Meet Baby Noah

My neighbor Christy has a new little nephew!

We made him sit through a photoshoot,

and he didnt really seem to mind.

Mashy face!!

Sweet baby Noah T.

Violet's Birthday Extravanganza

My sweet little neighbor turned ONE the other day!

All the neighbors came over and and we visited while the kids played.

Then came cupcakes, and boy did Violet enjoy them!

(She must get that from her Daddy, because her Mommy hates cake)

Here's how it went down...

 Yes this is the best picture of all four kids...

 Christy and Maisy were a little late due to Christy "drowning" Maisy's eye (and the rest of her head it seems :) ), after an air freshener disaster.

 That's My neighbor Justina's little girl Sophie, she's next in line to turn 1!

And this is Debbie and the babe after a solid 30 minutes of Violet (sorry I can't help myself with her name) working on her cupcake.

Happy birthday sweet girl!

Christmas Day

Christmas Morning we woke up and opened presents, which took forever because Hadley wanted to play with each toy before moving on to the next. 

Later that day Allie & Kellen came over and we just spent the evening talking and eating leftovers. It was nice and relaxing, just the way I hoped. 

They refused to smile and look at the camera at the same time. Cute babies :)

Traditions Continued...

This year was the best Christmas/ Christmas Eve ever!

Hadley was, for the most part, happy to open her gifts,

and was excited about all of her gifts!

On Christmas Eve we woke up and opened our Mommy-made jammies.

Hadley was kind enough to help us open ours.

We then went over to Kellen & Allison's for a tasty breakfast.

We spent the rest of the day getting dinner ready and spending time just the three of us.

Allison came over to help, and around 5:00 p.m. Kellen came over.

We opened gifts, and had dinner. 

Then we played games all night. It was the perfect day.

Kellen got a "cacoo".

Ashton was just thrilled that he got a Tigger.

Allie got a Hobby Lobby gift card, this was taken when the boys ripped it out of her hand before she got to see it and ran into the other room.

The three of us in our Mommy-made jammies.

(something I plan on doing every Christmas for the rest of ever)

Done.

I'm officially starting the nursing program in the fall!

I wasn't so sure I would pass my physiology class. But I did well on my final and I passed.

THANK GOODNESS!

But I did, and now I get to continue on and actually be in school with a purpose.

I'm so excited!

I may have to go back to school shopping. We shall see if the dear husband agrees.

Merry, Mer, Merry Christmas to You!

Our Christmas card this year :)

"May you have the gift of faith, the blessings of hope, & the peace of His love 

at Christmas and always."

This year I just emailed our Christmas cards.

And only to family and about 5 of my friends.

So if your werent emailed I'm very sorry.

Enjoy it :)

Traditions

This holiday season I have become minorly obsessed with tradtions (my neighbors will tell you). I'm constantly trying to find out what theirs are, and figure out which to incorporate or not. Until now we havent had the oportunity really to establish our own, because we were always having to hustle to different family member's houses to participate in their traditions. 

(for the shortened version of the story scoll down)

Long Story: Getting to my aunts for Christmas Eve dinner, then we had to wake up at like 6 on Christmas morning to get ready and open presents together quick before rushing across town to John's Grandma's house to have breakfast and open gifts with his Mom's family before 8. Then back across town to do the same with John's Dad's side of the family and hopefully squeeze in a little time with my family. 

Short Story: We were doing everything that we did as children, instead of doing things our own way.

This is NOT to say we don't love spending holidays with our family, just that we need to be our own family unit and establish our own traditions.

And now, some pictures because thats what people actually care about :)

John's Mom always gave John and Justin an ornament every Christmas. That was one tradition I knew was special to john, so I thought he would like to do that for Hadley. She has been loving Toy Story 3 so I thought it was only appropriate to get an ornament with Woody and Buzz on it.

I also thought it would be appropriate to have daddy help place it on the tree.

Here is the ornament up close. She loves it.

More pictures of our new traditions to come when we do them. :)