December in a Flash...

As most of us, December flew by in a flash.  I will not complain because every last bit of it was entertaining, family fun.  Regrettably, I have to look back at my photographs to remember what we actually did this month.  Hey, so much for a photographic memory....

Olivia surprised us all as she sang Christmas carols with her Daisy Scout troop at the Smyrna Tree Lighting and also at Delmar Gardens for the senior citizens.  It truly gets you in the spirit of Christmas to see your shy, little girl  stand in front of a crowd singing the Twelve Days of Christmas....it was a long one, let me tell you.

All within days we attended the Smyrna Tree Lighting (which was rained out, so Santa lit the tree before we all arrived, bummer),

 the Vinings Tree Lighting (see Santa, Jen and Kobe photo), 

a Daisy Scout holiday party,

 hosted a baby shower for my dear friend Liz (she's due Jan. 2nd), 

celebrated my 38th birthday...got a new iPhone 4 (I love it), homemade ribs and cake from Dave, and was taken to lunch and dinner multiple times thanks to my friends and topped it off with a dinner at Canoe with Liz and Amy....nice!!! 

visited Santa at The Vinings Club,

 celebrated Dave's 37th birthday,

 horseback riding (that's Spoon and he's huge)

attended Dave's Porsche holiday party,

enjoyed our annual holiday dinner with our neighbors, the McCurry's

Zach and Mrs. Muller (K teacher)

 and attended Olivia and Zach's school holiday parties and raced to the last day of school.  

Whew!  Oh yes, there was a little homework, holiday shopping, wrapping, playing and attending to regular life mixed in there somewhere.  Yes, it was all fun.  We are grateful to have the holidays to slow down a bit and enjoy our time together.  The beautiful and calming snow helps.  Our kids are at such wonderful ages, 7 and 5.  They each had a bucket this year for slips of paper with their 'good deeds'.  We set their buckets out for Santa to see and he wrote a note saying "Wonderful job, Olivia & Zach".  They were very proud of themselves and we have to say, they were very good this year.  Finally.....!  Well, there was a small episode of Olivia 'running away from home' the last day of school as soon as we got home.  I think all of the activity and lack of sleep caught up with her, so we'll give her this one.  She didn't actually run away, but she needed some time alone.  She was upset that I made her walk the dog.....the dog she begged for six years to get.  We will let bygones be bygones....
With all of the White siblings in town, we left the kids in the care of grandparents and Aunt Barbara and went to see Cirque de Soleil - Ovo.  We all had a fabulous time together, we loved the show and the lights at Atlantic Station.

Christmas Eve was spent with the White family at my sister, Karen's in Suwanee.  We have one new baby, Heath, and I've said it before, he is such a good baby.  With Gavin, Olivia and Zach, well, they are so grateful to see each other, we didn't see much of them :-)

Santa was very, very good to the kids.  We have played non stop with all of the cool toys he brought and also ones gifted from our family.  LEGOs can keep kids busy all day long.

Our big present this year is a trip during the kids' Winter Break in February, to Sun Valley, Idaho.  We are going skiing as a family.  I cannot wait!
We didn't' have to wait for snow, it arrived Christmas Day in Georgia.  The day was absolutely beautiful.

Zach's Kindergarten Elf

Written by: Kirsten Muller, teacher

You have probably heard a little about our class Elf.  I thought I would elaborate.  On Monday morning, an Elf mysteriously appeared in our classroom.  Apparently, he is visiting and will report to Santa (for families who celebrate Christmas) on good behavior.   Well.... it has become much more than that.
First, we named our Elf, "Elfie".  (Original, isn't it :)
Next, we made a mailbox for Elife.  Sure enough, if you write a letter to Elfie, he writes you back.  The letters in Elfie's mailbox are gone by the next day.  Elfie delivers you a letter right in your supply bag.
Also, Elfie magically moves to different places in the room.  The kids are adorable and so funny when they talk about Elfie.  In fact, they are pretty serious.  Anish came in the room after specials and explained to everyone that he thought he saw magic glitter in the classroom that means that Elfie flew across the room.  Leila is very "matter of fact".  She draws him very detailed pictures of she and Elfie holding hands and smiling.  Kritika and Emily always write, "Elfie, I love you".  Harper seems to think that if he writes as many letters as possible to Elfie and crams them all in Elfie's mailbox that he will get that many letters in return.  Zach is pensive.  He hasn't written Elfie yet but he looks at him a lot.  And Davis was very skeptical at first.  He told me that it couldn't be a real Elf because he has a tag on him.  I think Elfie's won Davis over b/c Davis now works tediously writing Elfie letters and folding them to look like an envelope.  And today Jeremiah had a huge smile on his face when he found a letter from Elfie in his supply bag.
I am holding on to their letters which I will try to inconspicuously give to you at the holiday party or sometime next year.  If you're a sentimental parent, like me, I know you will want to save them.

Thanksgiving...Pryor style

 

You guessed it, it involved the lake.  But not so fast....it started out in Georgia, with a competitive game of putt putt.  We were up at Red Top Mountain and the run-down course was ours for the taking.  It was quite humorous trying to put with mounds of leaves in the way (not worth it to move them).  Believe it or not, we all got a hole in one.  Well, not all of us, seeing that Olivia wanted to play her own game - by herself.  Loner.  She was putting right handed, but she's a lefty?  

Kobe just sat back and watched the leaves and then he strode into the water while we were on the beach.  Alas, he is a water dog.  

My brother and his crew arrived Monday night and boy oh boy, did we have a good time!  Guess who snagged baby Heath right away?  His favorite aunt Jenny :-)  MacKenzie and Connell loved playing with Olivia and Zach.  We didn't hear a word from them for days because they were too busy to need us.  We ventured to the Botantical Gardens to see the trains and get outside for a bit.  The weather was daunting earlier in the week, but we pushed our luck and won.  We also made it to see Tangled on opening day.  Olivia and Zach have been excited to see this movie for months, and it did not disappoint.  Heath even enjoyed it!  Did I mention what a good baby he is?  Amazingly good...

Wednesday we packed up and headed to Lake Martin.  It was sunny, high of 77 degrees and we headed out on the boat on Thanksgiving Day.  My two ended up being naked, surprise, surprise, while Kobe, Dave and myself just smiled and watched.  The entire day was beautiful.  It's never official until the Pryor's stop by on a holiday with Amy Storm's family at the lake.  I think her family knows they will see us at some point.  We never stay....it's a good thing, since we weren't invited.... ha, but it's always nice to stop by for a quick visit.  

Do these kids ever have clothes on?!

I think Kobe may be a little spoiled.  He spent most of the week with Barry and Carla's mini schnauzer, Pepper.  He sniffed, humped, rode, wrestled, spun around in circles with her every hour he was awake....and that was many, many hours over the course of the week.  Poor Pepper, she had to put up with a boy and a puppy at that!  Too much energy.  Check out the photo of Kobe at the end of the long week - last photo...

Campfire kids

Barry and Carla

So in came the crew and a campfire was started.  This time around, we had peppermint patty smores.  Perfect for the season.  Yes, that's me sporting the Baby Bjorn with Heath.  Campfires, movies, boat rides (in the freezing cold, wrapped up in his car seat in the 'storage area' also known as the toilet for the boat....he he.) I have to say it again... he's an awesome baby.

The family came in on Friday for our Thanksgiving and it was a fun (chaotic) time in the kitchen, but oh, was the food good.  My mom and Aunt Barbara cooked most of the food....well, Carla cooked just as much and every last morsel was delicious.  It was rainy out, so we lit a fire, talked, eyed the progress on the food and spent quality time with one another.  My dad wasn't feeling well, so we missed seeing him.  Next time, he'll be right in the middle of all the chaos...telling a joke :-)  Kim will be up for Christmas, so she'll be in on the spend the night party next time.  It was fun.

Cousins

Barry, Mom and Heath

Mike staying warm at the fire

Silly kids...MacKenzie, Olivia, Zach, Gavin and Connell...Heath will be there soon enough.

Dave and I forced Barry, Karen and the group on the boat Saturday.  It was quite chilly, no......it was freaking cold, but we somehow coerced them.  We found shelter on the other end of the island where we docked and the sunshine kept us all happy.  The kids, well......they just wanted to play.  We had explorers on our hands.  Thanks for being such good sports!

Unfortunately, our sibling spend the night party and vacation week had to end.  We packed up Saturday, hoping to make it back home in time for the UGA v. GA Tech game (we did).

After taking advantage of the gorgeous weather on Thanksgiving Day, we had to postpone our family ritual of decorating for Christmas until Sunday.  We worked like clockwork since Dave had to leave for Germany later Sunday afternoon.  Off to pick a tree and we were well on our way.  The kids, fortunately, are old enough to unpack ornaments this year, so that helped speed things along.  Plus, they love opening the boxes to see each ornament.  I do too.  Dave was dying to have a multi-colored tree this year, so retro it is....I'm staring at it as I type and I love it!

As promised, this is Kobe after days of playing with (or do you call it harassing?) Pepper.  I think he was awake 2 hours all day long.  He's very sad now, so we'll have to deal with his withdrawal from Pepper all week.  Maybe they can Skype :-)

A time to reflect and be thankful...

I've been looking forward to Thanksgiving break...which is an entire week for my brood... since Halloween passed.  Well, we've made it and there is so much to look forward to as Thanksgiving approaches.  It will give us time to rest, time to spend time with family and time to truly be thankful for all the wonderful people in our lives.
November, so far, has been filled with helping out at the kids' school, Dave traveling (is he home yet?), celebrating friends' birthdays, Daisy Scouts, golfing with Zach and horseback riding with Olivia.  With my point and shoot camera's death in October, I haven't taken as many photographs.  We'll have to suffer with iPhone pictures.
Zach, Garrett and I took off for the Botanical Gardens on an early release (from school) day.  The trains exhibit was recently opened and Zach was excited to see it.  Honestly, I was too.  It was a gorgeous Atlanta day, especially so at the Botanical Gardens.

I'm 'teaching' Zach golf when the weather is agreeable.  I originally had him in lessons with a golf pro, but the pro told me that Zach had the correct form and I should just bring him and coach him myself.  Sounds good to me because it gives me a chance to hit the driving range and putting green.  I don't think I have touched my clubs since I was pregnant with Olivia over 7 years ago, so guess who is ecstatic with this activity?  Zach and I typically go to the range when Olivia is attending Daisy Scouts (a precursor to Girls Scouts).  Cookies, anyone?!

Daisy Scouts gives Olivia a chance to spend time with her BFF, Skylar, who is also our next door neighbor.  We get so busy with homework and other activities, that the girls do not have time to play all that often.  Olivia doesn't ever want me to sign her up for anything  - her words exactly, but I thought it would be a great opportunity for them to do something fun together.  So far, Olivia likes it, but she does give me grief every no and again when she's tired.  I get the "why did you sign me up?!" comment on those days.   Oh well, I guess I always will.  The Daisy Scouts are signing at the Smyrna Tree Lighting the week after Thanksgiving, so they have been practicing their holiday songs.  Hey, it gets you in the spirit so much earlier when the song start in early November!

This past week, some of the neighborhood kids were over.  Olivia and Skylar started working and getting things from the kitchen.  I decided to stay out of their way because I could tell there were creative juices flowing.  The girls came up with the idea that they would throw a Thanksgiving feast on the train table in the playroom.  They set the table, found chairs, placed a candle in the middle, served everyone on 'nice' plates, with drinks and name cards - ooh la la, that's fancy.  They built two stands out of Tinkertoys and draped a pink scarf between the stands to create a rope effect.  The invitees, aka Zach, Garrett and Jenna had to state their full names including middle to be granted 'access' to the exclusive Thanksgiving dinner.  VIP access only - funny!  Kobe wasn't invited.  They had small healthy portions of apples, carrots, 2 crackers, cheese and 1 Dorito (I guess that was the guilty pleasure for them).  It was so sweet to see them do this and I'm proud of Skylar and Olivia for thinking of their friends AND being thankful for them.  They went around the table and stated what they were thankful for....of course I had to get a picture of that!

We closed this week off with Olivia's horse riding lesson.  I do not think I have gotten a picture of the new horse she rides, Dorothy.  Dot is a beaut!  Angel, her trainer, promised Olivia she could ride one of the small ponies sometime, so when we arrived Thursday, Angel had Spike saddled and ready to go for Olivia.  All she had to do was get Spike out of the stall and into the ring.  How cute is this picture?  I'll get a photo of Dot (sometimes called Boo, which is short for Peek-a-boo) up soon.  She only answers to Dorothy in the show ring, so... Olivia's ride the previous week looked so easy.  She posted perfectly as Dot trotted, so I think she's really getting into it.  I don't think I would look as graceful.

While we are on Olivia, I am really proud of her for all of her work in first grade.  She has spelling quizzes and math tests each week.  She's had to work at the math, but she eventually gets it.  Ask her to make change for you or count your change/bills.  Heck, ask Zach too, he's got it as well.  Olivia scored 25/25 on her 3 minute subtraction quiz today.  Way to go Olivia!  Her comment (as she secretly smiled) was "I don't have to take the test for the rest of the 9 weeks", which is true.  If you get 25/25, you've proved you got it.  You worked hard for it baby girl, so enjoy!

I attended Zach's Thanksgiving show at school today.  They made outfits out of pillowcases and decorated them.  Zach's Native American name is Chief Whispering Wind...supposedly because he is quiet in class.  Hmpt, not at home....So, what was Zach thankful for?  Bills and his family.  Yep, we have been working on counting money (bills) this week for Olivia's classwork and we donated $2 each for them to wear pj's to school today - fundraiser, so he was grateful for bills.  Believe me, all the parents looked at me funny when he came out with this one, so I had to explain.  Last in, First Out..... of their brains!

I'm looking forward to our coming week of vacation.  My brand new nephew is visiting from Texas and I cannot wait to meet him.  Hurry up baby Heath....oh yeah, and everyone else too :-)  Do you like the Heath bar?  Funny guys!  Oh, and look at Carla with Heath; she looks too well rested to have a newborn.
Happy early Thanksgiving.