Christmas with the VanderHorst Family

After Boston opened his presents from Santa, we went to my parents house for round 2 of Christmas.

I love my boys cheesy Christmas sweaters. So dang cute.

Gifts, gifts, gifts...

After presents had been opened, my mom made a FEAST!

Christmas 2009

I didn't want to cook on Christmas Eve. So, we went to our favorite Asian fusion restaurant for dinner and had yummy basil rolls and seafood delight!

Then we went home to open ornaments and Christmas PJ's.

Then Boston went to bed, and Santa came to our house! Stinky was thrilled.

Christmas Morning! Oh,the joy of opening presents that Santa magically placed under the tree.

My house at Christmas time

Those who know me well are aware of my impulsive need to decorate to fit the holiday season. (whichever holiday it happens to be) Boston has mimicked my behavior, as children often do. Although I started decorating BEFORE Thanksgiving, Boston is still asking me when we can decorate more. He gets such a kick out of it that I keep buying additional ornaments to add to my already decorated tree. I just can't say NO to him. (Well, at least in this case anyway)

In my efforts to keep my power bill at a relatively respectable level during the holiday season, I refrained from decorating the outside of my house this year. (with the exception of a few inflatables) So, here's the inside, since the outside is nothing to brag about this year.

Merry Christmas to all!

Strangers

Isn't it our job as parents to teach our children to stay away from strangers? Especially the strange looking strangers. Sorry Boston. I have failed you.

Mom's Birthday

Chris's mom, Rhonda recently had a birthday. She adores Charming Tails collectibles and also loves to decorate for Christmas. So, for her birthday we decided to get her some Christmas Charming Tails to decorate her house with. Happy Birthday, mom. We appreciate all that you do for us and love you more than you'll ever know.

Boston visits Santa

We went to the Mall of Georgia so that Boston could talk with Santa. We waited a freakin' HOUR in line with the rest of the crazy parents and anxious children. When it was finally Bossy's turn to talk with Santa, he chatted it right up with him. Yet, when Santa asked him the big question, "What do you want for Christmas?", Boss had no clue what to say. He ended up telling Santa that he wanted lolly pops. Well, that will be easy enough.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful and FILLING Thanksgiving day. Boston and Chris started the day off by watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in their jammies. Thanksgiving is Chris's favorite holiday.

Round one of dinner was at my parents house. Sooo yummy!

After our filling meal, we decided to take a walk together. (or we would all just fall asleep if we had sat down with full bellies)

After my parents house, we had round 2 of Thanksgiving dinner with Chris's family. Man, we were stuffed by the end of the day. Mission accomplished!

We played Rock Band with Chris's family to help burn off our extra calories. It was fun.

Fall Leaves

My parents have such beautiful trees in their yard. After our Thanksgiving walk, we couldn't help but to play in the golden leaves. Boston and Chris had the funniest leaf fight I've ever seen. No matter how hard he tried, poor Boston couldn't throw the leaves high enough to hit his daddy in the face.

Chris's 30th Birthday Party

Well, my hubby said good-bye to his twenties and welcomed in his thirties with a bang! We rented out the entire 3rd floor of TAP, our favorite restaurant in Atlanta. Our good friend, Shelley is the manager at TAP and hooked us up with a great set up for Chris's birthday celebration.

We were so grateful for all of our friends and family members that were able to come party with us. There were some friends that were unable to make it due to the thanksgiving holiday. If you were not able to come, you were missed, and you missed out! :)
We had a DJ pumpin' tunes all night for us. He humored us with our many song requests.

Let the good times ROLL!

We had 2 TV's at the party. One was to play a DVD slide show of pictures of Chris with his loved ones. The slide show was a nice touch, reminding us all of the good times we've had with Chris and inspiring us to make more memories. The other TV was to broadcast the UGA vs GA Tech football game that was on during the party. This was a must for many of our guests and the guest of honor. Fortunately, the dawgs came out victorious.

Many different people made this party a success. Special thanks go out to the following:

- My parents for watching Boston overnight

- Shelley Labbe-Sweet for organizing the details of food, drinks, space and DJ.

- Kristina Cersey for helping me make the DVD picture slide show

- the friends and family members who came to the party. It would not have been the celebration it was with out you.

- Finally, Christopher Wayne Fox for having a 30th Birthday and giving us the reason to celebrate your wonderful life. I hope you had an unforgettably fun birthday celebration. I love you and look forward to the next 30 years.

Backyard Bonfire

Chris and Boston love bonfires. Boston thoroughly enjoys gathering wood in our "forest", breaking the sticks and then throwing them in the fire. He's such a boy. Thanks to Keith and Shannon who made our backyard fire huddle complete.

Dad turns the big 6-0!

My dad just celebrated his 60th birthday on November 21st. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY! I love you so much.

Dad let Boston help him blow out all 3 of his birthday candles. The lack of candles was my bad. I made his cake and it was kind of a disaster. The more candles you put in it, the more it would fall apart. Ooops. Sorry dad. At least the cake was tasty, right?

Wedding at Serenbe Farms

It's taken me over a month to post this, but better late than never right? Between this wedding, Boston's birthday, my mom's birthday and Halloween - October was quite a busy but memorable month.

We had the privilege of attending a wedding that we will never forget. Our friends, Shelley and Andy were married on October 17 th. They asked Boston to be their ring bearer during the ceremony. Below are pictures from the rehearsal dinner at the Farm House. The food was amazing!

We rented a 2 bedroom bungalow at Serenbe Farms with our good friends, Brennan and Asha. Asha was Shelley's Maid of Honor. Staying with Brennan, Asha and Bella really added to our overall experience. Serenbe Farms was such a unique place to have a wedding. We spent the night there 2 nights so we had all day before the wedding ceremony to enjoy the Farms. Despite the chill in the air, we enjoyed seeing the animals, jumping on the trampoline and walking around the beautiful landscape.

After enjoying our surroundings, it was soon time to prepare for the wedding ceremony. Boston looked so handsome in his tuxedo. I was such a proud mama. Well, with the exception of when Boston picked his nose right before he started walking down the isle during the wedding ceremony. Yep, he started digging for gold just as it was his turn to walk down. Once I got him to stop picking, he walked half way down the isle and then ran the rest of the way to Andy. (the groom) But I was so proud of the fact that he went down the isle all by himself and then stood by the groom for 3/4 of the ceremony. Overall, he did pretty well for a 3 year old ring bearer.

Below are pictures from the wedding reception. The reception was so much fun! The food was amazingly tasty and we had a lot of fun dancing the night away. After all, dancing was the best way to stay warm. :)

Andy and Shelley really outdid themselves for their wedding. Every little detail had been thought through and taken care of. They have such classy taste and the overall experience as a guest was thoroughly enjoyable. I hope they enjoyed as much as we did. They had a bonfire for all of the guests following both the wedding reception and rehearsal dinner. The bonfire was a ton of fun, but we tend to enjoy a good bonfire. BIG thanks go out to Shelley and Andy for letting us share in their special wedding weekend. We wish them a life-long marriage filled with happiness and personal fulfilment.

Bostons 3rd Birthday Party

Boston had a birthday on October 27th! It's hard to believe that my baby is already 3! Boston had a fun birthday party to say the least. We rented a Batman inflatable jump for the backyard and that kept the kids entertained for quite some time. Even after the party was over me, Chris and Boston jumped in it for hours until the owners came to take it away. Boston will still look in the back yard and ask where the "jumpy thing" is.

Boston had quite a turn out for his party. Thank you to all our friends and family who came to help celebrate Bossy's big day.

BIG thanks go out to Gammy for making Boston an awesome Spiderman cake.

Soon it was pinata smacking time and the kids had a blast trying to get the transformer to release the candy. It was a cold day, but the kids stayed warm with all the outdoor activities.

Redskins vs. Falcons Game

Hail to the Redskins! Hail Victory! Braves on the warpath! Fight for 'ole D.C.!

Well, the Skins fought and we cheered, but it was not a victorious day for the Redskins. Poor Chris. It's been 6 years since his beloved Redskins came to Atlanta. He was so excited to see "his boys" proudly sporting the burgundy and gold. But at the end of the forth quarter the score was 17 Redskins, 31 Falcons. Ouch! It was an embarrassing defeat. Yet, we made the most of it and had a great time anyway. I was so impressed with the great number of fellow Redskins fans at the game. We had "friends" at every turn.

We got camera happy!

Tailgating is always my favorite part. We met up with several of our co-workers before the game and ended up with a respectable crowd at our tailgate.

Halloween

What a Halloween we had! It takes more than cold, rainy weather to keep us from trick-or-treating! Here's our gang at a neighbors house getting candy.

Jordan, Taylor, Adrianna and Boston striking a pose.
Carey, Gammy and Chris all dressed up like Spiderman so that we could be one big happy spider family. Gammy even padded her costume for muscle effect. When it came time to put Boston's Spiderman costume on, HE REFUSED!! We forcefully put the costume on him, and he cried about the padded muscles hurting him! We were so disappointed to go out of our way to match him, and then he just wasn't having it. What a PUNK!!
Adrianne, Tasha, Chris and Carey

We had some fun friends join us in our Halloween fun. Paula and her family & Tasha and her family joined us for trick-or-treating. It was fun to have a big group running from door to door. Shannon, Keith and Thiggy stayed at our house and handed out candy to the trick-or-treaters. (thanks guys!!) All in all, we had a successfully fun filled Halloween.

Halloween festivities at our local Publix

Believe it or not, Publix was a Halloween hot spot! I was shocked to see how many trick-or-treaters were there. Every department had an organized event that the kids could participate in.

Jackson the dinosaur, Carey the devil and Boston the skeleton

Decorating pumpkins in the floral department

Ring toss in the meat department

Thanks to the Woods, Cerseys and Dollars for hanging out at Publix with us.