Life in Phone Pictures

What an awesome week! I hope you too had a great week celebrating Christmas with friends and family.

Our Christmas celebrations started last Friday, with two gatherings with John Wayne's family. I didn't get any phone pics of the festivities, but did manage to get proof that this week we made time for our drink stop before we left the big city! {Yes, it's dark, it was really late...good thing Sonic stays open late!}



Christmas Eve, we hung out at my Mom and Dad's, watched football and I made green chili for lunch. I do make a pretty mean green chili for a red-headed white girl, if I do say so myself! I made green chili for Christmas Eve last year too, so let's call it a tradition.


That night we all went to the Christmas Eve service at church.


After the service, we drove around Kit Carson and looked at Christmas lights. For such a small town, I'd say this was a pretty good display!


Santa made a stop at the trailerhood!


The Little Lady was eager to open presents. She really got into this year and was so much fun!


Look at the great things her big cousins teach her!

They're actually my little cousins, I'm the oldest by five years on both sides, so all of my cousins are still in high school and college. They are awesome with the Little Lady and she adores them!


I made this peppermint ice cream cake recipe that I got from Mel over at the Larson Lingo. I.loved.it! Seriously, could have eaten the entire thing all by myself.


Besides our little Christmas celebration at home first thing in the morning, we had three other stops to make on Christmas Day and got home at nearly midnight. So needless to say, there was a lot of this going on on Monday.


Monday night, we did crawl off of the couch and go to my Mom and Dad's for dinner with all of my family. After dinner, there may have been a little Wii Wipeout fun. Have you played this game? My aunt and uncle gave it to John Wayne for Christmas and it is so much fun!


I'm looking forward to another fun-filled, long holiday weekend! Tomorrow is John Wayne's birthday...let's everyone wish him a happy birthday : ) And then more fun with family and friends for New Year's.

Wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year from the trailerhood!

Christmas Eve...and Christmas Eve Eve

We started our Christmas festitivies on Christmas Eve Eve with John Wayne's family. We had breakfast with his immediate family on Friday morning at his brother and sister-in-law's house.

Do you think that John Wayne and his brothers and Dad might look a little bit alike?

The Little Lady had five cousins there and had an absolute ball playing with them.


We wanted to get a picture of the girls and my child turned into a total punk. Do me a favor, if you're ever around my kid, don't make the comment "wow, she hasn't taken her hairbow off yet" because that's a sure fire way to remind her that she does in fact have something on her head...that she needs to take off.


From there, we headed into the big city for dinner at John Wayne's Grandma's house. Total picture failure on my part. All I got were these of the Little Lady jumping rope. Again, lots of cousins equals lots of fun for the Little Lady!


Christmas Eve was actually a really laid back day, which is unusal for us. Usually the day I just told you about happens on Christmas Eve, but this year due to some scheduling conflicts we did it Christmas Eve Eve. Anyway, we slept in a little and then enjoyed some really yummy red velvet pancakes with cream cheese frosting for breakfast.

The Little Lady then had fun playing with some of her new toys. Don't you love the whole 80's workout girl look she put together. She got these bangles from her cousins and LOVES them...not sure where/how she snatched one of my exercise headbands, but put it all together and you get one fabulous look!


We spent the afternoon at my Mom and Dad's eating green chili and watching the Bronco's game. I made green chili for Christmas Eve last year too, so I'm going to call it a tradition : )

That night, we all went to the Christmas Eve service.


The Little Lady was dying to open a present. This was the first she had seen of them, as both me and my Mom didn't put them out under the tree ahead of Christmas this year because we knew she could not be trusted...and we were right.


These are probably a couple of my favorite pictures out of the 400+ that I took over Christmas. She snatched her Daddy's good hat {a no-no...you don't mess with a cowboy's hat} but when you're so darn cute, you get away with it!


That wraps up most of our official Christmas gatherings. We have one more this Saturday with some of my Mom's extended family, but they're all coming to the ranch, yay!

Christmas Morning

On Christmas morning, right after we did Santa presents at the trailerhood, we went to my Mom and Dad's house for stockings, more gifts and breakfast.


Whenever the person taking the picture would wave at the Little Lady trying to get her to look at the camera, she'd always give them a little wave back. Cute, I know.


Between her stocking stuffers, presents from Mama and Daddy, and presents from Grandpa and Grandma, I think the Little Lady had more presents then she knew what to do with, but she did love opening them!


John Wayne might not tell you this, but he likes opening presents too!


"Ohhhhhh!" I think we got this with every present that she opened, but I do think she especially liked her little Broncos dress!

Our main man Tebow may have had a rough game on Saturday, but we loved him before the whole world did and we'll love him long after they're over him.


One of John Wayne's favorite gifts, a boot jack with his brand on it, made by my Dad.


Grandpa and Grandma gave the Little Lady a princess tent. She likes to get in it and hide from us!


The Little Lady has a complete infatuation with our laptop, so we decided to get her one for Christmas. Her "leaptop" is pretty fun!


So there you have it, Christmas morning, but wait...I still need to tell you about Christmas lunch at the Hammer's and Christmas dinner at the Chisman's...and Christmas Eve...and the day before Christmas Eve. Yeh, we have a lot of family and yeh, we celebrate a lot!

The Little Lady Landed on the Nice List!

'Twas the night before Christmas...and well at the trailerhood, we were reading PW's Charlie the Ranch Dog book that the Little Lady just got for Christmas.

At our house on Christmas Eve, the Little Lady gets to open three presents...new pajamas, an ornament for her collection and a new book.


The Little Lady was really into the whole cookies for Santa ritual this year...well, eating them atleast!


We're not at the age yet that we get woke up by an excited kid jumping in our bed at 5 o'clock...instead we waited until 8 o'clock to wake our sleepy head up and in her book, this was still way too early.


Through sleepy eyes, she did manage to see that Santa did not eat all of his cookies, nor did the reindeer their food. A pre-present treat!


Santa did make it to the trailerhood this year and the Little Lady did land on the nice list!




She loves her basketball hoop that the big man left for her!


She also got a Nerf gun {I mean come on, what almost-2-year-old doesn't need a Nerf gun?!?} and some big coloring pages and finger paints.


Hmmmm...who likes the Nerf gun more?!?


It was a great Christmas morning at our house!


More soon from all of our Christmas travels...

Merry Christmas from the Trailerhood!

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” Luke 2:11-14


Wishing you a blessed and joyous day as we celebrate the birthday of our Savior!

Life in Phone Pictures

Merry Christmas! I am off work for the holiday and ready for Christmas!!! I'm pretty excited, can you tell?!? Having kids makes Christmas as awesome again as when you were a kid. Don't ya think?

We've had a fun week leading up to Christmas. Saturday we headed south to the small town of La Junta to finish up our Christmas shopping {and holiday grocery shopping} among a few other errands.

The weather was awesome this weekend and the Little Lady loved some outside playtime before we left. She didn't love having to come back in.


Do you like my cool new head wrap/ear warmer/thingy?!? I don't know what it's called. Do you?


La Junta is about an hour and fifteen minute drive from the ranch and for the first twenty minutes, we got to listen to "you're as pretty as a princess, smile, say cheese" from someone's princess camera.


First stop, the La Junta Mill. We needed a load of cake {seriously it's called cake}. It's what we feed the cows to supplement them nutritionally during the winter.


Then it was onto Big R {a farm and ranch supply store}. Guess who was there...Santa! So yes, we subjected our poor child to another visit with the big guy.


After lunch at a great authentic Mexican restuarant and several more stops, including a huge grocery run, we headed home. We skipped our usual last stop at Sonic for cherry limeaides because the Little Lady was asleep. So about half way home, John Wayne was dying of thirst {yes, dying}. Lucky for him, one of the small towns we pass through has a pop machine.


Sunday, was our usual routine: church and lunch at the local restaurant with Grandpa and Grandma.


Monday morning, John Wayne and crew were working cattle, preg-checking cows to be exact. {Yes ladies, I just said preg-checking cows and yes, there is a long plastic glove involved.} So I had to get up early and get lunch ready and into crock-pots and coolers before I headed to work for the day.


We have a million and one blankets readily avaiable in our house, why must our child choose to use the decorative cow hide from the back of the chair???


Well, you know how I said Saturday was amazing weather, well Monday night into Tuesday brought snow and wind. The roads drifted shut and were closed, so John Wayne and I both had a snow day! When the Little Lady got up, she begged to watch cartoons in Mama and Daddy's bed.


After breakfast and cartoons, we headed out for fun in the snow! The Little Lady LOVED it. Just like when she had to come in from playing outside in the 60 degree temps, she had a hissy when she had to come in, even though we were all freezing.


I'm making the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls tonight. They are so yummy! If you've never tried them, you must.


We start our Christmas festivities in the morning with breakfast at my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's house. I can't wait!

Merry Christmas to you all from the Trailerhood Aristocrats of Wild Horse, America!