Our Little Christmas

We had a nice evening at home on Christmas Eve. 

It was nice to have a relaxing moment in the middle of our holiday madness.

 

I made green chili {my Christmas Eve tradition} and my Mom and Dad came up for dinner.

 

They brought the kids one present to open...these adorable little Christmas horses.

 

 

Our tradition is the kids get to open one present from us on Christmas Eve: new pajamas, an ornament and a book.  We also let them open their presents from our friends the Knutson's.

 

 

I said one present, but this year they actually got to open two. 

They got to open the "cowboy toy" that their Daddy got them, so that they could play with it.

 

Who likes it more...John Wayne or the Little Lady?!?

 

 

We got them all cozy in their new jammies and then it was time to put cookies and milk out for Santa.

 

 

When we decorated cookies a couple of weeks ago, the Little Lady picked our her favorites and we put them in the freezer to save for Santa.

When I was pouring Santa's milk, the Little Lady said, "oh, chocolate milk" so we made Santa chocolate milk.

 

It was then bedtime and time to read their new book -- Charlie and the Christmas Kitty by the Pioneer Woman.

 

 

Once they were tucked into bed and fast asleep, Santa came!

 

 

Christmas morning, we woke up to snow.

A white Christmas...what a fun treat!

 

 

 

The Little Lady got her "Manny books" from Santa! 

She also got an easel, that she thinks is pretty cool.

 

The Little Buckaroo got a John Deere toy and books.

 

 

The Little Lady liked her presents, but she was most excited that "Santa ate my cookies!"

 

 

The magic of Christmas with kids!

Christmas Eve with the Goldings

Christmas Eve, John Wayne's Dad and his brother's family came to our house to celebrate.

 

We always spend Christmas Eve with John Wayne's family and the past several year's, we've done brunch.

 

Cousins!  The Little Lady loves her big cousins. 

She has so much fun playing with them. 

 

She about drove "her boy" Chase crazy. 

She would not leave him alone. 

He finally locked himself in the bathroom, with his new toys, to get away from her!

 

 

 

Aunt Angie and the Little Buckaroo

 

 

After we ate and opened presents, we spent the afternoon playing Pitch.

 

 

The Little Lady helping her Daddy.

 

 

We had a great time with John Wayne's family!

 

All dressed up!

Sunday morning, it was time for our Sunday best!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After church, we met my Grandparents, Uncle and Cousins for lunch at the local restuarant.

 

Then it was home for Broncos football, a quick nap and lots of cooking and cleaning as we prepared to host John Wayne's family for Christmas Eve.

Ready, Set, Christmas!

Here is the first of several posts documenting our long Christmas weekend.

Saturday, we had two celebrations in Colorado Springs.

At noon, we went to my Great Aunt and Uncle's house to celebrate with extended family.
I didn't get as many pictures as I should have.

Here's my Grandma holding Gunner, which she pretty much did all day.
"I'd rather hold him, than eat."
Those exact words came out of her mouth...remember this, it'll be funny in a minute.

The Little Lady loves playing with my little cousins...her big cousins!  Here she is with my cousin Kendra.

And the highlight of the Little Lady's day...playing with her second {or third or something like that???} cousin Jayden. Jayden lives in Kansas City, so we don't get to see her very often, but when we do, the Little Lady always loves playing with her.

 

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That evening, we celebrated with John Wayne's family at his Grandma's house.

 

This was the first time that big cousin Sydney had seen the Little Buckaroo.

 

 

The Littles with Gigi.

 

 

Big cousin Tyler was home from West Point.

It sure was good to see him!

 

 

The Little Lady has a BLAST playing with John Wayne's cousin's kids.

His Grandma's house turns into one wild place when all of these guys are there.

 

At one point, one of the little bit older cousins came and told the adults that Tressie and one of the cousins about Tressie's age, were mixing different types of pop together and drinking it.

That's ok, we responded.  {You know, with it being Christmas and all.}

Well, a few minutes later, the other little cousin's Dad went to check on them...

"We have a big mess in here!"

Apparently, Tressie's not the best bartender and she had cups of pop overflowing and was then squeezing a Capri Sun into the cup too.

Yep, we're good parents like that, me and John Wayne.

Complete.sticky.mess.

 

So anyways, yes, it turns wild and the kids have fun!

 

 

John Wayne's Grandma holding Gunner, which she pretty much did all night.

"I'd rather hold him, than eat."

Those exact words came out of her mouth...see, I told you it'd be funny.

 

 

It was a great start to our long Christmas weekend!

 

 

{{Merry Christmas}}

InstaFriday

Hello Friends and Happy Friday!
Here's a glimpse of what we've been up to the past couple of weeks via phone picture.
{Do you Instagram? You should. It's fun!}

Last week was what I guess you could call the kickoff to my incredibly busy season of trade shows, conferences and annual meetings.
Last Thursday morning I left home at 6AM to head to the Ag Classic.
This was early, but there was the enticing factor of knowing that there was a White Chocolate Peppermint Mocha with my name on it...two hours away.
The Classic was good.  Always good to see people and catch up.
On the way home, I took advantage of being in the city with no Littles...mani/pedi!

Work has been crazy busy since I returned from maternity leave.
But it's pretty festive around there and my co-workers are like family to me, so it's a fun atmosphere.
We decorated the office Christmas tree last Friday.
I've been pouring over my 2013 marketing plan...and pouring the Dr. Pepper down to get through it.
And I always have my Christmas music playing in my office.

The Little Lady is SO into Christmas this year.
I love how having Littles around just brings back the magic.
She has her very own Christmas Corner at my Mom and Dad's.
We turned her loose last weekend and let her decorate cookies...so.much.fun.
This shirt just reminds us all that she's Papa's girl.

Last weekend we celebrated Christmas with my bestie and her hubs.
LOVE my necklace that Kate gave me for Christmas...it's so perfect...so perfect.
Have I mentioned before that the Little Lady LOVES her Aunt Katie :)

26 Acts of Kindness
Are you doing it?
I love how it's given me something positive to focus on.
#26actsofkindness

Christmas is just four days away...yay!
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas and the WNFR

Saturday night we went to Aunt Katie and Uncle Willie's new house to celebrate Christmas with them and watch the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.

The Little Lady dressed up for the occasion...pink hair and everything!

 

Trying to get a {good} picture with these two = challenging!

 

 

The Little Lady was so excited to open presents, her first round of presents this Christmas season. 

She opened everyone's presents for them : )

 

 

The Little Buckaroo getting some Aunt Katie attention...and giving her sweet smiles in return.

 

 

Love these two and how good they are to our Littles! 

We are so blessed to have them in our lives.

 

 

Kate and I have been besties for a long time!

 

 

This is a phone pic and the quality isn't great, but it's so cute.

The Little Lady LOVES her Aunt Katie.

 

 

We had a great night with our great friends!