Merry Christmas!!

We had a really fun Christmas filled with family traditions, food and presents, of course! I always love the holidays because it means special time with loved ones.

Santa's presents dwarfed my tree. We stick with the "something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read" tradition at our house, so Owen and Olivia each got a big present (want), an umbrella (need), pajamas (wear), a book (read) and a bucket filled with little goodies. The buckets are also used for Easter and Halloween, so I decided I would use the buckets for Christmas, too-it will be our own little practical spin on a Christmas tradition.

Olivia was given a kitchen for Christmas and Owen got the biggest truck, trailer, backhoe set I have ever seen.

The presents have been enjoyed, but we certainly didn't forget the main reason we celebrate Christmas Day. It's all about that little baby in the manger and, for that, we are so grateful!

Back to Work...Sort of

I'm working very part-time over the holidays at Bath and Body Works (my old stomping grounds) which means Jacob has had some special time with Owen and Olivia lately. They went to the park on Saturday and he took some fun pictures. It's been nice for me to get out of the house and it's been good for the kids to realize dad is just as capable of taking care of them as mom is!

I Love This Kid

He's too much fun and, most of the time, in pretty good spirits!

Shaving Cream Snowscape

Today's bag contained an activity: Create a snowscape with shaving cream and action figures. Owen chose a car and a monster tuck and Olivia chose a couple of her Disney princesses to participate in the fun-so fitting for each of them. We covered the bathroom counter in Barbasol and had big, messy fun playing in the "snow".

It's Christmas Time!

It seems we have managed to jam pack a bunch of Christmas activities into our December before the first week has even ended! We started the month off right with the Christmas parade downtown on Thursday. Owen and I went last year and really enjoyed it, so we dragged Olivia and Dee-da along this time. The kiddos wore their pajamas and we took blankets so we could all snuggle up while we watched.

On Friday night, Grandpa Bruce had a table set up at the monthly Art Walk in town, so we went by to see him. I did not intend to stay long, but there were so many things to see and do that we ended up staying for a couple hours. Some of the stores were open and everyone had little snacks so we hopped from shop to shop filling our bellies with goodies.

On Saturday, Owen and I did a little shopping with Meme, then headed to a birthday party for a friend. Later in the evening, our church hosted a Birthday Party for Jesus for the kids, so Jacob and I dropped them off, then attended our Sunday school Christmas party.

Like I said, we crammed a bunch of stuff into 3 days and were all exhausted (and some of us kind of cranky) today, so we had a pretty low key day after church this morning. I'm thinking we better slow down a little or we may not make it to Christmas!

In an attempt to stop and savor each day leading up to Christmas Day, I made an Advent calendar of sorts. Last year I strung a bunch of plastic cups up and filled each one with a tiny treat for Owen and each night we would take one cup down. It was a good way to let him know how many days were left until Christmas and an easy activity for us to do in the chaos that seemed to be last year. This year I decided to ramp it up a bit since he and Olivia are older and since I can steal ideas from Pinterest!

I attached these little bags to a ribbon that I secured to a couple nails on a blank wall in the living room. Each bag contains either an activity, craft, small gift or soft peppermints.

I'm not so crafty, so this little project was perfect for me.

Here we are looking to see what one of the bags contained.
We had to play a little catch-up, so days 1, 2 and 3 all had activities we had already done.

Day 4 had peppermints!
Owen thought that was a fun surprise and when Olivia woke from her nap,
she enjoyed her treat, too.

Owen had a little craft project leftover from the Birthday Party for Jesus,
so he was busy working on that for a little while this afternoon.

Like I said, we haven't wasted a moment since December started! I'm looking forward to spending some sweet time with my family this holiday season and celebrating the birth of a precious Baby (although my dad wants to remind everyone that, historically, Jesus was probably born sometime in late summer/early fall-not on December 25th) (: Either way, we'll use this time to remember a gift that was given to us from a heavenly Father who loves us more than we can possibly understand and allow that thought to spur us on to love others in that same way--unconditionally.

Thanksgiving Fun!

So, it's been a little while since my last post. I thought I'd try to play a little catch up, but I think I'll just start with Thanksgiving and see if I can get back in the blogging groove.

We spent the majority of Thanksgiving Day at Jacob's parents' farm eating and visiting with the Hill side of the family. It is the only time of year his dad's family has a big gathering and we had aunts, uncles and cousins from all over Arkansas and Texas in for the occasion. I think there were 29 of us in all including the family matriarch, Grandma Jean, who we surprised with an early birthday celebration-she will turn 90 years old on Christmas Eve. Every other year we all gather at Jacob's aunt's house, but the years at the farm are really fun because the cousins love taking the 4-wheelers and Gator out for a spin on Papa and Meme's property. Owen spent the entire day outside playing, stepping inside only long enough to refuel on turkey and birthday cake.

Let me explain Owen's mismatched tennis shoes. First of all, it is a miracle to see Owen wearing anything other than Crocs on his feet. He literally has had one pair of shoes for months because he refused to wear anything other than those rubber clogs. He mentioned to Meme he might be interested in a green pair of tennis shoes (like his Dee-da's shoes), so she tracked down a pair that met his approval. He then proceeded to up the ante by stating he would also like an orange pair just like the green pair (he's no fool-he knows Meme, Nana and Gran will grant most any wish he has). So, wouldn't you know, savvy shoe shopper that she is, Meme found a pair of identical orange shoes! However, Owen likes them both so much he can never decide which pair to wear-his solution: wear one of each, of course! That boy makes me laugh!

While Owen was outside running wild with his cousin buddies, Olivia was inside practicing the piano with Ian. She thinks she's big stuff. Look at her concentrating so well! :)

Olivia and Meme checking out the outside crowd.

Here is where Owen, Avery and Andrew were for hours, riding around in the back of the Gator with anyone who was willing to drive them. We started referring to them as the triplets because they were inseparable all day. Owen had so much fun playing with them-it's too bad they both live in Dallas or we'd have to set up some regular play dates.

Every year for the past 30+ years, Jacob's family has taken a family photo at Thanksgiving. I've seen pictures in his grandma's house of all Jacob's girl cousins holding their baby dolls in those Thanksgiving photos and now all of them have children of their own! It's a fun family tradition that I actually got to take part in many years ago when we were still dating. My how things have changed for us in the past 10 years!

We ate Thanksgiving dinner at Grandpa David and Nana's house with Cade, Joe, Ams, Elsy Kate, G'g'ma, Grandpa Bruce and Gran. It was a yummy meal and a fun, relaxing way to end the day. We sure do have so much to be thankful for around here and I've been counting my blessings all week!

Happy 4th Birthday, Owen!!!

We are so glad you were born!

You are a joy and we love you like crazy!

Here's a video from a couple years ago of Owen enjoying Mama's birthday cake. Jacob and I ran across it and thought it was too funny. Perhaps this is when his love affair with sweets began...

Fun at the Park (and other random stuff)

It's been life as usual around our house. We have been enjoying the exceptional weather this past week. It even inspired us to FINALLY get our garage in shape after a year of chaos. On Friday I decided enough was enough, so the kiddos and I started hauling all our junk out of the garage and started sweeping it out so it would be ready when Jacob got home. They were quite the little helpers :) We got a bunch of stuff off the ground and Jacob and his dad installed the new garage door opener, so we can both park in the garage again! Jacob is pretty excited he won't have to worry about defrosting his windows every morning this winter-it's the little things, right?

On Saturday, I woke up too early to run my last long run before my race in two weeks. I have actually really enjoyed the training process (not so much the running all the time), but I've been fortunate to have a couple excellent running partners that have made this journey fun. One of them is out with a stress fracture which was devastating for her (and me!), but Melissa and I have powered through and it looks like we're going to be able to actually run the entire race which was our goal from the beginning. We aren't fast or flashy or all that impressive, but we are each mothers of two small children and have committed to taking time out to do something good and healthy and we have come a long way from where we started. Also, Jacob has been wonderful to get up every Saturday morning with Owen and Olivia so I could run with our training group for the past three months.

I needed to run a couple errands on Saturday morning after my run, so Jacob took Owen and Olivia to the park. They were a little stir crazy and needed some fresh air! Owen is good about picking out his own clothes and getting dressed and decided he wanted to pick out Olivia's outfit on Saturday. They both looked a little ragamuffin-ish, but I am too proud of the independence to fuss about fashion (and those who know me well know fashion isn't really my thing anyway). Here's sis in her too big Hogs onesie, Hogs sweatpants, pink Crocs and crazy hair.


Jacob laughed as he described this series to me. He said Olivia kept sliding down these steps exclaiming, "Weee!" at each new level. Apparently the smooth slide wasn't thrilling enough for her. That girl is a hoot and keeps us giggling!


Here's my sweet boy. He is seeming so big these days. And it makes me want to cry that I'm going to have to start telling people he's four years old in another week. That can't be right. I know it's so cliche, but seriously...it goes by so fast! Four years has been a blink.

Tonight as I was walking out of Owen's room after books, hugs and kisses, he said, "I have to talk to God," so I turned 180 and snuggled up next to him as he listed off things he was thankful for: his fan, his light, his A/C vent (his daddy would be so proud), his books, his toys, Mama, Deeda and Olivia (he's usually thankful for all the things he can see right then). Then he asked me what things I was thankful for, so I listed my kitchen (food is top on my list ;), my warm, comfortable house, my car that gets me where I want to go. It was humbling. I've been grumbling in my head about some of the stuff I don't have and tonight I got mad at myself for being so ridiculous. Because I am thankful. And more than that I am grateful. I have exceedingly more than deserve and it was so nice to be reminded how a little gratitude can put things back in perspective. I'm also blessed to have a little boy in my life who helps remind me to focus on what really matters.

I'll have to remind myself I'm thankful for clothes tomorrow as I'm wading through the many layers of clean and dirty laundry that have been neglected all week-yikes!

Hay Time!

A few weeks ago, Jacob and Owen headed out to the farm to help Papa with the hay. I think they were mostly spectators, but I'm sure Papa appreciated having his boys there watching him.

Making sure Papa does a good job.

Owen was treated to a climb on a hay bale.

The Gator makes a great ladder for such an occasion!

Saturday Night Fun: Photo Booth Style

The 10-year reunion activities culminated in a Saturday night adult dinner at the Lion's Den Country Club. We had dinner, music and, since I have special connections ;), a photo booth! It was a fun night and I'm mostly glad that I have all the photo booth pictures on my computer (Joe uses mine b/c it works best with the software he has). We will have some fun shots for the slideshow at the 2o-year (or 25-year) reunion!

.photo booth operators extraordinaire.

.typical family portrait.

.cheese.

.more cheese.

.i amuse him.

.what a pair.

.high school girls...10 years later.