The Graham Family Four: 2012

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

A Very Merry Graham/Smathers/Thaxton Christmas....

Another annual tradition is our family get-together each year with the Grahams, Smathers, and Thaxtons! We look forward to this every year. This year, Kristen and Ryan hosted at their new home. We had a ball and the kids played sooo well together! Here they are above eating lunch at The Varsity. Perfect kid friendly place! Thankfully, the weather was gorgeous so we got to eat outside.

All the kids lined up by the fireplace. Poor Dalton is outnumbered!

The best friends in the world! Can't believe it's been 13 years since we first met...I am so fortunate to be blessed with such wonderful friends.

The Grahams

The Smathers

The Thaxtons

Brooke and the little girls playing ring around the rosy...

Later that evening, Brooke and Matt and the girls came back to our house. Here are the little girls sporting their "I love Santa" jammies. They looked so sweet!!

Dalton and Sadie playing Legos and baking cookies together!

Brooke and I always talk about how thankful we are that they are such good friends. They get along so well and love playing together. After they baked their cookies and took their bath, they laid down together and watched the Lorax. Love these sweet little friends!!!

Christmas Traditions

Lollipop time!!

Here is the dynamic duo eating lollipops and playing with their Nativity set! I love this Nativity because it's soft and kid-friendly but a great reminder of the reason for the season...we always talk about the meaning of Christmas when we play with it. It's all fun and games until they get into a fight over baby Jesus!!

We have lots of family traditions, and with each year that goes by, I am learning to appreciate the traditions more and more. We have several...Elf on the Shelf (Alfie!), Advent Calendar, decorating...here is one of Dalton decorating his tree in his room. He loves having his own decorations in his own room!

Another tradition is going to see Santa. For the second year now, we went to the Gwinnett Courthouse to "Santa on the Square." This year we did the Breakfast with Santa event. We had so much fun seeing Santa, singing carols, eating breakfast, listening to stories, and making crafts. And by "we," I mean Dalton. Haha...j/k Anna had fun too-just not with Santa. She would not go within 10 feet of him without going into hysterics and screaming like he was a mass murderer. Oh well-maybe we can get a picture next year!!

Helping sister walk to story time.

Anna thinks she is the star of the show...

Good little listeners!

Dalton was so sweet...he asked Santa for, "books, toys, and games"

This is as close as she would go. If you look closely, you can see she is holding on to her Daddy for dear life and screaming hysterically...

Wouldn't take her eyes off him for a minute! A good one of Buddy, though...

Christmas crafts with Daddy!

She did like the strories...too bad the other kids couldn't see because she wanted to stand right in front of the book!

One of my most favorite traditions is our gingerbread house. We have done this for 3 years now and enjoy it so much each year. I can't wait for Anna to get big enough to join in, too. Dalton loves it too. He gets so into it!

Master builder

Merry Christmas!

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Thanksgiving in Nashville...Part Deux

Just a few more photos from our Nashville trip! Here we are eating lunch at yet another awesome restaurant. I might add that these were all within the hotel...unbelievable!

The boys

The girls

Great pic of Amanda and Colton

Awesome waterfall within one section of the hotel. So beautiful!

Grandma and Granddaddy

Anna was not really feeling this photo op...

We saw the Rockettes here!! Such a great show!!

Zack pushing Anna in a little car at the kid's section of a craft show in the hotel

Dalton playing with Legos at the craft show. He LOVES Legos!!

Riding the Choo-Choo!

Dalton and Colton riding the spinning teacups!

Ok-one more anecdote-this is a funny picture to me because just before it was taken, they were making the teacup spin really fast and Dalton had his neck extended all the way and looked like he was unconscious. Ann and I were watching them and right at the same time we realized that something did not look right with Dalton and started screaming at both boys to stop spinning. He literally looked like his neck was broken. However-when the spinning stopped he started smiling away and acting normal-he's such a rascal!! In all honesty though-I think that if it would have continued he probably would have lost his lunch if you know what I mean. He was pale for a little while after coming off the ride!

Anyway-we had a wonderful time!! Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and I'll be back in a few days for some more catching up!!

Thanksgiving In Nashville...Part 1

Dalton and Colton on the shuttle bus to the showboat for a lunch cruise and show. Dalton loooved riding the bus!

This year, we were fortunate enough to go on a wonderful trip to Nashville, TN for Thanksgiving! Zack's parents treated us to a wonderful vacation at Opryland in Nashville. It was really the experience of a lifetime. The hotel was absolutely gorgeous...I've really never seen anything like it. We had such an amazing time and got to see so many shows...here's a little sneak peek into our trip!

Daddy and Dalton at the lunch cruise and show with "Shotgun Red"

Anna and Aunt Amanda

Anna took a very good nap after lunch and during the show...snuggled up with Grandma!

Dalton, Anna, and Colton at the Gingerbread event with "Gingy" (from Shrek)

"Hi!!!!"

These pics were taken at the Shrek Ice event. It was a walk through event with room after room of Shrek ice sculptures. At the end, there were slides made of ice. Dalton loved it! Unfortunately, the rest of us were slightly miserable...it was FOURTEEN degrees in there!!!!!
Also-I may have had a slight nervous breakdown while in the slide area. It was full of probably 100 people (mostly kids) wearing the same blue parkas as pictured above. Well, we were all in there and somehow all got split up. I saw Dalton one time getting off the slide and say "I'm going to do it again!" He then disappeared into a sea of blue parkas. I looked around and couldn't find anyone in our group. I just searched for probably 5 minutes and still couldn't find anyone. Then I just focused on finding Dalton. After probably 10 minutes my hands were literally about to fall off and my face was numb but my heart was pounding and I was totally freaking out. I COULD NOT see him or anyone else in our party for that matter. I was 0.2 seconds from screaming his name at the top of my lungs when I decided to call Zack's dad (I knew he had his phone with him) and see if he knew where anyone was. Key point-once you leave that area you cannot get back in. He answered--and, thank God, told me they were all right outside looking at ornaments. DEEP sigh of relief!! Took about 30 minutes for my heart rate to return to normal, however!