Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Christmas Eve

Tomorrow is Christmas!  Today we spent the day celebrating with Tyler's parents and his siblings.  It's always one of my favorite days of the year.  
We started out the day with a quick trip to find the little cowboys some new cowboy boots.  Keeler really wanted some taller ones {more like his dad's} and Kallahan wanted some with holes on the sides to help pull them up and some spurs ;)
Then we went to lunch with his mom and sister, took naps and then headed to the candlelight service with my parents before having dinner & opening up presents.
And here we are posing for our annual family Christmas photo with the little cowboys sporting their new boots.  Keeler is so proud!
Candlelight service just warms my heart... the music, the message, watching the kids and being surrounded by family.
Mimi and Jim-dad gave all their grandSONS {we seriously need some little girlies in the family} these adorable jammies and hats.  Our boys are too cute --- I might be a little partial. 
  
We finally got to meet our newest nephew, baby Phoenix.  He is such a doll baby.
I might have held him allllll night long.  Jealous?!
Our boys are so blessed to have such wonderful grandparents.
Merry Christmas from our family to yours.
Photobucket
Pin It






Monday, December 22, 2014

Christmas Pajama Party Link Up!

Darci/Natasha/Ashley/Jenny/Julia

Merry {week of} Christmas!  
Today I'm linking up for a fun Christmas Pajama Party.
This weekend we hosted our little family of four Christmas since we'll be with extended family in just a few short days.  Before we got started, I insisted that the little cowboys take a few pictures in their matching pajamas before we started opening gifts.   
I adore this picture of Kallahan looking over at Keeler's gift...  
Such a sweet little brother :)
My little cowboys are growing up!  
Wonder how many more years I can get away with matching Christmas pajamas?  And why, oh why must they grow so fast?   
We invited Granny over for our little Christmas.  We love having her around and there's nothing better than a little Granny lovin'.  We ordered in Chinese food and drank eggnog - strange but I'm thinking it might just have to be our tradition.
Fa, la, la, la, la, la, la!

Both of their jammies can be purchased HERE.

And because I feel like time is flying by, I had to look back on a Christmas past... circa 2012.
Please join us for this fun and festive link-up! Merry Christmas!
Photobucket
Pin It

Friday, December 19, 2014

Friday Favorites

TGIF!!  It's the last Friday before Christmas - woohoo!
I'm linking up today to share some of our recent favorite moments.

{one}  Shalie & Erik's recent 12.13.14 wedding festivities! It was so great to have family in town last weekend and attend such a memorable event.  All the details were simply gorgeous... and Shalie was beyond a beautiful bride.  We wish them both the best and welcome Erik to the fam.
Kallahan is quickly taking the role of the "family clown."  He ran around the rehearsal dinner in his brother's spurs with his boots on the wrong feet - all for a good laugh.  Lord, help me with this one.
Our nephew, Bryon, was Shalie's ringbearer.  He did a great job and looked soooo handsome.
This cute sister selfie is the only picture I managed to take the night of the wedding.  The ceremony was so nice and then we headed out for the reception.  Everything was going well until Kallahan somehow managed to cut the back of his ear on a chair {NO clue how this happened... lack of supervision much? #motheroftheyear}.  It was scraped really badly and afterwards he just couldn't get happy.  We were home by 8:45pm after he asked repeatedly, "I go home.  I go to bed."  Poor kid.  I was really bummed bc THIS girl LOVES to dance.  I don't dance well so Kallahan probably saved his mommy a lot of embarrassment :)
We ended up having a fun evening at home.  Tiffany and Russell came over and we all played the Newlywed game.  Congrats again to Tiff and Russ for winning and having such clean minds. 


{two}  Family in town meant that we got to host Tim & Erica!  We LOVE having them around.  I love spending time with my new sis and the boys have a great time playing with uncle Tim and taking him to the farm.

Tyler makes for a far more gracious host than me... Erica, Tiff and I had plans to go to the donut shop but Tyler cooked us a fab family breakfast instead.  Seriously, he's the best {and always my favorite}!

{three}  Saturday, after Erica and I did some local shopping we decided to fill some downtime with a holiday favorite: annual Gingerbread house building.  Keeler did his very quickly with little interest but Kal (my little artist) worked diligently alongside Erica and Tim.
Uncle Tim's house was the only one that survived thru the weekend... 


{four}  Baby cousin LOVING is always a favorite.  Cousin Haylee is getting so big and HAPPY.

{five}  Our favorite Christmas Countdown Traditions continue... 
This week the little cowboys received a few special gifts from Howie {their Elf on the Shelf} which is building up some excitement.
Day 10:  Christmas Books
Day 9:  Christmas Pajamas
Day 8:  Elf on the Shelf Tin Puzzle Sets

Wednesday, we attended our church Christmas program:  "How the Grinch Found Jesus!"
It was an adorable production... I just love our little Cindy Lou Who.
I was helping with the kids so I failed to take many pictures / video but thanks to Facebook I was able to steal a video.  It's lengthy but I decided to include in case the little cowboys want to look back upon someday...

"Oh Mr.Grinch, Christmas isn't in the packages, stocking and decorations.  
It's here... it's peace, love and joy."





Photobucket
Pin It

Friday, December 12, 2014

Friday Favorites!

It's so hard to believe that we're getting so close to Christmas!
I'm linking up today to share some of our recent favorite moments.

{one}  Counting down to Christmas has been a lot of fun for the little cowboys.  They love punching out their chocolate candy from their advent calendars every morning and getting a small token from our countdown tree. At the two week mark this week they were really pleased with special Christmas DVDs (contrary to Kal's face).  
Would someone please teach my child to smile and look at the camera?!

 {two}  Visiting Santa was certainly a recent favorite!  We waited over an hour at our local museum last Sunday but it was well worth the wait.  
Kal snuck in a little nap while we were in line...
This pic was taken by our Chamber Director and made it on our town Facebook page
"All tuckered out waiting to see Santa Claus at the museum!"
Keeler told Santa that he wants an electrical John Deere tractor with a trailer.  Kallahan asked for a choo-choo train again.  They both also mentioned John Deere tractors.  Hmmmm, wonder wherever I will find such a thing? Ha!

 {three}  Holiday parties are in full swing and they're always my fav!  Last Saturday we had my work party.  We went out to a nice dinner and then went bowling (just keeping it classy).  It's very low key but we had a great time.  One of my co-worker's daughters watched the little cowboys along with her little brother (which they LOVED).  It worked out great and we'll have to use her again.

On Monday, I hosted my Ladies of Junior Civic annual Christmas party.  The officers helped me with the dinner, we wrapped presents for an adopted local needy family and then had a small gift exchange.
It's such a great time with some of my favorite ladies and it feels so good to be able to help make a local family have a little bit nicer Christmas than they may of had otherwise. 

{four}  Christmas Light Parade Fun.
 On Wednesday night, the little cowboys came out and helped us with our work parade float.  This year, Adam (our awesome parade coordinator) had the precious idea to build a sleigh and then stage the reindeer as John Deere toys --- Santa and his reinDEERE.  It was super cute and we ended up placing third place overall.
We don't have many folks with small children at work so I got the job of finding riders for our toys.  It worked out great because all of Keeler's besties ended up on the float.  Thanks again to all our darling ReinDEERES.

{five}  Last but far from least, that moment when I was taking all these parade photos
 and Kallahan said, "I give you kiss, mom."

Photobucket
Pin It

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Our Christmas Card

Only two weeks until Christmas... eeeek!!  

I think by now everyone on our Christmas card list should have received our card in the mail... and if not...well, spoiler alert... it's a cute one!
 I ordered from Shutterfly again this year and I couldn't be happier with the design, quality, and excellent service!  Of course my three handsome cowboys pretty much make it the cutest card ever... partial much?!
There is something magical about giving and receiving Christmas cards.  I LOVE to display them and every time I walk past - it just feels like Christmas.

This year I love, love, love how our family pictures turned out.  I was so blessed to stumble upon Suzy Enns Photography at a local bazaar last year.  She surpassed my expectations and then some. 
I'll cherish these images forever.  I know too well that this season of life will be so short... I'm trying to soak it all in.

Merry Christmas  
from our hearts to yours!
Photobucket
Pin It