saturday morning donuts

Uncle Spencer is real cool. He went to Shipley's and got us two big boxes of donuts for breakfast. Nothing like donuts on a Saturday morning. Mommy let us have two each- one chocolate and one regular since it's such a special treat.

Mommy caught me trying to lick all the extra frosting off the bottom of the box.

Mmmmmm...can't get much better than that.

Those chocolate ones sure are yummy.

Mommy says our baby is growing and that's why she's hungry all the time, but I think she's just using that as an excuse to eat more during the holidays.

Baby at 25 wks. Mommy got a new Ergo carrier today with some Christmas money. She sure is excited about it. Now we just need the baby to go in it!

Merry Christmas from Arkansas

Merry Christmas from the Stanton Family!

My almost 4 year old.

My little stinker 2 1/2 yr old.

It's been good to be home.

I'm dreaming of a muddy Christmas?

Last Sunday night we did our little Christmas together before packing up and heading to AR yesterday. Notice what's missing on this picture?

So fun to see the excitement they have over little things. Shep's tractor loader. Scored this one at a consignment store for $6!

I'm sure he's thinking, "It's mine...all mine"

Boys loved their little nerf guns.

After a long, long summer of drought, it finally rained and rained and rained. December is usually our rainiest month and it seems like it's always just wet enough to keep us inside. Boys had about all they could take. Shep and I were watching the rain from the porch and suddenly, his face lit up. It was too late to stop him. I know, I'm a bad Mom, but I'm just not crazy about the mud thing.

Pure little boy heaven.

Muddy Christmas from the Stantons!

well, we tried

I attempted my first ever gingerbread house and I mean, first ever. I decorated one in preschool, but the house was already built. It was a little harder than I thought...lol! I think I was supposed to make the house ahead of time with a special sort of sugar glue and let it set. The boys couldn't wait for that after we opened the pieces, so we tried to stick it together with frosting.


It kind of worked.

Then it collapsed.

We got it back together, but by that time Shep was banished because he kept eating all the M&Ms and frosting off. He got a little excited and frosted his entire hand with green frosting. Conner was quite distraught. Shep headed to the bath tub, while Conner finished it up.

We'll try again next year and I'll plan ahead a little better. The boys sure enjoyed it, though and didn't mind it was rather lopsided. The best part: it kept them occupied a good 45 min:)

Mighty Cone

As I said before, having friends visit is always a great excuse to do fun things around the city. One day we headed down to SoCo to have lunch at my favorite local lunch trailer. Apparently, Mighty Cone was also voted one of the top 10 lunch trailers in the US. If you haven't tried it, you need to. Get the friend avocado cone. It's amazing.


It was a beautiful day to be outside.

The one on the right, that's mine. So yummy.

The boys just got a cheeseburger, but it was a way cool cheeseburger since it was in a handy cone. Way more fun to eat that way.

I wish I could eat at a different food trailer every week. I've only been to a few and they've all been amazing and so fun. If only money was not an issue:)

Deck the Halls!

Looking at Christmas lights is one of my absolutely favorite things to do at Christmas time! After picking up some hot chocolate at our favorite local coffee shop, we took the boys to see the big tree at Zilker Park this year.


The view from inside the tree.

Enjoying our big boys! We've really been trying to get out more and do things, since it will be so much harder in just a few months:)

Shep was so proud of his antlers. He sang "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" the whole night. Glad we have one child who likes to wear stuff like that. Conner wasn't interested.

Checking out all the lights at the Domain another night.

We enjoyed a visit from our friend Ashley last week-end. It's always fun to have company and an excuse to do fun things around the city you wouldn't usually do! We watched old Christmas movies, shopped, looked at lots of lights and made peanut butter chocolate fudge. Fun week-end!

Only in Texas would there be amardillos for kids to climb on in upscale shopping centers. Conner was so proud he could do it by himself.

What are some of your favorite things to do during the holidays?

'Tis the Season

'Tis the season for lots of fun holiday memories! My small group decorated some Christmas cookies for a service project and we had a few extra cookies, which the boys enjoyed decorating.

Had to test the icing, of course.

Conner takes after his Mom and likes to put a lot of icing on his.

Last Wednesday afternoon we headed out to a friend's house to decorate ornaments. Conner is going to give his to his school teachers. Shep enjoyed painting his fingers just about as much as the ornament.

Our big kids.

Conner's sweet friend, Annie.

It was actually pretty cold here (for us!) and rainy this past week, so it was nice to have some projects to keep us busy since we couldn't get outside much.

such a miracle

Life is such a miracle. Little foot and five little toes.


It's so neat to think that God already knows the days ordained for this little one...before the foundation of the world.

Five little fingers. Looks like I'll need to change the title of my blog to thirty sticky little fingers.

Today I'm 20 wks and 4 days. Baby weighed a little on the small size at 11 oz, so either we have a little peanut or the due date is closer to the one I calculated of April 19th (instead of April 15th). Best news is that I've only gained 9 lbs!!

The both boys think the baby is a girl at this point. At first they both said boy. Our goal for Christmas break is to pick some names. We've talked about it once or twice, but not really come up with anything definite.

More than half-way there (hopefully!). We're so grateful and excited.