O CHRISTMAS TREE

It's CHRISTMAS TIME and I can OFFICIALLY decorate for Christmas!! I have been TRYING for YEARS (5 Christmases) to convince Kent to buy a REAL tree and FINALLY made him PROMISE LAST year that if I went ONE more year with a fake, I'd get a REAL one this year! He kept that promise with NO complaints or trying to convince ME to stick with the fake...I appreciated that!

So Saturday we headed off to the Christmas tree lot to pick out our tree!

Brandon, Amanda, and Tessa joined us because since they've had a REAL tree every year, we needed pro's help on finding the BEST one!

Boston enjoyed weaving in and out of all the trees while making me think I was going to loose a TWO year old.

After all our hunting and husbands slowly growing impatient, we settled on our FIRST REAL TREE!!! Like our LSU get up? Game day people, GAME DAY!

We went home and after a few quick runs to the store for more lights, we got to start decorating.

I had this picture perfect image in my head....Christmas music playing while the whole family happily decorates the Christmas tree...yeah NOT SO MUCH in the Hooper house!! Boston placed TWO ornaments on then ran around the house like a crazy child while also attempting to take bulbs OFF the tree to throw (hence the shatter proof bulb purchase I made this year) with a husband getting VERRRY tired of my Christmas cheer and was just about DONE with all the decorating! Sooooo THAT image didn't happen this year...maybe next year? Good thing is that it is pretty much completed regardless!

I even got Kent to cheese it up while placing the star on top!

I'd like to put a FULL picture up of the finished product, but she's not finished yet people. I'm still trying to convince Kent to buy a NEW tree skirt (I decided to redo my tree this year and the tree skirt I just purchased LAST year is the wrong color so he's a LITTLE upset about that....which by the way that tree skirt took me FIVE Christmases to get....Kent can be a little scrooge during the holidays sometimes) soooo until I somehow finagle my way into that one......the unfinished product will have to do.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2009!

This year we decided to stay home bound (with our crazy year of going and going we wanted to stay put for Thanksgiving). I was also VERY up to the challenge of making my FIRST Thanksgiving dinner. I can say I LOVED it and don't know why people stress about it...I seriously enjoyed EVERY minute (okay maybe not clean up). My parents decided to come over for a quick turkey dinner. They came late Wednesday night and left EARLY (like 4 am early) Friday morning. Along with my parents came our VERY important part of Thanksgiving this year....THE TURKEY FRIER!!!

Yes, I truly believe this is the BEST way to cook a turkey!

This was the men's duty while the women finished preparing all the food for the delicious meal!

Look at my cute parents!

We attempted a few family pics but Boston just wanted to play and was ABSOLUTELY NOT willing to take a decent picture....KIDS!!

So we gave in, let him play and got one of just us....like my fury husband? I believe 2 minutes after this picture was taken he was upstairs shaving.....

I swear these kids have a love/hate relationship but when they love each other, its the CUTEST thing EVER! They will literally stand there and hug FOREVER....until they've gotten so excited and are jumping up and down and Boston gets a little TOO excited and tackles Tessa to the floor...

The finished turkey in ALLL of his glory! Seriously, this WAS the best turkey I have EVER had at Thanksgiving!

The FEAST that literally could have fed a small country!

He LOOOOVES his Mimi!

After our massive feast and letting the food sit for a little while, it was PIE time! We had a PIE for EVERYONE...seriously-6 pies for 6 people! Hey, it's THANKSGIVING people! Personally, I'm not a fan of pies (yes, kill me if you must) so I opted out to make the chocolate pie (my 1st pie ever made) which in my opinion was the BEST....that might have something to do with me not even trying the others!

We finished the night with a little dancing entertainment from the kids. Apparently, they BOTH love to dance!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

LET THE HOLIDAYS BEGIN!!!

WE DID IT!!!!

I can OFFICIALLY say it IS official! We have FINALLY (after 2 previous tries) gotten rid of the binky!!!!! SOOO proud of the little man (and even MORE proud of myself for finally deciding 100% that it was time)! Like I said, we've tried 2 other times without success (for various reasons) and this time, it was do or die! For myself mainly, ALL BINKIES HAD TO BE GONE...OUT OF THE HOUSE...DESTROYED....GONE!!!! Yes, I think it was harder for me than for Boston. I explained to Boston that big boys don't use binkies and that they're only for babies. We then proceeded to chop the binkies in half and throw them in the trash. Boston actually found this pretty exciting....all until he laid down for his nap! He only came out of his room once asking and crying for them but then after explaining again that they were for babies, he went right to sleep and has NEVER had a problem since!!! It's officially been ONE week and I'm VERRY proud of this guy!

Please ignore Boston's new cheesy smile....this is what I get when I ask him to say "smile and say cheese" for the camara!

All cut and ALL thrown in the trash! I do find it funny that I've probably bought 385798790235 binkies over the past 2 yrs and only have THREE left!! Seriously, where do these things disappear to??

WHAT HAS BLOGGER DONE?!?!?

I have NOO idea WHAT happened or WHY it happened (apparently I was an inactive account??) but my blog went major screwy on me and I'm still trying to figure it all out! VEEEERRY annoying! So please don't mind the construction going on...still trying to straighten all this junk out!!

GEAUX TIGERS!!!!!!!

(yes, we've taught Boston to yell those words!)

A few weekends ago (Oct 24th to be exact) we got to make a quick trip to BATON ROUGE for ONE MAIN reason...........

That's right, it's fall people and that means ONE THING-------LSU FOOTBALL!!!!! We called my dad's tickets to the Auburn game this year. Sooooo off we went to enjoy a night in TIGER STADIUM!!!!!!!!!

LOOOOOOVE this place on a Saturday night!

Yes, we put the SMACK down on Auburn! I wish it was a CLOSER win because I must admit I felt it was a boring game BUT hey, a WIN is a WIN!

GEAUX TIGERS!!!!!!

**Thanks Carol for watching Boston for us**

"Tick o Teat! Ummm YUMMY!"

That was the phrase Boston spoke at every door on Halloween! It cracked me up! I should probably be unpacking right now but I am taking a break to post or else it'll be the end of the month before I can get to this!

For Halloween Boston wanted to be his FAVORITE character DASH! Yes, he LOVES him and constantly reminds us, "I DASH!" So I searched and searched and couldn't find one in his size. I should have just bought it big and hoped it worked but I didn't. So between all the packing and moving, I ended up waiting until the Wednesday BEFORE Halloween to find a costume. I was striking out until I went to Party City and found this little jewel....

Yep, he was our little PIRATE! I must say HE LOVED IT (thanks to Backyardigan's episode about pirates...). All night we'd hear "ARGH!!!!" I thought he'd struggle to want to wear the eye patch+earring but HE DID IT and loved every minute of it! I struggled to try and get a FULL picture of him because he WAS NOT having that before we went trick or treating....so I guess you get what you get. I'm learning to deal with that children not wanting to cooperate like you want all the time.....

For Halloween we went to our friend's the Curtis' house to go trick or treating. The weather was PEEEERFECT and although we were worried at first that we weren't going to load up on enough candy, we ended with plenty!

David the fireman, Boston the pirate and Tessa the little ladybug!

I tried all night to get a good shot of the kids together and failed every time. None of those kids wanted me to get a good picture!!!!

We got home after and let Boston enjoy SOME candy before bed then as adults, we sat back and enjoyed a scary movie....I mean common, what's Halloween without a good scare?!?

Halloween is getting more fun each year with Boston! As a parent, holiday's really do start to be all about the kids!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!