A Trip to the Wadsworth Tree Farm

Since Chloe was born, we've had two Christmas trees, our "Capitol City" tree and our "Memory" tree!

The CC tree is an older artificial tree that was given to me by my father. It may be time to invest in a new one (for next year) and I'm thinking a white one would be beautiful.

The Memory tree has always been a live tree. Chris insisted that we have a real one each year when we bought our house over 4 years ago. I love the smell of a pine tree! It leaves the house smelling so fresh, which I'll be honest, is rare with two little ones.

This year we decided to cut down our own tree at Wadsworth Tree Farm.

Before we cut down our tree, we decided to survey the farm on the North Pole Wagon.

Equipped with a hand saw and wagon, we went on the hunt for our tree!

 

We went all over the property looking for the perfect tree, and ended up deciding on one of the first ones that we saw.

 

Our tree!

 

 

Daddy cutting down the tree!

 



The littles were so excited and Evan helped Daddy load the tree onto the wagon.

 

 

We had our tree baled.

 

There was time for one more photo before we left.

 

 

We finally decided on where to put our ginormous tree. To give you some perspective, we have 9-foot ceilings. This reminded me of a scene from Christmas Vacation. At the farm, I told Chris that I thought that the tree would be too big for our house. He said it would fit....

 

 

...just barely

 

I can't wait until we get home tonight, so we can get to work decorating our tree!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

We've had the best time celebrating the season so far this month!

This is the first year that Evan understands what is happening around him! I must share this in the fear that I might forget this later. The morning of our North Pole Breakfast, Evan said "We're having a birthday party!" Chloe was quick to correct him saying, " It's not a birthday party. It's Christmas time!" This gave me the perfect opportunity to explain the TRUE reason for the season. I explained to the littles that in fact, we were celebrating a birthday, the most important birthday of all, the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. It has made the season all the more special that the littles now know why we celebrate! Although this has been explained to Chloe before, I don't think she quite grasped it. And, it may still have to be explained to Evan again next year:) However, it warms my mommy heart to hear Chloe ask questions like, " How old is Jesus going to be?" or " What year was Jesus born?"

This is also the first year that Chloe remembers our family traditions from last year! Sometimes as a mother, you feel like your effort is in vain. However, when she recalls something that we did last year, it makes me feel like she actually appreciated what we did and all the effort seems worth it, even if it's just for that one moment.

Okay, enough with my mommy banter...on to the fun stuff!

This December has been pretty warm. However, that hasn't stopped us from curling up with a book while drinking hot cocoa! I decided to make a Hot Chocolate Bar this year, equipped with marshmallows and peppermint candies. This idea was totally stolen from Pinterest. I know I read this somewhere, but who needs creativity, when there's pinterest!

Another idea that I totally ripped from pinterest was reading a Christmas book every night for the 24 days leading to Christmas. Now buying a new book, and 24 at that, can very costly. However, knowing that this was something I had planned to do with the littles, I bought used books at consignment sales on half-priced days. I bought 24+ books for the price of one new book!

Week 1 Reading List

Day 1 - Jingle Bells
Day 2 - Santa's on the Way (Too short)
Day 3 - Auntie Claus (My favorite)
Day 4 - Clifford's First Christmas (The littles' favorite)
Day 5 - Christmas with Angelina
Day 6 - Reindeer Flight School
Day 7 - Good King Wenceslas (Not a good read for little ones; I had to interpret)

Elfa has been on the move all this week and the littles love finding her in the morning. I love all the photos that I've seen of naughty elves making messes in the middle night, stealing sweets, etc. They really do give me a good laugh and I'm amazed at people's creativity, but I can't justify our elf, Elfa, doing bad things. If she is reporting back to Santa whether the littles have been naughty or nice, shouldn't she be setting a good example? That doesn't mean Elfa can't have fun and enjoy a sweet once in a while. The littles and I made Elfa powdered donuts, cheerios covered in confectioners sugar.

This day Elfa took her spot in what I call our "Capitol City Christmas Tree." Over the years I have collected Easter Seals ornaments, which each depict a well-known building or scene in Montgomery. It's hard to spot them in this photo, but they are beautiful ornaments and help fund such a worthy organization.

 

We also attended the Montgomery Christmas Parade, which prior to this year, has been the kick-off to our holiday season. We normally meet at the restaurant located in the building where I work and walk to the parade from there, but this year we had to alter our plans. The restaurant was closed for a private party, so we headed over to our favorite Italian restaurant, Saza's. It's amazing how quickly we got in and out. I guess eating dinner at 5 p.m. has its advantages.

As promised, I took a few photos with the littles at the parade.

The studio where Chloe just recently started taking dance classes was also in the parade. We decided not to let Chloe march with them this year, but I still had to get a shot of the group as they passed.

Chloe was fine with it, since it meant that she would be in the crowd catching candy. She was a little scavenger. After the parade line had passed, she and Evan went into the streets looking for more candy!

We admired the Capitol's Christmas tree and took a few photos.

That should have you all caught up on our first week of December. Maybe now, I can get caught up! I hope that everyone is enjoying the Christmas season!

North Pole Breakfast!!! (2012)

One thing I love about the holidays is continuing family traditions that I have begun with the littles over the past few years! This year I added the North Pole Breakfast to our list.

Noteworthy:

The NPB was inspired by my favorite "Mommy" blogger, Jessica, over at Little Pumpkin Grace...Hudson Too. I happened upon Jessica's blog a couple of years ago when "googling" ideas for Evan's Dr. Seuss themed birthday party and I've been hooked ever since. I've never met Jessica in person before, but she has truly been an inspiration in my life, making being a better mommy look like so much fun, and in fact, she inspired this blog!

The North Pole Breakfast marked the return of our Elf on the Shelf, Elfa, on December 1st! To celebrate we had a breakfast with all the sweet treats that Elfa is accustomed to at the North Pole. The littles wore their Christmas Pj's from the year before to bed in anticipation of Elfa's return. This was not at all an attempt on my part to have festive pics that morning;) 

Can you spot Elfa? (Chloe totally photo-bombed this photo, but in all fairness, she was attempting to run out of the shot:))

If not, here's a hint.

 



The littles couldn't wait to get started! I let them sneak a few sweets before our actual breakfast. I introduced them to my favorite candy, Hershey's Peppermint Kisses! Evan wasn't so sure to begin with, but now he's a fan!

 

 

Bed-head, but so cute!

 

 

Not the best picture, but I love Evan's expression of sheer joy. Definitely makes it all worth it!

 

 

Breakfast is served! We had snowmen pancakes, an idea I found on...you guessed it, Pinterest;) 

 

 

Before eating, I let the littles open their gifts. You may be asking yourself, " Gifts before Christmas?!" But hear me out...We have always opened our Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve as a family, but it never really seemed practical to wear new PJ's for one night before retiring them. This way we get a full month of Christmas PJ wearing under our belts. The same is true for our ornaments, I'd rather enjoy them all season long.

 

 

Another family tradition that started on Chloe's first Christmas was receiving a new Hallmark Keepsake Ornament. The Christmas tree that I hope to pick this weekend will have many of the ornaments that I received as a child (not Hallmark, but most were handmade by a family friend). My mom was kind enough to give them to me a few years ago. One day, I hope to pass the littles' ornaments on to them for their own Christmas trees.

 

Chloe received the Holiday Barbie, the last in the series.

 

 

I set down my camera to help Evan open his gifts and later realized that I didn't get a single pic of him or his reactions when opening the gifts. So the following day, I took a picture of the littles in their PJ's. Evan is holding his new ornament. It is a question elf. You press a button and he gives you a funny answer as to whether you're on Santa's naughty or nice list. According to the elf, Chris and I always seemed to be on the naughty list! It was a huge hit. We've already had a mishap with it that required super glue. Oops!

 

 

Brotherly and Sisterly love at its finest.

 

 

The North Pole Breakfast was a success! It got the whole family in the Christmas spirit and I'm looking forward to continuing this as a family tradition in the years to come.

Thankful for Thanksgiving: A Visit with Grandpa & Sandra

The day after Thanksgiving we drove to Kyle, TX to visit Grandpa, my Dad, and Sandra!

We got there a little later than we had originally planned because Evan came down with a bug on Thanksgiving. He went to bed early, but when I checked on him in the night, he was burning up with fever. Chris drove to Wal-Mart for fever reducer at 3 a.m. on Black Friday! Luckily, the crowd had died down by that time. Needless to say, we had a rough evening and made up for the lack of sleep the following morning.

However, that Saturday we got to enjoy the day with Grandpa, Sandra, and my brother, Rick. I also got to make my contribution to Small Business Saturday. We drove to the neighboring town of San Marcos and visited a few of the downtown shops. Here are a few photos that we took in Downtown San Marcos.

Chloe and Evan fell in love with this shop cat!

We enjoyed some ice cream at a trendy ice cream parlor. They had some unique, but very tasty, ice cream flavors, like Salted Caramel and Goat Cheese & Honey! Yum-mo!

And, Chloe found this airplane. I wasn't sure if some poor kid left it there or it belonged there, but it seemed to fit in with the shop's whole retro vibe!

Then, we got a little nutty!

 
We also visited the City Park so the kids could burn some energy.

Evan decided to "visit" with Grandpa and Sandra and I was able to snag these shots.

On our way back to Grandpa's and Sandra's, we made one more stop at Texas State University's Aquarena Springs

It was such an amazing trip! It really made me realize how much I truly miss them. I wish that we/they lived closer. However, I cherish the time we spent together and look forward to our next visit:)