Baking Bonanza

Bennett requested a cookie baking day.  Of course my Mom was first on the invite list.  One because I knew she would eat this activity up with Bennett and two because she came with dough already pre-made.  Winning!  I mean it was dough once again for MY BROTHER'S favorite cookies, but dough nonetheless.  Don't worry, I made my favorite cookies myself because I'm an independent and capable woman. Once again this year we had one main helper (besides my Mom) and then a few others that stopped by long enough to decorate a cookie to eat (Dad included).  All in all we had a very successful day and I was able to show up to all of my Christmas functions with home baked cookies that I sort of made.  

Visit with Santa

Well we couldn't settle with just the encounter with "Creepy Santa" so we decided to do our annual trip to Bass Pro for a discussion with the "Nice Normal Santa".  I mean who doesn't love standing in long lines all dressed up around the holidays?  My kids...that's who.  Anyway, the trip went pretty well.  Miss Everly didn't have an opinion either way about the Jolly Old Man, zero expression to be had.  2018 should be a little different...bring on the screaming kid pictures!!!  The boys both wrote out their very detailed lists...Nolan wanted a BB Gun, Baseball Cards, a video game, a rainbow loom, GoPro and a speaker.  Bennett wanted a BB Gun, Catcher's Gear, an iPod, a magic set and stuff to build a fort.  And poor Everly probably just wanted some shoes. #thirdkidproblems

The Real Polar Express

I don't know if anyone remembers our last disastrous trip on the "Polar Express", but we decided to try again this year because the "Real" Polar Express was in St. Louis this time.  And I'm happy to report it was MUCH better than our 2016 experience!  Except...same creepy Santa!  You win some, you lose some I guess!  This time there was singing, dancing, ticket punching, bells handed out, the reading of the Polar Express, cookies and the promised Hot Chocolate.  Happy Customers right here!

She's a Keeper

Just because I'm almost a year behind in blogging, doesn't mean I have an excuse to skip the everyday pictures that I have taken.  Or do I?  Just look how sweet she is there playing and entertaining herself while I wrapped Christmas presents.  She's a keeper that one, she's a keeper.

Gingerbread House Mania

I made that sound really exciting didn't I?  Well, don't get too excited this is just our annual Gingerbread House decorating activity.  I think this year they REALLY had a gem though, I mean I only had to finish a small portion this year to make it look complete unlike other years where I've finished the majority.  Man they are growing up.  Maybe it was the little cheerleader we had next to the table this year!  The boys each picked a side of the house to decorate, you will know whose is whose because they definitely put their names on their respective roofs.  Phew, wouldn't want anyone getting their masterpieces mixed up!  But for the record...I did the front (sans name).

Christmas Traditions

We had an extra beautiful December day so we decided we would go down to Main Street for the "Christmas Traditions" celebration.  It's a really cute little event where they have different Christmas figures walking around giving out trading cards that the kids can collect and then they have a parade of all the figures towards the end of the day.  My kids are not big parade people, but we bribed them with some ice cream so they decided to stick around and see what it was all about.  Turns out, they actually enjoyed themselves.  Who knew?  Little Miss didn't get any ice cream, but she did get a nice stroll in her stroller and some loving from her big brother.  A perfect little weekend adventure to get us in the holiday spirit.

Christmas Card 2017

It was that time of year again, time to torture my children.  I left Chad and myself out of it this year.  I figured wrangling the 3 children would be enough "fun" for this family for the year!  I also figured the kids would be dressed up for Thanksgiving so I might as well kill two birds with one stone and knock these pictures out.  It was a tad bit stressful trying to race the good lighting, but in the end we got the money shot of all three kids looking so we were Thankful indeed.

And just so you can see some reality in this post, I am including the below outtake to show you how family pictures really go.  Though it didn't make the Christmas Card, I still thought it was a keeper.

You're welcome.

Oh Christmas Tree

The time had come, it was time to decorate the Christmas Tree!  Usually Chad helps set up the actual tree and then vacates the area and "lets" the rest of us do the decorating.  He's so thoughtful.  The problem is the boys (especially Nolan) have a very short attention span for this activity.  This year they did pretty good though, and dare I say had fun looking through all of our ornaments and reminiscing. I even got them to pose with their "First Christmas" Ornaments.  Don't ask me why Bennett is in full soccer uniform gear, I would say it was some special occasion but i'm pretty sure this activity took place on Thanksgiving morning.  Next year's goals include brushing our hair and including their little sister.

  

In A Field Of Roses, She Is A Wildflower

If you can imagine, I was pretty excited to decorate a little girl nursery.  And yes, I did have like 6 months to do so and I still didn't have it done by the time she was born.  It's cool though, she spent the first couple of months in our room (that's my justification anyway).  

I had heard the saying "In a field of roses, she is a wildflower" somewhere awhile back and I knew right away that was what I wanted to hang over her crib.  It was my inspiration if you will.  And then one day I went shopping and found a painting and sent Chad a text that said "how would you feel about a skull picture in our daughter's room?".  I don't think he knew how to respond, but said something to the effect "whatever you want".  Well, while we are on my requests Chad I would also like a shiplap wall please :).  Poor Chad, I always have ideas that I can't actually follow through with myself.  But Chad sure can (with the help of Bennett of course).  So I got the roses signs, a nice skull picture and a shiplap wall and we were IN BUSINESS!  Everything else just fell into place.  This room sure does make me happy.  I don't know if it's necessarily the decorations, or the sweet little girl that occupies it.  Maybe a combination, but probably more so that precious little girl.  I did throw her in some pictures at the end, but don't be fooled. These were staged, she wasn't actually sleeping in her bed at this point and she doesn't (usually) sleep with bows in her hair.  But when its photo day, we spruce things up a bit!