Christmas Eve Party

Here I go trying to catch up on the blog again!! I am starting way back with Christmas Eve...We had a few friends over on Christmas Eve for our annual gathering. Santa was absent this year, but he made sure to leave a bag of gifts on the front porch for the kids! They were super excited about this of course! We had a great night...good friends, good food and crazy kids!

Aidan, Chase and Andrew

Me and LizMe and sweet little SaigeThe Ravens Trace Lane Girls (Alyson, Me, Heather and Liz)
Not sure why, but the guys refused to have their pic taken like this! :-)
Family Shot

Chase was wound up and did not want to go to bed. We let him sleep in our room to ensure that he wouldn't get up in the middle of the night and go wandering into the dinning room to see what Santa left for him!

The boys opening their new Christmas PJ's before bed

Chase's Christmas Program

I wasn't able to get the great pictures and videos that I had envisioned b/c the Church was too dark!! I am going to post a couple of videos anyway. Make sure your sound is up for the last one. Ms. Deb asked Chase what he wanted for Christmas and he said "an electric race track and a Mack track" then she asked him what else we get for Christmas that doesn't come in a box and he said "love." He did such a great job singing and doing the hand motions for the songs. He kept looking the other way so I wasn't able to get his face on camera much!

Santa Visit

We went to visit Santa at the mall on Sunday afternoon. We got there when they first opened so the line wasn't very long at all! Chase told Santa that he wanted an electric raceway for Christmas. Who would have guessed, right?!? Hahah! That boys loves himself some cars!! Hopefully Santa won't disappoint him. Luckily Cole couldn't ask for anything this year! I am sure if he could have, he would have asked for food! Little man LOVES to eat!!

Happy Holidays

I can't believe Christmas is already here! I realize it has been quite a while since my last post so let me catch you up on what's been going on in the Conte house! Both boys were pretty sick during November with various viruses. Nick and I were even sick so something was definitely going around. Luckily we were all on the mend by Thanksgiving. My mom and Grandmommy came down and stayed for a week!! We had such a great time with them and Mom helped out so much with the boys and around the house (Thanks Mom)!! We didn't think that Darrell was going to be able to make it down for the holiday b/c he recently started a new job, and wasn't going to be able to take any days off. Well, he ended up surprising us and he was here when I got home from work the day before Thanksgiving! We were all very excited that he was able to make it...it wouldn't have been the same without him! We had a really nice Thanksgiving and a very tasty turkey dinner! Cole really enjoyed eating all the good food. Chase is still super picky, so he had Trix cereal (served in a China dish no less)!!

December is flying by. I am in the midst of Christmas shopping, and trying to get my cards sent out. I pick them up tonight and plan to mail them tomorrow so be on the lookout for one in your mailbox soon. Getting a good picture was quite an ordeal this year. I have a bunch of funny rejects for sure! I was finally able to get a half way decent pic of the boys and Rocksie, and I am hoping my cards turn out ok! We shall see!

Chase has a Christmas program at school this coming Tuesday night. We are so excited to go and watch him perform with his class. They will be singing 7 songs and some skits. I will be sure to get some pictures and possibly some videos.

I will be baking Christmas cookies this weekend. I have 8 recipes on tap, most of them family traditions. Everything from Grandaddy's chocolate chip cookies to Mimi's pizzelles to Aunt Pam's nut ball cookies. MMMM!! I can't wait. I am going to let Chase help cut out the sugar cookies and decorate them with sprinkles. Hopefully all the cookies will turn out good!

Well, that bring you up to today. I am going to do another post w/ some pictures of the boys' visit with Santa! They were a trip....I couldn't get them both to make a normal face at the same time.

Happy Halloween (a bit late)!

We had a great Halloween even though it was very hot here!! Chase had a blast trick or treating. Cole wasn't quite sure what to make of it all...I think he will really like it next year. I will have to watch the weather more closely when choosing costumes. Cole was a furry lion and he was burning up! After we walked around to a few hosues, we came home and changed and the kids helped to hand out candy. I think Chase had just as much fun doing that as actually trick or treating!

Preschool Open House

We went to Chase's school last night for an open house. We got to see him in action in his classroom, and then all of the kids sang a couple of songs for us! They also gave us a few books that he had made during the first quarter of school (I am not sure how the first quarter is already over...it seems like he just started going there)! One of the books was "All About Chase" and included some pics of him, his height/weight, favorite color, etc. It is really cute. My favorite part of the night was watching the kids sing. I took a short video of them, but it is kind of dark and hard to understand them. I thought it might make you smile though.

Singing a song in the classroom

Chase and his teachers...Ms. Cindy on the left and Ms. Lisa on the right. Ms. Lisa is the main teacher of his class.

Singing a couple of songs in Church

Here's the video clip

Picking out Pumpkins

We went to the pumpkin patch this Saturday to pick out a couple of pumpkins. We ended up w/ 2 big ones and 4 little tiny ones. We plan to paint them sometime next week! Nick and I figured that we should wait until they are older to try to carve pumpkins...right now, it would just be he and I doing all the work!! :-)