Friday, December 30, 2011

New Year's Eve 2011.

So I had a little Pinspiration for the holiday, and I thought I'd share along with others on Kodi's blog.

Pinspired Thursday

New Year's Eve is usually a big deal for Mr. C & I since it is our "engage-a-versary", and each year it is very easy to remember NYE 2003 when Mr. C proposed to me in Nashville.

We like to go out on NYE simply to spend some time with each other or friends.

I realize this might change as we age, but for tonight we secured a "babysitter" in the form of KayKay and Papa (my parents).

I tried to be all snazzy, so I went to Pinterest and found a few hairstyles.

This was back before my hair was cut, so I tried this one out...

A french braid in the front into a bun in the back.

Still not sure if I looked snazzy or like a librarian.
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I also (Pinterest inspired) tried to do some of that crazy scarf tying that I keep seeing online to be stylish.
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I added a pair of jeans shoved into some boots.
I did ok.
I'm no Reese Witherspoon.
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Mr. C & I dropped of Micah at his grandparents and then proceeded to enjoy a "date" night over at our friends' house. We had a reunion with some of our friends from Bellevue days, and it was fun seeing some other couples. It was also WAY fun not running all over their house chasing Micah.

I'm such a wuss, but I couldn't leave Micah all night.
EVEN with my own Mom so we picked him up around 2 AM and headed to our house because I have this need for him to sleep at our home only.

Don't tell me how weird I am. I know. One day I will let him spend the night somewhere.
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Our little family NYE 2011. We love you, Micah!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Christmas Morning.

On Christmas morning, we let Micah sleep in, and we did a slow morning before heading out to all the different family stops we had to make. We wanted to go to church, but we changed things up this year. We used to spend the night with Mr. C's family on Christmas Eve and wake up in Mississippi on Christmas morning. Since we've had Micah, we wanted to make Christmas morning special at our own house with our little family. So now we head to Mississippi in the afternoon and my parents' house in the late evening for Christmas supper. It takes a while to drive down there, so we skipped church in order to make the drive to Mr. C's parents' house.

Micah woke up around 8:30 in the morning, and that gave us plenty of time to shower and look nice for family pictures! Haha! Mr. C bought this really awesome remote control for his camera. Basically, we set up the tripod on the far end of the living room, and we sat in the floor with Micah with our remote control. Then Mr. C just clicked pictures as we opened up presents! It was a really nice way to get all our family in the photos at the same time. Be warned, I took a lot of pictures, but I left out a WHOLE LOT more that were taken.

Our Christmas tree with presents underneath.
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The presents out front that Santa brought Micah. (That's a whole other post my feelings on Santa. I didn't grow up doing Santa, but my husband did so we've had to come to a bit of a compromise. We'll have Santa, but I'm not going to make it any "big" gifts if I can help it.)

Santa brought Micah books, a bookshelf, and a toy dump truck.
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Going in to get Micah...
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Ready to go!
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Getting into the presents.
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He was more interested in the bows, the paper, and he headed over to the Amazon boxes in the corner instead of opening gifts!
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CD cases and milk are fun!
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Time to open the presents!

We did a pretty "small" Christmas for a few reasons.
1. I don't want Micah to ever become consumed with stuff because that isn't what Christmas is about. He's got so much stuff anyways!
2. We had two other Christmases on Christmas day so he was going to get plenty anyway.
3. I might start doing a Happy Birthday, Jesus cake on Christmas mornings with Micah in the future to reaffirm the true meaning of Christmas.
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Daddy got a shirt and a hat, but we used Micah as our model!
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Reading books with Mommy. One thing he got a whole lot of were books!!
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Our family on Christmas morning.
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Micah's "big present" from us which was a V-Tech walker.
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He actually enjoyed opening this present!
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Playing with his toy after it was assembled.
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We also got him a tool set that he can hammer.
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Merry Christmas!! Hope you had a wonderful day with your family!!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christmas Eve.

I've got about a million posts about Christmas coming up, so I'm just warning you. Picture overload is coming. It seems like we did Christmas a million times, so I'm just going to blog it like we did it! I took a week off from blogging and technology to just enjoy some precious time family time. I'm glad I did! Back to the grind on Monday--can I say how mad I am that we're the only people working on the day after New Year's? Seriously? Whatever. I've had two weeks off paid so I know noone want to hear my "complaint." Haha! I'll try not to talk too much in this post.

Before I start though I'll explain my family's tradition. On the D side of the family (mine), we grew up having dessert for dinner on Christmas Eve followed by opening a present each. Our "dessert dinner" was really a fondue dinner that included chocolate covered everything from fruit to marshmallows to graham crackers. Over the years, we've added dipping food in cheese. Last year we tried cooking our meat (unsuccessfully) in the fondue pot. This year, my mom bought some "amped up" fondue pots so we tried cooking steak again, and it worked great! We also added "pizza fondue" to the menu. I highly recommend bringing my parents' seventies tradition to your Christmas Eve gathering. We love it! So fun to share it with the next generation.

Onto the pictures.


The boys in awe of the "big present" that Ebin wanted to open (even though it was Micah's.)
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Micah's a little bit taller than his present!
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As always, there was more playing with trucks...
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This was super cute. Micah's into this pointing thing now (which is extremely helpful), and the dude KNOWS what he wants. Well, his daddy walked into the room and he double pointed at Mr. C! We all cracked up laughing, and my sister caught it on film.
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Me playing with my sister's new Kindle Fire with the boys.
(Also please excuse my hideous baby bangs that are growing in full force after my pregnancy. They make my hair a living nightmare right now.)
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Introducing Angry Birds to the boys and my sister.
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Fondue!
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Dig in!
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"Action" shot
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Me & my honey
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My parents
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The fun with the red balloon.
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Kerr and Jase
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My mom's smaller Christmas tree (she got wood floors just finished so wasn't in the "mood" to do it as big as usual.)
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Trying to get Ebin to come back down the stairs so that Micah wouldn't follow him.
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Jason in the garage putting together Ebin's "big" present from his parents and my parents...a F150 truck like his daddy's truck.
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Inside, we were opening up this kiddos' matching pajamas.
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Micah plays with Uncle Dale.
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Papa holds his grandsons.
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Ebin uses his uncle as a climbing toy.
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Merry Christmas!!