Jammie days

In the process of starting my new photo gig, my own family snapping and blogging has gone to the back burner. So now that we're on Spring Break, I made sure that I picked up my camera even if we were all still in our jammies.

Every morning this little sunshine is smiling and she spoils me rotten. She sleeps in til 9:00 or 10:00 on the weekends and breaks. She's like her mama, she loves her sleep.

With the time change, she even slept until 11:00 am! Whoa! She'll be sleeping til noon when she's in college.

Her brothers absolutely adore her. I love that Nolan reads to her and knows the tricks of distracting her instead of telling her no. We're still working on Campbell on that one.

Lazy days mean we're homebodies and the older I get the more I just love being home with my family with no agenda.

She definitely rules the roost and we have to bring her back down a few notches when she goes super nova on us with her fits.

But then she flashes us this grin and we melt. Works every time.

I see this face making a reappearance during her teen years.

Hopefully they'll be mixed with see little smiles like these. Happy Spring Break!

Circle of Life continues

Santa brought Nolan a bike without training wheels when he was 6. We rode it and I thought it would never happen but we finally got him to ride that thing a year later. It was just a couple of weeks ago that he could ride without one of us running right next to him.

I remember a particular photo in Justin's baby book as I was watching this proud father/son moment. I told Justin that it reminded me of the photo and I just had to grab my camera so I had it for Nolan's baby book one day.

They were both 7 when they really learned to ride a bike. The one on the left is Justin circa 1981 in Kentucky and Nolan now in 2013 in Texas. .

 

I think the only difference is that we didn't believe in helmets in 1981! I hadn't seen this photo in years, and honestly I was trying to just get the darn thing in focus. Lucky break that it was the same angle and that Justin and his dad are both sporting beards! Twilight zone. Welcome to my life every holiday when I'm with him, my father-in-law and brother-in-law in the same room at the same time. 

Stockshow 2013

It's that time of year where we're posers and put on some cowboy boots like we're fresh from the farm and go see the Stock Show in Cowtown. After every Stock Show, my children ask when the next one is repeatedly throughout the year.

Too bad in years past we've had boots for everyone. This year my boys outgrew their boots but Campbell didn't let that stop him from dressing the part everywhere else. Nolan said, "No fair, why does Campbell get to dress up? I want to wear my Buzz Lightyear costume." Apparently, he thought that the Stockyards were the same as Halloween.

We held our noses and checked out all the animals. Landry was mesmerized by them all as you can see in the photo above. There was no taking her eyes off that cow. She sure was rockin' those boots.

The boys couldn't go home without riding rides of course. All those rides scare me to death because I see how they fold them and put them in a suitcase when they're done. I can just see a screw falling out and throwing my kids out of it like a boomerang. Thank goodness they want to stick to the kiddie rides still.

Nolan walked the plank while Landry and Daddy watched. Yep, that's a Hot Wheel band-aid she's sporting after a moon walk act she pulled. The tiniest little scratch but that sucker would NOT stop bleeding. By the end, she was looking and acting ragged and so were we.

So maybe we're not the country folk we pose to be, but we're Texan. So that pretty much means we belong anywhere where tractors, cows, and horses are. Or at least that's what we tell ourselves.

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.