O Chritstmas Tree, 2016

Ah, nothing beats a fresh Christmas tree! And finding one, well that's just all part of the fun that helps me get into the Christmas spirit. I love going to a tree farm on a cold day, with the sun shining bright, and trailing through rows and rows of trees, evaluating each one (twice) before decided on the perfect one. And the perfect "one" is always a Fraser Fir.

This year was nothing like the scene I described.

We made a mad dash, past the kids bedtimes, to Home Depot and grabbed one of few Fraser Firs that were left. The kids were cranky (and rightly so), and no one really wanted to take a family photo that I was making them take (see photo below).

The experience of shopping wasn't as wonderful, BUT I still love my fresh tree, and loved getting to pick it out as a family and decorate it. It's always the start of our Christmas season tradition.

If looks could kill, Henry's just might!

 Traditional "binging it through the door" photo.

Time to decorate!

I love this one just because Henry is in the background with his toy cell phone saying "cheese" while he snaps the button. Obviously he's from a generation where only cell phones are used as cameras.

Emerson was all about decorating the tree this year, and he did so well. He was very gentle with each ornament he hung...and only broke one. Success.

Henry had no interest in decorating the big tree, but...

 

 ...he did enjoy decorating his little felt tree.

Happy December, Everyone!

P.S. it took has a whole week to complete the process, hence all the different outfit changes we had : )

Thanksgiving, 2016

 

It's a cold and rainy day at our house. It has rained all day and all night with more rain to come. There has been very minimal activity going on, and I love it. We ALL slept in (very rare), we stayed in pj's till noon, cleaned house, ate waffles, watched football (Bedlam!), and decorated our Christmas tree (to be blogged about at a later date). It's been a great day.

Since it's a lazy day, I decided I'd better hop on my blog and update. Latest adventure for us was traveling to Grammy and Granddads house in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving.  

The kid table.

Henry got to sit with the adults. Pretty sure all he ate was mac and cheese, but I was too busy chowing down to notice or care.

There was lots of this going on...

 and this...

 We swung, climbed and jumped for hours outside. Thank goodness it was a nice weather visit.

 We also took a trip to the Holy City with cousins and went up Mt. Scott.

And of course it wouldn't be a trip to Grammy and Granddads house without feeding the cows,

and riding our new favorite toy, the Viking, which brings thrill and fear for our two children, especially when daddy is driving. 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! On to Christmas and more holiday adventures.

Oh, Brother!

God blessed me with a son (Emerson) who is sweet, emotional, considerate of others (mostly), likes quiet play, loves his momma, and making others happy.

God also blessed me with another son (Henry) who is loud, rambunctious, active, snuggly, mischievous, funny, and loves his daddy.

These two brothers are night and day. Not only in personality, but in looks. Emerson has thick light hair like me, and Henry has brown wispy (and once very curly) hair like his daddy. Both have big brown eyes that have very different shapes when they smile and cry. Both different smiles and nose scrunches.  I don't think anyone will ever look at them and ask "are you brothers?". Just not going to happen.

When it comes to discipline, Emerson gets super sweet and is very remorseful. He usually tells me (with big tears in his eyes) that he loves me after he gets in trouble, which of course melts my anger away and I scoop him up and hug him. Henry, not so much. He usually just runs away yelling "no" to me when I tell him he needs a timeout, thus sky rocketing my blood pressure. Sigh.

Emerson's the rule follower and Henry's the rule breaker.

There's the relationship they have with each other. Where to begin with that one. My role in life right now is a referee. These two are at each others throats most of the time, but then they flip a  switch and will play so nice together and give each other hugs and kisses. They will greet each other in the morning with a "Good morning, Brother!" and give big waves as they come down the stairs. They also hate when they are apart. Henry will cry if he wakes before his big brother after nap and will keep crying most days until Emerson wakes up to play. Hot and cold.

Then there's the individual relationships they have with us, momma and daddy.  Emerson is like me in personality in almost every way and he seems to know that as well. He usually prefers me at night when it's bedtime, where as Henry is just like his daddy in personality and prefers him at night when it's time for bed.

Because of all their differences, I constantly ask myself  "how in the world am I supposed to raise these kids?" and "how in the world am I going to keep them out of counseling due to all our parenting mistakes?".

And then they have these moments with each other...

 

 

 

 
... and all my worries about raising them go away. God loves them, they love each other and they are loved by family and friends. They will survive in this world together because they have each other.

Fall Fun

Ah, I just love this time of year. In Southeast Texas we don't get the beautiful cool weather or get to see the leaves change, BUT we still get all the fall fun that comes with the turning of the season. 

Pumpkin patches, Trunk-or-Treats, dressing up for Halloween, Costume parties and even a trip to the beach. Because who doesn't go to the beach and swim in the water in October?

Our trip to Crystal beach with Gramma and Pops

The water was so warm!

Fall party at Grammy and Granddads house.

At the pumpkin patch.

 

 

 

And yes, I realize my son needs a haircut. He's starting to look a little hillbilly-like.

 The bounce house was the best part of the pumpkin patch trip.

 Costume parade and parties at school.

This is our pathetic attempt of letting the boys jump in the leaf piles : ) They were happy with the small pile we had gathered.

Pumpkin painting and carving.

Happy Halloween from the Wright brothers!

Trick-or-Treating time!  First time for either of the boys to go trick-or-treating.

Emerson preferred to pass out the candy.

More fall fun to come in November!

Where in the World is Heather Feather?!?!

Let me tell you where...right here! I've been doing this thing called life and boy does it have me busy. And when it's not busy, I'm doing laundry.

If someone had told me how busy this phase of life would have been, I'm not sure I would have started a blog seven years ago. Speaking of seven years, it's been (almost) seven years! So if you are reading this and have been since I started typing, then congratulations you're now seven years older just like me : ) Some may find that humorous, others depressing. I'm not sure where I stand on that matter just yet.

Anyway, I know all you care about are photos, so I'll do a quick recap of  the McKee life.

 Emerson went to his first dentist appointment. All looked good and he did great.

We celebrated Father's Day and Jesse's cousin and two of his boys came to visit. Talk about being outnumbered that weekend!

We celebrated Fourth of July at Grammy and Granddads house.

We had more cousins visit. Again, outnumbered.

We went to the Nashville zoo with Gramma and Pops.

 We went to Uncle Evan and Aunt Lea's wedding.

 The boys started school. Henry's first year!

We took a relaxing vacation to the Smokey mountains.

The end.

Except, not really. We did lots of fun things in between and had not so fun things either. Pool parties, birthday parties, baby showers, wedding showers, Jesses' cousins wedding, a family reunion, trip to the beach, more family visits, finding out my dad had cancer (and then broke six ribs), a pumpkin patch, costume parties and so, so much more. 

But that is life and I love doing life with my family. They are the best.

Now, the end.