Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve, Downtown after Church, listening to street performers play Christmas music.  What a magical night,  Mina loved the music!


Waiting to comedownstairs.
Mina would have been happy with this one gift, as it took much help from her big brother and sister to open the rest of her gifts.  
Santa brought Kobi her Panda Bear Webkin..
and Collin his pet hedgehog!!!  He has been begging for one of these little guys. I must say, she is pretty cute. 

We went to a "festival" down town the day after Christmas,  such a fun day...  Mommy did the rock wall too.. Fun!

Go Girl!

Merry Christmas EVE

We are gearing up for a big night! We are headed off to church, then we will come home to a big dinner, set out some reindeer food, make one more type of cookie, drink some hot cider and/or eggnog. Read the Christmas story from the Bible, followed up by, "Twas the Night before Christmas"

The Advent Calendar is shot, one of Collin's very favorite parts of the Christmas season, it can't be December around here without of few of these laying around my counter top- I never miss this come January.. We baked and decorated cookies for Santa last night... Don't they look yummy? Whatever you may think of these beautiful cookies, I don't mind... Guess what I had for breakfast with a cup of coffee, and a side of sugar shock... Good stuff!

"Hey Santa, You want some cookie to go with those sprinkles?"

Jack's Birthday was also this week, so we had a spaghetti dinner (his choice), and did the family birthday thing. He also had some of his friends join him for a party at Chuck E' Cheese.  Happy Birthday Baby!

13 seconds of sweetness

Today is our little guy's 5th Birthday, we have been blessed with his amazing heart, I am so in love with this child.   He is sensitive, strong, passionate, loving, athletic, kind, and funny.  His preschool teacher said something about him last year that I will always remember because it describes my little guy so well, she said, "No matter what activity we are doing, Jackson LOVES it.  Everything makes him happy."  This is so true, he is truly just a happy person, and I have so much respect for that.  I am proud to be his Mama!  Happy Birthday Little Man.  We will have birthday photos on here soon, but I had to post this short video of Jack saying the dinner blessing,  so cute!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!!

Mina celebrated her birthday this week, with her official b-day being yesterday and she had some of her little friends over for a baby blanket picnic birthday party today. It was very cute. The expression on her face when we sang "Happy Birthday" to her was priceless.

She is such a joyful little girl and I feel blessed to be her Mommy!

You know your in the South when......

Just mere steps from our great State's capitol building is the North Carolina Museum of History.  We were on a little road trip today so we ventured in.  On the first floor was the funniest and maybe even a little disturbing exhibit.  Let me first say the entire second floor of the museum was split into sections entitled History of War, History of Politics, of Textiles, of Civil Rights, and Sports. But the entire first floor was one exhibit entitled :   Wait it gets better...So we wandered in...we were surprised to see two full rooms devoted to "waterfowl" decoys & rifles?  

Huh? The next room had this great little story time area with a large rug, bean bags and a bookshelf full of books about cute little Duckies...  Right next to the story time rug was this interactive video (the kind that you push a little elevator type button to play the film)  So of course Mina pushes the button,  The short film features two camouflage clad gentlemen with an over the top twang.  The video, no lie, shows them shooting ducks out of the air and having their dogs bring them back in their teeth... Great toddler entertainment.  

We moved onto the next room and it got even better, we saw this area....     right next to this....  Does anyone else think this is as funny as we did, I haven't laughed so hard in a long time... Thank goodness Mina is too young to "get it", Kobi would have been scarred for life.  

Busted!

Hey Jackson, Are you licking the frosting out of the container?

Holiday Weekend Getaway.

We went to the mountains this weekend to cut down our Christmas tree.  Hands down our favorite family tradition.  It was COLD, especially this morning - 18 degrees, but with the wind it felt much colder, we made quick work of picking out our tree and having it bundled up. Yesterday we spent the day in one of our favorite little mountain towns, sledding and playing in the snow.  Mina once again, took all the newness in stride and didn't miss a beat, she loved sledding as much as the rest of us.  We found this great little "inn" and stayed the night, I had made a crock pot full of Chili the day before so we checked in, and hit the snow.  We came back to our little place to bubbly hot chili and hot chocolate.  We settled in watched a movie and played board games.  It was a great family weekend, much needed. 

 We have our tree up and decorated, our house smells like pine, and we feel blessed beyond words... Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving with friends, we have SO much to be thankful for! Our long weekend was spent pulling down our Christmas decorations, and making a super messy gingerbread house. Good times!





This photo is for you Grandpa!  We miss you!

QUESTION: Why don't my old jeans still fit me???
ANSWER: SEE BELOW! Yes this is what it looks like,, French Fries, covered in cheese "nacho style", then bacon bits, and hot peppers, Oh yeah, and Ranch Dressing... YUMMY!!!! We made a huge tray of this cardio nightmare on Saturday. Marc, Collin, and I were in our glutenous bliss. So sad, we had to eat them all ourselves because the little ones don't like hot peppers.


What little girl could resist bright pink cowboy boots. Kobi is going to have a hard time parting with these, Mina is looking forward to the "hand me down"
My little helpers, as always the little kids can't resist any chance to "HELP" ( I keep saying we need to redefine that word around here) anyhow Mina is NO exception.. The kids love this job, they each take turns, I think it takes them half an hour to "spin" the salad, we have very clean very dry salad around here. Not a bad thing?