For the Love of Books

Well friends, I have not blogged because there has been absolutely NOTHING to blog about. I think that is just part of January. We recover from the busy holidays, stay inside to avoid the cold dreary rain, and just lay low in general.

This week, however, I went to a consignment sale. I love, love, love consignment. I get about 90% of the boys clothes through two different sales twice a year. I know there will come a time that they will get too big for this but I am going to take full advantage of it while I can. My biggest steal is that I got a pair of Sperry dress shoes for Nolan that look like they have never been worn for $3.00! I was pretty darn excited!

Anyway- the point of all of this is to say that this time I also ventured into buying a few books. I usually avoid the book section because it just seems so overwhelming but I took a deep breath and dug through the piles. I stumbled across a few great finds and my boys have been in heaven. I am beyond thankful that they love books. Jerel and I love to read- sadly I can't seem to find the time that I use to for books- and we read to the boys all throughout the day. Nolan is at the point where he will spend a long period of time just looking at books. I can tell that he is really wanting to learn to read.  I was afraid that Elliott would not love books because we have not read to him as much- but he too is a huge fan. May they always love the written word!

New Years Eve/Day

We have very sweet and generous friends with a very nice lake house. We are so grateful each time they invite us to join them there. This New Years Eve we packed our crew up for the weekend and enjoyed beautiful weather, amazing food and fellowship with great friends. It was a perfect way to bring in 2012.

December

December was busy and mostly undocumented on the blog. Now that it's January I will try to catch up a little. Here we go...

 I would like to take this moment to say that I love living in the South! The weather has been so mild thus far and we have take FULL advantage of it. I have been so thankful to still be able to walk with the boys in the afternoon and we have been playing outside as much as possible. Tomorrow's high is 39- so the streak may be over!!

 I wanted to see if I could get our Christmas cards for as cheap as possible this year. I like really nice cards and I send out between 80-100 so it can get pricey. I have noticed in years past that there are a ton of deals in November on cards from various sites so we worked hard to get our picture in October. It was fun to go this route and some of the cards were REALLY nice. I think that my total cost was $16. Not too shabby!!

 Nolan had his first little school performance and I was TOTALLY unprepared. He is obviously my first born. We got there about 5 minutes early and I promise you there were parents there at least 30-40 minutes before us. AND they all had tripods. Really, these kids are 3, 4, and 5?!? Not only did we not have a tripod- the battery in my camera was dead. Mommy fail! So I snapped this with my phone. I did have a friend who took mercy on me and took real pictures. When I get them I will repost. He was so excited and sang his classes two songs for me- and anyone else who would listen- for weeks. I think that he was suppose to be a donkey.

 I wanted to bake cookies and take them to our neighbors this year. My sweet friends Megan and Sarah came over one day to help. Can you see all the sprinkles Nolan dumped out?? He had fun helping.

The finished product. Nolan and Elliott had so much fun going door to door with me handing them out. Hopefully I can keep up the tradition and do this each year.

 My friend Kristi had us and one other family over to decorate ginger bread houses. Eight small children + three mommies + frosting and candy = mass chaos. It was so great- glad we did it!

And that brings us to Christmas. We had a great day. Nolan came running out of his room and 7:00 and yelled, "Merry Christmas!! Baby Jesus was born today!" I love that they are starting to get it!

 Jerel We got an ipad this year, so this is now a common scene in our house!

The boys scored some much needed FSU apparel! Thanks Uncle Tom!!

Jerel had the week off between Christmas and New Year. We got a babysitter and headed to Asheville for the day. We took a comedy bus tour of the city that was quite entertaining and headed to the Grove Park Inn and had a fabulous meal. It was so nice to get away for a few hours and complete several uninterrupted conversations!

 We had Christmas #2 at Curtis and Berne's.

Again- I love living in the South. I think this was taken on December 30th. The boys were busy helping Jerel put mulch under their swing set!

 That night we went over to our friends Paul & Emily to bake pizza and let the kids play. Their family is such a gift to us!

Ok- I was going to post about our New Year festivities but I just don't have it in me. I will get back to that in the next few days. If you have made it to this point in the post you need to give yourself a big pat on the back!! ;)