10 of 2010

I seen April from Party of 5 did a top 10 pictures from 2010. She joined the hop from A Sorta Fairytale.

I thought is was a fun idea for the end of the year! It was super hard to pick just 10 of my favorite pictures, I realized that I take A LOT of pictures!

BUT nonetheless, here are 10 of my favorite picture of 2010:

1. Paw Paw and Mason walking on the trail at Mastodon State Park.


2. My boys, what more can I say!


3. One of the best moments of 2010, the birth of my little angel!


4. Mason on Mother's day at Antonio Villa Winery. I love his serious expression!


5. My beautiful girl.


6. A moment captured at the park!


7. Timothy and his best friend Nicco at the Zoo.


8. My first born, growing up so fast!


9. Timothy enjoying an apple right of the tree at the pumpkin patch!


10. My big girl got her ears pierced!


I hope you all have a safe and fun New Year!

Still Talking About Christmas.

Oh and we still have our tree and decorations up, because apparently according to my mom it's bad luck to take them down before New Years. And really that's all I need is bad luck! But they will be coming down this weekend!

So back to Christmas I just wanted to share with you all our Christmas festivities. On Christmas day we had 3 families house's to visit. That's why I was so thankful my mom was OK with doing Christmas eve with her, because I don't know that I could have fit one more place in that day. Although it's like this every year.

After we had Christmas morning at our house we went to my Aunt Brenda and Uncle Joe's house, my dad's sister. We ate some very delicious food, my aunt Brenda and uncle Joe are awesome cooks! Opened presents, and spent time with family! Timothy LOVES hanging out with my cousin Matthew, especially this year since he let Timothy play games on is IPad!

I think their favorite gift was their very own digital camera's! They LOVE them, as do I. Timothy took around 500 pictures in like one day. Awesome gift!

Then we had to go straight from there to Tim's aunt Justine's house, his dad's sister. Unfortunately we always arrive late there, and usually never get to eat while we are there. It's hard to eat everywhere, or is it?!

We spent time with family that we don't see that often throughout the year. It's good to see everyone on the holiday's. The kids received some more great gifts. Some cars and trucks, coloring book and crayons.

I think the boys really enjoy going over here because they get to play with Tim's cousin Zac and Jimmy. And Jimmy has a playroom with toys galore. The boys never want to leave aunt Justine's house!

Then after a short time there we had to leave to make it to Tim's aunt Shari's house, his mom's sister. The kids call her crazy aunt Shari. She is like a little firecracker all over the place! For some reason I only managed to take 2 pictures, there, of Taylor. So unlike me!

I ate some yummy cheesy potato soup, the kids opened more gifts, and we played steal from your neighbor! We were there pretty late and didn't get home until around 10:30pm.

It was a long day, and I had to get up the next morning and do it all over again. I had 2 more final places to go before our Christmas was over. I first had to go to my dad and Judee's house. Judee is my dad's girlfriend and she had her boys over with their fiance/wife, and Judee wanted me and the kids there too so it would be all the kids together!

The kids had no problem with this, they LOVE going to see paw paw and Judee! Judee made a delicious lunch/dinner, and they kids got even more presents. Some of which include a cute little table and chairs, a robot(that Mason is afraid of), and some cars that do wheelies!

Taylor didn't do so bad either. She was quite thrilled with her new "baby"!

I was bummed I could only stay there for a short while, but I had make it to my Aunt Linda's house.

My aunt Linda, which is my grandma's sister, so I guess my great aunt Linda. She normally always does Christmas eve, but because of the weather had to cancel and reschedule for the Sunday after Christmas. The kids were starting to get crabby so I was unable to get any pictures. We ended up leaving there a little early too because Mason had a fever. I am assuming he caught the fever that Timothy had a few days before Christmas!

Everyone is all better now! I finally went through all the toys and out with the old and in with the new. The boys are in heaven! This is going to go down as the best Christmas yet!

The Magic of Christmas

There is something about having children around on Christmas. It's such a magical time! I remember when I first started questioning the whole Santa thing. She always told me, "As long as your believe Santa will always come". I know that a little bit of the magic of Christmas will disappear once the kids stop believing in Santa.

But for now we still believe and this time is so magical!

As I mentioned in my previous post. Tim's parents were at our house on Christmas eve. They wanted the kids to open up the presents from them. The boys had no problem with that!


It was time for bed, but of course you can't open all those presents without playing with them. So Grandma played a few games with them before we tucked them in for the night!!

We left cookies and milk for Santa(I as out of carrots). This was interesting considering every time I turned around one of them was eating the cookies off the plate, or begging for milk in their cup! Once I finally got them to leave the cookies and milk for Santa and into bed they were off to sleep land!

Now we go behind the scenes of Christmas morning magic:

Where daddy and grandpa spent about 2 1/2 hours putting the train table. There was a lot of drilling, banging, and laughing. So much that we thought the clatter might wake the boys up. Thankfully it didn't!

Finally it was done. Little did I know how much magic this train table would bring to Christmas morning.

Grandma and grandpa stayed the night, and after a few games of bowling on the Xbox Kinnect we went to bed around 1am.

Timothy was up at 6am, Mason and Taylor were still sleeping. I couldn't really contain Timothy anywhere until Mason woke up so I went ahead and let him go into the living room. As soon as he got halfway down the hallway, his face lit up. He smiled and looked back at me, I told him it was OK to go see what it was.

"Mom,it's a train table"!

"Santa left me my train table"!

He then noticed grandma and grandpa and became shy. He sat in the hallway for about 20 minutes staring at the train table. Dad decided to go wake Mason up, and when he brought him out Timothy decided it was safe enough to go check out the table.

I don't think either of them stopped smiling all morning. And there it was the magic of Christmas. I was reminded of that feeling as a kid and thinking that Santa remembered me. He remembered that I really wanted that doll, or whatever it was that I wanted.

It was then that I also realized how much effort my mom put into making that morning magical. Staying up until the wee hours of the morning putting that play kitchen together.

Timothy talked about Santa bringing him a train table all day, and every time he did it brought a smile to my face! I hope the magic of Christmas doesn't fade for them for a while.

I hope you all had a magical Christmas morning as well!

Tomorrow I will have one final post about the rest of our Christmas festivities. It's been a long Christmas for us!

The Night Before

On Christmas Eve we always go to my Aunt Linda's house for dinner, to open presents, and play rob from your neighbor. My Aunt Linda is my mother's mom's sister. This year Christmas eve got canceled.

Because of the weather. We had what was considered a snow storm hit early that morning. And by mid morning we already had 4 inches. Since the news was saying that the worst was going to hit that evening, my Aunt decided to cancel. Most of our relatives are older and would not want to drive in the snow and ice. It was rescheduled for Sunday.

We decided to go ahead and go to my mom's and do our Christmas then since we had 3 places to go on Christmas. This worked out great, there was no rushing, and we were able to take our time. The boys were thrilled to finally get to open presents!

Their faces were priceless! They recieved some really awesome gifts like Toys Story 3, hotwheels, a laptop, games, and clothes!

The boys knew to take their toys to Uncle Jeff and he would open them. Usually mommy and daddy tell them to wait and we only open one or two gifts so we don't loose anything. It was funny, that they went to him and he opened all the toys for them!

Mommy even hit the jackpot. I recieved a new coffee pot since mine broke, a new caddy for my knives and kitchen untensils, a gift card, and an awesome photobook that my mom made of the kids from when they were born until now.

We then ate a late lunch/early dinner. It was delicious! We had a pork roast, mashed potatoes, green beans, and stuffing. After eating, my mom and I made some chocolate chip cookies. The boys had a snowball fight outside with daddy, and Taylor and Uncle Jeff took naps!

We had such a great time with family! I really enjoyed doing our Christmas with my mom on a different day than everything else because it was so much more relaxed for everyone. I think the kids enjoyed their time more, I know I did!

Before we knew it was already time to head home before the second snow storm hit. We didn't want to be driving home in the dark, there are alot of curvy side roads to our house that don't get paved or treated very well.

We made it home just in time too, because it started to really snow. Tim's parents were at our house, so the kids showed grandma and grandpa all their new toys. It was a great day.

What does your family do for Christmas Eve?

I will be back tomorrow with our Christmas Day festivities!! Have a great Monday!


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Tis' The Season!

With Christmas just right around the corner we are gearing up around here. Presents are all wrapped, grandparents are in town from Texas, children are squealing with anticipation of Santa's arrival. We are enjoying family time, food, laughter, cookies, warmth, and togetherness! Tis' the season!

The other day Tim could hardly wait to give the boys one of their gifts. Which usually it's me who can't wait. So we gave the kids each one gift. Timothy got a new super big Nerf dart gun. He was stoked!

Actually I think daddy was just as excited about the new toy. They spent all evening playing "guns", crawling around the house on their bellies, sneaking up and shooting mommy, whispering back and forth about their plans of attack! Actually even Mason enjoys the new gun.

We gave Mason a Lightning McQueen shake n go car. Funny thing is Timothy plays with it more than Mason. Oh well isn't that how it goes with boys close in age, they just end up sharing everything?!

We gave Taylor one of her toys and she LOVED it! Although she ended up crawling all over the house finding the boys darts, and getting caught in the cross fire!

With that I am off to hit the pillow and rest for tomorrow. Our Christmas festivities began with a trip to Grandma's house. Then home to get ready for Santa's big visit!

I am wishing you all a Merry Christmas from our family to yours!


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Bathing Beauty!

What is is more precious than a baby during bath time?

How about a happy smiling and splashing baby during bath time?!

What is more precious than a baby smiling and splashing during bath time?

How about a happy, smiling, splashing, naked baby during bath time?

Yea it doesn't get much better than cute baby butt!