Christmas 2011: Nana's!

We celebrated Christmas with Justin's family at our house. We got Riley and Hannah the night before so they could spend the night. We went out to look at Christmas lights and then stopped at Cherry Berry for yogurt. It was pretty empty... after all, who goes out for yogurt when it is 30 degrees outside?! Ha!

The kids were SO good! Ry and Hannah are just so good to go along with whatever Hadlea wants... or when she wants to do whatever they are doing, they are so good to let her or help her! I swear, I would take those two kids in a heart beat... Aunt Les, wanna ship them to live at our house?! :-)

After lights and yogurt, we headed home for bathtime! Hadlea was IN HEAVEN playing with Hannah! Riley opted for his own bath, of course! Ha!

After bath, they wanted to open one present. Lucky for them, Alan and Amanda had sent presents over for them.

LOVE this picture! More proof Hadlea thinks anything those kids do is just AMAZING! Ha! She was more concerned about their presents than her own!

After presents and a few games, we were all off to bed.

Hadlea woke up the next morning yelling, "Wiley, Hannah where are you?"! And they were off to get her up! After some jumping in the bed, of course!

Our bed became a trampoline that weekend! I think about 3 hours of the day was spent jumping and wrestling in our room!

The rest of the family made it in that afternoon. We ate some dinner and then opened gifts. The kids all got some SUPER fun stuff! We gave the kids our old iPhones! I think they were a hit! :-) We downloaded all of our games and music on them... the house got quiet shortly after that! Ha!

Hadlea got a new tent and Berkley got some sun glasses and a Dallas Cowboys visor! Someone knows me too well! Thanks, Donna! :-)

our family with riley and hannah!

nana with her babies and grand babies!

hadlea's super cute clothes! she also got a new pair of cowboy boots to go with all of her denim!

and a trampoline from nana and rusty! I need to do a separate post about this... I think that girl is going to be a jumping machine! She LOVES it!

We had an AWESOME Christmas with Justin's family! So thankful I married into this family! They definitely spoil us!

Christmas 2011: Kilian

My dad's family's Christmas was the Sunday following my mom's side's Christmas {did that make sense at all?! ha!} This is our HUGE family. With my grandparents, my dady's brothers/sisters {there are 12 of them}, spouses, grandkids and great-grandkids, I think I counted 97 people. Not everyone was there. Yes... that is one LARGE family! So different from the 16 that make up my mom's side.

Here are most of the GREAT grandkids that were at the Christmas....

our family with gma and gpa {minus alan and amanda}

family!

with my uncle gary {godfather} / with my cousin, Shelly {love her!}

hadlea and her new best friend/cousin, lola / hadlea and mason playing babies! ha!

hadlea pushing her baby! LOVED her new outfit!

It seems Santa knew where we were at all times this Christmas season. He showed up so many times! I am just SO thankful H loved him! It could have been a rough year with as many times as we seen him! Ha!

We had such a great Christmas. Hadlea got some new movies. She also received a little camera as a late birthday present from my aunt rene and uncle tony. When we got home, I was unloading bags and didn't hear her. I later found her in her room. She set her baby and frog in the chair and was taking their picture! Just melted my heart! Ha! Atleast she knows pictures HAVE to be done! :-)

Christmas 2011: Byford

We celebrated our first Christmas out of five with my mom's side of the family. We went to my parents in Medford. My Granny came from the south and my uncle/cousins from the north. Once everyone got there, we hung out and had lunch...

Then the babies couldn't wait any longer to open presents! It was a hard day without my Grandad being there. With it only being a couple months since he passed, the emotions are still very fresh. However, everyone did a great job, and we celebrated him with some very sentimental gifts.

All of us girls received necklaces with "God be with us together and apart" and the boys received key chains. These came from James Avery. Grandad was also buried with a charm on his tie with the same verse.

For my Granny, I had her a memory bear made out of one of my Grandads shirts. This was from all of my us grandkids. Alan and Amanda had her made a pillow made with their picture. Amanda's mom made the pillow. It is so beautiful!

I had Teresa at Forever Friends make Hadlea and Anna dresses out of Grandads shirts. They turned out so precious and will always be a great memory!

Granny and her great-grand babies

LOVE this picture!

{Anna Grace is SO good with Hadlea!}

Our scary Star Wars babies!

And then guess who made a visit!?

Santa, Granny and the Greats!

Our family of 4 with Santa!

We took a group family picture, but I need to get a copy from my cousin. (Michele?! :)

We had such a great Christmas with the family! The older I get, the more and more it means to be with each of them! I just wish the days wouldn't fly so fast!

Be prepared for several for Christmas posts!

project 365 - week 51

1st Christmas! We had our first Christmas of the year with out cousins, Anna, Harvey and Zac! And as always, Santa knew we were all together and made a stop!

Kilian Christmas! Definitely our biggest Christmas of the year... these are SOME of the great-grandkids! It is a wild and LOUD Christmas, but super fun!

Uncle Jock Strong! Uncle Jake had two weeks off of vacation so he came to spend some time with Hadlea, daddy and I. We LOVED having him over, especially Hadlea since she got almost ALL of his attention! By the time he had to leave, he would say, "Hadlea, what are we?" and she would respond, "stwong... uncle jock, had-wee stwong!". Definitely gave us a great laugh!

December 20: No picture - Hadlea stayed home to spend the day with me! We then went to the Roumbanis' house for dinner and Christmas cookie decorating!

December 21: No picture - Hadlea went to daycare, while Stephanie and I went to OKC to the new outlet mall. Daddy picked up H after work and then they spent the evening together.

Cousin time! Riley and Hannah came to stay the night before we all celebrated Christmas. We went to see Christmas lights and then stopped by Cherry Berry for ice cream. The kids LOVED it and had a great time!

More Christmas! We celebrated Christmas with Justin's family at our house. We made dinner, opened gifts, played with the kids toys and then went to look at Christmas lights. Hadlea was so sad to see everyone leave! She loves Riley and Hannah SO much!

project 365 - week 50

Happy Birthday party! We had Hadlea's birthday party at a bowling alley! The kids LOVED it! After bowling, it was cupcakes, presents, arcade and then onto go-karts! Everyone was worn out afterwards!

Clean teeth! Hadlea is very much into brushing her teeth, which is fine with this momma! She is always willing to jump up on her new stool and start brushing!

Fun time with T-man! Hadlea's friend Trevin came over to play. T's daddy helped Justin hang Hadlea's new tv for her playroom. It is always so fun to watch the kiddos interact together!

Uncle Jock! My little brother Jake came to stay the night. H was LOVING having him over and getting all of his attention! She thought Jake in her tent was super fun!

Christmas Program! Hadlea's daycare had their Christmas program. She did great standing on stage and just looking adorable! She was not about to sing or perform! Ha! She wasn't so sure about Santa once he arrived, but once seeing he had candy canes, she was SO in!

December 16: No picture, but we headed to Medford to celebrate Christmas' with our grandparents!

Merry Christmas

We had a special visitor last night! H LOVED him!


Hope you all have an awesome day celebrating the birth of our Savior! God is so good!

daycare christmas program

Back on December 15, Hadlea's daycare had their Christmas program. I LOVE her daycare, especially the staff. They treat Hadlea like she is their own! (and this is coming from a person that SWORE they would NEVER send their daughter to a large daycare! I always wanted a nanny or an in-home daycare. After having both of those, I would NEVER go back! But obviously, that is my opinion from experience.)

Since this was my first daycare Christmas program experience, I wasn't sure what to expect! We all got dressed to head out. Hadlea wore a new dress that I had ordered and a pair of tights from last year. I LOVED her outfit! Sometimes I dress her and just SQUEAL from all of the cuteness! She is just too much sometimes! Ha! I was definitely made to be a momma of a baby girl! :-)

 Her class sang "If you are happy and you know it" and then the 3 year old class joined them to sing "The Reindeer Pokey". Hadlea was NOT about to participate in any of it! She stood there all nice and straight, but would not move her mouth or body! Ha! (Her best friend is Ms E in the black and red dress. She talks about E all of the time! Ms E... she has a voice and some moves! We could NOT stop laughing at her! You can definitely tell she is the baby of 3 other girls!)

 After the kids sang, you could go get your child off of the stage. Had and E watched the other kids up front! They just looked SO cute!

And then guess who arrived?! I made a last minute call to the daycare director to see if they needed a Santa. They didn't have one planned, so I made a call to the North Pole and got one set up! There is just nothing cuter than a face of a baby when they see Santa! They chased him all the way to his seat! Hadlea.... well, she wasn't quite sure so she jumped in Uncle Jake's arms!

 Santa lured H with a candy cane and then she was just fine to sit and chat! She actually went back 2 or 3 times!

 Hadlea and her great-granny with Santa!

 Hadlea got to see all of her daycare teachers! She LOVES them... and so do we! I just cannot say enough great things about these girls! They treat Hadlea like gold, keep us up to date daily on how she acts/what they do, etc. They also post pictures or send me texts of things she does during the day! That is just so refreshing to a momma!

Top: Ms Hannah (H's 1 year old teacher and sometimes babysitter / Ms Kelsey (afternoon teacher)

Bottom: Ms Adrian (morning teacher) and Ms Kathy (daycare director)

 Our little family!

 Hadlea and her grandma's! Gigi and Nana

 Some of Hadlea's audience: Gigi, Granny, Uncle Jake and Stephanie

When Hadlea's class first started singing, I about lost it with the tears! I am so proud to be Hadlea's momma. We waited so long to bring her into the world and things like this where dreams I had when we were waiting for a baby!

I am so thankful we found this daycare, and I am so thankful for the amazing staff that they have!

happy 2nd birthday: party decorations and gifts

As you can see from my previous post, the party totally rocked! We had such a great turnout of friends and family! Definitely makes us realize being so close to Christmas how truly blessed we are... and how much we REALLY have to be thankful for!

But on to the specifics of the party!

I made the invitations. I seen several things online that I liked and decided I would give my photoshop knowledge a try! :) I was pleased with how they turned out!

Hadlea's shirt was made by Mary Kate's Monograms. You can find her HERE on facebook!

The cupcakes and cookies were made by my friend Pamela. The banner was made by my friend Taran. The cupcake toppers and straw tags were made by my blog friend, Kelly. You can find her Etsy store HERE.

I also made the bag tags as party favors. Pamela made the cookies.

All of the clothes Hadlea racked in! SUPER cute stuff!

The toys! (you will not see ONE baby! Ha! I think everyone either knew she had 100 of them or thought she would receive a ton of them! Thank you to all of those smart friends!) (There are a few things missing... bath toys that she immidiately wanted to put in the back and a handmade blanket from our neighbors.)

I ordered this stool for Hadlea from Ellies.com. Love.love.love this! And so does Hadlea!! Working with Ellies.com was so easy! I gave her ideas and she no doubt delivered!

 



Nana and Rusty got Hadlea her table and chairs.

Gigi and Poppa got Hadlea her kitchen set!

And Uncle Jake got Hadlea a new tv for her playroom... (well, not this one, he exchanged it for a 26 inch!)

Again... someone is overly and SUPER spoiled!

Of course, we wouldn't have her any other way! :-)