Christmas spirit!



We're finally in the Christmas spirit at the Patterson house! The weather is finally cold and it's 1 week until Christmas day! It will be a busy week up to Christmas, but should be a really fun one! Pitiful boy has been wheezing/coughing all week and I'm blasting the humidifier with vapor rub one more night in hopes tomorrow he'll be on the mend! Maybe a 2 week break from school will give his immune system a nice break :)

 

All of our stockings! We had a wrapping party and I helped Derek by eating this lovely tree.

Intensely watching Rudolph Claymation :)

Baby's 1st Christmas!

 

Today Colin and I took his teachers presents. They are the sweetest 2 ladies who spoil Colin rotten. One in particular just loves Colin and says he is just like one of her sons. He gets a little extra attention :) They do the cutest crafts with them and I love it! He still screams crazy when I drop him off, but no more crying when we come pick him up. It's fun to come early and just watch him through the glass. He plays so sweet with the others and most of the time is helping rock the swing a little girl is usually in...or following around Ms. Nancy as she feeds the others. He'll be a sweet big brother :)

Cuteness overload

These cuties have made this month so fun! Caitlin living with us has been so fun and wild. These kids keep us running, but it's been nice to have a tag team buddy and someone to sit on the couch with at night and veg out when Derek's working :) People doubted this living situation would work out so pretty; thankfully me and Caitlin have done this living thing together before and it's been way more awesome this time! Josh arrives Friday and I know they are so excited! I can't imagine a month away from my babies, drive safe tomorrow Josh!

 

A certain 13 1/2 month old finally is taking steps now too!! Watching Eli run around has paid off! Last night he was going after his push toy Mason had and took 2 great steps. He didn't seem to know he did it :) Then he did it again last night before bed and once today for Derek. We're slowly getting there; I thought it would be right at 14 months- me and my siblings were all 14 months.

 

Sweeties:)

 

This week is Colin's last week of school before the holidays. Caitlin got a job and has house hunting and job stuff this week too. Derek's working a bunch and I'll be wrapping for Christmas! Good thing my energy is coming back now!  

 

Zoo day the other week while the little ones slept at home!

 

 Too much goes on to blog consistently so here are a few pictures to catch up! We've been on the go and had a lot of family and friend time too. This week we had Seth and Jess over to grill out, had a girls shopping afternoon with Marjorie, and OB appointment that went great, lots of Christmas shopping runs, and had Noah's family over yesterday. We even made it back to the gym! 

 

She's so little and cute! Enjoying being the princess of the group!

 

Everything is a phone these days!

 

3rd haircut! Did so good!

Colin's school picture :) Before his haircut, ha.

 

Boys snacking together-they have been eating everything lately!

Family time on the couch, he thinks he's such a big guy now!

Traditions and Santa visit

It's almost 1/2 way through December and I can't believe it!! We had a busy November and December has be more fun without Derek studying all the time. We've had some fun things planned! Our MOPS group the other week was about family traditions. It was fun to talk to my table about everyone's traditions and get ideas. Most of them have 3+ kids and older ones too. I heard all types of stories from sweet kids picking out sibling gifts to kids having huge fits that Santa didn't bring all 20 gifts on their list, ha. It's something Derek and I have talked about over the years before having kids. We both did some different things for holidays as kids and it's fun to mesh some of those things with new things we want to do with our kids.

Our new tree! Out with the pretty/nice theme and in with the sentimental fun theme this year!

 

We are really excited to be back in Birmingham and close to so much family now! This will be a unique year with having the Caitlin's family here living with us for the holidays too! We haven't got to celebrate many Christmas holidays with them in the past 6 years. Derek works a bunch around Christmas, but we'll sneak in fun things!

Derek strung lights everywhere for me :)

 

Everyone remembers holidays as a kid. More than decorating the tree, my siblings and I were obsessed with our nativity...like for real, ha. I think we played with it daily all December :) Christmas Eve church service was a big deal too and mom always sang in the choir (still does!). Of course Colin is too young for both of those...but one day! We also grew up singing carols at nursing homes and doing the angel tree. We want Colin to be grateful and want to give to others. He was a bit young to help me with the operation Christmas child box and toys for tots this year ;)

 

 I do love some Christmas lights...funny thing is that Eli and Colin don't seem to care much. ha. Us adults like it though :)
 

I think it's so important to not blow up Christmas with kids and overload them with toys and Santa things. Santa wasn't a really big deal to us growing up. I remember visiting Santa some at the mall, but what I really remember was us asking him for a horse and trampoline every year...which never happened. Haha :) Yes, Colin will get a stocking (we even got cheesy matching ones:) and a big present from Santa and a few things from us and family, but there won't be a ton of presents and elves of shelves, elves visiting our house, etc. We're sticking to doing things fun as a family and teaching our kids to be generous to others. Plus, people get so competitive with all of that and posting pictures of their elves on Facebook; exhausting just to watch! We tried out visiting Santa for the 1st time....it went...as expected :)

Started out with admiring Santa from a distance and seemed cool with it

 

Colin is still to young to do a lot of the things we like about the holidays. Christmas movies are a bit over his head, but we'll definitely be watching claymation Rudolf together :) I've always wanted to make homemade cookies and decorate them each year with kids. Colin is a little young, but we'll be trying it anyways since Eli will enjoy it! Kids are only young for such a little time, soon Colin and Finale will be rolling their eyes at us and over our silly traditions :)

That turned to skeptical real quick and then...no

 

The official one. Pitiful :)

Daddy and a candy cane made everything better :) We'll see how long this little fun tradition lasts with his feisty self!

New Orleans weekend

Friday morning Ross and Laura picked us up for our road trip to New Orleans! We wanted to do something to celebrate our men turning 30!! We've only been once and wanted to go back to see more. Laura went to school there so she was a great tour guide and we had a great time!

Our place in the French Quarter! We were a block away from all the fun!

 



The inside was so nice!! It was so great to have a hang out space!

Hanging around Bourbon St watching football and people watching :)

Checking out the channels in Uptown. It was 75 degrees and this was a beautiful park we walked through.

 

 My adventure bud! He's the best to travel with!

 

Great Po Boys and cheese fries at Parkway Bakery!

 

We got to meet up with Cole Friday afternoon and went to a piano bar! We hadn't seen Cole since Christmas so it was nice to catch up. We did a bar hop of the French Quarter. He couldn't do dinner with us, but we went to a fancy French place that night then out dancing!

 

The guy with the washboard was so good!

 

This transformer man was pretty good. Down the street from our place they were shooting scenes for NCIS:NO! Didn't see anyone famous that I knew though.

 

Of course we ran into a lot of interesting people. You definitely have to be open-minded in a place like NO :) I love traveling to new places. So much history and tradition in NO. Some bizarre people too, all good for a laugh. After some brunch and walking around Saturday, it was football time! Bama won the SEC championship so Ross was excited. Then we went to the business district to go to the Manning's restaurant and bar. It was a win-win. I got to see the Manning boys and all their accomplishments on the walls and Derek got to watch GT play! GT played well, but in the end couldn't beat Florida State. They just didn't mess up! Derek was still excited about them beating Georgia last week, so it wasn't too painful of a loss! Go Jackets! On to the Orange Bowl! We wish we could go, but hotels for Miami on NYE are not worth those crazy prices!

 

Huge TVs at Mannings. We counted 28 TVs in there I think? The lights in the business district were fun!

 

Sunday we had brunch at a cool place then went to the Saints vs Panthers game. It was Derek and I's first NFL game. The dome was huge! We had great tickets on the 50. NO didn't play good at all, but Cam Newtown sure did! It was crazy how big those guys are and so many fights broke out during the game. Pretty wild! After the game we ran to the car and headed back to Birmingham. We were ready to see our Nugget! 3 days was too long, but I know he had so much fun with Cait, Mimi, Poppy, and his cousins. He got a great report and sweet Cait kept him up til 830 so we could see him before bed :) Thanks guys!!

 

 

11 weeks/12 weeks!

On to the 2nd trimester! I combined 11 and 12 since there wasn't much difference the past few weeks. Our next OB appointment is Thursday!

 

Still craving salty and cheesy things, but sweeter drinks like sprite, lemonade and smoothies. 

Still tired and wanting to lay around :) but we've been busy everyday and that's been helping!

So not much has changed the last 2 weeks, ha.

 

I have been more tearful/emotional this time. With Colin I was impatient and annoyed by everything. Derek said it was the testosterone from Colin :) Still wearing regular clothes, but pants are getting snug. Trying to not gain another 65lbs this time ;)

Here is me with Colin at 12 weeks :)

 

We got Finale's crib for Kendall to sleep in and love it. It's the same style as Colin's, but grey. Finale's first vacation was this weekend to New Orleans! It was our first trip away since having Colin and it was nice!! We'll plan some trips with Colin in the spring before baby brother/sister comes :)