the vaughans

 

and these gals were about to settle down for a long winter's nap. 

 

christmas morning!
santa brought the customary three gifts
owen: left handed golf set, yard tools set {blower, weed eater, lawnmower, chainsaw}, and an old maid game
henry:  an animals habitat memory game, a new bike, and a tire swing with a note from santa that stated that the tree house would not fit on the sleigh, but he left a tire swing, some lumber and supplies for daddy to build a tree house for the boys' upcoming birthdays 

{owen asked to wear the auburn shirt my grandmother had embroidered for him rather than his christmas pjs ... and so he did!} 

 

 

 

work gloves in my stocking - wow! 

golf balls in my stocking - fun fun!

 

a new matchbox motorcycle!

and gary's dad sent them a really neat construction set ... a dump truck, crane, tractor and two other vehicles ... all remote control operated with a "quarry" that has rocks you can lift, put on a conveyor belt, roll into a barrel, and can be put on a truck and taken to a job site ... it is fantastic!

and the doggies had some treats and a raccoon toy in their stockings.  sadly, the raccoon toy is not as popular as this lady thought it would be.  

we draw names on my side of the family {there is a BIG group of us!} and stacy drew owen's name.  on christmas eve we all got together at shannon and jeff's for dinner and celebration.  stacy gave owen a basketball and a little over the door basketball hoop and ball. he loves it, to say the least ... we put up it up on the console in our den, right at his level.  he is obsessed!  this first picture above is him playing with his new hoop - the next one is christmas eve night {sorry for the clarity of my archaic phone} ... he asked to sleep with the real basketball she gave him.  which of course had to be right next to his football.  the AU football helmet {still being borrowed from cole!} that he wears and likes to sleep with too, had to be moved to the floor.  he is really funny with his love of sports ... ALL boy!

henry playing with the construction set

and for about 30 minutes on christmas day, the rain cleared.  so we made a beeline for outside for a quick walk.  thanks to my parents for the farm boots for the boys {which they really needed!}.  and, owen walks around or stands like this often, with his hands on his hips.  it is quite funny!

 

checking out the pile of lumber santa left for the tree house 

 

finding a BIG puddle close to the future tree house site

 and, i love these two pics.  the water created a little stream from the top of our driveway down the hill.  the boys called it a river and proceeded to walk up and down the river several times.  they would have kept walking up and down had the weather not changed.  the simple things, right?

 that's an understatement.  this is from october - aubie surprised their preschool with a visit and

made. owen's. day.

 



thanks miss cailin!  cailin's mother and I used to work together when I worked in Birmingham a while ago {and she was in junior high} ... now she is a sophomore at auburn.  time, where does it go?!



 it has been a while - we are still kickin'.  good times.  but bad times with blogger ... many an issue, still spending time at night working on owen's sleeping, auburn football has been top notch this year {war eagle, anyway! tailgating was still great}, gary travelled a bunch in september & october for work, not to mention his work has been just a bit hectic {thankful for his work indeed}, the boys have had a few rounds of sickness, we had a couple of trips, gary just finished another semester of grad school {still carrying that 4.0 average, way to go vaughan!}, throw in random things here and there and BAM! it is december 8th.

 that being said ... since catching up and staying in somewhat chronological order hasn't worked well, been terrible, eek! for me since I am still in oh, july, of this year, let's try posting about current times with the vaughans. will catch up on the past {hopefully} before 2013 marches right on in ...

today {saturday} we selected our christmas tree ... nothing like seeing shorts and tee shirts for the cutting of the christmas tree. december it is, right? oh well. we have had some warm temps here in auburn to say the least. we went to the same farm we visited last year and had lunch afterwards with friends that live nearby.

 henry and owen have been asking to put up christmas decorations for alomst two weeks - needless to say they were extremely excited!

 gary, amused.
 we always, and this dates back to my days on our farm in virginia, get a virigina pine. however, this year we all decided to get a fairly tall tree and viginia pines around here are just not tall. so, we went with a arizona blue cypress.
 maybe this one?
 can we pick a tree already?!?!


henry and owen each got to "help" use the saw with gary for a bit. 

 

here she is - the griswold family tree.  little full, lot of sap.

home ... let's bring it inside, says h.

am guessing gary told him to show him his muscles ... he took these two pics.

 

 

all done! h was so cute ... after we finished decorating he exclaims, "let's all stand around the tree and sing happy birthday to Jesus!" {go h! so we did and meanwhile owen said we were singing the wrong song}

and the reason for it all ...