Not much happening here...a 3 part series. Part 2.

Do you mind if I just scoot right past Thanksgiving? It was wonderful, the brothers & sisters were all in town together (also for Christmas...it feels like this is the first time that has happened in YEARS.)  Everyone was in charge of making one dish for the big meal so we started ours at 7am when the kids woke up and finished it right about 1030a...yikes.  Delicious...but took too long to put in rotation!  We all headed north a couple of hours to spend some time together in the woods.  Some of the boys went hunting while the rest of us hung around the lodge and hunted for pinecones, fed the fish, went exploring.  It was a peaceful holiday!

Here is Uncle Mack helping P ride his strider bike.  For some reason P has decided he doesn't like riding his bike, which is not helpful for me at all since I need him to be out of the stroller and out on his own - I want to get him on a pedal bike asap but am having no luck...any suggestions!?  Also, I wish I had the video, maybe one of the other brothers/sister will post it.  P made everyone race in the street to grab a flag from his hand - and you had to keep running the race until the last one standing.  I can't remember who was the biggest loser...but it was hilarious.

We picked out Christmas trees with the whole family.  P thought it was a huge forest.  Kind of sad really...since it was off the side of a busy street...but he loved running through all of the trees and accidentally made one fall over.  He had no idea that it was his fault, or that it almost crushed him.  His uncles helped save the day.

And here are the November birthdays for our yearly calendar..look at who is cheesin...quite unlike him.

The happy happy grandparents...P is playing the choking game with granddad and L is probably about to throw herself backward for fun, never a dull moment with these two (four!)

Ok.  So I guess Thanksgiving wasn't that hard to remember...yay yay took a lot of pictures to help.  Also, P went to his first UF football game in the swamp!  He loved it...next up, a trip to NC to cheer on the Wolfpack!

Christmas.  This picture was too perfect to not send out as a Christmas card.  I decided baby #3 would be here closer to her due date and so I could do a Christmas card and then a birth announcement.  hahaha.  Oh the plans we make...stay tuned.

Every year we put activities or books or fun events in our advent calendar...here are a few examples.  Gingerbread teepees / Christmas trees (P chose the neon colors) instead of gingerbread houses.  These were so much easier & the kids loved them and could do it themselves...less clean up, less candy etc.  awesome.  thank you pinterest.

The Holy Land.  P LOVES this place.  Though as a 4 year old he was more observant of the crucified Jesus & the scary parts of the Easter story so we had to steer clear of that.  But it was just as much of a success this year as it was last!  Except Jesus didn't talk to Peter this time...that attraction was broken. :)

Sweet P got to be Joseph in his school nativity scene.  Probably because the only requirement was to stand next to the manger.  Since that is all he would be doing.  He did shake his jingle bells when it was time, which is improvement from his Thanksgiving worship performance where he stood with his hands in his mouth the whole time.

Cannonball Express to see Santa!  One of our favorite adventures...cookies, hot chocolate, Christmas songs...the weather even cooled down a bit for us.

The first thing P says when he sees Uncle Bale is "can he throw me in the air like his helicopter!!??"  Pretty soon he will be too big...but Uncle Bale will probably throw his back out first.

Santa & the whole family on both sides pitched in to get the kids a playset for Christmas...the elves were up late in the night moving it from Santa's drop point at yay yay and grandad's to our house.

Happy boy discovering what Santa brought him.  Thanks to Aunt Theresa for doing the decorating!

It's not a Christmas day celebration without crackers & party hats!  I am unbelievably close to having a baby at this point. She is supposed to arrive in less than a week...

And so begins playset construction day...Aunt Theresa and Grandma Sue are perfect entertainers...but you will notice that our playset is not quite complete...our plans have gone awry.

Tune in sometime in the next month for the final installment of "Not Much Going On Around Here..."

as usual.  unedited and typed quickly.  At least there are pictures.