Highs and Lows

The past few weeks have been so full. Full of joy and laughter and funny moments, and times of grief, sorrow, heartbreak, and then more great memories and success on top of that. I guess that is just a glimpse of what life is like, right? Thankful this life is not the end of the story.

The little joy of my life, Finn, has the most beautiful curls. Finn is now the only member of our family who uses "product" in his hair. 

For Thanksgiving this year, we hosted again which really is so fun and easy to let the boys stay in their element and be doted on by the family. It is also great because I can buy the ingredients and get my mom and Megan to do the cooking ;) Lucas had a blast being with the boys and playing trucks and football and anything else he asked of them.

The night before Thanksgiving, we went to see the lights at Opryland and get ice cream. Their light display is so amazing, it is overwhelming to take it all in, I wish I could see it from the boy's eyes. 

Lucas' new cartoon addiction is Jake and The Neverland Pirates. It really is so cute, and I love hearing the stories from school when he and all his buddies act out the stories and characters. 

Lucas had a pretty good cold so we decided to only go to second service since he would be sitting with me. That gave us a good chunk of extra time, so what did we do? Take pictures of course. I mean, could the child smile any harder? I think not. His dimple might explode.

He is so handsome and so mature and so tall and so sweet. Sometimes I forget he is only 3. He looks like he should be headed off to college in this photo!

The boys have really started playing together more, I think Lucas loves that Finn will laugh at just about anything he does, what 3 year old wouldn't love that? Finn is great at throwing the ball, and now that he walks, he loves to walk to Lucas and tackle him with a great big hug. And lots of giggles. The videos I have captured of this are just precious. 

One of our new advent season traditions is "25 Days of Books". It has been so fun thus far, each day at some point, a wrapped book appears under the tree. They were all carefully selected books, I wanted them to be meaningful and sweet, all dealing with Christmas. Lucas loves climbing into the big chair to read his new book each day.

Christmas with Santa was just wonderful as it always is, this is another one of my favorite Otter Creek traditions. Finn was about on his last sane nerve for us making him skip his nap for all this activity but once he saw Santa, he was mesmorized. Lucas was so excited and ran in to see Santa with his arms out ready for a jolly big hug. 

 The penguin theme was just amazing, including this igloo made out of milk jugs.

These little bits are not so little bit anymore. STOP GROWING SO FAST! Oh and Jane Claire, with that perfect prom pose. 

My favorite part of this best buddy photo is how tightly they have their arms around each other. 

We have had unseasonably- even for TN- warm weather. It has been so fun to play outside and visit parks, but it makes it hard when mommy wants us to wear our matching penguin outfits and it is 75 outside. Oh well. 

Attempt #1 of making that pinterest photo. Didn't work with baby that thought lights were way too fun to swing around. 

And besides the adorableness of Santa baby, our other exciting news is we are now pull-up free in our house! Lucas is so proud of himself. He got a night out with mom and dad at Chuck E Cheese after we took him to dinner, where he ordered----a steak. Ha. He did eat it too!