After school shenanigans

This makes my heart happy. 

We have the sweetest neighborhood friends and I love that they all come to our home to play. 

I also love when the big kids "hang out" at our house. 

 This day they had an epic air soft war. 

 I love this kid and his ability to include others and make it fun for everyone. 

 

 

Mommys lil helper

I was sorting laundry when Lil Sis came in to "help". 

After seeing her work I asked her to put it all back into the basket. 

When I looked over I was pleased to see she did put it all back. 

I also got a good little giggle about her being "IN" the basket as well. 

She makes even the mundane job of laundry fun!

A few of her favorite things

Lil Sis is such a tiny ball of fun. 

Yes, her jammies are on backwards and yes it's on purpose. 

She kept stripping down to her diaper after we put her to bed,

then wake up in the middle of the night frozen like a popsicle. 

So we just started putting them on backwards. 

She LOVES this blanket and dog!

She always carries her blanket, dog a cute little pillow my mom made for Big Sis years ago. 

She calls them ganket, dog, nallow. 

Always in the order and always says them as one word. 

So if she's watching a show, reading books or just wants to sunggle she asks for all three. 

It's so cute!

Resolutions

One of my New Years Resolution is to make my home a more organized, functional and happy place to be.  For my first big project of the year I tackled my catch all china cabinet.  I had it painted a few years ago and I absolutely love it.  It use to be a cherry wood color.  It really is a beautiful piece especially now that all of the junk is out of it.  As you can see I had a cute tiny little helper.  It makes me very happy now each time I look at it.  Excited to move on to the next project. 

Happy New Year

We had a fun time ringing in the new year.

  Sadly we didn't take any pictures of our epic firework show and shenanigans. 

New Years Day we had a blast building a snowman with the snow the Dunn's uncle brought down from the mountains. 

 From the looks of it, this year is sure to be fun and exciting. 

14 years old

Woah!!!  Look at the fire on that cake. 

Can't believe our boy is really 14 years old. 

 The candies on the cake were camo colors and the inside was a camo design. 

My military lovin boy was very excited when we saw it. 

We had a fun quiet little family party this year. 

Sure do love this kid and the opportunity I have to be his mom. 

I've learned more and more about myself as I have tried to be the mom he needs me to be. 

I'm grateful for him and love him very much! 

Merry Christmas

We had such a fun Christmas this year. 

Dad had Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off this year. 

Yay!!!!!

We had a HUGE surprise for our kids. 

After years of begging, we finally got them a dog. 

I took some twine and strung it all around the house. 

The kids had to follow the string to find their special gift from mom and dad. 

It led all the way outside to our new dog. 

A black lab named Bear. 

He is such a sweet beautiful dog. 

Our kids were in heaven. 

We got our traditional new jammies from the elves on Christmas eve. 

We did a nativity with puppets but I forgot to get pictures. 

We of course left our cookies for Santa and then off to bed. 

 Christmas morning so just so magical. 

Having the kids earn their own money this year was just awesome. 

They put a lot of thought into each gift and it was more fun to watch the givers reaction

when opening our presents. 

It was such a wonderful day!