Happy New Year!

Another laid back New Years Eve, and we were absolutely fine with it!

Neighbors Joe & JJ came over, along with our friends Justin, Kelly and their sweet little girl Sydney.

The little ones took turns riding our moose, and when they went to bed,
we enjoyed some card games, wine and mixed drinks.

Later, Justin's sister, her husband and one of their friends stopped by for a little while.
We all hung in the kitchen and told stories.
When they left for another party, we headed back to the couches!
...and we may have been a little happy AND camera happy...

Warning now: A million pictures below. 

:)

Oh my word.
We were all cracking up, so much fun!
...and looking at these pictures are cracking me up all over again! 

Annnnd, after the ball dropped Kelly and I had to do a little Gangnam Stylin'...

A few minutes later, someone was setting off multiple, LOUD fireworks,
which in turn woke up our Case man.
He is so terrified of thunder, loud noises and fireworks still,
sweet thing!

Although I was sad he woke up scared, it was fun getting to watch the festivities on TV with Case.
Won't be long before he'll be begging to stay up with us until midnight!

Had a blast with wonderful friends!
Feeling so thankful, and so blessed.
Looking forward to another beautiful year!

Sledding!

Taking full advantage of the snow, and the hill behind our house, 

Case and I had big plans for sledding.

We dug out his blow up sled from his closet, still in its box just waiting for a day like today. 

That morning, I was a little worried that the snow was a little too slushy for sledding.

But seeing the tracks in our front yard, from all the other brave sledders, 

we took our chances! 

Although Rhett was feeling MUCH better from his antibiotic, 

we decided it would be best to not bring him out since he was probably not 100%. 

Made me so sad, because I knew he would have loved it!

To soften the blow we went out sledding while he was napping. 

He enjoyed looking at it through the window before he went down though. ;)

Don't you love our decorative muddy dog prints?

     So after Rhett was fast asleep, we bundled up and headed off!

I had no idea Matt was taking these shots of us from inside the house, ha!

Turns out, it was perfect sledding snow, snowman making snow, AND snow ball fight snow!

  

We had SO MUCH FUN! 

Sick Little Boys Break My Heart

After all of the Christmas festivities, Rhett developed a little cough. 

A little cough turned into a bigger cough, along with a runny nose. 

Runny nose turned into a fever, and an awful cough. 

Yesterday, Rhett was absolutely miserable. 

Burning up, cheeks flushed, napped all day. 

Gunner and Case were so worried about him, 

which as you can imagine just melted Momma's heart. 

Today we took Rhett into the Doctor, 

he was acting and playing like normal, 

I almost hesitated on taking him in at all!

Thankful we did though, as it turns out he has a small case of pneumonia! 

Daddy's picking up his medicine on his way home tonight, 

he seems to be feeling much better, thank goodness. 

However, I am more than ready to let this antibiotic kick it out of his system.

Love his little heart.

Christmas Morning

After driving around to see the Christmas lights and coming home from Ashland,

we had our traditional Sunday evening with Joe & JJ. 

Sonic and game night...well more recently added the game night...

but this particular night, I finished wrapping presents! 

Monday, on Christmas eve, we went to the candlelit Christmas Eve Service, 

and later we watched A Christmas Story and played Apples to Apples with the J's. 

That evening, after saying Good-bye to Buddy Dude the elf 

(he goes back to the North pole you know, and comes back next Thanksgiving)

 I had just sat down with Case to read him a bedtime story, 

when all of a sudden we heard jingle bells. 

His eyebrows went sky high, his eyes were as big as saucers. 

His jaw dropped, and with a hint of nervousness, started screaming, 

"AHH!!! He's here! I have to get in bed Mommy! I have to GO!" 

I could not help from laughing, as I tucked him in! 

"Okay Mommy, Good night!"

We prayed the fastest prayer I've ever prayed as he nodded along with me, urging me to finish 

as fast as I could. 

"Okay, Case stay in bed, and go to sleep or he won't stop here!"

"Okay, Mommy! I not go ANYWHERE, I stay right here! Night!" 

Oh I love the magic of Christmas.

 

And finally, it was Christmas morning. 

This year (probably the only year this will EVER happen, ever) our boys slept past 8:00am! 

I woke up around 7:30am, got a shower, started a pot of coffee, turned on the Christmas lights, and quickly wrapped another Christmas presents of Matt's that I had forgotten was still in my truck! 

I was just turning the corner near the stairs when I spotted Case, 

complete with bed head, rubbing his eyes. 

"Good morning, Case! Do you want to see if Santa came?" 

"Ughhhnnn." 

(Which is "Leave me Alone" in grumpy. I am fluent in grumpy four year old) 

The grumpy boy went away as fast as he came though, 

as his little mind remembered the excitement that awaited him down the stairs. 

Matt rolled out of bed, and we scooped Rhetter's out of his crib. 

I had already set up the video camera downstairs, so we all made our way down the stairs together. 

 ...and let the ripping of wrapping paper begin! 

Daddy got an indoor remote control helicopter, all of us are obsessed with it! It's so fun! 

Later, after everything was revealed, the boys didn't waste any time actually playing with their favorites. 

Our morning was spent playing play dough, and feeding dinosaurs pop-tarts. 

...Mommy played with her camera, and Daddy played with his new helicopter.

Our cup runneth over. 

Love our sweet babies, 

the innocence and magic of these first years of Christmas, 

and most of all

for the ultimate gift, 

the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.