Day 364 - A picture for Mommy

Owen colored a picture for me this morning. :)

Whew, its been a long week since we got home on Tuesday. Tuesday was our anniversary. To celebrate we ordered pizza. ha! Chris got me a new charm for my Pandora bracelet and I love it. It a charm of wedding rings so it was just right for our big 8-year Anni. Last night we took down the Christmas trees and got everything hauled back up to the attic. Its kind of sad that its all over, but also kind of nice to have the house back to normal...whatever that is. We've been swimming in a sea of toys since getting home. The table O is coloring on in today's picture is actually sitting where the tree used to be.

Its hard to believe there's only 1 day left in the year! I'm getting ready for my last session of the year, the clients are on their way. Wish me luck, I always get so nervous!

Day 361 - Winter Fun at the Lakehouse

We are still at the lakehouse visiting with family. This morning everyone got bundled up and went outside for a little winter fun.

O and C went on a 4-wheeler ride

The Weber Boys

Princess A went on her first redneck sleigh ride...in a plastic swimming pool. :)

Day 360 - The Griswald's...

My family. What are we doing? This looks true to form!


Then a miracle happened...I can not believe it!
The Weber Family - Christmas 2010

Day 359 - Merry White Christmas!

Happy Birthday to Jesus!
I woke up early on Christmas morning to a snow covered ground. I got up first, besides my mom and dad, and enjoyed a cup of coffee waiting on the rest of the family and the kids to wake up. I got my cameras all set up and was ready.

When the boys came into my moms living room, Owen was really quiet and just looking around wondering what was going on. He walked over to me on the couch and I said, "What are all these toys, bub?" His response, "I don't know what all these toys are, momma." Haha. I think it was a little confused, shocked, and overwhelmed. It was cute.

Here are some pics from Christmas morning discovering all that Santa brought.


While the kiddos played with their new gifts, my mom and dad got busy cooking our Christmas breakfast. My mom makes the best gravy and fried potatoes. I'll never be able to replicate them! Yum-O!


After breakfast, we started getting things gathered up, changed, showered, etc and ready to hit the road to go to The Weber Family Christmas. This year we are enjoying Christmas at the new lakehouse and arrived around 2:30. Joan, my mother-in-law, has everything decorated up so beautiful.

Once everyone arrived and we snacked around a bit, it was time for more gifts! Here are a few of my favorite shots from the exchange.
My nephew tearing into his electric guitar, santa hat on, paper flying. Priceless

On my sister-in-laws bucket list she has "catch a fish"...here she discovers that we got her a black and pink fishing pole. I help this helps her mark off one more thing off the list this summer.


After the gift exchange, the kids played while Granna made yet another wonderful meal for dinner. We are all so very blessed. It was a wonderful Christmas with our families.

Day 355 - Movie Night!

Last Tuesday Chris went out with some of his guy friends. I decided to take Owen to the movies for the first time! My photos from our date night will have to be uploaded from my iphone, as I didn't take my camera with me. :) It was so cute. I love to see him experience firsts. We saw Yogi Bear in 3D and he did pretty good. Next time I'm going to take him to a fully animated movie, I didn't realize Yogi had adults in it, and pass on the 3D portion. He wouldn't keep his glasses on. I'll add the pictures later when I transfer them from my phone. Its a date I want to remember. :)
ETA:iphone pics

Day 358 - Christmas Eve

Aww, Christmas Eve is one of my favorite days of the year. Its tradition for us to always go to my granny's house. There's nothing like your mommas cookin...and when your momma cooks like her momma...there's nothing like your granny's cookin! :) It started snowing Christmas Eve morning and the boys went out for a 4-wheeler ride in the snow. Of course I made them wear the festive hats. Here's Chris, O and my brother Matthew gearing up for a snow ride!




Jordo is still a bit young to be out riding in the snow, so he was a festive little reindeer in the house nice and cozy warm!

After naptime and getting cleaned up we all headed to my grandmother's house for yummy meal and presents. This was the first of the gift madness this year! Owen was so excited to get his train parts from Gran Gran.

We put the boys in their Christmas Jammies and took a few pictures before the snowy ride back out to my moms.

The snow started falling again while we were at my grandmothers and the sky just poured it down. It was truly going to be a white Christmas. Once we got back to my moms house I went out in the middle of the snow covered road to take a photo of the Christmas lights at her house. Here's the big tree my brother decorated. It looked beautiful with the snow on the ground and branches.

Owen must have been really excited for Santa to come because he did not fall asleep until around 11:00. My mom, sister and & I were busy being little elves getting everything together in my moms room with the door locked. ha! Once he finally fell asleep, SANTA CAME! I think this was just as exciting, if not more, for me than O. I couldn't wait to see his and Jordon's face on Christmas morning!

Merry Christmas Eve Everyone!

Day 356 - 32-years

Whew, the last few days have been a whirlwind! We traveled to Kentucky to my moms house last Wednesday. That evening Owen and I decorated her tree. This is my ornament. My grandfather, who has since passed, made it for me for my first Christmas...32 years ago! It was pretty special to get to hang it on the tree myself. Its a little ceramic santa that says Melissa across the feet and the year 1978 on the back.

Day 354 - My Little Family Christmas

Today O and I went to visit some friends at my old work. Its always nice to see them and feels like I just left. I can't believe its been 3 years. We had a yummy lunch, too. When we got home we both crashed out on the couch and had too long of a nap....I wonder if he will ever fall asleep tonight?

We decided to exchange our family gifts tonight on a whim. At Owens request I started a fire first:

Owen helped pass out the presents

He's a really good helper when it comes to opening. :) Daddy went first and got 2 pairs of new shoes (one that he knew about because O showed them to him a few weeks ago), a dress shirt, some coveralls (that I didn't wrap) and a new travel coffee mug.

Then it was time for me to open the mystery gift that Chris and O made for me. I was so excited to see this....although a little birdie named Owen had already spilled the beans on what it was. Chris kept saying things like, "Its a lawn mower" or "Its a firetruck" last week and Owen said, "No its not! Its a laptop stand!" So funny. I had told Chris that I wanted one of those lap desk thingy-ma-jigy's that you sit your laptop on and its cushioned underneath. By golly, my very own Bob Villa made me one! And I love it, its so special to me. He and Owen painted on the top of it. Love it! They also got me a pair of shoes, a digital frame and a wireless mouse. Its a shoe Christmas here. :)


I told Chris before we did this that I didn't have a gift for Owen to open. Santa is done shopping and has already delivered the goods to my moms house where we will be on Christmas morning a few weeks ago. I didn't even think about keeping something out to give to Owen from us! Sure enough, after we finished opening our gifts it happened. In the sweetest little voice Owen said, "Its my turn. Where's my present?" Chris and I just looked at each other and I stammered, "Ugh....well, hang on." I dug out from under the tree a gift for his cousin and let him open it! LOL! BTW, please ignore the fact that my shirt is on inside out...I didn't notice until I'd been wearing it this way for hours this afternoon.

I then said, "I think there's one more thing" and asked him and Chris to go to the bonus room. I loaded up his stocking with his stocking stuffers and we let him open it, too. :)I explained to Owen that he would be getting more gifts from Santa on Christmas! Who knew this Santa gig could be so tricky!

And that's it. Our little family Christmas. Perfect. Here's one last one of daddy with his new shoes on...they match Owens. :)

Day 353 - 3rd Annual J/W Christmas Party

Tonight we had our friends over for The 3rd annual J/W Christmas Party. After going to Church this AM (can you believe today was the last Sunday before Christmas), I was cooking away gearing up for our dinner tonight. The appetizers: cheeseball and crackers with little beef stick sausages. The menu: Lasagna, salad, bread, wine. My friend brought the dessert: yummy chocolate chip cookies with icing. Mmmmm.

Today's pics are by far not my best technically, but some of my favorites of these two to date. Amazing what bribing them with getting a photo before opening presents can do. O calls D his "best brother." Grant it, the sure do bicker a lot and get into a lot of mischief, but when it comes down to it they're best buds.

We had a fun night. Merry Christmas to our dear friends, The J Family!

Day 352 - A Special Visit

We had a visitor at home last night...Santa!!! Our neighbors are awesome. This marks the 2nd year that he has dressed up as Santa and stopped by. Yesterday he was actually working at a Church and stopped by on his way home. It was so cute. I went to the grocery last night and when I got home I told O that I ran into Santa while shopping and that he said he would stop by! I love it. He did great - sat on his lap, told him what he wanted (some more train tracks), even gave him a high five and a hug. Thank to Terry, for adding another special touch to the holiday season. And thanks to Gran Gran for getting him more train parts to his train set for Christmas because Santa told him he would get some. :)

Owen is all better and back to himself. He has slept through the night the past two nights and it starting to eat better. I guess all the broken sleep finally caught up to him yesterday because he took a huge nap all afternoon. We winterized the yard/porch yesterday and I did some cleaning, went through Owen's toybox making room for whats to come, and took a nap myself. Last night I was up late watching a movie called "It's Complicated." It was really good and funny! I was cracking up laughing out loud around midnight. I love a movie that makes you laugh like that. Less than a week until Christmas now! I can't believe it.