Kentucky visit

Ok, this is just downright embarassing. I know it's February and I'm posting the LAST of my Christmas pictures. But one day, years from now my kids will be glad I did it even if it was a month late.

Throw me a bone here, I'm working two jobs with three kids so it's amazing that I'm even keeping this thing up anymore.

After we finally made it to Kentucky, it was a great trip! Twenty and a half hours in the car with three children 7 and under made for a very exhausting two days.

The lucky thing is right when I get to Kentucky, I’ve got lots and lots of extra hands for  help. My oldest niece adores Landry and she loves her just as much. She’s so great with her and she was exactly what I needed after hearing the word “mama” at least 645,938,297 times in the car.

I’m pretty sure that the boys favorite place on Earth is being at either one of their grandparents’ houses. They love spending the night and LOVE spending the night in bunk beds at Gram and Pop’s house. I was scared that no one would sleep with all three sleeping in the same room together, but they did surprisingly well.

It snowed while we were in Kentucky and that meant another snow day fun day. Since my kids hardly see it, they love playing in it. I like looking at snow next to a warm toasty fire, but not so much being out in it for more than 10-15 minutes.

We jam packed a lot in 3 days but managed to squeeze in an adult movie (thanks to a very patient mother-in-law) who babysat my kids.

Speaking of others that babysat Landry. My sweet niece babysat Landry. I mean she literally took care of her and watched and entertained her more than anyone that I would pay for babysitting. I love seeing their relationship grow and I love that Landry has a break from her brothers and gets to see her girl cousins.

The boys love playing with their cousins and all their new toys. Before we ever pull out of the driveway, they start talking about how much they’re going to miss Gram and Pop and how they want to come back.

 The drive back was smooth and uneventful! Hallelujah! We actually made it back in record time.

White Christmas

White Christmas in Texas. Yes, really I’m not lying. It really happened. It’s only happened a couple of times in my 24 years of living in Fort Worth.

There’s something so magical about it. I mean it’s that whole Norman Rockwell thing again.

On Christmas Eve, we went to our Christmas Eve candlelight service.

 This year was a bit more challenging keeping Miss Mc Fuss-a-lot quiet during the service, but the bonus was she updated all of Justin’s phone apps in the process of her entertainment. She had a small part in the service and waved to everyone so it was hard for anyone to stay mad at that cuteness.

It’s a yearly tradition to go to my parents’ house where they make my favorite meal of the year…a homemade Mexican feast with warm tamales. Yum! I eat myself silly every Christmas Eve.

On the way home we always are on the lookout for Santa and the reindeer. Here’s a little bit of our conversation:

Me: Oh! I think I see Rudolph! I see a right light!

Campbell: I see it!

Nolan: Nope that’s just a tower.

Me: Maybe Santa hasn’t made it here yet.

Campbell: Yeah, he’s in Mexico. I see a red light!!!!

Nolan: No, that’s just another tower.

Justin: Nolan, you don’t know you can’t see that far away.

Nolan: I’m not trying to be a genius!

I belly laughed over that one. I just love love love this age for our kids and the things they say. Not so much the fighting and tantrums but they say some crazy cute stuff.

We let the kids open one present Christmas Eve and it's always new jammies. Preparing for Santa is not an easy task after such a full day but we can't the big man in the red suit down.

Cookies: check
Milk: check
reindeer food: check

 Christmas Eve brought a pretty nasty storm so we ended up with two boys in bed with us. That was fun covering up their eyes at 3 a.m. so they wouldn’t see their Christmas gifts. Presents were loved by all and my sweet niece, Madison, spent the night with us so it made it even more special.

And that’s my girl, already liking clothes at the ripe old age of 15 months.

We bundled the kids and went outside to play in the snow. Landry and I only could stand it for about 10 minutes because it was crazy cold. Poor Landry didn’t have any gloves so we resorted to socks on her hands. Hey, it’s better than nothing.

My boys on the other hands played outside til their cheeks were red and their fingers were purple from snowballs. I finally had to be the party pooper and tell them that they had to come in because I didn’t want them getting sick.

The next day we left for Kentucky. The same day that Arkansas got 12-13 inches of snow…as in a blizzard. Yeah, we drove through that.

With 3 kids.

For 16 hours.

Another memory for the books.

Cookie baking

No Christmas is complete without my mama's sugar cookies. I think I look forward to it more than the kids. My nieces came over and took part in our annual sugar fest. Anytime sweets are involved, my kids are all smiles.

My mom found these adorable aprons at Pier 1, my old alma mater. They were too cute!

We baked cookies the day after the Connecticut tragedy. I've had a hard time wrapping my head around it still. My mom's a 1st grade teacher, my oldest is in 1st grade and being a teacher myself, I just can't imagine what these parents are going through.

So I ate up every precious second with my family, mess and all, treasuring every second.

The cookies were crunchy from the overkill of sprinkles, the kitchen was a total mess, but it was wonderful.

 

When you have an artist in the home, cookie decorating becomes another form of art. It's almost too delicious to eat. 

Key word: almost

Landry's Christmas bow cracked me up, she looked like some Christmas cookie ninja.

And it made it even more special that my nieces were able to come again this year.

In the midst of our cookie baking:

Nolan: "Mommy, remember when Aunt Tonya made cookies with us?

Me: I sure do sweetie.

Nolan: That Christmas had a lot of cheer.

I love that he remembers her and those memories because I will never forget them either. This is my favorite picture that I had of them together in 2010, the last year she was able to bake with us. Last year, she was in the hospital.

And even though she wasn't "here", I really felt she was.

But oh do I miss her and I just look at her girls and see so much of her in them.

I love my little sugar cookie dough thief above. Ummm hmmm, that's proof that he's MINE! 

 

So between Connecticut and my sister, I just savored this year more than any prior.

How precious is this life I've been given and I will forever be grateful and never understand how I am so lucky and blessed.

Dear Santa

Merry Christmas! I know I'm running late on these posts but there were some great ones I couldn't help but document, so you're going to be getting quite a few holiday posts from me. So just bear with me. My camera was smoking today with pictures. I'm sure I'll still be posting about those around February.

We wrote our letters to Santa a couple of weeks ago. This was the first year that Campbell could "write" his letter.

 

And by write his letter, I mean copy my letters word for word, BUT it's in HIS handwriting and that still counts even if he has no idea what it spells. 

The amount of concentration that this took from this little 4 year old was intense.

I was so proud of him for sticking with it and the stationary I found online was perfect. He checked that he had been naughty (thank goodness he's truthful about it). So it was more or less a confessional. 

Nolan is a pro at Santa letter writing. I'm not even sure I helped him spell telescope.

I love this tradition of writing letters and it makes it so easy that we just send our letters with our elf, Pickles to the North Pole that very night for overnight delivery.

This one wasn't much into letter writing but she was into looking cute!

Luckily, Santa is such a sucker for cuteness.

Christmas card 2012

This is what happens when you have an uncooperative 15 month old who was getting over croup while trying to take family photos. This is a composite of 5 different photos merged into one thanks to a really talented and crafty graphic artist husband.

And here's the back of our card.

I got the idea from Pinterest but I think the original lady had a much more cooperative bunch than mine. Oh well, it's the final product that counts, right?

Here comes Santa Claus

I'm pretty proud that we made it to see Santa downtown the first week of December. Usually, it's a oh-shoot-we-haven't-gotten-Santa-pics-yet kind of a thing.

Not too bad, I'd say. I mean Landry is looking down but what are you gonna do with a 15 month old, right? While she did fuss, it wasn't one of those screaming kid Santa pictures. I'll take it!

Looks like Landry loves candy as much as her mama does.

This is the first year that Campbell went right to Santa. Usually he's got a death grip on one of us.

 Probably because he knows that he better be sweet with all that naughty stuff he's been up to. No one can resist Campbell's big blue eyes and cute hugs. He's a quick learner.

I love downtown Fort Worth so much and especially at Christmas time. I know it's not NYC but our downtown turns into something so magical and heart-warming during Christmas time. It's like those little snow villages that you watch with wonder when you're a little kid.

Minus the snow. In fact, my poor children were sweating as we saw Santa on a 80 degree day. Sigh. One can dream of a white Christmas, right?

This picture on the left is my new favorite of my trio. Do you know how incredibly hard it is to photograph all three looking at the camera?

I made these shirts for the boys last year and I was so happy to see that they fit for one more year!

Many many years ago, I was an assistant buyer at Pier 1. They do an amazing light display and we took the kids to go see it. They love it every year.

Love our Santa pictures every year. I keep an album of each kid with Santa. Love this tradition and I hope my kids keep being good sports about it.