Christmas Eve

I thought I was ready for Christmas by the Eve, but I ended up spending all morning running around for that one last thing I had just forgot. By noon I was home & Tiffany & David came over to help us make cookies for Santa.
The boys helped pour out ingredients & then ran around & played & had fun together.
Joey is so funny.. he kept trying to lick the spatula when there was only butter & sugar on it.. yuck!!!
That evening we went to my parents for our annual Christmas pageant & gift exchange. The Battraws gave us some fun pampered chef cooking things & the boys got Candyland!! Which they beg to play daily.

Chelle, Phil, Melissa, Wendi & Todd
Joc, Aniston, Nanc & Janet

Dad, aunt Shirl & Uncle Frank
Julia & Max
super happy :)
Joesy the cutie
Des hugging Joe
The wisemen bringing gifts



After we got back home, Sean started a fire in the fireplace & lit all the lumineres he spent so long setting up. It looked awesome :) I spent the rest of the evening wrapping presents I should have already done & praying I had enough tape & paper. At the end it was looking a little scary, but to my relief, I found an extra roll hiding in my closet !



Each year I get a little better at being more prepared & less stressed- but that's still not saying to much!!!
My favorite part of the day was singing Joy to the World with all of my family surrounding me. It made every second of the season feel ok :)

catch up

December has come, & almost gone... & my blogging has suffered. So I'm going to do a fast forward catch up to get us to Christmas!
I had another birthday at the beginning of the month & had to work all day on my birthday & deal with some not so good news that made it kinda worse than just any other day. The next day everything was resolved, so it wasn't too bad- but definitely a birthday I'm already trying to forget!!

On the 10th of the month we finally got around to putting the tree up & my pictures are not the best, because I was spending a large majority of the time trying to clean up broken ornaments... hey- that sounds like most of this month!! Needless to say- I've been looking at Christmas clearance to replace alot of ornaments!!!
of course, we listened to Kenny & Dolly while we "trimmed" the tree. It was slight a bit more chaos than I had anticipated, but we made it through without me going completely crazy!


The next week we headed out to a favorite spot out in the desert to attempt a family picture. Holy cow! Why did I think a tri-pod & my timer would not take me to the brink of a psychotic episode?

Here was one decent picture we got.
but this picture show everyone's personalities pretty well: Joe is lala land- Sean semi-smiling- me happy go lucky- Sam goofing off.

after much cropping- a semi decent picture of Sammy boy
The very next day I took the boys & their cousin David out to get some pictures to give their grandparents for Christmas. Yet, another crazy feat- 150 pictures later & only 3 to chose from....





Sean & Sammy
Tiffy & David
The view from Bulldog canyon
Mommy & Joey

We stayed late & cooked out over the campfire. The weather was amazing!!! I didn't even need a sweatshirt that night!!
and through this all, we started potty training Sammy. It's been hard work, but well worth it! We finally just decided one day there would be no more diapers!!!! Sam threw a fit, but we stuck to our guns. After only 2 days he has been dry every night since!! He has occasional accidents, but is still trying to get the whole #2 thing down, but its a work in progress!!!
This was after a very successful day- gelato for a treat :)

Last week my sister came into town for the holidays & we took our boys to Bass Pro Shop for their Santa's workshop. Unfortunately we got there too late to get a ticket to see Santa, but lucky for Adam, we got there in plenty of time to play shooting games, which he did not want to leave. Me & Aunt Nancie, & the rest the boys checked out the fishy's & the quads.


This was 2 days before Christmas. We have found the boys sleep the best when they are near someone else... therefore- a trundle bed is in the near future!

5x7 Folded Card

Elegant Stripe Christmas Card

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Rainy days

Yesterday was drizzly & rainy,all day long!!! When I was young, my mom always made donuts & hot chocolate on those days. We had Sean's sister & our nephew over yesterday, so we had to have some treats!! We actually started off making sugar cookies. When we put them in the fridge, we decided to make donuts & hot chocolate too. What makes a COLD rainy Saturday warm? An oven :) Homemade bread, donuts, hot chocolate & cookies~~~









I've heard that Grandma's house is where cousins go to become best friends, but I think auntie's house should apply too!!

It's autumn time.. hooray!

I know I've been slacking, but I've been a busy lady! I just wanted to share a little collage of the trip we took the weekend of Thanksgiving. It was so beautiful!!!