Time to Paint a Masterpiece!

Grandma and Grandad gave the boys an art easel and some art supplies, including the fun striped smocks they're wearing.  After opening all the other presents and eating breakfast, we let the boys do a little painting before nap time.  We limited it to 2 colors, chosen by Fenn.  He chose blue and green.  Fenn's technique involves really broad strokes across the whole page.  While Boone's technique is a little more concentrated on a small area.  Boone also enjoyed sucking the paint off the paint brush... as evidenced by the green paint on his lips, under his nose, and as we later found out, UP his nose.  As you could probably guess, mommy and daddy stood close by in the event of flying paint, considering the fact we were letting them paint in the family room. 

Crack of Dawn on Christmas Morning

Since we didn't get to bed until around 2:30 a.m., we were really hoping for one of those rare mornings when the boys sleep late.  Late for them would be 6:30... and really late would be 7:00.  But that didn't happen.  Boone was up first between 5:30 and 6:00.  After putting him in the bed with us and then figuring out he was not going back to sleep, I decided to get up and get prepared for the onslaught of chaos in the dining room.  (That's where we have to put our tree because there's no room in the family room without removing a major piece of furniture).  About the time I got up around 6:00, I heard Fenn calling for us.  So I got Fenn, took him to go potty, and then took him back to our room so Dan could keep both boys locked up while I got things ready.  The 'things' would be the video camera and camera.

Around 6:30 a.m., the boys had lost patience and I was finally ready.  {Note for future reference... I just noticed the time stamp on all my pictures is an hour later than it actually was.  I have now corrected that on my camera.}

Fenn tearing out of our room at about 100 mph.

Boone following close behind... with his beloved paci.  Time to start working on getting rid of it.  He only has it during naps and at bedtime; however, we forgot to take it away from him when he got up, so he has it in all of the Christmas morning photos.

One of Fenn's favorite toys was his Star Wars Light Saber.

And one of Boone's favorite toys was the plasma car.  That's Grami showing him how it works.

This one is just to prove that I do indeed exist and occasionally relinquish control of the camera.

And about the best photo I could manage of the boys in their Christmas pajamas.  They're not looking at me, but I like that they're in the rocking chairs their Aunt Angie and Uncle Todd gave them.  Definitely an heirloom they'll keep forever and hopefully their kids will sit in them someday.  And I hope I am still around to see it.

I'll do another post with photos from the rest of the day later.  Time for breakfast!

Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve.  The boys are finally asleep.  And Dan and I are up late getting ready for Santa Claus to arrive.  This is the first year that Fenn really seems to know what's going on, and he has been so excited.  The main thing he's been talking about for weeks is the light saber he wants.  Both boys have had a great time looking for Jet Pilot (our Elf on the Shelf) each morning.

Grami and Poppy arrived yesterday afternoon.  And this afternoon, we went to the 3:00 p.m. Christmas Eve service at our church.  Afterward, we were off to continue the Piper family tradition of eating mexican on Christmas Eve.  We've been going to the same place since we moved to Knoxville, partly because we really do like it and partly because it's the only mexican restaurant we've been able to find that stays open on Christmas Eve.

Boone was flirting with some ladies at a table behind him.  Part of his flirting involved dancing to the fun music.

Fenn decided to get up and entertain the whole restaurant.  As you can tell, there weren't very many people there.  But the ones who were there thoroughly enjoyed watching Fenn and Boone.

And here are the cookies for Santa.  Fenn and Boone made the cookies with their daddy last night.  We made the plate last year.  The antlers of the reindeer are Fenn's hands.  And the face of the reindeer is one of Boone's tiny little feet.

Hopefully we'll be going to bed soon.

Here Comes Santa Claus...

Santa Claus visited the boys at school yesterday.  He read them a story, and then they got some one-on-one time with him to tell him what they wanted for Christmas.  The picture tells the whole story.  Fenn was completely happy about getting to talk with Santa.  Boone wasn't really sure about him.  But at least he didn't cry.

When I got to school to pick up the boys that afternoon, Fenn walked up to me with tears in his eyes and the saddest look on his face.  He said, "Santa didn't give me the light saber."  Apparently, he was under the impression that it was Christmas and Santa would be bringing all the toys with him that day.  I had to do some explaining at that point.

The teachers also told me a cute story about Boone and his girlfriend, Kinsley.  Apparently, she was upset when meeting Santa, so they went to get Boone thinking he might help.  Instead, Boone got upset when he saw how upset Kinsley was.  And he had already met Santa earlier and was fine.  Ahh.... it must be true love.  He gets upset when she's upset.  They really are so cute together.

When we were walking out the front doors of the school, Fenn asked, "Where is Santa's sleigh and reindeers?"  I told him he must have parked them up on the roof of the school somewhere that we couldn't see.

We are so happy that Santa came to visit Fenn and Boone's school.  He saved us from having to stand in line at the mall for most likely an hour or more.  Thank you, Santa!  Oh, and don't forget the light sabers!

Soccer at Cool Sports

We did another session of soccer at Cool Sports.  They have this great 5-week class for 2 - 5 year olds.  It is a great introduction to organized sports and the basics of soccer, like "no hands in soccer".  Fenn has a good time with his daddy, and it is even better because his friend, Ella Kate, is there, too.  Last night was the last class of the session.

Can't leave Boone out.  He's not quite old enough yet, but he will be next summer.  He loves running around on the field and watching his big brother.

Goooooo Soccer!

Ella Kate and Fenn with their completion certificates.

Dashing Through the Snow...

On Sunday (the day after Fenn's birthday party), we got snow.  It snowed pretty much all day.  But it didn't really start accumulating until late.  On Monday morning, we woke up to maybe 2 or 3 inches of snow.  Oddly enough, the boys' school was open that day.  But we decided to get in some fun first.  The snow wasn't good enough to build a snowman (which Fenn really wanted to do!), but it was just fine for sledding.  The boys had a great time, except for the fact that their mittens weren't keeping their hands dry and warm enough.  {And that prompted me to go online and order some snow mittens that day!}  And Petey had fun chasing the boys in the sled and running around in the snow.

Mommy and Boone crashing into the 50 year old chain link fence in our yard. It's not pretty. But if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Celebrating Fenn's 3rd Birthday

We started off by having a small, family celebration on Friday night.  Fenn had a special cupcake from The Cupcakery.

He got presents from mommy, daddy, and Boone.  Mommy and Daddy gave him his very first video game, a Leapfrog Leapster Explorer.  And Boone gave him a set of Backyardigans books.

On Saturday morning, we had the big party at Pump It Up with all of Fenn's friends.
Top Row (L to R): Morgan, Ella Kate, Alina, Miles, Agnes (or maybe Estelle), Claire, Sophia
2nd Row (L to R): Audrey, Frances (in Alina's lap), Wes
3rd Row (L to R): Cade, Hayes, Estelle (or Agnes), Boone
Front Row (L to R): Brody, Ava, Fenn, Eva, Andrew, Jacob

Fenn had so much fun that we barely even saw him.  I actually only got a couple of pictures of him coming down the slide.

Boone went down the slide with daddy, mommy, and even Poppy (who, by the way, is 77 years old!).

We could tell Boone was eager to try going down by himself, so we decided to go for it.  He needed help climbing to the top, but he never hesitated to go down the big slide by himself.  In fact, we tried a few times to get him to do the smaller slides, but he wanted nothing to do with those.

The family that slides together, has fun together!

After all the fun in the main room, we went into the party room for cupcakes, candy, and cheese puffs.

Fenn with some friends from his school:  Wes, Ava, and Eva.  Fenn distinguishes the difference between the two Ava's/Eva's by saying "Ava with the yellow hair" or "Eva with the black hair".

Fenn, Ella Kate, and Claire having fun with the whistles from the goody bags.

Fenn's birthday party invitation.

The cupcakes.  Fenn specifically requested blue cupcakes.

The goody bags.  The tags say, "Thank you for coming to my party."

I have tons more fun photos from the party, but there were just too many to post here.  You can check out my Picasa Web Albums by clicking on the link in the right-hand column of the blog.  It will take you to all my public albums, including the one with all the photos from Fenn's birthday party.

Fenn is THREE Years Old!

It is still hard to believe that we had our first little baby three years ago today.  Everyone says it goes by fast, and I believe it.  Fenn is THREE years old today.  Happy Birthday to our little man!  Mommy, Daddy, and Boone love you very much!

He really is a very sweet little boy.  No, he's not always a perfect angel.  But I got the sweetest compliment the other night from Heather, the assistant director at his school.  She came over to babysit on Wednesday night while Dan and I went to his office Christmas party.  When we got home, we were talking about the kids and she said that Fenn is such an even-tempered and sweet little boy and really hardly ever gets in trouble at school.  As a parent, it is nice to hear those things about your kids because you don't really know how they act when they're away from you.

I took these photos right before Fenn left for school this morning.  Dan called after dropping him off and told me he walked into Ms. Robin's office and announced, "It's my birthday!".  Then he went into his classroom and said, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

His party is tomorrow morning at Pump It Up and he is so excited about it.  He keeps naming his friends that are coming.

Merry Christmas from the Pipers!

This is our 2010 Christmas card.  I'm posting this because I'll get a $25 gift certificate from Shutterfly for doing so.  Pretty sweet, huh? 

Elegant Floral Black Christmas 5x7 folded card

Shutterfly has classic, elegant Christmas invitations for your party.

View the entire collection of cards.

Christmas Tree, Cookies, and our Elf on the Shelf

Yesterday, we planned to go and cut down a Christmas tree.  Since we usually travel for Thanksgiving, we're always about a week later than we'd like to be in starting to decorate for Christmas.  We checked the forecast and it was calling for a 100% chance of rain at exactly the time we were planning to go.  But we decided to go ahead anyway because you never know what the weather is going to do in December.  It seems like it always ends up raining on the day we want to get a tree and we postpone it.  Then we end up trying to finish decorating a week before Christmas.

The boys were little troopers and didn't seem to mind the rain and the cold.  Dan cut down the tree pretty quickly and then once we finally got the thing tied to the top of the car, we were on our way.  We sang Christmas carols on the way home.  The boys loved that, and like last year, Fenn already knows some of the words to a few songs (like Jingle Bells, Frosty the Snowman, and Jingle Bell Rock).

Later than afternoon, while putting lights on the tree, Dan baked some cookies with the boys.  They had lots of fun.  And by the time it was over, there were little beads and sprinkles everywhere!  Oh, and Fenn, Boone, and daddy were all covered in flour.

Boone liked using the cookie cutters.

We also got our Elf on the Shelf yesterday.  Santa sent him to stay with us throughout the holidays.  He'll watch the kids during the day and then report back to Santa Claus each night.  Santa said we should give him a name, so Fenn named him 'Jet Pilot'.  Our guess is that over the years that will get shortened to either 'Jet' or 'JP'.

Today (December 5, 2010) is the 7th anniversary of mine and Dan's first date at Basil Leaf Restaurant in LaGrange, GA.  Happy Anniversary sweetie!