Christmas with Gigi & PopPop

 On Sunday before Christmas, we headed over to Gigi & PopPop's house (Tanner's Grandparents) for a little Christmas get together. Grandi & Granddaddy were there, too, so it was fun to have both the grandparents & great-grandparents together. We ate a yummy lunch, opened fun presents, and the boys really enjoyed playing with the toys that Tanner & her cousins played with when they were little. It was wonderful getting to spend some quiet time with Tanner's grandparents, and we're so lucky to have them!

Christmas at Opryland Hotel

Saturday night, we headed up to Nashville to meet up with our friends from home.  We were staying in Franklin and they were visiting family in east Nashville, so we thought the perfect place to meet would be Opryland Hotel. We'd never seen the Christmas lights there before, and although they weren't nearly as spectacular as the Bellingrath lights, they were still beautiful. The company and the fact that we were indoors on that frigid night definitely added to the experience!

 

Saturday in TN

On the Saturday before Christmas, we were in TN to visit Tanner's extended family. We stayed at an awesome hotel in Franklin, and since we had the morning to enjoy before we headed to Tanner's Aunt Melissa's house, we found a cute indoor play place. Called The Monkey's Treehouse, it was filled with a huge treehouse, tons of toys, a ball pit, a few train tables, and a train set in the floor that we could not pull Hampton away from! Harrison busied himself pushing a Cozy Coupe around the whole place. He was awesome at steering it from the back and had mastered moving in reverse.

Afterward, we headed to Columbia to see most of Tanner's family. It was great catching up with everyone, and the boys got some cute toys from their Great Aunt & Uncle. It was cold that day, but not too cold for the boys to be able to run around and play outside a bit. What a fun pre-Christmas day!

Project 365

We're only a few days in to our commitment to catalog the year in photos, but it's already addictive! We've snapped way more than 1 pic a day, and here are a few from the week.

We snapped the photo of Harry seconds after he was picking up his goldfish with his face, but we couldn't get him to do it again. Both boys had a blast playing with their Thomas bath paints, and our adorable "Ham" Hampton goofing off on the way to school.

And make sure you join us next week, as we recap all of our Holiday adventures. We know you just can't wait! :)

Focus on the Family

This time of year is when most people try to make changes for the year ahead...to lose weight, quit smoking, or just generally make their lives better. We usually make resolutions, too, with some being successful and some not-so-much. This year, we've decided to focus on our family.

 

The recent tragedy at Sandy Hook (although we did our best to avoid all details) really made us pause. Then, on Christmas Eve, another less-publicized tragedy struck. A local family lost their almost 3-year-old daughter in a freak swing set accident. This one hit way too close to home for us, since the mother was in Tanner's Junior Womens Club, and the little girl would have been in the same grade at the same small school as Hampton. Not to mention, that the mom was a stay-at-home mom with a successful online monogramming business. Needless to say, we were devastated for them, as well as stopped in our tracks. We've decided to take stock of what's important, and we've realized that life is too short. We've got to make the most of what we've got.

 

So our resolution for this year is to live in the moment. Cherish our time with each other. Since that is sort of vague, we've set some little goals that will help us do that. First, we've started a daily gratitude journal. Every day, we're listing 5 things we're thankful for. That will keep us focused on all the blessings we have, big & small. We're also doing Project365, which is where you chronicle your year by taking at least one photo every day. That will keep us in the moment, and help us remember all the little moments as they pass. We'll be sharing some of those photos with you along the way.

 

Most importantly, The Monogrammed Monkey is changing. Although we have been beyond blessed with the success of our little business, a full-time income comes along with full-time work. We've decided that it's not worth it to us. So, we're making some big changes. We're limiting what we offer, and Tanner's mom is going to take over the majority of the work. She was already doing lots of it, but now she'll be the boss man. We'll just be doing the online work & marketing. We may change and tweak our plan along the way, because we want The Monogrammed Monkey to continue. But what we want more is memorable moments with our family. Because when it comes down to it, making memories with our loved ones trumps monogramming stuff for others EVERY.SINGLE.TIME.

 

We're looking forward to baking cookies, spending more time on the beach, doing crafts, singing silly songs, watching endless hours of Thomas the train, playing in the floor, and spending many, many more hours in amazement at the train museum (below). Here's to a Happy, Memorable 2013 for all of us....may you make wonderful memories with your family, too!

 

Back to Reality...

Vacation fun had to end at some point, and today was the day.

Bo headed back to work after being off since the Thursday before Christmas. Hampton started back at MDO, and church classes start back tonight. So, we're in "get our acts back together" mode!

Tanner & Harrison took the chance to make a quiet Walmart run, then Mommy started tackling the chore list while Harrison played with all of Hampton's toys. We're looking forward to getting back into our routine, but it's a little hard to do!

Year in Pics

Now that we've rung in 2013, we wanted to recap a few of our favorite photos & memories from 2012. Some you may have seen, some may be new, but all were fulll of fun! Here's to 2013 being just as fun!

 

A recap of pics, clockwise from the top: SuperHero Bo goofing off, the wildest decorated car we've ever seen in Orlando, Hampton playing in the bubbles at The Hangout, Mommy & Hampton on Hamp's birthday, Bo enjoying yummy eats from The Varsity in Atlanta, Harrison checking out the Ghost Ship down Ft. Morgan, Harrison alseep in the car...it happens every time, and Harrison playing at the beach.