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!

Happy Thanksgiving

I was hoping all week to find the time to write a heartfelt "thankful" post but spare time just hasn't been in surplus around here.  We're right upon one of my most favorite holidays of the year.

 I love everything about Thanksgiving... reflecting on our many blessings, time spent with family and friends, food, laughter, shopping {yes, I'm a cray-cray Black Friday person}, and so much more.

 

We hope that your holiday is spent with loved ones and filled with wonderful memories and moments.   From our family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving!

Life Lately...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..

 at American Implement!  This week we trimmed the showroom tree.  It's fun that this night has become an annual tradition for some of the families that I work with.  We order in pizza and bring our families out.   Our kids have a great time running around playing and helping decorate.  I didn't get a picture of Keeler but he looks forward to his night every year.

On Friday night, we all went over to Granny's house to celebrate uncle Troy's 50th birthday!

 Everyone wore black and spoiled uncle Troy.

 We had a great time.  They had some really cute decorations and party props.

 On Saturday morning, Keeler went to the farm with Tyler.

Kal and I went to the local Tumbleweed bazaar with Whitney and her boys to see Santa.  I told him he needed to look nice for Santa so he let me dress him up a bit and fix his hair ;)

 This boy cracks me up!  This "duck face" is his new smile.

He did great with Santa.  He didn't want me to go up with Santa alone so it made it nice that Whitney was with us to take his picture.  He told Santa that he wants a "choo-choo train."

Saturday evening, I happily volunteered to watch Natalie's little girls while they attended the annual Chamber banquet.  We planned on attending as well but I really didn't feel like leaving the little cowboys with a sitter after a long work week.  We needed some time at home together.

It was a lot of fun to have some little girls in the house.  Kal wanted to bake them an orange cake... so what did we do?  We baked an orange cake (we'll leave out the part that it tasted awful and no one finished an entire piece).

Sunday, we had a great family day... went to church and then went back to the Tumbleweed bazaar so Keeler and Tyler could check it out.  Tyler ended up buying one of everything - and we all think I'm the shopaholic?!

It's too cute not to share... here's a special little message from Kal to his aunt Samantha.  We can't wait to see you all over Thanksgiving.

Weekend Whoas!

Here's a little recap of our life lately.

We bid farewell to our pumpkin collection and...

 said, HELLO to the Christmas decorations!  There's nothing sexier than a man that will stay up late and decorate with his crazy wife.  And opps... he'll be upset that I say he's "decorating" - his job is more along the lines of assembly and electrical.  We took care of all the basics on Friday night and then the little cowboys helped put on ornaments in the morning.

 Of course, decorating quickly turned into fighting about who got to be on the ladder.  Life with boys - gotta love it!  And while they fought, I put out all the other decorations.

I know it's a little early for Christmas decorations but it just works so much better for us this way.  It was the last free weekend for us before Thanksgiving and then we'll be out of town.  Now when we return from Thanksgiving we can transition right into Christmas and just enjoy the season.

On Sunday we woke up to 4" of fresh powder snow.  The weather made it feel that much more magical to have all our Christmas decorations out.  We spent the day lounging, playing legos and watching a Hallmark Christmas movie.

In the afternoon, we headed out to the farm with Tyler for a little "redneck sleigh ride."

Koko B. got to enjoy the fun.

But poor Kal fell asleep on the way out and missed all the fun.

After riding, Keeler was cold and went into the shop to warm up.  I walked in and he said, "Want a hand-warmer mom?"  I honestly thought he had one of those little pouches until I looked down and saw what he was holding.  What a kid!

Kal got to enjoy the snow too.  On Monday, he went to work with Tyler.   (And you think your job is hard... try watering cows in 7 degree weather!)   In the afternoon they picked up Keeler from school and headed out one more time for sleigh-rides.  Even Uncle Troy had a blast.