enjoyed the Radio City Rockettes Christmas Spectacular at the Grand Ole Opry House.  It was a beautiful show with lots of exciting, fast paced dance numbers, a 3-D movie that puts you in the passenger's seat of Santa's sleigh, as you fly through New York City and a finale of the stunning reenactment of the first Christmas in the "Living Nativity" with real life animals!

Thanksgiving was great and we celebrated not once but 3 times with 3 seperate meals.  A Wednesday night dinner with Jamie's family, Thursday Thanksgiving lunch with my dad's side of the family and a Friday dinner with my family.  Also on Friday night, one of my good friends from high school had a going away party so I had an AWESOME time catching up with friends that I haven't seen in awhile.

The first weekend in December we had our annual Brink shopping trip and stayed at the fabulous Opryland Hotel.  Jamie's parents take us somewhere each year and instead of trying to guess what each of us would like, they give us our christmas shopping money and allow us to spend the weekend shopping for ourselves.  Plus they give us money to buy for our kids, from them, so we can pick out exactly what our kids need, too.  It's a shopping-dining-football-watching trip for the adults... no kids allowed; and we always have a ton of fun.  Jamie's family is hysterical and pretty crazy (good crazy, not bad crazy) so it's a guaranteed fun weekend no matter where we are.  And the Opryland Hotel is my favorite at Christmas time because of how beautifully decorated it is.  Since the SEC Championship was that Saturday, we shopped up until game time, then all watched it together in the sports bar inside of the hotel and were thrilled to watch Bama take home the title.

Last week, Collier had his Christmas program at preschool.  I was so excited to see him perform the songs he had learned.  Jamie, my mom, and I arrived and positioned ourselves front and center so we could see our little man.  He marched in with his class and sat so sweetly in between two little girls, with his hands in his lap and a cute little smile on his face ... until he made eye contact with me.  His face LIT up and that was it... he left that stage and ran into my arms, refusing to go back up to the stage to sing.  I took him back up on the stage and sat beside his teacher and other classmates and held him while they performed.  However, he just hugged me tightly and wouldn't even face the audience. I'll admit, I was a little disappointed, however he is just 2 AND is the youngest in his class, so I know his behavior is pretty typical for a little toddler.  However, lesson learned.  Next time, I will stay hidden until AFTER he finishes his songs!

Whew! It's been a busy, fun few weeks and I can't believe Christmas is right around the corner! Thank goodness majority of my Christmas has already been purchased, although it currently is sitting in bags down in my basement so I have lots of wrapping to do.  I'm excited to enjoy these next 12 days by visiting Santa, driving around to see Christmas lights and letting my boys experience the excitement and wonder that the Christmas season has to offer!

 {Harper's 1st Thanksgiving}

 

{Collier giving Harper kisses}

{Noah sure loves this little girl}

 {I'm a very proud aunt!}

 

{And Lindsay is a proud aunt, too}

 



{this child LOVED fried turkey}

 

{Noah and his sly little grin}

 

 {Noah & Uncle D are buddies}

 

{everyone in attendance at Casey's party}

 {high school buddies}

 



{The Powell - Brink - Bright clan... Thanksgiving 2012}

 

{So thankful for my 3 boys}

 

{mine and Jamie's balcony view from our hotel room at the Opryland Hotel}

 

{such a sweet little boy, sitting so good and still...}

 

{and eye contact has been made...}

 

{"Hey, did you see that?! My mommy is here!"}

 

{and this was the end of it for Collier... he was up and in my lap in a heartbeat!}

 

{cute little brothers in their Sunday's best}

Two Year Stats

Collier had his 2 year check up this week and he is doing great! He weighed 26lbs (with clothes on) and was 34" tall, which was around the 30% in weight and I think around 50th % in height. I looked back at Noah's stats and at 2 years old, he weighed 28lbs 9 oz. however, I don't have his height written down but I know Collier is smaller/shorter.  I expressed my concern with him being on the small side but Dr. A said he was perfect: fit and lean.  He said most childrens clothes these days are built for thicker kids and I shouldn't be concerned that he's still in a 12 - 18 month size pants. He also told me that his picky eating habits are completely normal and eating 1-2 meals a day is pretty typical.  He was pleased with his language skills and how well he is talking and said that vocabulary normally explodes around 2 years old... which it has.  In the past few weeks, he's begun saying so many new words and using more sentences.  I enjoy that we can talk with each other and it's a 2 sided conversation!  I'm amazed at how much he has picked up from being in school just 4 hours for 1 day a week.  It's good for him to be around other kids his age that he can socialize, play with and learn from.  Collier's class had Thanksgiving lunch today and the parents were able to join them.  It was a Thanksgiving feast fit for any 2 year old... Chick-fil-a nuggets, fries and a side of corn on the cob, along with a couple of different pies and chocolate chip cookies.  After a sweet prayer of thankfulness, the kids dug in and enjoyed their gourmet meal.



Trick or Treat!

This Halloween Noah dressed as a Fireman and Collier was a Dalmation. I love coordinating their costumes and will continue to do so until they will no longer let me! (Last year, Noah was a cowboy, Collier was a horse).   We had to make several stops on our Trick or Treating excursion for all the family to see the boys and we ended up in my parents neighborhood where we took the boys door-to-door to some of our long-time neighbors/friends.  We've been working with Collier on saying "Trick or Treat!" which comes out like "twick tweat" but he was kind of bashful and wouldn't always say it for the neighbors, although he loved knocking on all of the doors.  After visiting a few houses we came back to my parent's for dinner and spent the rest of the evening handing out candy.  This was Noah's favorite part.  He, my dad and Derrick sat on the front porch passing out candy and Noah loved seeing all the kids come up to the porch in their costumes!  The kids had a great evening and racked up with alot of candy.  And I can't believe another Halloween has come and gone!

 

 

 

 

 

we ran into collier's friend lily 

 

 



harper's first trick-or-treating experience 

 

Is uncle jamie having baby fever? he held harper all night long and even gave her a bottle 

 

harper makes a cute minnie mouse

 

 





Meeska, Mouska, Mickey Mouse! It's Collier's Clubhouse

Collier loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so it only made sense for us to have a Mickey Mouse Bash for his 2nd birthday!  We invited his cousins, buddies from church as well as a couple other friends for a Mickey themed lunch of Hot Diggity Dogs, Minnies Munchies (chips), Clarabelle's Chicken Salad and Toodles Noodles (pasta salad) and of course an awesome Mickey CAKE!  Despite the sudden frigid drop in temperatures, the kids had a great time jumping, bouncing and playing on the inflatable bouncy house and slide that we rented.  Collier got lots of fun toys and had a great time with his friends and family!  This was my first time to really go all out with decorations and I had such a fun time planning/making it all!