Happy New Year's Eve!

Starting tomorrow I will be taking 1 picture everyday, for the whole year! This is NOT an original idea, but I love it so much, I couldn't help but steal it! With 2 small children and hopes of starting another one in 2011, it seems to be the perfect year to try this project. Hopefully I can keep up with it and let you all enjoy our year in pictures!
Tonight we are doing nothing. Hubby and I aren't big on going out, and I think it's been about 3 years since we watched the ball drop! We are old. Maybe tonight we will stay up until midnight...maybe.
Do you have big plans for New Year's Eve?

Christmas

I love Christmas! I love the months leading up to it, as radio stations begin to play Christmas music, Starbucks busts out the Pumpkin Spice Lattes and Peppermint Mochas, stores fill the aisles with decorations and discounted toys, decorating the house and setting up my Willow Tree Nativity, and of course, spending many hours with family.
Growing up with 4 siblings, every Christmas was wild. We would spend Christmas Eve with my mom's family and stay up super late. I remember the excitement walking into my grandparents' house and seeing the piles of presents extending well past the width of the tree. We would call Santa on is 800 number and karaoke to classics such as 2Legit2Quit.

Just waiting :) (Me, Tom, Nina, Ian, Ash)

Christmas morning started early (sometimes as early as 4am) , begging my parents to get out of bed so we could open our gifts from Santa. I remember asking my parents repeatedly if we could open our stockings while we waited for them to wake up. Santa was always practical, of course, filling our stockings with muffins and juice, to give us energy to make it through the day on 4 hours of sleep. Then we would head to my other grandparents' house for a relaxing afternoon with my dad's side of the family.

I can't remember when it started, but every year until I got married in 2007, I would sleep in my little sister's bed on Christmas Eve. I was so excited (even at 18 & older) for Christmas morning to come, that I couldn't fall asleep; so I would snuggle in my sister's twin bed and toss and turn all night, wishing the night would go faster. This year, I had those same butterflies. I was so full of excitement for Christmas morning; not because of the presents Santa brought ME, but because Princess is 2 and a half. She understood that Santa was going to leave her presents. He brought her a Barbie Beetle and I couldn't wait to see her reaction.

Proudly showing off her car

This year we spent Christmas Eve in Goshen with my family, starting with brunch at my Mom and Dad's. (We got them a TV for Christmas (which I will DEFINITELY blog about later)). I took my awesome cinnamon rolls and the kids had a blast playing with their cousin and all their new toys!

Little Man with his football (from Poppy)

Then we headed to my Grandma's for her Christmas Eve party, and we got to hang out with all of my cousins and their kids.

It's hard to get a good pic when little kids are involved!

On Christmas Day, the kids opened their presents and then we head to Decatur to spend some time with Hubby's family. We started with breakfast at his aunt and uncle's house, then lunch at his great grandma's house, followed by dinner at his parents' house. It was definitely a fun (and food) filled, action packed, busy day!
Over the course of these 2 days, the kids received an overload of toys and clothes (all of which they absolutely LOVE!!). Thank you to everyone! We won't have to buy another toy until next Christmas! I wasn't sure where to place these next few pictures in this blog, but I wanted to share them; so enjoy this hodgepodge of memories from Christmas 2010!*

The wrestling starts early! Little Man and his 2nd cousin (they have a 6 day age difference)

Princess is becoming a pro at unwrapping presents!

Break time!

Over tired delirium

Cousins!

Little Man's favorite part of Christmas...wrapping paper!

**I know this post was a bit all over the place. There is so much to say and not enough brain space to put it all together in one blog post!

Woah!

It's been a whole week since I've posted because we have been so busy! This was our schedule: Tuesday, drive to Nashville; Wednesday, hang out in Nashville plus Garth Brooks concert; Thursday, drive home, drive to Decatur to pick up the kids, drive back home; Friday, drive to Goshen for Christmas Eve, drive home; Saturday, drive to Decatur for Christmas day, drive home; Sunday, drive back to Decatur for sibling dinner; Monday, drive home from Decatur after super fun filled night! Crazy!! So, to fill you all in and give you great details, I will probably do a series of post from this last week, starting with Nashville.

Nashville is an amazing city. There are literally people playing music on every corner. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. They have their guitar cases out collecting money. There are also bars and touristy shops everywhere you look; and each bar has an awesome band playing in it.

Broadway at Night

On Wednesday we went to the world famous Wildhorse Saloon. Apparently on June 1, 1994, the history of the World Famous Wildhorse Saloon began with country superstar Reba McEntire hearding a stampede of live cattle through the streets of Music City, also known as Nashville, Tennessee. The cattle were herded down Second Avenue and past the front doors of the newly opened club.*

(fake) wild horses hanging from the ceiling

They had great food (I had a Grilled Apple BLT for lunch) and all day line dancing. We went back that night before the Garth concert and watched Phil Vaught and enjoyed the night life of the saloon.

Phil Vaught at the Wildhorse Wednesday night

Then we headed to the Garth Brooks concert. He came out of retirement to do this Nashville Flood Relief benefit concert. He performed 9 shows in 6 nights and every single show was sold out. We had horrible seats, literally the highest seats in the building, but it was still AMAZING! I took about 100 pictures and lost my voice screaming and singing.

the crowd (15000+ people)

Garth Brooks
Garth and guest performer, Trisha Yearwood!

The aftermath (on the way home) hehe

We had a fabulous time and would love to go back to Nashville soon. We are also looking into going to see Garth in Vegas because it was such an amazing night! I know I left out so many details, but this past week was full of so much excitement, a blog post just can't do it justice. More to come soon covering our Christmases!

*Check out the Wildhorse Saloon website! Amazing place! http://wildhorsesaloon.com/about-us/about-us

Merry Christmas week!

Yesterday we had a packed house and I loved it! Two of my sisters, their SOs, niece, and parents were here for lunch and just to hang out. It was a lot of fun! The two little Princesses LOVED playing together and Little Man really enjoyed watching it. He is so eager to walk just to keep up with his sister! I was able to snap an awesome picture of my sister's family!

Their little lady has definitely grown so much in the last few weeks since I've seen her! Princess loves playing with her cousin and they are at about the same level in everything! It's a lot of fun to watch them interact.
I can't wait for all of our Christmas festivities, so I can snap lots of pictures of the kids playing with their cousins!
Tomorrow we leave for Nashville and I'm so excited! I can't wait to check out the Grand Ole Opry and just mosey about in Nashville. It will be a great getaway for Hubby and I and the first time we are more than 15 minutes away from our kids overnight; and of course, they are both sick with coughs and colds. I am taking them to the doctor today, just to make sure they are all good before I leave.
I can't wait to tell you all about our trip to Nashville and our wonderful Christmas parties! Hope you all have a fabulous pre-Christmas week!

Tired Feet

Woo! What a long day! I spent the whole day in the kitchen (9-5:30). We finished everything on our list and the house smells amazing, but boy am I tired! I am relaxing on the couch now with a big, fat Ricker's Dr. Pepper and a bowl of "extra butter" popcorn.
I have many pictures to post of the goodies we made today!

Sugar Cookie Cutouts

Nut Rocha

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Chocolaty Caramel Thumbprints

Scotcharoos

Buckeyes

We are definitely in the holiday spirit around here!

What do you do to get into the holiday spirit?

'Twas the Weekend Before Christmas

Can you believe it?!!?! One more week until Christmas. December went by in the blink of an eye, but we are ready for the holidays. We had to get everything done early since we will be gone for 3 days right before Christmas. We are leaving Tuesday for the Garth Brooks concert and I am so excited. Once in a lifetime!
Yesterday I headed back to the mall to exchange some jeans I picked up for Princess. They were massive. I can't believe how much of a difference there is between size 4 and 4 years! The mall was crazy! I am so glad we have our Christmas shopping done because I don't think I could have stayed there one more minute.
Today, my little sister and I are baking Christmas treats. We are making: sugar cookie cutouts, peanut butter blossoms, buckeyes, nut rocha (toffee), chocolaty caramel thumbprints, scotcharoos, and puppy chow. We have a full day of baking ahead of us and I can't wait. I love to bake! I hope everything turns out exactly how I plan (will post pictures later).
That's about all that is going on here! I can't wait for Christmas and all the festivities that go with it. And I can't wait to spend the 3 days leading up to Christmas, in Nashville with Garth Brooks...breathing his same air!
Happy Saturday everyone!

Happy Thursday!

Tomorrow is Friday! I can't wait! I'm so ready for the week to be over. I wish the work week was 2 days and the weekend was 5. I have so many thoughts; they may be scattered all over the place, so hold on!

1: I have a thought for those who run the consumer world. Shopping carts should be large enough to seat two small children. I took both kids to Target yesterday (one is 2 years 4 months and the other is 7 months). Therefore, Princess is too young to be able to walk on her own. She just isn't trustworthy right now. And Little Man is too big to be carried around in his carseat, and frankly, even if he was, that would take up even more space. So, it's just me and the kids at Target, meaning I can't push two carts. I put Little Man in the seat and Princess in the basket. Princess was all over the place, standing up, shouting "have that, have that" about everything we passed. She was causing my cart to fly all over the place. If the cart was just a little bigger, with 2 side by side seats, it would have made my shopping trip much less stressful.

2: Happy Birthday to my big sister! She is 27 today. We are 17 months apart...so whenever her birthday comes around, it reminds me that very soon I will be exactly where she is; slowly creeping into my late 20's. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it is so shocking. I remember having "middle finger night" with my siblings when all 5 of us still shared a room over 20 years ago. Wow, I'm old. :)

3: In less than one week I will be roadtripping it to Nashville to see Garth Brooks in concert! I am totally psyched! Hubby, my sister and her husband, and I will be leaving Tuesday night to see a super late Wednesday night concert. None of us have ever "vacationed" in Nashville, so it should be fun to check out the sights. I'm a little nervous about leaving my kids for 2 days, but they are in good hands, so it should be alright!

4: I got Princess this fabulous little gem at Crazy 8. It is definitely my new favorite kids store!

via

Well, I think I'm gonna say that is it for tonight. Have a fabulous Friday (tomorrow)!