Christmas Photos 2010!

A slideshow design by Smilebox

I would like to thank my dear friend Julie for capturing these amazing pictures for us. They turned out beautifully! It's going to be a tough decision picking just one to go on our first family Christmas card!

Check out Julie's work on her blog: Be Still Photography by Julie.

It is definitely the beginning of a very Merry Christmas in the Day house hold!!  

Christmas Traditions Begin

While everyone else was standing in line last night at Toys R Us...we Days were sitting on our couch snuggled up together watching Toy Story 3.  Which I think it's safe to say is as good as the first one and WAY better than the second one.  Andrew wanted to get to bed early because he knew Santa was sending a special someone his way on Thanksgiving night, John...the Elf on the Shelf.  The Elf on the Shelf has been apart of our family Christmas tradition since 2008, but it was only this year that Andrew decided to name him John (after a little boy in his class) instead of just Elf. 

And sure enough John appeared on schedule!

 At first Andrew was a little distraught when he woke up and didn't see him in the library, he just knew that's where he would be.  And the first words out of his mouth weren't "Where's my coffee milk?"  He was out of bed and looking for John the Elf.  But after a few minutes of seeking we found him, sitting happily on Andrew's trophy self above his bed. :)

After Andrew said his hellos and told John how good he's been this year, we watch a few videos about the Elves on the Shelves.  I love a child's imagination powers.

After all of that we were off to see Tangled.  It was really cute, but still doesn't beat How to Train Your Dragon.  Then we let Andrew decide where he wanted to eat lunch...it was a torturous decision between BWW & Waffle House.  Ultimately Waffle House won because it was about 40 degrees outside raining and I mention hot chocolate.  SOLD!  

After lunch we headed to Clegg's to pick out our Christmas tree.  This was another area where some might say I'm a little spoiled...I've never had a fake Christmas tree- EVER.  And I don't plan too, unless for some unfortunate reason my kids are super allergic to Frasier Fir trees.  Even when we lived in the condo I bought a mini live tree in a pot to keep outside on our little porch.  Every year my parents and I would drive all over town trying to find just the right Christmas tree.  My Dad knew all the right questions to ask:  Where did it come from?  When was it cut?  How long was it on the truck?  So today I passed on the knowledge of picking the perfect Christmas tree to Andrew.  He was content just to walk around smelling them and popping the sap bubbles, another plus about a fake tree...there's no reason to ever buy a Christmas scented candle...just pop a sap bubble at the base of the tree and your house will be smelling like evergreen forest in now time flat.   

 He was studying this one really hard, looking for bare spots aka "holes."

He immediately became a Christmas tree expert!

Now for the "sniff test."

It passed!

Bless his heart.  He watched the tree the whole way home just to make sure it didn't fall out of the truck complete with up dates:  "It's still there...still there...still there."  "It's limbs are blowing Daddy, SLOW DOWN!"  "Still there...still there...yep, still there."  Hilarious!

He was pretty proud of his pick!

Lots of decoration to put up!

Good thing we have a huge door!

My little lumber jack, HA!

Everywhere we go I always try to pick up an ornament,

this one is from Navy Pier.

New York

I have to, correction Brittany has to, remake my huge bow for the top of our tree.  It was a little smooshed from being in storage for a year. :(

We hope the beginnings of our Christmas traditions get you in the Christmas spirit pronto! 

Thanksgiving with the Days

Thanksgiving morning I woke up to the sounds of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and my husband making coffee.  As I wiped the sleep out of my eyes I immediately thanked my Lord for the traditions my Mom and Dad established (we watch the Macy's Parade every year), my husband who makes my world go round, and that I would be the one to wake Andrew up every Thanksgiving morning from now on to watch the Macy's Parade with me.  

I jumped out of bed and ran to Andrew's room only to find....

This.

If Sleeping Beauty would have been a boy I think he would have been this one!

 It took some serious back rubbing and stretching sounds to get our little one out of his Thanksgiving Day slumber, but I guess that was my fault-we only stayed up til midnight playing Donkey Kong!  But once I announced Spider Man was taking over 5th Ave and he was going to miss it, he changed his tune and hollered, "But where's my coffee milk, Do-Dah?" Well Happy Thanksgiving to you too! 

 I think I may have created a mini-me monster when it comes to coffee milk in bed!

After the parade Andrew tried out his new remote control helicopter, and I started on the homemade macaroni and cheese for Thanksgiving lunch. 

I will admit, it's one of the coolest toys ever!

4 cups of cooked elbow pasta, 3 types of cheese (seen here with white cheddar, extra sharp cheddar, and asiago), one pint of 1/2 and 1/2, bake for 30 mins at 350 degrees- Delici-o-so!

On our way to Mama Days we called all of the grandparents:

Big & Nana, Peep, Maw T & PawPaw Larry, and Mimi

He is one spoiled grandkid! :)

Uncle Woody's infrared fried (no oil needed!) turkey was YUMMY!

 Aunt Erin, the family baker's, pumpkin cupcakes!

The spread!

Carrie Addis was on the move! 

The Days :)

Thanksgiving is truly a holiday meant to be spent with the people you love the most, my day could have only been better if my Mom and Dad would have popped in at Mama Day's.  

And maybe Mom would have had a pumpkin pie and chicken 'n dumplins too!

My favorite food of the day has to go to Willie's apple dumplings, they were incredible!

After lunch we went home to watch the Saints play, color with Andrew's Color Explosion, and squeeze in a little nap!

Color explosion, glow in the dark...another pretty cool invention!

Just like a man...takes my pillow and asks for a back scratch!  Of course I was happy to oblige. Ha!

Just waking up...

I couldn't believe he took a nap...another side effect from late night Kong-ing I guess! :)

Let's Celebrate!

Andrew is 6!

Wed. night we invited a few people over to help us celebrate Andrew turning 6 years old!  (I still can't believe he's SIX!)

Aunt Erin of course made us all some yummy treats!  

What kind might you ask?!

Super Mario theme of course!  Andrew LOVED them!

Giving Mimi some loving.

There's a Brady!

MaKeila and AJ

Our little Birthday Boy!

Three Amigos!

MaKeila, Andrew, and Brady

You know you have some pretty great friends, who love our little boy very much, to help us celebrate his birthday on the day before Thanksgiving!

Just a few more things to be thankful for! :)

A Day in the Clouds

Well there were actually three Days in the clouds! :)

I am so very proud of my husband.  Our flight to pick up Andrew was nothing short of amazing! 

Leaving BR we flew through a few storm cells with heavy rain, so things were a little bumpy.  But once we were above the clouds we were navigating nothing but blue skies.  The drive to Lebanon, TN is about 8-9 hours but flying only took us 3.  It's going to be so great to be able to jump on a plane and see our little boy in 3 hours compared to 8.  And when we're meeting in Meridian, the flight is only a little over an hour.  We would do just about anything to shorten the distance between us and Andrew, and Drew getting his pilots license is definitely going to make things easier on us and more importantly on Andrew.  No more spending all day in a car.  We'll do whatever we can to minimize travel time and maximize our quality time together!

Our flights together are going to be trips that Andrew never forgets.  I mean how many 6 year olds do you know whose Dad scoops them up in an airplane?!  And he did GREAT!  He was a little nervous at first but once he had his headset on, his toy plane in hand, blew a few goodbye kisses to his mom and step-dad...then before we were even off the ground he was spouting off pretend tail numbers through the microphone!  He had us rolling, Drew was laughing so hard he could hardly talk to the Nashville tower. :)

 Pilot Daddy Day-o

 Bye-bye Lebanon!

"Wow!  I didn't know we could fly above the sky!"

 We were really just above the clouds, but Andrew thought it was incredible!

"Jesus lives up here right, are we going to see him?"

 How can anything compete with this?

 My Bud held my hand the whole time, well until he fell asleep. :)

"Goodnight Sun."

 As soon has the sun dropped below the horizon our little man was out like a light....

 Welcome home Bud-a-Roo!

 Andrew asked tons of questions about the sky, flying, the sun.  He would listen to the towers talking to us and other planes then ask 100 more questions.  This experience plus all the ones to come will be forever embedded into Andrew's memory bank, and as he gets older he's only going to appreciate these trips, and his Daddy, even more.  Like I've said 1,000 times I'm so proud of Drew, he is going to be able to teach Andrew so much about so many things. Things that will last a lifetime.