Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Well, my favorite holiday (Thanksgiving) is over and the Christmas season is upon us.  I love Christmas time, but I love teaching the kids to be thankful before the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season.  Thanksgiving is a calm and soothing holiday and I just won't decorate the tree or my house before we celebrate and show our gratitude for all we have.

We found the perfect tree and we love it!

Gary strung the lights and I hung the balls on it, but the kids played outside and we enjoyed the wonderful warm weather, so we didn't fully decorate with the other ornaments.  Our tree seems to have a little lean going on.  Oh my!

She's a a pretty tree!  I just love her and soon she will be full of ornaments from years past!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We started our day with a little green milk in our cereal and a bowl of kiwi.  The leprecaun left the kiddos some money and skittles.  Everyone is wearing for the day!

Hope you have a great GREEN day!

Christmas 2014

On Christmas Eve we had a crab leg boil here at home.  It was yummmyyyy!

Christmas Eve night we all put on our traditional Christmas Eve pj's and played in the basement.  As you can see we played with balls. In our pants.  Dear Lord these kids are hilarious and keep us laughing non-stop.  Good thing we like to laugh huh?!?

Here is a picture of my sweet munchkins before bedtime.  They were soooo excited about Santa coming!!

Bright and early Christmas morning the kiddos couldn't sleep another second.

Layla got her first doll, named Layla.  It is so cute!  Hayden is in the background playing with his new Legos.  He's a creator, that boy!

Layla put together a fun Lego snowman.

Look how cute her new doll is!  She has pink highlights.

She even came with stylish clothes.  Layla loves her way more than any 'baby' doll she had when she was younger.  I think she'll actually play with this Layla doll.  We are on the look out for a pair of pajamas for mini Layla.  hahah! 

Here are my guys playing Legos in their pj's.  We all laid around in comfy clothes all day long.

The picture above is an awesome StarWars Lego space ship.  I would have gotten frustrated within the first 5 minutes trying to build this creation.

Look at our yummy Christmas breakfast.  It was so good and filling.  We had bacon and eggs and biscuits and gravy.  Oh and hashbrowns too.  My favorite.

We got fueled up for a long day of playing with all our new toys.  We had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas!

a girl brunch and elf painting

Layla's new friend Aislin and her mom invited us to a girls day out!

We had brunch at a fun breakfast restaurant downtown and the girls had a gift exchange.  I was happy to meet a few more moms and talk about the school and our neighborhoods.

After brunch we went to a fun painting studio and the girls got a step by step tutorial on how to paint an elf.  It was so fun and right up Layla's alley.  She's a lover of arts and crafts, so painting was a perfect artsy activity for her.

She had to dry the paint so she could add to the elf!  I loved this place so much and I want to go paint something someday soon!

The finished product.  She looks so proud!!!  She did an amazing job.

I love seeing all the painters in the studio and how their elves turned out.  Each and every elf was different and showed the kiddos personalities.  Oh what fun!!!!

Christmas Eve

Today was a fun and special day for our little family of four!

It was the perfect day!

We started off the morning by having bacon, eggs and strawberry muffins.

After breakfast and some playing the kids had a bubble bath to get ready for church.

 

We headed out to our church's Christmas Eve service.  I had tears in my eyes half the service.  I felt so blessed to have my family sitting right next to me!  The kids did a great job sitting still and being quiet during the service.  They were super happy when we lit the candles and sang Oh Holy Night.

It is a memory I will cherish forever!

When we got home from church the kids got to open their one gift of the day...their traditional PJ's!

As you can see, after the pj's were put on the craziness began. Holy Hyper!!  These two kids were super pumped about all that is to come!

The best picture I could get of the four of us in our new pj's is this one.  Daisy Mae was confused....clearly she is facing the wrong way!

Dad took the kids out to sprinkle reindeer food.  It was sleeting a bit, so he carried them.  They were just laughing and giggling the entire time!

Once we fed the reindeer the kids picked out cookies for Santa.

They included a glass of milk in case Santa wants to dip his cookies.  They also decided to leave carrots for the reindeer.

And of course Layla wrote him a letter!

Gary and I can hardly wait until the morning!  We can't wait to see what Santa has in store for these super good kids.  Gary's extended family and my parents are coming to celebrate with us tomorrow!  We are excited to spend the day surrounded my family.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!! 

memorial day weekend in the country

i love that memorial day is the official summer kickoff weekend!

we headed to my auntie carol & uncle donny ray's house for a fun time!

we hung out with my cousin kyle & his girlfriend gabi.

they invited their friends shay & marissa and their children

hank & jace.

hank is age 6 and jace is almost 3.

they were PERFECT playmates for layla and hayden.

i was so busy visiting and relaxing that i only took a few pictures!

hayden is taking a drink break.  he and jace played a lot of golf.

and got really dirty!

layla and hank became fast friends!

they are taking a break  and chillaxing on the hammock.

we all had a fun time and can't wait to get together again.

going to the country is always relaxing and fun for me...very quiet and peaceful.

it was a perfect time to hang with {new} friends & family.

Thanks for the fun time y'all!