5 Years 9 Months Old

The little boy who used to be just into cars and trains is now into super heroes.  That's what he asked Santa for this year.  He is really into good guys/bad guys.  On TV, he's been watching the Power Rangers; he even has the action figures, which his grandnana bought him for Christmas.  Jason and I also bought him a few.  Now he has the green, blue, red, and golden Power Rangers.  He'll play with them and make kicking, punching, fighting sounds.

The little beanie baby next to him in the above picture has a story to go with it.  All of his life, Rocco has never had a stuffed animal.  I'm very allergic to them so we can't have them in the house.  As we were cleaning out and organizing our rooms for the baby boy, Rocco found some old beanie babies that I had collected.  He began playing with them...and even sleeping with them.  Most boys in kindergarten may be over small toy animals, but to Rocco this type of toy is pretty new to him.  His favorite one is Rhino. 

At night when we say our prayers, Rocco rarely wants to pray out loud.  "I'm saying my quietly."  Within a few seconds he'll be finished.  When I asked him if he prayed for anyone he'll sometime's say, "I prayed for the whole world."  When I do get him to say his prayers out loud they are so sweet.  He prays for various people in our family.  Lately, he's prayed for God to give strength to his grandnana and grandpapaw.  They have not been in good health.  How sweet that he remembers them in prayer. 

We're still Mario fans.  That's probably Rocco's favorite way to spend time with me.  He thinks we have to play it every day.

Christmas Day

Rocco woke up Christmas morning to find that Santa did indeed come.  He loaded up with super heroes & vehicles, a batman cave, racing motorcycles, a bb gun, some Monster trucks, Defiant trucks and ramp, a couple of books, and a Georgia bulldog stocking full of goodies. 



As soon as he checked out his new toys from Santa, he wanted to open up his presents from us.  This was his favorite part.  Perhaps we need to ask Santa to wrap up his presents next year.   :)  He was thrilled to find that he had so many to open! A few of the presents we got him were Spiderman and Angry Birds pajamas, a Spiderman costume, Mario/Luigi jogging suit, Iron Man transformer, Kindergartedn computer game, and Monster trucks.

Rocco was so excited the next morning to see that Santa ate his Hershey bar / Oreos and drank his milk. All the reindeer carrots were eaten except for one.  It was just nibbled on.  Rocco decided that this particular one belonged to Rudolph.  For some reason he wasn't as hungry as the "black noses." (This picture was taken Christmas Eve before we went to bed.)

 I bought Jason some clothes, and he got me some things for the baby.  We didn't have time for our tradition of eating a big breakfast because we had a worship service at church.  Christmas fell on a Sunday this year.  We headed to church for the 10:30 service.  It was surprisingly crowded.  Many came out to celebrate the true reason for the season...our Savior's birth!  Here we are Christmas day after church.

We thought we'd go out for lunch, but of course nothing was open except for Hardees and Waffle House.  Talk about a crowd!  We came home to eat sandwiches.  Gary and Carolyn came by to see what Rocco got for Christmas.  For supper, the three of us ate our traditional breakfast.  Great Christmas this year - so much to be thankful for...so many blessings!



Christmas Get Togethers

Christmas Day fell on a Sunday this year.  The Monday before the big day, Dec. 19th, we met at my in-law's house for our first Christmas get together.  Gary, Carolyn, Tonya, Ben, Sydney, Drew, Jason, Rocco, and pregnant me were there to celebrate.  Carolyn cooked a big, delicious meal with lots of yummy desserts.  The kids were so excited to open their gifts.  Nana and granddaddy & Aunt Ta and Uncle Ben spoiled Rocco with lots of great gifts.  Here's a picture of Rocco in front of nana's Christmas village. ( My camera went dead within minutes of getting here.  Tonya and her family weren't even there yet.  So...you don't get any big family pic.)

Our next get together was with my side of the family.  We met at my nana and papaw's house on Thursday night, Dec. 22.  My parents, my brother and his girl Daelyn, nana & papaw, and my dad's sister (Aunt Katy) were there with us to celebrate.  We decided to make things easy and just order pizza.  My papaw has not been in good health, and we were just grateful to have everyone here this year.  Being with family is one of God's biggest blessings, and I'm so thankful we were all together this season.   

   

Our last family get together was at papa's house.  Jason's extended family on his mother's side met there for a big celebration. 

 We draw names for this get together.  After our big meal, everyone dives in to see who got their name.  It was a lot of fun.  Around 9pm we all headed out because Santa came that night.  This was our Christmas eve family gathering.  The kids were giddy with excitement!

Christmas Lights

The three four of us (Jason, Rocco, baby Willis, and I) headed to Alabama tonight to enjoy some Christmas lights. First, we ate at a fish and grill restaurant. Afterwards we saw some lights at Noccalula Falls. I felt big and pregnant, and it was a little bit of a challenge at times to keep up with the boys. Baby Nitro (what we've been calling the baby since Rocco gave him the name a few months ago) and I have our own speed. . . and it's not a very fast one. 

Last year, Rocco and I took my mom to Callaway Gardens to see the lights.  We didn't make it there this year, and I'll admit Noccaula is not as nice...but to Rocco it was bigger than life.

 He was so excited to see it all lit up.  We rode on a train around the park to see the lights.  After that we walked to find the hot chocolate.  Thankfully they had a little swing we could rest in. 

 It was a memorable and fun night.  We just love Christmas lights...even if it's just riding around looking at various homes which are lit up.  Noccalula Falls was a great mini get-away. 

Christmas Musical

 It's the most wonderful time of the year!  That was the theme at this year's school musical.  Kindergarten through second grade were those singing this time around.  Kindergarteners opened up the musical.  They sang Jingle Bells, Feliz Navidad, Go Tell It on the Mountain, and It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. 

They even got to play the kazoos for one of the songs, Jingle Bells. 

Working at the school has its perks.  I was able to sit up front because I was in charge of helping kids with their forgotten lines AND I got to blow snow after the last song.  Speaking of lines, Rocco had his first speaking part in a play.  Before the kids sang Feliz Navidad Rocco had to say, "Hey!  Do you know how chihuahas say Merry Christmas?....Fleas naughty dog."

                                 

Rocco and I had a good time preparing for the musical at home.  I found Feliz Navidad on an old CD of mine and we listened to it in the car over and over.  He would let it rip!  Of course we also picked up a few other favorites along the way that he didn't get to sing at the musical, like Have a Holly Jolly Christmas and Rudolph.  Rocco is on a big rhyming kick, so all season long I got to hear him change all the words. "Have a holly, bolly, brissmas" and "Tudolph the red nosed beindeer had a very shiny toe, and if you ever bawed it you would ever say it blowed."  

Make no mistake, though.  Even though he loves these silly songs he knows that Jesus being born is the real reason for Christmas!  We rode by a manger scene one afternoon.  "Hey mommy.  Christmas is really about Jesus.  It's nice that Santa comes and brings us toys, but that's not what Christmas is all about though." Smart boy!

Jason and I were at Rocco's musical, but he also had some special guests.  My parents came.  This was my mom's first time seeing my classroom.  They also brought my niece, Daelyn.  

 Rocco's nana also came for the special production.