BLT

Let me explain. Every year our school does a fundraiser in the fall. The incentive to get kids to sell is the promise of a pig if a certain percentage of the class sells items. The teachers dread the pig, but the students L.O.V.E. it! The pig is judged in two categories. 1) Creativity of name and outfit 2) Fastest pig. This event is way played out for teachers because we can't think of any more clever names with a play on any form of pig (swine, ham, pork, bacon, etc.). One of my students and his mom came up with "BLT", which I thought was perfect! As you can see, we strapped on bread, lettuce and tomato and the pig was obviously the bacon.

Then I had the grand idea of serving the sandwich as a meal with chips, pickle, and a drink.

Just about every other class in grades 3-5 did some play on swine flu or H1N1. Ours was original and we ended up winning 1st place for the name/outfit competition. My class gets a pizza party! We won't even talk about the actual race, ha!

more christmas fun

Last night my grade level got together for our annual Christmas party. Each year we make a wish list and then draw names. It makes shopping so much easier and you get a gift that you really want. Robin (blue sweater) always hosts the party at her house. She provides the champagne and the main course. The rest of us bring the appetizers, side dishes, drinks, and desserts. We have a wonderful time socializing outside of the school scene, but the conversation inevitably shifts to students at times. We had a great evening!

red balloon

We went to CiCi's last night for a fundraiser for my school. I don't particularly like their food, but Jason does. Bryce enjoyed the entertainment. At first site of a red balloon, Bryce was mesmerized. His Daddy loves him so much that he went and got him his own balloon.

He wouldn't let go of that balloon for anything.

Holding on tight to his balloon.

He got the biggest kick out of knocking himself in the head with the balloon.

Who knew a 9 month old could have so much fun with a balloon!

christmas fun

This holiday season has been full of fun events and it's not even Christmas yet! Last weekend was the Christmas PJ wine party (I finally got a picture so I put it at the end of the post) and this weekend was a cookie exchange AND Santa on the fire truck!

I had to bake 6 dozen cookies for the cookie exchange. I'm not much of a baker so I don't really have any cookie recipes. I searched online for cookie recipes for hours and finally decided on double chocolate chip cookies. They don't look that dark, but they are darker than regular chocolate chip cookies. They turned out delish!

So delish that I won the "Yummy Cookie Award"....YAY

Here are all the cookies I brought home. Lots of yummy cookies!

Every year Santa Claus comes around to the neighborhoods on the fire truck. Do they do this in your town? I always loved it as a kid and still do as an adult. We knew Santa would be coming today between 3-9. Huge window I know, but we were lucky that he came before Bryce's bed time. Bryce and I stood on the front porch and waved to Santa. I was surprised that Bryce was not frightened by the loud sirens blaring as they passed us. Hopefully Bryce will look forward to Santa coming on the fire truck every year!

All the pajama dressed girls at the Christmas party.

Next weekend will be busy and filled with holiday cheer, too. I am helping with the Madrigal Dinners at church on Friday, we are going to celebrate Christmas in Suffolk on Saturday, and we are going to the Country Club of Virginia for the Santa Brunch on Sunday. Lots to look forward to!

happy birthday, great-grandma

Jason's Grandma's 80th birthday is Tuesday. Here we are at her surprise party today!

Bryce's favorite part was the ice cream and balloons!

He enjoyed playing with the ribbons and pulling the balloons down so they would hit him in the head!

We even got to bring some balloons home!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

laundry basket

I was folding laundry in Bryce's room this morning and he thought the laundry basket would be a fun place to play.

It made for a good fort. I tried to drape a blanket over it, but it was too heavy.

It made for a good place to nap, too. Well he didn't actually sleep in it, but I thought he might.

banana hair & a tooth

Banana is the new hair gel. It works just as well and it's nontoxic. Bryce has a habit of putting his hands on his head and pulling his hair after putting a bite of food in his mouth. It's a strange habit, but it makes for good laughs and funny pictures.

If you zoom in far enough on this picture, you can see Bryce's bottom tooth (it's on his right side).

Bryce was very happy about eating an entire banana for dinner tonight!

a night at bass pro shop

We went to Bass Pro Shop for dinner and Santa pictures last night. Bryce had his picture taken with Santa and he didn't cry as much as I thought he would. He wasn't happy, but he held it together for a few seconds then fussed for a few seconds and repeated the mixed emotions. Unfortunately, the picture they snapped was not great and I was too lazy to scan it into the computer. Hopefully MeMaw snapped a better picture on her camera.........I will post it if/when I get it.

I'm pretty sure Jason would have bought the 4 wheeler for Bryce if he could have asked for it. Jason would enjoy using it to pull deer out of the woods (sorry to any PETA readers) until Bryce was old enough to ride it.

Jason would trade his leather recliner in a heartbeat for this hideous camo recliner.

The cousins

a little of this and a little of that

The Christmas season is upon us and I'm beginning to feel the pressure of getting EVERYTHING done in time! Between keeping up with work, home (decorating, Christmas shopping, and a VERY active boy), church, and whatever else there is, I'm finding it hard to capture and document all that is going on so I can share it with you on the blog. Here are some random pictures and updates from the past few days.

Bryce is enjoying eating table food and he is really good about feeding himself. However, he makes quite a mess during the process. I have decided that no shirt is the best way to have a meal these days. Of course he is dressed when we go out and when he gets older, I will be sure to teach him the importance of wearing a shirt to the dinner table, ha! He ate a pancake for breakfast this morning!

This little boy is into everything. He has learned how to crawl under the furniture in the Florida room, but he can't figure out how to stand up or get out. Here he is while he was still enjoying his exploration!

I had scheduled an appointment to get Christmas pictures taken so we could do our Christmas card, but I didn't like any of the cards at the place we were going, so we decided we might as well use our fancy camera to capture the perfect picture. Here is a preview as to what you might see on this year's Christmas card. Don't worry, Macy still made the card this year!

It is very hard to capture a perfect picture when you have a teething baby and lots of pretty ornaments. Bryce cried about every 5 seconds during the photo shoot because he was in a bad mood because of his teeth and we had to keep taking the ornaments from him. All we want for Christmas is Bryce's two front teeth! Hopefully he will be in a better mood once they come in. We are not use to a fussy baby.

And after this picture, we finally gave up!

On a side note, I finally had my first night out with the girls since Bryce was born! I took pictures, but they really weren't worth sharing, ha! I was very excited that my first real night out was going to be in my pajamas! My friend Jenny had a Christmas pajama wine party last night. I went out and bought myself a cute pair of Christmas pjs (with matching socks!), dried and straightened my hair (this is a big deal because I have worn my hair curly for the last 3 months), and put on make up for my night out! We had chili for dinner and then we did a wine tasting with all the different wines that everyone brought. It was a great time!

muscles

Jason and his friend Justin are always saying clever muscle jokes. He found one of his personal favorites on a t-shirt a few years ago and had to have it. Well I dug out this picture from the archives because it went well with Bryce's outfit today. I was out shopping about a year ago and I found a kids shirt with another clever saying that we had never heard. I bought it for Chase and when he grew out of it, he handed it down to Bryce. I pulled it out this morning and put it on Bryce. Here is "little Jason" in his own muscle shirt!

And I just had to add this picture because this boy is just too stinkin' cute.