Mother's Day 2013

Mother's Day was great! I got to spend it with my sweet girl that made me a Mama and the Hubs. We went to church and got a carnation that Lo promptly snapped the flower off of, we played in the foyer and hallways of the church. Lo decided she wanted a car nap so her Daddy obliged while I enjoyed an uplifting Relief Society lesson.

From church we went to visit with Hubby's mom for a bit. Lo enjoyed being outside and her house and digging around in the garden and fountain.

Then we ended the day at my parent's house for a family dinner. The men grilled chicken and steaks, made an awesome Cobb salad and roasted potatoes and the rounded it out with strawberry shortcakes.

My honey got me more workout gear (per my request) and a kindle fire HD. I am one spoiled lady!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's out there- those with children, those with fur babies, those who are mother's in their hearts, those who mother all of the littles around them...let's celebrate us!

Christmas Day 2012

After a late night with the family, we didn't take very many pictures on Christmas Day.  We opened presents that morning and then we hosted a Christmas Day brunch for the family.  I think that we may have gone a tad overboard on our brunch spread.  After a huge dinner at Jas and Nell's the night before we just weren't that hungry.  We had a good time hearing about what everyone got from Santa, played outside, watched the Christmas parade and relaxed. 

To: Hubby From: Wifey

My honey sure knows the way to my heart!

Cute girl on her first Christmas morning.

Mimi and Lo getting warmed back up after our time outside.

The food.

Punky playing with one of her new toys.

Christmas Eve 2012

We had the traditional Christmas Eve gathering of the family at Jas and Nell's.  Nell always puts on a good show- great food, games and quality time. Let's start from the end, shall we?  Usually we get home after a holiday and I realize that the Hubs and I have no pictures together.  He typically humors me with one even though at this point in the evening we look exhausted!

The Mr. and Mrs. late Christmas Eve night.

Her future's so bright she's gotta wear shades- part of Lo's stocking loot.

More stocking from Mimi and Pappy

The best Pappy gift of all time- a griddle for his famous shaped pancakes.

The kids gather round "santa's helper"-this year E took a turn handing out gifts.

Me and my best little girlfriend.

Her favorite part of Christmas present opening? The tags, of course!

The grandkids after their annual play.  This years performance featured Nutsy the squirrel as a banker.

Jas, Nell and Roc survey the damage.



Family Christmas

We had Christmas with the Hubs side of the family the weekend before Christmas. We exchanged gifts, had lunch together and visited.

Lo and Grandpa D

Lo charming the grandparents.

A head full of bows, hands full of tags and freshly polished toes...that's our girl!

Family time.

Lo & Santa

Our 'Lil Nugget loved her some Santa Claus.  We were thrilled when we found Santa during a lull and he just let us take our sweet time taking picture after picture.  She even tugged on his beard, that's our girl!

Halloween 2012

We started out the Halloween celebration by taking our Little Pumpkin to get her flu shot.  The nurse that gave her the vaccine was dressed as Buzz Light Year, I have a feeling that she won't be a fan of Toy Story!

Before we left to meet up with the fam we had a brief little photo shoot of the cutest little pumpkin ever.  Well, see for yourself-

 After the shoot I asked the Hubs to take a quick pic of me and my girl in case it didn't happen later in the evening.  Well, it didn't happen later and she wasn't that interested in these...oh well!

We headed over to Roc and Babs house where the whole family (except Mimi who was working) got together to go Trick or Treating.  Some of the kids took turns pushing around the pumpkin chariot.  Her stroller went with her costume!

 Then she got "saved" from her plush ride by Bab who took her up to some doors to do some real trick-or-treating.

 I forgot her basket at Trunk-or-Treat and for tonight.  Luckily I had a smaller Target shopping bag in my car.  She wasn't keen on carrying her own bag!

Then we came across this awesome house.  The pictures just don't do it justice.  There were lights and animated stuff all over.  The wind knocked some of the stuff over...it was chilly!

In the end, Gigi ended up in the stroller being pushed by a frozen Hubby.  Jas, Nell, Lou and J Man are in the background.  Boy did we have fun!

Independence Day 2012

We had a fabulous 4th of July celebration at our home.  This year we decided that we were taking over the 4th as our holiday.  All of my siblings have "their" holidays so we chose our first one.  We had a delicious spread- we went with BBQ as the main event.  We also had some wonderfully patriotic food too including salad with blueberries and strawberries, red white and blue dipped strawberries, truffles and pretzel rods, red and white pina coladas (a.k.a. Hawaiian lava flow) and blue corn chips with queso and salsa.  We also enjoyed red white and blue cake with homemade strawberry ice cream and s'mores.

 Everyone enjoyed the outdoor games- golf toss and corn hole.

 A kid and adult favorite-the slip and slide.  Pappy even took a couple joy rides down the thing.

 Red, white and blue eats.

 Roc making the ice cream

 Nell tasting the Hawaiian lava flow drinks

 The slip-n-slide champ J-Man

 Gigi, E and Pappy enjoying the swing

 Some of my crafty decor.

Our little family.

We bought a plethora of outdoor games that everyone enjoyed.  We also tried to do water balloons but that was an epic fail!  Apparently we bought the worst water balloons ever made.  The slip-n-slide will definitely be making an appearance next year.  The kids made everyone s'mores over the grill and the day ended with a pretty sweet fireworks display put on by the Hubs and Roc.  There was only one grouping that went astray and sent the entire family running for their lives.  It was also the first fireworks set off so that Lo could experience some.  She was unfazed by the fiasco but her Mama wasn't so calm as she bobbed and weaved around the yard like she was in a war zone.  Good times!

Fathers Day 2012

This was a very special Fathers Day indeed. It was Robert's first official time celebrating and we tried to do it right! He got miscellaneous fun paraphernalia, some clothes, the Sleep Book by Dr. Seuss (it's sentimental) and I took pics of our little Lo with her holding the letters D-A-D and had it framed.

We stayed at my parents the night before to go to church with them because my Dad was speaking to the congregation. I made everyone stuffed French toast and even brought it to the Hubs in bed. Little Miss slept for 12 hours straight...talk about a good present! Then I was taking a bath with Lo before church and when Hubby came in to get her out she gave him her first ever giggle. The girl definitely knows how to make a guy feel special!

We had a good service at church and the Hubs was treated to "Doughnuts for Dads" afterwards.

Later we ate dinner with the fam at my parents. We had steak, Mac and cheese, salad, grilled squash and zucchini, corn in the cob and homemade yeast rolls with homemade jam. I made a diabetic coma style peanut butter chocolate pie. It was divine, but made the soda that we washed it down with seen like water...it was rich!

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful Dad, I truly couldn't ask for better. He's funny, loyal, sensitive and every other fine characteristic you would want in a man.

It goes without saying how great the Hubs is with his daughter, she absolutely adores him. She lights up when she sees or hears him and she looks exactly like him. We are very lucky girls!

Mother's Day 2012

We had a wonderful Mother's Day this year.  People kept congratulating me on my first "official" Mother's Day.  Hubby got me a beautiful silver necklace with Lo's Monogram on the front and her birth date on the back which was such a sweet sentiment. I know that he put a lot of thought into the gift, and it is something I'll treasure and someday pass on to my baby girl.  We also got flowers, chocolates, cookies and muffins at church.  And to end off the day, a steak and crab leg dinner with the fam.

I was thinking about a few women in my life today that haven't had the opportunity to have children, knowing all too well that this is a difficult day for them and so many other women.  I remember Mother's Day last year being especially tough since it was on the heels of my miscarriage.  I was away from my family that day and was reminded over and over and over again that I wasn't a "real" mother.  People kept commenting at church about how I had no children or said things like "one day you'll be a mother".  I knew that they meant well and none of them had a clue that I had just suffered a great loss, but their words still stung.

My heart goes out to all of the women out there that have lost babies, are waiting to adopt or struggling with infertility. I truly believe that all women are mother's in some way- we mother our nieces and nephews, kids in the neighborhood, little ones at church. So to every woman out there I say- Happy Mother's Day!

Easter 2012

We had a really good Easter weekend. First, we celebrated Hubby's birthday on Saturday by having a barbecue with the fam. We had BBQ, collards, sweet potato soufflé, mac and cheese and chocolate ganache cake for dessert...all of Hubby's favorites! He, my Dad and the nieces and nephews had a nice day outdoors fishing and boating in the lake behind my parents house. I kept Babs company indoors while she cooked up the birthday feast. Later that day we went gun shopping and then to dinner at our favorite Greek place with some friends.

On Sunday we woke up to a home cooked breakfast by my Dad (we stayed at their place Saturday night). Then we all got on our Sunday best and headed out to church. This was Lo's first time at church so we only stayed for the first hour. It was a beautiful service, one of our dear friends (Kelc) gave a powerful talk about the Saviour and we were so glad that we went. We visited with friends after the service for awhile and then went back to my parents for lunch. Later that evening we went to Jas and Nell's for Easter dinner. We had a feast! Nell worked so hard at making everything perfect from the food to the decor. We had a wonderful time!

I should also mention that Miss Lo has so many dresses that I brought 3 outfit changes for Sunday...I ended up only doing 2 because one dress was still a little too big.