Christmas Nativity

The Mattys' spent the afternoon and evening with us.  We had fun with archery, dirt bikes, and just playing.  Dinner was delicious.  After dinner, we re-enacted the nativity.  It was so cute.

Santa

At our request, Santa came to our home a day early.

Tucker devised a plan to determine if Santa is real.  He decided that there were two options.  Option one: leave a plate of cookies.  If they have been eaten by morning, then Santa must exist.  The other was to place a hidden camera and watch the footage.  But there was some doubt that cameras can actually capture Santa.  So we left cookies.  In the morning, we found crumbs in the place of the cookies!

Santa left some simple, but nice gifts.

Savannah's Lego Creation

Savannah received some Lego's for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Knight, so she built her own Lego scene today, all by herself.

It is very detailed -- very well designed.

Tucker's Gifted Program

A month ago we received a letter from Tucker's school asking if they could test him for the gifted program.  We discussed it with him and he didn't seem to be very interested, so we declined.  Within hours of the form being returned to the school, the school called.  The Gifted Coordinator had confirmed with Tucker's teacher and felt that he should take the test and explained more details about the testing and the gifted program.  In the end, we agreed to the testing.

We received the results over the weekend.  Tucker's scores on each of the different tests and measures were amazing!  The note from the school stated: 'Your child has demonstrated a need for gifted services'.  So we discussed it with him again.  He had the biggest smile on his face as we explained the test results to him.  Then we discussed the program some more and he decided that he would like to join.

Congratulations Tucker!

Dirt Bike Family

Christmas brought us two new kid-sized electric dirt bikes.  They have been so much fun in our yard!  It's easy to imagine that Savannah will be riding one of these without training wheels before a bicycle.

Christmas (again)

Sticking to our tradition, we opened some presents again this week.  This time we opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa Knight, and Scott and Lori.

The kids loved it, of course!

Savannah's Pre-School Christmas Program

Savannah's pre-school had a very fun musical Christmas program this week.  They worked hard learning the music and they even quoted some Bible verses from memory.

Cub Scout Pack Meeting

Since Angela and I are both Den Leaders, our entire family gets to attend and participate in Pack Meetings.

This time, there were a lot of Christmas themed games.  Even Tucker and Savannah were able to join in.

Tucker was in an event where you needed to get a puffy red ball on a ribbon necklace to stick to your nose (with some goo on your nose).  When it started, the older kids were swinging there heads around, but Tucker kneels down and rests the ball on the ground, then sticks it to his nose.  He won!  Pretty amazing idea.  After doing it that way, all the other kids stopped their strategies and tried his.

Savannah was in the cotton ball toss and she actually landed a few in the cup.

Carson was a Human Conveyer Belt.  That was pretty tough.  Eventually, they asked Angela and I to demonstrate it to the kids.  We struggled with it too, but we did earn a few points.

Reaching Out

While we were at the airport, the kids really liked this mural.

Princess Savannah in the Yard

Savannah put on one of her princess dresses and went running in the yard.

Carson's Drawings

Aunt Andrea and Uncle Brent gave Carson art books, sketch pads and colored pencils for Christmas.  He has loved drawing with them.  Here are a few of his creations:

Christmas Round Two

For week two of Christmas, the kids and I opened up some more presents.  They loved it and the gifts have definitely been getting playing with.  When we opened all of the presents at once on Christmas, most of the toys would be completely ignored.

Christmas Dirt Bike

Carson received an electric Razor dirt bike for Christmas.  Since we open a present or two each week in December leading up to Christmas, Carson was able to open it last week.  Since it was a huge labeled box sitting in our garage, it wasn't exactly a surprise, but still really fun.  

Each of the kids has taken turns riding it in our yard.

After playing in a puddle from the rain, Savannah decided to take a seat on the wet driveway.

At the Airport

Savannah and Angela at the airport.  She's on her way...

Puddle Jumpers and Stilts at Cub Scouts

Angela and I are the Cub Scout's leaders, so this last week we had a fun activity building puddle jumpers and walking on stilts.

Fall Cleanup

Fall means mountains of leaves and pine needles in our yard.  I think that we've collected more than 20 large bags so far.

I tried out the bagger for our riding mower, it was missing some parts, but I figured it out and it worked great.  Saved so much time.

Thanksgiving Baseball

To finish off Thanksgiving weekend, the kids and I decided to burn off our delicious homemade pies playing baseball in the backyard.  Savannah uses the T-ball tee, but I pitch the ball to the boys. 

Thanksgiving Dinner

For so many years, one or more of us has been sick, so we are hesitant to make Thanksgiving plans with anyone.  This year we did, but they fell apart, so we did our own Thanksgiving.  

Angela made a homemake pumpin pie and Danielle sent me her recipe for homemade Carmel Crunch Apple pie.  So I made the apple pie.  

The food was delicious.

Cobb County Rock and Mineral Show

The kids and I went to the Cobb County Rock and Mineral Show a few weeks ago.  The kids really enjoyed seeing everything and bought a few small rocks.

Christmas throughout the month

There was a Christmas party at our neighborhood clubhouse last week and Santa was there!

We have a tradition of opening gifts throughout the month of December - this is the first present-opening night. The fake smiles are cause the kids just want to open the presents already.