Christmas Part Three: Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Christmas Eve day started out pretty normal, we all just kinda hung around- baked, cleaned and just enjoyed the spirit of Christmas.

Christmas activities started by Jodi coming over. I gave her the rest of her gifts which I hope she loved! I didn't get any pictures of her opening them that night nor one of us together (although she promised me one at a later date, because she said she didn't like her hair that night lol) but I can show you what one the gifts looked like, it was a picture frame with three openings and the pictures in it were these:

How cool is that!! I am pretty certain she loved it, or at least I hope she did! I was so proud of myself for pulling it off without her knowledge ;)

After that, Jodi curled my hair for church then we said our goodbyes. My family and I then went to church and enjoyed a really cool candle lit service. It was really pretty, except for when the hot wax went through the wax catcher and burnt my hand, that wasn't so cool, lol.

After church we returned home and exchanged gifts from each other. We do that every Christmas eve and its so hard to wait until after church because we are just ready to open something!

My brother and I picked some cool things out for Dana, but she really loved the bracelet we got her!

I tricked my brother: he wrote no clothes on his Christmas list so I taped the gift card to the box lid and put clothes in the box. He was appalled- Are you kidding me??? He said.

But then he got a good laugh when he finally found the gift card, after putting the lid back on, mind you ;)

Then it was time to go to bed so "Santa" could come....

Our tree Christmas morning.

Us in front of the tree Christmas morning, even the dog got in on it.

Dana got very excited about her new chair!!!

Denae loves to open gifts, even more so when they are treats for her!

Tony got what he wanted!

My mom opening one of her gifts!

haha, look at her face. Got to love an excited kid on Christmas!

My dad very excited about his new...jeans? lol.

My mom got a beautiful ring from my dad, and I zoomed up on it with my new camera lens!!! ;)

This Christmas was certainly filled to the brim with wonderful activities, happiness and love..and the gifts were a plus to. I really had a great holiday and I hope you did as well!

Love,

Christmas Part One: With the girls.

I have so many pictures to share with you all from all the Christmas festivities I decided to break the posts up some and spread the love, joy, and pictures out so that they last longer... instead of cramming them all into one post so that the excitement is only temporary. lol. Cheesy, I know, but hey it leaves each festivity to its own special post instead of being lost in the whirlwind of everything together.


The first group of pictures I will share is the Christmas I had with the girls. They came over on the 23rd, which is also Taylors birthday. This is where I will let the pictures tell the story....
The tree was ready, gifts underneath for family and friends. (Santa gifts don't show up until Christmas of course) the stockings were hung...
...including the one that Mikayla decided to hang up for herself ;)

The first gift to be opened was Taylors birthday gift. She was so excited!! I got her one of those cupcake makers that she wanted!

and now comes the Christmas gifts. As you can see, Mikayla was so excited! She opened her gifts so quickly because she just couldn't wait to see what was inside

Taylor, on the other hand, took her time and savored the moment.

I love how excited she got when she was opening this one, what was it?

A tie blanket I made her! They both had asked for one. Mikaylas had ponies on the other side

and Taylors looked like this.

They quickly became surrounded with gifts, with no more left to open. Now it was time to enjoy what they got!

Mikayla immediately went to put on her new pajamas and loved them! They look so adorable on her!

I love her pajamas to, its unfortunate they didn't come in my size! Lol.

Somehow, I did not manage to get a picture of the both of them in their new pajamas, but I noticed this in another picture so I cropped it and Wha-la! There they both are in the pajamas!

Before Taylor put on her pajamas, she decided to get right to work on the crafty thing I got for them. They were cute little magnets you could paint.

While Jodi was here, I let her open one of her presents early (she was coming back the next day so I was saving the others for then) and I am pretty sure she liked it!

Then of course I had to get a picture with the birthday girl.....

and then one with the both of them- which I completely adore this picture! They both look so happy...I love them so much!!!

And that ends this post...but watch for the next one that I plan to post as soon as I get the pictures ready!!!

Love,

This ones for Amanda!

Who is Amanda might you ask?? Well...I think you should know.. but some of you unlucky (and more than likely hungry) souls may not have come across her blog yet, so I will fill you in. Amanda is one of my amazing blog friends who has a crazy TALENT for making delicious goodies like this and this. And that's not at all even close what she can do!! I mean look at these and these and look at these! Isn't she simply amazing!!! But there is a bad side to the talent she has....she makes it look easy...and she makes you think you can do it to!

And I, being a creative individual who is up for any sort of creative task - fell into the trap. I thought I could be an expert cookie maker to. And to tell you what you may have already figured out, I was wrong. I cannot make stunning cookies like Amanda.

But I tried. And will probably continue to try thinking that maybe one of these days I will get it. I mean it is fun after all. I am just not very good at it and that's why I took so long to post the results of my tries..didn't want to embarrass my self. But then I came to the conclusion that maybe it will make you laugh and maybe it will make another untalented cookie maker like myself feel better about the fact that they also cannot make pretty cookies. Anyways here are the pictures...my first try was in July (I told you it was awhile ago lol) and the second try was in October (for a Halloween party, they liked them)

My first attempt at Amanda's Amazing cookies: When I realized that I shouldn't automatically think I can do something-
I skipped the pictures of making the dough, o well you get the point. But here are the cookies ready to go into the oven!

Then they were done, so I outlined them...which took forever!!!! My hand hurt so bad!!!

Then I filled them in which was not to bad. They looked eh, sorta OK at this point.

Haha. My first attempts at decorating them. Could you tell this was supposed to say Mom??? I think I made the frosting too runny...nope I am sure I made the frosting too runny..

But I tried again the next day and did a little better. I mean you can actually read them this time!

And of course I made some for my best friends and my favorite kids.

The girls helped me decorate..Taylor made this one for her dad...and did better than I did with writing it on there!

Although the whole decorating of the cookies did not turn out how I wanted it to, Jodi and the girls still enjoyed eating their special cookies ;)

My cookie attempt number two: A little bit better I suppose-

The girls helped me make the dough this time..of course Mikayla was in her unicorn costume..I told you she wore it around every chance she got.

They greatly enjoyed liking the dough off the utensils.

The end product, because I forgot to take pictures during the other steps. Not near as good as Amanda's but not near as bad as...well, I don't know...

Well at least Randi seemed excited about the ones I made for her boys... ;)

And there ya go. That's my experience with Amanda's amazing cookies. I plan to give it another go eventually but right now I am making a rainbow cake.....

can you guess who I got that idea from? And can you guess how its turning out...yeah pretty sure you guessed right on that one. lol.

Love,

Want to visit Amanda? Click HERE. And don't forget to leave her a nice comment =]

I am thankful

for so many things not just on thanksgiving but everyday. Since its Thanksgiving though, I want to share with you some things I am thankful for:
My family of course. I am so lucky to have such a great family. I know I can count on them for anything because they are always there. I am also lucky to have such a loving family as well. I am also thankful for all my extended family but I don't have permission to put all their pictures up on here so I will have to settle for just saying it.

My dog. I love my dog, shes such a good and faithful dog and things wouldn't be the same without her around!

The girls. They have helped me grow as a person so much. They love me unconditionally as I love them unconditionally right back. They are just a light in my life, always shining and helping me in ways they don't even realize.

My amazing best friends. I couldn't ask for better best friends, they are like sisters to me. They are always there for me when I need them, when its convenient and even when its not. They make me a better person in so many ways. I know I am never alone and can always count on them. These girls are also very important to me and also part of my closest friends group they just were not in the other picture. They also mean the world to me and help me in many ways.

My neighbors. I am so glad that I have such awesome neighbors, we used to have some pretty crazy ones (and still do, but at least we have one set of cool ones to make up for it) its so cool to have such amazing people living next to you. Landon and Gavin are so cute and so fun to be around and by being around them I learn so much. Brian and Randi are awesome role models and they are always so helpful and great to talk to.

I have so much and so many more people to be thankful for but if i kept going this could go on forever, plus I can only share the pictures of people who have given permission for me to do so.

I am so blessed and ever so thankful for all the blessings in my life even if I don't show it all the time. I have it good and to everyone who has helped make it that way, all my gratitude goes out to you.

And to all my readers- thank you for reading and being some awesome blog friends, blogging wouldn't be as fun without you!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Love,