Picture of the Week - 12/26/2013

I hope you all had a simply wonderful Christmas!  Ours was chaotic and loud and awesome!  We crammed enough memories into the last 7 days to make anyone's head swim!!!

 

Today I am feeling incredibly blessed - and maybe a little tired!!

 

Here's to a safe and happy New Year's Eve.  It will be 2014 when you hear from me again!  WOW!!

 

Couple of pictures today - the family on Christmas Eve morning and the boys ready for Santa!

 

 

Picture of the Week - 12/19/2013

“It’s little moments that make life big.” ~Anonymous

 

That little gem of a quote popped up on my Mary Engelbreit desk calendar on Tuesday.  Those little desk calendars are kind of a STAPLE in my life.  I’ve had one on my desk for probably the last 7-8 years (maybe longer…) thanks to a neatly wrapped Christmas gift from my mom every year.  (Oh boy, I hope my mom got them again this year!!)  I love Mary’s art and I love love love some of the quotes she uses.  They very often speak to me. 

 

This quote seemed to ring especially true for me this week.  There were so many fun little moments that have happened over the past couple of weeks.  It’s a little mind boggling to stop and think about how lucky I am to get to have all these fun little moments. 

 

We are enjoying watching Quinn play basketball for the first time ever.  His team is very recreational, but he’s not bad!  His coach is a grandfather who very CLEARLY loves to coach these kids.  Quinn had a one-on-one session with him last weekend and at the end, he handed us a bag of oranges as a thank you for coming.  He’s probably one of the nicest people I’ve met in a long time.  I am so thankful that we “broke” our no winter sports rule.  We never would have met coach Steve if we hadn’t!

 

There are so many Christmas things going on!  Zane had his program at school this week.  I tried to get good pictures of him, but he was SO excited that he jumped and danced and vibrated the entire time.  He loves his friends.  He loves his teachers.  We all love his school.  That little school (along with taking lots of our money) has helped raise my kids.  I’m not sure I’ll ever find a way to thank them properly. 

 

The break room at work this week has been a treasure of goodies.  There have been chocolates and cookies and cupcakes and a whole stack of Harry and David stuff.  I've gotten treats from vendors and customers and co-workers.  It's been awesome for my sweet tooth!  (Not so much for my waistband...  but I'll get back on the bandwagon post-holiday fun!  For now... no stress.  Pass the Godiva!)

 

Thanks to the absence of most of our evening activities, we’ve gotten to spend quite a lot of time with the big boys recently.  We’ve started letting them watch a few of the shows we record.  (Marvel Agents of Shield is a current family favorite.  And of course there are SO many fun holiday specials on TV!)  These relaxing evenings are a great excuse for some cuddling under blankets and some very funny conversations.  The other night we decided to torture the dogs by trying to get them to wear Santa hats.  It was very very funny…  unless you are Willow. 

 

I love coming home to the house all decorated every day.  I love the primitive Santa that hangs on our front door.  I love the 2 big reindeer and 4 little reindeer that graze in our front yard.  I love our misshapen tree with all the ornaments clumped on a few toddler-height branches.  I love, with all my heart, looking at those 6 stockings hanging from our mantel.  I love knowing that this is US.  This is our family.  This is what love is really all about. 

 

So today, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite things with you.  There are way too many options to choose just one picture.  I always say, when in doubt, make a collage!

 

This weekend we are looking forward to a visit from Grandpa Bob and Grandma Phyllis.  The weather is supposed to be unseasonably warm so we’re going to go DO something.  Not sure what yet…  maybe the zoo…  whatever it is, we will have fun!  I will not let December mid-60s go to waste!

 

By the time the next picture of the week email finds you all, Christmas 2013 will be history.  I hope that we will all still be a little giddy over the joy that I know is waiting when those 8 little feet come running down the stairs on Christmas morning.  I CAN NOT WAIT!

 

Merry Christmas!  May you all have a very blessed and happy week!  And may you recognize all your little moments and realize how very big life is!

Love

The Bovenizers

Picture of the Week - 12/12/2013

First - I want to send out a very Happy Birthday to Bob today!  So very glad he asked me to prom nearly 23 years ago!  He makes my life happy!!

 

Second - get ready to throw things at me!  I can take it!  My Christmas preparations are 95% done!  I am really really done buying things!  I have almost everything wrapped.  My packages have been shipped.  Cookies are 90% done.  Teacher gifts are ready.  I am READY!  And it feels awesome!

 

Now I can sit back and relax and enjoy all the craziness of the season - and the boys!  I am so excited about this Christmas.  I haven't been THIS excited for Christmas in a long time!  In additional to all the traditions (brunch at my sister's on Christmas Eve, new jammies for everyone to wear while waiting for Santa, cookie trays that make my mouth water just thinking about, etc.) we also have some extra fun things planned. 

 

My parents are staying at our place this year for Christmas Eve.  I *love* waking up with them there!  We are taking the boys to see Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer at the Center for Puppetry Arts.  I may spend more time watching Zane and Beckett than the actual show.  I can't wait to see their faces!  And I have vowed to get *somewhere* to see lights - lots of lights!  We haven't decided where we want to go yet, but I am going to make this happen this year!  Any locals have suggestions?  We've considered Lake Lanier, Turner Field, Stone Mt, John's Creek, the Botanical Garden, and Hobgood Park.  Choices are awesome...  I just can't decide!  Stay tuned.

 

Tonight I'm taking Bob out for a birthday dinner at one of our favorite little places - which just happens to be connected to a microbrewery who just happens to be celebrating their 1 year anniversary with a few special beers.  Sometimes the universe just makes sense!  This weekend we get to celebrate December birthdays again at a restaurant that I've been wanting to try when we get together with my parents, sister and Bart for a grown-up dinner!  Yum! 

 

What fun things do you have planned for the next few weeks? 

 

I will end with a couple of funny stories courtesy of the boys. 

 

First Zane's funny - To set this up, remember that Zane is in imagination overdrive phase right now.  He's always playing with his action figures and has some epic storylines.  He regularly fights invisible bad guys all over the house.  He can entertain himself for a LONG time.  Pretty awesome!  On our tree we have a Mickey Mouse ears ornament.  It's pretty big, but definitely not life sized.  One of Zane's favorite things right now is to run around fighting his bad guys and then decide to go into stealth mode.  He drops to his knees, sticks his head under that Ear ornament, puts a goofy look on his face and starts talking in a voice that he firmly believes makes him sound like Mickey Mouse.  He immediately changes from Zane to Mickey - and the bad guys can NEVER find him!  Cracks me up every time!

 

And one from Spencer - To set this one up, you have to remember that Spencer has the driest, most sarcastic sense of humor you can possibly imagine.  He's funny.  Really funny.  Most of his humor goes straight over the heads of his peers.  Get the idea?  So the other day we had our Christmas Elf (who's name is Tyler) hanging from the light over the kitchen table.  This was one of the more obvious locations that Tyler has landed this year.  He was kind of right in our faces and impossible to ignore.  So Spence and I came into the kitchen from somewhere together.  We were chatting - I have no idea what the topic was - and all was normal.  Spence walked over to the table and said, in the most deadpan voice, "Hey Tyler, creepy as usual." and then just kept on chatting.  LOL  This still makes me laugh because Tyler IS creepy looking!!!

 

May you all have some fun as you finish up those To Do lists and kick up your feet with some hot tea (or something a bit stronger).  Enjoy these last 13 days before Christmas 2013!!  You will never get these days back!

 

Here's our annual Santa hat picture.  Another tradition that I love with all my heart! 

 

Picture of the Week - 12/5/2013

Happy Birthday Berber!!

 

Goodness!  There are SO many things I love about this time of year!  We put up all our Christmas decorations last weekend after spending a lovely, quiet, restful Thanksgiving.  It was super-de-duper awesome to get to spend some extra time with my crazy kids and with Bob too.  Downtime with the whole family has been sparse over the last few months!

 

I loved Beckett's reaction to the tree this year.  He loves that tree!  He literally just sat and stared at it for a LONG time after it went up.  Then he decided to get into investigating.  He now finds it entertaining to take off all the bulbs (non-breakable ones that we put at toddler level) and throw them around.  (less than awesome).  He's also very very interested in pulling the strands of lights until he has enough cord to be able to grab a lightbulb and shine it around.  Pretty funny to watch, but the poor tree is suffering.  If he gets any more aggressive in this game it's not going to matter that we kept the breakables up high!

 

The big boys are counting down the days before their winter break.  They are down to 10 after today.  I love the fact that Spencer still wears a Santa hat around the house regularly.  I keep our Santa hats in an easy to reach basket right on the fireplace hearth.  They get a TON of use this time of year!  I think it's awesome that they remember and are anxious for some of our traditions.  I think it's even more awesome that they are so excited to watch the little guys enjoy the season.  Even things that they normally wouldn't be so interested in (like watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer on TV) they energetically participate in because they know that their little brothers are watching their every move.  And it's a RACE every morning to see who can find our Elf.  Pretty sure Spencer is winning even though he's keeping things pretty close to the vest and letting the other boys point him out.  He wanders around the house with his eyes darting around until he spots that crazy elf, but very rarely mentions that he's been spotted. 

 

And Zane is just plain magical about all of this.  He's helped decorate the tree.  He points out Christmas lights.  He select holiday books to read at night.  He patiently poses for pictures.  He carefully chose his wish list item for Santa's lap.  He's asked questions about how reindeer fly and how Santa gets down the chimney.  He gets the wonder of the season in every possibly way.  And I am once again reminded of how lucky I am to have little boys around so I can really experience the magic of this season again. 

 

The holidays are so much fun - and this year is going to be the best yet!

 

Here's a picture of Beckett being ornery.  I love the picture, but it's from Bob's phone (of course) and the quality was pretty bad.  So...  I tried to "save" it by making it look old.  He still looks ornery.  :)

 

Also sharing a picture of Spencer with the trophy that his football team received when they won the Georgia D1 championship.  Tonight they are off to play the first game of the Born to Compete tournament, which pulls together the winners of all the travel leagues in the area.  We are going into the tournament as the #3 seed and playing the Georgia Thoroughbreds tonight.  If we win we play again on Saturday and the championship game is on Sunday.  Could be a pretty crazy football weekend!