Happy New Year

I would like to wish all of my readers a very Happy New Year!!

We're partying hard on our end...pizza for dinner, freshly popped popcorn and potato skins for a snack, and we're comfortably sitting here at home, Daniel and I in our jammies and the girls are sporting their diaper/Dora underwear and dancing around.

A lot of people I know are out drinking and having a good time but there is truly no other place I would rather be than sitting here in my living room with my three favorite people drinking my water.

If you are one to be out drinking, please be smart and don't drive.

A few more Christmas pictures

Here are a few more pictures from our Christmas day festivities.

Addison opening up her new leap pad II.

So many presents.

Addison looking at pictures of her and her sister.

Mamaw cleaning up the ladies after our lunch.

Me and the husband.

The girls opening up presents at my grandma and grandpa's.

My sister Niki and my niece Ireland.

My nephew Dylan.

The kids opening up presents at uncle Dan and aunt Robin's.

HO!HO!HO!

We had another amazing Christmas this year. I can honestly say this is the first year that the girls, Addison especially, really got the concept behind it. Their excitement really got us into the season and I'm kind of sad that it's over already. For the first time ever, I took our tree down the day after Christmas. I had to to make room in the living room for all of their new toys. Poor Addison helped her daddy drag it out to the bonfire area and when she realized that it was being left out there she got upset saying that it was going to get cold. Daniel said she attempted to drag it back inside because she was so concerned for it. She has such a sensitive heart!

I hosted Christmas Eve dinner here at our house for my mother-in-law and brother-in-law. It was exciting because it was our first "traditional" dinner of the season and for the first time ever I got to break out the china that she gave me years ago that once belonged to her. We give the girls brand new jammies on Christmas Eve and their mamaw brought them each a new holiday bear. They loved unwrapping them although we have to work on how long it takes them to unwrap the packages...lol.

Freshly bathes, new jammies on, and Christmas bears in hand all ready for Santa to arrive.

 I didn't get any pictures but we served roasted turkey, stuffing, Arkansas green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, cresecent rolls, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. I made everything but the turkey and stuffing and I'm pretty sure we all stuffed ourselves until we were about to bust. After they left I got busy whipping up chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips so that we would have fresh cookies to set out for Santa.

The girls loved helping me set out the cookies and milk and they watched as we wrote Santa a little note thanking him for their presents and wishing him and the reindeer a safe trip. Once we tucked them into bed I got busy wrapping all of their gifts. We went overboard last year so this year we scaled back quite a bit. I felt bad after seeing all of the loads of gifts other family and friends posted pictures of on Facebook for their kids but our finances just wouldn't allow it this year. I actually returned a few things for them because I just knew they would get spoiled rotten with all of their extended family and I'm glad that I did. I returned a bunch of outfits and between their mamaw and other family members they pretty much got a new winter wardrobe at Christmas. I've already got a bag of clothes started for Goodwill sometime this week.

We woke them up around 7:45 Christmas morning and the smiles on their faces were absolutely priceless. I made a big breakfast of fried eggs, bacon, and buttery biscuits and shortly thereafter we started putting ourselves together so that we could head to my mother-in-laws to do Christmas with her and my brother-in-law.

We were all spoiled at her house and we were served another delicious meal of tacos. I made mock chipotle rice and skyline dip to contribute to the meal and once again we stuff ourselves until we could hardly move. This is the first holiday that I can remember where I could eat everything and anything without worrying about bathroom issues. It was also the first one where I can honestly say I was comfortable traveling everywhere knowing that there would be no bathrooms open anywhere. It's one of the downside of having severe anxiety brought on by my Crohns disease but having my ileostomy this year helped ease all of those fears. We visited for a few hours with Sue and Dustin and then gathered all of our goodies into the Yukon and for the first time ever, I spend some time with my step-dad's side of the family.

I have never spent Christmas day with them because of my parents divorce and having so many other stops. I made sure this year to stop and spend a couple of hours with them and I am so glad that we did. My grandma got us our very first Hallmark ornament and between her, grandpa, and my brother Steve, the girls got spoiled all over again. We only stayed for about an hour and a half and we didn't get to eat with them but we had yet another stop to make before our day was over.

Our last stop of the day was at my uncle Dan and aunt Robin's house. They had already started eating by the time that we arrived but you can only move so fast when you have so many people to visit. I made deviled eggs for that trip and they were delicious. So was the beef  and pork roasts that they made. We only stayed for about two hours with them but we were so worn out from doing so much already that I just had to get home so that we could get the girls prepped for bed and allow them some time to play with their new stuff.

Mommy holding all of their presents waiting to be unwrapped!

The girls got several new outfits, three or four pairs of pajamas, stuffed animals, snacks, and they each got a brand new baby doll and they each received a new stroller for their babies.

The best gift of the night though came from Dan and Robin and Daniel and I are so excited we can't see straight. Every August growing up they used to take me and Heather to Cedar Point. Cedar Point was the first and only real vacation that Daniel and I have ever taken together and we've been throwing around the idea of taking the girls in the near future. I told my aunt Robin this past Saturday that I wish we could go this summer with everyone so that we could see all of the new additions to the family enjoy the park as much as we all did growing up. For Christmas they presented each one of our families with a trip to Cedar Point this coming August. They've booked all of our rooms in one of the parks hotels and each room is side by side. We're going up a day early with them to stay in Port Clinton for a night and then we'll make our way to Sandusky to spend five days in and out of the park and water park. I can't wait to spend this time with everyone, especially with my uncle Dan who is declining health and who won't be able to travel outside of his home much anymore.

 

The men in our families were presented with the information about our trip, they are reading about it above. 

My dad reading his stuff about the trip sporting his girlfriend Donna's glasses because he left his at home...lol.

I think Christmas 2012 was a rip, roaring success but now I must get started on a party for two little girl's that I know who have a birthday coming up in February. I'll try to post again sometime in the next few days with more Christmas photo's and photo's from our 3rd annual Christmas cookie exchange that I held on the 15th.

Merry Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Christmas Cookie Exchange 2012

Every year since Daniel and I have been married we have done a family cookie exchange and decorating party. We skipped two years while we were staying with my mom, but this year I made darn sure I scheduled it well in advance with our family. Not everyone could come but this was the first year that we had it as parents. It was an amazing feeling to sit back and watch my baby girls decorate their cookies.

Addison had a ball with the sprinkles and Cadence was more interested in licking the icing off of the cookies as we were applying it so she never really got to the sprinkle part of the decorating. She's such a precious child. She's a licker. I make her a bagel with cream cheese...she eats the cream cheese and leaves the bagel...I give her french fries with some ketchup and she just licks the ketchup off of the fry...you give her a piece of buttered bread and she just licks the butter off, you get the drift...lol.

 They have both been really excited this holiday season. They are so fascinated with the Christmas trees and all of the pretty decorations and we keep telling them that Santa will be coming soon and leaving lots of presents under the tree. We've been watching lots of Christmas movies and I've explained to them that we will need to leave cookies and milk out for him to come and bring their gifts. We've attempted Santa once already and they wouldn't go near him so we'll try once more this coming Saturday and hope for the best. I started the tradition of having a family picture taken with Santa every year and I'll be sad if we miss out on a year.

Our Christmas tree this year!

This year we also started a tradition of piling into the Yukon and getting some food and heading out to see all of the Christmas lights in our area. I kind of had to push the excitement on them by getting a little overly excited whenever we would see the lights, but eventually they got the drift and would squeal with laughter and exclaim, "pretty, pretty" or "it's beautiful" whenever we would come up on some. The excitement of waking up on Christmas morning to a tree loaded with lots of presents for myself has turned into sheer excitement to get up on Christmas morning to see the looks on my precious girls faces when they see the presents for them. It's amazing what becoming a parent does to one. These are truly some of the best years of my entire life and I am so thankful for them.

Family Pictures at Portrait Innovations

Excluding the family picture we had taken at the hospital after having had Cadence, and of course those occasional family shots that a family member might randomly snap, we've never had family pictures taken. I scheduled to have some taken last year around this time but my sickness kept us from actually following through with having them done.

I made an appointment for us this past Friday at 6:30 with the photographers at Portrait Innovations. I almost rescheduled it because I was afraid we would be late since Daniel usually works till 5:30, that and he really needed a hair cut but I refused to let what happen last year, happen again.

We had a couple of touch and go moments with the girls and not wanting to pay attention to the camera, and Daniel's hair is a hot mess, but we pulled through and I think they turned out really well. I was very impressed with our photographer and they are very budget friendly. I spent less than a hundred dollars and I got more pictures that I know people to pass them out to. Typically I am anti-posed/anti-studio pictures which is why I'm an outdoor photographer, but I am so glad we had these done and after posting them on Facebook for all of my friends and family to see, I received lots of compliments.

So for your viewing pleasure, I thought I would share of a few of my favorites here on our family blog.

*Just an FYI, Portrait Innovations did not ask me nor did they pay me to do this post. I just wanted to share our experience with them and show some of my favorite photos.

Pedal, pedal.

We have had a little red tricycle for Addison for going on two years now. I've lost count the amount of times that we've attempted to teach her to pedal it herself with absolutely no luck. I had many workouts this pass summer pushing her up and down the driveway on it so you can imagine my surprise when I pulled into the driveway yesterday, after another successful photo session, to discover that during the short amount of time that I was gone...she had finally learned to pedal, pedal all by her big self. I can't believe that in just a few short months my little baby is going to be three years old.

Not only is she now able to pedal, pedal all by herself, but she is becoming obsessed with cartoons. I remember that first year or so that I couldn't wait until she had her favorite cartoon/character. I always thought it was so cute when little kids had their favorites and it seemed like she was never going to have one. Well, it only took almost three years but she has finally caved. If I need for her to be quiet for longer than five minutes, all I need to do is turn on Disney Jr. I'm not sure who the genius was behind creating an all day Disney channel with cartoons just for this age bracket, but may God bless them. She loves it. Some of her particular favorites are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Chugginton, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and Doc McStuffins. I find myself watching this channel even after they have gone down for naps...I love most all of the cartoons shown. We've gotten to the point now that if I have asked her to do something, or need for her to come and see me for a diaper change or to get dressed for that matter...I have to finally turn cartoons off just so she'll pay attention to me...lol. This would be the reason why this years birthday theme for the girls is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I've already started pinning idea's on pinterest and I can't wait until their party.

She's gone from calling me mommy, to mom, and just today she has started calling me momma. I love that she is growing big and strong and learning to do so many new things, but I have moments where I just grab her and cuddle her in my arms like she is still my teeny, tiny baby. I really am afraid that I'm going to wake up tomorrow and she'll be 16 years old with a boyfriend.

Picture Phone Dump

Here are a few recent pictures that I've taken with my cell phone. Just thought I would share. 

My niece and nephew. I didn't take the picture, but my sister did so it counts right?

Funny story...we stopped and got some lunch one Sunday a few weeks ago. Daniel stayed in the car with Cadence and I took Addie inside with me. We were planning on taking our lunch back to my mother-in-laws but when I handed Addie her lunch and turned my back to finish paying, she made her self comfortable at one of the tables and started chowing down. I guess she was hungry. Daniel said he saw her do it from outside and he laughed.

Playing on the computers at the library.

I can't go anywhere without this child attached to my hip. I can't even use the ladies room.

Addie's first attempt at picking our her own outfit.

Our recent visit to Lowe's. The ladies fell in love with these stuff animals in the Christmas area.

Styling!