Friday, January 8, 2016

Catching Up

This Christmas I decided to wrap the kids' gifts in a paper assigned to them without any gift tags, so they were guessing till Christmas morning which gifts were theirs. Then Christmas Day they opened an envelope with a small piece of their wrapping paper. They were guessing till the end. Adding another element of suspense to gifts was super fun.

The school parties are always Crazytown. Nativigating the parking lot alone earns this mama a celebratory Starbucks.
I still remember my mom dressing up and coming to my 1st grade Halloween party. So although those days are exhausting, I know being there matters.

Brody was sooooo excited for his Christmas program. This sweet boy just takes in every bit of joy life has to offer.

Frisbee...still as magical as ever.

We always take the kids shopping individually to buy gifts for one another. They love it. I mean LOVE it. They are very thoughtful in their selections for one another & are simply giddy about sneaking their gifts in the house & wrapping them.

I read on a blog once that one thing that always stuck in this blogger's mind was how at Christmas time her grandma always asked her what she wanted to gift that Christmas...not what she wanted to get for Christmas. I love that and want to create that kind of thinking in our house.

I fell in love with buffalo check this season and want to make us all new stockings for next Christmas. It's just so classic & rustic & cozy!

Love that these guys get so excited for Frisbee to bring their tickets & ride the "polar express" around looking at lights every year! Eek!

Conductor Andy punched words on all our tickets...AJ's said faith...Abby's said love...Brody's said son...mine said MILF. Nice.

The kids decorated cookies at Great Aunt Lou's house.

We had lots of relaxing afternoons of puzzles and snacks...just chilling over winter break...

This boy trying to guess tractor. Hilarious.

12 years in Colorado and I finally had a cake success. 3 days in the making, & we had a white chocolate frosted cranberry cake for dessert at Christmas dinner. That thing weighed like ten pounds.

Playing Settlers with this kid makes my heart happy. Except when he won't trade his brick with me.

We up'd our game by the end of winter break and taught him Cities & Knights. He picked it up really fast and played like a pro. A natural gamer that one.

This kid had an amazing Christmas. Then Aunt Mary messaged and asked if he would like to go to a Broncos game. What?! Are you kidding?! Would AJ like to go to a Broncos game?! Best.night.of.his.life! It was a good game too. Even this non-sports mama was on the edge of the couch biting her nails the whole game. And AJ got to experience the stadium explode when they won the game.

One of my favorite gifts this Christmas right here...

But has it really been 30 years?!

Celebrating New Years with good friends followed by a game night was a great way to ring in 2016.

Abby has been begging me to teach her how to sew. I was reluctant...worried she wouldn't 'to be focused enough & it would be rough. After she begged for a whole day straight I finally caved.

She did an amazing job. She listened, was detailed oriented, and was a very cautious little seamstress.

She worked hard on her project...

And was super excited to wear the skirt she made to school! She said, "When people ask where I got it I will say it is one of a kind...you won't find it in a store because I made it!"