Christmas 2015

Hello ! How was your Christmas? Hope it was good and your enjoying the downtime now that the rush is over. We had a good Christmas, so nice having Kristin home with us this year! The weather was warm again and now it's cold and rainy and we did get snow for a day and a beautiful sky to go with it in the picture above. Sharing some Christmas fun with you today.

We baked cookies at my sister's house, busy and fun and yummy!

Loved that we all did them together this year.

The kids did a few with frosting

Sienna and Colt did what they do best, a fort and played so good! They will be back here today, can't wait to hear about their Christmas and see what new toys they bring to play with. Bless Colt who loves to smile when I take pictures, Sam was like that too, so dang cute!!

Our Christmas eve morning tradition breakfast with my dad's side. Started years ago by grandma and grandpa, love this tradition and hope our kids keep it up. It was our first year without them both and they would be so happy to see that we were there together.

After breakfast, Rich and I came home and cleaned and got ready to host his family that night. The house looked so pretty and it was warm so windows were open, very odd to do on Christmas eve. The girls had to work all day and got off just after the party started.

We all crowded in the living room talking for two hours, usually the men stay in the kitchen talking and us women/kids stay in here. A nice change to be all together, had some good talks and catching up on what everyone's doing.

Christmas morning, kids slept in longer, they loved everything they got, even though I worried. It's harder buying for older kids but it turned out fine just like always. Girls room is being redone and Renee is getting a new bed, YAY and Kristin got a new bed YAY! We all need them, so one by one we will be getting new ones. Lucky laid with Sam the whole time, so cute and happy.

 

Later that day we went to my mom's and I didn't get any pictures, the kids were all making weird faces and being too goofy so I put the camera away. It was a nice Christmas there too.

Here are my gifts from Rich, way to much this year, he overdid it. Love my new coloring book and pencils, have already colored a few pages and love it.

Kristin got me these books I wanted and a little prayer box. I've started reading the books, will read them slowly so I take it all in. Hoping to read a lot more in 2016 then this year.

 

Just like that the day was over and now we can breathe and get ready for a new year. I'm working on my December Daily, loved this album so much. Making changes in my PL for next year so will share that soon too. Have a good week friends and Happy New Year!!!

Hello Nancy, stay warm my friend xo

Holiday fun in pictures

Hello and happy one week till Christmas, YAY!! The month has been fast but I'm ready to celebrate and enjoy being on break with the kids. We even woke up to snow today which is the best way to start break for them. Happy we had warm temps all month so far, will make winter not feel quite as long now. Unless we still have snow in April/May then it won't be fun.

 

Thought I'd share some pictures of what's been going on around here this month, holiday pictures are always fun to share and see aren't they. We are having more of that this week with the kids home too, it can be a long week of celebrating and cookie making and finish up shopping and wrapping fun.

Our church decked out for Christmas, love this so much each year. Beautiful!! Two ladies do this by their selves, amazing job ladies. Tonight they set it up for our Secret Sisters dinner, so excited for this, we find out who our secret sisters were all year and pull names for the next year. My sister Annie has been coming to church with me for a few months now and she came and joined in for next year. She will also be getting baptized this Sunday, so happy for her coming to Christ!!

Here is a close up of the tables, filled with homemade goodies both to eat and as decorations. Elizabeth you would like that they used CD's and their own scrap stash do decorate them with. They stand up with office clips, not sure what else you call them. They each look so pretty, I took two home. We had potluck dinner then opened presents that took two hours long but some heart felt gifts and journals were made for others and made us cry. So blessed by these women.

There is basketball this month for Ryan too, it was first game this day and they lost by one basket. YAY!! We watched her second game and they won by one basket, YAY!!

We had our Christmas party on my dad's side, the first one without Grandma Ruth, we did ok and I'm sure she'd be SO PLEASED with this picture of almost everyone. I am so thankful for self timer cameras that make it possible for everyone to be in the picture. I also have a self timer button for my phone I need to practice using more too. Wish we had started taken pictures like this years ago.

I made sure to have two men read from Luke 2 since it's usually one or two of my kids, already have two men picked out for next year too. LOVE these pictures so much, again grandma would be happy. I'm pretty sure we all felt her presence and grandpa's too.

I put a little twist on the gift exchange this year and it turned out so good for everyone. When I pulled names out to match up I decided to have them have each other, like here Kristin had Colt's name and he had her name instead of another person. LOVE IT! He talked all day to me about this the day after the party, Kristin got him the best gifts he kept telling me. She had fun having him too, a boy to shop for after having to shop for mostly girls. I had everyone sit with their person to and open gifts together, so much fun this was too, usually they open them and then go thank the person. LOVE!

We had a dinner at my small group's home, so nice to have this break to just sit and talk and enjoy each other's company. We finished our last study book and will start again next month with the study from the movie War Room, so excited for this one. I saw the movie twice and read the book twice. Again, thankful for a self timer camera to get this picture also.

On Monday we will be making cookies at my sister Heather's house. All of us will be there, all the kids, my mom and other sister, YAY!! Will be a  crazy fun time, not doing any sugar cookies and frosting/sprinkled ones this year. The kids want other kinds, mostly peanut butter ones so I bought a nice mix of new ones to try.

Last but not least is a drawing done by Sam in art class. He did a great job I think and Rich took it right to work for the art wall of the kids pictures he has. Susan, I thought you would like seeing this, wish he would draw as much as your son does. Art class is over for him now, this was my favorite of all he did. Happy just to have this one piece though.

 

That's it for me today, hope you enjoyed this post. Enjoy this last week, take time to slow down and really enjoy each moment and the reason for the season, it will warm your heart more then any present or decorations. Merry Christmas or Happy whatever holiday you celebrate! Thank you for being here. Stay safe and see you after Christmas. Love and Hugs!!

AROUND HERE

                                                       Hello, sorry it's been so long since my last post. I've been busy with my December projects and trying to stay caught up on them.  I still need to upload pictures to even make a post, so weird not to post a picture with this today. Can you believe we're into mid December already, crazy isn't it. Wish the holiday time lasted longer, even without all the hustle it still goes too fast. Thank you for your visit on my last post, Thanksgiving is my favorite and it still warms my heart thinking of this last one.  So here's a little bit of what's going on now:

Around here the weather is warm and beautiful every day,  too windy for me but still nice

Around here Renee is finished with her first semester of college, YAY and has the month off

Around here Summer is still working at Marc's and enjoys it

Around here Sam and Summer keep asking for snow and are sad it's warm out

Around here I'm keeping up and LOVING my December Daily album

Around here I've been also Journaling Your Christmas with prompts and LOVE it too

Around here I've got lots of shopping and wrapping to finish up this week, no stress

Around here Rich is taking some days off before the year is over, YAY, so nice having him home

Around here I've got a yucky throat thingy cold, Sam just had it so it's my turn

Around here I'm so enjoying my advent reading too, the time by the tree is always my favorite

Around here I just sent out my first batch of Christmas cards, YAY!

Around here I'm planning what I want to do in 2016!!!! Excited and ready for a new year!


That's about it for around here, all is good as it can be and I'm thankful everyday for that. Hope you are all doing well too. Happy Weekend, make sure to take time to just sit by the tree and enjoy the quiet part of this season too. HUGS!!!