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."

Erika/Narci/Andrea

April/Christina/Natasha/Darci

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.

Erika/Narci/Andrea

{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."

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!

Cousin Photos

Happy December!  Where has this year gone?  

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving full of blessings, eating too much and of course a little shopping!!  I am so happy to report that I am 99.99% done with all my Christmas shopping.  The only item we have left to make/purchase is our annual Shutterfly calendar for my sweet mom.  But it shouldn't be a problem since we were able to capture some cute photos of all her grandkids this past weekend.  

 

We started this tradition in 2011 and I couldn't love it more - look how much our kids have grown.

Photo c/o Sabra Tuner Designs

"A cousin is a childhood playmate who grows up to be a FOREVER FRIEND!"

Our Thanksgiving!

Here's a quick recap & pictures from our Thanksgiving holiday!

Wednesday we arrived in Texas and had a full day to spend with my family before the big holiday.  We went out to my sister's house and helped her put up one of her many Christmas trees and the cousins played like crazy... it was a loooong overdue visit.

In the evening, we got to spend time with more of our favorite people... the Van Bakel's!

 Kristin ordered pizza and we ended up with the BIGGEST pizza I've ever seen.  We had to transport it in the trunk to get it home and then the silly girl was worried we didn't have enough food, ha!

 The Skelton family came over too.  The big boys (a.k.a.: our husbands) could talk for hours about the good ol' days while us wives had a blast watching the littles run around and play.  

On Thanksgiving, my sister and her two little kiddos came to our parent's for the meal.  

Her husband, Jarret, is still in harvest so he wasn't able to join.  

The joys of farming :) 

My mom worked hard on preparing a fabulous meal.

 

My family contributed were these darling homemade cookies that we homemade bought.

Our uncle Mack and aunt Kay also joined us for the meal.  It was great to have them with us.

Wine time!  It's hard work supervising in the kitchen :)

 Pa Diddy and Grandma Kak with their grandkids 

(sans Jakob who was busy with cotton harvest too).

 After the meal and a little pie it was time to go out shopping since so many of the stores opened at 4pm.  We picked up Tyler's mom and headed out.  We made a couple stops and then met up with Tyler, Keeler and Tim at Sears in hopes to purchase a TV for our basement.

 Luckily, the boys waiting in line paid off and we got 1 of the 7 doorbuster TVs.  Woohoo!!!

 We finally met up with Erica and Tiffany and our first stop was Target.  We went to countless stores and got so many good deals.  Most the girls went home around 2am but my sister and I spent all night shopping and ended up back at our parents around 8:30am to check on the kids.  The coolest part of the shopping adventure... we were gifted a "Black Friday Shopping Queen" t-shirt from a complete stranger in Ulta.  Erica was a doll and gave it to me!  Next year, I think we all need matching shirts! 

Our rule is we don't sleep again until Friday night and we both managed to survive.  It helped that Tyler's parents hosted a grandkid sleepover so I was able to get a nice night's sleep after a quiet dinner out with Tim, Erica, Tiff and Russell.

 On Saturday, we got to see Jim-dad's spectacular light display!  After going by their house, Keeler, Pa Diddy and I stopped at Starbucks and then drove around listening to Christmas music and looked at lights.  Keeer LOVED it!

On Sunday, we headed home.

 Then on Monday, December 1st - Howie made his return to the Baker house.

He brought both the little cowboys a personilzed plate, an ornament and an advent calendar.  This season of life will be so short... I'm trying to soak it all in. Happy December!