Blessings Abound!

We had just a wonderful Christmas at our house. My parents came on Christmas Eve and stayed two nights with us. Gus and Maddie loved having Big Daddy and MiMi here- and Josh and I did too! I'm going to do tons of pictures now- so be prepared! 

Josh was able to be off Christmas Eve! It was so wonderful to have him home.  We enjoyed a fairly quiet morning and ran a few errands before my parents arrived.

Gus and Big Daddy (my dad) played cowboys a ton over the holiday. Gus loves to pretend about being a cowboy- its so cute! 

 Gus picked out cookies to leave for Santa before bed...

And then Gus went to bed and Santa and his helpers got busy! (he had some work to do!)

I have to say- I still love Christmas just as much as when I was a kid. I woke up early and got myself ready before the kids got up. I think it is all so much fun, I'll never grow out of it!! 

Santa never forgets to bring the dogs a treat :)

When Gus looked into the living room, he immediately saw what Santa had brought him..

 

 

Then he helped Maddie check out what Santa brought her...

The kids loved their gifts from Santa. We looked in our stockings, and then we had a delicious breakfast - my mom's homemade cinnamon rolls and a green chili sausage casserole. Gus was so busy with his train he wasn't too interested in opening presents. 

We let the kids open their gifts, and then Maddie napped while the adults finished ours. Gus got a fun cowboy outfit from his Big Daddy.

 The sit-n-spin from PawPaw and MawMaw was a big hit! Maddie tried to do it after Gus!

 Maddie has a new shopping cart and Raggedy Ann to push around.

 She's getting so big!

 And just being able to celebrate with this guy would be Christmas for me :)

Since Christmas the kids have been enjoying their new toys. 

And just having some quiet moments at home:

 Now I'm just getting the house cleaned and counting down the days until our new little boy gets here. It's getting really close now, and I'm so ready to meet him. 

Our Christmas Decor

We finally finished decorating our mantle last week, so I wanted to put up a few pictures of our house decorated this year! 

Our tree:

 

We didn't do ornaments this year because we thought they might get destroyed. But the kids have been great and left the tree alone! 

I really like how our mantle turned out. We found some new things to use this year. And I just love our stockings, and that we will get to add another one next year! 

 

 

 

We have not put our presents under the tree yet- I bet you can guess why! So they are wrapped and right here: 

 

And a few other things we have around..... 

 I will do a post about what we have done to celebrate the birth of our Savior! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend

Christmas Card 2013

I wanted to share our Christmas card with all of you! I wish I could send all of you one :)

I've had plans to blog the last few days, I even had a post almost finished. Yesterday, the kids didn't nap at the same time. This morning our kitchen sink got clogged. I've been cleaning and cleaning and cleaning- the nesting bug has hit! It's been busy!! I had to go to the post office this morning, and there wasn't a huge line! I had been worrying about going- and so it was God's blessing for me this morning :) Hope you're having a great Thursday Friends!

Christmas Vacation

Something that I really wanted to do this year was go stay in a nearby town over a weekend so we could do things we normally can't do because we are hurrying to get home. I was so excited we were able to do it this last weekend, and we all had a lot of fun.

We drove there on Saturday morning. We boarded our dogs so we wouldn't have to worry about them which was part of the vacation for me. :) We already had done pretty much all our Christmas shopping, so we just relaxed and were able to window shop. We all (except Maddie) got haircuts.

 

I was so excited to get a haircut! It had been months, and it just felt so good and fresh to have a few inches off! 

 Saturday night after we ate pizza, we stopped and got Starbucks and drove around to look at Christmas lights!

Both kids fell asleep quickly, but Josh and I enjoyed just being able to talk and enjoy the views. Maddie wasn't too happy about sleeping at the hotel the first night- she cried for over an hour in the middle of the night- fun for us! (Gus slept through it- lucky). And- Gus slept in a big bed by himself- growing up so fast!

The next day I enjoyed being able to get ready for the day by myself and letting Josh take care of the kids.

Sunday morning we didn't do much, and then went to lunch at Jason's Deli: 

 

 

 

We did some more shopping and then rested at the hotel for a little while. Maddie was happy digging in my purse, but she was happy so we were ok with it :)

 

The kids didn't really nap, so right after we ate dinner, we just went back to the hotel so they could go to bed. 

Monday we had a few errands we needed to run. We took the kids to see the ducks at a pond.

It was then time to head home. We had such a fun time relaxing!

Little Smiles

It's been a busy week around here, but busy with all good things. There have also been times of just being at home. Which gave us time to make some gingerbread men ornaments.

Wear Christmas PJs......

And just play :)

These two leave me exhausted by the end of each day...But I wouldn't trade these smiles, the sweet hugs...Maddie saying "MaMa" when I asked to her to yesterday- she was so proud of herself. I love them so much! And I'm so glad that this year we have been able to enjoy some quiet moments and truly enjoy this Christmas season.