Friday, December 23, 2011

A little behind

So I know I'm a little behind in the blogging world so while were away for Christmas in gonna try and catch up.

But for now I've been thinking a lot about Christmas. It truly us one of my most favorite times of the year. And being the mom of two adorable babes has made it even more magical.

So why am I constantly stressing out over every small detail of Christmas. I am confident jh is not concerned the his "what's in Ned's head?" present has a perfectly placed bow on it, but rather the assurance that someone will be there to play the game with him. Lynley is 3 months old today and I know she doesn't care that she has the most beautiful dolly under the tree, but that her parents are present and engaged to play folks with her and spur on her imagination. So why all the hustle and bustle? Why do we as moms kill ourselves and ruin Christmas, just for the appearance of perfection?

Shouldn't we learn from the Creator of Christmas that isn't surrounded by perfection. A stable, a manger, a virgin, and a baby who will save the world. So in this madness we call Christmas remember the baby. Nothing about His arrival came by perfection. So like Mary, "ponder and treasure these things in your heart."

Monday, December 5, 2011

Breakfast in Bethlehem




Each year our church does a breakfast call Breakfast in Bethlehem. It is a time where you go eat a pancake dinner, watch the christmas story come to life and sing carols with the family. It is super fun, and I love to see the kids watch the Christmas story come to life. We had a great time at it this year, but if there is one take away from this event it is a funny John Hunter story.


As you might now, we let John Hunter watch Soul Sufer. The movie about Bethany Hamilton the surfer who lost her arm to a shark bite while surfing. To say the is obsessed with that movie would be an understatement. So I said to him to Friday night that we were going to Breakfast in Bethlehem. To which he replied, do you think they will have surf boards? Confused I said, NO. And he said, I cannot believe Bethany would not bring her surf board to show me her shark bite. While snickering I responded, no honey, we are going to eat with Bethany Hamilton we are going the Bethlehem. That kid cracks me up!

Anyway the breakfast was great and the plus was we got to sit with John Hunter favorite girl, Emmy! What a blessing to be apart of a church who wants to teach children the REAL meaning of Christmas!

Happy 60th Birthday Gigi



Along with Thanksgiving we got to celebrate Gigi's 60th Birthday, and I cannot think of a better person to celebrate. We went to dinner on Friday night to a great place that sits on the water, and then came home and had cake!


Saturday Morning (her actual bday) we woke up and did presents. Now what do you get an amazing Gigi who has everything. Well I started thinking, and dad and I put together a basket that had 60 gifts in it that all reminded us of Gigi. Some were silly and some were sweet. I think she really liked it, and yes it takes a while to open up 60 gifts. But it was worth it.


Happy Birthday Gigi, we are blessed beyond measure to have you in our lives!


As a part of Gigi's birthday gift we had our friend Kara come and take family photos. They turned out great and I have already hung up a few in our house. What precious memories to cherish!

Happy Thanksgiving



We sure do have a lot to be thankful for this year as we celebrate Thanksgiving! We had a great dinner and ate way too much. My parents came up and some friends from our life group joined us. It was a great time had by all.
These are chocolate bar place cards that I had at everyones table... they were super cute and YUMMY!



Mom and I along with Lynley went out on Black Friday and got some fun stuff for Christmas. Honestly we did not get any HOT TICKET items but we had fun and the experience was great.

We decorated the house on Friday which was super fun, and as always it was super exciting to see the magic of Christmas through John Hunter's eyes. He is so excited about the small things such as the lights, his elf on the shelf, and Santa. It truly is the Most Wonderful time of the year!

Lynley's 2 months



Sweet Lynley girl you turned 2 months old on November 21 and what a 2 months it has been. We love you so much and we have lots of fun nicknames for you. Your brother calls you sweetie pie, mom likes to call you Lulu and Princess, and Daddy calls you baby girl! We love all your smiles and we all just gawk at you each time you small. You are starting to talk a LOT. I guess it is just par for the course in this family.

Here are your stats:
Height: 24 1/4 (yep you have grown over 2 inches since your 1 month)
Weight: 10.2 ( you have grown a pound.... yay)


You are nursing great, you sleep pretty well, you love to be on the go, but you HATE to be put into your car seat. You love any and all music. And you have a lovey/blanket that you are obsessed with.

We love you so much and are excited to see you grow!

The Brauns Come to Visit



Eric sister Anna and her husband Ben and daughter Kyah came for a visit in November. We had a great time and it was wonderful to see the cousins interact. It was a glimpse of all the things yet to come. We just hung out on Friday night and Saturday we braved the preholiday traffic and hit the mall.


We wanted to take the kiddos pictures and that was always interesting. When you take a 5 year old, a 2 year old, and a 2 month old it makes life kinda fun! They did great and we super cute. I give you a small preview but some photos are for Christmas gifts!


We were super sad to see them go but we are excited to get to hang out with them at Christmas. What a fun visit. We love you guys!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Weekend Recap




We had a wonderful weekend with our family. Aunt Sarah and Uncle Greg flew in from Cali to meet Lynley and hang out with the rest of us. We had a great time and were truly sad when they left. It had been a YEAR since we have seen them and that is just NOT ok!

I am so impressed with the way the love on our kiddos and how patient they are with them. From going out to dinner, playdates at the park, and even bath time they just jumped right in..


Friday night they sent Eric and I out on a date night and it was much needed and so much fun. When we came home it was evident that they had fun as well, seeing how there were about 20 art projects and 100 videos of them playing and having a good time.


Saturday morning we got to go to conseco field house and play on the court. Our neighbors had it reserved for a function and we got to have fun too. JH was very sad at first because the goals were high and he couldnt shoot the hoop, but with perserverance and patience he made it and his attitude changed.

Saturday night we had our life group over for dinner and to watch the UFC fight. I love how our friends have become our family and we all just hang out. It was so much fun. We said goodbye to Sarah and Greg seeing how they took a taxi at 4:30 the next morning to go to the airport. We were super sad to see them go, but are excited to see them at Christmas. What a fun visit we had!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Fall Leaves



All fall long JH has asked to play in the leaves. He thinks it looks like so much fun and honestly it is. But the truth of the matter is we live in a new neighborhood and we don't have a whole lot of leaves. There are lots of leaves at Mrs. Stewart's house (his teacher) and he is always talking about playing in the leaves there.


The other day it was the perfect fall day. High 60's, blue skies, light breeze, and the sun shining. So I decided we would go and play in the leaves. There is a park near our house so I was hoping it had a lot of leaves since there are some mature trees there, and we hit the jackpot!


So i took the camera, the kiddos, and some hot apple cider and we were set. Here are some pics of the great leaf day of 2011

Operation Christmas Child



Each year in MOPS we have had the opportunity to participate with Operation Christmas Child. It is something I love to do and it always gets me in the Christmas spirit. This year was one of the first years JH was old enough to understand the concept and get into it. I tried explaining that we were getting gifts for a kid who otherwise would not have any for Christmas and pretty much all they were getting was what was inside the box. He got that, but he kept asking for things as well. Again I reminded him and he seemed to get it, but not really.

We came home from Target and started packing the box up. He loved the wrapping and what not, but I could tell there was no connection. So I pulled out the handy dandy ipad and searched youtube for operation christmas child. There were TONS of videos of testimony, how to's and so forth. We are a huge American Idol family so when I saw that Scotty McCreary had posted a video of him packing a box I knew we were set. We saw the kids, the concept, and how it impacts kids lives all across the world, and then it clicked for JH.

John Hunter thought it was the coolest thing ever. I am so glad we did it and I cannot wait until next year to do it again!



Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Trick or Treat

We kicked off the Trick or Treat season by carving pumpkins. Well we only carved one, but it was intense. We invited our neighbors over for dinner and pumpkin carving and he brought his drimmel tool so we were set!

Here are some of the pumpkin pics....


Katie and Tim have a little girl Clara who is 6 weeks older than Lynley and we saw this picture on pintrest so we decided we would give it a try... here is the outcome.


This year our church had us take Trunk or Treat to the streets. So our life group jumped on board and we had a huge turn out in our neighborhood. It was a great time full of bounce house, chilli, hot dogs, and candy. A great time was had by all, now we have to figure out what to do with all the left over candy?!?!?!?!